High-profile websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter have been targeted by hackers in what is described as a “massively co-ordinated attack”. Other sites such as the blogging platform Live Journal were also reportedly targeted. Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours whilst Facebook’s service was “degraded”, according to the firms. Google said it [...]
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US struggling to find cyber-tsar
August 5th, 2009 |
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Barack Obama’s administration is continuing its search for a "cyber-tsar", which the US president pledged in May to appoint personally.
The White House’s acting cyber-security head, Melissa Hathaway, stood down on Tuesday for "personal reasons".
Senator Susan Collins said Ms Hathaway’s departure was a sign of "continued lack of leadership" on cyber-security policy.
A White House spokesman said the selection process was "well under way".
"I wasn’t willing to continue to wait any longer because I’m not empowered right now to continue to drive the change," Ms Hathaway told The Washington Post newspaper on Tuesday.
Ms Hathaway, formerly of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, was temporarily filling the post to accomplish a 60-day review of cyber-security issues ordered by the administration.
Senator Collins said that the loss of Ms Hathaway’s expertise was "unfortunate".
"Melissa Hathaway’s departure underscores the continued lack of leadership within the Obama administration on cyber-security issues," she said.
Several senior executives are said to have turned down the post already.
White House spokesman Nick Shapiro countered that cyber-security remained prominent on President Obama’s agenda.
"The president is personally committed to finding the right person for this job, and a rigorous selection process is well under way," he said.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Right to rap
July 29th, 2009 |
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By David Chazan
BBC News, Paris
A 27-year-old rapper from Normandy, nicknamed by some the "French Eminem", is at the centre of a political storm over censorship in France.
OrelSan has seen 10 of his concerts cancelled recently after the former Socialist presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, and other politicians complained that his lyrics encouraged violence against women.
"If you censor this, you could end up censoring many respected authors"
Stephane Davet
Le Monde
Ms Royal even threatened to withdraw the public subsidy from one prestigious festival, Les Francofolies in La Rochelle, in her capacity as head of Poitou-Charentes regional council.
The organisers dropped OrelSan, whose real name is Aurelien Cotentin, from the bill shortly afterwards, complaining that Ms Royal had "positioned herself as a master-blackmailer".
The move led the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) of President Nicolas Sarkozy to accuse Ms Royal of attacking freedom of expression, and of "intolerable" interference.
‘Fiction’
Ms Royal and other critics were particularly outraged over a song by the 26-year-old called Sale Pute, roughly translated as "Dirty Bitch", which is about a man who wants to break the bones of his unfaithful girlfriend.
"I hate you, I want you to die a slow death. I want you to become pregnant and lose the baby," he chants in one verse. "You are just a pig who should go straight to the slaughter house."
But OrelSan says the song, which he no longer performs in public, was never meant to be taken seriously.
"This song tells the story of a man who sees his girlfriend cheating, comes back home, drinks and writes her an e-mail in which he insults her," he says.
"But it’s a fiction. It’s nothing real. I didn’t write it about my ex-girlfriend or anything so you can’t really take the song personally. I play a role in it, that’s all."
"It’s like a book or a film about a murderer or a criminal," he adds.
Historical parallel
OrelSan’s new album, Perdu d’Avance, has been removed from public libraries in Paris because of concern over what feminist and women’s groups say are his sexist, homophobic and violent lyrics.
But the French Culture Minister, Frederic Mitterrand, nephew of the late President Francois Mitterrand, says OrelSan, like other artists, should be free to express himself and that his concerts should not have been cancelled.
Mr Mitterrand drew a parallel between the rapper and the 19th Century French poet, Arthur Rimbaud.
"Rimbaud wrote much more violent things that went on to become classics," he said.
However, Ms Royal said the rapper’s work was offensive to women and that the issue was not censorship.
Women’s groups argue that the law should be as tough on sexism as it is on racism.
Regional councillor Michelle Loup says OrelSan’s songs "are full of hatred and violence against women".
"If he wants to do that, OK, but we consider that public money shouldn’t finance it," she adds.
Ms Loup and other local politicians have led a lobbying effort to persuade local authorities to drop him from festivals which they are helping to finance.
Disaffected youth
But many commentators agree with the government that this comes dangerously close to censorship.
"Art doesn’t have to be politically correct," says Stephane Davet, a music journalist on the newspaper Le Monde. "If you censor this, you could end up censoring many respected authors."
