Prosecutors from New York State and San Francisco want phone makers to add features that would make stealing a smartphone pointless. … Read More
Prosecutor seeks docs in TeliaSonera bribes case
Prosecutors are seeking to force Sveriges Television to hand over documents believed to bear the handwriting of the Uzbek dictator’s daughter Gulnara Karimova in connection with an ongoing bribery probe. … Read More
Police on alert as Moscow court opens hearings into Bolotnaya case
The case is being heard by a district court, but the sessions have been moved to the larger city court building due to the public interest and the need for additional security measures. The court case involves 12 people who have been charged with inciting and taking part in mass unrest on May 6th 2012, the day before President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration. The sanctioned rally in support of democracy and against alleged violations in the 2011 parliamentary elections turned violent as some of the demonstrators attempted to break through police lines. Defense attorneys and some human rights advocates claim that the police tried to force the protesters into a confined area. Police say they were attacked by rioters who used flagpoles, stones and pieces of asphalt injuring about 40 officers and damaging their riot gear. In the course of the May 6 riots over 80 policemen sustained injuries and the total damage caused by the clashes is estimated at over 28 million roubles (US$900,000), according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. A representative of the defense team has told the press that they intended to ask the judge to return the case to prosecutors as it was not yet fully prepared for hearings. On the previous evening several people held single-pickets protests on Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square, in front of the Lower House HQ. The protesters held slogans suggesting that the trial of the 12 protesters was politically motivated and accused authorities of repression. More protests were scheduled on Thursday evening. In a connected case Russian prosecutors charged several leftist activists with plotting and organizing the unrest using money received from foreign sources – in particular, Georgian MP Givi Targamadze. The suspects include Sergey Udaltsov, the head of the unregistered movement Leftist Front, that specializes in street protests. One of Udaltsov’s aides, Konstantin Lebedev entered a plea deal and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in late April this year. In November last year, one of the Bolotnaya Square rioters - Maksim Luzyanin – was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison behind bars. One suspect in the case – Mikhail Kosenko – has been officially recognized as mentally ill and prosecutors now seek his forced treatment, not criminal punishment. … Read More
Bitcoin Crackdown? US laws choke digital cashflow anonymity
http://www.youtube.com/v/SaxTcIcauCI?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata More here: Bitcoin Crackdown? US laws choke digital cashflow anonymity
Day one of Manning trial focuses on intent of WikiLeaks source
Manning, a 25-year-old soldier who reached the rank of private first class in the United States Army, has been in pretrial custody since May 2010. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if a military judge convicts him at the end of the trial for providing support to al-Qaeda. In a small courtroom outside of Baltimore early Monday, Army prosecutors painted a picture of Pfc. Manning that portrayed him as a traitor that released files to WikiLeaks with intent to cause harm to the US. Manning’s defense counsel David Coombs insisted otherwise, however, and rejected the government’s argument that the soldier made contact with the anti-secrecy website in order to bring harm to the country he had taken an oath to protect. Manning previously pleaded guilty to a number of lesser charges lobbed by the US government, but his counsel’s biggest challenge will occur during the court-martial, when they are faced with defending the private against counts of aiding the enemy and espionage. Day one of the court-martial got underway around 10am Monday with Army prosecutors presenting a slideshow that paved the way for how they intend to prove that Pfc. Manning went to WikiLeaks will ill intentions. By presenting an outline of the evidence they plan to present as the trial continues trough the summer, prosecutors said they will show that Manning knowingly aided the enemy. “This is not a case about an accidental spill of classified information” or “a case about a few documents left in a barracks,” prosecutors said. “This, your honor, this is a case about a soldier who systemically harvested hundreds of thousands of documents from classified databases, and literally dumped that information onto the Internet in the hands of the enemy,” putting the lives of his fellow soldiers at risk. “This is a case about what happens when arrogance meets access to sensitive information.” Prosecutors also argued that Manning conspired with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, citing chat logs alleged to have occurred between the two in which Manning discussed classified intelligence that was publically requested and discussed by the WikiLeaks Twitter feed. “We would like a list of as many .mil email addresses as possible. Please contact editor@wikileaks.org,” one tweet read in part. Manning is accused of supplying WikiLeaks with a list containing the personal information of 74,000 troops shortly thereafter, and the Army may be able to prove that the soldier took a cue from Assange, likely setting the stage for an eventual case against Assange that could finally pressure his extradition to the US. But earlier this year, Manning testified during pretrial hearings that he