Daily Horoscope: Gemini

Daily Horoscope: Gemini
Today is a relatively calm day that's sure to please you, Gemini. You may even receive gifts from family and friends as marks of their esteem or love for you. This is just the kind of reassurance you need. Though you have a fairly subtle influence in your relationships with others, it's nevertheless essential to you to be a good friend.

Daily Horoscope: Taurus

Daily Horoscope: Taurus
You may have received some bad news concerning your finances, Taurus. This is probably the best day you could ask for out of the whole month to deal with these problems. If you want to come out of this situation a winner, it may be necessary to approach things from a different angle than usual. Rest assured that things will probably work out just fine.

Daily Horoscope: Aries

Daily Horoscope: Aries

You have a great day ahead of you, Aries. Everything will work out like clockwork. By the end of the day, you'll still have the energy to do something fun with your evening. It's a wonderful day for group activities. If you aren't involved in any, why not try a sport, hobby, music, or art?

BMW M4 Concept Takes a Bow BMW Concepts

BMW M4 Concept Takes a Bow

The ideal incarnation of BMW's M philosophy, the Concept M4 Coupe previews the upcoming production model.

Set to debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance this weekend, the BMW Concept M4 Coupe has been officially unveiled as a precursor to the production model. Finished in a unique shade of “Aurum Dust,” the M4 Concept shows us what BMW has in store for the production model from a styling perspective yet reveals nothing about what’s going on under the hood. Reports have previously indicated the new M3/M4 will use a twin- or triple-tuborcharged 3.2-liter straight-six rated at 450 horsepower and 405 lb-ft of torque.

Design follows function, with focus on power, control and handling. At the front, the classic BMW face sports freshly designed round headlamps featuring LED tech, double bar kidney grille aping the double-spoke design of the M wheels, a carbon-fiber front splitter, three large air intakes, and power dome hood. Typical muscular wheel arches housing two-tone 20-inch alloys, redesigned M gill and contoured carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) roof dominate the side profile, while main features of the sculpted rear end include a trunk-lid spoiler, optical air vents, and carbon-fiber twin tailpipes and rear diffuser.

Mercedes-Benz GLA Officially Unveiled

Hours after being teased in a video, Mercedes has revealed the brand-new GLA.
Mercedes new compact family has a new addition. The GLA joins the A-Class, B-Class and CLA as the fourth model to ride on the new front/all-wheel drive MFA platform, fitting in nicely with its siblings’ styling. Our initial impression of the German carmaker’s first ever compact SUV is that it means business with the taught, aerodynamic looks and premium-build quality to make Range Rover Evoque buyers think twice. It stands 61mm taller, 24mm wider and 125mm longer than the A-Class on which it’s based, with 80 liters more boot space.

Plastic sills and wheel arches will remind drivers of its off-roading credentials, which are backed up by Mercedes’s 4Matic AWD system and a special off-road mode to aid traction on slippery surfaces. Four Engine options will be split equally between gasoline and diesel units mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch auto or six-speed manual. FWD models get a 154-hp 1.6-liter gasoline in the GLA200, and a 134hp 1.8-liter turbodiesel in the GLA200 CDI. Buyers of the AWD model will choose between a 168hp 2.1-liter tubodiesel in the GLA220 CDI and 208hp 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline unit in the GLA250 that can sprint from 0-60 mph in 6.4 seconds.

The five-seat cabin mimics that of its MFA counterparts, and the GLA comes with a host of safety and infotainment features that help keep drivers alert and provide autonomous braking at high speed as well as keeping them well connected to the web. Look out for the new GLA in Frankfurt where it will be officially unveiled before going on sale in the US next fall.

Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse Jean-Pierre Wimille Unveiled

Yes, it does have a long name.
Despite rumors of a new Bugatti model (like a sedan) supposedly on its way, the supercar builder continues to roll out unique editions of the Veyron. And now at Pebble Beach, theVeyron Grand Sport Vitesse Jean-Pierre Wimille Legend Edition has had its official debut. So who was this Jean-Pierre Wimille guy? He was one of the longest-serving test drivers for Bugatti back during its heyday before World War II. He unfortunately was killed in a car crash in 1949.

The interior also features that two-tone styling with Bleu Wimille and Lake Blue leather upholstery complete with light blue stitching. Power, as usual, comes from that quad-turbocharged 8.0-liter W16 engine that produces 1,200 horsepower and 1,106 lb-ft of torque and paired to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. It’ll go from 0-60 mph in just 2.6 seconds and has a top speed of 253 mph. Other special add-ons include embroidered headrests and "Les Legendes de Bugatti" badging. Production will be limited to just three examples. Official pricing hasn’t been announced.

