Record high fatal radiation levels, hole in reactor detected at crippled Fukushima nuclear facility
Record high radiation levels that’s lethal even after brief exposure have been detected at a damaged reactor at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Specialists also found a hole, likely caused by melted nuclear fuel.
A hole of no less than one square meter in size has also been discovered beneath the reactor’s pressure vessel, TEPCO said. According to researchers, the apparent opening in the metal grating of one of three reactors that had melted down in 2011, is believed to be have been caused by melted nuclear fuel that fell through the vessel.The iron scaffolding has a melting point of 1500 degrees, TEPCO said, explaining that there is a possibility the fuel debris has fallen onto it and burnt the hole. Such fuel debris have been discovered on equipment at the bottom of the pressure vessel just above the hole, it added.
Iran tested nuclear-capable cruise missile: German newspaper
Iran has tested a cruise missile called “Sumar” that is capable of carrying nuclear weapons in addition to test-firing a medium-range ballistic missile on Sunday, German newspaper Die Welt reported Thursday, citing unspecified intelligence sources.
No comment was immediately available from Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency or from Iranian authorities.
The newspaper said the Sumar cruise missile was built in Iran and traveled around 600 km in its first known successful test. The missile is believed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons and may have a range of 2,000 to 3,000 km, the paper said, citing intelligence sources.
Cruise missiles are harder to counter than ballistic missiles since they fly at lower altitudes and can evade enemy radar, confounding missile defense missiles and hitting targets deep inside an opponent’s territory.
But the biggest advantage from Iran’s point of view, a security expert told Die Welt, was that cruise missiles are not mentioned in any United Nations resolutions that ban work on ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
International sanctions on Tehran were lifted in January last year under a nuclear deal brokered in 2015 by Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States.
Under the nuclear deal Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting of most sanctions. According to a 2015 U.N. resolution endorsing the deal, Iran is still called upon to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.
News of Iran’s reported cruise missile test came hours after Washington said it was putting Iran “on notice” for its ballistic missile test and signaled that it could impose new sanctions.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-missiles-cruise-idUSKBN15H0WR?il=0
Rockets Fly As Donetsk Returns To Darkest Days Of War
True, fighting has continued more or less constantly in east Ukraine, the industrial heartland known as the Donbass, ever since the fighting was meant to have stopped as a result of not one but two cease-fire agreements. But this week it escalated in a dramatic fashion, and with clear signs of Kremlin support. Into the fray on the pro-Russian separatists’ side have come heavy-duty armaments such as Grad rockets and the Buk missile system which shot down MH17. (And there’s only one place where the separatists can get this stuff). Also, Ukrainian soldiers are receiving ominous text messages on their cell phones, redolent of the kind of cyber-ops used against them before in the war, the technology and operators of which have been linked to Russian military intelligence hacking of the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s emails.
According to Ukrainian official reports, at least 12 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 57 wounded since Sunday, along with civilian killed and five wounded. The Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk report at least nine of their fighters and five civilians dead, though it must always be cautioned that the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic has form for exaggerating or even outright fabricating reports of civilian casualties. Nevertheless the fighting is the worst seen in an urban area in well over a year.
Avdiivka is of key economic importance to the Donetsk region, housing the vast Avdiivka coke and Chemical Plant, the biggest coke producer in Ukraine and one of the largest in Europe. The plant forms a key part of the metallurgy industry in the Donbass, the backbone of the region’s economy, providing coke for steel works in Mariupol, another government-held city threatened by Russia-backed forces down on the Azov coast.
Russia to deliver 10 Su-35 fighter jets to China in 2017
“The first four planes were supplied late last year and the second batch of 10 jets will be delivered to the customer this year,” said an unnamed source familiar with the matter.
The contract for 24 Su-35s was inked in November 2015, making China the first international buyer of the advanced Russian warplane. The three-year deal for the aircraft, ground equipment, and spare engines is valued at $2 billion.
