CA-NEWS Summary

U.S. spy agency paper says fewer than 300 phone numbers closely scrutinized

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government only searched for detailed information on calls involving fewer than 300 specific phone numbers among the millions of raw phone records collected by the National Security Agency in 2012, according to a government paper obtained by Reuters on Saturday. The unclassified paper was circulated Saturday within the government by U.S. intelligence agencies and apparently is an attempt by spy agencies and the Obama administration to rebut accusations that it overreached in investigating potential militant plots.

Police raid on Istanbul park triggers night of rioting

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul overnight on Sunday, erecting barricades and starting bonfires, after riot police firing teargas and water cannon stormed a park at the center of two weeks of anti-government unrest. Lines of police backed by armored vehicles sealed off Taksim Square in the center of the city as officers raided the adjoining Gezi Park late on Saturday, where protesters had been camped in a ramshackle settlement of tents.

Iran's new president hails 'victory of moderation'

DUBAI (Reuters) - Moderate cleric Hassan Rohani won Iran's presidential election on Saturday with a resounding defeat of conservative hardliners, calling it a victory of moderation over extremism and pledging a new tone of respect in international affairs. Though thousands of jubilant Iranians poured onto the streets in celebration of the victory, the outcome will not soon transform Iran's tense relations with the West, resolve the row over its nuclear program or lessen its support of Syria's president in the civil war there - matters of national security that remain the domain of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

U.S. puts jets in Jordan, fuels Russian fear of Syria no-fly zone

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, and Russia bristled at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria. Washington, which has long called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pledged military support to Syrian rebels this week, citing what it said was the Syrian military's use of chemical weapons - an allegation Damascus has denied.

North Korea wants to hold high-level talks with U.S.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday offered high-level talks with the United States to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, only days after it canceled planned official talks with South Korea for the first time in over two years. Planned high-level talks between North and South Korea were scrapped last week after the North abruptly called off the talks. The North blamed the South for scuttling discussions that sought to mend estranged ties between the rival Koreas.

Hong Kong rally backs Snowden, denounces allegations of U.S. spying

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony. Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying operations aimed at China and Hong Kong, but the numbers were modest compared to rallies over other rights and political issues.

Magnitude 6.0 quake hits Mexico, tremors felt in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Mexico on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and tremors were felt in Mexico City. There were no immediate reports of damage in the city, Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said on Twitter, although there were some disruptions to the electricity supply. A Reuters witness said buildings shuddered in the city.

Relationship between Czech PM and aide at heart of graft scandal

PRAGUE (Reuters) - A corruption scandal rocking the Czech government involves power and money but also, at its heart, questions about the nature of the relationship between the prime minister and a trusted female aide. Jana Nagyova, who runs Prime Minister Petr Necas's office, is in custody, accused, among other things, of illegally ordering military intelligence agents to conduct surveillance on three unnamed individuals.

Mortar attack on Iranian dissident camp in Iraq kills three

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A mortar attack on an Iranian dissident camp killed three people in Baghdad on Saturday, police sources said, and the Mujahidin-e-Khalq (MEK) group said Iran was probably to blame, with Iraqi complicity. MEK said two of the camp's residents were killed and 40 wounded in the attack. An Iraqi died when a stray mortar round hit a residential complex for Baghdad airport employees nearby.

Bulgaria to replace new security chief after public backlash

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's Socialist-led government said on Saturday it would reverse its appointment of a powerful media figure as head of state security just a day after rushing it through parliament, bowing to public outrage two weeks after taking power. About 8,000 people rallied in downtown Sofia for a second day, chanting "Mafia!" and "Resignation!".

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-005203222.html

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Obama taps finance director as envoy to Denmark

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Handing plum European posts to key campaign boosters, President Barack Obama on Friday nominated his former finance director to be U.S. ambassador to Denmark and tapped two major fundraisers for postings in Spain and Germany.

Fundraising guru Rufus Gifford, who raised upward of $700 million as the head of Obama's 2012 finance operation and held a similar job previously at the Democratic National Committee, is Obama's pick for Denmark, the White House said. Obama selected James Costos, a vice president of HBO, as his envoy to Spain.

If confirmed by the Senate, Gifford and Costos would bolster the limited ranks of ambassadors in U.S. history who have been openly gay. When Obama took office in 2009, only two previous ambassadors had been openly gay. Friday's nominations mark the fifth and sixth, gay rights groups said.

The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which works to elect openly gay candidates, hailed the nominations and said they would clear the way for more gay Americans to achieve prominent positions in public service.

Obama also said he had selected John Emerson, an investment manager and former White House official, as his envoy to Germany. Both Costos and Emerson were listed in public disclosures as bundlers, meaning they raised more than $500,000 from others to benefit Obama's campaign. Federal Election Commission records show Costos donated more than $67,000 to efforts to re-elect Obama in 2012.

