Three men have been arrested and 36 criminal websites selling credit card information and other personal data shut down as part of a two-year international anti-fraud operation, police have confirmed. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), working with the FBI and US Department of Justice, as well as authorities in Germany; the Netherlands; Ukraine; Australia and Romania, swooped after identifying the sites as specialising in selling card and bank details in bulk. The move comes as a blow to what is a growing black market for stolen financial data. Detectives estimated that the card information seized could have been used to extract more than £500m in total by fraudsters. SOCA claimed it has recovered more than two and a half million items of compromised personal and financial information over the past two years. “The authorities have shut down 36 websites but it is difficult to know how many other people had access to that data. They could spring back up somewhere else if a gang is not eradicated completely,” said Graham Cluley of internet security firm Sophos. He added: “This is big business and, just as in any legitimate company there are people who specialise in different things, so there are those who actually get their hands on the personal data and those who sell it on; they are not often the same person.” An investigation by The Independent last summer found that scammers were making a “comfortable living” getting their hands on sensitive information and selling it online. Card details were being offered for sale for between 4p and £60 per card – depending on the quality – according to one source in the business. Some cards would be sold with incomplete or unreliable information; others ready to use. Some of the card details for sale on the websites shut down by SOCA were being sold for as little as £2 each. Investigators said that the alleged fraudsters were using Automated Vending Carts, which allowed them to sell large quantities of stolen data. They are said to be a driver of the growth in banking fraud over the last 18 months because of the speed with which stolen data can be sold. Lee Miles, Head of Cyber Operations for SOCA said: “This operation is an excellent example of the level of international cooperation being focused on tackling online fraud. Our activities have saved business, online retailers and financial institutions potential fraud losses estimated at more than half a billion pounds, and at the same time protected thousands of individuals from the distress caused by being a victim of fraud or identity crime.” An alleged operator in Macedonia was one of those arrested, while two British men accused of buying the information were also detained. Britain’s Dedicated Cheque & Plastic Crime Unit also seized computers suspected of being used to commit fraud.
Read More...Thursday, 26 April 2012
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Anti-depressants likely do more harm than good, study suggests
Commonly prescribed anti-depressants appear to be doing patients more harm than good, say researchers who have published a paper examining the impact of the medications on the entire body. See Also: Health & Medicine Pharmacology Birth Defects Mental Health Research Mind & Brain Depression Disorders and Syndromes Psychiatry Reference COX-2 inhibitor Psychoactive drug Seasonal affective disorder Anti-obesity drug "We need to be much more cautious about the widespread use of these drugs," says Paul Andrews, an evolutionary biologist at McMaster University and lead author of the article, published recently in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology. "It's important because millions of people are prescribed anti-depressants each year, and the conventional wisdom about these drugs is that they're safe and effective." Andrews and his colleagues examined previous patient studies into the effects of anti-depressants and determined that the benefits of most anti-depressants, even taken at their best, compare poorly to the risks, which include premature death in elderly patients. Anti-depressants are designed to relieve the symptoms of depression by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, where it regulates mood. The vast majority of serotonin that the body produces, though, is used for other purposes, including digestion, forming blood clots at wound sites, reproduction and development. What the researchers found is that anti-depressants have negative health effects on all processes normally regulated by serotonin. The findings include these elevated risks: developmental problems in infants problems with sexual stimulation and function and sperm development in adults digestive problems such as diarrhea, constipation, indigestion and bloating abnormal bleeding and stroke in the elderly The authors reviewed three recent studies showing that elderly anti-depressant users are more likely to die than non-users, even after taking other important variables into account. The higher death rates indicate that the overall effect of these drugs on the body is more harmful than beneficial. "Serotonin is an ancient chemical. It's intimately regulating many different processes, and when you interfere with these things you can expect, from an evolutionary perspective, that it's going to cause some harm," Andrews says. Millions of people are prescribed anti-depressants every year, and while the conclusions may seem surprising, Andrews says much of the evidence has long been apparent and available. "The thing that's been missing in the debates about anti-depressants is an overall assessment of all these negative effects relative to their potential beneficial effects," he says. "Most of this evidence has been out there for years and nobody has been looking at this basic issue." In previous research, Andrews and his colleagues had questioned the effectiveness of anti-depressants even for their prescribed function, finding that patients were more likely to suffer relapse after going off their medications as their brains worked to re-establish equilibrium. With even the intended function of anti-depressants in question, Andrews says it is important to look critically at their continuing use. "It could change the way we think about such major pharmaceutical drugs," he says. "You've got a minimal benefit, a laundry list of negative effects -- some small, some rare and some not so rare. The issue is: does the list of negative effects outweigh the minimal benefit?"
