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World News
WORLD BULLETIN
US security agency considers amnesty for Snowden The US National Security Agency is considering offering an amnesty to fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking secret documents, an NSA official said. The man in charge of assessing the leaks’ damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be open to an amnesty deal. Disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of the NSA’s spying activity. But NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander has dismissed the idea. Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty deal: “So my personal view is, yes it’s worth having a conversation about. “I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high, would be more than just an assertion on his part.” But Gen Alexander, who is retiring early next year, rejected the idea of any amnesty for Mr Snowden. “This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then say, ‘if you give me full amnesty, I’ll let the other 40 go’. What do you do?” File picture of the NSA headquarters The NSA has been making efforts to be seen as more transparent
South Korea conveys security summit over North execution South Korea’s president has convened a meeting of security officials after the shock execution of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle. Ahead of the meeting President Park Geun-hye warned of possible “reckless provocations” by the North and called for increased border vigilance. Last week’s execution of Chang Song-thaek left the region in a “grave and unpredictable” situation, she said. Mr Chang, a key figure, was executed for allegedly planning a coup. The move - together with the recall of a North Korean business team from China prompted concerns that Mr Chang’s associates were being purged as part of a campaign by Kim Jong-un to consolidate his power. Several North Koreans - calling clandestinely to friends in the South - have reported that indoctrination sessions have increased and that people are being required to write letters of loyalty in support of the country’s leader. There’s an overall “state of fear” said one defector with several contacts inside the North. At least one organisation operating undercover there has suspended all projects in the wake of the execution.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
UK’s mission in Afghanistan accomplished –Cameron U
K troops can come home from Afghanistan knowing it was mission accomplished, David Cameron has said as he visited the country. The prime minister met forces stationed at Camp Bastion in Helmand, a year before the last British combat forces are due to leave the country. Cameron, who ate breakfast with troops, said a “basic level of security” had been achieved. They could “come home with their heads held high”, he added. Senior military figures are braced for increased activity as more troops pull out and expect elections being staged next year to be a particular focus for insurgent groups. Asked by reporters if personnel were coming home with the message “mission accomplished”, the prime minister, accompanied by former England footballer Michael Owen, said: “Yes, I think they do.” He added: “To me, the absolute driving part of the mission is a basic level of security so it doesn’t become a haven for terror. That is the mission, that was the mission and I think we will have accomplished that mission and so our troops can be very proud of what they have done.” Around 5,200 British troops are now based in Afghanistan, down from 9,000 at the start of the year. There have been 446 British deaths since operations began in 2001. Cameron, who has made a pre-Christmas trip to Afghanistan every year since becoming prime minister, said: “The timetable for the withdrawal of British troops is a plan that we will stick to. I said, back in 2010, that after the end of 2014 there would not be British troops in a combat role and we will stick to that. “We are not going to abandon this country. We are going to go on funding the Afghan National Army and police into the future. “We will have a development programme into the future and, of course, we are providing what the president of Afghanistan asked me for, which is an officer training academy in Kabul which will help provide the backbone of the Afghan National Army for the future.
British Prime Minister, David Cameron shaking hands with some UK troops in Afghanistan
“So, we have more than played our part in helping to rebuild this country and making it safe. “Our commitment goes on into the future but our troops have done enough and it’s time for them to come home.” Cameron took a helicopter to a forward operating base, Sterga 2, in the Nahr-e Saraj part of Helmand,
Photo: PA
where he had lunch with a small group of soldiers. Lance Corporal Bill Hay said: “I’m most surprised by the fact he’s actually coming out here. Most of the time, people will only get as far as Bastion. So I’m quite chuffed and interested that he’s pushed further.”
Harvard University evacuates students amid bomb alert
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arvard University in the US state of Massachusetts, yesterday evacuated its campus amid an “unconfirmed report” of explosives at four of its buildings.
Harvard Yard Photo: Flickr
The university’s Twitter feed said there were no reports of an explosion and no indication that any bombs had been placed on campus. Authorities later reopened two
of the four buildings. Final exams, which were under way at the elite college, have been cancelled in the affected buildings. Harvard said in a statement: “The Harvard University Police Department this morning received an unconfirmed report that explosives may have been placed in four buildings on campus: the Science Centre, Thayer, Sever and Emerson Halls.” The campus was being cleared “out of an abundance of caution”, added Monday’s statement. Are America’s frequent lockdowns at schools and colleges an overreaction to the threat of mass shootings? “There’s a lot of helicopters about,” Anna Fifield, a Harvard fellow, told the BBC. She also said all gates into Harvard Yard had been closed following the threat, and “frustrated” students were requesting entrance to cordoned off areas. Amid an ongoing investigation, two law enforcement sources told CNN on Monday afternoon they believed the report of
explosives to be a hoax. As of yesterday afternoon, Thayer and Emerson Halls were reopened to students. A search of two other buildings remained ongoing. It is the latest security threat to a US school in recent months. In November, another Ivy League institution, Yale University in Connecticut, was locked down for nearly six hours following a report of an armed man, which was later found to be a hoax. In February, a gunman was reported on the campus of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That alarm, too, later proved false. Amid the ongoing threat of mass shootings at US schools, such alerts are an almost daily occurrence, though most tur n out to be nothing. A BBC investigation found that, just in the month between 9 November and 9 December, US schools or college campuses were placed on “lockdown” on at least 130 occasions.