Ken Hackett, who stepped down last year as the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, is Obama's pick to be the U.S. emissary to the Vatican. Hackett worked extensively in Africa coordinating Catholic charitable programs on the continent.

Patricia Marie Haslach, a veteran diplomat who has worked in Iraq, Pakistan and Laos, is Obama's pick to be ambassador to Ethiopia. He nominated Liliana Ayalde, another State Department official with experience throughout Latin and Central America, for the top post in Brazil. Both Haslach and Ayalde have held the rank of ambassador before.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-taps-finance-director-envoy-denmark-205518401.html

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Microsoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too.

Microsoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too. For the last six months last year, Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 government requests affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts. [Microsoft]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/microsoft-just-released-data-on-its-government-requests-513539952

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Chinese paper: Snowden could be useful to China

BEIJING (AP) ? A popular Communist Party-backed newspaper urged China's leadership to milk a former U.S. contractor for more information rather than send him home, saying his revelations about secret American surveillance programs concern China's national interest.

Friday's Global Times editorial follows Snowden's allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency hacked 61,000 targets, including hundreds in Hong Kong and mainland China, in an interview published in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Snowden revealed last weekend he was the source of a major leak of top-secret information on NSA surveillance, saying he was uncovering wrongdoing. He spoke to reporters from an undisclosed location in the semiautonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong, a choice that raised questions about whether and how Washington would seek his return for possible prosecution.

The Global Times said in the editorial, which ran in the paper's Chinese- and English-language editions, that Snowden could offer intelligence that would help China update its understanding of cyberspace and improve its position in negotiations with Washington.

"Snowden took the initiative to expose the U.S. government's attacks on Hong Kong and the mainland's Internet networks. This concerns China's national interest," the commentary said. "Maybe he has more evidence. The Chinese government should let him speak out and according to whether the information is public, use it as evidence to negotiate with the United States openly or in private."

The paper said that the Chinese government should not only consider Beijing's relations with the United States but also the opinion of its domestic public, which the paper said would be unhappy if Snowden were sent back.

"We have realized the United States' aggressiveness in cyberspace, we have realized that nine Internet companies have assisted the U.S. government in intelligence outsourcing," said the paper known for a nationalist stance. "We have realized their hypocrisy in saying one thing and doing another, and we have realized their ruthlessness in doing what they please with no regard for other people."

"China is a rising power, and it deserves corresponding respect from the United States," it said.

True public sentiment on the issue in China is hard to gauge given the lack of scientifically conducted opinion polls, but Chinese leaders and senior officials have said that in the Internet age they feel increasingly under pressure from public opinion. By whipping up public sentiment on an issue like this, the paper could be putting Beijing in a bind.

Some experts have said China is unlikely to use Snowden against the United States given its recent efforts to foster a new, closer working relationship between the countries' two leaders, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama, who met for informal talks in California last weekend.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has taken a cautious stance in commenting on the surveillance leaks. In a routine briefing on Thursday, spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded to repeated questions about whether American authorities have sought Snowden's return to the U.S. by saying that China had "no relevant information to share."

Hua reiterated China's stance that the country is a victim of cyberattacks and said Beijing remained keen to cooperate with the United States on cybersecurity, though she implied that the U.S. might want to refrain from portraying China as a major perpetrator.

"We also think that the adoption of double standards would bring no benefit to the settlement of the relevant issue," Hua said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-paper-snowden-could-useful-china-064833261.html

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Calif. Senate passes $96.3B Democratic budget (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/312809261?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Iran voters draw spirit in showdown atmosphere

Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani, the country's former top nuclear negotiator, casts his ballot in the presidential election at a polling station in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani, the country's former top nuclear negotiator, casts his ballot in the presidential election at a polling station in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian women attend a polling station to vote for the presidential and municipal councils elections in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Tehran Mayor and Iranian presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, second right, listens to a woman as he arrives at a polling station for the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Tehran Mayor and Iranian presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center left, casts his ballot during the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Tehran Mayor and Iranian presidential candidate Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center, smiles, as he arrives at a polling station to vote for the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's supreme leader delivered a salty rebuke to the U.S. Friday as Iranians lined up to vote in a presidential election that has suddenly become a showdown across the Islamic Republic's political divide: Hard-liners looking to cement their control and re-energized reformists backing the lone moderate left in the race.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was responded to U.S. questions over the openness of the balloting, telling Washington "the hell with you" after casting his ballot in a race widely criticized in the West as pre-rigged in favor of Tehran's ruling system.

