By Aaron Mamiit, Tech Times
January 24, 2015

Edward Snowden, the infamous former contractor for the National Security Agency who leaked thousands of pages of previously classified NSA intelligence documents, reportedly thinks that Apple's iPhone has "special software" that authorities can activate remotely to be able to gather information about the user.

"Edward never uses an iPhone; he's got a simple phone," said the lawyer of Snowden, Anatoly Kucherena, in an interview with the Russian media company RIA Novosti.

"The iPhone has special software that can activate itself without the owner having to press a button and gather information about him; that's why on security grounds he refused to have this phone," Kucherena added.

It is not clear if the "special software" being referred to in the interview is made up of standard diagnostic tools, or if the NSA whistleblower thinks intelligence agencies from the United States have found a way to compromise the mobile operating system developed by Apple.

Apple was among the first companies accused of participating in the PRISM data mining project of the NSA, following the release by Snowden of the agency's classified documents. The project reportedly involved extracting video, audio, pictures, documents, emails and connection logs from devices, allowing analysts to track the movement of the device's user and the communications that they are receiving or sending out.

At the time, the accusations were immediately denied by Apple, stating that the company is not involved in the supposed PRISM project and that it does not grant government agencies direct access to the company's servers...

China has deployed Dongfeng-21 medium-range ballistic missiles at Mt. Baekdu that target Japan, the official International Herald Leader reported on Sunday.

The newspaper claimed it "analyzed" China Central Television footage of a nuclear arms and missiles corps in training in northeastern China to arrive at the conclusion. But since it is an official publication, the news is more likely to be a government plant than an investigative scoop.

The DF-21 series were originally ground-to-ground ballistic missiles with a range of 1,700-2,100 km, but the latest version in the series is modified into anti-ship ballistic missiles with a range of 3,000 km, which can threaten the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet.

The original version can hit any target in Korea and Japan, including U.S. Forces Japan bases in Okinawa. It can carry a 200-500 kiloton nuclear warhead. It is 10.7 m long and can fly at a speed of Mach 10. Its accuracy has improved from a 300-400 m radius to 1/10 of that.

The latest anti-ship version can hit the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet near Guam, the U.S. strategic bridgehead in the Asia-Pacific region as well as any target in the East Seas.  It is very difficult to intercept because it is so fast and can change path in the final stage of flight.

China also reportedly deployed DF-21 missiles on the coast of Shandong Province in preparation for clashes with Japan over the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Shandong is close to the East China Sea but vulnerable to an attack by the Japanese air force.

China is believed to have some 50 to 100 missiles in the DF-21 series.

Prof. Cho Yang-hyun of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy said, "If China has deployed DF-21 missiles at Mt. Baekdu, it's a warning to the military alliance among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo."

Politico.com
1/6/15 5:35 PM EST

John Boehner is getting revenge.

After he secured his third term as speaker Tuesday afternoon, losing 25 votes on the House floor to some relative-unknown members of the Republican Conference, Boehner moved swiftly to boot two of the insurgents from the influential Rules Committee. That could be just the start of payback for the speaker’s betrayers, who might see subcommittee chairmanships and other perks fall away in the coming months.

Boehner’s allies have thirsted for this kind of action from the speaker, saying he’s let people walk all over him for too long and is too nice to people who are eager to stab him in the back. The removal of Florida Reps. Daniel Webster and Rich Nugent from Rules was meant as a clear demonstration that what Boehner and other party leaders accepted during the last Congress is no longer acceptable, not with the House’s biggest GOP majority in decades.

The reason for dethroning the two Florida Republicans was simple: Webster ran against Boehner for speaker, distributing fliers outlining his candidacy and talking about how he would better adhere to the House rules than the Ohio Republican. Nugent supported his fellow Floridian in the quixotic endeavor, which garnered the support of 12 lawmakers. Webster didn’t even give Boehner a heads-up that he was running, although leadership was aware early Tuesday morning that it could happen...