Ferrari 458 Speciale Breaks Cover

Ferrari fans have been waiting for this day ever since the debut of the 458 Italia.
The formula applied by Ferrari to turn one of its V8-powered models into a specialized, track-focused machine is one that’s pretty familiar by now, but still always exciting to see. The new 458 Speciale is lighter, has more power and has had its suspension and aerodynamics tweaked. But of course, this is oversimplifying things. The bump to 597 horsepower means that the engine’s 133 horsepower per liter is the highest of any naturally aspirated road car ever.

A total of 90kg (198lbs) has been trimmed from the standard 458 Italia, and the 0-62 mph time is now 3 seconds flat. It can lap the Ferrari test track in 1:23.5, which is 1.5 seconds faster than the standard car, and just half a second behind the tied time for the 599 GTO and F12 Berlinetta. But perhaps most impressive is its lateral acceleration figure of 1.33g, a staggering number which is higher than any other Ferrari road car. The tailpipes have been moved from the center out a bit, integrated into the new active aerodynamic equipment which Ferrari has piled onto this new machine.

As you would expect, much of this aerodynamic equipment, of which the 458 Speciale has more than any other road Ferrari, as well as the numerous electronic driver’s aides, comes from Formula 1. This technology will eventually make it onto other Ferrari models as well, but that much is fairly obvious. The car hasn’t had its official debut yet, as that will be happening in Frankfurt next month, so we don’t have any word on things like price yet. We’re expecting it to be at least $300,000, really pretty average for a high-end track day car.

All ‘red lines’ crossed in Syria – Turkish FM

All ‘red lines’ crossed in Syria – Turkish FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that “all red lines” had been crossed in Syria. However, the UN Security Council “has not even been able to take a decision,” Reuters quoted the minister as saying in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack. “This is a responsibility for the sides who still set these red lines and for all of us,” Davutoglu said in Berlin.

Thai court hands Iranian life sentence over botched Bangkok bombing

Thai court hands Iranian life sentence over botched Bangkok bombing

An Iranian man who blew off his own legs was sentenced to life in prison by a Thai court on Thursday for his involvement in a botched bomb plot that rocked Bangkok on February 14, 2012, in which five people were wounded by a series of blasts. A court found Saeid Moradi, 29, guilty of attempted murder in an attack that authorities say was intended to target Israeli diplomats, Reuters reported. A second defendant, Mohammad Khazaei, 43, was given 15 years in jail for possession of explosive devices. The explosions have been linked to a car-bomb attack on the wife of an Israeli diplomat in India and a third, unsuccessful attack in Georgia a day earlier.

Disgraced China politician Bo Xilai goes on trial

Disgraced China politician Bo Xilai goes on trial

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, one of the most senior party leaders to fall from power in years, went on trial Thursday, charged with abuse of power and netting more than $4 million in bribery and embezzlement. None of the charges against Bo appear to involve the widespread human rights abuses alleged to have been carried out during his unfettered rule as Chongqing party chief. The scandal was triggered last year when Bo’s police chief fled to a US consulate, an event that embarrassed the party’s leadership ahead of a key political transition.

3 foreigners among dead in worst-ever Malaysia road accident

3 foreigners among dead in worst-ever Malaysia road accident

Officials confirmed Thursday foreigners were among the 37 people killed when a bus crashed in Malaysia’s worst-ever road accident. The dead included 14 Malaysians, a Korean, one Nepalese, and a Bangladeshi-born Canadian passport-holder, AFP quoted Health Ministry official Jeya Indran Sinnadurai as saying. The express bus had 53 people aboard when it veered off a busy and mountain road Wednesday. Sixteen survivors are in hospital, including Malaysian, Indonesian, Bangladeshi and Thai nationals. Housing and Urban Wellbeing Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the vehicle’s capacity was 44.

US Senate overwhelmingly represented wealthiest constituents in last decade - study

US Senate overwhelmingly represented wealthiest constituents in last decade - study

Members of the US Senate have been the most responsive to high-income constituents over the past decade, according to a study by Political Research Quarterly. The research is based on voting records of the 107th through 111th Congresses and the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey, which gauges constituent political opinion. Researchers found that only during the 110th and 111th Congresses did middle-income opinion reflect voting records at all. Lower-income opinion never influenced voting behavior in that period, the study found.