The Su-35 is a long-range ‘4++ generation’ super-maneuverable fighter jet. It is armed with an internal 30mm cannon and has 12 hardpoints with a combined capacity of 8,000 kg, compatible with a wide range of unguided and guided missiles and bombs. Its maximum speed is 2,500 km/h, with a range of 3,400 km, and a combat radius of around 1,600 km.
https://www.rt.com/business/376067-russia-china-jets-delivery/
President Donald Trump ‘slammed Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal, accused him of trying to “ship the next Boston bombers” to the U.S. then HUNG UP on their hour-long call after just 25 minutes’
- Donald Trump slammed Malcolm Turnbull over asylum seeker deal
- President Trump said it was ‘the worst call by far’ he had taken that day
- He was said to have accused Australia of trying to ship ‘the next Boston bombers’
- He took to Twitter on Thursday to slam Obama administration for the ‘dumb deal
- The deal relates to resettling 1250 refugees detained on Manus Island and Naura
- Mr Turnbull refused to comment on the details of the phone conversation
Donald Trump slammed Malcolm Turnbull over a proposed asylum seeker deal and accused the Australian Prime Minister of looking to ship off the ‘next Boston bombers’ to the United States during their first official telephone conversation.
On Thursday afternoon the newly-elected president took to Twitter to slam the Obama administration for agreeing to take on the refugees in the first place.
‘Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!,’ he wrote.
Senior US officials told the Washington Post that Donald Trump abruptly hung up on Mr Turnbull after just 25 minutes – when the pair were meant to speak for an hour.
But an indignant Mr Turnbull returned serve, telling 2GB’s Ben Fordham: ‘As far as the call is concerned, I’m very disappointed, the report the president hung up is not correct, the call ended courteously.’
A fuming President Trump reportedly told Mr Turnbull that the conversation was ‘the worst call by far’ he had taken that day, after ‘boasting’ about pleasant exchanges with Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.
President Trump reportedly ranted about the deal the Obama administration struck with Canberra to take 1250 genuine refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, telling Mr Turnbull: ‘I don’t want these people’.
It was the ‘worst deal ever’, he told the prime minister, complaining he was ‘going to get killed’ politically for following through on the resettlement agreement.
Sky News sources claim President Trump was ‘yelling’ at Mr Turnbull at points during the heated conversation, which took place on Saturday afternoon Washington time, Sunday morning Australian time.
Japan’s Abe to propose major job-creating plan to Trump, reports say
Published February 02, 2017
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly plans to propose a sweeping economic cooperation initiative meant to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. when he meets with President Donald Trump later this month.
Angling to pre-empt complaints over Japan’s perennial trade surplus with the U.S., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly plans to propose a sweeping economic cooperation initiative meant to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. when he meets with President Donald Trump later this month.
Abe and Trump are expected to meet on Feb. 10. Major Japanese newspapers cited a draft of the proposal that calls for cooperation on building high-speed trains in the U.S. northeast, Texas and California. Japan would share technology on artificial intelligence, robotics, small-scale nuclear power plants, space and Internet technology.
The reports Thursday said the proposed public-private initiative would create several hundred thousand jobs, reports said, and involve $450 billion in new investment.
Imam comes clean about Michigan man’s claim that mom died due to travel ban
Published February 02, 2017
DEARBORN, Mich. – A Detroit-area woman whose son told television stations that she died because President Donald Trump’s travel ban prevented her from returning to the U.S. for medical care actually died several days before the order was signed, the leader of a mosque said.
Imam Husham Al-Hussainy spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday about comments Mike Hager made to TV stations in Boston and Detroit. Hager said he tried to bring his ill mother back from Iraq on Friday, but that she was not allowed to enter the country because of Trump’s order temporarily barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Al-Hussainy told the AP that the woman actually died on Jan. 21 or 22 and that prayers were said for her at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn. Al-Hussainy said he learned she died then by members of his mosque and from posts on the family’s Facebook page.
Trump Admin: Iran in Breach of Nuke Deal
Restraint toward Islamic Republic ‘will end’
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn / AP
BY:
February 2, 2017 5:00 am
In a vast departure from the Obama White House, the Trump administration went on record Wednesday to accuse Iran of being in violation of the landmark nuclear agreement as a result of its recent test of ballistic missile technology, according to a senior White House official, who said that Iran has officially been put “on notice.”
Retired Gen. Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, accused Iran of breaching international accords governing the nuclear agreement. He lashed out at the Islamic Republic for threatening American military assets in the Persian Gulf region.
Flynn’s remarks represent a break with the previous administration, which worked to hide Iranian transgressions and declined to publicly state that Iran’s behavior violated the nuclear deal.
