REPORT: Austrian adventurer "Felix" in Lebanon

Source : LBCI News

The  Austrian adventurer Felix Baugmartner participated in the International Advertising Mena Cristal Conference in Kfardebian, where he spoke about his experience and the preparations which lasted five years for the historical jump.

Felix set the world record for skydiving an estimated 39 kilometers, reaching an estimated speed of 1300 km/h on the 14th of October 2012.

During his participation in the conference, Felix said that by setting this record, he achieved a dream which he has been dreaming of since he was 16 years old.

In this context, Felix told LBCI that the "biggest learning was the unlimited power of will", adding that "if you focus on something, if you have a goal and you do not let loose, you can achieve anything".

On the other hand, LBCI was able to make an exclusive interview during which he explained, in details, his experience in space. The interview is expected to be aired later.

London tube network to adorn all 270 stations with art

Source : Xinhua | English.news.cn

LONDON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The London Underground system announced on Thursday that it would put a work of art on each of its 270 stations as part of celebrations to mark its 150th anniversary.

The 270 works of art have all been created by the same artist, Londoner Mark Wallinger. Each work is individual and all are based on a labyrinth design, emphasizing the connections between the stations and the network of rails, lines, and underground passages linking them.

The artworks need to be robust to survive in the hostile environment of the London Underground where they could be exposed to continual wear and tear, weathering or vandalism.

Each is in black and white on a single 60 centimeter squared vitreous enamel panel. Wallinger has previously created art for display on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, among other commissions.

"The Underground has been part of my life since childhood. It's surely every artist's dream to create a permanent work that will be encountered by so many people and this opportunity is especially close to my heart," Wallinger said.

Tamsin Dillon, head of art at London Underground, said, "Ground-breaking art and design has always been part of London Underground. These striking, permanent black and white artworks are the perfect way to celebrate the Tube's 150th anniversary."

The first 10 art works were unveiled on Thursday at central London Underground stations.

London was the city with the world's first underground railway at the beginning of 1863.

Picasso sold for US$45m at auction

Source : Window to China New

Pablo Picasso portrait of his mistress and "golden muse" Marie-Therese Walter sold for 28.6 million pounds (US$45 million) on Tuesday, leading an important Sotheby's auction of impressionist, modern and surrealist art.

The sale was the first of a series held in London this month by Sotheby's, Christie's and smaller auction houses in the latest barometer of the strength of the high-end art market.

Prices for the most sought-after works have soared in recent years despite broader economic concerns, with collectors in China, Russia and the Middle East joining more established patrons in Europe and the United States.

Subtracting the buyer's premium of more than 10 percent, the amount realized for the 1932 Picasso was at the lower end of pre-sale estimates of 25 million-35 million pounds.

Nonetheless, it was comfortably the top lot of an evening when a series of works on paper by Austrian artist Egon Schiele arguably stole the limelight.

Schiele's 1914 "Lovers (Self Portrait With Wally)" fetched 7.9 million pounds, an auction record for the artist for a work on paper.

Also sold by the Leopold Museum in Vienna was his "Self Portrait in Green Shirt with Eyes Closed" which sold for 5.1 million pounds, well above expectations of between 1.8 million and 2.5 million pounds.

The combined tally for Schiele works, sold by the museum to help settle a long-running restitution case involving art deemed to have been stolen by the Nazis in the 1930s, was 14 million pounds.

Other lots fared less well, notably Max Beckmann's "Before the Ball - Two Women With a Cat" which went unsold despite pre-sale estimates of 5 million- 8 million pounds.

Overall the evening brought in 121.1 million pounds in sales, within expectations of 103 million-149 million.

Fervent fans mark Marley's birthday in Jamaica

Source : Times Republican

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Hundreds of tourists joined dreadlocked Rastafarian priests, leading reggae musicians and some of Bob Marley's relatives at the late reggae icon's old house in Jamaica to mark the 68th anniversary of his birth Wednesday.

