A worldwide network of hackers has managed to gain access to the most secure networks on the Internet. The leaderless and faceless group, known as Anonymous, has infiltrated networks of the CIA, Interpol, email accounts of presidents, and has taken down the major web properties of global corporations. During its near-eight years of existence, Anonymous hackers have exposed a huge network of neo-Nazis in Germany and a stealth online child pornography ring.

No one knows how wide the Anonymous hackers’ network stretches across continents, nor how many people belong to the Internet-based group. All activity takes place on mostly secure networks and on social media. Anyone can carry the banner of Anonymous.

The rise of social media has proliferated the threat of attacks from people who claim to be a part of the elusive group. Though many times these highly publicized threats are not carried out, they nevertheless garner significant publicity. Read More

Mariano Rajoy expected to win Andalucia regional elections, then order further austerity measures.

Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, faces the toughest week of his three months in office as he is forced to announce up to €40bn (£33.45bn) in spending cuts and taxes in a budget on 30 March, the day after a general strike.

As Rajoy's conservative People's party looked set for victory in key regional elections in southern Andalucia on Sunday, other European leaders and the markets were signalling Spain as now being the biggest single threat to the stability of the eurozone.

A win in Andalucia would give Rajoy unprecedented control over troublesome regional governments whose inability to reduce deficits has helped to put Spain centre-stage in the eurozone crisis. Asturias, a much smaller northern region, was also voting. Read More

A deep rift between Egypt's ruling military leaders and the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which dominates the post-Mubarak era Parliament, indicates that the country is headed toward a state of political crisis, presidential hopeful Amr Moussa has said.

Reacting to reports of a tussle
between the military and Muslim brotherhood over the sacking of the cabinet, Moussa said that he fears political instability if cabinet is dissolved now.

The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, has been pressuring the military to sack the cabinet and appoint an FJP-led government after it won a crushing victory in parliamentary elections. Read More

George Zimmerman son of judge with sealed closed arrest record in Fla. 27 Mar 2012 'Now we know why George Zimmerman didn't get arrested... No Words... According to court records, George Zimmerman is the son of retired Supreme Court Magistrate Judge Robert J Zimmerman, his mother Gladys Zimmerman is a court clerk... He has three closed arrests: 7/18/05 for resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer div 10... 8/9/05 for domestic violence div 44... And again on 8/10/05, domestic violence div 46 ***' Source

More Background info:

WFTV obtained information about Zimmerman's background:

In Sept. 2003, Zimmerman called 911 to report that another driver had spat at him from car to car.

Zimmerman followed the other driver, Daniel Osmun, into Lake Mary.

Osmun accused Zimmerman of tailgating and aggressive driving, and Zimmerman followed him and reported his tag number.

In Oct. 2003, Zimmerman called 911 and reported witnessing a theft at an Albertson's on Lake Emma Road in Lake Mary. Zimmerman followed the alleged culprits, "apparently giving chase."
Deputies caught up with the thieves, who had confessed to stealing two 13-inch televisions.

In Dec 2008, Zimmerman applied to attend the Citizens Law Enforcement Academy. He offered info that he was arrested July 2005 in an incident involving undercover UCF officers.

He was accepted and completed the program.

Zimmerman said his father was a magistrate for Virginia Supreme Court and mother was a deputy court clerk. He stated that he had the utmost respect for law enforcement and aspired to be an officer someday. Source

The murder detective tasked with investigating the death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin wanted to charge George Zimmerman with manslaughter but was overruled by prosecutors, it was reported last night.

Investigator Chris Serino was told not press charges against the neighbourhood watch captain by lawyers in Florida's state attorney's office, who said there was not enough evidence to secure a conviction, ABC News reported.

Mr Zimmerman, 28, was briefly taken to a police station in Sanford after the killing last month but was released on the same night after several hours of questioning.

He told detectives that he had opened fire in self defence after the 17-year-old attacked him and officers were left with no choice but to release him.

Police sources told the broadcaster that Mr Serino filed an affidavit the same night where he said he was unconvinced by Mr Zimmerman's story.

However, prosecutors said that there was not enough evidence to prove the shooter had acted outside of the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws.

The state attorney's office would not comment on the claim.

The leak is the latest in a long series as both sides tried to cast doubt on the other's story and motivations. Read More

PHILADELPHIA (CN) - A wave of class actions against Google claims the search giant's new privacy policy, which aggregates information the company collects about users across various Google platforms, violates computer fraud and wiretap laws.

At least four class actions claim the new policy, which went into effect this month, is illegal under federal wiretapping law.

Google's corporate slogan is "Don't be Evil."

Google has long maintained a deep trove of information about its users.

Under its old policy, information collected about a consumer through one Google product was segregated from information gleaned from another Google product, plaintiffs say in the class actions.

But they say that all changed March 1, when Google ushered in its new era of digital surveillance: the Era of Commingling.

Under the new policy, data gathered about a consumer through one Google product will be commingled with data collected about that consumer through other Google products, plaintiffs say.