Friends of Liberty Access Statistics

We received 57865153 page views since July 2002
Today is: 01/02/2015

Busiest Month: May 2014 (3947859 Hits)
Busiest Day: 1 November 2014 (163216 Hits)
Busiest Hour: 13:00 - 13:59 on May 3, 2014 (9356 Hits)

Year	Page Views
2002	(453292)
2003	(1003129)
2004	(726644)
2005	(1154861)
2006	(1642946)
2007	(1838064)
2008	(2245975)
2009	(2267005)
2010	(1430268)
2011	(1937337)
2012	(1831080)
2013	(7798749)
2014	(33443243)

Inquisitr.com
January 2, 2015

If you thought slavery has been wiped out, you would be sorely mistaken. The barbaric act of exploiting and abusing people still takes place in South Korea.

Described as a “living hell,” the chain of rural islands off South Korea’s rugged southwest coast have shallow sea-fed fields where slaves are forced to work 18 hour shifts without pay. Slaves are made to mine salt that collects after sea water evaporates from the fields.

What’s even more horrendous is that the slavery involves mostly disabled men and women who are too feeble or simply incapable of planning and executing their escape from these islands.

Appallingly, slavery has been so ubiquitous here that regional judges have shown leniency toward several of the perpetrators of the heinous crime. In suspending the prison sentences of two farmers, a court noted that “such criminal activities were tolerated as common practice by a large number of salt farms nearby.”

Five times during the last decade, revelations of slavery involving the disabled have surfaced, each time generating national shame and outrage. Based on the accounts of escapees, officials searched more than 38,000 salt, fish and agricultural farms and disabled facilities, but found no more than 100 workers who had received no — or only scant — pay. Moreover, only about 100 people had been reported missing by their families. Surprisingly, though 50 island farm owners and regional job brokers were indicted, no local police or officials have ever faced punishment, and according to the national police, no one involved with slavery will ever see a day in court or face incarceration...

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1722306/slavery-still-thrives-on-south-korean-islands-organized-exploitation-of-disabled-shockingly-common/#KBk7FOxA0pUZ3QH5.99

Yahoo Finance
By Nicole Goodkind
December 30, 2014

Google’s (GOOGL) email service, Gmail, is currently unavailable in China. The outage is widely believed to be a result of the Chinese government attempting to curb the company’s growing presence.

Reports of Gmail not working in China began on Friday and data from Google’s real-time traffic report shows a steep drop that coincides. Google spokesman Taj Meadows has said “there’s nothing wrong on our end,” and China’s State Internet Information Office has yet to respond.

“Gmail has never been openly permitted in China but there’s been this workaround. People in China have been able to use these third-party providers to access Gmail while in the country,” explains Yahoo Finance senior columnist Michael Santoli.

Chinese Gmail users would access the site through protocols like IMAP and SMTP but found that they no longer worked on Friday. “All of a sudden Gmail traffic goes to zero so presumably everyone who looks at these things says that China obviously put up a new wall that’s actually working.” Call it the great firewall.

This wouldn’t be the first case of an unexplained internet blockage by the Chinese government—YouTube, Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR) and The New York Times are just some of the websites that have experienced bans of their own.

The Gmail ban, however, is hurting companies in China that rely on the mail service. “A lot of companies that do business in China that are multinationals do use the Gmail platform and so it’s obviously another headache and hurdle to doing business in China,” says Santoli...

Published December 24, 2014
FoxNews.com

• 

• SONY WILL RELEASE the film 'The Interview' on YouTube and other streaming services in an about-face following the studio's widely criticized move to cancel the movie after receiving threats from hackers who crippled the company's infrastructure and published private info of employees...

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 23, 2014 10:38 KST

Cho Hyun-min

The younger sister of disgraced Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah sent an e-mail to employees of the carrier on Monday urging them to share the blame for the "nut rage" scandal.

The message from Cho Hyun-min, who is the airline's head of marketing, appears to suggest that other staff should also be held accountable for the incident that has made the carrier a laughing stock around the world.

Cho Hyun-ah faces charges of violating aviation regulations after she bawled out a flight attendant for serving her nuts incorrectly and then ordered the purser off the plane, forcing the pilot to return to the gate and delaying the flight.

According to Korean Air, Cho Hyun-min sent the e-mail titled "apology" to around 50 other staff in the marketing division last week and said the scandal is "not the result of one person" but "mistakes committed by all employees."

The e-mail went viral on the Internet and dealt a further blow to the airline's already heavily damaged reputation. One Korean Air staffer said, "The owners still don’t seem to understand what's at the heart of the problem."