Read More...Madeleine McCann, the British girl who went missing while on holiday in Portugal half a decade ago, could still be alive, Scotland Yard said on Wednesday.
Detectives released a new “age progression” image of the toddler, which they said showed what she would look like today at the age of nine.
On Wednesday, Britain’s biggest police force said that as a result of evidence uncovered during a review “they now believe there is a possibility Madeleine is still alive”.
Officers have so far identified nearly 200 new items for investigation within historic material and are also “developing what they believe to be genuinely new material”.
Scotland Yard urged Portuguese authorities to reopen the search for her amid the new "investigative opportunities".
Police said the image, created ahead of what would have been her ninth birthday on May 12, had been created in “close collaboration with the family”.
Dengue Fever Asian Mosquito Could Invade UK
The mosquito can carry dengue and chikungunya viruses
A mosquito that spreads tropical diseases including dengue fever may be poised to invade the UK because of climate change.
The Asian tiger mosquito has already been reported in France and Belgium and could be migrating north as winters become warmer and wetter.
Scientists have urged "wide surveillance" for the biting insect across countries of central and northern Europe, including the UK.
The mosquito can carry dengue and chikungunya viruses, both of which cause high fevers. The infections usually occur in tropical regions of Africa, Asia and South America.
Scientists led by Dr Samantha Martin, from the University of Liverpool, used climate models to predict how changing conditions might affect Asian tiger mosquito distribution.
They wrote in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface: "Mosquito climate suitability has significantly increased over the southern UK, northern France, the Benelux, parts of Germany, Italy, Sicily and the Balkan countries."
The research shows that parts of the UK could become hot-spots of Asian tiger mosquito activity between 2030 and 2050.
The mosquito has been introduced into Europe from Asia via goods shipments, mainly used tyres and bamboo.
Climate change is now shifting conditions suitable for the insect from southern Europe to central north-western areas.
The mosquito could survive in water butts and vases, and may find winter protection in greenhouses, said the researchers.
Read More...Monday, 23 April 2012
"Iceberg" is believed to be the first mature white orca observed
Scientists have made what they believe to be the first sighting of an adult white orca, or killer whale.
The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg, was spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia.
It appears to be healthy and leading a normal life in its pod.
White whales of various species are occasionally seen; but the only known white orcas have been young, including one with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972.
The sightings were made during a research cruise off Kamchatka by a group of Russian scientists and students, co-led by Erich Hoyt, the long-time orca scientist, conservationist and author who is now a senior research fellow with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).
"We've seen another two white orcas in Russia but they've been young, whereas this is the first time we've seen a mature adult," he told BBC News.
"It has the full two-metre-high dorsal fin of a mature male, which means it's at least 16 years old - in fact the fin is somewhat ragged, so it might be a bit older."
Orcas mature around the age of 15, and males can live to 50 or 60 years old, though 30 is more commonplace.
"Iceberg seems to be fully socialised; we know that these fish-eating orcas stay with their mothers for life, and as far as we can see he's right behind his mother with presumably his brothers next to him," said Dr Hoyt.
