Coconut Crab

Cameron aims to keep Scotland part of the UK

Alan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:57:35 +0000

David Cameron is going to make a speech in Scotland about the benefits of its union with England and Wales. He is going to make the argument that the United Kingdom is a safer, richer and stronger country when all its nations are banded together. Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland has described Mr Cameron’s views as outdated and threadbare.

Talks are about to take place in Edinburgh between the Prime Minister and the first Minister of Scotland. The government of Scotland have recently indicated that they are intending to hold a vote in 2014. The UK government said they would like to have this vote conducted at an earlier date.

There have also been disagreements over the questions wording and the legal power of the Scottish government to hold a referendum. The result of the vote could lead to the Scottish government having increased power.

The prime minister has described what is happening as a fight to save the union and he has said that he would do all he can to save it. It has been said that he will tell the audience in Edinburgh that he believes the United Kingdom is far better off united.

The prime minister has emphasised that it is a choice for Scotland to make but he is sincerely hoping that the country would choose to remain a part of the United Kingdom. He commented, “I would never threaten the country to remain in the UK but I will definitely appeal to them. I enjoy the fact that we have a shared history and culture and I believe we are a better and stronger country when we are together.”

Mr Cameron will continue, “This is not just an issue of policy for me, or a strategic calculation, this is a matter about heart and soul. I will fight to the end to keep the United Kingdom together. Of course, there are many arguments that can be said against the UK, such as problems with banks and our dependence on oil, but in the end it comes down to the fact that we are better off as a union.”

Mr Cameron will also highlight about how the countries together have more power in international bodies such as the United Nations and NATO. He will speak about how the world is a more dangerous place and how together the defence budget in the UK is one of the largest in the world. He will highlight the powers of the anti-terrorist police as well as the military and how it is admired by our allies and feared by our enemies.

It is also expected that he will talk about the economic power of the UK and how together it forms one of the biggest trading powers in the world. Mr Salmond recently gave a lecture at LSE in which he stated how the Scottish economy would be better off if it were not a part of the UK. He spoke about how GDP in Scotland would be higher if it weren’t being held back by the UK.

Michael Moore is the Scottish Secretary and he stated that there are currently disagreements between the two governments about who has the authority to run a vote about potential separation. The UK government has said the Scottish government does not have power to hold a referendum.

London gangs face crackdown

Alan — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:59:00 +0000

It was six months ago that rioting occurred in the capital and now police are having a major crackdown on those gangs located in the city which were largely blamed for much of the disorder that occurred during the riots. The rioting was some of the worst that the country has seen for decades and the new police chief in London has said that he is dedicated to cracking down on gang activity in the city.

The Metropolitan police Commissioner is Bernard Hogan-Howe who has commented, “A new police unit has recently raided a large number of gangs across the city and we are dedicated to the relentless pursuit of gang members that are causing trouble in the capital.”

The rioting was sparked by the police shooting of a man in Tottenham which later led to looting and rioting spreading across the city. Rioting even started to occur in other urban areas across the UK and many were injured and five people were killed.

In order to stop the rioting the police presence on the streets became massive and David Cameron placed the blame on the growth of youth gangs in the UK. He also highlighted that the austerity measures implemented by the government as well is the wealth inequality that exists in the UK as part of the problem.

Official reports from the riots have highlighted that around 10 percent of those arrested were a member of a street gang, but despite this rather low percentage gangs have become a serious focal point for the police.

Police estimates say that there are over 250 criminal gangs in London which combined have nearly 5000 members. Over 60 of the gangs are regarded by the police is a serious problem accounting for over 20 percent of all violence that occurs in the city, as well as nearly 20 percent of robberies and around 15 percent of rapes.

The Trident Gang Crime Command is a new unit that has been established by the Metropolitan police in order to tackle gang crime in the city. Previously, this unit was much smaller and was set up for dealing with shootings in black communities.

The unit is going to be building on advice that has come from former New York police chief Bill Bratton, who oversaw a significant decrease in gang activity while he was police chief. The Prime Minister enlisted him for assistance in controlling the gang problem after the riots six months ago.

