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EU funding 'Orwellian'
artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for
"abnormal behaviour"
The Telegraph
Ian Johnston
Sept 19, 2009
A five-year research programme,
called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which
act as "agents" to monitor and process information
from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer
networks and even individual computers.
Its main objectives include the
"automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or
violence".
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Related:
Listening to you at last: EU
plans to tap cell phones
Wikileaks
Oct 19, 2009
A report accidentally published
on the Internet provides insight into a secretive European
Union surveillance project designed to monitor its citizens,
as reported by Wikileaks
earlier this month. Project INDECT aims to mine data from
television, internet traffic, cellphone conversations, p2p
file
sharing and a range of other sources for crime prevention
and threat prediction. The €14.68 million project began in
January, 2009, and is scheduled to continue for five years under
its current mandate.
INDECT, "Extraction of
Information for Crime Prevention by Combining Web Derived
Knowledge and Unstructured Data", produced the accidentally
published report, but do not not enumerate all potential
applications of the search and surveillance technology. Police
are discussed as a prime example of users, with Polish
and British
forces detailed as active project participants. INDECT is funded
under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme
(FP7), and includes participation from Austria,
Bulgaria,
Czech
Republic, France,
Germany,
Hungary,
Poland,
Slovakia,
Spain,
and the United
Kingdom.
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Also Related:
EU
social network spy system brief, INDECT Work Package 4, 2009
Wikileaks
October 4, 2009
This file, marked
"confidential", describes development of an EU-funded
intelligence gathering system ("INDECT work package
4") designed to comb webblogs, chat sites, newsreports, and
social-networking sites to inorder to build up automatic
dossiers on individuals, organizations and their relationships.
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Head Of China Sovereign Wealth Fund
Openly Admits Asset Bubble Addressed By Creation Of More Bubbles
ZeroHedge.com
Submitted by Tyler Durden
August 31, 2009
In a phenomenal demonstration of
frankness and true economic assessment, the head of the China
Investment Council, Lou Jiwei, who controls China's $298 billion
sovereign wealth fund, admits the ponzi nature of today's
markets:
Indeed, they can't lose thanks to
the criminal silence on behalf of Mr. Jiwei's US financial
counterparties. It doesn't get any simpler than that folks. Keep
in mind Madoff was thrown in jail for a few hundred years for
much less: what's $55 billion when you are dealing with a $20
trillion+ global equity market Ponzi scheme. And yet both China
and the US continue their struggle to perpetuate a Ponzi, with
the full implicit backing of all financial, regulatory and legal
authorities. The system is now officially broken, even ignoring
the conspiratorial ramblings of fringe bloggers.
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Tamiflu causes sickness and
nightmares in children, study finds
The Times Online
By David Rose
July 31, 2009
More than half of children taking
the swine flu drug Tamiflu experience side-effects such as
nausea and nightmares, research suggests.
An estimated 150,000 people with
flu symptoms were prescribed the drug through a new hotline and
website last week, according to figures revealed yesterday.
Studies of children attending
three schools in London and one in the South West showed that
51-53 per cent had one or more side-effects from the medication,
which is offered to everyone in England with swine flu symptoms.
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All pupils to get swine flu
vaccine
The National
By Mitya Underwood
July 29, 2009
Abu Dhabi // More than 600,000
schoolchildren are to be immunised against swine flu once the
vaccine is ready, which is expected to be by late September.
Vaccination against the H1N1 virus will be mandatory for all
public and private schoolchildren aged five and up, a Ministry
of Health official said. It was not clear how the programme
would be funded.
The decision was made at a meeting
of the higher supervisory committee on H1N1 in the capital
earlier this week. Parents and teachers will also be able to
attend educational workshops held by health professionals to
alert and inform them about the swine flu virus.
Dr Ali Ahmed bin Shakar, the director general of the ministry,
said the logistics of the programme had not been finalised but
that the decision was a major part of the UAE’s mitigation
strategy.
