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Showing posts from October 30, 2016

Who are Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels?

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The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been a thorn in Turkey's side for decades. The group, which has Marxist-Leninist roots, was formed in the late 1970s and launched an armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984, calling for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. Fighting flared up again after a two-year-old ceasefire ended in July 2015. Now the PKK is being targeted in a bigger Turkish security crackdown, following the botched July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by mutinous Turkish officers. The PKK's struggle is also part of the turmoil in Iraq and Syria, where Turkey is trying to assert its influence on a battlefield with many rival forces. What are the PKK's ambitions in Turkey? In a  BBC interview in April  the PKK's military leader Cemil Bayik said "we don't want to separate from Turkey and set up a state". "We want to live within the borders of Turkey on our own land freely...

20 Islamist infiltrators exposed in German army – reports

20 Islamist infiltrators exposed in German army – reports Published time: 5 Nov, 2016 09:51 The German military has uncovered dozens of soldiers with Islamist leanings that joined the army to receive rigorous training in weapons systems and tactics in hopes of using it for future terror attacks, both at home and abroad, local media report. Germany’s Military Counterintelligence Service, MAD, has identified 20 active-duty soldiers as Islamists, and 60 others were put on a surveillance list for having extremist views,  Die Welt  reported on Saturday.  The agency said the Islamist infiltrators are particularly interested in advanced weapons and tactical training that could be useful when carrying out future attacks in Germany or abroad. Recruitment offices across the country have reported  “individual inquiries from applicants who are eager to join the Bundeswehr [the German military] for only a few months and are explicitly interested in intensive weapons and equipment training,”  MAD no

Venezuela: Vatican-backed talks are 'last chance' for peace

Talks between Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition are the "last best effort" to finding a peaceful solution to the country's political impasse, a US official says. US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon said if the talks failed, it could lead to both sides "putting people on the streets". He said such a result would be very dangerous. It comes after President Maduro  rejected calls for an early election . "From our point of view [the dialogue] really is the last best effort to try to find a negotiated, peaceful solution to this," said Mr Shannon. He added that it would "unpredictable and can be very dangerous" if Venezuela found itself in a state where either side had to "measure themselves through their ability to put people on to the streets". Mr Shannon's comments come at the end of a week that saw the progress which had been made at the talks, mediated by a Vatican

Foreign diplomats urge Myanmar to probe rights violation

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Foreign diplomats have called on Myanmar's government to launch a transparent inquiry into human rights violations in the western Rakhine state, home to many Rohingya Muslim minorities. The diplomats, including those from the European Union and United Nations and the US, made the request on Friday following a two-day visit to the region, where security forces stand accused of rape, torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and burning of homes.  “Given the large numbers of allegations of human rights violations, we urge the government to form an independent and credible investigation committee that can look into the allegations and establish the truth," said Renata Lok-Dessanllien, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar. Renata Lok-Dessallien (L), the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, attends a news conference at Sittwe Airport after a trip to Maungdaw, Rakhine State, Myanmar, November 3, 2016. (Photo by Reuters) EU Ambassad

Hack attacks cut internet access in Liberia

Liberia has been repeatedly cut off from the internet by hackers targeting its only link to the global network. Recurrent attacks up to 3 November flooded the cable link with data, making net access intermittent. Researchers said the attacks showed hackers trying different ways to use massive networks of hijacked machines to overwhelm high-value targets. Experts said Liberia was attacked by the same group that caused web-wide disruption on 21 October. Those attacks were among the biggest ever seen and made it hard to reach big web firms such as Twitter, Spotify and Reddit. Short bursts The attacks were the first to send overwhelming amounts of data from weakly protected devices, such as webcams and digital video recorders, that had been enrolled into what is known as a botnet. A botnet variant called Mirai was identified by security firms as being the tool used to find and compromise the insecure devices. The source code for Mirai has been widely shared and many malic

Cyber strike empowered Iran: Nuclear chief

Iran’s top nuclear official says the 2011 cyber attack by the US and Israel against the Iranian nuclear energy program worked against their intended objectives and helped improve the Islamic Republic’s readiness against such acts of sabotage. The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, said the deployment that year of a malware dubbed Stuxnet against Iran’s nuclear facilities made the country realize how it should prepare against such attempts, Tasnim reported on Saturday. He said Iran can fill “an entire exhibition room with the West’s acts of industrial sabotage [against Iran], things like this very Stuxnet virus.” “They give us equipment in which they have planted explosives so that it would blow up sometime later, or they interfere with the equipment so that… it later damages the whole system.” He explained that as an act of precaution, Iran has been checking the pieces of equipment it buys for any potential interference. “We don’t immed

Clinton Foundation engaged with US enemies: Analyst

The ongoing federal investigation into the Clinton Foundation was expected because of the Clinton family’s ties with US enemies, says Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare officer. The FBI has been probing possible pay-to-play schemes at the family foundation for over a year now and is “likely” to press charges against it, Fox News reported Wednesday, citing informed officials. Bennett told Press TV on Friday that the probe was inevitable “because of the metastasizing of the links and the connections that the Clinton Foundation had, most specifically and grievously to Saudi Arabia, to Qatar,” and many other countries blacklisted by Washington. It was revealed on Friday that the Clinton Foundation took a $1 million gift from Qatar during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as the US secretary of state, without her informing the State Department. Hillary decided to not inform the department of the transaction, despite signing an ethics agreement with regards to the foundat

US ready to hack Kremlin, Russian infrastructure: Report

US military hackers have penetrated Russia’s political heart and its critical infrastructure and are ready to cause damage in case Moscow attempts to disrupt the upcoming presidential election in America, a report says. The Pentagon has been able to break into Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable for the final attack, the NBC News reported Friday, citing senior intelligence officials and documents with top secret classification. According to one official, the US hackers have placed specially designed malware on Russian networks to take them down when needed. Moscow and Washington have long been at odds over claims by American intelligence officials about what they refer to as an attempt by the Kremlin to disrupt the November 8 presidential vote. The allegations against Russia first came a few months ago, when the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks released thousands of emails belonging to the Democra