The new unit set up by the police is not just going to be tackling the most hard-core gangs and will also be working to stop people from joining gangs in the first place by diverting their attention elsewhere. Parliamentary reports have also placed some blame for the riots on the police who they said lost control of the streets and had a response time that was too slow.

Al Qaeda inspired terrorists plead guilty

Alan — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:07:21 +0000

Al Qaeda inspired terrorists plead guilty

Stating that they were inspired by the terrorist group Al Qaeda, four men have just entered guilty pleas for the planning of a bomb detonation at the London stock exchange. Shah Rahman, Mohammed Chowdhury, Abdul Miah and Gurukanth Desai admitted guilt to charges of preparation for terrorism.

The four men come from Cardiff and London and they were arrested in late 2010 and have been waiting for their trial at Woolwich Crown Court. Five other men involved in the plot are due to be sentenced soon, all of these men have also pleaded guilty to offences related to terrorism.

All of the men are British nationals and they have said to be influenced by the preachings of extremist Al Qaeda leaders. They had been placed under surveillance by MI5 who ultimately made the move to arrest them. Their homes had been searched as long as two years before their arrest. In the final few months of 2010, two of the men were seen looking at high-profile targets in the capital city and talking about considering bombing target.

Despite the apparent obviousness of their plotting it seems they were aware that it was possible they were being watched. They talked to each other about the possibility of there being bugs in their cars and also planned their meetings in both secluded places and outdoor locations.

Despite the plans, the men made no effort to buy any explosive materials and they failed to plant any bombs. However, it seems likely that if they had not been arrested this would have been the next step in their plan and their fantasy would have become a bleak reality.

It was expected that the terrorist attacks would have occurred by bombs being sent through the mail before Christmas in 2010 and these would have gone to high-profile locations around London. A list recovered from one of the men’s houses had the addresses of two prominent rabbis, the Embassy of the United States of America, Boris Johnson’s home and the London Stock Exchange.

According to information gathered about suspects no dates for attacks had been established yet.The five men came together because of their membership of radical internet groups through which they arranged special meetings. One of the men, Chowdhury, who is aged 21, was followed by anti-terrorist police as he observed important landmarks such as The London Eye, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.

The defendants started their trial by pleading not guilty and the jury was even sworn in for a trial but later they changed their plea and the jury was dismissed. The prosecuting QC stated that the men had planned to kill and maim people at the stock exchange.

He commented, “They intended to cause not just economic but human harm and disruption to this country. The method they chose would mean people were injured or killed.” A special hearing caused them to change their pleas as they were allowed to hear what sentence the judge would impose if they changed their plea to guilty.

Kim Dotcom Megaupload.com fall from grace

Alan — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:58:50 +0000

Internet entrepreneurs today are only a little different from the entrepreneurs you find in any corporate boardroom; only interested in the bottom line, “blue-sky” thinking and other business jargon.

It wasn’t always that way, however, especially in the early days of the internet when those who set up their own websites and online businesses were often rebellious figures, more interested in changing the world than making their first million dollars. Most have fallen by the wayside since the dotcom crash, or become decent members of society, but one has managed to hold onto his renegade roots.

The unusually-named Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Tim Jim Vestor or by his online name Kimble, is the kind of interesting and intriguing internet entrepreneur that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg can only dream of becoming.

Born plain old Kim Schmitz to German and Finnish parents, Dotcom is more of a Bond villain than an authentic businessman, with a long list of criminal convictions for financial crimes and computer hacking. He even operates from his own secret base on an island, is regularly photographed with glamour models on his arm and has a fleet of vehicles, all bearing number plates with legends such as “MAFIA”, “GOD” or “GUILTY”.

The 38-year-old is now married with kids, but even that hasn’t been enough to make him grow up, and the multi-millionaire is currently in custody in New Zealand on suspicion of a host of internet piracy offences. Authorities claim that Dotcom, via his website Megaupload.com, is the leader of a worldwide criminal conspiracy to pirate everything from TV shows to music albums and Hollywood films to computer games and then make them available for free.

This is far from the first time that the eccentric Dotcom has been in trouble with the police or the authorities. Back in 1998 he was given a suspended sentence for hacking and used the publicity from that case to set up his own computer security firm, which he sold at the height of the dotcom boom.

