Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom may be suing server hosting company Leaseweb over a “data massacre." The Dutch company says it deleted files from 630 servers due to lack of interest in them, but Dotcom has revealed letters proving otherwise.

The revelation comes a week after Dotcom accused the US government and Leaseweb of deleting millions of personal files without warning, including “petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property.”

Most of the permanently deleted data came from European users, with servers then re-provisioned to other customers – despite the fact that Megaupload had specifically requested that the hosting provider preserve the information.

“They deleted petabytes of data in the face of Megaupload’s data preservation notices. Our legal team asked them multiple times not to delete the data while the US court is deciding the pending cases including the rights of our users,” TorrentFreak quoted Dotcom as saying.

But Leaseweb’s senior regulatory counsel, Alex de Joode, said his company deleted the data and re-provisioned the servers “after a year of nobody showing any interest” in them.

“We did inform Megaupload about our decision to re-provision the servers,” de Joode said in a June 19 statement, thus disputing Dotcom’s accusation that the decision was made "without warning.” De Joode said that Leaseweb received no answer from the Megaupload team, so they “commenced the re-provisioning of the servers in February 2013.”

“To minimize security risks and maximize the privacy of our clients, it is a standard procedure at Leaseweb to completely clean servers before they are offered to any new customer,” he said.

To back up his accusations, Kim Dotcom has published an email which was sent from Megaupload’s legal counsel to Leaseweb in March 2012. The letter allegedly shows that Megaupload did, in fact, request preservation of the files.

"Megaupload continues to request that Leaseweb preserve any and all information, documentation and data related to Megaupload - as destruction by Leaseweb would appear to be in violation of amongst other things the applicable civil litigation data preservation rules and would interfere with evidence in a criminal matter [...]," said the letter. The email is signed by Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothken and addressed to Leaseweb’s A.H. Bram de Haas van Dorsser.

The email adds that “the Mega data on the servers at Leaseweb contain private and sensitive customer data and is subject to applicable privacy and data retention laws.”

“Megaupload is negotiating with the United States to discern feasibility of consumer data access and the conditions for the same," Rothken wrote in the letter. 

 The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) representing the file-sharing website in court made a similar request to Leaseweb USA in April.

“We now write to formally request that you preserve that material both for purposes of contemplated future litigation and as a matter of obligation and courtesy to the innocent individuals whose materials have unfortunately been swept up into this case,” the EFF letter reads.

According to Dotcom, Megaupload’s legal team is analyzing whether Leaseweb violated the law.

“I can tell you that we are contemplating legal action against Leaseweb,” he told TorrentFreak on Wednesday.

“We believe that Leaseweb acted inappropriately under the circumstances when they destroyed data,” Rothken told the blogging website. “Ultimately we blame the United States who exercised constructive control over Megaupload’s assets and who had the obligation, resources, and ability to preserve all relevant and exonerating evidence including the data located at Leaseweb and failed to do so,” he added.

But Leaseweb claims it done nothing wrong. In a June 26 statement, the company stressed that “the contract between Leaseweb B.V. and Megaupload was governed by Dutch law.”

“This means the termination, and subsequent data retention needs to be valid under Dutch law. As there was no claim from the Dutch authorities on the data, the data was not subject to evidence rules. Also Dutch and European Privacy legislation prohibit giving third parties (i.e. MegaUpload customers, or Instra) direct access to their data,” the statement read.

Dotcom, who made a fortune from his file-sharing service Megaupload, is currently under a federal investigation, launched by the US Department of Justice after police raided his home. He is currently free on bail in New Zealand, with an extradition trial set for August.

The US has charged the Megaupload founder with facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale, racketeering, and money-laundering, which carries maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

Authorities claim Megaupload has cost copyright holders upwards of $500 million in lost revenues, due to content being illegally uploaded to its servers. The Department of Justice also believes Dotcom illegally earned $175 million by selling ads and subscriptions on the site.

