Police looked at funding for the cameras in 2007, the report said
More than 200 so-called “spy” cameras put up in largely Muslim areas of Birmingham will be removed.
West Midlands Police Authority said Project Champion will be withdrawn and all cameras and poles removed at an estimated cost of ÂŁ630,000.
The cameras, some of which were hidden, were paid for with ÂŁ3m of government money earmarked for tackling terrorism.
The decision was rubber-stamped at a routine authority meeting some weeks after the force said they should go.
‘Lack of consultation’
They were erected in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook areas of the city and members of the community said they were angry about a lack of consultation.
A recent independent report into the project was highly critical of the scheme and the police.
The chief constable of West Midlands Police, Chris Sims, said last month at the last authority meeting that he agreed the cameras should be removed.
All the hidden cameras were removed some months ago and the remainder that were clearly in view were covered with bags.
The police have made assurances that none of them have ever been switched on.
It is not known when the poles and remaining cameras will start to be removed following the authority’s approval.
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea is highly likely to attack South Korea again, the South’s spy chief said on Wednesday, as a flotilla of American warships led by an aircraft carrier left South Korean waters after a deadly attack.
“There is a high possibility that the North will make an additional attack,” Won Sei-hoon, director of the National Intelligence Service, told a parliamentary committee meeting.
The South’s Defense Minister, Kim Tae-young, has also warned there was an “ample possibility” the North might stage another provocation once a U.S.-South Korea exercise ended on Wednesday.
Won said wire-taps in August indicated Pyongyang was preparing for an attack off the west coast designed to smooth the way for Kim Jong-il’s son to take over as leader, Yonhap news agency reported.
“In August this year, we confirmed North Korea’s plan to attack five islands in the West Sea through wiretapping,” he said. “We didn’t expect the (North’s) shelling on civilians, as North Korea has often made threatening remarks.
Last week, North Korea fired a barrage of artillery rounds at Yeonpyeong island in the first such attack on civilians on South Korean soil since the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. Two civilians were among the four killed.
Analysts say the attack was an attempt to force the resumption of international negotiations that could bring it aid, or could be seen as an attempt to boost the militaristic credentials of the country’s leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un.
Won said the attack on Yeonpyeong island came as “internal complaints are growing about the North’s succession for a third generation (of Kim family rule), and its economic situation is worsening.”
Kim Jong-un is the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-il.
CHINA STANDS BY NORTH
China steadfastly stood by its ally, North Korea, on Wednesday, refusing to bow to international pressure and condemn its actions at the United Nations.
Beijing said it would not favor any side but wanted to help resolve the dispute as a “responsible great power.”
China, North Korea’s only powerful ally, protected Pyongyang from censure by the U.N. Security Council for last week’s deadly bombardment of Yeonpyeong, an attack many analysts believe was an attempt to force the resumption of international negotiations that could bring it aid.
“Our general goal is for all sides to exercise calm and restraint and to make every effort to avoid such incidents recurring,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said as South Korea planned further military drills for next week after U.S. warships leave Wednesday.
“Since the exchange of fire between North and South Korea, China has made a series of efforts to prevent the situation from escalating and deteriorating. China decides its position based on the merits of each case and does not seek to protect any side,” Yang said.
Yang spoke as Chen Zhili, vice-chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, met a delegation from North Korea. China wants to hold an emergency meeting of the six regional powers, but the proposal has met with a lukewarm response.
An attempt by France and Britain to push the U.N. Security Council to condemn North Korea’s nuclear program and the attack on Yeonpyeong was on the verge of collapse because of China’s unwillingness to apportion blame, envoys said.
The reason for the virtual breakdown of talks on two Security Council statements to rebuke Pyongyang was China’s demand for removal of words such as “condemn” and “violation.”
The United States and South Korea are pressing China, which has not blamed North Korea for the island attack or for the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in March, to do more to rein in its ally.
Meanwhile, a four-day show-of-force military exercise with the United States, which included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, concluded and the vessels headed to another joint maneuver with Japan.
There were no further attacks and markets were assuaged.
Wednesday, stocks ended up 1 percent and the won currency was up 0.7 percent, but credit default swaps rose to a three-month high Wednesday, Reuters data showed, indicating continued risk concerns.