Google announced: "Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services.
"In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products." Read More

EIJING: China's state-run media on Saturday described the Dalai Lama as a US-controlled "Nazi" and blamed the Buddhist leader for inciting Tibetans to commit self-immolations to protest Chinese rule in Tibet. "It is doubtable that the Dalai Lama would speak on behalf (of) Tibetans as he is sponsored by the US and his relatives work for the CIA," said an officially sanctioned commentary posted on China Tibet Online and Xinhua news agency.

It accused him of instigating Tibetans to torch themselves by praising their boldness and asking to forgo Loshar festival celebrations as a mark of respect for those committing suicide. "The remarks of the Dalai Lama remind us of the uncontrolled and cruel Nazi during the Second World War.... How similar it is to the Holocaust committed by Hitler on the Jewish!" it said. "The Dalai Lama is making people feel that those who commit suicide will win the privilege of the Tibetan leader praying for their soul.''

Around 30 Tibetans, including monks and nuns, have set themselves afire to protest Chinaese policies. Most have also shouted slogans seeking the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. Read More

Expanding the definition of “cracker,” a t-shirt featuring the photo of the man who shot Trayvon Martin is now available for purchase.

As seen at Left, the shirt has a picture of George Zimmerman and the words “Pussy Ass Cracker.” Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic, killed Martin, 17, last month while acting as a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida.

The shirt’s “pussy ass cracker” line is apparently a reference to lyrics from the rapper Plies’s song “100 Years,” which bemoans stiff sentences handed out by racist judges. Source

Axton Betz had just rented her first off-campus apartment in West Lafayette, Ind. when the power company told her she needed to pay a $100 deposit to turn on the electricity. Betz, who was 19 at the time, assumed they required the large deposit because she had no credit history.

But, for safe measure, she requested a copy of her credit report. “I thought it would be just one page on student loans,” Betz says. Instead, she found 10 pages of defaulted credit cards – showing someone had been using her identity since she was 11 years old.

Stealing social security numbers to buy cars, apply for credit and obtain driver’s licenses has now shifted to a new demographic: those under the age of 18. Credit companies and other firms are responding offering monthly services promising identity-theft protection for children. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there is a market for this: 19,000 child identity theft complaints were reported in 2009, the most recent data available, up 217 percent since 2003. What’s more, a study done by the Carnegie Mellon CyLab showed children are 51 times more likely to have their identity stolen than adults. Read More

This wasn’t supposed to happen. In Congress drive to clean up its act and pass the “Stock Act” to provide transparency to Wall Street holdings members have, taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill.

Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer reveals that it will cost $1.5 million to develop software and programs to provide the easy-to-use electronic disclosure of lawmaker holdings required in the legislation.

Plus, he adds, when up and running, it will likely cost another $200,000 a year just to operate and maintain.

The act was passed after new controversies arose over the massive stock portfolios of congressional leaders who work on legislation impacting the very companies they’re invested in. Nobody has suggested--yet--that maybe some of their profits should fund the sunshine initiative, not taxpayers. Read More

The debt collector on the other end of the phone gave Oswaldo Campos an ultimatum:

Pay $219 a month toward his more than $20,000 in defaulted student loans, or Pioneer Credit Recovery, a contractor with the U.S. Education Department, would confiscate his pay. Campos, disabled from liver disease, makes about $20,000 a year.

“We’re not playing here,” Campos recalled the collector telling him in December. “You’re dealing with the federal government. You have no other options.”

Campos agreed to have the money deducted each month from his bank account, even though federal student-loan rules would let him pay less and become eligible for a plan -- approved by Congress and touted by President Barack Obama -- requiring him to lay out about $50 a month. To satisfy Pioneer, Campos borrowed from friends, cut meat from his diet and stopped buying gas to drive his 82-year-old mother to doctor’s visits for her Parkinson’s Disease.

With $67 billion of student loans in default, the Education Department is turning to an army of private debt-collection companies to put the squeeze on borrowers. Working on commissions that totaled about $1 billion last year, these government contractors face growing complaints that they are violating federal laws by insisting on stiff payments, even when borrowers’ incomes make them eligible for leniency. Read More

Ottawa (CNN) -- Ontario's top court has legalized brothels, saying Canadian prostitution laws unfairly discriminate against prostitutes and their ability to work in safe environments.

A panel of five judges wrote that the law banning common bawdy houses "is grossly disproportionate" if all it aims to do is keep public order in a neighborhood and maintain public health standards.

"The record is clear that the safest way to sell sex is for a prostitute to work indoors, in a location under her control," the judges wrote in a much anticipated ruling. Read More

The captain of a US airliner was tackled by his own passengers after he ran up and down a packed jet screaming about bombs and al Qaeda.

The JetBlue plane, en route from New York's JFK airport to Las Vegas, was forced into an emergency landing in Amarillo, Texas, as the pilot was pinned down.

Alarmed passengers became aware of the incident when the co-pilot, seemingly worried by his colleague's erratic behavior, locked him out of his own cockpit when he left to use the toilet.

The captain - believed to be Clayton Osbon - responded by banging angrily on the flight deck door, before running up and down the aisle screaming, "Say your prayers!" according to the New York Post.

