Worldcrunch
LONDON — What’s a politician most afraid of? British Premier Harold Macmillan’s famous answer to the journalist’s question is more relevant than ever: “Events, dear boy, events.” If you add the Paris death toll to the number of victims who died after ISIS bombed a Russian plane over the Sinai, that’s 353. And the previous […]
TEL AVIV — Israeli Defense Forces are turning their attention to a new front: the war raging in cyberspace. And in an attempt to coordinate what up to now have been disjointed, sometimes overlapping operations, the Israeli military’s chief of staff recently announced the creation of a special cyber unit. The unit will be similar […]
After last week’s foiled Thalys train attack, citizens must get used to playing their part in the fight against the jihadist threat, a former French intelligence agent warns.
PARIS — The suspected terror attack thwarted by American and British passengers aboard a high-speed European train has brought railway security sharply into focus. The alleged gunman, believed to be a 25-year-old Moroccan named Ayob El Khazzani, boarded the Amsterdam-to-Paris train equipped with an assault rifle, automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter. More […]
La Razon de Mexico, July 13 “He left by this hole,” reads the front page of La Razon de Mexico“s Monday edition, a day after Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman’s escaped for the second time from a Âmaximum security prison. Guzman — who already escaped from another Mexican maximum security prison in 2001, […]
The state security apparatus that secretly exerted control over much of Egyptian society during the Mubarak regime is firmly back in command.
PARIS — On the other end of the line, the voice of the person from the IT maintenance service grows insistent. “Miss, I really need your password to unlock your computer.” You blush by yourself, try to be as inconspicuous as possible in the open office before whispering in the receiver: “lapinou69” (“bunny69”). A chuckle […]
-OpEd- TURIN — Geography is inexorable: Italy can never be isolated from Libya, which is just 300 miles from the coast of Sicily. Still, the Italian public tends to be isolated from the rest of the world. The government knows both these truths. Unlike any other European or Western country, Italy kept its Libyan embassy […]
There’s always a clever argument – security, stability, secularism – to put rule of law and democracy on hold. But denying human rights is a certain recipe for destruction.
The former chief of Israel’s elite intelligence unit addresses a technology conference, waxing on privacy, cyber war and a new generation used to documenting and sharing everything.
A dozen baboons escaped Sunday from Benghazi’s zoo and roamed around the city amid deadly clashes between the army and anti-government militias that have killed more than 300 people in the past three weeks. All but two were returned to their enclosures by Tuesday — but not before they baffled residents and posed for pictures […]
It’s a rare but hardly new question: what should airline staff do when a passenger dies mid-flight? Legend has it that British Airways used to use the ‘vodka tonic’ approach.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, people have come to rely on the ability to do basic financial transactions anywhere. The downside is when cellular connection crashes.
MUNICH — Munich’s Oktoberfest has an ugly side. Alexandra Stigger is all too familiar with it but says it’s nevertheless a great celebration. Stigger, 29, is a Munich native who grew up attending it every year, and now she works there — not in one of the beer tents but in a service center where […]
BOGOTA — Blame it on Rio. Colombia officials arrested one of the country’s most sought-after leftist rebels after noticing an enormous satellite dish he had installed on his jungle hideout so he could watch the World Cup, Spanish news agency EFE and Colombian media reported. No civil war was going to deprive the 15-year veteran […]
Egypt is cracking down on the ubiquitous motorized rickshaws that navigate the capital’s narrow streets.
ABDUL REHMAN GOTH — Ahmad Baloch couldn’t remember life ever changing much in this centuries-old fishing village just outside Karachi. But when two nuclear power plants started being built nearby, coast guard and naval security personnel arrived. “They don’t allow us free mobility in the waters,” he says of his fishing trade in Abdul Rehman Goth. “What are we going to do?” Fears about a terrorist attack on the nuclear power plants have led to massive security around them, leaving the fishermen locked out. “There are not enough fish recently,” Baloch says. “We’re just worried for our next generation.” Families […]
A visit to Tzahala, a tony district on the edge of Tel Aviv, where a canine unit and dozens of cameras have been brought in to fight crime. But at what price?
After last weekend’s terrorist attacks that left four dead, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry has taken to Facebook to announce that it is cracking down on the niqab. Proponents of heightened surveillance suggest that jihadist men use the full-body garment and face veil to disguise themselves while traveling, especially when being pursued by police. One alleged male […]
Patriotism over tolerance, says the military-minded ethnic population helping to ensure (though unarmed) Olympic security as Cossacks reassert their historic role.
MAKHACHKALA — A woman is standing near the police cordons, looking into the dark space where the Golden Empire restaurant stood until a few moments earlier. First came the grenades, and then a car exploded in front of the entrance. All that’s left now is debris. When the woman repeatedly tries calling her sister, a […]
The dire state of the economy and vanishing press freedoms are two key signs that Venezuela is a nation on the edge of disaster.