Outsider Manning v American exceptionalism

U.S. soldier Bradley Manning is escorted into court to receive his sentence at Fort Meade in Maryland August 21, 2013. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

The 35-year sentence just slapped on Bradley Manning may be seen as a perverse expression of American exceptionalism.

The message conveyed by the US government is clear: if any of you – however free and brave – believe you’re exceptional enough to share confidential information about national security with the media and American and global public opinion, you will be punished without mercy.

It does not matter, as the Government Accountability Project detailed, that Manning’s action did not physically harm anyone in the US (apart from Washington’s ever-vanishing credibility); or that he was informing about dirty practices and even atrocities. His ‘reward’ was a trial in a kangaroo court.

As Birgitta Jonsdottir, the parliamentarian from Iceland who worked with WikiLeaks, succinctly put it, “a fair trial…has never been part of the picture. Despite being a professor in constitutional law, the president as commander-in-chief of the US military - and Manning has been tried in a court-martial – declared Manning’s guilt pre-emptively.”

As for another myth of American exceptionalism, a ‘free’ press - it’s already been six feet under for a while. While he was court-martialed, Manning detailed how he first tried to hand over the leaks to the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was imperially ignored. A case can be made that the US government would at least think twice about prosecuting a source protected by that voice of the establishment, the New York Times.

Manning, though, became a WikiLeaks source. And the US government revealed its hand; this organization is not a real member of the ‘free’ press because is led by what prosecutors described as“information anarchist” Julian Assange. It’s only ‘free press’ when we say so. Yet for American and global public opinion it’s obvious where real journalism is being practiced these days.   

Protesters from a coalition of groups demonstrate the conviction of Wikileaker Bradley Manning late August 21, 2013 in front of the White House in Washington, DC. (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)

System trumps Outsider  

The US government took no prisoners (literally); prosecutors asked kangaroo court Judge Lind for a jail sentence of at least 60 years. Six months ago Manning pleaded guilty to a number of charges – at the time facing a maximum sentence of 20 years. Yet the US government said ‘no’, and added the now notorious charge of ‘aiding and abetting the enemy’ (of which he was eventually acquitted; even Lind found that over-the-top). Still Manning was found guilty of no fewer than 20 counts, six of them under the Espionage Act, and most of them spurious.

So former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was right all along; he escaped to Hong Kong (and then Moscow) because he was dead certain he would never get a fair trial. And that’s exactly what might happen to London’s Ecuadorian embassy guest Julian Assange if he is unfortunate enough to be extradited to the US – where a grand jury has already indicted him.

WikiLeaks has spun the 35-year sentence as a “significant strategic victory,” adding that Manning could be free “in less than nine years.” But that’s no victory. Victory would have been Manning’s release. Instead, under the best scenario, he must languish in a military prison at least until 2021, when he could be out on parole.  

Here is a reasonably balanced account of Manning as a troubled young man. Psychologically, he is a classic Outsider; he could have been easily portrayed in a Camus or Dostoevsky novel. Yet the most crucial element is the transcending act – when the Outsider makes his mark. Navy Capt. David Moulton, a forensic psychiatrist who testified in Manning’s defense, told the court martial Manning was, “under the impression that his leaked information was going to really change how the world views the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and future wars actually.”

He may be proven right, with time. Let’s recap, briefly, some of what the young intel analyst in an air-conditioned cubicle in the Iraqi desert told the world before a lowly computer hacker – with whom he was in touch online - sold him out to the FBI. 

Bradley Manning (C) is escorted from the courthouse at Fort Meade, Maryland after his Article 32 hearing December 16, 2011. (Reuters/Yuri Gripas)

Manning unveiled the ‘Collateral Murder’ Apache helicopter video – a graphic illustration of why the US lost the war and occupation of Iraq. Not by accident the Pentagon bogus investigation of one of their own - who reduced Iraqi civilians to ‘dead bastards’ - concluded that the helicopter crew had followed the ‘rules of engagement’.

The Outsider gave WikiLeaks nearly 400,000 SIGACTS (“significant acts”, in Pentagonese) from Iraq - detailing dodgy night raids and IED attacks. This helped the independent Iraq Body Count website to repeatedly counterpunch the Pentagon (“we don’t do body counts”).

He gave WikiLeaks 75,000 SIGACTS from Afghanistan. Even the ‘free press’ New York Times - whichpublished some of them – was forced to admit rather meekly, that these were, “an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.”

Manning introduced the world to more than 700 Guantanamo detainee files, the absolute majority making it clear they should not even be in Guantanamo in the first place.