A Korean Air spokesman said the message had been "misunderstood."

BBC.com
22 December 2014 Last updated at 21:30

Singer Joe Cocker, best known for his cover of The Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends, has died aged 70.

The Sheffield-born singer had a career lasting more than 40 years, with hits including You Are So Beautiful and Up Where We Belong.

His agent Barrie Marshall said Cocker, who died after battling lung cancer, was "simply unique".

Sir Paul McCartney said he was a lovely guy who "brought so much to the world".

Cocker's friend Rick Wakeman, keyboard player for the rock band Yes, called his rendition of With a Little Help From My Friends "sensational" and said: "He had a voice that was just unique."

Wakeman told BBC Radio 2: "The great thing is with someone like Joe is what they leave behind, and that will be with us for years and years."...

The Korea Times
December 13, 2014

Yellow card / Courtesy of Korean AirLine FlightCrewUnion

The Korean Air union has recently posted a picture of a yellow card on their online community, revealing that the company has been giving out warnings to those who do not bow to executives. Accumulated yellow cards affect an employee's performance assessment, according to the union.

A union member with the ID "macadamia," posted "A sign of ‘Nutrage' posted in 2013" on the website Korean AirLine FlightCrewUnion, Saturday. The card specifies how disrespectfully a person bowed to seniors including their name, date, and place.

The periodical published by the flight crew union first disclosed the story in their 96th edition last year. The story, however, went viral after the company's heiress Heather Cho, stood at the center of criticism for the "nut rage" happening.

Cho ordered a flight back to the gate at New York's JFK International Airport last week, because a flight attendant gave her a packet of macadamia nuts instead of serving them on a plate.

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 11, 2014 12:16 KST

The daughter of the Korean Air boss, who exposed the carrier to global ridicule with an attack of "nut rage," resigned her vice presidency on Wednesday.

Cho Hyun-ah

On Tuesday, Cho Hyun-ah quit her duties as head of in-flight service and hotel operations, but remained a vice president and board member, sparking suspicions that Korean Air was simply giving her time off until the scandal blew over.

An airline spokesman said she will remain a board member until the carrier's annual shareholder's meeting in February.

Cho reportedly told Korean Air executives she wants to "take responsibility" for the incident and no longer be a burden for the company.

Her resignation followed a storm of criticism and global media reports of the incident at JFK airport in New York, where Cho bawled out a flight attendant for serving her nuts incorrectly and then had the purser removed from the plane for failing to find the relevant regulation quickly enough.

It is unclear whether Cho will also step down as head of three other Korean Air affiliates, including a chain of hotels.

Meanwhile, the civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy filed a complaint against Cho at a Seoul district prosecutors' office on Wednesday, accusing her of violating aviation regulations. A civic group spokesman said, "According to internal accounts, Cho shouted and hurled insults at the flight attendant."

A Korean Air spokesman, however, claimed Cho "raised her voice" but did not insult the flight attendant. Korean Air also denied rumors that the purser in question has been suspended from work. "He has gone on sick leave, and allegations that he was initially denied sick leave are not true."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation plans to question Cho this week. A ministry official said, "We've wrapped up interviews with around a dozen employees, including the purser, and asked JFK airport for transcripts of the conversation between the pilot and flight control when the aircraft returned to the boarding gate" to drop off the purser.

The ministry has also asked Korean Air for the contact numbers of passengers who were aboard the flight during Cho's hissy fit.

englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 09, 2014 09:54 KST

Korean-American novelist Suki Kim on Sunday described North Korea as "the most horrific place in the world" after teaching English at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology in 2011.

Kim (43) told CNN North Korean students there "were all completely sons of elite... They, first of all, didn't know anything about the rest of the world. If any of them did, they were fearful to admit that… Some of the students really thought people spoke Korean in the rest of the world."

Recounting her experience, she has recently published a book, "Without You, There Is No Us," based on a song with the same title hailing former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

"Absolute belief in the great leader, where, you know, this generation -- three generations of these men who, these hugely narcissistic men basically wiped everything out of their culture except themselves."