Since his death from cancer in 1981 at age 36, Marley has become more than Jamaica's most famous musical export. The trailblazing reggae songwriter's message of unity and respect for human rights remains a beacon of hope for some in this Caribbean nation chronically struggling with a sputtering economy and high rates of violence.

"It's the same struggle now as when he was alive. So his music, when you hear it, it's like he's singing today even though he died some 30 odd years ago," said Mutabaruka, a famed dub poet who attended the celebration along with reggae singers like Sizzla Kalonji.

In the early morning light, some of Marley's relations and old friends danced and chanted to the pounding of Rastafarian drums in the yard of his Kingston home, which is now a family-run museum displaying his guitar, clothing and other memorabilia. Later in the day, Marley's songs were blasted from big speakers as people danced and chatted amid clouds of marijuana smoke.

Donisha Prendergast, a documentary filmmaker and artist who is Marley's eldest granddaughter, said her grandfather's message of "one love" and social revolution remains alive and well. But she said more Jamaicans need to heed it.

"I don't think most people here are really hearing it, you know? They know that his music is around and they are proud of it, but they don't live it. Because if they did, then we would be a stronger people, we would be stronger characters," Prendergast said.

The Caribbean country has struggled the last 40 years, due in large part to political mismanagement by the two main political parties. Good jobs are scarce, the local currency is sliding and the government is so swamped with debt that about half of the budget goes to loan payments.

There were 1,087 slayings last year, which was touted as the lowest number of killings in nine years on the island of about 2.8 million people. When Chicago, with roughly the same population, chalked up 506 homicides last year, the bloodshed put the city at the center of the U.S. debate over guns.

On Wednesday, Culture Minister Lisa Hanna encouraged Jamaicans to listen to Marley's lyrics, saying they called for Jamaicans to create a "more wholesome, caring, peaceful and progressive society."

Most young people in Jamaica listen to the brash reggae-rap hybrid of dancehall, but there is a new generation of music lovers who have turned to Marley's albums.

"Bob Marley's music is definitely inspirational to listen to," said Marlene Haughton, an unemployed 20-year-old who enthusiastically sang along with Marley's "Trenchtown Rock," whose lyrics say: "One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain."

Marley's popularity remains strong around the globe, and his music continues to sell steadily. A long-in-the-works documentary about his life was released last year.

Some of Marley's foreign fans journeyed to the Kingston museum to take part in Wednesday's festivities.

A dreadlocked Japanese man who goes by the name of Bongho Jatusy smoked a long wooden pipe stuffed with marijuana and nodded his head to the music.

"Bob Marley, he's universal,"

63rd Berlin film festival begins...

Source : thenews.com.pk

BERLIN: The 63rd Berlin film festival opens Thursday with a gala screening of Chinese director Wong Kar Wai's martial arts epic about the mentor of kung fu superstar Bruce Lee.

Wong, who is also leading the Berlinale's jury this year, is using the event as a launch pad for the worldwide release of "The Grandmaster", which has opened in China to rave reviews and a box office bonanza.

The film, whose original two-hours-plus length has been chopped slightly for the world market, stars Hong Kong heart-throb Tony Leung, who became an international star in Wong's 2000 hit "In the Mood for Love", and Beijing-born star Zhang Ziyi ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon").

Wong "has added a new and exciting facet to his body of work, and created an artful, visually powerful genre film," festival director Dieter Kosslick said.

The film spans several decades of Chinese history to tell the story of legendary martial artist Yip Man, who went on to train Lee, and features dazzling battle scenes between rival fighters.

Wong, 54, told reporters in Beijing last month he was confident the movie, which is screening out of competition at the 11-day Berlinale, had global appeal.

"There is no such thing as a Western or Eastern audience... The elements of cinema are the same worldwide, although their expression is different," he said.

The film follows Leung as the Grandmaster through some of China's most tumultuous recent history including the Japanese invasion in the 1930s.

