Sweden - Immigration

SWEDEN Sweden became the first European country in 2013 to grant automatic residency to Syrian refugees and has since seen asylum requests rise to record levels, which are still expected to reach about 90,000 in 2015. [Sweden] receives the highest number of refugees per capita in the EU and is second only to Germany as a destination for Syrians fleeing the Middle Eastern country's civil war. One in three refugees were found to be receiving financial help from local authorities ten years after their arrival. http://www.thelocal.se/20150305/asylum-seeker-drop-in-sweden-as-denmark-numbers-plummet ........................................................  Segregation between ethnic Swedes and people from foreign backgrounds has widened in the past two decades in some of the biggest towns in Sweden, according to the Dagens Nyheter daily. The three most ethnically divided municipalities in 2013 were Botkyrka and Södertälje near Stockholm, and Kristianstad in the south of Sweden. According to Dagens Nyheter this is because the municipalities have invested in high-rise buildings where the number of people from a non-Swedish background is high, but also has large clusters of detached housing areas, largely occupied by well-off native Swedes. The segregation differential for the capital Stockholm in 1991 was 14 percentage units, compared to 22 percentage units today. In Gothenburg it has gone up from 14 to 25 and in Malmö in southern Sweden from 16 to 22 percentage units. Compared to 1991, segregation has risen the most in Kristianstad, and Örebro and Linköping in central Sweden. The former has seen an exceptional rise, from 6 percentage units in 1991 to 27 today. John Östh, researcher in cultural geography at Uppsala University, predicts the trend will continue. “Seen over a long period, the development could be unfortunate. You make segregation so much stronger. We have a strong influx of people, but don't build as many houses. We, perhaps, aren't even ready to integrate them in school. I am immensely positive to our immigration, but we do have integration problems. Segregation will continue to rise,” he told Dagens Nyheter. http://www.thelocal.se/20150310/segregation-on-the-rise-in-sweden-suggests-survey  COMMENT Despite a significant political movement towards support of limiting immigration, it doesn't look like mainstream Swedish political parties are changing immigration policy (which I believe is related to Sweden's foreign ambitions and foreign policy:  (a) EU membership priority, as well as (b) US foreign policy led priorities). Guess these towns are the immigration issues hot spots: Botkyrka Södertälje Kristianstad Stockholm Gothenburg Malmö Kristianstad Örebro Linköping Ylva Johansson is preparing a new law that would force all regions to take in asylum seekers http://www.thelocal.se/20150205/all-municipalities-should-take-in-refugees EXTRACTS: Sweden’s Social Democrat integration minister Ylva Johansson has announced that she is drafting a new law designed to make sure all regions take in asylum seekers and offer help with jobs and housing. “The distribution is unreasonable. We need to make changes in the law for everyone to take responsibility,” she told Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan on Thursday. She said that the bill’s core details were still being worked out, but that the main principle was achieving a “more even distribution” of refugees between Sweden’s 290 municipalities. “We need legislative changes to ensure that all local authorities take responsibility for refugee protection,” she added. [...]  The country’s opposition centre-right Alliance bloc, which formed the previous coalition government is also in favour of maintaining Sweden’s open borders and the four parties it includes are working on their own integration policies. On Thursday afternoon the leader of Sweden's biggest opposition party the Moderates, Anna Kinberg Batra, proposed strengthening the requirements for family stream immigrants in an interview with broadcaster SVT. In April 2010 Sweden became the first country in the EU to legislate income requirements for immigrants who want to bring their families to Sweden. But Kinberg Batra accused the law of being toothless.  [What?  It was the Moderate party's law.] The country’s nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, which won 13 percent of the vote in the last general election in September 2014 is the only party in Sweden in favour of cutting immigration numbers. http://www.thelocal.se/20150205/all-municipalities-should-take-in-refugees ........................................................  It looks like 'family stream' immigrants are further incoming immigrants whose families are already residents. Voters opposed to immigration only have one party to vote for:  Sweden Democrats.  All others are in favour of maintaining the status quo.  Next general election in Sweden should be an interesting one.