“People know that it’s not the end and North Korea can come out again any time after the exercise ends with a sort of violations,” said a foreign exchange trader at a Singaporean bank in Seoul.
South Korea is planning further artillery drills, “including waters close to the Yellow Sea border (with the North)” starting Monday, Yonhap said.
Oil traders, meanwhile, said the U.S. Navy was seeking a medium-range oil tanker to move at least 30,000 tons of jet fuel from Japan to South Korea, suggesting it was stockpiling.[nL3E6N108J]
The route is unusual for jet fuel, but the U.S. military said such shipments were standard for operational use.
Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are based in South Korea, which is still technically at war with the North, having only signed a truce to end fighting in the 1950-53 war.
(Additional reporting by Yoo Choonsik and Yeonhee Kim in Seoul; and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Ron Popeski)
They could put your mind at ease – or do very much the opposite.
A new arms race is on and it could change everything from the way we parent to how we get our celebrity gossip.
For the technology currently being used by the CIA to ferret out terrorist leaders in the hills of Pakistan is set to arrive in a neighbourhood near you – and there’s nowhere to hide.
Coming to a sky near you? A remote CCTV camera drone circles in the sky during a political rally in Britain last year. Drones are set to play a large part in the future of policing – but could they affect our personal lives also?
Personal drones – smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator – are the next hot technology for people looking to track celebrities, cheating lovers, or even wildlife.
And it could be a dream tool for the paparazzi, named after the Iralian for buzzing mosquitoes.
Now the metaphor is coming to life. Several personal drones are scheduled for completion next year.Â
A police constable in Liverpool tries out the force’s new remote-controlled UAV. Liverpool police have already used such drones to make at least one arrest
The officer can see from the drone’s perspective using a special pair of goggles
Already in the UK police are using drones to track thieves. In February, the Air
Robot was deployed by Merseyside police after officers lost an alleged car thief who had escaped on foot in thick fog.
Using the device’s on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology,
the operator was able to pick up the suspect through his body heat and
direct foot patrols to his location.
It led officers to a 16-year-old youth, who was hiding in
bushes alongside the Leeds-Liverpool canal, in Litherland, Merseyside.
The drone, which measures 3ft between the tips of its four
carbon fibre rotor blades, uses unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
technology originally designed for military reconnaissance.
The battery-powered device can have a range of cameras
attached to its main body, including CCTV surveillance or thermal
imaging cameras.
It is designed to hover almost silently above crime scenes and
send live footage to officers on the ground, but the unit can also
‘perch and stare’ from a solid platform, allowing the operator to
capture hours of footage from a hidden vantage point.
Merseyside Police is one of a handful of forces trying out the
devices which, at ÂŁ40,000 each, are far cheaper to use for small-scale
operations than a conventional helicopter.
They have been using the drones for two years, mainly to help
in search and rescue operations, to execute drug warrants and to crack
down on anti-social behaviour.
The Home Office is now exploring how the craft can be used to give back-up to police, ambulance and fire services.
A Predator drone like the ones used to hunt down terrorist leaders in Pakistan (file photo). The military must follow rules of engagement with such technology, but there are no such rules governing private use yet
Spy drones are considered the future of policing, although
critics have voiced concerns that they could be a worrying extension of
Big Brother Britain.
Last month arms manufacturer BAE Systems said it was adapting
military-style UAVs for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent
police. Documents showed the force hoped to begin using the drones in
time for the 2012 Olympics.
But they also indicated that the drones could eventually be
used to spy on the civilian population, by rooting out motorists
suspected of antisocial driving, for covert urban surveillance and to
monitor ‘waste management’ for local councils.
Similar concepts are already being developed in the U.S.
‘If the Israelis can use them to find terrorists, certainly a husband
is going to be able to track a wife who goes out at 11 o’clock at night
and follow her,’ New York divorce lawyer Raoul Felder told the Journal.
The technology is swiftly moving beyond military and even police circles – already unmanned aircraft that can fly predetermined routes cost just a few hundred dollars and can be operated by an iPhone.Â
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and former Navy fighter
pilot Missy Cummings is working to develop a ‘Personal Sentry’ drone about the size of a pizza box that warns soldiers if danger is approaching from behind.
But, she said, ‘that military stuff is kind of passe’.
‘It doesn’t take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.’
