Obama Deception with Turkish subtitles
www.usakhaberajansi.com, 21 Ocak 2012
Category: World
-
Sign the petition for Khojaly Massacre
Responsible department: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
On the 26th February Azerbaijan mourns the 20th Anniversary of one of the darkest days in its history. On this day in 1992 Armenian military forces brutally murdered 613 civilian inhabitants of the town of Khojaly in the illegally occupied region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Twenty years after this fateful day we remember those who died during events which led up to the illegal occupation of around 18% of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, which still continues to this day in direct contravention of four UN Security Council Resolutions. We the undersigned urge the Prime Minister to condemn this shocking act and the continuing Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories which prevents the survivors from returning to their homes.
Sign the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/27069
-
US government hits Megaupload with mega piracy indictment
Seven executives charged as filesharing site shut down over accusations they cheated copyright holders out of $500m• Explainer: a guide to understanding Sopa
• Clay Shirky: Pipa would create a consumption-only webThe US government has closed down one of the world’s largest filesharing websites, accusing its founders of racketeering, money laundering and presiding over “massive” online piracy.
According to prosecutors, Megaupload illegally cheated copyright holders out of $500m in revenue as part of a criminal enterprise spanning five years.
A lawyer for Megaupload told the Guardian it would “vigorously” defend itself against the charges, dismissing the criminal action as “a civil case in disguise”.
News of the indictment – being framed as one of the biggest copyright cases in US history – came a day after major internet firms held a 24-hour protest over proposed anti-piracy laws.
According to a Department of Justice release, seven people associated with Megaupload were indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month over the charges.
They included Kim Dotcom, founder of the online firm.
The 37-year-old, who also goes by Kim Tim Jim Vestor and whose real name is Kim Schmitz, is accused of heading up a criminal venture that earn Dotcom and his associates upwards of $175m.
These profits were obtained illegally through advertising and the selling of premium memberships to users of Megaupload, the justice department is claiming.
Established in 2005, the website offered a “one-click” upload, providing an easily accessible online locker for shared content.
Before being shut down, the firm boasted 50 million daily visitors, accounting for 4% of total internet traffic, the justice department claimed in its statement on the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that the website violated copyright law by illegally hosting movies, music and TV shows on a massive scale.
Those behind the website have claimed that it diligently responds to any complaint regarding pirated material.
But according to prosecutors, the accused conspirators deliberately employed a business model that encouraged the uploading of illegal material.
They say that Megaupload paid users for uploading pirated material in full awareness that they were breaking the law. In addition they failed to close the accounts of known copyright infringers.
The indictment includes chat logs with conversations between company executives, which include statements like: “we have a funny business . . . modern days pirates :)”
Alongside Dotcom, law enforcement officials swooped on a number of other senior members of Megaupload’s staff.
Arrests were made at a number of homes in Auckland, New Zealand, on warrants issued by US authorities.
In all, addresses in nine countries including the US were raided as part of massive international operation.
Three men accused alongside Dotcom remained on the run tonight, the Department of Justice said.
About $50m dollars in assets were seized as part of the massive operation.
Meanwhile, the Megaupload website was closed down, with the FBI seizing an additional 18 domain names associated with the alleged crime.
In response to the indictment, the hacker group Anonymous, which is ostensibly unaffiliated with Megaupload, launched a cyber attack that at least temporarily brought down the websites of the justice department as well as those of the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America, and Universal Music.
If found guilty of the charges, the accused Megaupload executives could face 50 years behind bars.
Ira Rothken, an attorney for Megaupload, said the firm would fight the “erroneous” charges.
Speaking from his California office, Rothken said: “The allegations appear to be incorrect and the law does not support the charges.”
He added: “It is a civil case in disguise.”
Asked why it was being pursued as a criminal case, Rothken replied: “You’d have to ask the prosecutors.”