"They didn't know the existence of the Internet in 2011. And this was a Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Their major was computer, a lot of them... The utter, utter lack of information was astounding," she added. "The phone calls are tapped or, you know, it's a small country. You can't travel within the country without a permission."

"I don't know how they're going to rise up. They can't even get to the next town without a permission. They don't have the Internet. They have no way of going there, transportation system. There's just nothing that connects people."

by Neil Munro
White House Correspondent
The Daily Caller
12/05/2014

President Barack Obama’s immigration deputies released 30,862 foreign criminals into the United States’ cities and neighborhoods, according to a federal document.

The document also showed that Obama repatriated less than 1 percent of the 12 million illegals living in the United States during the 12 months up to October 2014.

Officials also repatriated only 8,805 of the roughly 180,000 unskilled Central American migrants who flooded across the border since 2011, according to the “Fiscal Year 2014 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation Report.”

“Immigration enforcement has been destroyed by this President,” Sen. Jeff Sessions said in a Dec. 5 statement.

Americans “must understand the situation can be remedied: if the public elects officeholders who will demand enforcement—at the worksite, the welfare office, and all ports of entry—the lawlessness can swiftly be ended,” he said.

During fiscal 2014, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement repatriated 315,943 people...

Published December 05, 2014
Fox News Latino

President Barack Obama’s deportation rate has reached a record once again, but in the other direction.

Fewer immigrants were deported in the last year than ever during the Obama administration, according to the Los Angeles Times, which obtained a draft report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The newspaper noted that the drop – deportations were down by 14 percent – occurred despite a rise in the number of people who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.

In raw numbers, that means ICE removed 315,943 people in the last fiscal year, which runs Oct. 1, 2013 through Sept. 30, 2014.

The rise in border crossings was very likely caused by a surge of unaccompanied minors arriving illegally from Central America in that period, the newspaper said.

That may have had an impact on the lower rate of deportations as well, since many immigration and border workers had their hands full trying to keep up with processing the thousands of children, and taking care of them.

At the same time, however, the Obama administration – which long has been under fire by advocates of more lenient immigration policies for its record number of deportations, more than 2 million – made a concerted effort to shift its enforcement focus to criminals and repeat border crossers...

Who Really Killed John F. Kennedy? – New Research into the JFK Assassination reports on the most important new research investigating the JFK assassination.  After publishing in 2013 his first bestselling book Who Really Killed Kennedy: 50 Years Later - Stunning New Revelations About the JFK Assassination, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. believes investigations into the JFK Assassination are close to establishing irrefutable evidence documenting the JFK assassination a government-organized coup d’état, not the act of a lone-gun assassin.

By summarizing the most current cutting-edge research on the JFK assassination, Who Really Killed John F. Kennedy? – New Research Into the JFK Assassination sets the stage for 2017, twenty-five years after the passage of the JFK Records Act, when the National Archives is scheduled to release the final, yet classified government documents on the JFK assassination. This will hopefully include over 1,000 documents the CIA still withholds from the public on national security grounds.

Dr. Corsi fully expects the final true history of the JFK assassination will expose to the American pubic the history of CIA lies and disinformation that have distorted U.S. history since World War II, in favor of a series of international conflicts and wars favored by the military-industrial complex that JFK lost his life trying to prevent.

by SARTRE
November 3, 2014

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests" - Gore Vidal

Today the media prognosticators will do their charts, cite their polls and make their assessments on the results from the 2014 midterm elections. How exciting. Another cycle of “Great Expectations” posed for even bigger disappointments. A Congress firmly in the hands of the GOP ready to wage war against a Democrat progressive collectivist may seem promising for the heartland. However, there are very few indications that a monumental battle for a return to a constitutional republic will be the objective of Republican leadership. Fire Reid with a McConnell replacement simply means that deal making might return to the Capital, but forget about a most needed Presidential Appomattox surrender. There is no Court House in America that will allow the treason of Obama to be brought to justice.

Ah, the federalists can relax; their system of bipartisan corruption will remain intact. If there is any doubt what the establishment wants, just examine the graphic chart from the quid essential mouth piece of the NWO, the Economist.  Their optimistic vs. pessimistic assessment reveals their Free Trade, Climate Warming, Pro Corporate Immigration agenda.

