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AFP – Human rights workers in Cambodia face “an increasingly hostile environment” as authorities use violence, intimidation and “trumped-up” criminal charges to silence them, activists warned Thursday. Rights group Licadho said that as of mid-July around 60 activists were being held in Cambodian prisons on a range of charges. “Cambodian human rights defenders have faced an increasingly hostile environment over the past two years, enduring physical violence, illegal arrests, trumped-up criminal charges,” the group said in a statement. Read Article
AFP – “Bahraini authorities should immediately investigate… allegations of torture and guarantee the physical and psychological well-being of the four men,” Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director at HRW, said in the late-Wednesday statement. Abduljalil al-Singace, a leading figure in the mainly-Shiite opposition association Haq, told Bahrain’s attorney general in late August that he had been tortured by security forces while in detention over the previous 15 days, HRW said. Read Article
Associated Press – An anti-abortion group plans to air radio ads in three congressional races calling for the defeat of Democratic incumbents, among the first ads to capitalize on a Supreme Court ruling this year that freed corporations to directly influence elections. The group, AUL Action, is targeting Democratic Reps. John Boccieri of Ohio, Christopher Carney of Pennsylvania and Baron Hill of Indiana. AUL Action is the legislative arm of the nonprofit Americans United for Life. Ad spending is on a record pace as outside groups raise more money from corporations, individuals and unions. Read Article
Guardian – Constant ID checks in supermarkets and off-licences are “infantilising” young adults and confusing shoppers about legal age limits, a report by a civil liberties group claims today. The survey by the Manifesto Club suggests that cashiers’ over-zealous questioning of customers in their 20s is “penalising thousands of innocent” people and forcing them to carry their passports all the time. Read Article
Register – The RFID Consortium has opened for business after five years of negotiations, providing a one-stop shop for all the patents needed to manufacture RFID tags and readers. The negotiations were drawn out by the large number of patents involved and concerns that a single pool might attract attention from anti-trust regulators. But now anyone wanting to create RFID tags can do so with a single licence from the Consortium, with an early bird discount price of 80 cents per thousand tags in place until March next year. Read Article
ABC – Indigenous academic Mick Dodson has delivered a warning to the WA Premier, describing compulsory acquisition of land for the Kimberley gas hub as theft and an invasion. The Premier Colin Barnett is expected to start proceedings to acquire the land at James Price Point through the courts this week. He says negotiations between traditional owners and Woodside have dragged on too long, cost too much, and he has run out of patience. Professor Dodson, who’s a Yawuru man from Broome, says it is an appalling path to take. Read article
ABC – Every police patrol in the Northern Territory will be armed with at least one Taser by the end of the year. Police Commissioner John McRoberts says the stun guns are a useful tool for police and he wants every patrol to be armed with at least one of them. “This is not something the community should be concerned about,” he said. Read article
Epoch Times – A Qantas employee, removed from her job after being deported from China for practising Falun Gong, was likely targeted by Chinese spies, says a representative of Falun Gong in Australia. Mr. John Deller, spokesman for the New South Wales Falun Dafa Association, said that Falun Gong practitioner Sheridan Genrich, a Qantas flight attendant, was stopped and interrogated before she was searched during a stopover in Beijing. Read Article
Associated Press – Human Rights Watch has urged Bahraini authorities to immediately look into allegations of torture made by four Shiite activists in detention since mid-August. In a statement Wednesday, the group said Abdul-Jalil al-Singace, one of the detainees, told prosecutors that his captors beat him on his fingers with a hard instrument, slapped him around, and pulled and twisted his nipples and ears with tongs. Read Article
Telegraph – The extension of existing laws to the internet, which will come into effect from next March, has “the protection of children and consumers at its heart”, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said. Currently the ASA’s remit only extends to advertisements in paid-for space and all sales promotions. But the change will see its rules on misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children will be applied in full to all online marketing by all sectors, businesses and organisations, regardless of size. Read Article
BBC – A £235m government database containing the records of England’s 11 million children has been switched off. ContactPoint was established in the wake of the Victoria Climbie child abuse case to aid child protection. The report into her death highlighted the need to improve the exchange of information between different agencies working with vulnerable children. The government argued the system was disproportionate to the problem, so is looking at developing other solutions. Read Article
Australian – China, which executes more people each year than any other country, said it is considering dropping capital punishment for economic crimes. A draft amendment to the country’s criminal code proposes cutting 13 “economy-related, non-violent offenses” from the list of 68 crimes punishable by the death penalty, the official Xinhua news agency reported. International rights groups have criticized China for its heavy use of the death penalty, saying it is excessive. It is not known when the draft will become law. Read Article
AAP – A report into a West Australian prison has found its conditions are “degrading” with overcrowding forcing up to three inmates to share cells designed for one. Some inmates even have to sleep on the floor on mattresses that become so soaked in overnight condensation they wake up wet, the inspector of WA custodial services says. The report into the inspection of Greenough Regional Prison, near Geraldton on the WA mid coast, was released on Tuesday. Read Article