On the anniversary of his arrest last January, Dotcom launched a new file-hosting site called ‘Mega.’

 NASA is launching IRIS, a revolutionary telescope that could finally explain a phenomenon that has been puzzling physicists for decades: why the Sun’s atmosphere is hotter than its surface. It may also give a clue about how other stars spread their heat.

IRIS, short for Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph – a 7-foot ultraviolet telescope that cost over $100 million – will be launched not from the ground, but from a high altitude. A specially modified plane will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, before reaching a height of about 13,000 meters and dropping the Pegasus XL rocket – used on tens of missions since 1994 - which will propel the payload into the atmosphere at an estimated 2:27 GMT on Friday morning.

Once in the atmosphere, four identical cameras will try to rapidly capture light changes in the chromosphere – the 2,000 km deep area between the sun’s surface and outer atmosphere – which will then be processed into 3-D heat movement maps by super-computers on the ground.
At any one point they will focus in detail on just 1 percent of the Sun’s surface – rather than the entire body, as have most existing observation telescopes.

“IRIS will show the solar chromosphere in more detail than has ever been observed before,” declared Adrian Daw, deputy project scientist. “My opinion is that we are bound to see something we didn’t expect to see.”

The prime question is – what is the physical process by which the surface of the sun is about 5,700 degrees Celsius, while the corona, the outer layer of the atmosphere, which stretches over millions of miles, is more than 1,000,000 million degrees Celsius (and can heat up to ten times that).

“Usually, the closer you get to a heat source, such as a fire, the hotter it gets, but the solar atmosphere doesn’t do that. The solar atmosphere gets hotter as it gets further away from the Sun, and scientists don’t yet have enough information to distinguish between various theories on why this happens,” said NASA in a pre-mission statement.

"What we want to discover is what the basic physical processes are that transfer energy and material from the surface of the sun out to the outer atmosphere, to the corona," said IRIS principal investigator Alan Title, a physicist at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in California.

There are two current theories explaining what has been termed the Coronal Heating Problem. One proposes that special sorts of waves travel from the hot core of the sun to the corona, where they dissipate, leaving heat. Another shows magnetic fields in the sun creating electric currents in the corona, which then violently “re-connect” lashing back onto the sun and releasing huge quantities of energy into the outer atmosphere.

“We don’t know whether any of these are right or whether we need new concepts. It’s the observations from IRIS that are going to be able to determine that,” said Eric Priest, a solar physicist at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland.

The area under the lens is also the source of the ‘space weather’ our planetary system experiences. Solar flares and solar winds, which can have a wide variety of effects from damaging satellite equipment to causing blackouts on Earth (in fact an energy outage forced the IRIS launch to be postponed by a day), either originate in the chromosphere and the bottom of the corona, or are much affected by the little-known processes going on there.

Any discoveries will also help scientists understand how other very hot bodies in the universe behave.

“If we understand these structures properly on the Sun,” said Priest “we will predict how they scale in other structures in the universe.”

A revered Syrian monk and hermit, Father Franҫois Mourad, has been killed during an assault of the Franciscan monastery in a predominantly Christian village in the north near the Turkish border, Vatican Radio reported.

The circumstances surrounding Mourad’s death in the monastery of St. Anthony of Padua, about 70 miles from Syria’s largest city Aleppo, remain unclear.

It’s believed that Maroud was shot dead when tried to defend several religious sisters from the rebels when the monastery that gave them shelter was attacked and pillaged on June 23.

In a statement issued earlier this week the Prefect Cardinal Leonardo Sandri said that “this latest episode of unjustified violence, arouse the conscience of the leaders of the conflicting parties and the international community, so that, as repeatedly stated by the Holy Father Pope Francis, the guns of war be silenced and a season of justice and reconciliation begun for a future of peace.”