He leaked no fewer than 250,000 State Department cables – many unbelievably silly, but many detailing Mafia-style pressure on an array of countries to brush off the CIA’s totally lawless‘extraordinary renditions’.

Last but not least, Manning’s leaks revealed details of Washington’s coddling of an array of unsavory Arab dictators, particularly the corrupt Ben Ali in Tunisia. These may – or may not – have been used or justified to unleash different strands of the former Arab Spring; but the fact is public opinion was exposed to the full, documented extent of Washington’s hypocrisy.  

In summation: an embarrassment of galactic proportions. No wonder the US government reacted with such fury. 

Protestors hold up a sign during a demonstration by a coalition of protestors against the conviction of Wikileaker Bradley Manning late August 21, 2013, in front of the White House, in Washington, DC. (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)

Goodfellas walk

The legal battle is not over. Manning’s case now goes to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. It might end at the US Supreme Court. Manning’s lawyers will appeal immediately – and next week Manning will send a personal plea to Obama asking for a presidential pardon.

Obama may eventually rise to the occasion. But don’t count on a Commander-in-Chief who pre-emptively condemned him to show the compassion afforded to White House dogs, including the new puppy, Sunny. The US government has made it clear that Manning has been punished not only for his dubious ‘crimes’, but mostly as a stark warning to anybody contemplating following the same path.

Meanwhile nobody, absolutely nobody in a position of power has been punished as a result of Manning showing the world detailed cases of torture…sorry, ‘enhanced interrogation’…in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo, and the mechanism of extraordinary renditions.

Obama’s own Attorney General Eric Holder had already ruled out last year that anyone would be prosecuted. And in a recent development the United States Department of Justice requested on Wednesday to grant George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz procedural immunity in San Francisco federal court case alleging that they planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law. 

So here’s the bottom line; Bradley Manning will remain confined in a military prison, while war criminals such as George ‘Dubya’ Bush, Dick ‘Darth Vader’ Cheney, Donald ‘unknown unknowns’Rumsfeld, Paul ‘we’re the new OPEC’ Wolfowitz, Condoleeza ‘mushroom cloud’ Rice, George ‘slam dunk’Tenet and their cohorts remain on the loose. 

That’s all one needs to know about American exceptionalism. 

Bloomberg, NYPD commissioner using ‘complicated’ evidence to justify stop-and-frisk

Scholars are attempting to study if New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk program, which targets minority residents, is effective. It comes ahead of a mayoral election that has seen candidates, as well as current lawmakers, condemn the policy.

Judge Schira Scheindlin ruled on August 12 that the “stop, question and frisk” program instituted in 2002 by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is unconstitutional, agreeing with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberty groups that the program has clearly and wrongfully targeted racial minorities.

A federal monitor will soon be appointed to oversee departmental policies. On Thursday, city lawmakers will vote on whether to create an inspector general position within the NYPD as a means of opening communication lines for potential whistleblowers in the future.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has been a steadfast defender of stop-and-frisk along with departing Mayor Michael Bloomberg, penned an opinion piece for the July 22 edition of The Wall Street Journal titled “The NYPD: Guilty of Saving 7,383 Lives.” The article cites a decreasing crime rate as justification for stop-and-frisk.

“In the 11 years before Bloomberg took office, there were 13,212 murders in New York City. During the 11 years of his administration, there have been 5,849,” Kelly wrote.

“That’s 7,383 lives saved – and if history is a guide, they are largely the lives of young men of color. So far this year, murders are down 29 percent from the 50-year low achieved in 2012, and we’ve seen the fewest shootings in two decades,” he continued.

While he did not directly attribute the declining crime to stop-and-frisk, Kelly was pressed on the matter during a later appearance on MSNBC. “It is a component,” he stated flatly before moving away from the question.

Bloomberg agreed with Kelly, criticizing Scheindlin’s decision by refuting the entire trial, which saw young African-American men and former police officers agree on the policy’s flaws.

“Throughout the trial that just concluded, the judge made it clear she was not at all interested in the crime reductions here or how we achieved them,” he said during a recent press conference.

Demonstrators hold signs protesting the New York Police Department's "stop and frisk" crime-fighting tactic outside of Manhattan Federal Court in New York, March 18, 2013.(Reuters / Lucas Jackson)

But as New York mayoral candidates work to separate themselves from the unpopular program, researchers have wondered how exactly the NYPD measures stop-and-frisk’s effectiveness – or if it does at all.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells, a politics writer at New York magazine, reported that scholars are attempting to identify the regions around New York where the most stops have taken place, then determine whether crime has fallen there.