The Guardian
-
Steve Jobs: ‘We’re just one world now’
Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, associate professor of psychology
Along with half the world, it seems, I picked up Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs this winter break. I never expected him to talk about Turkey, where I happen to be stationed for the next seven months. Jobs remarked:“I had a real revelation… All day I had looked at young people in Istanbul. They were all drinking what every other kid in the world drinks, and they were wearing clothes that look like they were bought at the Gap, and they were all using cell phones. They were like kids everywhere else. It hit me that, for young people, the whole world is the same now. When we’re making products, there is no such thing as a Turkish phone, or a music player that young people in Turkey would want that’s different from one young people elsewhere would want. We’re just one world now.” (p. 529)
**************
I am standing at the main gates of Bogazici University in Istanbul. It’s late January, and bitterly cold: people do seem to freeze in the same way here as anywhere else. But look further. In front of me is a circle-shaped turnabout where five different roads meet. Steve Jobs would be shocked: in California, there is an almost engrained orderliness to how people negotiate intersections, with a right-of-way hierarchy dictated by traffic laws and courtesy. Not so here. A taxi stands deserted in the very middle of one of the roads, with its door swung open and its engine running, while traffic increasingly builds and bursts behind it. Drivers with iPhones and iPods glued to their ears jack their cars into every available nook of space, and some even climb the sidewalk to get past other cars. Eventually the driver of the deserted taxi ambles back up the hill and drives on; as the rest of the traffic unlocks, the rule of the road is who gets there first. Here, waiting for courtesy means not only that you would never get where you’re going, but also that you would inspire an avalanche of honking.
I try to cross the street, and make eye contact with the driver of a dolmus, a van-like mode of public transport that goes by the same name as the stuffed grape leaves so popular here (as my wife explains, the theme of “stuffed” is what’s common between them). Traffic is stopped, so I nod to the driver and cross. But right at that moment the car in front of us inches forward, and the driver of the dolmus throws his van ahead. I jump aside and glare as he, simply, looks ahead in boredom.
I remember a picture of a highway leading out of New Orleans right before Hurricane Katrina hit: three straight lines on the highway, demarcated by the markings on the road. Not one car on the emergency lanes! My sister sent me a picture of a similar road in Italy, where the cars looked as well arranged as jellybeans trying to emerge from the neck of an upside-down bottle.
As I drive around in Istanbul (more on this in the next post), I think about these pictures, and Steve Jobs, and revel in the different skills needed to navigate different cultures — literally! — and think how boring it would be if we were just one world now.
Cross-posted from Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton’s blog on the Psychology Today website.
via Steve Jobs: ‘We’re just one world now’ « The Berkeley Blog.
-
Warmongering Hague: Attack still option for Iran
British Foreign Secretary William Hague UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that all options are on the table regarding Iran’s nuclear program in order to put more pressure on the country.
“We have never ruled anything out. We have not ruled out any option, or supporting any option. We believe all options should be on the table, that is part of the pressure on Iran,” Hague told Sky News on Sunday.
Britain and other Western states have stepped up sanctions over Iran following the release of a nuclear report by the International Atomic Energy Agency in November.
The British official also admitted that imposing sanctions could not curb Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
“Sanctions policies do not always succeed,” Hague said. “But this is the best means we have of increasing the pressure.”
The last IAEA report accused Iran of conducting activities related to developing nuclear weapons before 2003, adding that these activities “may still be ongoing.”
Iran, however, dismissed the allegation as “unbalanced, unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure mostly by the US.”
Western governments also threaten Tehran with a military strike over the country’s alleged nuclear weapons program.
The threats come despite that fact that Iran has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA.
www.presstv.ir, 16 January 2012
-
‘Turkey to be most strategic country in Asia-Europe Corridor’
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said when the Marmaray Project is completed, the Silk Road from Beijing to London will be revived.
Underground railroad tracks have been started to build in the Marmaray Project.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said when the Project is completed, the Silk Road from Beijing to London will be revived.
Erdogan did the first rail welding in the Ayrılıkcheshme-Kazlıcheshme Part of the Project in Istanbul.
Meanwhile, Premier Erdogan assessed the operations against the top level executives of the terror organization at the ceremony of the Marmaray Project.
An important phase has been reached at The Marmaray Project which is expected to create a huge release to the solution of the traffic problem in Istanbul.
The rail tracks between the 14 kilometers-long line of Istanbul’s Uskudar and Kazlıcheshme have been started to be built.
Prime Minister Erdogan did the first rail welding in the 14 km-long part of the Project.
Erdogan said, “The Marmaray Project will not only bridge the European and Asian side of Istanbul with a rail system but also will provide an uninterrupted railway between Beijing and London, a revival of a modern-time Silk Road. When the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway and high-speed train Project are completed, Turkey will be the most strategic country in the transportation area of the Asia-Europe Corridor.
Erdogan also made a brief assessment of the current domestic agenda at the ceremony in Istanbul. Regarding to recent operations against the terror organization, The Prime Minister said those involved in terror will never be tolerated.
“I am addressing all my citizens no matter what thier ethnic backgrounds are. Unlike the past, we, as the country, will never tolerate those aiding and abetting the terror, and whoever breaks the law, we as the government will be taking the necessary steps so the security forces in line and within the framework of the decisions made by the legal authorities. They will not be ignored like they were in the past.”
TRT