Planned EU privacy law no magic bullet against U.S. spying

Stung by revelations about the scale of U.S. electronic spying, Europe has been itching to show it can protect its citizens from snooping - but planned new privacy legislation risks a head-on collision with U.S. law.

However much European Parliament lawmakers may fume at the leaks from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Europe has a poor record in battles with U.S. justice and intelligence services over its citizens' data, the law would oblige companies to tell European regulators when an intelligence service was requesting data on a European citizen, and to get the regulators' approval.

U.S. companies and lawyers say there is one glaring catch: in most cases they are not allowed to tell anyone, even a European regulator, about a data request, demands for information often come from courts set up in 1978 under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Services Act (FISA), with a gagging order attached. Breaching such an order of a FISA court can spell hefty fines and even jail.

Google and Microsoft have so far failed to lift the gag, underlining the difficulties U.S. companies face in complying with rules in Europe, "prior authorization for transfer of EU citizen data is in direct conflict with U.S. law, namely the FISA act," said an industry source on condition of anonymity.

source reuters.com

No law will stop Obama’s democracy-bombs over Syria

Regardless of how Congress votes, Obama is going to attack Syria. The president is doing his best to avoid constructive dialogue when the focus should be international law, not ‘international norms’ as defined by Washington.
Many of the leaders attending have brought along their foreign ministers, as the summit will also informally serve as a global platform to discuss the sorry state of affairs in Syria. One can only speculate as to the substance of any exchanges between President Putin and his American counterpart and forced smiles will be in no short supply.

“He is lying and knows he is lying. It’s sad,” said Putin, of John Kerry’s address to the US Congress. That about sums it up – the lies and deceit of the Obama administration are so breathtaking, so innumerable, and they’re being trumpeted knowingly and shamelessly. Want a taste of highly moral and ethical narrative being championed in favor of “the Syrian people?” Look no further than the New York Times, with its recent headline “Bomb Syria, Even If It Is Illegal,” which argues that Obama and his poodles should “declare that international law has evolved and that they don’t need Security Council approval to intervene in Syria."

source rt.com

U.S. faces substantial losses if Egypt aid halted: official

The U.S. government faces billions of dollars in potential costs if it decides to cancel foreign military aid to Egypt, a senior Pentagon official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Richard Genaille, deputy director of the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, said he hoped the Obama administration reached a decision soon on whether to continue $1.23 billion in U.S. military assistance to Egypt, given the large number of weapons shipments in the pipeline.

source reuters.com

Russia warns of nuclear disaster if Syria is hit

A military strike on Syria could lead to a nuclear catastrophe if a missile were to hit a reactor containing radioactive uranium, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned. The remark comes as the US continues to push for a military strike on Syria, "If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic," Aleksandr Lukashevich said in a Wednesday statement.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to complete a risk evaluation as the US continues to seek support for military action. It asked the agency to “react swiftly” and carry out “an analysis of the risks linked to possible American strikes on the MNSR and other facilities in Syria.”

Lukashevich stated that the region could be at risk of “contamination by highly enriched uranium and it would no longer be possible to account for nuclear material, its safety and control.” He added that such material could fall into the wrong hands.

source rt.com

IFA Galaxy Note 10.1

With a 2560x1600 LCD screen, with a density of 299ppi, the 2014 edition Note 10.1 height makes it demanded a similar product, inside a processor on the same combination that Note 3, a Snapdragon 2.3 800 Quad Exynos 5 Octa or 1.9 as optional for each market.
The camera is 8MP and 2MP front, has WiFi a / b / g / n / c dual band, HSPA + and 4G LTE depending on the market. The battery is 8220mAh, 3GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, three models of 16, 32 and 64GB (I insist that today's base should be 32 and no longer 16), plus microSD extra and audio 24-bit, 192Khz.
The operating system is Android 4.3 with several extensions to leverage samsung big screen, multiwindow, also air command, best sketchbook and lets you write everything with Spen.

IFA Samsung Galaxy Gear

Gear Galaxy has several features expected, able to receive and make calls from the clock, receive SMS, reply, use the SVoice for voice commands.

Smart Relay option allows you to be reading something on the clock and still on the smartphone but here is where it gets complicated, only the Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1 2014 will support the Gear from day one and, from October, will add the Note 2 and the Galaxy S3 and S4 will the rest? Map not Samsung give support to other smartphones and less than other brands.

The SuperAMOLED screen is 1.63 "at 320x320 with a 800Mhz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.0, 1.9MP camera and 720p video, 315 mAh battery

IFA Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Galaxy Note, this time back to the Arabic numerals to describe it, with screen 5.7 ", 1080p, Super AMOLED, a weight of 168 grams and dimensions of 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm will be two models, as has happened with Samsung , for different markets, one with a 800 at 2.3GHz Snapdragon quad-core and another with the Octa Core 1.9GHz Exynos. operating system will be Android 4.3, 13MP camera, 2 MP front, plus 4K video to 1080p 60fps, 3,200 mAh battery, the audio is 24 bit and 192 kHz.