She told the Wall Street Journal that she could use such technology to follow her young child on the way to school by planting an electronic bug in her lunch box or backpack.
‘It would bring a whole new meaning to the term hover parent,’ she said.
The FAA has not approved the use of personal drones just yet. But a spokesman said the agency is working with private industry on standards that could allow the broader use of drones.Â
Grey areas already exist, however – particularly with the recreational use of drones.
There are no regulations governing recreational drone use. Instead the FAA recommends – emphasis on ‘recommends’ – such drones be flown away from populated areas, from aeroplanes, below a certain altitude and so on.
And if people claim their drones are for personal use, that could theoretically get around many FAA regulations.
So while the military has to follow rules of engagement regarding drone use, there is – as yet – no similar set of rules regarding privacy for domestic use of drones.
‘If everybody had enough money to buy one of these things, we could
all be wandering around with little networks of vehicles flying over our
heads spying on us,’ Ms Cummings said.
‘It really opens up a whole new
Pandora’s Box of: What does it mean to have privacy?’
TORONTO – An electronic bug burrowed deep inside a laundromat in Italy, part of the largest strike yet against the Calabrian ‘ndrangheta, overheard something that stunned police.
A Calabrian crime cell is operating in isolated Thunder Bay in northern Ontario.
The surveillance device in the business owned by the Commisso clan in Siderno, Calabria, overheard Giuseppe Bruzzese, 64, a clan member from the lakehead group.
He was speaking with his ‘ndrangheta overlord about a dispute with a Toronto group, according to a report, Project Crimine, written by Italian magistrates.
The project shows how widespread the ‘ndrangheta is in Canada and that its network is capable of replacing the now weakened Rizzuto clan, which until recently was Mafia royalty.
The recent violence against the once-mighty Rizzuto crime family in Montreal is reverberating in the Toronto area where the Sicilians’ grip on the drug trade is being threatened.
The Calabrians have long been established in the Toronto area and coexisted with the Rizzutos.
But that may now all change.
The ‘ndrangheta is considered by Italian authorities to be more powerful, richer and better able to distribute drugs globally than any Mafia group.
On Thursday, police in Calabria seized the laundromat where Giuseppe “Master” Commisso allegedly operated his empire along with 140 condos and a commercial mall owned by his clan, considered by Italian authorities to be one of the richest in the world.
The seized properties are worth about $280 million, police said.
In July, Project Crimine netted more than 300 members and associates of the ‘ndrangheta.
Along with uncovering the Thunder Bay clan, the report also revealed six Calabrian mobs tied to Siderno that are based in the Toronto area.
The extensive report also identifies the leaders of the Toronto area clans as Vincenzo Tavernese, 44, of Thornhill, and Giuseppe Andriano, 62, of Vaughan; Antonio Coluccio, 41, of Richmond Hill; Cosimo Commisso; Angelino Figliomeni, 48, of Woodbridge, and his brother, Cosimo Figliomeni, of Vaughan; and Vincenzo DeMaria, 56, of Mississauga.
DeMaria, a convicted killer, was arrested in April 2009 for breaching parole and has since been released.
Tavernese was arrested in Italy in July while Coluccio who was wanted on arrest warrants in Italy disappeared.
But Coluccio’s lawyers appealed the warrants and a judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to file charges in Italy but he is wanted by Canadian immigration authorities.
The other men, named in the Italian report, aren’t wanted by Canadian police.
The report also looked at the organized crime group’s activities around the world, particularly in Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Australia.
Italian authorities say there are five forms of traditional organized crime in Italy, the Sicilian Mafia, the Calabrian ‘ndrangheta, the Neapolitan Camorra, the Sacra Corona Unita based in areas of Puglia in southern Italy and the Stidda, based in Sicily.
The ‘ndrangheta, derived from the Greek word “andrangetos” meaning a valiant and cunning man, has had a strong presence in the Toronto area for decades, and was dubbed the Siderno Group because most of the families came from the town of Siderno in Calabria.
Police discovered in 1968 the cells in Ontario were governed by a central board called the La Camera di Controllo.
The first board formed by Giacomo Luppino, of Hamilton, in 1962 consisted of Michele Racco, who died in 1980, Salvatore Triumbari who was murdered in 1967, Filippo Vendemini, murdered in 1969, Rocco Zito, Vincenzo Deleo and Cosimo Stalteri.