Even as a millionaire he was unable or unwilling to keep out of trouble, however. He spent time in jail for embezzlement and other financial offences before he set up Megaupload.com in 2005 as kind of “cyber locker” where other people could store large files and share them with others online.

The enterprise was a huge success and has spin-off companies including Megaporn.com and Megavideo.com, the latter allowing subscribers to upload whole series of TV shows or entire films in one file for other subscribers to access. Subscription is free, although for an extra $9.99 a month you get faster streaming and unlimited downloads.

Estimates suggest that these subscription fees have earned Dotcom over $175 million in what the authorities describe as illegal profits, and even though he has the support of artistes like Kanye West, the site was shut down last Friday when he and four of his business associates were arrested. Even Dotcom’s arrest managed to become a circus; when police broke into the panic room he had installed in his mansion, they found the world’s most famous cyber criminal clutching a sawn-off shotgun in his hand.

Wikipedia shuts down for the day in piracy row

Alan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:26:41 +0000

In protest of antipiracy laws being considered in the United States, Wikipedia has taken offline its encyclopaedia in English for 24 hours. The encyclopaedia stated that the legislation considering being passed in the United States could, “Damage the access people have to information on the internet and potentially be fatally damaging.”

Anyone who visited the site on Wednesday was greeted by a screen which would simply ask them to imagine a world where information was not free. The encyclopaedia is still available on mobile devices for people you really need to look something up. Other prominent websites on the internet including Reddit and Boing Boing have also been taken down in protest of the legislation.

The bills the website are protesting against are SOPA, which is the bill going through the House of Representatives, and also PIPA which is the equivalent of the bill passing through the Senate. On the other side of the argument the music and film industries have said that this is an enormous step forward in the protection of intellectual property rights on the internet.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia has stated, “This legislation is nothing more than dangerous and destructive, if it would pass it is a frightening precedent of where the internet is heading.” This is the first time that Wikipedia has ever been blacked out and the blackout has occurred as it will remind people of what it would be like to lose access to a large amount of information on the internet.

It is important to remember that this legislation would not just affect those in the United States, but would extend internationally because of the nature of the internet”.

Google has not shut down its operations for the day but it has put a message in place on its homepage saying that the internet should not be censored. The company also highlighted the fact that this legislation would do harm to American business.

The legislation states that if anyone in the United States is found to be downloading copyrighted material more than 10 times in a six-month period than they should be sent to jail. The legislation also states that any website encouraging piracy should be immediately shut down.

The support for the bill is a significant because of the entertainment industries backing. Rupert Murdoch has been an outspoken supporter and he has been critical of the White House for not supporting the bill in its entirety. Critics of the bill have stated that it will be an ineffective way of fighting copyright infringement.

If the legislation passes, website owners will be responsible for the content that users upload and this will mean small websites will be unable to employ the manpower to do this and so their sites will be shut down in their entirety.

Additionally, websites from outside the United States could be blacklisted meaning that they won’t be visible when searching in major search engines. Furthermore, the legislation sets out ways for further limitations to take place in future.

High-speed railway route to link North and South

Alan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:23:27 +0000

Residents in northern England and Scotland have taken a step closer to a high-speed railway route to London, thanks to the approval of the first stage between the capital and Birmingham.

The fast train, known as the HS2 project, has been in the pipeline for many months and was finally given the go head by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition. Transport Secretary Justine Greening made the announcement in parliament, revealing at the same time that more sections than previously thought of the London-Birmingham route would be covered by tunnels.

This may go some way to placating opponents of the scheme who are concerned because the newly built railway line will have to pass through some of England’s most beautiful stretches of countryside. However, it will still be many years before you can buy your ticket for the HS2 as the first stage, which is estimated to cost around £16 billion, will not be ready until at least 2026. Commuters could then expect to make the journey from Birmingham to the heart of London in just 50 minutes.

If successful, the project will be expanded to northern cities including Manchester and Leeds, with the possibility of further additions to Newcastle and across the border within 20 years. Scots would see their journey time to the capital cut to an impressive three and a half hours; the journey currently takes around seven.