One senior White House official disclosed to the Washington Free Beacon that “the restraint of recent years” when it comes to Iran “will end.”
FBI defends withholding details of iPhone exploit, cites national security, ‘hostile entities’
Disclosing additional details involving how the FBI unlocked an Apple iPhone at the center of a terrorism probe would be detrimental to national security, attorneys for the bureau argued in court filings Monday.
Nearly a year after the FBI spurred a heated security debate in a bid to access the contents of a password-protected smartphone recovered from the scene of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, attorneys for the government defended its decision to largely withhold information about how it eventually unlocked terrorism suspect Syed Farook’s iPhone.
The FBI ultimately hired an third-party vendor to hack into Farook’s iPhone for an undisclosed sum last year after the government unsuccessfully sued Apple in hopes of compelling the company’s assistance. Several news outlets soon after filed Freedom of Information Act requests in an effort to uncover information about that contract, including the name of the company hired and the amount it was paid.
The Associated Press, Gannett and Vice News subsequently sued the FBI in September after their inquiries were repeatedly rejected.
The FBI conclusively released 100 pages concerning the contract earlier this month, albeit rife with redactions and largely absent information sought by the plaintiffs. In an explanation filed Monday in federal court, the FBI’s attorneys said that the majority of the details were withheld because their disclosure “could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security for several reasons.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/31/fbi-defends-withholding-details-iphone-exploit-cit/
Red Crescent staff injured in ‘hideous’ US coalition strike on Idlib HQ – Turkish IFCR chief
The strike happened in the early hours of Wednesday at around 3:00 am (01:00 GMT) and destroyed the building’s upper floors and injured people on the ground level. The victims have reportedly been transported to makeshift hospitals in Idlib.
“At least four staff members of the Syrian Red Crescent (SARC) were injured in the airstrikes, one of them is in critical condition,” media activist Abdulqadir Othman told ARA News in Idlib.
“The bombardment also caused a massive destruction of the organization’s offices,” Othman added. The fire that broke out after the strike reportedly further contributed to the destruction of vital medical equipment.
While the attack has not been yet been confirmed by any of the forces operating in Syria, Kinik pinned the blame on the US-led coalition, calling the bombardment a war crime.
“We strongly condemn hideous air attack led by US coalition on #Idlib #RedCrescent HQ. It’s clear #warcrime and #IHL violation,” Kinik tweeted.
https://www.rt.com/news/376004-idlib-red-crescent-coalition-strike/
Civilians, including children ‘likely’ killed in Yemen raid – US military
The US army has admitted collateral damage during Sunday’s strike on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), that involved missiles and helicopter machine guns. Following extensive reports of civilian casualties, on Wednesday, the US Central Command acknowledged that civilians including children were “likely killed.”
“The known possible civilian casualties appear to have been potentially caught up in aerial gunfire that was called in to assist US forces…,” US Central Command said in a statement.
“The team designated by the operational task force has concluded regrettably that civilian non-combatants were likely killed in the midst of a firefight during a raid in Yemen Jan. 29. Casualties may include children.”
https://www.rt.com/usa/375995-yemen-civilians-likely-killed/
China tests new extremely long-range missile that could muscle the US out of the South China Sea
As Business Insider has previously covered, tensions between the US and China have been steadily ratcheting up over the last few years, and they have spiked since Donald Trump took office after breaking with decades of tradition and taking a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
Photographs posted on IHS Jane’s and on Chinese media show China’s J-11B and J-16 fighters carrying an as-of-yet unnamed missile that Air force researcher Fu Qianshao told Chinese state-run media has a range of almost 250 miles — much further than current Chinese or even US capabilities.
“The successful development of this potential new missile would be a major breakthrough,” Reuters reports Fu as telling a Chinese state-run newspaper.
According to Fu, the missile would enable the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to “send a super-maneuverable fighter jet with very long-range missiles to destroy those high-value targets, which are the ‘eyes’ of enemy jets.”
The US’s airborne early warning and control planes (AWACS), basically giant flying radars, are the “eyes” Fu refers to. These planes can detect enemy movements and give targeting data to US fighter jets and bombers. Without them, the US Air Force faces a steep disadvantage.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-long-range-missile-muscle-us-out-south-china-sea-2017-1
How Do Israel’s Tech Firms Do Business in Saudi Arabia? Very Quietly
Good deals (and plausible deniability) make good neighbors.