“This is a very complicated statistical undertaking, though. First you have to control all the variables that have nothing to do with policing that might account for some of that change in crime (changes in the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood, its levels of unemployment and home ownership, changes in its demographic makeup),” Wallace-Wells wrote.

“Then, because escalation in stops in a particular neighborhood often takes place together with more policing efforts (more cops on the streets, more arrests and summonses generally), you have to disaggregate the effects of each of those efforts from the specific impact of each additional stop. So in order to know what effect each additional stop has, you have to control for the simple effect of having more police in the neighborhood, and the effect of arresting more people, and the effect of issuing more summonses.”

Other experts have asserted that understanding the true value, or lack thereof, presented by stop-and-frisk is impossible because of the extreme difficulty of measuring the mental effect that the presence of a police officer has on would-be criminals.

Demonstrators hold signs protesting the New York Police Department's "stop and frisk" crime-fighting tactic outside of Manhattan Federal Court in New York, March 18, 2013. (Reuters / Lucas Jackson)

In a recent Quinnipiac University pooll, an overwhelming number of New Yorkers - 66 percent - said they were in favour of a stop-and-frisk policy. However, a growing number of city lawmakers oppose the policy.

Bloomberg has continued to advocate for police officers’ ability to search a citizen without probable cause. In what some have called an attempt to protect his legacy and credibility as mayor, he has repeatedly stated that any intervention would seriously threaten the NYPD’s ability to police effectively.

The New York City Council has, since last year, debated the Community Safety Act, which is designed to protect against law enforcement abuses. One idea included in the bill would appoint an independent inspector general to oversee the police, while a second aspect would enact an enforceable anti-profiling law that already exists.  

Bloomberg called the Community Safety Act “dangerous and irresponsible,” vetoing the legislation last month. He claimed the presence of an inspector general would only confuse officers as to which orders to follow, despite inspector generals being employed in departments throughout the US.  

The council will vote on Thursday whether to override the mayor’s veto and consequently determine whether the next administration will be able to enforce stop-and-frisk.

“He’s afraid of someone saying ‘not everything you did in policing worked,’” Councilmember Jumaane Williams told The Nation. “A real leader can say, ‘Look, we tried a couple things. They didn’t all work out. And the ones that didn’t work out we tried to fix and work with the community on how to fix it.’ But he just didn’t do that, which caused us to be where we are now.” 

FBI cyber team claims victory over Anonymous

The notorious hacktivist group Anonymous has been essentially neutralized according to the FBI, which cited a series of arrests as putting a damper on the group’s influence.

The FBI believes that the identification and subsequent arrests last year of five members of “Lulz Security” - described as a powerful player within the largely amorphous Anonymous collective - have acted as a “huge deterrent effect,” according to Austin P. Berglas, the assistant special agent in charge of the bureau’s cyber division in New York.

All five members of Lulz Security, which was at least at the time considered one of the most legitimate threats within the Anonymous community, have pled guilty.

LulzSec had at the time claimed responsibility for attacks against Sony Pictures as well as Fox’s “X-Factor” reality TV series. Along with LulzSec, the FBI also arrested a sixth individual at that time that operated with another group, Antisec.

“All of these guys were major players in the Anonymous movement, and a lot of people looked to them just because of what they did,” Berglas said in an interview with the Huffington Post.

In 2012, an informant known in cyber circles as “Sabu,” or Hector Monsegur, began to cooperate with the FBI following his arrest. According to Berglas, that action and the arrests that followed led to an “added layer of distrust” within Anonymous.

"The movement is still there, and they're still yacking on Twitter and posting things, but you don't hear about these guys coming forward with those large breaches," he said. "It's just not happening, and that's because of the dismantlement of the largest players."

Indeed, a brief search through Twitter and Facebook will yield a plethora of active Anonymous groups, many of which have now evolved into other roles such as de-facto newswires which also promote online activism on behalf of a broad list of causes. 

According to the FBI, its arrests last year have directly led to a decrease in high-profile cyber attacks. That news is in contrast to the group’s heyday in 2010, when Anonymous carried out a number of attacks against US companies, banks, and government agencies, employing sophisticated denial-of-service tools and defacing websites.

The cyber division of the FBI is divided into five teams of investigators. One entire unit is focused on obtaining digital evidence from cell phones, cameras, computers, and tablets in order to support a wide range of investigations including organized crime, computer hacking, and child pornography, the Huffington Post reported.