Long lines snaked outside some voting stations in Tehran and elsewhere. Iran's interior ministry extended the voting time by two hours. The enthusiasm suggested an election that was once viewed as a pre-engineered victory for Iran's ruling establishment has become a chance for reform-minded voters re-exert their voices after years of withering crackdowns.

There is no clear front-runner among the six candidates trying to succeed the combative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose eight-year era is coming to an end because of rules blocking a run for a third consecutive term. But influential figures on all sides have appealed for a strong turnout, indicating both the worries and hopes across an election that has been transformed in recent days.

Iran's loose coalition of liberals, reformists and opposition activists ? battered and fragmented by relentless pressures ? have found last-minute inspiration in former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, the only relative moderate left in the race.

A victory by Rowhani would be seen as a small setback for Iran's hard-liners, but not the type of overwhelming challenge posed four years ago by the reformist Green Movement, which was brutally crushed after mass protests claiming Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election was the result of systematic fraud in the vote counting.

Iran's president has no direct say in key decisions ? such as the nuclear program, defense and foreign relations ? but sets an important tone on the world stage and the country's main envoy.

If no candidate wins an outright majority, a runoff pitting the two top finishers would take place June 21, so even a strong showing by Rowhani in Friday's voting could face another test. Results are expected early Saturday.

Rowhani's backers, such as former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ? who was blocked from running by Iran's ruling system ? have urged reformists and others to cast ballots and abandon plans to boycott the election in protest over years of arrests and intimidation.

"Both I and my mother voted for Rowhani," said Saeed Joorabchi, a university student in geography, after casting balloting at a mosque in west Tehran.

In the Persian Gulf city of Bandar Abbas, local journalist Ali Reza Khorshidzadeh said many polling stations have significant lines and many voters appear to back Rowhani.

But fervor also was strong for other presumed leading candidates: Hardline nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Tehran's mayor, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is boosted by a reputation as a steady hand for Iran's sanctions-wracked economy.

"We should resist the West," said Tehran taxi driver Hasan Ghasemi, who backed Jalili.

Khamenei, who has not publicly endorsed a successor for Ahmadinejad following their falling out over the president's attempts to challenge the supreme leader's near-absolute powers, remained mum on his choice Friday.

Instead, he blasted the U.S. for its repeated criticism of Iran's clampdowns on the opposition and the rejection of Rafsanjani and other moderate voices from the ballot.

"Recently I have heard that a U.S. security official has said they do not accept this election," Khamenei was quoted by state TV after casting his vote. "OK, the hell with you."

Iran's election overseers allowed eight candidates on the ballot out of more than 680 registered. Two candidates later dropped out in bids to consolidate votes with rivals. Journalists were under wide-ranging restrictions such as requiring permission to travel around the country. Iran does not allow outside election observers.

Iran's security networks, meanwhile, have displayed their near-blanket control, ranging from swift crackdowns on any public dissent to cybercops blocking opposition Internet websites and social media.

Yet other cracks are evident.

Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program have pummeled the economy by shrinking vital oil sales and leaving the country isolated from international banking systems. New U.S. measures taking effect July 1 further target the country's currency, the rial, which has lost half its foreign exchange value in the past year, driving prices of food and consumer goods sharply higher.

Such concerns could have a direct effect on the outcome of the election. Qalibaf is widely viewed as a capable fiscal manager and could draw in votes, since economic affairs are among the direct responsibilities of Iran's president.

All other major issues are fully controlled by the Khamenei, his inner circle and its protectors, led by the powerful Revolutionary Guard. The other candidates permitted on the ballot by election overseers are seen as loyalists, including Jalili and Khamenei adviser Ali Akbar Velayati.

Such insiders in the presidency would give Iran's leadership a seamless front with significant challenges ahead, such as the possible resumption of nuclear talks with the U.S. and other world powers and the increasing showdown in Syria between rebels and the Iranian-backed regime of Bashar Assad. On Thursday, the White House said it would begin sending arms to Syrian rebel fighters after intelligence officials concluded Assad's forces used chemical weapons.

Recent comments by Khamenei were interpreted as leaning toward Jalili, whose reputation is further enhanced by a battlefield injury during the 1980-88 war with then U.S.-backed Iraq that cost him the lower part of his right leg.

In Washington on Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that while the U.S. does not think the Iranian election process is transparent, it is not discouraging the Iranian people from voting.

"We certainly encourage them to," Psaki said. "But certainly the history here and what happened just four years ago gives all of us pause."

But the election also could leave Iran further divided. Rowhani's rapid rise from longshot to reformist hopeful ? aided by endorsements from artists and activists ? has shown the resilience of Iran's opposition despite relentless crackdowns. A defeat could leave them even more embittered and alienated.

At final rallies, Rowhani's supporters waved his campaign's signature purple ? a clear nod to the single-color identity of the now-crushed Green Movement and its leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest for more than two years. On Wednesday, thousands of supporters welcomed Rowhani yelling: "Long live reforms."