The cause of his unusual pigmentation is not known. The captive white orca, Chima, suffered from Chediak-Higashi syndrome, a genetic condition that causes partial albinism as well as a number of medical complications.
It is possible that an attempt may be made to take a biopsy from Iceberg; but with researchers reluctant to do so unless there is a compelling conservation reason, they are hoping instead for closer observations including a detection of eye colour.
The project Dr Hoyt co-leads, the Far East Russia Orca Project, has pioneered visual and acoustic monitoring in the inhospitable Kamchatka seas, and has produced a number of papers on the communication of killer whales.
This may lead to improved understanding of the animals' complex social structure, which includes matrilineal family clans, pods consisting of several families, and much larger "super-pods".
A related project aims to study and conserve habitat for all whales and dolphins around the Russian coast.
In recent years a white humpback whale nick-named Migaloo has drawn intense interest in Australia, while the Arctic beluga is naturally white.
The most famous white whale, though, is the fictional sperm whale that drove Captain Ahab to his eventually fatal fury in Moby Dick.
Read More...Bison, vodka and Poland's primeval forest
Poland boasts the last primeval, virginal forest in Europe, which covers 15,000 square kilometres (9,300 sq miles) on the eastern side of the country bordering with Belarus.
Rajan Datar went to visit what is now a world heritage site and home to a great deal of wildlife, including 500 bison who had faced extinction.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Behind the Iron Curtain, Shakespeare's plays were a way to send secret messages about Soviet society to theatre audiences.
Now a Lithuanian staging of Hamlet - designed to make Stalin, who hated the play, turn in his grave - will be performed in the UK. Why do these 400-year-old plays resonate in the former Eastern Bloc?
When Lithuania's biggest rock star, Andrius Mamontovas, was offered the role of Hamlet in 1996, he was rather surprised, but agreed to have a go. He has now played the prince for 15 years, and will soon perform the role in London as part of the UK's cultural festival to mark the Olympics.
There were nine months of rehearsals for a play that was at the beginning seven-and-a-half hours long, and even today lasts nearly four hours (there is also a cut-down version of just over two).
What has kept him going is Eimuntas Nekrosius, one of Europe's most renowned theatre directors, and the special prestige Shakespeare holds in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
In Soviet-era Lithuania, there were productions of Shakespeare for which people queued through the night for tickets. Shakespeare was culture with official approval, but as one of the few alternatives to tales about earnest Soviet heroes, it was also a way for theatre directors to symbolically address forbidden issues. Going to the theatre had an excitement it perhaps lacks nowadays, says Mamontovas.
"I miss those secret messages... there were always little secret messages from the artist to the audience. But there's no need for that now because you can say what you want openly - it's more entertainment now."
A telling exchange in Soviet times
Hamlet: What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?
Guildenstern: Prison, my lord!
Hamlet: Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.
Hamlet: A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst.
Another appeal of staging Shakespeare was its soundtrack. Rock music was sometimes smuggled into productions in an era when many Western acts were banned - and the list of such acts was long and varied.
"ACDC, Tina Turner - she was banned for her sexuality - the Stranglers, the Clash, they were one of my favourites. And there was Julio Iglesias," says Mamontovas.
The artistic director of Lithuania's National Theare, Audronis Liuga, recalls a landmark musical staging of Romeo and Juliet in 1982.
"It was a spirit of freedom, it was very youthful, very joyful, based on a lot of improvisation, very recognisable for this generation of people who were listening to the Beatles, Jesus Christ Superstar - this kind of music but not of course legally."
This new Lithuanian production is full of music, but no rock - although it's far from conventional, with not a doublet or hose in sight, and a coconut taking the place of Yorick's skull.
Then there is the history of Hamlet in the Soviet Union. An early landmark of Lithuania's professional theatre was a production of Hamlet by Mikhail Chekhov, nephew of the playwright Anton.