"They want us to be exactly like them"
French youth
Mr Davet says politicians should try to tune into what rappers have to say about disaffected young people.
He points out that rappers were predicting riots in French suburbs long before they happened in 2005.
OrelSan, he says, "gives a very interesting description, a pretty dark description of a generation of frustrated, white trash kids, born with a PlayStation in their hands, spending their time on the internet, looking for sex websites, and one should listen to that instead of saying, we should censor him".
At the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris, I came across groups of teenagers practising dance moves as if the station concourse were a studio or a gym.
Not surprisingly, they supported OrelSan, although several of them told me that they did not like their younger brothers and sisters to listen to rap songs with violent lyrics.
They said politicians did not try to understand their generation.
"They want us to be exactly like them," one youth told me. "They don’t try to help us and they want to take away our personality."
That is also a predicament recognised by OrelSan himself. In one of his less controversial songs, he raps: "Old folk don’t understand what’s going on in the heads of the young."
David Chazan’s report can be heard on BBC Radio 4′s PM programme from 1700 BST on 29 July.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Palin resigns Alaska governorship
July 27th, 2009 |
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Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is due to formally step down as Alaska governor, 18 months before the end of her term in office.
She announced her resignation abruptly on 3 July, leading to speculation of a bid for the presidency in 2012.
She is due to hand over to Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell at a picnic ceremony in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Mrs Palin, who is dogged by ethics probes and legal bills, has given few clues about her political future.
""I cannot express enough there is no plan after July 26"
Meghan Stapleton
Palin spokeswoman
She has signed a book deal and reports say she could host a television chat show.
‘No plan’
But a spokeswoman for the Palin family has dismissed the claims.
"I cannot express enough there is no plan after July 26. There is absolutely no plan," Meghan Stapleton told The Associated Press news agency.
"[On Monday] we’ll sit down and say, ‘OK, here are your options. How do you now want to effect that positive change for Alaska from outside the role as governor’," Ms Stapleton added.
Mrs Palin, 45, shot to fame as John McCain’s Republican running mate in the election of November 2008, becoming a lightning rod for praise and criticism alike.
She said a major factor in her decision to quit as Alaska’s governor was the mounting legal cost she and the state faced in fighting nearly 20 ethics charges.
But she has insisted her opponents would not "find any dirt".
However, an independent state investigator says her legal-defence fund – formed to help pay more than $500,000 (£304,000) in lawyers’ fees – is itself an ethics violation because it uses her government job for personal financial benefit.
Her popularity rating has fallen to 40% in the wake of her resignation, a Washington Post-ABC poll showed.
But her supporters defend her as an outstanding leader with a strong Christian faith and unwavering support for her family.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
VW prepares to take over Porsche
July 23rd, 2009 |
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Europe’s biggest carmaker, Volkswagen(VW), plans to buy German sports car firm Porsche in stages while retaining the latter’s independence.
VW says its board will hold talks with Porsche "in order to reach a final concept fulfilling this goal".
Both sides had earlier said they wanted to form an integrated automotive group.
The latest move comes after Porsche’s chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and financial director Holger Haerter had resigned "with immediate effect".
Mr Wiedeking had failed in his attempt to take over VW, despite Porsche building a 51% holding in the company.
‘Progressive acquisition’
"Volkswagen and Porsche have excellent know-how at their disposal and can use their resources even more efficiently by combining them"
Martin Winterkorn, chairman Volkswagen management board
VW says that the new company will be achieved by the "gradual involvement of Volkswagen in Porsche AG" – Porsche’s carmaking unit.
"The integrated group should emerge from the progressive acquisition by Volkswagen of a participation in Porsche SA and the complete mergers of [parent firm] Porsche SE and Volkswagen AG," a VW statement said.
The integrated group would come under the leadership of VW.
‘Growth opportunities’
Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the Volkswagen management board said "it makes two strong companies even stronger".
"Volkswagen and Porsche have excellent know-how at their disposal and can use their resources even more efficiently by combining them," he added.
"For this reason, we expect additional growth opportunities, safeguarding existing jobs and creating new ones," he added.
"At the same time, we can call on our considerable experience in the integration of proud and successful brands rich in tradition. Like Audi today, Porsche can also continue its independent development under the aegis of Volkswagen and preserve its own identity."
Earlier on Thursday, Porsche had said it would increase its capital by at least 5bn euros ($7.10bn; £4.3bn).