After the outbreak of the war in Syria, Father François left his hermitage to be with a friar in fragile health and to serve a neighboring community of religious sisters, Vatican Radio reported.

The head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, Franciscan Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told Vatican Radio that Mourad was not a Franciscan, but had to take refuge in the convent after it became clear he was not safe at the Syriac Catholic hermitage that he was building nearby.

According to Father Pizzaballa, the Ghassanieh neighborhood "like other Christian villages, has been almost completely destroyed and is almost totally abandoned," adding that the only people left there were "the rebels with their families, rebels who are not from Syria and who are extremists."

"The only thing we can do, other than pray for Father Francois and all the victims, is pray that this folly ends soon and that no more weapons are sent to Syria because that would only prolong this absurd civil war," Father Pizzaballa suggested.

He described the current situation in Syria as a "battleground, and not just between Syrian forces, but also for other Arab countries and the international community. The ones paying the price are the poor, the small and the least, including the Christians," according to the Catholic News Service.

"The international community must put the brakes on this," he noted.

Syriac Catholic Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo of Hassake-Nisibi told Fides (the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) that Father Mourad sent him “several messages which showed he was aware of living in a dangerous situation and was willing to offer his life for peace in Syria and the world."

Killings and abductions have become common in Syria as the country has been locked in a two-year internal conflict. In April, two Orthodox bishops were kidnapped when they returned to Aleppo from the Turkish border. Their driver was killed.

Syria's 10 percent Christian population is particularly vulnerable to such attacks, especially from the opposition groups, as they have remained largely neutral or supportive of the government.

 Edward Snowden is not booked to fly out of Moscow over the next three days, and with no valid passport, the NSA whistleblower might be stuck in airport limbo indefinitely.

The hot pursuit of Snowden has ground to a halt three days after the former CIA technician, wanted in the US on espionage charges, flew into Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport from Hong Kong.

Washington, which wants Snowden for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) dragnet telephone and Internet surveillance programs, charges that there is a clear legal basis for Moscow to hand him over.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who confirmed that Snowden had arrived in Moscow as a transit passenger despite speculation to the contrary, rebuffed US demands on Tuesday.

“We can only extradite any foreign citizens to such countries with which we have signed the appropriate international agreements on criminal extradition,” Putin said, adding that as Snowden had committed no crime on Russian soil, he is free to travel at will.

"Snowden is a free person. The sooner he chooses his final destination, the better it is for him and Russia," Putin continued.

However, the former NSA contractor appears to be staying put, as neither him nor his WikiLeaks-affiliated legal adviser Sarah Harrison have made travel plans over the coming days.

"They are not flying today and not over the next three days," an Aeroflot representative at the transfer desk at Sheremetyevo told Reuters.

"They are not in the system."

Snowden’s stopover in the transit zone at Sheremetyevo could be prolonged indefinitely, as his passport, which was annulled by the US on Saturday, leaves him without the necessary documentation with which to travel, a source reportedly connected with Snowden told Interfax.

“Snowden’s American passport is void and he is not in possession of any other document with which he can prove his identity. For this reason, he has to stay in Sheremetyevo’s transit zone and cannot leave Russia nor buy a ticket,” the source said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told RT that Snowden had been given special refugee documents by the Ecuadorian government which facilitated his travel to Russia. Still, the country's top Foreign Ministry official, Galo Galarza said on Wednesday that Ecuador has not granted Edward Snowden any refugee documents.

"He [Snowden] does not have a document issued by Ecuador, such as a passport or a refugee card, as speculated," said Galarza, as quoted by Ecuadorian television channel CT. So now it is unclear whether the whistleblower can continue traveling at all.

WikiLeals warned via Twitter on Wednesday that "cancelling Snowden's passport and bullying intermediary countries may keep Snowden permanently in Russia.”