It is one of 37 companies performing at the World Shakespeare Festival at London's Globe TheatreBut Hamlet then fell out of favour. Stalin, it was understood, had turned against the indecisive Prince of Denmark. The uncomfortable comparisons between the setting of Hamlet, the dark world of Elsinore and the Kremlin, was perhaps too close.
Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, had usurped the throne, depriving the young Hamlet himself, and there were parallels - for those who wished to see them - in Stalin's seizure of Lenin's leading role and his demolition of rivals such as Trotsky.
There was also another layer of symbolism. Stalin, a keen theatregoer, took against the renowned director Vsevolod Meyerhold and had him arrested and tortured, and executed.
Meyerhold dreamed all his life of staging Hamlet, his favourite play, but somehow never managed it. He was renowned for having said, with bitter irony, that he wanted his tombstone to read: "Here lies a man who never played or directed Hamlet". From the day he was killed in 1940, Hamlet and the death of Meyerhold became intertwined in the public imagination.
Stalin's death in 1953 prompted a series of new Hamlet productions that tested the boundaries of how far the post-Stalin thaw had gone, and so the play gained a symbolic status of freedom of expression.
The director of the Globe Shakespeare Festival, Tom Bird, says this resonance is echoed across the region.
To be or not to be
- Best known of all of Hamlet's 1,500 lines
- It's in Act III Scene I, and Prince Hamlet appears to be talking to himself
- He's trying to establish his uncle's guilt in murdering his father and usurping the Danish throne
- The speech is a deep philosophical reflection on life and death
"There's a feeling in the former Soviet Union that Shakespeare was never censored. So he becomes in a lot of these places not just a writer but almost a freedom fighter, almost a saint.
"If you go in to the countryside in Armenia you meet people with the name Shakespeare - their first names are Shakespeare.
"The most famous footballer in Armenia is Henrikh Mkhitaryan and his middle name is Hamlet. And no, Hamlet isn't Armenian for Hamish; it's Hamlet, the Dane. It's incredible it's seeped in to everything."
But there is also a sense that something has passed. They do not miss the fear, but the privileged position of high culture and Shakespeare has slipped. Tina Turner and Julio Iglesias may have been banned, but there was a deep reverence for Shakespeare.
Fifteen years on, Mamontovas is still eager to carry on playing the Danish prince for a few more years. But he knows the clock is ticking.
"I am very happy and very lucky to be here, this play has opened a lot of doors for me. I took this on when I was Hamlet's age, around 29, it would be strange if I was still being Hamlet when I'm 50."
Hamlet will be performed at London's Globe Theatre 2-3 June.
Read More...Thursday, 19 April 2012
France and Germany want to suspend the Shengen Agreement
They say they want a temporary suspension while the crisis continues. Spain will being introducing border restrictions during the European Central Bank meeting in Barcelona at the start of May.Angela Merkel and Nicolás Sarkozy - The Interior Ministers of France and Germany have written a joint letter in which they call for the reform of, and ‘temporary suspension’ of the Schengen agreement which allows for the free movement between most member states of the EU. They say the change is necessary ‘to control the massive flow of immigrants’. The call comes just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the treaty this coming Monday, although many countries signed up in March 1995. France and Germany consider that a ‘temporary suspension’ is needed during the crisis, and Paris and Berlin speak of ‘provisional’ closure of frontiers, and only when a country in the Schengen space cannot control the flow of immigrants. They say they will give the details to their European partners at the next conference. Meanwhile Spain has announced the suspension of the Schengen Treaty and the re-establishing of frontier controls with France ahead of the European Central Bank meeting which is to be held in Barcelona on May 3. It has not yet been decided how long the border restriction will remain in place, but say it will allow the authorities to act if there is ‘a serious threat to public order or interior security’. The measure will only affect the frontiers between Spain and France from the Basque Country to Cataluña. Reports indicate that it was the Catalan Government to step up the controls in the face of possible disturbances and the arrival of anti-system protestors from other countries in Europe.