It spent nearly a decade in gestation, amid rumours of extensive re-shooting and injured actors.

Wong made his international breakthrough in 1994 with "Chungking Express" and was the first Chinese director to sit on the jury at Cannes.

He will head the panel handing out the Berlinale's Golden and Silver Bear top prizes among 19 contenders on February 16.

The first major European film festival of the year and traditionally its most politically minded, the Berlinale this year is showcasing pictures about the human impact of the West's economic crisis, two decades of upheaval in eastern Europe as well as a fresh releases from US independent directors.

Matt Damon teams up with US director Gus Van Sant for the first time since their 1997 Oscar winner "Good Will Hunting" in "Promised Land", as a fracking firm executive pressuring cash-strapped farmers to sell their property.

Steven Soderbergh will enter the running with "Side Effects", billed as his last movie before he heads into semi-retirement, featuring Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones as psychiatrists handing out drugs to stressed-out Americans.

The grandes dames of French cinema Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche will all be unveiling new work.

And Poland's Malgoska Szumowska, one of three women vying for the Golden Bear, will tackle the tale of a gay Roman Catholic priest with the keenly awaited "In the Name of".

Iran's Jafar Panahi, a director who has scooped up international prizes for socially critical movies that are banned at home, will present "Closed Curtain" about two fugitives hiding from the police.

Oscar-winning Bosnian film-maker Danis Tanovic ("No Man's Land") returns with "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker", exposing the wretched conditions in a poor and isolated Roma community.

Last year the Golden Bear went to Italian veterans Paolo and Vittorio Taviani for the docudrama "Caesar Must Die" about prison inmates staging Shakespeare.

With more than 400 films due to screen at the festival, much of the buzz is expected to come from beyond the race for the key prizes.

"Dark Blood", the last film with River Phoenix, the US rising star who died of a drug overdose at 23 two decades ago, will show out of competition, as will Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's final chapter in their slow-burn romantic trilogy, "Before Midnight" by Richard Linklater.

 

Gunman fires at Danish anti-Islam writer Lars Hedegaard

Source : thetelegraph.com.au

AN UNKNOWN gunman has tried to shoot a Danish writer and historian who is a prominent critic of Islam, reports say. TV2 News and the Politiken news site say Lars Hedegaard was not injured in the shooting. Both say the gunman came up to Hedegaard's Copenhagen home on the pretext of delivering a package, and then fired at least one shot but missed the writer. Copenhagen police confirmed that there had been a shooting without injuries. They wouldn't say whether Hedegaard was the intended target. Hedegaard heads the International Free Press Society, a group that claims press freedom is under threat from Islam. He was fined 5000 kroner ($875) in 2011 for making a series of insulting and degrading statements about Muslims.

French PM backs closer Europe-Southeast Asia ties

Source : Xinhua

BANGKOK, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- French Prime Minister Jean- Marc Ayrault on Tuesday urged further collaboration between Southeast Asian and European communities to strengthen economic and military stability in both regions during his visit to Thailand, the Thai News Agency reported.

In a speech on the French-Thai relationship at Thammasat University in Bangkok, he described rapidly-emerging Southeast Asia as an attractive region for investment, saying the regional community should map out measures to prevent an economic crisis similar to the European Union debacle.

Each country should not only shield itself but rather unite to create a larger shield, he said.

Ayrault called on the European and Southeast Asian regions to jointly tackle the problems of climate change, the environment and global warming, and prevent profit-taking speculation on natural resources and agricultural produce.

The French prime minister is scheduled to meet with his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra at the Government House on Tuesday evening. They will preside over the signing of five agreements on bilateral cooperation in education, defense, public health and research.

Far-left group claims responsibility for attack on U.S. embassy in Ankara

Source :  Xinhua

ANKARA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack targeting the U.S. embassy in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Friday, Turkish media reported.

In a statement published on its website, the leftist group justified the attack as retaliation for the U.S. policy in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya, according to public broadcaster TRT.