America has been beaten down for the last quarter century with few brief periods of marginal relief. The historic 2010 Tea Party inspired election provided a GOP majority in the House. After the 2014 count, the kindred of conservative populists became less powerful, since the next Speaker of the House will be able to push legislation friendly to the interests of large donors, who buy the best candidates that will play ball.

John Boehner is their man and taking tea with genuine Republican conservatives is less likely. RINO’s and NeoCons have reserved seats at the table, and populists are reduced to a segregated minority. Mitch McConnell loves to broker deals. Oh, the money interests will rally to the insider arrangement that the Economist so plainly wish will be an era of cooperation.

All hail the return of the filibuster, or so goes the hope of a deliberate and statesmanship Senate. However, the Harry Reid nuclear option may not be as easy as a simple vote to put the genie back in the bottle.

No doubt those principled Republicans will disassemble key components of Obamacare, right? Well, you will see just how much power resides in the insurance companies and how little influence the depressed middle class excretes.

In the essay, The mid-term elections - What they’re all about, that same Economist expounds.

“The mid-terms will decide which party controls the Senate, as well as picking every member of the House of Representatives, 36 state governors (see article) and 45 statehouses. They also offer an opportunity for some political phrenology: a chance to infer something about the country’s mood. Several issues have threatened to dominate only to fade a little: Obamacare, a surge of child migrants into Texas, scandals at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the racially-charged riots in Ferguson, Missouri, the beheadings of Americans by jihadists and lately the first cases of Ebola on American soil have all played this role.”

How trite and ignorant of the mechanics of what motivates the electorate. The notion that people vote on the basis of the Ferguson federally approved Eric Holder distraction is an insult to every person who really is concerned about civil liberties. The hubbub over alleged or real beheadings is hardly an issue that powers the selection of a voting lever. Of course in the era of computer counted ballots, chad cards, early mail voting and illegal voting – the notion of selecting a candidate that will ensure that you will keep your head may be just too much to expect.

Nuisance and periphery distractions are the mother’s milk of an ideology, a party or a candidate that is desperate and behind. The Democrats will lose today because of the most basic reason for anyone who votes their own self-interest. Namely, the Obama controlled administration has failed to deliver a brighter future. So much for government of hope . . .

Before the undecided express glee with a Republican Congress, consider the prospects of actual action.  Priebus Rallies Base: GOP Will Stop Obama’s 'Un-American' Amnesty” If We Win Senate boast as reported by Breitbart. So how did he answer at a town hall meeting when    one woman even asked Priebus why the “sergeant at arms hasn’t arrested Obama” for our “wide open borders.”

Priebus handled it with ease.

“I understand there’s a little bit of hyperbole, but I understand your point, which is the president’s role in the Constitution is to enforce the law,” he said. “So the president wants to take Article II and ignore that part to enforce the law. He wants to be Article I, which is the legislature, and write all the laws. And then he’s appointing all of his judges to take care of Article III.”

Coping with a slight of hand is the art of political protection. Never answer the true issue. Why won’t the Republican Party impeach Obama over his treason? Must be that nasty Ferguson psyop factor!

Since the rule of law has been ignored for so long, the invented practice of circumventing plain legal language with the paragon of fiat administrative decrees has become an accepted practice. The politicization of the judiciary and the extortion of honest judges leave a pattern of rule by press release. 

Should people be upbeat (not in the same sense of the Economist optimism)? Just what are the market prospects of a GOP victory? According to Kevin Mahn published by Forbes, Midterm Elections Bode Bullishly For U.S. Stocks provides a narrow and arcane viewpoint.

“The first research study I reviewed in this regard was conducted by S&P Capital IQ. The study (summarized in the chart below) concluded that the stock market – which was defined in this study by the S&P 500 index – has gained 15.3% on average in the six months following a mid-term election in the 3rd year of a given term of a presidency, which is this case this year with President Obama – recognizing, of course, that this is the second term of Obama’s presidency. The study also showed that the frequency of advance (“FoA”) for this occurrence was 94% of the overall time period of October 31, 1944 – September 29, 2014 for this research study. Midterm elections are currently scheduled for November 4, 2014, so this would roughly translate to the period of November 2014 – April 2014.”

