Diego Garcia: Exiled islanders barred from going home

Exiled families longing to return to their native islands in the Indian Ocean had their hopes dashed yesterday when the Law Lords upheld the government's last-ditch bid to stop them going home.

The House of Lords judges who sit at the highest court in the land overturned all the decisions made by the High Court and Court of Appeal allowing them to return.

Although the Law Lords admitted the government of the day was wrong to force out some 2000 residents of the Chagos Islands, a British colony, to make way for a US air base in the 1960s, three out of five upheld the government's appeal.

The courts ruled in 2000 that the Chagossians could return to 65 of the islands, but not Diego Garcia where the air base was built.

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General strike paralyses Greece

Thousands of demonstrators have marched through Athens and Thessaloniki to protest against government social security reforms as a general strike shut down schools, hospitals and all public services.

 

Port workers and air traffic controllers joined the protest on Wednesday, the second 24-hour general strike in the past two months.

The move forced authorities to cancel all flights to and from Greek airports, and all regular ferry routes to the country's islands.

 

Buses, trains and the Athens metro were running for only a few hours during the day.

 

Pension anger

 

Journalists went on strike, cancelling all news bulletins and current affairs programmes for the day.

 

Dentists, lawyers, construction workers and civil servants also left their jobs.

Greece's two main labour unions called the strike to protest against the conservative government's efforts to reform Greece's debt-ridden and fractured pension system.

Unions claim the reforms will lead to lower pensions and higher retirement ages.

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And now the Manchurian microchip

The geniuses at Homeland Security who brought you hare-brained procedures at airports (which inconvenience travelers without snagging terrorists) have decreed that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This means The Investigator -- at the risk of compromising national insecurities -- would be remiss not to make you aware of the hottest topic in U.S. counterintelligence circles: rogue microchips. This threat emanates from China (PRC) -- and it is hugely significant.

The myth: Chinese intelligence services have concealed a microchip in every computer everywhere, programmed to "call home" if and when activated.

The reality: It may actually be true.

All computers on the market today -- be they Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Apple or especially IBM -- are assembled with components manufactured inside the PRC. Each component produced by the Chinese, according to a reliable source within the intelligence community, is secretly equipped with a hidden microchip that can be activated any time by China's military intelligence services, the PLA.

"It is there, deep inside your computer, if they decide to call it up," the security chief of a multinational corporation told The Investigator. "It is capable of providing Chinese intelligence with everything stored on your system -- on everyone's system -- from e-mail to documents. I call it Call Home Technology. It doesn't mean to say they're sucking data from everyone's computer today, it means the Chinese think ahead -- and they now have the potential to do it when it suits their purposes."....

 

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Pentagon orders Terminator robots

From: Packs of robots will hunt down uncooperative humans

 

The latest request from the Pentagon jars the senses. At least, it did mine. They are looking for contractors to provide a "Multi-Robot Pursuit System" that will let packs of robots "search for and detect a non-cooperative human".

One thing that really bugs defence chiefs is having their troops diverted from other duties to control robots. So having a pack of them controlled by one person makes logistical sense. But I'm concerned about where this technology will end up.

Given that iRobot last year struck a deal with Taser International to mount stun weapons on its military robots, how long before we see packs of droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralysing weapons? Or could the packs even be lethally armed? I asked two experts on automated weapons what they thought - click the continue reading link to read what they said.

Both were concerned that packs of robots would be entrusted with tasks - and weapons - they were not up to handling without making wrong decisions....

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby

A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

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In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world. In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through "Second Life," another virtual interactive world.

In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in an interactive role playing game by manipulating another player's portfolio using a stolen ID and password.

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