RINF.COM: THE BREAKING NEWS ALTERNATIVE
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BREAKING NEWS |
Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights NewsDNA database solves 1 in 800 crimesMonday, May 5th, 2008 A massive expansion in the Government's DNA database has brought fewer than a thousand criminals to justice, it was revealed last night. For every 800 DNA samples being added by the police - including those taken from innocent people - only one crime is being solved.The revelation undermines Labour's case for the expansion of the controversial database, which contains the details of ...
Why Gordon Brown should halt ID cardsFriday, May 2nd, 2008 Geraint Bevan | Government departments cannot be trusted to keep citizens' personal data secure. It is not only in Italy that tax records are not as confidential as people might have expected.
Treasury minister Jane Kennedy has admitted that last year, 192 staff at HM Revenue & Customs were disciplined for inappropriate access to personal or sensitive data. This brings to 600 the ...
Scholar Says There’s No Freedom of Speech in the U.S.Thursday, May 1st, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO - Sing Tao Daily | More than 3,000 Chinese Americans gathered Saturday in front of CNN’s San Francisco bureau to protest Jack Cafferty’s April 9 comments calling Chinese “basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years," reports the Sing Tao Daily.
The protest garnered heavy coverage from the Chinese-language media but “hasn’t been ...
Zimbabwe: Army behind new wave of human rights abusesWednesday, April 30th, 2008 The Zimbabwean army is responsible for a new wave of rights violations throughout Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said today. Military forces are providing arms and trucks to so-called ‘war veterans’ who have been implicated in numerous acts of torture and other violence against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and supporters.‘The army and its allies – ‘war-veterans’ and supporters of the ...
Labour revolt over ID cardsWednesday, April 30th, 2008 By Tom Shepherd | Campaigners fighting the Government's plans for ID cards are claiming a victory after four Labour candidates seeking election to Oxford City Council on Thursday opposed the scheme.
And today, city councillor and Lord Mayor John Tanner, who is seeking re-election in his Littlemore seat, told Oxford campaign group NO2ID he also did not support the Government's proposals.
NO2ID ...
Man freed by DNA testing after 27 years in prisonWednesday, April 30th, 2008 AP | A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate cleared by DNA testing.
James Lee Woodard stepped out of the courtroom and raised his arms to a throng of photographers. Supporters and other people gathered outside the court erupted ...
National “DNA warehouse” bill passesWednesday, April 30th, 2008 AAPS | Passing the House of Representatives on a voice vote, S. 1858 has been sent to President Bush for signature. The Newborn Genetic Screening bill was passed by the Senate last December. The bill violates the U.S. Constitution and the Nuremberg Code, writes Twila Brase, president of the Citizen’s Council on Health Care (CCHC). “The ...
Amnesty accuses Moz police of tortureTuesday, April 29th, 2008 AFP | Police in Mozambique are killing and torturing people with near total impunity, according to a report by Amnesty International released on Tuesday.
"Police in Mozambique seem to think they have a licence to kill and the weak police accountability system allows for this," Michelle Kagari, deputy director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme, said in the report.
"In almost all cases of human rights ...
Increasing use of council surveillance powersTuesday, April 29th, 2008 Surveillance powers which allow local authorities to follow people and access their phone records have been used by Northamptonshire County Council 10 times in the past year.
Legislation brought in by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) means councils and police forces can use "covert human intelligence sources", for example, following suspected criminals. They can also demand ...
Use of Secret Spy Law is WidespreadMonday, April 28th, 2008 By Michael Howie | NEW spy laws are being used by Scottish councils to track people suspected of housing-benefit fraud, selling cigarettes to children and environmental-health offences. Campaigners are now calling for a "root-and-branch review" into the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), after the scale of its use by local authorities across the UK was revealed.
Ripa ...
The NSA, personal data and youMonday, April 28th, 2008 By Mitch Ratcliffe | Here’s a simple rule for preventing totalitarian rule in any nation: Don’t build the systems for monitoring people’s daily lives closely in the first place, and you will not be at risk of totalitarian rulers using those systems to overwhelm individual choice. The Wall Street Journal today has a long piece on the various ways ...
Facial recognition is same as tossing coinMonday, April 28th, 2008 By Geraint Bevan - NO2ID | After all the rhetoric about securing our borders, the Home Office has now announced its intent significantly to weaken passport control in the UK. Starting this summer, border guards will gradually be replaced at UK airports by machines performing automatic facial recognition, comparing digital photographs to the data stored on passport chips.
Four years ago, the Home ...
NY police cleared in 50-bullet wedding day shootingSaturday, April 26th, 2008 Reuters | Three New York City detectives were found not guilty on Friday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man killed in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day, prompting angry reactions and a federal review of the case.
A New York state judge cleared two police officers of manslaughter and other charges and a third of reckless endangerment ...
FBI wants widespread monitoring of ‘illegal’ web activitySaturday, April 26th, 2008 By Anne Broache |
The FBI on Wednesday called for new legislation that would allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity." The suggestion from FBI Director Robert Mueller, which came during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, appears to go beyond a current plan to monitor traffic on federal-government networks. Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have ...
Gitmo Detainees’ Mental Health Is Latest Legal BattleSaturday, April 26th, 2008 By William Glaberson |
Next month, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was once a driver for Osama bin Laden, could become the first detainee to be tried for war crimes in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. By now, he should be busily working on his defense.
But his lawyers say he cannot. They say Mr. Hamdan has essentially been driven crazy by solitary ...
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