Even Labour are supporting the new transport project, though critics argue that the projected £32 billion is very ambitious and that the government should be spending its money on more important schemes in this time of financial austerity.

However, supporters argue that the current railway system in the UK will be unable to cope with demand in a few decades and the HS2 project will actually benefit the country’s economy to the tune of almost £50 billion over the next 60 years.

Eric Cantona president in France

Alan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:07:26 +0000

The former striker for Manchester United, Eric Cantona, has recently said that he wishes to run for president in France. He has taken actions to gather signatures from elected officials so that he can start his election campaign by the end of February. Mr Cantona describes himself as an engaged citizen of France and has written to politicians all over the country in the hope that they will sign a letter of recommendation.

Mr Cantona has recently had an article published in a newspaper that is very critical of the limited opportunities young people currently have in France and wants to fight against social injustice. The first round of elections for candidates will finish in April and the two biggest vote winners in this campaign will go through to a second-round which takes place in May.

The leading socialist contender is Fracois Hallande and is currently ahead of the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy in early polling. Mr Cantona must get 500 signatures if he wishes to get through to the second round of elections. Getting the signatures is going to be particularly difficult as he does not have the backing of a party and is running as an independent candidate.

Mr Cantona has been known in the past for highlighting issues of social injustice and he has used a lot of the money he made as a footballer to raise awareness of these issues. In 2010 he launched a public campaign urging people to withdraw their money from the banks in protest of the financial institutions roles in causing the global financial crisis.

Very few people in France actually listened to his calls and the campaign was largely a flop. Mr Cantona received quite a lot of negative criticism from the press for his failure in this regard.

How to win with ever increasing energy bills

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:25:45 +0000

If you wince every time you get an energy bill, this advice is for you. With the rising cost of the fossil fuels that are used to create most electricity, powering your home or business is becoming increasingly more expensive. However, there are several approaches you can take to greening your energy consumption, and most of them require little to no work at all. Good Energy has all the details…

One approach to a greener energy plan is to invest in renewable energy. This may be as simple as switching your energy provider to a company that presents a diversified energy portfolio through providing electricity that is produced in a number of ways — including solar energy, hydroelectric power or wind power. And with new Ofgem proposals to make energy buying more intuitive and less stressful for the consumer, you can do this with ease.

However, if you want to go a step further, you could produce your own green energy. The renewable energy industry is constantly growing and making it easier to install solar panels, solar water heaters and even small wind turbines. Whilst this option requires a bit more investment upfront in time and money, having a green energy alternative for your home can significantly cut your energy costs and in some cases eliminate them altogether. In fact, some green energy homes actually run an energy surplus, allowing them to sell energy credits to renewable energy companies.

Of course, there is also a way to make the most out of your energy supply without even picking up the phone. You can do your part to conserve the environment by simply monitoring and mindfully reducing the amount of energy that you and your family or co-workers use.

At home, small steps such as installing energy conserving light bulbs and setting the water heater at a lower temperature can help save a lot of money over the long run. You can also put your new found green knowledge to the test by arranging your rooms to let in the most possible sunlight to reduce the need for artificial lighting or reinforcing the weather stripping around doors and windows to help keep climate control costs down.

In the office, you can start a green energy initiative by reminding all co-workers to turn off lights when not in use and asking them to dress in layers to reduce the need for air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. Make sure that you turn off your computer and all attached equipment at the end of each day, and prevent wasteful power loads by unplugging them each day, as well.

These are just a few ideas, and as you become more and more involved in green energy, you’ll probably begin thinking of your own creative ways to save. The key is to think outside the box and make green energy a top priority.

Article Courtesy of Good Energy

Taliban talk about peace talks

Alan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:25:21 +0000

A recent move by the Taliban has suggested that they might be ready to begin peace talks about the end of the insurgency in Afghanistan. The Taliban have agreed that they will open up a peace mission in Qatar, and this is seen as a significant reversal of the previous position when it would not end its insurgency in the war-torn country.