Read More...Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Sex Robots Will Revolutionize Sex Tourism,
They don't spread disease and they can't be sold into sex slavery. Those are just two of the advantages of robot prostitutes, which will be edging out their human competition in the sex tourism market by the year 2050, according to an article published in the journal Futures. The Dominion Post, which found the study, writes that sex tourists will shell out about $10,000 Euros for services ranging from massages and lap dances to intercourse, according to the article. The researchers lay out why this scenario will be the future of sex tourism: Human trafficking, sexual transmitted diseases, beauty and physical perfection, pleasure for sex toys, emotional connection to robots and the importance of sex in Amsterdam are all driving forces. But some are not so sure that robots will be replacing female sex workers any time soon. CBS Las Vegas spoke to Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Carson City, Nev. “Those Australian researchers ought to come to the Bunny Ranch to see what real American sex is like – there’s no way to duplicate it,” Hof told CBS Las Vegas. “At the Bunny Ranch, we say ‘it’s not just the sex, it’s an adventure’ – and often times it’s more about the adventure than it is the sex.”
Read More...Sunday, 15 April 2012
How tiny Estonia stepped out of USSR's shadow to become an internet titan
In 1995, four years after Estonia broke free from the USSR, Toomas Hendrik Ilves read a "very Luddite" book by Jeremy Rifkin called The End of Work. "It argued that with greater computerisation there would be fewer jobs," remembered Ilves, then a senior diplomat, now the country's president, "which from his point of view was terrible." Ilves and many of his colleagues saw it differently. In a tiny (population: 1.4 million) and newly independent country like Estonia, politicians realised computers could help quickly compensate for both a minuscule workforce and a chronic lack of physical infrastructure. Seventeen years on, the internet has done more than just help. It is now tightly entwined with Estonia's identity. "For other countries, the internet is just another service, like tap water, or clean streets," said Linnar Viik, a lecturer at the Estonian IT College, a government adviser and a man almost synonymous in Estonia with the rise of the web. "But for young Estonians, the internet is a manifestation of something more than a service – it's a symbol of democracy and freedom." To see why, you just have to go outside. Free Wi-Fi is everywhere, and has been for a decade. Viik says you could walk 100 miles – from the pastel-coloured turrets here in medieval Tallinn to the university spires of Tartu – and never lose internet connection. "We realised that if the government was going to use the internet, the internet had to be available to everybody," Viik said. "So we built a huge network of public internet access points for people who couldn't afford them at home." The country took a similar approach to education. By 1997, thanks to a campaign led in part by Ilves, a staggering 97% of Estonian schools already had internet. Now 42 Estonian services are now managed mainly through the internet. Last year, 94% of tax returns were made online, usually within five minutes. You can vote on your laptop (at the last election, Ilves did it from Macedonia) and sign legal documents on a smartphone. Cabinet meetings have been paperless since 2000. Doctors only issue prescriptions electronically, while in the main cities you can pay by text for bus tickets, parking, and – in some cases – a pint of beer. Not bad for country where, two decades ago, half the population had no phone line. Central to the Estonian project is the ID card, introduced in 2002. Nine in 10 Estonians have one, and – by slotting it into their computer – citizens can use their card to vote online, transfer money and access all the information the state has on them. "There's nothing on the ID card itself, because that could be dangerous if you lost it," says Katrin Pärgmäe, who is in charge of public awareness at RIA, the country's internet authority. "It only gives you access to the database if you type in the right code." You can also present the card at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. On public transport, it doubles as a ticket. Many people also have special ID chips on their mobile sim cards that allow them to pay people by text. To a British audience, the ID card will have a whiff of Big Brother. But many Estonians argue the opposite: that it allows them to keep tabs on the state, rather than the other way round. "You'd think, given our history, we'd have a problem with it," said Ilves, in an oblique reference to the days when the KGB had an office down a cobbled street in central Tallinn. "But I feel much more secure with a digital ID. If anyone goes into my files, they're flagged. Whereas if my files – which