Berglas said his investigators have become very adept at breaking encryption methods used to protect computer files.

Sabu’s capture, for example, was said to be made possible when he inadvertently left his IP address exposed - a seemingly elementary mistake for anyone with significant ties to groups like AntiSec or LulzSec. That mistake allowed federal investigators to track down his location in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Manning refused to plead guilty in exchange for lesser sentence

US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning arrives alongside military officials at a US military court facility to hear his sentence in his trial at Fort Meade, Maryland on August 21, 2013. A sentencing decision will be announced later Wednesday.(AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)

Bradley Manning was offered and refused a deal from US military prosecutors that would have seen him serve a shorter sentence than the 35 years he was given Wednesday in exchange for a guilty plea.

Manning’s lead defense attorney, David Coombs, announced during a press conference that an offer was previously on the table. 

“Part of that would be to cooperate in testifying, so obviously we didn’t do that,” he said. 

He refused to elaborate any further, citing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with government prosecutors. 

But in December 2011, Coombs suggested that the government was attempting to force Manning into a plea bargain and use him as a witness against Julian Assange - the WikiLeaks founder who published the 700,000 diplomatic cables, battlefield reports, and combat video disclosed by Manning. 

“If the Department of Justice got their way, they would get a plea deal in this case, and my client would be named as one of the witnesses to go after Julian Assange,” Coombs said in court. 

Assange, who is currently holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, is the subject of a current grand jury inquiry in connection with his role in the case.

“The idea that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange or anyone else forced my client to do anything, or asked him to do anything, is just pure fabrication,” Coombs said after Manning’s sentence.

Prosecutors equated Assange as a co-conspirator throughout the Manning trial. The whistleblower’s lawyer, Michael Ratner, told reporters that he believes there could be a sealed indictment against the Ecuadorian embassy’s seemingly permanent resident, who has also been charged with sexual assault in Sweden.

“This should be a real wake-up call for journalists: The US has been relentless in its pursuit of Assange,” Ratner said. 
WikiLeaks responded to the Manning verdict by decrying what Assange perceived as military vengeance, saying “the only currency this military court will take is Bradley Manning’s humiliation.” 

Coombs said that Manning, for his part, was stoic as the sentence was read aloud. The 25-year-old, who will serve his time at Fort Leavenworth penitentiary in Kansas, was actually comforting the defense team after his fate was announced. 

“He looks to me and he says, ‘It’s OK. It’s alright. I know you did your best. I’m going to be OK. I’m going to get through this,’” Coombs said. 

Coombs and his fellow attorneys plan to petition US President Obama to pardon Manning, or commute his sentence. 

“The fight is not over,” Coombs said. “My representation of him at a court martial may end but my representation of him in ensuring that he one day, and one day very soon, walks out of Fort Leavenworth has only just begun.”

300 Fukushima storage tanks checked for radioactive water leaks

An aerial view shows Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and its contaminated water storage tanks (bottom) in Fukushima, in this photo taken by Kyodo August 20, 2013. (Reuters/Kyodo)

Fukushima nuclear plant employees are checking 300 tanks storing highly radioactive water after one container leaked, raising fears that more contaminated liquid has made its way into the Pacific Ocean.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the company operating the plant, said on Wednesday that one of the tanks holding water used to cool the broken reactors sprang a leak of some 300 tons of toxic liquid.

“We are hurriedly checking if some 300 tanks of the same type holding contaminated water have the same leak problem,” TEPCO spokesman Tsuyoshi told AFP.

The contaminated water that leaked on Wednesday contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter, according to the company. The norm is a mere 150 Bq.

The puddle that formed around the damaged tank is emitting radiation of 100 Millisieverts per hour, as a probe has been taken about half a meter from the water, reported Kyodo News. The traces of radioactivity were detected in a drainage stream.

“We have finished pumping out water from the troubled tank, while we have continued removing the soil soaked by the water,” Numajiri said. “We cannot rule out the possibility that part of the contaminated water flowed into the sea.” 

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) commissioners raised the severity of the latest Fukushima leak to Level Three, which is considered a ‘serious radiation incident’ on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases. The alert was raised from Level One, which indicates an ‘anomaly’.  Level Seven is the most dangerous radiation status.

"Judging from the amount and the density of the radiation in the contaminated water that leaked ... a Level 3 assessment is appropriate," said the document used during Wednesday’s weekly meeting of the NRA. 

NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka on Wednesday voiced concern that there could be similar leaks from other containers.

“We must carefully deal with the problem on the assumption that if one tank springs a leak the same thing can happen at other tanks,” he said.

One of the main difficulties for TEPCO in handling the nuclear plant damaged in 2011 Tsunami is what to do with the water used to cool the reactor. The liquid is stored in some 1,000 reactors. 

Since the melted cores of the three destroyed reactors have burnt through the concrete basement of the reactor zone, radioactive water is seeping into the surrounding soil.  

In July, TEPCO reported officially for the first time that the radioactive groundwater had been leaking outside the plant, which is located close to the Pacific coast. 

WikiLeaks: Manning's sentence a ‘tactical victory’

A truck bearing the WikiLeaks logo and dubbed a "Mobile Information Collection Unit" and calling for the release of US Army soldier Bradley Manning is parked in Washington.(AFP Photo / Nicholas Kamm)

The trial and conviction of US Army Private Bradley Manning flies in the face of the principles of Western justice systems, Julian Assange said in a statement posted on WikiLeaks. But the relatively low sentence term shows the defense has won, he argued.

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"This hard-won minimum term represents a significant tactical victory for Bradley Manning’s defense, campaign team and supporters," a statement on the WikiLeaks site claimed, reminding that at the start of the proceedings Bradley Manning was charged with a capital offense and other charges liable for a potential 135 years of incarceration. The prosecutors had been insisting on at least 60 years in jail. However, the private was sentenced to 35 years behind bars.

"His defense team is now appealing to the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals in relation to this sentence and also for due process violations during the trial," the statement added. 

“Manning’s trial and conviction is an affront to basic concepts of Western justice,” stated Assange, the founder of the whistle-blowing website on Wednesday, following the sentencing in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.  

The WikiLeaks frontman said that from the very start of the trial the private was subject to “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

According to Assange, Manning’s treatment “has been intended to send a signal to people of conscience in the US government who might seek to bring wrongdoing to light,” but instead, this strategy has “spectacularly backfired.”

“There will be a thousand more Bradley Mannings,” the whistleblower remarked. 

The only just outcome in this case would have been his “unconditional release, compensation for the unlawful treatment he has undergone, and a serious commitment to investigating the wrongdoing his alleged disclosures have brought to light,” Assange stressed, urging the supporters of Bradley Manning not to give up their efforts. 

French FM threatens ‘force’ over Syria chemical attack if UNSC fails to act

France has called the international community to respond with force if it is proved true that the Syrian government carried out a chemical attack on civilians.

"There would have to be reaction with force in Syria from the international community, but there is no question of sending troops on the ground," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on French television network BFM. 

He also said the situation could be handled "in other ways" if the UN Security Council could not make a decision. He did not elaborate.

The French minister then demanded an inspection of the gas attack, saying that if the Syrian government of Bashar refused the inspection, "this will mean that it is guilty." 

At the same time, Turkey said that “all red lines” has been crossed and slammed the UN Council for“not being able to make a decision.” 

“This is the responsibility for the sides who still set these red lines and for all of us," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Berlin, where he was meeting with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

For its part, Germany has asked Syria to “immediately” give full access to UN chemicals weapons experts to investigate the alleged attack.

"We are very worried about the reports that poison gas has been used near Damascus. These reports are very serious and if they are confirmed would be outrageous," Westerwelle told the joint news conference. "We call for this clarification to be made possible promptly.” 

On Wednesday, a gas attack was reported by opposition activists in the capital Damascus. The number of people reported killed varies from dozens up to 1,300. Rebel groups blamed the incident on President Bashar Assad's forces, while the government sees it as an effort on the part of the rebels to draw international attention to their cause. The attack coincided with the visit of UN observers, coming to the country to investigate previous cases of chemical attacks in the war-torn country.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) said there must be "clarity" on what happened, following a closed-door emergency meeting overnight. 

UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said that “we see the need to investigate this as soon as possible,” adding that there is no confirmation at this point of the use of chemical weapons.

Although the UN has not attributed blame to either side in the attacks, the French minister, quoting The Syrian National Coalition, was quick to point the finger at Assad's forces.

"It was a harsh attack and chemical weapons were used....If there has been use of chemical weapons, everyone says they come from Bashar," he said.  

Meanwhile, Washington demanded that the Syrian government allow a UN team already in the country"immediate and unfettered access" to the location of the alleged attack.

The United States announced in June that it would send military aid to Syrian rebels, arguing Assad's government had crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapons in several attacks on villages.

