A camera has been found hidden in the changing rooms at a leisure centre in Fife.
It was handed in to staff after a customer found it inside a cubicle at Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland.
Police were immediately called after the discovery on January 23 and a detailed search was carried out at all other council-run sports centres in the Kingdom.
A spokesman for Fife Sports and Leisure Trust reassured customers, saying it was an isolated incident.
He said: “We are working with Fife police on this matter and can assure customers to our facilities that the matter is being treated with the utmost concern. Following the report of this isolated incident, a full and thorough search of the Trust’s changing facilities across its 13 centres in Fife was conducted.
“All our facilities are checked thoroughly on a daily basis, and changing areas are inspected regularly through the day by leisure centre staff.
“We have put extra measures in place to ensure staff are extra vigilant and are on hand to reassure customers. The Trust will not tolerate any criminal activity on its premises and will continue to work with Fife police to safeguard the public.”
An investigation is currently being carried out by Fife Constabulary, who are still examining the item.
A spokesman for the force said: “An item was handed in at the reception of Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland on January 23. It is currently subject to forensic examination. We are working closely with Fife Leisure and Sports Trust to deal with this isolated incident.”
Hacker group Anonymous, in an embarrassment for law enforcement, released a recording of a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard discussing operations against the hacking collective.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed the authenticity of the nearly 17-minute recording posted on YouTube and other sites and said it was “intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained.”
“A criminal investigation is under way to identify and hold accountable those responsible,” the FBI said in a statement.
The release of the audio recording was one in a series of attacks Friday by the shadowy loose-knit group of international hackers.
Members of Anonymous also attacked the website of the Greek justice ministry in a protest against the country’s tough fiscal reforms and a site operated by the Boston Police Department.
In addition, members of the hacker group claimed to have briefly knocked Citibank offline and defaced the website of the law firm that defended a US Marine charged in connection with the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians.
Anonymous, in a statement on the website of the law firm of Puckett and Faraj, also claimed to have published online three gigabytes of private email messages of attorneys Neal Puckett and Haytham Faraj.
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Patrick Lott
The northern New Jersey assistant principal who has been accused of planting a hidden camera to videotape boys showering at a NJ Catholic high school where he volunteered for nearly three years has resigned from his job, more than a month after he was first arrested. Patrick Lott had been placed on an unpaid leave of absence as an assistant principal at the Bernardsville Middle School after being arrested last December, but it took until this week for Lott to officially step down amidst 22 counts of invasion of privacy (one for each victim), and more than two dozen counts of child endangerment. So despite “several” videos of nude teenagers showering being found at Lott’s house, he was still given a gentleman’s period to gracefully step aside.
In mid-December, police obtained a warrant to search Lott’s home, and prosecutors say they found “several” videos of nude teenagers showering. Authorities said there were 22 victims, including nine boys who are under the age of 16. Detectives subsequently found the area in the communal shower at Immaculata High School where the camera had been surreptitiously installed—they believe it’s been there since January 2008. The Somerville County DA says Lott had been a longtime volunteer and coach at the school, and also was active in local and county politics, serving for a time as chairman of the Somerville Republican Committee.
Two Russian Embassy staff in Ottawa have left Canada in the wake of spying allegations against a Canadian naval officer in Halifax, but there’s little else that’s clear about the murky espionage case.
Intelligence experts and those in close contact with the embassy disagree on whether any Russian diplomats engage in spying, leaving Canadians to try to piece together what bits are public.
Initial media reports said up to four Russian Embassy staff had been removed from a list of embassy and diplomatic staff recognized by Canada. CBC News has confirmed that two have had their credentials revoked since news broke of the naval officer’s arrest, while two diplomats left the country a month or more before the arrest this week of Canadian Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle.
Another report pointed to two other staff who are no longer accredited to be in Canada. It’s not clear which of the staff have been expelled over the spying allegations.
Konstantin Kolpakov, a former aide to the ambassador, was scheduled to leave Canada on Dec. 25 because his posting was over, and had a send-off attended by diplomats in Ottawa mid-month.
CBC News has also learned Lt.-Col. Dmitry V. Fedorchatenko, assistant defence attaché, was scheduled to leave in November.
Kolpakov and Fedorchatenko were known to circulate around the diplomatic scene in the capital, attending functions with other foreign representatives, Canadian diplomats and journalists.
Two others, Mikhail Nikiforov and Tatiana Steklova, were listed as administrative and technical staff until Jan. 19 but are no longer on a list of accredited diplomats on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
A report in the Russian media Friday quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying it was surprised to see Canadian media reports about the expulsions. The report says the embassy staff left at the end of 2011 because their rotations were ending.
A woman who answered the phone at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa refused to comment on the departures.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews refused to comment on a national security matter, but did say: “I’m not aware of why those individuals left Canada.”
Lt.-Col. Kay Kuhlen, defence attaché for the German Embassy and head of the Ottawa Service Attachés Association, an organization that helps military diplomats, said he was advised in September that Fedorchatenko was leaving. His farewell event was Nov. 10. He also said he is “surprised” by the reports of spying.
Russian diplomatic staff usually do two- or three-year postings at the embassy before returning home or going on to a posting in another country. Read More
Six former and current employees of the Food and Drug Administration say the federal agency spied on their private e-mail correspondence after they attempted to blow the whistle on agency practices of approving medical devices that posed a risk to patients.
The employees, all of them scientists or doctors, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking an injunction to halt the surveillance, according to the Washington Post.
The plaintiffs say the agency spied on correspondence they sent through personal Gmail accounts that they accessed from government computers and took screenshots of their computer desktops after they began corresponding with congressional staffers about their concerns.
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