The suicide bomber who killed Friday at least one person and wounded another in the attack on the U.S. embassy is a member of the outlawed leftist group, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday evening, adding that Turkey would stand united against terrorist attacks.

U.S. vice president will meet Syrian opposition leader in Europe: White House

Source : Alarabiya.net Mobile

US Vice President Joe Biden meeting with the Syrian opposition leader Mouaz Al-Khatib in Europe would be the highest-level U.S. gathering with the Syrian opposition. (Reuters)

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib during a European trip in coming days and will discuss U.S. concerns about the Syrian conflict with Russia as well, White House officials said on Thursday.

It would be the highest-level U.S. meeting with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in a 22-month- old war that has killed more than 60,000 people and forced more than 700,000 to flee Syria, according to the United Nations.

Biden is due to meet al-Khatib on Saturday in Munich on the margins of a security conference, where the U.S. vice president is also due to deliver a speech, the officials said.

“The position of the United States is focused on supporting an end to the Assad regime, which is why we have a significant amount of pressure applied on the Assad regime through sanctions and other means, while at the same time we’re working to bolster a Syrian Opposition Council that we recognize as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people,” Ben Rhodes, U.S. deputy national security adviser, said in a conference call with reporters.

President Barack Obama has been criticized for not doing more to aid Syrian rebels. Obama has said he has wrestled with the question whether a U.S. military intervention in Syria's 22-month-old conflict would help resolve the bloody conflict or would make things worse.

Biden expected to discuss U.S. aid

Biden is expected to discuss U.S. humanitarian assistance and political and “non-lethal” support for Syria in his meetings with al-Khatib and others, Rhodes said.

Among officials Biden will talk to is Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the aide said.

“We’ll be discussing the political way forward,” Rhodes said. “And what we would like to see from other countries, including Russia, is an acknowledgment that Bashar al-Assad must go and that there needs to be a transition within Syria to a new government.”

Biden is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday, French President Francois Hollande on Monday, and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday.

Obama this week said the United States would boost humanitarian aid to Syria with $155 million in aid for food, medical care and clothing for people in Syria and refugees.

Khatib

Khatib, the scion of a Damascene Muslim religious dynasty, is a mainstream Muslim preacher from a family that has long been the custodians of the ancient Umayyad Mosque in central Damascus, one of the holiest places of Islam. He is widely respected across Syria's different religious communities.

He first made his mark in the earliest days of the revolt, telling mourners at the funeral of protesters shot by Assad's forces that freedom was a natural right.

The bearded former imam, who studied geophysics and has worked as an oil company geologist, was banned from preaching for 17 years and imprisoned several times after the speech. He is now based in Cairo.

Rebels hold a press conference

Meanwhile, a group of opposition fighters from Daraya city near the Syrian capital held their first press conference on Thursday, signaling the opposition’s increasing strength against the regime inside the country.

Local Council of Daraya City group, which called for humanitarian relief, discussed how the opposition fighters in the past 70 days have succeeded in pushing the conflict from the outskirts of Damascus into the heart of the capital itself.

Their press conference comes in a time when three bombings rocked al-Maliki neighborhood near the fortified Presidential Palace in Damascus.

Despite the opposition fighters advances near Damascus, it remains unclear whether they’ll be able to turn the tables on the regime’s forces. The fighters launched a hasty offensive on Damascus last summer but were swiftly routed by government forces.

Turkish planes violate Greek airspace

Source : Voice of Russia

Sm even planes have violated the Greek airspace on Thursday evening, the Athens News Agency says.

The country`s air forces responded by sending its aircraft to intercept the Turkish ones.

Reports say that four Turkish planes violated airspace to the north of Chios, and the other three were spotted to the east of Rhodes.

The Turkish air force is said to have been taking part in naval exercises.

Greece regularly blames Turkey for violating its airspace. The two countries have a territorial dispute over the Aegean Sea.