It said that this new sum would "create the foundation of building an integrated car manufacturing group with Porsche and Volkswagen".
Porsche’s board also endorsed negotiations for the sale of a stake to Qatar to bolster its balance sheet.
The carmaker would not say if the 5bn euros capital increase would come from Qatar. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
S Africa mine collapse kills nine
July 21st, 2009 |
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Nine South African miners have been killed after a shaft collapsed, trapping them hundreds of metres below ground, a mining company has confirmed.
Impala Platinum said the accident happened on Monday at the Rustenburg mine, north-west of Johannesburg.
The firm said the bodies of those who died had now been recovered.
Accidents are common in South Africa’s mines, which are some of the deepest in the world. A fire at an illegal mine last month killed more than 60 people.
Impala Platinum said in a statement they were informing the families of those who died.
"We have set aside Friday as a day of mourning across our operations," the firm said.
Impala’s boss, David Brown, said earlier he was "devastated" by the "major tragedy".
"Our thoughts are with the families and friends of our employees at this time," he said.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Obama warns against health delay
July 17th, 2009 |
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US President Barack Obama has called on Congress not to delay the passage of healthcare reform.
"Now is not the time to slow down" reform efforts, he insisted.
His call comes after a group of Senate moderates asked for more time to consider reform proposals, in a bid to achieve a bipartisan consensus.
Mr Obama has made it his priority to overhaul the US healthcare system, and expand coverage to the 47 million Americans without health insurance.
Unprecedented consensus
A number of different reform proposals are currently being published by various congressional committees.
On Wednesday, the Senate health committee became the first congressional panel to vote to approve a healthcare reform bill.
The Senate Finance Committee is also working on a bill, and three House of Representatives committees have published a joint proposal.
Eventually, if lawmakers can agree, a bill combining elements of all of the proposals will be put to a vote in both chambers and be sent to Mr Obama for approval.
HEALTHCARE IN THE US- 46 million uninsured, 25 million under-insured
- Healthcare costs represent 16% of GDP, almost twice OECD average
- Reform plans would require all Americans to get insurance
- Some propose public insurance option to compete with private insurers
"In the past few weeks we have forged a level of consensus [on healthcare reform] never before seen in this country," Mr Obama said in a statement at the White House.
And he expressed confidence that healthcare reform would be achieved by the end of the year.
"We are going to get this done. We will reform health care. it will happen this year. I’m absolutely convinced of that."
But Mr Obama’s remarks came after a group of six senators – three Republicans, two Democrats and one Independent – published a letter in which they spoke out against "timelines which prevent us from achieving the best result."
"We believe that taking additional time to achieve a bipartisan result is critical," wrote senators Ben Nelson, Ron Wyden, Mary Landrieu, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Joe Lieberman.
All of the plans under consideration would require Americans to take out insurance, and would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
The House committees’ joint bill and the Senate health committee bills would also create a new, publicly run health plan, which they hope would compete with private insurers and drive down prices.
The Senate finance committee bill is not expected to include a "public option", but would instead set up non-profit medical co-operatives to compete with private insurers. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Oleg Deripaska ‘may quit Britain’
July 14th, 2009 |
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By Tim Whewell
BBC Newsnight reporter
Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska has told the BBC he is considering breaking his connection with Britain.
"I’m not sure I will have any links with Britain in the future," he said in an exclusive interview with Newsnight.
The possible move follows the collapse of a Birmingham-based van firm Mr Deripaska once owned.
Last summer then EU trade commissioner Lord Mandelson and shadow chancellor George Osborne were involved in controversy after a party on his yacht.
Mr Deripaska was speaking as he took me on a personally-guided tour of his Russian industrial empire – the most extensive the publicity-shy tycoon has ever given a journalist.
One of Russia’s richest men, Mr Deripaska still owns a house bought for an estimated £25m ($40m) on one of London’s most exclusive squares.
"I wasn’t considering in those days whether they were British politicians. It was my summer holiday"
Oleg Deripaska on the "yachtgate" scandal
He said firmly that he still regards Lord Mandelson, now the business secretary, as his friend.
And he described their relationship as "good", asking: "Why should it have changed"
But he also told me: "I don’t understand your country.
"You have a lot of achievements, but at the moment you are in a kind of fire.
"You need to change so many things you inherited from the post-industrial economy – I just can’t see any benefit in what the media are doing with your politicians right now."