OK the Federal Reserve has ended QE so that must bode well for equities??? That goes contrary to all the forecasts that conclude that cheap liquid money drives up stock prices, so what is Wall Street saying about a GOP controlled Congress? Financial elites love making money in any economic environment. So working with eager Republicans to expand transnational trade agreements may be the lasting result in the next Congress.

Of course none of these treaties improve the economic plight of ordinary citizens.

The perennial lefty Katrina vanden Heuvel warns of The catastrophes that a GOP-controlled Congress would bring. She is correct on the “free trade” pacts and that Obama will coordinate with the corporatist tools from either party to further their economic stranglehold.

“But a Republican takeover of the Senate is not a threat just because of what Republicans will do. Progressives should also worry about the many areas of potential agreement between the president and a Republican-controlled Senate. It is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), for example, not Republicans, who is denying the president fast-track authority to force corporate trade deals through Congress. Without Reid in the way, “free-trade” pacts like Trans-Pacific Partnership — which labor leaders have called “NAFTA on steroids” — are likely to become the law of the land. Likewise, President Obama and Republicans could agree to pursue lower corporate tax rates — as opposed to infrastructure investments and job creation — as their primary economic-development initiative. And let’s not forget that Obama has repeatedly floated cuts to Social Security as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Republican leaders. Although we believe that the president has many progressive instincts, he has shown an inclination to seek consensus rather than to fight. If Republicans control both chambers of Congress, any consensus will err to the right.”

Where is the representation for the American constituency of struggling citizens? The last Radical Reactionary essay, 2014 Election Business as Usual explains why savvy observers should not expect the moon. Now that the early voting results have Republicans 10% ahead, start preparing for another Grand Old Party letdown.

All the Obama scandals taint the reputations of incumbent Democrats. The motivation for voting for a Republican candidate is often out of frustration. Intense positive approval is rare among rational and sane voters. Usually the vested interest government minions rally to the Democrat state/capitalism bandwagon. Let’s hope the rank and file see through all the fear and identity politics and vote to retire the failed progressive agenda. However, the duty of every voter is to keep the fire to the feet of any elected representative from both parties.

- See more at: http://batr.org/reactionary/110414.html#sthash.XWQMxf0q.dpuf

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- All foreigners visiting North Korea will be put under quarantine for 21 days as a precaution against the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, according to China's commerce ministry on Saturday.

In a brief statement, the Chinese commerce ministry said North Korea has recently notified all diplomatic missions and international agencies in the country that it will quarantine all foreigners entering the North.

Citing North Korea's state emergency anti-epidemic committee, the statement said, "Entry of all foreigners from abroad will be under 21-day quarantine at designated sites and to receive medical observation to prevent the Ebola virus from entering into the country."

The Chinese ministry advised Chinese business travelers to pay "close attention" to North Korea's quarantine measure, according to the statement.

Last week, China-based tour agencies specializing in trips to North Korea said Pyongyang has banned foreign tourists from entering the communist country to prevent an outbreak of Ebola.

In 2003, North Korea closed its borders because of the spread of the SARS virus.

Since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, nearly 5,000 people have died from the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

kdh@yna.co.kr

Ten officials of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party have been executed for charges including watching foreign soap operas, South Korea’s intelligence agency revealed Wednesday, bringing the total of senior members killed this year to 50.

The National Intelligence Service says the officials were executed by firing squad for watching South Korean soap operas, engaging in bribes, or womanizing, The Telegraph reports.

The officials killed reportedly are close to Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, who was arrested in December and executed for committing crimes against the state.

Details of the killings were provided in an intelligence report delivered to South Korea’s parliament Tuesday.

The elimination of the officials suggests Kim Jong Un is getting rid of potential sources of opposition to his rule, according to The Telegraph.

Defectors from North Korea told the newspaper that pirated versions of South Korean and Chinese television shows are widely distributed in the country’s black market.

Click for more from The Telegraph.

Countries bordering those in West Africa impacted by the Ebola outbreak have been successful in stopping the spread of the virus by blocking flights, including Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, and yet the Obama administration has refused to do likewise despite innumerable public figures calling on the White House to take action.

Numerous airlines have also restricted flights to Ebola-affected countries and yet the United States remains wide open to potential Ebola patients not only via airports but also via the country’s porous southern border, where hundreds of illegal aliens from Ebola-hit countries have poured across in recent months.