would exist anyway – were made of paper, no one would know who was looking at them." Every Estonian can see who has visited their data, and they can challenge any suspicious behaviour. In one famous case, a policewoman was caught accessing information about her boyfriend. During a recent election campaign, a candidate was swiftly punished for accessing personal information about would-be constituents. "I don't know what the idiot was thinking," said Viik. "You can't hide." To an outsider, it is not immediately clear why Estonia took to the internet so much faster than its Baltic cousins, Latvia and Lithuania. All three won independence at the same time. All three needed quick ways of revamping their ailing infrastructure. But to Estonians, the reason is simple. Estonia has a sizeable Russian-speaking minority, but the country's ethnic Estonian majority feel Nordic, rather than Slavic or eastern European. In the early 90s, this meant they looked to tech-happy Scandinavia for both inspiration and investment. Those Finnish and Swedish businesses that did invest expected their Estonian counterparts to communicate by email rather than fax. And pretty soon it was the newcomers who were leading the way. "I remember when one of our banks was bought by a Swedish one, they came over and said: 'And now we're going to teach you how to do computer banking'," recalled Ilves. "And we said, 'well, you might want to look at what we're actually doing with computer banking ourselves.'" At the last count, 99% of Estonian bank transfers were online. It helped that many politicians in the early 90s were unusually quick to "get" the internet. "The people in power after the collapse of the Soviet Union were really young," said Jaan Tallinn, the co-founder of Skype, the Estonian internet telephone company, and a co-developer of file-sharing website Kazaa. "They knew what was going on." Mart Laar was 32 when he became prime minister in 1992. Ilves is slightly older, but had learned to code as a child, growing up in exile in the US. "I thought if I can do it, anyone can," he said in his strong New Jersey accent. "I was completely at ease with computers." The internet was also seen as a buffer to Russia. "We were afraid that Russian armies might take down the TV tower, the central radio station, or newspaper press," said Viik. "Three addresses shut down, and we would have been disconnected from the rest of the world. "But the internet would still work – and so we realised that this would be a great way of keeping in touch with the world in case of emergency." Ironically, when an attack did finally come, it came via the internet – and promptly disconnected Estonia from the rest of the world. In 2007, the government infuriated its Russian-speaking minority by moving a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn to a cemetery on the city's outskirts. Violence flared on the streets, and later reached the internet. The first cyberattack was simplistic, and easily dealt with: thousands of unknown individuals bombarding government, media and banking websites with "denial of service" (DoS) attacks. "It was like an internet riot," said Hillar Aarelaid, who led Estonia's response, at the time. But what started as an emotional backlash soon became a far larger, longer and better co-ordinated assault on Estonia's very being. It lasted three weeks and could only be contained by restricting internet traffic in and out of the country. It was, in effect, a cybersiege. "This is how a lot of myths were created," remembered Pärgmäe. "Those outside the country couldn't access Estonian websites, but they didn't realise that people inside still could." Rumours circulated about the collapse of the Estonian online banking system, and how people were struggling to buy groceries. "But actually the longest downtime for a bank's website was just one and a half hours." The debacle had two positive effects. First: Nato founded a cyberwarfare thinktank in Estonia, to learn from the experience. Second: the government set up the Cyber Defence League, a network of 100 volunteers from the cybersector who, among other roles, will form – a kind of territorial army during future strife. "Traditionally in western countries," said Ilves, "you've had a weekend-warrior thing where volunteers run off into the woods and do target practice. In Estonia, we have a unit of IT people from banks, software companies who in their spare time for one day a week work on cyber issues." This kind of collaboration between private and public sectors was also central to Estonian innovation in the 90s, Viik claims. "The government started several IT programmes as a catalyst," he said. "But only in a few was it the main sponsor. From the early days, government philosophy was not to hire programmers, but to use the services of private companies, which in turn increased the competitiveness of the Estonian IT sector." Case in point: the ID card. "It's private companies who developed and