Some Rowhani backers also have used the campaign events to chant for the release of Mousavi and other political prisoners, including former parliament speaker Mahdi Karroubi, leading to some arrests and scuffles with police.

Rowhani is far from a radical outsider, though. He led the influential Supreme National Security Council and was given the highly sensitive nuclear envoy role in 2003, a year after Iran's 20-year-old atomic program was revealed.

But he is believed to favor a less confrontational approach with the West and would give a forum for now-sidelined officials such as Rafsanjani and former President Mohammad Khatami, whose reformist terms from 1997-2005 opened unprecedented social and political freedoms that have since been largely rolled back.

Outside Iran, votes were casts by the country's huge diaspora including Dubai, London and points across the United States.

___

Murphy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-14-Iran-Election/id-31db2ada2e354ac7a18a71a6ef7fd950

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Greater convenience and safety for wheelchair users

June 13, 2013 ? With modern communication aids, users of electric powered wheelchairs can operate a PC and cellphone without human assistance. A new module is set to transform electric powered wheelchairs into communication hubs.

Writing text messages and e-mails, surfing the web, making phone calls -- all these things can be a real challenge for people with disabilities. And that applies all the more to wheelchair users with impaired motor skills in their hands and to severely disabled people, who are dependent on communication aids to be able to operate electronic devices without difficulty. And a new communication aid is just what researchers from the Advanced System Technology (AST) branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB have developed at the request of its longstanding industrial partner, the medical technology manufacturer Otto Bock Mobility Solutions GmbH.

The new aid is an add-on module that expands the functionality of electric powered wheelchairs by connecting up the existing wheelchair control system (e.g. joystick, chin control) to a cellphone, PC, TV, games console, etc. via Bluetooth. The interface for data transmission is the wheelchair's CAN bus, where all wheelchair data converges. "The module allows users to carry out all mouse functions -- on their notebook or smartphone, say -- and thereby check their e-mails, surf the web, and send an SOS in the event of an emergency. All USB-enabled devices are supported," says Prof. Dr. Andreas Wenzel, group manager for embedded systems at the AST branch in Ilmenau.

Smartphone app calculates wheelchair range

The module is compatible with many electric powered wheelchairs from the Otto Bock range. Box-shaped and compact, its dimensions of 85 x 65 x 32 millimeters mean that it can be discreetly attached to the wheelchair. The box comprises both the hardware in the form of a printed circuit board and the software, and it has two Bluetooth interfaces. Wenzel describes the advantage of the second Bluetooth interface as follows: "The system not only enables interaction with electronic devices, it can also be used to transfer wheelchair data -- such as battery capacity, motor currents, and errors in the drive system, for example -- to a smartphone." A specially developed smartphone app reads and processes the data.

"When users of electric powered wheelchairs are considering going on an excursion, they are often uncertain about how long the battery will last, because the energy consumed by the wheelchair depends on the temperatures outside and the hilliness of the terrain. A wheelchair uses up more power on steep hills than on flat roads. This uncertainty often means wheelchair users choose to stay in rather than venture out," explains Wenzel. The Android app carries out a precise range projection. The app determines the current location , compares it against the battery capacity, and calculates if there is enough energy left to bring the wheelchair back to the home point. It obtains the requisite data from the Internet. Wheelchair users are informed how much further they can safely travel via their cellphones. When the capacity begins to run low, a warning appears on the smartphone display telling them that there is only enough power left for another ten kilometers. "This gives users certainty and peace of mind," says Andreas Biederst?dt, head of development for e-mobility and drive technology at Otto Bock. "The cellphone can be easily fitted to the wheelchair. Moreover, this enables us to do away with expensive industrial displays."

A further advantage of the app is that the navigation functions allow users to call up wheelchair-accessible routes, for example, or disabled toilets. This means users of all-terrain wheelchairs can go off road and receive a selection of suitable routes on their display. "The add-on module offers users of electric powered wheelchairs greater autonomy, safety, and convenience," sums up Andreas Biederst?dt. "Not just the disabled but elderly people with restricted mobility stand to benefit from these sorts of mobility concepts with the Bluetooth module."

Initial tests have been successfully completed, and wheelchair prototypes equipped with the innovative communication aid have already been presented. Otto Bock is currently planning to produce a pilot run, and the finished product should be on sale from the third quarter of this year. Researchers at Fraunhofer IOSB's AST branch also want to drive the development of this technology. "The next step will see us linking our Bluetooth module up with home automation systems. This would enable disabled people to perform tasks such as setting the air conditioning, opening and closing blinds, and switching on and off lights without leaving their wheelchair," says Wenzel.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/_s2kvqGvLR8/130613112002.htm

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