'Arab League backs Saudi silencing of Sweden' (The Local)

Arab League backs Saudi silencing of Sweden Published: 10 Mar 2015 14:06 GMT+01:00 Facebook Twitter Google+ reddit Arab foreign ministers have criticized Sweden's comments about Saudi Arabia while the EU has expressed regret after Sweden's foreign minister Margot Wallström accused the oil rich nation of blocking her speech at an Arab League meeting. Margot Wallström said on Monday that Saudi officials had stopped her from making her opening address to the meeting due to her stance on human rights. But Arab foreign ministers later criticised Sweden for its comments about Saudi Arabia. “The ministers have voiced their condemnation and astonishment at the issuance of such statements that are incompatible with the fact that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on Sharia,” read a statement issued by the ministers following their Arab League meeting in Cairo and reported by the Swedish media on Tuesday. “Sharia has guaranteed human rights and preserved people’s lives, possessions, honour and dignity. The ministers consider the comments as irresponsible and unacceptable,” the statement added. Saudi rejection a 'punch in the nose' for Sweden Wallström had been invited as an honorary guest to the Arab ministers' meeting in praise of her government's decision to recognise Palestine in October. Her cancelled opening speech - published by the Swedish foreign ministry - mentioned neither Saudi Arabia nor Wallström's feminist foreign policy agenda but stressed women's and human rights. Wallström's press secretary Erik Boman told The Local on Tuesday that the Arab League's statement "should be interpreted as a way of Saudi Arabia trying to save its face". "The statement was made public yesterday, and we knew about it," he said. "It is one of very many statements on different issues released by the Arab League after a meeting - by tradition they do that kind of thing." Earlier in the day, Sweden's Prime Minister said it was right to question Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses. “Margot Wallström was invited as a guest of honour. Of course it’s a pity it was cancelled but when we see something wrong, like human rights violations, we have to express what we think,” he told Swedish public broadcaster SVT. On Monday Wallström said it was a "shame" that she had been blocked from speaking. "The explanation we have been given is that Sweden has highlighted the situation for democracy and human rights and that is why they do not want me to speak," she told Swedish news agency TT. An Arab diplomat confirmed to the AFP news agency that Saudi Arabia had stopped the Swede from making her opening speech. Meanwhile the EU has expressed concerns over the move. "We regret that the Swedish foreign minister was not able to deliver her speech," European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told a press briefing on Tuesday. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini will speak to Wallström and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi "to understand this situation", she added. Wallström has rarely commented on Saudi Arabia but in January she slammed the kingdom's treatment of blogger Raef Badawi, who had been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam. Saudi Arabia is a key trading partner for Sweden in the Middle East and Sweden’s government is continuing to work behind the scenes on preparations for a renewal of a controversial cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which includes the sale of military arms.  [No, not sale. It is the building of a weapons factory deal, from my understanding.] The Green Party, the junior partner in Sweden’s government coalition, wants to rip up the ten-year-old deal. But the Social Democrat party - of which Margot Wallström is a member - has indicated that it would like to preserve the agreement in some form, although the issue has caused an internal party rift. http://www.thelocal.se/20150310/eu-raps-saudi-silencing-of-swedish-minister COMMENT Amazing that Sweden can think it can have it both ways:  do business and correct, or lecture, an absolute monarchy ruled nation that operates under harsh, religious law. This has certainly shaped up to be quite a diplomatic problem, as well as a Social Democrat party problem.

SWEDEN: 'Sweden is not some kind of equality paradise' vs "When Journalists Rape"