#Snowden still in #Moscow airport, free to go anywhere... http://t.co/tdZ4vzmBXt #Navorski via http://t.co/Sc5lY73vVi pic.twitter.com/d87DGewJ32
— Egor Sheremet (@Sheremet_RT) June 25, 2013

Snowden, who has applied for asylum in Ecuador, was expected to make the next leg of his journey on Monday, as he had booked two tickets to Havana, Cuba. Snowden never showed for the flight, and according to RIA-Novosti, two tickets which he later booked for a Tuesday flight to the Cuban capital were returned just hours before departure. The next flight to Havana leaves on Wednesday.

If he ever makes it to Cuba, the next stop in his journey would be Caracas, Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro, who coincidentally is expected in Moscow next week for an energy summit, has said Caracas would also consider an asylum request from the whistleblower.

Although dozens of Moscow-based journalists have been staked out at the airport since Sunday, not a single image of Snowden has surfaced.

A receptionist at the Air Express Capsule Hotel in Terminal E of Sheremetyevo Airport told RIA-Novosti that Snowden had in fact spent several hours in one of the suites, “but left a long time ago.”

Several journalists attempted to make contact with Snowden during his stay at the hotel, but were unsuccessful, the hotel employee continued.

It has been speculated that Snowden, who remains at an undisclosed location within the transit zone, is purposely being held up by Russian security services for interrogation.

WikiLeaks has refuted the accusation, saying Harrison "is escorting him at all times."

Brazil’s legislative body has thrown out a proposed constitutional amendment, which was a key grievance of protesters across the country. The government is also planning to introduce a range of political reforms to appease demonstrators.

In what in being seen as a victory for people power, the measure was defeated on Tuesday by Congress by 430 votes to nine; with the Rio Times saying the protests were “largely fueled by social media and citizen journalists.”

The amendment, known as PEC 37, would have limited the power of state prosecutors to investigate crimes.

The protesters had argued that PEC 37 might have opened the way to more corruption; a problem which is endemic in Brazil.

Brazil ranks 69 out of 174 countries on the 2012 Transparency International index, a score that indicates significant problems with corruption.

The defeat of PEC 37 will keep public prosecutors at the forefront of the fight against corruption. If the amendment had become law, it would have granted power to carry out criminal investigations exclusively to the police.

Critics to the bill argued that it would have prevented prosecutors from conducting fair, impartial and effective criminal investigations, particularly into organized crime and corruption, in which the police themselves have been embroiled. In December last year 63 police officers were arrested after a yearlong bribery investigation.

The police in Brazil are amongst the most corrupt in the world and have been mired in recent years in a number of corruption scandals.

Congress also voted Tuesday to funnel all revenue and royalties from newly-discovered oil fields off the Brazilian coast into education and health.

The new fields are among the largest finds in recent years and, once fully operational, are expected to produce tens of billions of barrels of oil; although they are located deep on the ocean floor and extracting the oil will require expensive new technology and carries huge risks.

Protestors also voiced their anger at other issues, which they say the government is mishandling, including soaring levels of corruption, poor public services and the huge cost of staging the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, both to be held in Brazil.

The government, though, has promised a range of initiatives, which they say will combat corruption and improve public services.

A referendum proposing political reform is meant to address campaign financing and political representation, and the government says a vote may take place as soon as September 7.

A controversial plan to bring in foreign doctors to reverse a shortfall in the country is being pushed through despite the objections of Brazilian medical practitioners and an increase in public transport fares in many cities has also been scrapped. The President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, has even proposed free transport for students.

Yet it is still unclear whether or not these hasty political concessions are having an impact. Protests are due to continue in the city of Belo Horizonte Wednesday, with tens of thousands of people expected to take part.

In a security nightmare for police, the demonstration will take place at the same time as the semifinal of the Confederation Cup between Brazil and Uruguay. One protest group has said it plans to protest outside the national team’s hotel.

Last Saturday there were violent clashes in Belo Horizonte during another protest and President Rousseff has warned against a repeat of violence.

