As always, these are just the stories that caught my attention. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t miss something important. Or even that these are important, just that they interested me and I hope you find something intriguing here.
ACTA
MEP who resigned ACTA role explains how the treaty will result in invasive border searches of personal devices, privacy-invading dissemination of public’s personal information (Boing Boing)
Bulgaria and Netherlands back away from ACTA (Boing Boing)
On ACTA, U.S. Media Turned The Other Way (The Moderate Voice)
Pictures from Berlin’s anti-ACTA protest (Boing Boing)
Alan Moore explains the Guy Fawkes mask, Occupy, Anonymous and anti-ACTA protests (Boing Boing)
Boing Boing’s Beschizza talks Megaupload, ACTA, and torrent justice on RT TV (Boing Boing)
Olympics
Fraud charges leveled at security director for the Rio Olympics (Security Director News)
United Nations
FCC commissioner: don’t let the Internet fall into the UN’s hands (Boing Boing)
In Syria, the U.N. Security Council Fails the World (The Kochi Shimbun, Japan) (The Moderate Voice)
Afghanistan
Help on the Way for Afghan Children Dying of Cold (The Moderate Voice)
Bahrain
Protest iPad, Bahrain (Boing Boing)
Brazil
Answering work emails after hours is overtime: Brazil (The Star)
Canada
Anonymous video threatens Canada’s domestic spying minister with embarrassing disclosures (Boing Boing)
Toronto’s librarians need your help and love (Boing Boing)
Rick Mercer: valuing online privacy doesn’t make you criminal, it makes you Canadian (Boing Boing)
Canada’s spy-bill minister has no idea what is in his own law (Boing Boing)
Canadian MP: if you oppose warrantless snooping, you “stand with child pornographers” (Boing Boing)
Canada’s spying bill: be very afraid (Boing Boing)
Canada’s bull-moose civil libertarian on Canada’s new domestic spying law (Boing Boing)
Involuntary transparency for Canada’s spying-bill MP (Boing Boing)
Can you spot the difference on “lawful access” bill? (Canada.com)
Canadian MP demands trick photography to disguise rampant Friday absenteeism in Parliament (Boing Boing)
Canadian tweeps bare all for spying MP (Boing Boing)
Newspaper claims Vikileaks Twitter account traced back to House of Commons (Boing Boing)
Canada’s spying bill also allows appointed “inspectors” unlimited access to ISP data (Boing Boing)
Canada’s government muzzles scientists, stonewalls press queries about health, environment and climate (Boing Boing)
Canada’s sweeping new, evidence-free electronic spying bill (Boing Boing)
Vast hordes of Canadians speak out on proposed copyright legislation; lend your voice! (Boing Boing)
Canadian universities sign bone-stupid copyright deal with collecting society: emailing a link is the same as making a photocopy, faculty email to be surveilled (Boing Boing)
China
Video from inside a Tibetan community under lockdown, as self-immolations continue (Boing Boing)
Xi Jiping’s hall of mirrors (The Moderate Voice)
China’s Vice President lived in a cave for 7 years, eating gruel (Boing Boing)
Egypt
Raids on Offices of American NGOs Reveal Scheme to ‘Partition’ Egypt (Al Ahram, Egypt) (The Moderate Voice)
Archaeologists discover tomb of female singer in Valley of the Kings (The Independent)
Egyptians Refuse to Accept What America Would Reject (Amal al-Oumma, Egypt) (The Moderate Voice)
Georgia
Response to Boing Boing post on “Police Pad” gadgets in Georgia, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (Boing Boing)
One more response to Boing Boing post on “Police Pad” gadgets in Georgia, by Some Guy from Georgia (Boing Boing)
Germany
Das Liquid Democracy and the German Pirate Party (Boing Boing)
Nazi Baggage Complicates Germany’s New Role as ‘America of Europe’ (Die eit, Germany) (The Moderate Voice)