Guardian – The Home Office pathologist criticised for his autopsy on the body of the newspaper seller who died at the G20 protests in London was found guilty of misconduct and “deficient professional performance” today. Dr Freddy Patel’s fitness to practise is impaired, a disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council ruled. He is now likely to face an application that he should be struck off or suspended from the medical register. Patel’s examination of the newspaper vendor, Ian Tomlinson, when he said Tomlinson had died of a heart attack, was later contradicted after a second examination and his role has become pivotal to the controversy surrounding the case. Read Article
Guardian – Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not carried out, it emerged tonight. Mohammadi Ashtiani wrote her will and embraced her cellmates in Tabriz prison just before the call to morning prayer, when she expected to be led to the gallows, her son Sajad told the Guardian. “Pressure from the international community has so far stopped them from carrying out the sentence but they’re killing her every day by any means possible,” he said. Read Article
PC World – It’s one of the most important issues–if not THE most important–in the life of the Internet so far. Yet it’s widely misunderstood. Here are the facts. I know, I know. You keep hearing this term and wonder what it really means. I’ve been following the story for five years now, and sometimes I still wonder myself. Is it something that could really end up affecting what I see or can’t see on the Web, or is it just a buzzword that geeks, policy wonks, and politicians like to throw around at parties? Well, it’s really both. Read Article
Bloomberg – The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government over an alleged policy of killing American citizens who are suspected of terrorism. The lawsuit, filed today in federal court in Washington, argued that such targeted assassinations by the government are unconstitutional. “A program that authorizes killing U.S. citizens, without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement announcing the filing of the case against U.S. President Barack Obama, the Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. Read Article
Technews Daily – As many as 4.25 million Gmail users were turned into unintentional spammers due to a glitch in Gmail’s system. Despite assurances from Google team members that the problem has been fixed, Gmail users continue to post reports to the contrary. Gmail user reports of messages being resent many times and other mail errors began trickling into the Gmail Help Forum as early as last Saturday, reaching a peak on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Google alerted its customers that the company was experiencing an issue affecting less than 2.5 percent of the Google Mail user base. Read Article
Epoch Times – Illegal organ harvesting has become worse under reforms put in place by the Chinese leadership to stop it, says a Canadian human rights lawyer. David Matas is in Australia to present a paper on the issue at a United Nations conference for non-government organisations (NGOs) involved with health in developing countries. Read Article
ABC – The US government will have unmanned surveillance aircraft monitoring the whole border with Mexico from September 1, as it ramps up border security. Homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano said US Customs and Border Protection would begin flying a Predator B drone out of Corpus Christi, Texas, on Wednesday. That will extend the reach of the the agency’s unmanned surveillance aircraft across the length of the nearly 3,200 km border with Mexico. Read Article
Washington Post – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging the U.S. government’s authority to target and kill U.S. citizens outside of war zones when they are suspected of involvement in terrorism. The civil liberties groups sued in U.S. District Court in Washington after being retained by the father of Anwar al-Aulaqi, a radical U.S.-born cleric who is in hiding in Yemen. The CIA placed Aulaqi on its list of suspected terrorists it is authorized to kill earlier this year; the cleric had been on a separate list of individuals targeted by the Joint Special Operations Command. Read Article
Mercury News – Cupertino students could add electronic “tracking devices” to the list of items they carry in their backpacks this fall. The Cupertino Public Safety Commission wants to test a new program that uses a tracking device to count how many students walk and bike to school in the notoriously congested tri-school area near Bubb and McClellan roads. The commission is working on the logistics of bringing the Boltage program to Lincoln Elementary and Kennedy Middle schools this fall. The goal is to get more cars off the road. The Boltage system uses a machine called the Zap, a solar-powered radio frequency identification reader. Students who walk and bike in the program get an RFID tag that attaches to their backpack, and the Zap reads their unique number when they go past it at the school. Read Article
Public Intelligence – Purpose. This Concept of Operations (CONOP) documents concepts and procedures for the use of biometric technologies to support identity superiority, protection and management in the entire USCENTCOM AOR. This CONOP focuses on the biometrics process and key systemic enablers. This CONOP contains UNCLASSIFIED and CLASSIFIED 100 annexes. The body of the CONOP is UNCLASSIFIED however, Annex E, “HUMINT Biometrics Management”, is CLASSIFIED SECRET//NOFORN. Read Article
Register – Residents in Cleveland, Ohio, will have to ensure their recycling is out on time or face a $100 fine for failing to do their bit. RFID tags will be fitted to the recycling bins provide by the city council, and counted by passing rubbish-collection vans. Any residents whose recycling bin isn’t on the curb over a couple of weeks will get a visit from the rubbish inspector, and face a $100 fine if it turns out they’ve been discarding recyclable goods. Read Article
Detroit News – An autopsy being conducted today is expected to shed more light on the injuries a Livonia man suffered after being Tasered by a city police officer. Michael Sheldon Ford, 50, was jolted with the stun gun early Aug. 14 after police said he refused to lie on the ground as ordered. According to police, Ford was waving “what appeared to be two knives, one in each hand,” at an officer who responded to the Purlingbrook Apartments on Eight Mile. Read Article
