September 7 Current news 2013 , General Knowledge 2013
U.S., U.K. agencies defeat Internet privacy
U.S. and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and e-mails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.
The key component of the NSA’s battle against encryption, its collaboration with technology companies, is detailed in the U.S. intelligence community’s top-secret 2013 budget request under the heading “Sigint [signals intelligence] enabling”.
Funding for the programme — $254.9 million for this year — dwarfs that of the Prism programme, which operates at a cost of $20 million a year, according to previous NSA documents.
Since 2011, the total spending on Sigint enabling has topped $800 million.
The programme “actively engages U.S. and foreign IT industries to covertly influence and/or overtly leverage their commercial products’ designs”, the document states.
None of the companies involved in such partnerships are named; these details are guarded by still higher levels of classification.
National Security Agency and its U.K. counterpart GCHQ have broadly compromised the guarantees that Internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their communications, online banking and medical records would be indecipherable to criminals or governments.
Zubin Mehta conferred Tagore cultural
harmony award
World acclaimed orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta was
conferred the prestigious Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony on Friday by
President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.
He is the second recipient after Sitar maestro late
Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Mr. Mehta (77), a maestro in western classical music
who conducts the Bavarian State Orchestra, was described by the President as a
“distinguished son of India” whose mission “has been to bring peace where there
is misery and conflict.”
The award citation pays Mehta rich tributes and says
that “no other Indian has achieved such distinction in the world of Opera”.
Government to spend Rs 10,000 crore subsidy for mobiles in Village areas
Government to spend Rs 10,000 crore subsidy for mobiles at subsidised prices in rural areas and 90 lakh tablets free of cost to class XI and XII students across government schools, as it continues efforts to woo voters ahead of upcoming state and national elections.
The Congress-led coalition government plans to charge Rs 300 for a mobile phone which will be bundled with a monthly recharge of Rs 30 for a period of two years.
New Delhi will give out 25 lakh mobile phones in the first year, 50 lakh in the second, 75 lakh in the third and the rest in the fourth. For tablets, it's 15 lakh in the first year.
The recharge will entitle the user to 30 minutes of airtime, 30 SMSes and 30 Mbps usage a month.
free tablets will come with 75 minutes talk time, 75 SMSes and 500 MB of data usage.
For any usage beyond the prescribed limit, the beneficiary will have to pay.
The objective of the tablet scheme is to empower the higher secondary students of XI and XII, the telecom department highlighted in the document.
Angelina Jolie to receive Honorary
Oscar for humanitarian work
Angelina Jolie is to receive an Honorary Oscar in
recognition of her humanitarian work, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences said on Thursday.
Jolie, who was appointed as a special envoy to the
United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees in 2012 has also travelled
widely to promote other causes such as preventing violence against women.
She previously won an Oscar for her role in the 1999 movie
Girl, Interrupted.
Honorary Oscars will also be presented to actress Angela
Lansbury, comedian Steve Martin and Italian production designer Piero Tosi, in
honour of their lifetime achievements, the Academy announced.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony on November
16.
Sahara Group ties up with Dainik Bhaskar for Q shop expansion
The Sahara Group ties with the Dainik Bhaskar Group to expand the Q Shop retail chain in Delhi through Super Bazar outlets, which introduced the concept of shopping under one roof at affordable prices in the national capital in 1966, was acquired by the Dainik Bhaskar group in 2009.
The Sahara group, which announced its Q Shop venture in August last year, is also in discussions with the Dainik Bhaskar group for management control.
Super Bazar has about 110 outlets and properties in Delhi. Of this, about 95 outlets are small-format, 300-600 square foot stores.
The rest, including the Super Bazar branch in Connaught Place, are large properties.
Dainik Bhaskar group acquired the chain for Rs 504 crore and operates it under the Multi-State Cooperative Society Act.
Adolf Hitler's bodyguard Rochus Misch dies at 96
Rochus Misch, who served as Adolf Hitler's devoted
bodyguard for most of World War II and was the last remaining witness to the
Nazi leader's final hours in his Berlin bunker, has died.
He was 96.
Burkhard Nachtigall, who helped Misch ghostwrite his
2008 memoir, told The Associated Press today that Misch died yesterday in
Berlin after a short illness.
In a 2005 interview with the AP, Misch recalled Hitler
as "a very normal man" and gave a riveting account of the German
dictator's last days before he and his wife Eva Braun killed themselves in
their bunker in Berlin.
Bill passed to allow jail to contest polls
Supreme Court order, Parliament on Friday passed a bill that maintains the right of those in jail to contest polls, with the government saying the court verdict was wrong and the Legislature has Constitutional duty to correct it.
The Bill negates the July 10 order of the Supreme Court which held that those in jail cannot vote as per RP Act and hence cannot qualify for contesting elections to Parliament or state legislatures.
The Amendment Bill seeks to add a proviso to sub-section (2) of section 62 of the RP Act to state that a person cannot cease to be a voter while in detention as his or her right is only temporarily suspended.
One of the amendments states that as the name of the jailed person continues to be on the electoral rolls, he or she also continues to be an elector and can file nomination for an election.
Pakistan’s President completes five-year term
Pakistan’s first elected President to complete a five-year term, Asif Ali Zardari will step down from office on Sunday and will be succeeded by India-born Mamnoon Hussain.
Mr. Zardari, the de facto chief of the Pakistan People’s Party, faced a strong and assertive judiciary that pursued him over multi-million dollar graft cases against him in Switzerland.
After Mr. Zardari steps down, the new President will be sworn in on Monday.
Replacing Mr.Zardari would be Mamnoon Hussain, who beat former judge Wajihuddin Ahmad of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf in a one-sided Presidential poll.
Born in the historic city of Agra, India, Mr. Hussain, who belongs to an Urdu-speaking ethnic group that migrated from India during the Partition, was the ruling PML-N’s candidate.
No comments:
Post a Comment