The Sochi Olympics are to Putin what Saint Petersburg was to Peter The Great. Freeing rivals, such as Khodorkovsky and Pussy Riot, are one more step toward sealing his place in history.
BRASILIA — “I threw on a helmet and rode the motorcycle through the streets of Brasilia,” a content Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff recently, and casually, told the country’s Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobão, who listened in disbelief. The minister said that he was shocked at first, just like the reporter to whom he […]
CNN Worldcrunch SANAA – A pair of U.S. drone strikes in Yemen on Tuesday killed four al-Qaeda militants, security sources said. It is unclear whether the strikes were related to the heightened security alert in the country after U.S. officials intercepted a message from al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to operatives in Yemen telling them to […]
The revelations of the NSA surveillance program came on the heels of the Boston Marathon attack. America weighs the links between an alleged terrorist and self-avowed whistleblower.
You probably have never heard of French engineer Louis Pouzin. But you might not be reading this website without him. At 82, he offers a unique perspective on Edward Snowden, and us all.
KOREA TIMES, YONHAP, KOREA INFORMATION SECURITY AGENCY (South Korea), AP Worldcrunch SEOUL – Two banks and three major broadcasting stations in South Korea went into shutdown mode on Wednesday in what is a suspected hacking from North Korea. According to Korean news agency Yonhap, three broadcasters, three banks and two insurance firms reported to the […]
THE HINDU, THE TIMES OF INDIA (India), BBC NEWS (UK), REUTERS Worldcrunch NEW DELHI – Ram Singh, a bus driver on trial for the gang-rape and murder of a young woman last December, committed suicide in a high-security cell at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail – but his lawyer and family suspect he was murdered. The […]
Worldcrunch After 9/11, the list of items and products banned on US flights got much longer. But the news from the Transport Security Administration (TSA) is that folding knife blades –and sports equipment – are now permitted again, in order for security personnel to focus on explosive devices. The official report states the following: “TSA […]
YNET, HAARETZ (Israel) Worldcrunch QALQILYAH – The first official Palestinian-only bus lines began service Monday morning. According to Israeli daily Haaretz, the Israel’s Ministry of Transportation said it has launched the special bus lines in order to avoid conflicts. The lines are for the Palestinian workers who travel each from the West Bank into and […]
PARIS – In 140 characters of hacker jargon, French security company Vupen tweeted on Oct. 30, 2012 that they had discovered a security flaw in Windows 8 and that they were selling it to the highest bidder. Our first 0day for Win8+IE10 with HiASLR/AntiROP/DEP & Prot Mode sandbox bypass (Flash not needed) is ready for […]
HINDUSTAN TIMES, TELEGRAPH INDIA, TIMES OF INDIA (India) Worldcrunch CALCUTTA- Author Salman Rushdie’s visit to Calcutta to promote the film adapted from his novel “Midnight’s Children” has been cancelled, due to security issues. Salman Rushdie by futureshape Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses earned him a fatwa death […]
-OpEd- BEIJING – Despite strong opposition from the international community, North Korea went ahead with its planned use of a long-range rocket to launch a satellite. As the North Koreans were cheering the successful Dec. 4 launch, their longtime Chinese ally was in no mood for celebrations. North Korea’s missile and nuclear capabilities have been […]
LOS ANGELES TIMES, VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Four senior U.S. State Department officials resigned after an independent review board determined their operational responsibility for “grossly inadequate” security when Islamic militants killed four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reports the Los Angeles Times. Among them is Eric Boswell, the […]
US STATE DEPT. (USA), AFP Worldcrunch An independent inquiry has criticized the State Department for inadequate security at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on the day of the September attack that killed four American government personnel including Ambassador John Christopher Stevens. The 39-page unclassified report, which also cited intelligence failures, focused much of its […]
YEMEN OBSERVER (Yemen), REUTERS Worldcrunch SANA’A – A U.S. Embassy employee was assassinated on his way to work in the Yemeni capital Thursday. Yemen Observer reports that Qassem Aqlan, a Yemeni senior security officer working at the U.S. Embassy, was shot dead by masked gunmen on a motorcycle around 10 am Thursday. Gunmen opened fire […]
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DPA, DAPD, HGN, WOJA (Germany) Worldcrunch ATHENS – Some 7,000 police, including reinforcements brought in from across Greece, will be ensuring extra-tight security during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first visit to Athens since the breakout of the financial crisis. The government fears the visit on Tuesday could unleash hostility from citizens who hold […]
CNN (USA), BBC NEWS (UK), KHAAMA PRESS (Afghanistan) Worldcrunch An Afghan man wearing a military uniform killed three American soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Friday, only a day after U.S. authorities condemned a suicide bombing earlier this week that killed four other Americans. The attack is the latest in a string of ‘green-on-blue’ attacks, where […]