was never sure who he communicated with during his few chats with a WikiLeaks staffer the government alleges to be Assange. Manning admitted to sending hundreds of thousands of files to WikiLeaks during a February 2013 statement, and on Monday his attorney said he had a very good reason for that. Speaking of one file Manning admitted to leaking — a video of a US Apache chopper opening fire and killing civilians — Coombs said Manning sent it to WikiLeaks in hopes of bringing change to a war in Iraq being fought in a way very much unlike it was being reported. “When he decided to release this information, he believed that this information showed how we value human life,” Coombs said. “He was troubled. And he believed that the American public saw it they too would be troubled. And maybe things would be changed,” he said. Manning also has been attributed with leaking an entire trove of sensitive files to the website, including State Department diplomatic cables, Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment files and other materials. Before he concluded his brief opening statement, Coombs offered insight as to why his client did as charged. “He released these documents because he was hoping to make the world a better place,” Coombs said. “He was 22 years old. He was young. He was a little naïve in thinking the information he selected could actually make a difference, but it was good intentions.” “He had absolutely no actual knowledge that the enemy would get access to it,” Coombs said. The prosecution called a handful of witnesses on Monday, including the Army officials who began the investigation into Pfc. Manning in May 2010 and his roommate in Iraq. The trial will enter day two on Tuesday and is expected to run through the summer. … Read More
Prosecutors seek jail terms for Berlusconi ‘prostitution accomplices’
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A verdict in Silvio Berlusconi’s own sex-related trial is due soon. In a parallel case Italian prosecutors have asked for seven-year jail sentences for three of his alleged accomplices.
Emilio Fede, a former TV news anchor in Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire, ex dental hygienist Nicole Minetti and showbiz agent Lele Mora are accused of helping create a “system of prostitution” for his benefit.
They face charges of procuring Karima El Mahroug, a former nightclub dancer, for paid sex with the former prime minister when she was under 18 years old. All three deny the charges.
El Mahroug, alias “Ruby”, also denies ever being a prostitute or having sex with Berlusconi, but has said she attended parties at his house near Milan and receiving thousands of euros.
More about: Italy, Milano, Political scandal, Silvio Berlusconi
Copyright © 2013 euronews
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Stand-Your-Ground law acquits Florida man who killed wife’s lover
Jurors decided, after two days of testimony, that Ralph Wald, 70, was justified in killing Walter Conley when Wald arrived home one night to find Conley, 32, having sex with Wald’s wife, Johnna Lynn Flores. Wald testified he shot Conley in the head and chest because he thought the younger man was an intruder who was raping the 41-year-old Flores. Wald’s attorneys successfully argued that their client’s case fell under the jurisdiction of the Stand-Your-Ground law, a self-defense plea used by defendants who witness a situation where someone appears to be in harm’s way and the only option is to intervene with deadly force. Nearly half of the fifty United States have some form of the law. Wald claimed he did not recognize Conley, one of Flores’ former boyfriends, when he found the two having sex on the living room floor at roughly 3:00 am on March 10, 2013. The couple had been married for under five months at the time. Prosecutors argued that Wald, who suffers from erectile dysfunction, murdered Conley in the midst of a jealous rage. “It’s a personal insult to conduct that kind of activity in a man’s home, his castle. It cuts to the quick. It’s brazen,” Assistant State Attorney Chris Moody said in his closing argument. “That kind of deep and personal insult, when you find another man having sex in your living room and you can’t, would make you want to lash out. And he did.” On the witness stand, Flores claimed she was “black-out” drunk and unable to remember much about the night in question. Flores and Wald were married only weeks after Conley was arrested for shooting at Flores, whose home he had been staying at for several weeks in October of 2012. “I am absolutely elated,” Wald told the Tampa Bay Times on the way out of the courtroom. Flores was also ready to celebrate, telling reporters “Because my husband puts me first, he’s taking me to Waffle House.” In the courtroom Wald’s attorney, Joe Episcopo, said Wald is “the kind of American who has made this country great.” Detectives said that when Wald phoned 911 he said he shot a man who had been “fornicating” with his wife, failing to ever mention the word “rape.” “If the same thing happened again, I would do the same thing,” Wald said on the stand. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong. I had a problem, I found someone raping my wife. I took care of it. I got a gun and I shot him.” The case has, perhaps inevitably, been sensationalized in the Florida tabloids. The trial has also been called a warm-up for the media firestorm that will descend on Orlando, Florida when the George Zimmerman trial begins later this year. Zimmerman, a Hispanic neighborhood watch coordinator, is charged with second-degree murder for killing Trayvon Martin, an African-American teen. Zimmerman is expected to plead not guilty by way of Stand-Your-Ground, maintaining the disputed defense that the 17-year-old attacked him and the only way to save his own life was to use deadly force. … Read More