The Assad government has vehemently rejected all accusations that it used chemical weapons. 

Meanwhile, Russian officials remain skeptical of the claims that the Syrian government was behind the gas attack. 

Reports by “biased regional media” about alleged chemical weapons use near Damascus might be “a provocation planned in advance,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich said on Wednesday.

“It draws attention to the fact that biased regional media have immediately, as if on command, begun an aggressive information attack, laying all the responsibility on the government,” he added.

NSA collected thousands of US internet communications 'with no terror connection'

The National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, as seen from the air, January 29, 2010.(AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)

Declassified National Security Agency documents show that it unlawfully scooped up as many as 56,000 emails and other “wholly domestic” communications with no connection to terrorism annually over three years.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has authorized the release of three secret US court opinions Wednesday. The documents show how the NSA inadvertently collected tens of thousands of emails and other communications by Americans over three years, despite the fact they had no links to terrorism.  

The NSA collected huge amounts of data passing through fiber-optic cables in the US. It then stored the material, along with a selection of foreign communications. Though domestic data was not officially targeted, the agency was unable to filter out communications between Americans, the reports said. 

When the NSA reported to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2011 -- three years after Congress authorized the surveillance programs that led to the improper gathering -- the court found the collection unconstitutional and ordered the agency to find ways to limit what it collected and how long it kept information. 

The judge John D. Bates said that the government had “advised the court that the volume and nature of the information it has been collecting is fundamentally different from what the court had been led to believe,” according to the declassified 86-page opinion. 

Clapper said that following the ruling the NSA changed how it gathered information so as to segregate the transactions of Americans which were deemed to be wholly domestic. In 2012, the agency destroyed the information that it had collected. 

The new disclosures depict a FISA court, lauded by President Obama and other government officials as proof the NSA operates with careful checks in place, that allowed NSA programs to continue without full understanding of their collection capabilities. Critics have called the FISA court a ‘rubber stamp’ for NSA spying. For example, in 2012, the court did not deny any of the 1,789 applications made by the US government for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes, according to official documents. 

Lawmakers responded to the released documents with requests to the White House for further clarification and oversight of NSA activities. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) asked for a briefing for the full Senate from NSA director Keith Alexander to discuss surveillance procedures.

“This briefing should discuss the totality of NSA operations, including but not limited to those that have already been discussed publicly,” Corker wrote to the White House.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) stressed the need for more oversight of NSA activities.

“A special advocate could force the FISA court to impose strict limits on government surveillance, to ask tough questions of Executive Branch officials, and to ensure that the government cannot engage in unconstitutional activity for years before the court finds out and shuts it down,” Blumenthal said. 

The American Civil Liberties Union's Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer reacted to the disclosures highlighting how simple such abuses in NSA surveillance programs have become. 

“These opinions indicate that the NSA misrepresented its activities to the court just as it misrepresented them to Congress and the public, and they provide further evidence that current oversight mechanisms are far too feeble. More fundamentally, the documents serve as a reminder of how incredibly permissive our surveillance laws are, allowing the NSA to conduct wholesale surveillance of Americans’ communications under the banner of foreign intelligence collection. This kind of surveillance is unconstitutional, and Americans should make it very clear to their representatives that they will not tolerate it.” 

In response to the myriad leaks regarding NSA spying programs, the office of the Director of National Intelligence released Wednesday a Tumblr page “to provide the public with direct access to factual information related to the lawful foreign surveillance activities carried out by the Intelligence Community.”  Though despite the new site, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was responsible for the release pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request, was first to post the newly-disclosed 2011 FISA court opinion.

President Obama alluded to the transparency site on August 9 in an address pertaining to the NSA leaks. During that speech, Obama maintained that the government has not abused surveillance programs, despite Wednesday’s disclosures suggesting otherwise.

"And if you look at the reports — even the disclosures that Mr. Snowden has put forward — all the stories that have been written, what you’re not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs and listening in on people’s phone calls or inappropriately reading people’s emails,” Obama said on Aug. 9. “What you’re hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused. Now, part of the reason they’re not abused is because these checks are in place, and those abuses would be against the law and would be against the orders of the FISC." 

The new disclosures come months after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked thousands of documents to the Guardian and The Washington Post about the huge surveillance programs of US and UK spy agencies. 

The British government has since made the Guardian destroy Snowden’s files under the threat of legal action, citing reasons of national security. 

However, the Guardian said the material still exists in the US and Brazil, and that it will still publish relevant stories on the issue.