SWEDEN OFFICIAL LINE 'Sweden is not some kind of equality paradise' Published: 10 Mar 2015 10:43 GMT+01:00 Updated: 10 Mar 2015 12:25 GMT+01:00 It's time to challenge the image of Sweden as the world's gender equality frontrunner, writes Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, head of the Swedish government's special inquiry on gender equality. Swedish governments often boast about gender equality in Sweden. Government upon government has claimed that these advances have given Sweden a strong international position. The latest is the feminist government, spearheaded by Stefan Löfven, which insists that Sweden is and ought to be a frontrunner in the area of gender equality. On its home page the government writes that Sweden has great international reputational capital to maintain and develop. I believe it is high time to challenge the image of Sweden as some kind of equality paradise. Even though Sweden has a good position in many international rankings, it does not mean that the country is equal. Rather, it could be understood in relation to insufficient progress in many other countries. Nor does it mean that things are moving forward in Sweden. The country's position in the Global Gender Gap (World Economic Forum) ratings has gone from the top in 2006 to fourth in 2014. The same tendency is visible in the Inter-Parliamentary Union's list of the number of women in national parliaments, where Sweden can nowadays be found as number six, after having enjoyed a leading position for a long time. It is problematic that progress in Sweden is more or less standing still. As Sweden now has a feminist government, it is time to assume a strategic and long-term approach to gender equality policies. Since April 2014 I have led a special government inquiry to follow up and analyze the progress of equality between women and men over the past ten years. The inquiry will also analyze the implementation of equality policies and assess how efficient political measures have been in relation to the equality political objective – that women and men should have the same power to shape society and their lives. Against this background the inquiry should propose a direction and organization of future equality politics. On March 8th, International Women's Day, the inquiry released some of the research that has been produced within the scope of our remit. Our preliminary results do not make for a merry read. 1. We can conclude that male dominance in positions of power in politics, state and businesses has not been broken in the past ten years. The number of men in parliament has instead gone up in two consecutive elections, as has the number of men in parliamentary committees and as committee chairpersons. Three-quarters of all board members of listed companies are men and 77 percent of professors in higher education are men. Our reports show that the more hidden the positions of powers in politics and private business are, the greater is the gender gap. Private business has not succeeded in bridging the gender gap by voluntary incentives. 2. As far as financial equality is concerned, the employment market and businesses still have a clear lack of equality. A strong gender divide is still prevalent in the jobs market and a large number of women work part time. But despite a slight decrease in gender segregation – women's work hours have increased and women's levels of education are higher than men's – it has only had a very small effect on wages. Even taking various parameters such as age, education, work hours and that women and men are found in different sectors and work groups, women's salaries have stayed at 93 percent of men's salaries. This figure has remained much the same since the middle of the 1990s. Income inequality between women and men is still 93.500 kronor a year, or about 3.6 million kronor for 40 years of work. [I'm no statistician, but if women largely work part-time, higher education or slightly more part-time hours aren't going to bridge any gap in wages -- which, given a large portion of part-time women workers, doesn't look a significant hardship to me.] Cecilia Schelin Seidegård heads the Swedish government's equality inquiry. Photo: TT 3. Even though differences between the sexes have decreased in the past decade, women still carry out a greater part of unpaid home and care work. Men continue to claim less parental leave than women and they also take less leave to care for ill children (VAB, 'vård av barn'). In 2013, men claimed 25 percent and women 75 percent. Moreover, our research shows that women generally carry out more unpaid work, but have on average just as long working days as men. In the past ten years, however, men have increased their unpaid work by 12 minutes on weekdays and 15 minutes on weekends. The unequal divisions of unpaid home and care labour lead to lower incomes for women and by extension lower pensions than men. [So what does the govt propose to do, enter Swedish households (like part of a kinky threesome) and assign household chores on some more equitable basis?] 4. As far as the target of ending men's violence against women goes, close to every third woman in Sweden has been the victim of serious physical or sexual violence as an adult. One in five women has at some point in her life been subject to physical violence, sexual violence where physical violence or the threat thereof has been involved, or to repeated and systemic psychological violence by a current or former partner. Almost 40 percent have been exposed to harassment, including sexual harassment. The figures painfully speak for themselves; men's violence against women has not been eliminated in the past decade, even though the problem has been given a lot of attention.  [Without the details on how the figures have been obtained & the demographics, the figures don't speak for themselves, and this may not be a case of men's violence -- as in ALL men -- but a case of violence perpetrated by men in some demographic or other of Swedish society.] During the last two parliamentary terms a substantial 2.6 billion kronor effort was made to carry out specific policy initiatives. While there of course were several deliberate and thoughtful measures within the strategic framework, such as putting the spotlight on the issue of men's violence against women, our analysis shows that there were also serious flaws. That there was no overall comprehensive strategy is one example. The work was also generally linked to a project organization that would be dissolved when the specific targets had been met. [I'm going to hazard a guess that there may not be a one-size-fits all strategy, as violence can be due to any number of things:  drugs, alcohol, poverty / poor socialisation, cultural factors and so on.] This notwithstanding, we note that there is a long way to go towards an equal society. The latest gender equality inquiry from 2005 concluded that there has been progress from 1995-2005, but it has happened slowly. Ten years later it seems that this inquiry, too, can conclude that there has been progress, but it has happened slowly. With the addendum: in some cases it has also moved backwards.  [Utopia.] The gender equality inquiry ('Jämställdhetsutredningen') now works to outline proposals for the government on how equality politics can become more strategic, long-term and efficient. We urge the feminist government to put the leader's jersey back on and take responsibility for and control of the gender equality work, once and for all. This is a translated version of a piece written by Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, head of the government's special inquiry into gender equality, and originally published by Dagens Nyheter. To limit the overwhelming burden on our moderators, it will not be possible to comment on this article. Feel free to join the conversation on our Facebook page. [They're just dodging the negative comments they'd get.  Comments should be unmoderated, anyway.  Otherwise, what you get is a lie by omission.] http://www.thelocal.se/20150310/sweden-is-not-some-kind-of-equality-paradise SECTOR OF PUBLIC OPINION When journalists rape http://swedishsurveyor.com/2015/03/09/when-journalists-rape/ 'Julia Caesar' (pen name), described as a journalist who originally wrote and published this article, translated from Swedish to English in the article linked above. It is a confronting article of the kind that we don't see published in mainstream media and this article, also refers to figures (outdated from 15-20 years ago, that the government purportedly relies on); it draws attention to mass immigration and violent crime as a social problem in Sweden, that is being ignored and even covered up by Swedish politicians and media; and it, too, calls on feminists. The impression I have of Sweden is that there is a sector of Swedish society that feels politically disenfranchised and that there is genuine dissatisfaction with the political and social status quo. I've not read widely on the subject, but from what I've encountered so far that's certainly the impression. In the above article, journalists stand accused of covering up crime committed by ethnic minorities and passing those crimes off as committed by the Swedish (right down to using misleading identikits), endangering those who are unaware of the prevalence of violence perpetrated by immigrant minorities; and it charges the journalists of doing so, while hiding behind 'ethical press guidelines' and assuming a position of know-best superiority over the 'peasantry' who are denied the right to information, vital to risk assessment and self protection. The article refers to a 'public Sweden' and indicates that the state and the media is silent on all that would show the negative consequences of mass immigration policy, if I understand correctly.  By extension, journalists commit 'rape' of the public denied information and politicians, who are policy makers, are deemed the worse 'rapists' who sacrifice many thousands of women each year on the altar of multiculturalism rather than doing the obvious:  curtailing immigration. The official line article is on feminism and society.  However, this state feminism glosses over the gritty types of issues the second article voices, while paying lip service to a blanket state of Utopia that Swedish government intends to impose on civil society. While the second article is a hard-hitting social and political commentary not usually encountered in politically correct mainstream media offerings, I think it raises some interesting and starkly contrasting views relevant to Swedish foreign (and other) government policy, immigration, crime, feminism and the press. Analysis of the 'feminist Swedish government' (whatever that is) and of the gritty, contrasting conditions and opinions at grassroots level, in opposition to the status quo and official line (government and press), would probably be a sociologist's dream. ........................................................................... Other: * Note:  lenient sentencing in respect of serious violent crime (assume youth was a factor). Note:  I'm not a journalist or sociologist.  These are just my impressions on articles that caught my attention.