Over the course of 30 years working in Israeli intelligence, Shmuel Bar immersed himself in the hermeneutics of terrorism. Using techniques of literary analysis more familiar to Koranic scholars and Bible critics, he came to recognize the distinctive language and religious phrases that suicide bombers used in their farewell videos. “Victory is with the patient” appeared frequently in the martyrdom declarations of Hamas recruits. Al-Qaeda adherents favored the call “God, count them, kill them, and don’t leave any of them.”
Bar, a tousle-haired 62-year-old with a wry sensibility, emerged from government service in 2003 amid the proliferation of global terrorism, and in the rising sense of doom he saw a business opportunity. He founded a company called IntuView, a miner of data in the deep, dark web—a sort of Israeli version of Palantir, the Silicon Valley security contractor. Tapping engineering talent in Israel’s startup hub of Herzliya, he adapted his analyst’s ear for language to custom algorithms capable of sifting through unending streams of social media messages for terrorist threats. He sold his services to police, border, and intelligence agencies across Europe and the U.S.
S. Korea, US agree to push missile defence system
South Korea and the United States on Thursday agreed to push through with the deployment of a US missile defence system strongly opposed by China, the prime minister said.
Hwang Kyo-Ahn and US Defence Secretary James Mattis confirmed that the two allies will go ahead with the installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)system in the South this year as planned, the prime minister’s office said.
Mattis arrived Thursday in South Korea on the first leg of a trip that also includes Japan, two key allies rattled by US President Donald Trump’s ascent to power.
It is the first overseas tour by a senior official in Trump’s administration as concerns rise about the direction of American policy in the region under the protectionist and fiery leader.
China’s new aircraft carrier to be based near South China Sea, as tensions with Washington rise
Base of warship – tipped to be named the Shandong – will enhance nation’s military capability in disputed waters where Beijing is building up artificial islands
The Liaoning, a refurbished Soviet vessel, is based in Qingdao, a port in the north close to Japan and South Korea.An aircraft carrier base along the southern coast would boost the nation’s military projection in the South China Sea, where China has been fortifying artificial islands, a source of tension with Washington. The military already operates the Yulin Naval Base, on Hainan Island, the headquarters of its nuclear submarine fleet.
Russian activist, likely poisoned before, hospitalized again
MOSCOW — A private foundation says one of its employees, a prominent Russian opposition activist, has been hospitalized after a sudden illness reminiscent of a poisoning he suffered two years earlier.
Open Russia, run by exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said in a statement on Thursday that Vladimir Kara-Murza was hospitalized earlier in the day after becoming ill.
Kara-Murza, a journalist and a close associate of the murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, nearly died when he suffered sudden kidney failure in May 2015.
No cause for that illness has been determined but Kara-Murza underwent tests showing he had ingested a poisonous substance.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-opposition-activist-vladimir-kara-murza-poisoned-hospitalized/
Trump claims Iran is ‘taking over’ Iraq in late-night tweet
Iran is dominating “more and more of Iraq,” despite U.S. efforts to secure the country, President Trump tweeted late Wednesday.
Trump’s comments came the same day that the White House condemned a recent ballistic missile test by Iran, and put the country “on notice,” though the administration did not specify what actions it would take.
“The Trump administration condemns such actions by Iran that undermine security, prosperity, and stability throughout and beyond the Middle East and place American lives at risk,” National Security Advisor Michael Flynn said during the daily White House press briefing.
It was not immediately clear what Trump’s tweets were referring to, though Iran has been involved in military operations to fight the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq since 2014.
ISIS airstrike limits in Iraq come under review; Mattis looks at Mosul
Copying Israel’s wall would cut Trump’s price nearly in half
A virtually impenetrable fence quickly and cheaply built by Israel to keep terrorists and thousands of unwanted refugees out is fast becoming a model for President Trump‘s wall as lawmakers begin to look for funding the top campaign promise of the 2016 election.
Israel’s example is being bolstered Wednesday by a new report from Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson who recently visited the Jewish State and returned with an armload of evidence that the fence helping to keep Israel safe is one the U.S. government should consider.