Drug-Smuggling Colombian Cleric Arrested in Moscow

Source : RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, January 30 (RIA Novosti) – Russian police detained a Colombian clergyman for attempting to smuggle cocaine through a Moscow airport, the Federal Drug Control Service reported on Wednesday.

The cleric, identified as Fabio Ricardo Rodriguez, attracted the suspicion of the law enforcement officials at Sheremetyevo airport because he seemed sick and nervous.

“He was detained and delivered to a Moscow hospital, where some 13 containers with cocaine were discovered in the man’s digestive tract,” officials said in a statement, but did not say when the arrest took place. “Five more containers with drugs were found in his luggage,” they said.

Rossiya 24 state television showed a bowl full of condoms reportedly filled with drugs, and Rodriguez behind bars dressed in long dark clothes and wearing a crucifix. He claimed in an interview he was forced to smuggle by the Colombian mafia.

Rodriguez served a parish in the Colombian capital Bogota, officials said. He is a member of a breakaway Anglican group in South America, which lists him is a "missionary reverend" on its website.

He faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.

Thailand detains 200 Rohingya boat people fleeing from Myanmar

Source : Islamic Invitation Turkey

Thailand says it has intercepted a boat carrying 200 Myanmarese Rohingyas near the southwestern island of Phuket and has detained the refugees.

The Rohingya refugees were spotted off Racha Noi Island in Phuket’s Muang district on Tuesday.

The Thai Naval Force said the refugees were provided with food and water.

On Monday, Thai National Security Council Secretary General Paradorn Pattanathabutr stated tha Thailand would no longer allow Rohingya boat people fleeing ethnic violence in Myanmar to enter the country.

“The Thai navy from now on will be stricter with them and will no longer allow them to land,” AFP quoted Pattanathabutr as saying.

In recent months, a large number of Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled to Thailand.

Some 800,000 Rohingyas are deprived of citizenship rights due to the policy of discrimination that ha denied them the right of citizenship and made them vulnerable to acts of violence and persecution expulsion, and displacement.

The Myanmar government has so far refused to extricate the stateless Rohingyas in the western state o Rakhine from their citizenship limbo, despite international pressure to give them a legal status.

Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar for many years.

Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremists who call themselves Buddhists.

The extremists frequently attack Rohingyas and have set fire to their homes in several villages in Rakhine Myanmar Army forces allegedly provided the fanatics containers of petrol for torching the houses o Muslim villagers, who are then forced to flee.

Myanmar’s government has been accused of failing to protect the Muslim minority.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has also come under fire for her stance on the violence The Nobel Peace laureate has refused to censure the Myanmarese military for its persecution of the Rohingyas.

Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have issued separate statements, calling on Myanmar to take action to protect the Rohingya Muslim population against extremists.

Indonesian parliament supports tough measures against hackers of govt websites

Source :  Globaltimes.cn

Indonesian parliament pledged support on the police's recent move in arresting an alleged hacker of the government's websites, saying that the hacker's deeds may disrupt the country's sovereignty, local media reported on Wednesday.

"The hacking on government's websites may disrupt the country' s dignity and sovereignty So we must not lose in this cyber war," Agus Gumiwang, Deputy Chairman of Commission I in the parliament that oversees government's defense, intelligence, foreign affairs, communications and telecommunications affairs said here.

Agus said that the police should not pay attention on requests to release the arrested hacker and presses ahead with legal proceeding against the alleged hacker.

He said that the government must continue tracing those involved in the hacking of government's websites.

The Indonesian police recently arrested a 22 year-old man in Jember, East Java for allegedly hacked Indonesian president's official website since January 9.

The arrest against the alleged hacker incited more actions from hackers, they intruded and hacked websites ran by Indonesian ministries and agencies in the last two days, the Antara news agency reported.

Indonesian Communications and Telecommunications (Kominfo) Minister Tifatal Sembiring pointed out that legal action must be applied against those involved in the hacking of the government's website.