FOREIGN SERVICE UPDATES

@hrw 80 Philippine migrant workers facing execution overseas 27 are in #SaudiArabia http://www.rappler.com/nation/86325-government-help-ofws-death-row * If diplomacy is ever needed, it's when you're overseas on death row. ...................................... #Denmark #India Rape film could further hurt Denmark-India ties India considering legal action / banned film http://www.thelocal.dk/20150309/rape-film-could-further-damage-denmarks-ties-to-india * Not quite a diplomacy drama ... yet.  But is it shaping up to be? ...................................... #German Ambassador to #India, Michael Steiner refutes India rape culture perception - http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/german-ambassador-india-not-a-country-of-rapists-rape-culture/1/422901.html #Germany envoy pulls up prof for denying internship, says ‘India is not a country of rapists’ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/german-ambassador-pulls-up-professor-india-is-not-a-country-of-rapists/ Diplomatic Red Face   #German professor in rape remark drama German Ambassador announces academic's APOLOGY http://seeandsaynews.in/world/4079-german-embassy-snubs-professor-for-rape-remark ......................................   #Bangladesh Dhaka expels #NorthKorea diplomat over 27kg gold smuggling bid http://www.therakyatpost.com/world/2015/03/10/dhaka-expels-north-korean-diplomat-over-27kg-gold-smuggling-bid/ DHAKA, March 10, 2015: Bangladesh expelled a senior North Korean diplomat on Monday after he was caught smuggling US$1.4 million (RM5.17 million) worth of gold, government officials said. Bangladeshi customs officers found Son Young Nam, the First Secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Dhaka, trying to smuggle 27kg of gold into the country on Friday. North Korea is under tight international sanctions that restrict its ability to move money through conventional means. The diplomat was released, in accordance with diplomatic protocol, but Bangladesh asked North Korea to withdraw him. “We told the ambassador to prosecute him in North Korea and update us about the action to be taken against him,” said Mohammad Shahidul Haque, secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs. “We conveyed to him that the government would take serious action if any embassy official is found to be involved in any crimes in future,” Haque told Reuters. The smuggling of gold, mainly from Dubai, has increased in recent months but this is the first instance of a diplomat being involved, he said. SOURCE: The Rakyat Post (above) ...................................... * I feel sorry for the Norks.  Stop the Nork sanctions! ...................................... #Malaysia  US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur - Facebook spam / removed Petition  >> Petition called on the Barack Obama admin to expedite release of Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim http://www.therakyatpost.com/news/2015/03/10/kl-u-s-embassys-facebook-page-spammed-with-generic-message/ Source: The RakYatPost Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Apparently, the petition is related to the release of an opposition politician convicted of sodomy (a conviction initially overturned on appeal and later passed down again).  Details here, for anyone interested.  Bit much for me to take in, not knowing the region. Oh, the US might have been 'disappointed and concerned' regarding the conviction, but apparently not concerned enough to retain the petition for Ibrahim's release on their site. "The United States is deeply disappointed and concerned by the rejection of Anwar Ibrahim's final appeal and his conviction ... The decision to prosecute Mr Anwar, and his trial, have raised serious concerns regarding the rule of law and the independence of the courts"  [Wikipedia] Guess the US don't want to offend their hosts in Malaysia?  On the other hand, they had no such qualms about offending the Russians by permitting US Ambassador to Russia (John F. Tefft) death scene photo-ops before Boris Nemtsov had even cooled.  Ambassador Tefft below, wearing the old fashioned trilby, at the epicentre of media throng mourning: John Tefft, US Ambassador to Russia source:  Redpill Times Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. ...................................... Mark Lipper, US Ambassador - South Korea [image: Reuters] Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. US Ambassador to #SouthKorea Mark Lippert Militant Korean nationalist / knife attack http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-ambassador-to-south-korea-mark-lippert-suffers-nerve-damage-and-needs-80-stitches-after-seoul-knife-attack-10086972.html #SouthKorea Recovering US Ambassador — And Dog Lover — Mark Lippert  Offered Dog Meat By Well-Wisher http://www.inquisitr.com/1905386/mark-lippert-offered-dog-meat/ Mark Lippert, US Ambassador & Grisby, Basset Hound  Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. OK, maybe I've got a sick sense of humour, but I found this funny ... the guy's got an embassy post where he's been viciously attacked by a knife-wielding nutter and almost before he's even been stitched up, he gets a dog meat well-wisher offer (as a dog lover, who brought his basset hound over to South Korea).  C'mon, surely there's humour in that.   Instead of doing that lame embassy propaganda piece trying to mock Julian Assange, those unsavoury British writers, riding on his coattails, could have done a dark foreign service comedy.  Of course, the BBC state propaganda machine would ruin it by vilifying various official enemies & putting an official spin on it ... much like they do already.  Oh, Mark Lippert has been released from hospital and is doing OK. ... work in progress ... today's further updates to be added ... Nah, too tired ... That's it, folks ... correcting typos as I go ... *embarrassing*  LOL