By refusing to block flights or tighten border security, the Obama administration is aiding and abetting the spread of Ebola and engaging in dereliction of duty by refusing to adopt the default position under such circumstances.

That’s why we’re launching a national campaign for all non-essential workers in the United States to strike from Monday through Wednesday next week.

We are calling on everyone to get behind the strike by tweeting under the hashtag #stopebolastrike and by personally participating in the general strike from Monday to Wednesday. We also invite other media outlets and media personalities to support the strike.

If the Obama administration fails to respond to the strike by Wednesday, it will be prolonged until the federal government is forced to take proper action to fight Ebola.

The CDC has proven itself to be dangerously inept and woefully unprepared to deal with a wider Ebola outbreak in the United States after two nurses who should have been properly protected contracted the virus from patient zero – Thomas Eric Duncan.

The CDC also gave express permission for Ebola victim Amber Vinson to travel on a commercial airliner after she had frequent contact with Duncan during his treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, potentially exposing 132 passengers who also flew on the Frontier Airlines plane.

The federal government is committing criminal neglect by failing to implement the very measures that have proven successful in other countries in stopping the spread of the Ebola outbreak.

http://www.infowars.com/stopebolastrike-national-strike-to-force-obama-to-stop-west-african-flights/

BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has banned all foreigners from using high-speed wireless, or Wi-Fi, Internet access in the country, China's state media reported Wednesday, in an apparent move to make it impossible for North Koreans to gain unrestricted access to the global Internet.

In a dispatch from Pyongyang, China's Xinhua news agency said "nearly all foreign embassies, international organizations and other foreigners working in the country" were notified of the ban last week.

North Korean authorities also ordered Wi-Fi installments by the aforementioned foreigners to be "dismantled before Sept. 11," according to the report.

North Korea "warned that those who violate the regulation would be severely fined if the wireless connection signal is detected in the examinations, but no explanations or reasons were given by the officials," the report said.

So far, foreigners visiting North Korea have been known to gain relatively free access to social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, using the Wi-Fi network operated by the country's mobile operator Koryolink.

Media reports have said home prices near foreign embassies in Pyongyang jumped as North Koreans seek to live near such areas to gain an illicit access to the embassies' Wi-Fi systems.

Flow of information is tightly controlled in North Korea.

Koryolink, a joint venture between Egypt's Orascom Telecom and North Korea, is estimated to have about 2.5 million subscribers.

kdh@yna.co.kr

VICE/Motherboard
by Todd Brendan Fahey
September 2, 2014

Dweller of dark Thisworld and Otherworlds, chronicler of "street" and assembler of mechanisms to go beyond, John Shirley breathes forth a smoggy twilight that is the end of the American Dream. A novelist at 18, tutored by Dune's Frank Herbert, Ursula LeGuin, and Harlan Ellison, Shirley is the closest known phenomenon to being our Edgar Allan Poe.

Shirley can also be (and should be, though he is reticent to cop to it) credited for having discovered William Gibson—in an introduction to Shirley's book City Come A-Walkin', Gibson wrote "so carelessly shoved me toward the writing of stories, as into a frat-party swimming pool.") Because of their friendship, and with Gibson now granted by literati the mantle of "original cyberpunk novelist," colleagues will—perhaps must—measure their words.

I spoke to Shirley about his often-black craft; of his early involvement with psychedelia and cocaine addiction, then of "putting the phone down," and the creation of his newest novel, Doyle After Death.

Motherboard: How would you define "cyberpunk?" Why did this so-called literary movement bust out in a blast in the early-to-mid 1980s, stretching into the mid-90s (though we both know that Frank Herbert's Dune; Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and many of William S. Burroughs' works were written much earlier...)

John Shirley: Traditionally, cyberpunk is identified with "the street" having its own special uses for technology. By the street we mean the poor, the hustlers, criminals, the demimonde, the disenfranchised. People talk about law enforcement agencies using drones—but drones will also be used by drug dealers to watch for cops. You can order a good drone with a camera off the internet right now! I just saw a "hobby drone" used in a park. 

Cyberpunk is also a tone. It's very urban, dystopian, but also about having the courage to face the dystopian world. There's a transhumanist thing going on in it too—people merging with technology...