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) statement said: "The co-pilot became concerned that the captain exhibited erratic behavior during the flight.

"The captain had exited the cockpit during the flight, after which the co-pilot locked the door.

"When the captain attempted to enter the locked cockpit, he was subdued by passengers. Read More

A British man has been arrested in Somalia on suspicion of having links with the Islamist militant group Al Shabaab, according to local police and African Union peacekeepers.

The suspect was detained at Mogadishu airport before he was able to travel on to the southern port city of Kismayu, which is controlled by the al Qaeda-linked group.

"A British man linked to Al Shabaab is in our hands," police spokesman Abdullahi Barise said. "He is under investigation."

Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the peacekeepers, said the suspect had been arrested by an intelligence official with the AU mission before being handed over to police.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of the reports and was looking into them.

In February, the Royal United Services Institute published a report that said dozens of Britons were believed to be fighting for Al Shabaab in Somalia.

Al Shabaab militants, who are battling the largely powerless Somali government and the AU forces, control much of south and central Somalia. Read More

The eurozone needs "the mother of all firewalls" if it is to protect the EU's single currency from debt contagion, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned.

Angel Gurria, OECD's secretary general, urged EU finance ministers meeting in Copenhagen on Friday to increase the eurozone's bailout fund to at least €1 trillion (£835bn).

"Weak financial conditions, fiscal consolidation and economic adjustment are restricting demand in the short-term before the long-term benefits on stability and growth are felt," he said. "Decisive action to restore confidence and support demand is needed now."

Germany is trying to hold down any increase to €700bn but Mr Gurria stressed a big fund, the bigger the better, would be needed to fight a eurozone crisis that is not yet over.

"When dealing with markets you must overshoot expectations," he said. "The mother of all firewalls should be in place, strong enough, broad enough, deep enough, tall enough, just big."
The International Monetary Fund has made the increase the pre-condition of increasing its resources to provide credit lines to the euro area, which is facing turbulence on the bond markets. Read More

PARIS – A video apparently showing a Muslim gunman's attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school was sent to the Al-Jazeera news network -- but not by him, French police said Tuesday, raising the specter of a possible accomplice.

Al-Jazeera on Tuesday decided not to air a video that seems to have been filmed from the killer's point of view and includes the cries of his victims. The decision came after President Nicolas Sarkozy asked the network not to broadcast it.

While French politicians describe gunman Mohamed Merah as a "lone wolf" terrorist, his brother is behind bars on suspicion of helping in the attacks and police are continuing to look for potential accomplices. Read More

Former NAACP leader C.L. Bryant is accusing Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of “exploiting” the Trayvon Martin tragedy to “racially divide this country.”

“His family should be outraged at the fact that they’re using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions,” Rev. C.L. Bryant said in a Monday interview with The Daily Caller.

The conservative black pastor who was once the chapter president of the Garland, Texas NAACP called Jackson and Sharpton “race hustlers” and said they are “acting as though they are buzzards circling the carcass of this young boy.”

Jackson, for example, recently said Martin’s death shows how “blacks are under attack” and “targeting, arresting, convicting blacks and ultimately killing us is big business.” (SEE ALSO: Jesse Jackson says Trayvon Martin ‘murdered and martyred’)

George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, killed Martin, a 17-year-old black man who was unarmed at the time of his death, last month. Zimmerman has claimed to have shot Martin in self-defense and has not been charged with a crime.

But Bryant, who explores the topic of black-on-black crime in his new film “Runaway Slave,” said people like Jackson and Sharpton are being misleading to suggest there is an epidemic of “white men killing black young men.”

“The epidemic is truly black on black crime,” Bryant said. “The greatest danger to the lives of young black men are young black men.” more

Note: The last paragraph truly says it all -- black on black crime. And not just young black men shooting other young black men, but black politicians like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and racketeers like the Black Panthers exploiting the death of black men and women for their own political gain and profit. The Black Panthers alone are seeking millions of dollars in donations from this incident. Will that solve the crime? Will that do anything to change the situation between the races, and within the races themselves? MLK asked everyone not to judge a man by the colour of his skin but by the content of his character. When will the black community, and indeed all communities, take heed?

Trayvon Martin was suspended from school three times in the months before he was shot dead by a neighborhood watchman, it emerged today.

The new claims, revealed in a leaked school report, paint a different picture of a teenager who frequently found himself in trouble with authorities.

It was also revealed that he might have attacked a bus driver, according to a tweet reportedly sent by his cousin.

The Miami Herald claims that in October, he was caught with a 'burglary tool' - a flathead screwdriver - and 12 pieces of women's jewellery. Martin insisted that they did not belong to him.

Earlier, he had been suspended for skipping school and showing up late to class. And most recently, in February, he was suspended again when officials found a 'marijuana pipe' and an empty baggie with traces of marijuana.

The fresh claims are likely to be seized upon by supporters of George Zimmerman who claim the teenager launched an unprovoked attack on the neighbourhood watch volunteer moments before Trayvon was shot dead. more