He said that legal proceeding against the hackers would be very much depended on the process in police office and how the police handle the case in the first place.

"We had arrested many hackers, but they were only warned and guided to spend their internet skills to positive ways," the minister said.

S. Korea to fire Naro space rocket at 4 p.m. local time

Source : Xinhua

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korea is set to launch its Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSVL-1), also known as Naro, at 4 p. m. local time from the Naro Space Center, located 480 kilometers south of Seoul, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology told a press briefing Wednesday.

The rocket, with a Russian-built first stage and a South Korean- developed second stage, failed in its first two launch attempts in 2009 and 2010, and the most recent launch attempt has been delayed since last October because of technical reasons.

Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations to PACE to meet in Strasbourg in April

Source : Trend.Az

The Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will meet during the spring session of the organization in Strasbourg, member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, deputy chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Sevinj Fataliyeva told Trend today.

She said the meeting will take place during a meeting of the PACE subcommittee on Nagorno -Karabakh. Fataliyeva expressed hope that Armenia will take a constructive position at the meeting.

The session will take place in Strasbourg on April 20 - 22, she said.

PACE chairman Jean-Claude Mignon met with heads of the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations to PACE within PACE winter session. The importance of holding the negotiations for peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was stressed at the meeting.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

Niger gives green light to U.S. drone deployment: source

Source : Yahoo!

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger has given permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior government source said.

The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source said.

"Niger has given the green light to accepting American surveillance drones on its soil to improve the collection of intelligence on Islamist movements," said the source, who asked not to be identified.

The drones could be stationed in Niger's northern desert region of Agadez, which borders Mali, Algeria and Libya, the source said.

A spokesperson for the United States' African Command (AFRICOM) declined to comment.

The United States already has drones and surveillance aircraft stationed at several points around Africa. Its only permanent military base is in the small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 miles from Mali.

After her talks with Issoufou, Williams told reporters they had discussed economic and military cooperation and development issues. She also expressed Washington's appreciation for the French-led military mission to expel an alliance of al Qaeda- linked fighters from northern Mali.

French and Malian troops retook control of the ancient trading town of Timbuktu on Monday, as they drove deep into the heart of the desert region the size of Texas seized by Islamist fighters last year.

Washington has provided military transport planes to airlift men and equipment into Mali but said it will not send combat troops.

The head of the U.S. Africa Command, General Carter Ham, visited Niger last month. The poor, landlocked West Africa state has said it wants to have closer security cooperation with Washington.

History, culture, humor on new UK citizenship test

Source : Shanghai Daily

WHAT does it mean to be British? Monarchs, Margaret Thatcher and Monty Python are all important parts of the nation's heritage, according to a new guide for immigrants introduced yesterday.

The government is revising the "Life in the U.K." handbook and test taken by those seeking to become British citizens or settle down in the kingdom permanently.

While the previous version, created under the former Labour government, included some practical questions about daily life, the emphasis is now firmly on British history and culture. There are questions on sports, music and historical figures from William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill.

The Conservative-led government says the new handbook also features "an exploration of Britons' unique sense of humor and satire," alongside an explanation of aspects of cultural life including the national love of gardening, the novels of Jane Austen and the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Immigration Minister Mark Harper said the book "focuses on values and principles at the heart of being British." But Don Flynn, director of the Migrants' Rights Network, likened it to a private school entry exam, "which requires complete identification with elite views of British history and culture."

The handbook asks migrants to learn a potted history of Britain from the Stone Age to the present day. Among its facts:

- Britain has been an island nation for some 10,000 years, since the last ice age ended and left a watery English Channel between England and the European mainland.

- Despite its name, the Hundred Years War against France lasted 116 years.

- King Henry VIII "was most famous for breaking away from the Church of Rome and marrying six times."

- No monarch has set foot in the House of Commons since 1642, when Charles I tried unsuccessfully to arrest five lawmakers. After a civil war, he was beheaded.

