Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you

Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using

online if you don't want the government spying on you (and they include 'pork', 'cloud' and 'Mexico')

• Department of Homeland Security forced to release list following freedom of information request
• Agency insists it only looks for evidence of genuine threats to the U.S. and not for signs of general dissent

Revealing: A list of keywords used by government analysts to scour the internet for evidence of threats to the U.S. has been released under the Freedom of Information Act

DailyMail/The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.
Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.
The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.
Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.
However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.

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As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.
The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.
In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.

Scroll down for full list

Threat detection: Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats

They point out that it includes 'vast amounts of First Amendment protected speech that is entirely unrelated to the Department of Homeland Security mission to protect the public against terrorism and disasters.'
A senior Homeland Security official told the Huffington Post that the manual 'is a starting point, not the endgame' in maintaining situational awareness of natural and man-made threats and denied that the government was monitoring signs of dissent.
However the agency admitted that the language used was vague and in need of updating.
Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program.'

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: THE LIST OF KEYWORDS IN FULL

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2150281/REVEALED-Hundreds-words-avoid-using-online-dont-want-government-spying-you.html#ixzz1wDaeTDEi

Hundreds of endangered antelopes dying in Kazakhstan

Hundreds of endangered antelopes dying in Kazakhstan active Edit

25.05.2012 16:03    Comments: 0    Categories: Earth Changes      Tags: russia  saiga antelope  kazakhstan  

ZeeNews/Astana: A massive wave of deaths has been reported among the endangered saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan. Around 540 carcasses of the animal has been found in the country, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.


According to the Kazakh agriculture ministry, the carcasses were found in the Kostanai region.

"Aviation monitoring today (Thursday) discovered a new concentration of saiga deaths with the approximate number of dead animals reaching beyond 400," the ministry said.

Last year, at least 12,000 saiga antelopes died in Kazakhstan, presumably from pasteurellosis infection and from overeating. In November 2010, Kazakhstan introduced a ban on saiga hunting.

The latest statistics put the number of saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan at 85,500. The country spends $800,000 annually to prevent the deaths.

Saiga were virtually exterminated in the 1920s but then their numbers increased in the 1950s. The animals mostly became endangered because of hunting and the high demand for their horns in traditional Chinese medicine.

Saiga are also found in Russia's Kalmykia region and in Mongolia.

 

US declines to cite China as currency manipulator

US declines to cite China as currency manipulator active Edit

25.05.2012 15:56    Comments: 0    Categories: government      Tags: china  us  currencies  

(AP)The U.S. government said Friday that China has made progress in allowing its currency to rise against the dollar and declined to accuse the nation of manipulating its currency to gain a trade advantage.

The decision issued by the Treasury Department Friday should help avert a potential trade dispute. But the department said China’s currency is still undervalued and must rise further against the dollar.

The yuan has gained 8 percent against the dollar in the past two years. A lower-valued currency gives China a trade advantage by making its exports cheaper and U.S. imports more expensive.

If the department found that China was manipulating its currency, the Obama administration would have had to initiate negotiations with China. If those talks failed, the U.S. could impose trade sanctions.

Some U.S. manufacturers have urged the administration to take punitive steps to force China to allow the yuan to trade freely. The yuan currently trades within a narrow range against the dollar.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has said that he would label China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

Treasury said that China has made commitments in recent negotiations, including at high-level meetings earlier this month, to make its exchange rate more flexible.

‘‘With the global economy continuing to face headwinds ... it is important that China follow through on these commitments,’’ the department said.

In April, China widened the daily amount the yuan is allowed to fluctuate from 0.5 percent to 1 percent. That move came just before Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met China’s president Hu Jintao for high-level talks in early May in Beijing.

Geithner told Hu during those meetings that China’s loosening of the range was ‘‘very promising.’’

The United States has urged China to let its currency appreciate for almost a decade. In 2005 China ended its tight peg of the yuan to the dollar and permitted the yuan to trade within a narrow range. Since then, the yuan has appreciated 40 percent in inflation-adjusted terms, the department said.

The U.S. trade deficit with China widened in March, the Commerce Department said earlier this month. The deficit with China this year is on pace to exceed last year’s gap of $295.5 billion, which was an all-time high for any country.

Obama Won’t Be Returning His Donations From Bain Capital

Obama Won’t Be Returning His Donations From Bain Capital active Edit

25.05.2012 14:48    Comments: 0    Categories: US Elections      Tags: bain capitol  obama  romney  contributions  us elections  

President Obama (Photo: Getty)