‘A good dinner’
He is particularly annoyed at the reporting of the party last summer including Lord Mandelson and the shadow chancellor, Mr Osborne, when his 72-metre yacht, the Queen K, was moored off Corfu.
Mr Deripaska said: "I wasn’t considering in those days whether they were British politicians. It was my summer holiday."
"We had a good dinner, there were many people and I’m surprised they picked on these poor guys and screwed them in the press," he added.
The scandal erupted because Mr Deripaska controls most of Russia’s aluminium – and Lord Mandelson then oversaw EU metal tariffs.
I asked Mr Deripaska if he ever benefited from their relationship.
"Benefited from friendship" he asked indignantly. "It’s not my business. Whatever I did in my life, I did myself."
Lord Mandelson has already denied he did "any favours" for Mr Deripaska – and the EU commission has said a 2005 decision to remove punitive import tariffs on aluminium foil, that appeared to benefit Mr Deripaska’s company Rusal, was taken without Lord Mandelson’s personal intervention.
After the meeting in Corfu, George Osborne was accused by Mr Deripaska’s friend – the banker Nathaniel Rothschild, who was at also at the party, of having used the occasion to solicit a donation to the Conservative Party – a claim he has strongly denied.
Disappointment with Britain
Speaking about the allegations for the first time, Mr Deripaska said: "I tried to stay away from Russian politicians – why should I move towards British politicians
"I can’t see that anyone from Britain would ask me – it’s unbelievable."
He says he has not been in Britain for more than a year and does not currently hold a British visa.
His disappointment with the country is fuelled partly by the failure to save LDV, the British van-maker he owned, from bankruptcy.
As the recession bit, his car company, GAZ, stopped funding the loss-making LDV and backed a management buy-out bid.
But hopes that the government might support the project with a substantial cash injection came to nothing.
After "yachtgate", did Mr Mandelson keep the Russian tycoon’s interests all the more firmly at arm’s length
It was Ian Pearson, the junior business minister, who spoke for the government on LDV, while his boss remained silent.
Perhaps, I suggested to Mr Deripaska, one reason LDV was not rescued was that politicians now feel they have to be over-careful in dealing with him.
"I know what the minimum level of life is – and anything extra looks like paradise"
Oleg Deripaska
"In this sense, it would be so wrong for the country," he answered.
"You have a good company, good people and complex manufacturing.
"There are only a few left in Britain — engineering companies that can support production — and based on a wrong press, someone could push them out of business. Why"
When pressed on whether the government should have bailed LDV out, he said simply: "It’s their decision – I can’t judge."
Disputed figures
For now, Mr Deripaska has wider problems than Britain.
According to Forbes magazine, his fortune has shrunk over the last year from £28bn to just £3.5bn.
Mr Deripaska disputes those figures, saying he was never as rich as has been claimed.
He said: "Whoever counted, it was based on assets only, in the most positive scenario."
He says he doesn’t know how much money he has, but he admits he took risks as his company, Basic Element, has diversified into more and more sectors including metals, cars, construction, aviation, financial services, and energy.
It has depended partly on huge foreign bank loans which he is now attempting to restructure.
"If you want to grow at 2-3% a year it’s not a problem," he said. "But if you want to grow 15-20% a year it’s a risk, it’s a ride on a wild horse."
He says he likes horses – and then laughs. He is disarmingly charming – at 41, boyish not only in his looks, but also in energy and enthusiasms.
Expanding into nuclear
As we toured the assembly line at the GAZ plant at Nizhny Novgorod – the most automated, he says, in the country – he told me he is convinced his new Russian car, the Volga Syber, will be a best-seller when the economy picks up.
Later, as we took a helicopter trip over the Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia, near his aluminium smelter, he talked of expanding into other metals – and even of building nuclear power stations.
And where does his determination come from
He doesn’t like talking about his childhood, a time without luxuries, his father dead and his mother often absent.
But eventually he said: "I was raised in a small village.
"I know what the minimum level of life is – and anything extra looks like paradise."
He laughed. "That’s why I prefer not to count problems, but just think about what may be in the future."
Newsnight featuring the interview with Oleg Deripaska is at 2230 BST on Tuesday 14 July 2009 on BBC Two.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Italy’s minimalist G8 summit
July 11th, 2009 |
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By Bridget Kendall
BBC diplomatic correspondent, L’Aquila
Switching the venue of this year’s G8 summit to an active earthquake zone sounded like a hostage to fortune.
