U.S. paid millions to Google, Facebook and other expenses related to espionage

The National Security Agency U.S. (NSA) paid millions of dollars to large Internet companies, including Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, to compensate for the costs related to requests for monitoring information, as reported by the newspaper 'The Guardian'. The newspaper, citing new documents provided by former CIA technician Edward Snowden, said that in this way the first test financial linkage between these internet companies and U.S. spy programs. These additional costs have to do with the new requirements imposed by the FISA Court , established by Act Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) and responsible for authorizing and supervising the activities of the NSA, which declared unconstitutional the Prism program, surveillance, in 2011. The suspension was decided after news that the NSA intercepted thousands of emails that violated the privacy of persons unrelated to terrorism. This forced the agency to change the way we collect electronic information.

Ensuring a legal framework

Thereafter, the agency began to request that the FISA Court sign it "certifications" annually to ensure a legal framework for such surveillance operations, although these were renewed only temporarily. "The problems of last year resulted in multiple extensions of the maturity dates of the certificates, causing billion costs to providers monitoring program to implement each of the following extensions. Such costs were provided by Special Resource Operations, "said one of the NSA's internal documents, dated in late 2012. Snowden told The Guardian that this body Special Resource Operations is the "crown jewel" . Coordinates all spy programs based on "corporate partnerships" with telecom companies and ISPs that provide access to communications data.

The role of the computer giants

Before disclosing new revelations, the British newspaper asked several of these companies about their role in these programs and whether they had received any financial compensation by the NSA. A spokesman for Yahoo! explained that "Federal law requires the U.S. government to reimburse all costs incurred providers to respond to mandatory legal procedures." "We have requested these reimbursements in accordance with the law," said Yahoo!, but eluded confirm their participation and role in these programs. For its part, Facebook said, also through a spokesman, that "never received compensation in relation to its compliance with a request of government data." Google issued a general declaration that "denied having joined the program Prism or other espionage," says The Guardian. After publishing this article, Microsoft said the British newspaper that "only complies with court orders because it is legally required and not because it compensated for the work".

India l Arrested two of the alleged rapists of Indian photojournalist

The police have arrested two suspected attackers on Thursday took part in gang rape a young photojournalist Indian coastal city of Mumbai, according to a police source reported. Police, who have made ​​numerous arrests of suspects in recent hours, at the moment only has arrested two of the five individuals who were part of the group that committed aggression according to the research. "We have arrested a second accused this morning (the first was arrested yesterday). has confessed his involvement . Inquiries are on the correct line and hope to catch the other three soon, "said the commissioner Satyapal Singh, quoted by IANS. The attack happened late on Thursday in an abandoned textile complex in central district of Bombay , the main Indian metropolis and capital of the southwestern state of Maharashtra. The girl, an intern in practice 22 years, I was doing a story for a local magazine in English along with a partner. The assailants beat the boy and tied him while three of them raped her in turns to the reporter, who suffered serious internal injuries but is in stable condition and out of danger in a hospital in Mumbai. This violation has rekindled outrage against sexual assaults in India , which a large psychosis since late 2012 An 23 year old student died after being attacked in a similar manner with her ​​boyfriend on a bus from New Delhi.

Descent of foreign tourism

The leader of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, called the Bombay rape "terrible crime" and said it "should not have happened," according to local media. Continued violations that has collected in recent months local and international press have affected foreign tourism in India, and led the authorities to amend the Criminal Code to toughen penalties against convicted of rape. A Delhi court must issue a verdict soon in the case concerning the student assaulted on the bus. Observers believe that the death penalty is the punishment likely for the four accused of that crime. A fifth suspect involved committed suicide in prison, according to the official version, and a sixth alleged offender was a minor when the events occurred and has been tried by a juvenile court shall impose the maximum sentence of three years of internment.

Obama discusses with his security team the 'military option menu' in Syria

U.S. President Barack Obama met Saturday at the White House with his national security advisers to discuss military options in Syria after the alleged attack with chemical weapons this week. Although the president is reluctant to intervene in another war in the Middle East, the Pentagon chief, Chuck Hagel, told reporters that Obama had requested a "menu of military options". The Pentagon has spent months studying possible targets, especially since spring, after the first chemical attack. The Chief of Staff, Martin Dempsey, Obama introduced an updated list of possibilities in a meeting that lasted about three hours and the president's cabinet has given few details. Before the meeting, a spokesman told the press that there is still "a variety of options" and that decisions will be made ​​"consistent" with the "national interest" of the United States and how to push the "targets" in Syria, ie , the departure of Bashar Assad. The White House repeated on Saturday that Obama had ordered his intelligence "gathering facts and evidence in order to determine what happened in Syria . Once you have verified all the facts, the president will make a decision on how to respond "as an official underlined the presidency quoted by AFP. The White House says there is no timetable for the president to decide .

Options

Although the government is divided, the U.S. Navy has taken positions and has updated its military targets in Syria. "The Department of Defense has the responsibility to present options to the president to all possibilities," Hagel had previously explained to reporters traveling with him to Malaysia. "And that requires positioning our forces, positioning our resources to carry out the various options, whatever you choose the president." The president now has the last word and advocates involved as little as possible and with European and Arab allies. Among the targets identified are bunkers and platforms to launch chemical weapons. The intelligence services of the United States had detected activity in chemical plants on Tuesday, the day before the alleged attacks east of Damascus.

Caution

In his first public reaction to the alleged chemical attack that killed more than a thousand people on Wednesday on the outskirts of Damascus, Obama stressed the difficulties of intervening over the urgency of stopping the slaughter. "The situation in Syria is very difficult and the idea that the U.S. can solve a complex problem is exaggerated sectarian," the president said Friday on CNN. "Sometimes people call for immediate action, launches into something that does not end well and gets us into situations that can result in very expensive interventions, difficult and expensive to feed more resentment in the region, "Obama said. "We remain the indispensable nation ... But that does not mean we have to get involved in everything at once , "insisted the president, under the shadow of the bad experience of the Bush administration in Iraq. "If America is going and attack another country without UN mandate without clear evidence to submit questions about whether international law supports it, whether we have a coalition that works," said Obama, who also recalled the "tens of billions "that will continue to spend in Afghanistan and victims of the conflict:" Every time I visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed [the military hospital in Maryland], whenever a letter signed by a victim of that war, remember that there are costs."

A year ago, the president said that the use of chemical weapons was a "red line" for Washington. In spring, the Pentagon announced that it believed that the Syrian regime had used sarin, but since then the U.S. military have worked only attack options that the president and some of his aides have refused to approve. According to the New York Times, the president had a slip to publicly mention the red line since the idea was to pass that message to Syria in private.

Obama defends continue diplomatic pressure for UN inspectors investigate, though he admits he does not expect "cooperation" of the Assad regime, which holds that the attacks are a trap orchestrated by opponents.

8 year old boy killed after an old play GTA IV

Authorities in Louisiana reported that an 8 year old boy shot himself in the head at the woman of 87 years who cared for him after playing a violent video game themed. Although no official reasons mentioned crime, revealed that few minutes before the tragedy the child had been playing Grand Theft Auto IV, containing multiple elements of violence and assassination missions. During the interrogation, according to the network NBC News, the boy said he killed his caretaker accidentally while playing with a gun but researchers believe that "intentionally shot" to the back of the head while she was watching television. Under Louisiana law, the child can not be held criminally responsible because of their age. However, the case falls within the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts, according to federal law.