Politicker/Though the Obama campaign has repeatedly attacked Mitt Romney for his career at Bain Capital, President Obama still accepted $7,500 in campaign contributions from two Bain executives. His campaign press secretary, Ben LaBolt told The Politicker the president has no intention of giving the money back.
“No one aside from Mitt Romney is running for President highlighting their tenure as a corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation, when in fact, his goal was profit maximization,” said Mr. LaBolt.  ”The President has support from business leaders across industries who have seen him pull the economy back from the brink of another depression, manufacturing and the auto industry revived, and support his agenda to build an economy that lasts where America outinnovates and outeducates the rest of the world and economic security for the middle class is restored.”
On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden defended the attacks on Mr. Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. Though he insisted he wasn’t “criticizing private equity firms,” Mr. Biden said there were many examples of Mr. Romney and his Bain colleagues causing tremendous harm.
“You hear all these stories about his partners buying companies … where they load up with a tremendous amount of debt. The companies go under, everybody loses their job, the community is devastated, but they make money,” said Mr. Biden. “They make money even when a company goes bankrupt, when workers lose their jobs.”
Earlier in the week, President Obama described Bain and other private equity firms as a “healthy part of the free market” filled with many  ”folks who do good work.” However, he also said the priority of private equity companies is to “maximize profits,” which is “not always going to be good for businesses or communities or workers.” Because of this, he said Mr. Romney’s work at Bain Capital isn’t good preparation for the presidency.
“If your main argument for how to grow the economy is, ‘I knew how to make a lot of money for investors,’ then you are missing what this job is about,” President Obama said. “It doesn’t mean you weren’t good at private equity. But that’s not what my job is as president. My job is to take into account everybody, not just some.”

 

Report: N. Korean officials executed in staged traffic accident

Report: N. Korean officials executed in staged traffic accident active Edit

25.05.2012 16:21    Comments: 0    Categories: World News      Tags: n. korea  kim jong un  executions  

Kim Jong Un salutes during a mass military parade (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) …A new Amnesty International report paints a gruesome picture of summary executions, torture and ill-treatment in North Korea as Kim Jong Un succeeded his late father, Kim Jong Il, as the country's ruler last December.

OutLook/The country used firing squads or staged traffic accidents to execute 30 officials involved in talks to unite North and South Korea, according to the 2012 Amnesty International report released Thursday. It also notes that the country had been questioned about another 37 reported executions between 2007 and 2010 for "financial crimes."

As the ruling authority shifted to Kim Jong Un, the country's State Security agency detained another 200 North Korean officials, some of whom are now feared executed or in prison camps, the report notes.

Credible reports estimated that up to 200,000 prisoners were held in horrific conditions in six sprawling political prison camps, including the notorious Yodok facility. Thousands were imprisoned in at least 180 other detention facilities. Most were imprisoned without trial or following grossly unfair trials and on the basis of forced confessions.

Men, women and children, who were kept in the prison camps,  were tortured and forced to work in dangerous conditions, according to the report. Many of the prisoners die or get sick while in custody due to the horrendous conditions, beatings, lack of medical care and unhealthy living conditions.

Meantime, the North Korean government denies the existence of the political prison camps.

[Related: North Koreans in rice belt starving to death]

Amnesty International also reports that hunger is widespread in the country, as 6 million urgently need food and the country is unable to feed its people. The country earlier this year reportedly requested its embassies to appeal for international aid. While the the European Commission has helped, the United States has not provided aid to North Korea, "reflecting concerns over the monitoring of its distribution," according to the report.

North Koreans do not have freedom of speech, and criticism of the government and its leaders is forbidden. Few people have access to the Internet, and there are tight controls on mobile phones and phone connections, according to the report. Citizens' movement inside and out of the country are tightly monitored. People who escape to China are often returned to North Korea, where they are often detained and beaten by the government.

Citigroup Lost $20 Million on Facebook IPO Trades

Citigroup Lost $20 Million on Facebook IPO Trades active Edit

25.05.2012 15:03    Comments: 0    Categories: Human Interest      Tags: facebook  ipo  citigroup  trading  

Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images

CNBC/Citigroup's Automated Trading Desk (ATD) had trading losses of around $20 million stemming from Facebook's botched initial public offering on Nasdaq OMX Group's U.S. exchange, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Friday.

The unit's losses were in addition to claims by market makers Knight Capital Group and Citadel Securities, which each had losses of $30 million to $35 million.

UBS AG, the other large market maker involved in the IPO of the social networking company on May 18, has not disclosed any losses.

Nasdaq asked firms to detail estimates of losses by Monday night. After that, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will evaluate the filings and put out a report on the matter in about four weeks, two sources said.

A technical glitch delayed Facebook's IPO [FB 31.91 -1.12 (-3.39%) ] by 30 minutes and many client orders were delayed, giving some investors and traders significant losses as the stock price dropped.

The exchange operator is facing lawsuits from investors and threats of legal action from brokers.

Honor Student Arrested For Being Too Exhausted For Schoo

Honor Student Arrested For Being Too Exhausted For School active Edit

25.05.2012 14:54    Comments: 0    Categories: Politics      Tags: honor student arrested  houston  

(CBS Houston)A 17-year-old high school honor student who works two jobs and financially supports her two siblings is heading into summer on a sour note after spending a night in jail for being too tired to attend school.
Diane Tran was arrested in open court and sentenced to 24 hours in jail Wednesday after being repeatedly truant due to exhaustion. KHOU reports that Tran, a junior at Willis High School, was warned by Judge Lanny Moriarty last month to stop missing school. When she missed classes again this month, Moriarty wanted to make an example of Tran.
“If you let one (truant student) run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em? Let them go too?” Moriarty asked, according to KHOU.
Tran told KHOU that in addition to taking advanced and honors classes, she works full-time and part-time jobs in an effort to try to support her older brother at Texas A&M and a younger sister in the Houston area. After Tran’s parents divorced, they both moved away from the honor student and her two siblings.
Tran was also fined $100.