Why invite the world’s most powerful leaders to perch on the same precarious spot of the Earth’s crust which in April killed 300 people and left 60,000 others homeless
Just think what global chaos would ensue if – mid session – the ground opened up and swallowed them all.
When the town of L’Aquila was rocked by a new – though less powerful – set of tremors last Friday, the summit’s prospects began to look decidedly dicey.
‘A good idea’
In the town centre many buildings were already cracked and cordoned off. On every corner caved-in roofs and ripped-out walls hinted at the prospect of new collapses to come. It felt as though at any minute it could all start to shake again.
I had visions of us journalists stuck, incommunicado and cowering under tables in the so-called media village. Reporters turned refugees, caught in a new disaster zone, while summit leaders were airlifted out to Rome.
But in the event, nothing happened. Not a tremble.
To my surprise earthquake survivors living in local tent camps thought the summit an excellent idea.
What better way to draw attention to the fact their lives had been reduced to rubble, than to pull in the likes of George Clooney and other celebrity hangers-on who tend to pitch up at major summits.
"At one formal function, the eyes of a weary Barack Obama glazed over and his shoulders slumped. Not just us hacks, it seems, were getting by on hard mattresses with very little sleep"
"My home won’t get repaired for another three or four years. The entire tower block fell on top of it. Any publicity is welcome," said one woman, Anna, sitting with her neighbours under a sun parasol outside her blue canvas home.
The pathway between the tents was lined with drying washing and children’s bicycles. A hand-painted notice, decorated in big childish crayon, announced it was Butterfly Row.
There was also Cat Alley, and Moon Street, all clearly marked. An air of semi-permanence had set in.
Roughing it
In keeping with the earthquake tragedy, the summit itself had an air of austerity. So different from the usual lavish attempts to promote a country at its best.
President Putin revamped an entire 18th Century palace in St Petersburg. Tony Blair took over one of Scotland’s grandest hotels.
But Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi commandeered the local barracks of the Finance Police and required world leaders and their delegations to sleep in dormitories on site.
"How is the accommodation for VIPs" I asked one UN official.
He sighed and replied wearily: "It’s not quite what we’re used to."
He was lucky. Some of the journalists unable to find places to stay locally were reduced to begging space among the tents of the earthquake refugees. Our BBC team drove back nightly over the mountains to a village two hours away.
Also minimalist and unpredictable were the communications facilities. It was almost impossible to find out schedules or contact numbers for delegations. The only truly reliable information was the time of the prime minister’s late afternoon press conference.
That you could not avoid. On large screens, beaming down at you would be the unmistakable jovial grin of Mr Berlusconi.
And if you did miss it, never mind. It was played over and over again.
Press conferences by those with critical views, like the so-called G5 group of emerging countries (India, Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico)seemed to occur with almost no prior warning or publicity.
It was almost as though these Asian and Latin American giants were G8 dissidents, deliberately kept to the fringe.
The same world
One morning we arrived at the media centre to find the broadband connection we were using had been cut off. Local Italian technicians claimed it was on the orders of the Italian authorities.
A few hours later it was restored. But in situations like this, you soon start to get paranoid. Was this an attempt to control our output to what could be monitored
Probably not, but – instead of the usual eagerness for media coverage – it felt distinctly odd to be prevented from telling the world what was going on.
In some ways this new "bare bones" G8 style suits the mood of the moment.
For a change the journalists were not kept 50 miles away from the leaders, or worse – as has happened – sequestered on a separate island.
The summiteers were a short walk away. It felt as though we could keep them under our gaze.
At one formal function, the eyes of a weary Barack Obama glazed over and his shoulders slumped. Not just us hacks, it seems, were getting by on hard mattresses with very little sleep.
This year, in L’Aquila, we were all part of the same world.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Iran to offer West ‘new package’
July 11th, 2009 |
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Iran’s government says it is preparing a new package of proposals to put to the West.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said it would concern "political, security and international issues".
He was speaking in Tehran hours after G8 leaders said they were appalled at Iran’s disputed presidential election.
US President Barack Obama said global leaders were also "deeply troubled" by Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran denies it is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Mr Mottaki played down international concerns, saying there had been "no new message from the G8".
"We are going to present our package which will be a basis to negotiate all regional and international issues," he told a news conference in Tehran, without giving further details.
"The package can be a good basis for talks with the West."
The US has threatened tough sanctions if Iran rejects offers of engagement over its nuclear programme.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but has been accused by Western countries of seeking nuclear weapons.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.