Just consider price: Israel’s fence cost $2 million a mile to build. The U.S. fence and wall have cost nearly double, at $3.5 milllion per mile.
Fillon bid for French presidency in turmoil as MPs break rank
The scandal, which erupted last week when a newspaper reported the 62-year-old ex-prime minister had paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros for work she may not have done, has thrown Fillon’s campaign off track.
Fillon denies wrongdoing, but opinion polls show support for Fillon eroding fast to the benefit of far right leader Marine Le Pen and a former investment banker, Emmanuel Macron, who is running as an independent.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN15H0RB
Islamists Celebrate Presidential Primary Victory in France
Benoit Hamon at a pre-election news conference in Paris. (Photo © Bertrand Guay / AFP / Getty Images)
Reports of antisemitic incidents increase to record levels in UK
Rise in incidents is blamed on factors including Labour party antisemitism row and rise in xenophobia after Brexit vote
The number of antisemitic incidents in the UK rose by more than a third to record levels in 2016, according to data released by the Community Security Trust.
The CST, which monitors antisemitism and provides security to Jewish communities, recorded 1,309 incidents of anti-Jewish hate last year, compared with 960 in 2015, a rise of 36%. The previous record number of incidents was in 2014, when 1,182 were recorded.
The CST’s chief executive, David Delew, said: “While Jewish life in this country remains overwhelmingly positive, this heightened level of antisemitism is deeply worrying and appears to be getting worse. Worst of all is that, for various reasons, some people clearly feel more confident to express their antisemitism publicly than they did in the past.”
The 2014 spike in incidents was attributed to the war in Gaza, deemed to be a “trigger event”. However no such trigger was identified for 2016.
Instead, the CST said, there may have been a “cumulative effect of a series of events and factors that, taken together, have created an atmosphere in which more antisemitic incidents are occurring”.
Putin heads to Hungary to discuss economic ties
According to the Kremlin press service, “advancing major joint projects in trade and economic sector and the strengthening of cultural and humanitarian ties” will be top on the agenda
MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit on Thursday Budapest for talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Russian president’s aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin and Orban have already met six times, traditionally in February. He said the program of the current visit includes talks in a narrow format, talks with the participation of the delegations, a joint news conference and a lunch.
Russia’s minister of industry and trade, energy minister, minister of economic development, healthcare minister as well as the head of Rosatom state-run nuclear corporation will take part in the talks.
According to the Kremlin press service, “advancing major joint projects in trade and economic sector and the strengthening of cultural and humanitarian ties” will be top on the agenda.
U.S. missile cruiser Antietam runs aground in Japan
The forward-deployed USS Antietam, named after a battle between Confederate and Union forces during the American Civil War, grounded after anchoring out in high winds, U.S. Navy officials said.
The ship’s crew noticed the cruiser was dragging its anchor. After it began moving through the water, the crew felt the ship lose control in both propellers.
The wreck caused the ship to discharge 1,100 gallons of oil into the sea, near its home port of Yokosuka.
U.S. Naval Forces Japan did not say how long it would take to repair the ship, after if was brought back to base with a tugboat, according to Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
South Korea ‘suspends visas’ for Chinese teachers
Hundreds of Confucius Institutes around the world promote Chinese traditional culture and language as part of Beijing’s soft power strategy. They have provoked controversy over issues of academic freedom at some Western universities.
The state-run network has dozens of branches in South Korea in partnership with local colleges.
But Seoul and Beijing are in an increasingly heated dispute over a plan to deploy the powerful US anti-missile system THAAD to the South against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.
Northrop Grumman bows out of the Air Force’s $16 billion next-generation jet trainer contest
Northrop Grumman said Wednesday it was dropping out of the U.S. Air Force’s T-X trainer jet contest with partner BAE Systems, making it the second team to leave the competition in the past week.
The T-X, a contract valued at more than $16 billion, would replace the aging T-38 Talon pilot training aircraft manufactured by Northrop in the 1960s.
Last week, Raytheon exited the competition after failing to reach terms with Italian defense company Leonardo S.p.a.
“The companies have decided not to submit a proposal for the T-X Trainer program, as it would not be in the best interest of the companies and their shareholders,” Northrop said in a statement.
Northrop said it and BAE still “remain fully committed to performing on current and future U.S. Air Force programs, to deliver critical capabilities to America’s airmen.”