manage the service – and who can now export their new-found competencies to other countries." Viik argues that this benefits both the private sector and the state, who otherwise would not have the resources for ID card technology. But some think the overlap between occasionally threatens Estonia's open internet. For many years, each Estonian citizen had the right to a free domain name. In 2010, that changed: the government outsourced the responsibility of allocating domain names to private registrars, who now charge Estonians about £15 for the privilege – one of the highest rates in Europe. Many academics and high-profile techies were outraged, and some founded a pressure group – the Estonian Internet Community (EIC) – that campaigns to give ordinary citizens more of a say in how Estonia's internet is run. More generally, it is feared that the same politicians who had such enlightened attitudes to the internet in the 90s may be starting to lose their progressive edge. "They're still in power," said Jaan Tallinn, "but I'm not sure they still understand what's going on. Technology keeps progressing. Young people follow the curve. But as they get older they get inertia, and they start deviating from that curve." Ilves himself is fairly critical of parts of Acta, the hugely controversial international agreement that opponents fear will curtail the rights of individual internet users. But there is a perception that other politicians could be doing more to oppose its introduction. "It's difficult because it's actually an EU agreement," admitted Jaagup Irve, a PhD student at the Tallinn University of Technology, and an EIC board member. "But the government isn't doing enough to stop Acta." Viik says that among politicians of all stripes there has always been "a silent consensus" about the importance of the internet. For many years, Estonians could expect whomever they elected to have the best interests of the internet at heart. But Irve thinks the public can no longer be so complacent. "People think a government is like a smart missile: the thing practically flies itself," he argued. "But today it's more like a bomb that we have to guide. We have to guide the government, and that's what the internet society has woken up to."
Neil Heywood 'poisoned by cyanide drops' in China
Neil Heywood was murdered on the orders of a fallen Communist Party chief, according to the reports. The Mail on Sunday quoted ''respected Mandarin-language websites'' saying Mr Heywood, 41, died from cyanide poisoning after allegedly having an affair with lawyer Gu Kailai, wife of Bo Xilai, seen until recently as a future leader of China. Mr Heywood was found dead on November 15 in Chongqing, in central China. Britain asked China to investigate his death and it emerged last week that Mrs Gu was being probed for ''intentional homicide''. The newspaper said it was alleged that Mr Heywood was murdered after helping Mrs Gu to siphon nearly £800 million of assets overseas.
Read More...Easter, Orthodox Christianity's main holiday, marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is being celebrated by believers worldwide. Services are being held at more than 30,000 Russian Orthodox churches across the globe.
Almost half a million Muscovites took part in the festivities around the Russian capital. But the largest service – attended by six thousand people – was held at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and was helmed by Patriarch Kirill.
Patriarch Kirill received the Holy Fire delivered directly from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where the "miracle" takes place annually. After lighting the candles, Kirill led the procession around the cathedral. The procession climaxed when the Patriarch announced “Christ is risen!”
The festivities where attended by President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. Kirill gave decorative Easter eggs to the country’s top officials. Medvedev, in turn, gave an Easter egg of his own to Kirill.
Prior to the celebration, Patriarch Kirill addressed believers, advising them to pray for everyone and to come to church with a serene and peaceful heart.
Easter services are being held at all Russian Orthodox churches around the globe, the number of which exceeds 30,000.
Christians celebrate Easter to mark the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. Easter is a moveable feast – but Eastern and Western Christianity base their calculations on different calendars. The former uses Julian calendar, the latter – Gregorian, therefore their Easter days differ.
This year Orthodox Easter comes a week later than the Western Christian holiday. Russians celebrate the end of Lent by painting eggs and preparing special Easter cakes containing raisins and nuts.
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Sergey Pyatakov)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Easter Service in Cathedral of Christ the Savior (RIA Novosti / Vladimir Astapkovich)
Posts