Adam Bennett / Lorax - Good Luck With the Defence, Under Brave New Australian Totalitarianism

Australian Government Prosecuting Anonymous Member Who Allegedly Exposed The Major Flaw In Its Data Retention Demands from the prison-is-for-useful-people dept Find a security flaw, go to jail. That's the general attitude of government entities around the world. Over in Australia, an Anonymous member and fundraising manager for a cancer support group is facing an ever-shifting number of charges for finding and testing security holes. Adam John Bennett is a rather un-anonymous member of Anonymous. He also acts as an unofficial mouthpiece for Anonymous via his LoraxLive online radio show. His supposed participation in a large-scale hack saw him raided by Australian Federal Police in May of 2014. Since then, he's been awaiting prosecution for a variety of charges -- charges government prosecutors seem unable to pin down. The data breach leading to Bennett's arrest involved a target of Australia's controversial data retention law, which requires ISPs to hold onto subscribers' internet activity (including social network use and emails) for two years and grant extensive access to a variety of government agencies. AAPT confirmed it was breached in July 2012, following claims by an Australian sect of Anonymous that it snatched 40GB of data from the major Australian internet service provider (ISP). After stripping out personally identifiable information from the data (which included members of the Australian government), Anonymous released the data to raise awareness around expectations of data security: To demonstrate that if an ISP as large and trusted as AAPT can't keep its own data secure, it will be unable to keep Australians' data safe under the proposed laws. Rather than consider this a point well taken, the government went after Bennett. As for the prosecution itself, it's been a complete shambles. On March 11, Adam Bennett -- known by most as the radio voice of Anonymous, LoraxLive, who was arrested last year for alleged computer crimes -- will finally learn what he's being charged with. This had been expected to happen this week. Instead, at the last minute, Australian Commonwealth prosecutors -- for the third time since the case began 10 months ago -- requested another delay to change its lineup of accusations against him. Maddeningly, the prosecution also indicated it will be dropping its initial charges against Bennett, and adding a slew of new ones. Not only can't the government decide what to charge Bennett with, but it's also been instrumental in hamstringing his defense counsel. It's hard enough to structure a defense when charges remain largely unknown. It's even harder when the prosecution shows up late on the Friday before the next court date and dumps 20 GB of "evidence" into the defense's lap. Even more irritating is the fact that the prosecution apparently hopes to add Bennett's vulnerability testing of his own employer to list of charges. One of the charges Bennett's counsel expect to be in the final lineup is "Heartbleed Vulnerability Testing for Cancer Support W.A. 2014." This is in regard to a Heartbleed vulnerability test created by Bennett to test his employer's servers (Cancer Support W.A.) for Heartbleed vulns, which would have put the CRM that Bennett was involved in building for the organization at significant risk. This addition of complete BS suggests the prosecution can't find much about the Anonymous ISP hack it can wrap charges around. Instead, it seems to be operating purely on bluster. Constant delays followed by last-minute data dumps aren't the sort of actions that indicate prosecutorial confidence. Instead, it gives the impression that the government hopes to obfuscate its way into a guilty verdict. Meanwhile, Bennett is still living under restrictive bail conditions that prevent him from using the internet for anything other than banking, employment (he lost his job at the cancer support group after his arrest) or legal advice. While the government may be right to complain about the unauthorized use of an ISP's data, it seems to be more concerned with making an example out of someone who may have had something to do with providing a practical demonstration of the stupidity of data retention laws. The fact that it's going after him for testing his own employer's defense against vulnerabilities suggests there will be some prosecutorial "piling on" when it finally gets around to enumerating its criminal charges -- presumably in hopes of deterring future exposures of flaws in its lawmaking logic. This is what happens when governments try to "protect" citizens with little more than expansions of surveillance and law enforcement powers. Retained data is just as apt to be misused by cybercriminals as it is by law enforcement/security agencies. Any time you ask a third party to hold onto data it normally doesn't, it increases the risk of serious breaches involving plenty of normally private information. There are no exceptions. Anonymous exposed the short-sightedness of data retention laws. In response, the government has decided to shoot as many messengers as it can get its hands on. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150308/16030230255/australian-government-prosecuting-anonymous-member-who-allegedly-exposed-major-flaw-its-data-retention-demands.shtml COMMENT Anyone who points the finger at Russian tyranny ought to look at the insane State intrusions:  data retention, mass surveillance, laws that erode civil liberties rushed through, secret courts, trials etc, and other violations that take place under Western democracies. Being the subject of State scrutiny, and control of the surveillance and data retention kind, is rather like being a lab rat under glass.  It's disgusting and it should be unlawful to subject the public to this level of State control. Authorities should not be permitted to make charges without presenting a case to answer then and there.  What's with dragging it out and eventually swapping charges, over almost a stretch of a year, while the accused remains under restrictive 'bail conditions'? While I'm sure it is lawful, it just doesn't sound right and just. I don't fancy Bennett's chances of a fair go under totalitarianism.