Authorities now believe the ‘ndrangheta has surpassed the Sicilian Mafia in power and its ability to distribute drugs – including cocaine – around the world.
Police say there are about 160 ‘ndrangheta cells with about 6,000 members in Italy, worth an estimated $61.2 billion in assets.
The ‘ndrangheta’s structure is different than the Mafia.
Its cells are based on family ties and don’t have rigid vertical lines of authority. Cell members don’t always know what other members are doing and the groups allow for freelancing.
The Italian report noted the existing strong ties between ‘ndrangheta cells in Canada and Italy.
“Even today the Commissos of Siderno – through their most illustrious member Giuseppe ‘Master’ Commisso – continues to influence the policy of all the ‘ndrangheta … to settle the criminal issues, even the most distant,” it said.
The criminal case of the alleged Goldman spy is off and running, and it’s shaping up to be a good one. The case seems likely to open a window into the mysterious world of high-frequency trading and to shed some light inside Wall Street’s most notorious powerhouse, Goldman Sachs. But the lawsuit might do something else, too: It could test legal limits related to trade secrets — and cause angst far from the trading world.
The man of the hour is the defendant, Sergey Aleynikov. Aleynikov was a programmer in Goldman’s high-frequency trading group and is accused of taking code in order to help a new employer compete with Goldman. He disputes this and has said he intended to take some code, but not anything secret – just open-source code. The open-source part of that is crucial.
When open-source code is involved, what can be defended as a trade secret? His argument is “going to make it harder for government to prove that what was taken was in fact proprietary to Goldman,” says Brent Cossrow of the Employee Defection and Trade Secrets Practice Group of law firm Fisher Phillips. That could roil the high-frequency trading world, a competitive and controversial business that is transforming the financial markets. Beyond that, any company that has open-source software sitting on its networks, integrated into its digital intellectual property, might have to circle the wagons and figure out what to do.
High-frequency trading relies on algorithms that exploit tiny price differences in the markets. Do that enough, fast enough, and it can lead to big profits. Algorithms that do best have essentially found a niche in the market, and their owners are secretive because they don’t want anyone else muscling in on their niche. The algorithm is the secret sauce.
Goldman purchased its original code in 1999 from Hull Trading, founded by Chicago trader Blair Hull, for $531 million. After that, Goldman presumably had the right to do what it wanted with the code. It could add to it, take away from it, and tinker with it at will. It brought on programmers to do that, including Aleynikov. Programmers are vital in this space, and they’re demanding high pay. After UBS reportedly came calling for Aleynikov, Goldman paid Aleynikov $400,000 a year.
But when programmers write new code to insert into existing code, that can take hours. So sometimes, instead, they use open-source alternatives available for free on the internet. Open-source software is meant to be shared. It’s used in many industries, but Wall Street’s programmers find it particularly useful. In trading, time is money, so speed is prized.
In this case, proprietary and open-source code come head to head. Around the time Aleynikov planned to take a new job, he uploaded some code. Goldman says he stole proprietary code that it and the government claims is a trade secret. But Aleynikov says that he only meant to take open source code, which by definition isn’t secret.
Cossrow says this argument raises several questions. How much of what Aleynikov downloaded was open source? How much of it was proprietary? Those questions are possible to answer — it requires looking at the code and at the metadata (data about data) underlying it. That could mean laying bare Goldman’s code, which would be something between a headache and nightmare for Goldman. The government wants the courtroom closed if that happens.
But there are more questions: as there are hundreds of open-source licenses, what were the terms of the open-source license or licenses associated with the code Aleynikov is accused of taking? And how did Aleynikov use the code in the broader software?
All that leads to the ultimate question: how much open source code, and of what quality, does it take to dilute a trade secret? As Cossrow explains, “if you bake the world’s best brownie, and the recipe is secret, the mere fact that you used water as an ingredient doesn’t mean the whole recipe is diluted.” However the courts haven’t gotten much more specific than that.
For lawyers like Cossrow, this case is turning into a big deal. There’s no telling where this argument could take Aleynikov, but if it works, it could turn out that Goldman’s alleged trade secrets aren’t really secret at all. That could blow up Goldman’s trading profits. It’s all very interesting stuff — and that was just the first day of trial.
Police looked at funding for the cameras in 2007, the report said