The spokesman for the Taliban is Zabiullah Mujahid, who announced along with the opening of a peace mission in Qatar that he would like to see the Taliban prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay released. He gave very few details about the opening of the mission or the release of the prisoners.

The American government had previously stated that the best way for peace to be achieved in Afghanistan would be by the Taliban setting up a mission in a different country. Unfortunately, there have been many previous attempts at establishing a peace mission and some of these have led to significant embarrassment for the West.

The idea of the peace mission is to create a location where Western diplomats and representatives of the Taliban can meet and conduct talks. The United States has seen, for a long time, that the only way to end the war in Afghanistan would be for a political solution to be reached and that a military solution was not a realistic end point. A Policy from President Obama has seen increased pressure placed on the Taliban which has been aimed at getting the group to conduct negotiations.

While Western diplomats remain optimistic that a peaceful solution will be reached they have said that there is no guarantee that a political solution to Afghanistan will be accomplished. Some, however, have described the willingness of the Taliban to set up a peace mission as the beginning of the end for the Afghanistan conflict.

A Western diplomat based in Kabul has commented, “If we are looking for an endorsement that the Taliban want to pursue a peaceful strategy then establishing a peace mission is about as good as were going to get. It is important that people remember that despite this announcement of a peace mission a concrete deal is years away, and that’s if one is reached at all.”

There has been no comment from the Afghan government as of yet, whilst Qatar announced that it would be willing to host a peace mission to the Taliban. Afghan officials complained that they had not been informed about the political move by Qatar. Since this time, however, the president of Afghanistan has agreed that Qatar should be the location of any peace talks that take place.

The United States Embassy in Kabul issued a statement on Tuesday stating, “We welcome any move by the Taliban to accept the Constitution of Afghanistan and break ties with Al Qaeda.” One of the most challenging processes the Western diplomats have been faced with is to establish a reliable contact within the Taliban, and finding a legitimate representative has proved difficult.

In 2009, the West was embarrassed to find out that a man they thought was a representative of the Taliban was merely an impostor who had been taking money from Western diplomatic efforts. Officials from both the US and Afghanistan have confirmed fears that Pakistan might abuse the peace process for its own gains.

Anonymous Group sends company cash to charities

Alan — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:32:26 +0000

Thousands of government and private organisations are taking a close look at their accounts after Anonymous Group linked hackers stole credit card info from a security firm in America on Christmas Eve and used the money they stole to make charity donations.

The attack was focused on Texas based Stratfor, a company that offers analysis to international clients on security issues and works with oil companies, banks, and police agencies.

Outside of claiming to donate around $500,000 to online charities with the stolen data, the hackers also posted pieces of their haul online with files that listed credit card numbers of over 50,000 different people and agencies, 44,000 passwords that were encrypted, and about 87,000 email addresses.

Major British firms that were named in the files include HSBC, BP, and Tesco. A few days later, on Boxing Day, the hackers also published what they claimed were emails that came off the servers of Stratfor with the attached message that this was just a minor preview of what more mayhem they were going to cause.

According to additional messages that were posted, the Stratfor attack was supposedly part of the Anonymous campaign against the private security market and referred to the action as ‘Operation Robin Hood.’ However, observers stated that the campaign actually backfired because instead of helping charities the groups that received donations will now be tied up with administration tasks as they sort through the fraudulent donations and work on returning the money where it is due.

Chief Researcher for F-Secure, Mikko Hypponen, stated that it looks a bit like a Robin Hood plan to steal from the rich and then give to those who are poor but the harm was done more to the charities then anyone else. This is due to the fact that those who see fraudulent credit card charges are going to report them and then the charities will be forced to return the money and even face penalties, which will end up hurting them not to mention the time investment that it is going to take to clear up these matters.

Chief Executive for Stratfor went on Facebook to recognise the attack and publicly apologise to their clients as their own website remains offline for the time being. The statement written by George Friedman states that some of their members had their credit information disclosed and that they are working with law enforcement and also working to get their website back up and running.

He also added that in the future Stratfor will be working with an identity theft protection firm to prevent this type of situation from occurring again in the future. He also asked supporters not to speak out about the attacks on Facebook because of concern that they will become targets for future attacks by the group.