HUMOUR - ex-MI6 John Sawers - Russia Is A Threat To EVERY NATION

.......................................... Took me forever messing around with this, but the legibility is so crap it's not only a scaremongering fail ... it's a political humour fail, too (unless the image magnification link works). Nah, it looks like a right-click & 'View Image' task, until I figure how to code a hover enlargement, or something. So annoying.  :)

SWEDEN - The Woes of Foreign Minister Margot Wallström

Margot Wallström Riyadh blocks Sweden FM address at Arab League meeting The Swedish foreign minister says Saudi Arabia has blocked her scheduled speech at an Arab League meeting in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. “The explanation we have been given is that Sweden has highlighted the situation for democracy and human rights [in Saudi Arabia] and that is why they do not want me to speak,” said Margot Wallström in Cairo on Monday, adding, “It’s a shame that a country has blocked my participation.” Wallström implicitly criticized the Arab League for allowing Saudi Arabia to exert such a considerable influence on other member states. The Arab League had invited the Swedish official to give an address to the ministerial meeting of the organization in praise of Stockholm’s official decision to recognize Palestine as an independent state in October 2014. The decision to cancel the speech “has also put the Arab League in a difficult situation since it means that a country can block an event of this kind," Wallström added. An Arab diplomat has confirmed the news about canceling Wallström’s scheduled address in Cairo, AFP reported. EXTRACT - FULL AT SOURCE http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/03/09/401035/KSA-bans-Sweden-FM-speech-at-AL  Russia blames Sweden for Ukraine crisis Russia’s embassy in Sweden has pointed the finger of blame at its host country for causing Ukraine's woes, in a furious response to comments made about the crisis by Foreign Minister Margot Wallström.  Writing on Facebook, the embassy lambasted the “honoured minister” for the “one-sided” view of the Ukraine conflict she put forward in an opinion piece published on Friday in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper. In the article, Wallström said Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its military support for separatists in eastern Ukraine posed the greatest threat to peace in Europe since the end of the Cold War. In its response, the Russian embassy suggested Sweden and others had provoked Russia into seizing part of its neighbour’s territory by offering Ukraine a pathway to membership of the European Union. “The main tool turned out to be a state coup, a violent power takeover, which pushed Ukraine into the abyss of civil war,” the embassy wrote. EXTRACT - FULL AT SOURCE http://www.thelocal.se/20150309/russia-blames-sweden-for-ukraine-crisis Wallström not welcome in Israel Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallström had planned to visit Israel this Thursday, to take part in a seminar in memory of the Swede Raoul Wallenberg in Tel Aviv. The Swedish Foreign Office says the trip was cancelled for scheduling reasons. But according to Swedish Radio News, the real reason is that Wallström was not welcome in Israel. Israeli officials have refused to meet with her, and it would have been embarrassing for the Foreign minister to visit the country unofficially. EXTRACT - FULL AT SOURCE http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6067802