Hamburg, Germany: Preventive Detention Controversy Splits Politicians and City Residents (Guest Voice) (The Moderate Voice)
Berlin cuts down 1/6th of the Unter den Linden lime trees to expand underground train line (Ontd_political)
Greece
My Big Fat Greek Economic Crisis (The Moderate Voice)
All is not well in Greece (Boing Boing)
India
Update: Attack on Israeli Embassy Staff in New Delhi (The Moderate Voice)
Iran, Israel & USA: India’s Tightrope Walk (The Moderate Voice)
Why Iran-Israel ‘War’ Spilled to Indian Soil? (The Moderate Voice)
Polio breakthrough: India marks disease-free year (The Raw Story)
Iran
Iran, Israel & USA: India’s Tightrope Walk (The Moderate Voice)
Why Iran-Israel ‘War’ Spilled to Indian Soil? (The Moderate Voice)
Was American arrested for spying in Iran producing “propaganda games” for CIA? (Boing Boing)
Risky Profession: Yet Another Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed (The Moderate Voice)
Iraq
Corruption in Iraq: ‘Your son is being tortured. He will die if you don’t pay’ (The Guardian)
Israel
Update: Attack on Israeli Embassy Staff in New Delhi (The Moderate Voice)
Why Iran-Israel ‘War’ Spilled to Indian Soil? (The Moderate Voice)
Injured Israeli: On Way Home From New Delhi (The Moderate Voice)
Japan
Truth and consequences: FRONTLINE’s brilliant documentary on Fukushima (Boing Boing)
Mexico
President Calderon Implores the U.S.: ‘No More Weapons!’ (El Universal, Mexico) (The Moderate Voice)
With Tale of Drug Lord, U.S. Builds Case for Mexico Intervention (La Jornada, Mexico) (The Moderate Voice)
Homebrew narco-tanks of the Mexican drug war (Boing Boing)
Mexican scientists successfully test vaccine that could cut heroin addiction (The Guardian)
Myanmar
Burma joy as freed prisoners head home (BBC)
US to exchange ambassadors with Burma (BBC)
The Netherlands
Dutch court gives rightsholder group unchecked power to block IPs and domains in the Netherlands (Boing Boing)
North Korea
Nothing To Envy: North Korea (The Moderate Voice)
Pakistan
Pakistani newspaper ad seeks bids for a Great Firewall of Pakistan (Boing Boing)
Saudi Arabia
Interpol accused after Saudi Arabia arrests journalist over Muhammad tweet (Boing Boing)
Syria
Report: Syrian Government Using Human Shields on Tanks (The Moderate Voice)
Did Syria’s army use sat-phone surveillance to hunt down and kill journalists? (Boing Boing)
Tibet
Losar: Tibetan New Year, and “mandatory celebrations” (Boing Boing)
Video from inside a Tibetan community under lockdown, as self-immolations continue (Boing Boing)
United Kingdom
UK gov’t: yes, we kidnapped people and sent them to be tortured by Qaddafi, but you can’t sue us (Boing Boing)
Britain’s threatening and clueless domain takedown message (Boing Boing)
Colorblind painter’s wearable “synesthesia camera” reportedly broken by police (Boing Boing)
Data viz: whom did the UK government invite to emergency talks about the health reform bills? (Boing Boing)
A generational failure (The Moderate Voice) — Honestly, the thing that surprises me most is that she only applied for 200 positions before she killed herself.
Bankster might lose his knighthood (Boing Boing)
UK education minister: times are tough, let’s spend £60M on a new yacht for the Queen! (Boing Boing)
British admin for download links database may be first extradited to US for copyright charges (Boing Boing)
England worst place in the world for bogus “walking while brown” stop-and-searches (Boing Boing)
Cash-strapped UK local authorities spent £0.5B on CCTV in 4 years (Boing Boing)
Venezuela
Our Unwelcome Guest: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (El Universal, Venezuela) (The MOderate Voice)
Ahmadinejad and Chavez Agree: ‘Our Weapon is Love’ (El Universal, Venezuela) (The Moderate Voice)