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ICRC: Israel Traps Gazans
in Deprivation and Despair
Global Research
By Stephan Lendman
July 16, 2009
Founded in
Geneva, Switzerland in 1863, the International Committee of the
Red Cross is an "impartial, neutral and independent
organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to
protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and
other situations of violence and to provide them with
assistance." It also tries "to prevent suffering by
promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal
humanitarian principles."
It's legally
mandated to do it under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and has had
a permanent presence in Gaza since 1968. Currently 109 ICRC
staff work there, including 19 expatriates. They remained
throughout Operation Cast Lead and witnessed firsthand the
carnage and destruction that took place.
Cooperatively
with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), they evacuated
hundreds of people, some severely wounded in the conflict. As
able, they also repaired power and water supply lines and
provided hospitals with vital medicines and supplies. In
addition, ICRC surgeons performed operations in Gaza's Shifa
Hospital working alongside Palestinian doctors.
Post-conflict,
ICRC and PRCS collected information on Israeli violations of
international humanitarian laws. They also distributed vital
items, including plastic sheeting, cooking sets, mattresses,
blankets, hygiene kits, and more to over 72,000 Gazans whose
homes were partially or totally destroyed.
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Should Immunisation be
Compul;sory?
With calls for the MMR jab
to be made compulsory, should immunisation remain a matter of
individual choice?
The Guardian
June 3, 2009
A former chairman of the British
Medical Association is calling for the MMR jab to be made
compulsory. Sir Sandy Macara – who has submitted a
motion for debate at the BMA's annual conference – argues that
children should not be allowed to attend school unless they have
had the MMR vaccine.
Macara believes that Britain
should follow the example of Australia and Germany, which
require mandatory immunisation for school entry. The idea, the
BBC Today Programme reports, has found favour with the London
Strategic Health Authority, which asked the government if it
could introduce compulsory vaccinations. The government decided
vaccination should remain voluntary.
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UK Compulsory Vaccination
Imminent
Child Health Safety
Posted by John D Stone
May 29, 2009
Contrary
to assurances given by the UK Government to leading politicians,
fears earlier this year that the Government is moving to make
the vaccination schedule compulsory for British citizens
[including children] without reference to Parliament, and
without public debate seem to be being borne out.
New
law introduced by the backdoor in January this year obliges the
Secretary of State for Health to implement any
recommendations of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation: [Government
Hands Drug Industry Control of Vaccination].
Under
the new law, the JCVI is now asking [full quote below]:-
- what exactly ‘right’
meant [under the new NHS constitution] with respect
to the right of a child to receive a vaccine when their
parents were opposed to vaccination and
- how the constitution
affected the recommendations of the JCVI with
respect to legal challenge.’“
In
other words, if a parent does not want a child vaccinated but
the JCVI have recommended all children be vaccinated, the JCVI
are asking can their recommendation be challenged by the parent.
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MPs' expenses: Full list of
MPs investigated by The Telegraph
The Telegraph
May 6, 2009
Diane Abbott does not claim for a
second home, but is paid a supplement for living in the capital.
“All my fixtures and fittings are paid for out of my basic
salary”
Gerry Adams and four other Sinn
Fein MP's claimed more than £500,000 over five years even
though they refuse to attend Parliament
Adam Afriyie has not made any
claims on his second home allowance
Nick Ainger tried to claim £3,371
for furniture – including £768 for a Man Ray styling chair
and £1,434 for a sofabed – but was paid £3,075
Bob Ainsworth claimed nearly £6,000
for the redecoration of his designated second home
Peter Ainsworth tried to charge
nearly £1,000 for a “pewter finish” radiator cover on his
expenses and was warned by the fees office that it could be
excessive
Danny Alexander claimed £2,000
for work on kitchen and £2,000 for sofa and chairs. Also
received £1,140 for the cost of alcoves, shelving and a desk
for flat
Douglas Alexadner spent more than
£30,000 doing up his constituency home – which then suffered
damage in a house fire. Claimed the cost of hiring a "media
trainer" on his office expenses. Spent taxpayers’ money
on advertising at football and rugby league matches.
Graham Allen claimed £495 for
service charge on London flat and the maximum £400 for food on
most occasions. Food claims reduced when he twice tried to claim
over £500 a month
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