NATO calls on Russia to stop violence in Ukraine
NATO chief says Russia must end the violence as both sides move heavy artillery close to front line.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Russia to use its “considerable influence” to end fighting in eastern Ukraine after a renewed surge in violence there.
Moscow-backed rebels and government forces have trade blame for the flare-up in the industrial east that has seen the highest casualty rate since mid-December and cut off power and water to thousands of civilians on both sides of the front line.
The shelling eased on Wednesday, but the January 29 to 31 clashes near the Kiev-held front line town of Avdiyivka brought the festering conflict back into focus amid warnings of a looming humanitarian crisis.
“We call for an immediate return to the ceasefire,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels. “We call on Russia to use its considerable influence over the separatists to bring the violence to an end.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/02/nato-calls-russia-stop-violence-ukraine-170202054257166.html
Turkmenistan’s Navy Shows Off New French Missiles
Turkmenistan has equipped its naval vessels with new anti-aircraft weapons, suggesting that Ashgabat may see a potential airborne threat to its coast or to its offshore oil and gas infrastructure.
According to recently published photos, Turkmenistan has armed at least two of its new Turkish patrol boats with French-produced SIMBAD-RC naval surface-to-air missiles. The missiles are produced by MBDA, which has not publicly acknowledged the sale to Turkmenistan, though Jane’s reported on it, citing unnamed sources, in October.
The missiles were noticed by the invaluable Russian military blog BMPD, which saw the photos on a post by exile oppositon website chrono-tm.org. The photos came out of a visit by Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to some of the newly armed ships on January 17.
Turkmenistan has ten of the Turkish-made patrol boats, known as the Tuzla class, and it seems to be one of the priority projects for the Turkmenistan armed forces. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, these patrol boats have almost all of Turkmenistan’s Western-supplied weaponry: in addition to these French missiles they are equipped with Dutch radars and Italian guns. SIPRI also reports that MBDA has sold 20 of the systems to Turkmenistan, which would suggest that all ten Tuzla ships are to be armed with them.
What’s particularly intriguing about this purchase is that it seems to envisage the possibility of Turkmenistan’s coastal areas being attacked by airplane. It’s not clear where that threat may come from, but for what it’s worth, BMPD’s commenters seem to think it has to do with Turkmenistan’s desire to build a gas pipeline under the Caspian Sea. That’s something Russia strongly opposes and against which it has occasionally issued veiled threats. The European Union, meanwhile, supports it.
[Editor’s Note: MBDA is not a French company. “MBDA is a European developer and manufacturer of missiles. It was formed by a merger of French Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles (of EADS, now Airbus Group), Italian Alenia Marconi Systems (now Leonardo) and British Matra BAe Dynamics (of BAE Systems) in December 2001.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBDA The story is therefore poorly researched regarding the origin of the missile supplier.]
Israeli scientist wins Japan Prize for cryptography work
Computer science professor Adi Shamir, of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, recognized as pioneer in digital information security
An Israeli computer scientist was among three winners of the 2017 Japan Prize, an award honoring achievement in science and technology, for his work in the field of cryptography. Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, was recognized for his “[c]ontribution to information security through pioneering research on cryptography,” according to the prize’s website. The Japan Prize Foundation announced the awards Thursday.
Shamir, 64, is the second Israeli to win the prize. Ephraim Katzir, a biophysicist and former Israeli president, was honored in 1985, the inaugural year of the award.
In 2002 Shamir, with Ronald Rivest and Leonard Adleman, won the Turing Award, widely considered to be the world’s most prestigious computer science prize.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scientist-wins-japan-prize-for-cryptography-work/
Turkish Jails: Packed with Kurds, Only Seven Members of ISIS
- The co-heads of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksektas, are also in jail. Prosecutors seek up to 142 years in jail for Demirtas and up to 83 years in jail for Yuksekdag. One of the charges directed to Demirtas is “managing a terrorist organization.”
- According to a recent report by Turkey’s Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), 151 individuals are in prison for being journalists or for being employed in the news media. Dozens of TV stations, news agencies, newspapers, magazines, and radio stations have been closed down by the Turkish government.
- In Turkey, it seems, ISIS members are freer than journalists and peaceful, democratically-elected Kurdish politic
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