- Britain's first coffee house was the Hindoostane Coffee House in London.

Putin orders Russia's intelligence service to expand cyber protection

Source : Atlantic Council

From Andrei Soldatov, Moscow Times: President Vladimir Putin recently ordered the Federal Security Service to create a system to allow the state to detect, prevent and disable cyberattacks in Russia and at diplomatic stations abroad. It is an ambitious goal and one that the FSB is well-equipped to tackle with the help of its Information Security Center and Communications Security Center. . . .

But the new structure operating under the auspices of the FSB is unable to take on the function of a national CERT agency. It was founded by the FSB center to protect government websites from attacks, not the entire Russian cyberspace.

In a Jan. 15 decree, Putin ordered the FSB to create a system that would protect not only state information resources but also "other information systems." In addition, the FSB was instructed to establish an exchange of information with "authorized agencies of foreign states and international organizations." This apparently means that it should collaborate with the CERTs in other countries. . . .

A national CERT would give Russia access to the exchange of information about hackin attacks that analogous centers in the West have been collecting since the first CERT wa founded at Carnegie Mellon University in 1988. In practice, this would provide the FSB with information about computer incidents that have occurred all over the world.

Andrei Soldatov is an intelligence analyst at Agentura.ru and co-author of "The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB.

S. Korean leaders meet with Aung San Suu Kyi

Source :  Xinhua

SEOUL, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his successor Park Geun-hye met Tuesday with Myanmar's opposition leader and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi, their aides said.

Su Kyi arrived in Seoul a day ago for a five-day trip, during which she is scheduled to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights and attend the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Winter Games in PyeongChang.

"Economic development and democratization should go hand in hand," Lee told the pro-democracy icon in their meeting focused on economic and educational exchanges between the two countries, according to his spokesman Lee Mi-yon.

Park, who replaces Lee next month, also met with Su Kyi and voiced hope the two countries will make joint efforts for greater freedom and peace in the region, according to her aides.

The Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy was released from house arrest in 2010 and became a parliamentarian in the by-election in April 2012.

North Korean leader vows strong action

Source : TimesRepublican.com

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened top security and foreign affairs officials and ordered them to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," state media said Sunday, indicating that he plans to push forward with a threat to explode a nuclear device in defiance of the United Nations.

The meeting of top officials led by Kim makes clear that he backs Pyongyang's defiant stance in protest of U.N. Security Council punishment for a December rocket launch. The dispatch in the official Korean Central News Agency did not say when the meeting took place.

Last week, the Security Council condemned North Korea's Dec. 12 launch of a long-range rocket as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The council, including North Korea ally China, punished Pyongyang with more sanctions and ordered the regime to refrain from a nuclear test — or face "significant action."

North Korea responded by rejecting the resolution and maintaining its right to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful civilian space program.

It also warned that it would keep developing rockets and testing nuclear devices to counter what it sees as U.S. hostility. A rare statement was issued Thursday by the powerful National Defense Commission, the top governing body led by Kim.

North Korea cites a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S.-led U.N. Command mans the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, and Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.

North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited the country's nuclear complex northwest of Pyongyang in November 2010.

However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists have found a way to build nuclear warheads small enough to mount on a long-range missile.

Experts say regular tests are needed to perfect the technique, and another atomic test could take the country closer to its goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile designed to strike the United States. North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009.

South Korean defense officials say North Korea is technically ready to conduct a nuclear test in a matter of days.

Satellite photos taken Wednesday show that over the past month, roads have been kept clear of snow and that North Koreans may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device would be detonated.

Analysis of the images of the Punggye-ri site was provided Friday to The Associated Press by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

The U.S., South Korea and other countries have warned North Korea not to go ahead with a nuclear test, saying that would only deepen the country's international isolation.

After meeting with Chinese officials Friday, U.S. envoy for North Korea Glyn Davies said a nuclear test would set back efforts to restart regional talks on the North's nuclear disarmament.