ARCHIVE PHOTO (AFP / Khaled Desouki)

 At least one person was killed and 162 others were wounded as hundreds of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's supporters and opponents clashed in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, the Ministry Of Health confirmed.

More than 5,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties staged a demonstration in Mansoura under the name “No to violence, Yes to Legitimacy” in support of Morsi.

In street clashes that ensued, three shops were destroyed and four cars damaged as the Islamists met their opponents – the Tamarod campaign, the Popular Current, and the Constitution Party, local media said. Molotov cocktails and tasers were reportedly used in the violence; witnesses also heard gunfire.  

Initially, Reuters reported 2 people were killed in the city.

Abdel-Hamid Rashed, a member of the Popular Current, one of the opposition groups, told The Daily News Egypt that the violence was started by Islamists who were carrying shotguns and sticks, prompting local residents to retaliate. 

The local Freedom and Justice Party department claimed their pro-Morsi rally was attacked by “thugs” who fired birdshot at them and brandished other weapons. “Dozens have been taken to the Mansoura International Hospital with serious, minor and birdshot injuries,” their statement read.

Clashes were also reported in nearby Tanta, where according to Twitter reports dozens were hurt.

The violence comes just hours before Morsi is due to address the nation in Cairo. Amid calls for his resignation, the president is expected to urge for unity and calm. In his speech, he is also expected to blame the deadlock that has aggravated the country’s economic crisis on resistance from those loyal to his predecessor Hosni Murbarak, who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2011.

Irish officials has promised a state investigation into the 'arrogant' actions of Anglo Irish Bank, in which executives allegedly covered up their losses in order to secure large bail-outs from the government in the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

The Irish public must learn the full truth of how Anglo Irish Bank deceived government officials and nearly led Ireland to bankruptcy, Prime Minister Kenny told lawmakers Tuesday. "Believe you me, I understand the rage and the anger of so many people who have been affected by all of this," said Kenny.

The Prime Minister’s terse words follow a scandal that broke out after a leaked recording capturing a 2008 conversation of two senior Anglo managers was published by The Independent on Monday in which their plot to conspire to conceal the bank's true scale of losses was revealed. 

The internally recorded phone calls reveal how bank bosses misled the Central Bank of Ireland that Anglo bank required 7 billion euros to prevent its collapse. Anglo's losses reached 30 billion euros, nearly half of a total bank-bailout bill that forced Ireland to seek IMF bailout money.  

"I mean the degree of arrogance, the degree of hubris, the degree of couldn't-care-less-about-the-taxpayer, about the Irish people, that seemed to be part and parcel of the culture of that bank," deputy prime minister Eamon Gilmore said.

Gilmore said the tapped phone recordings could 'complicate' Dublin's negotiations in receiving crisis-relief funds.

“It makes it more difficult, of course it does, but we’re going to continue to work to get the best possible outcome for the Irish taxpayer,” Mr Gilmore said.

The parliamant's plan at present is to use €500 billion of the bailout money to recapitalize the country's banks, but the recent scandal may derail this vision.

The recordings contained lewd language in which two executives at the Anglo Irish Bank were recorded as they joked about their ability to convince lawmakers to invest in a bank they knew was failing, citing figures they had 'picked out of my arse' - with no plans on paying back the government. John Bowe, the head of capital markets for Anglo Irish, was recorded laughing as he explained to Peter Fitzgerald, the former head of banking, how Anglo Irish had fleeced the Irish government into providing billions of euro to keep the bank solvent.

The government will launch an investigation into the disastrous bailout of Anglo Irish Bank, which was the first bank to receive a government bail out which cost Irish taxpayers nearly $40 billion. Ireland has yet to fully recover from the financial crisis, and has been hit especially hard by austerity measures.

Mr Drumm and Mr Bowe joked with one another about the bank's strategy to attract deposits from overseas, in rather explicit language:
“So f***in’ what. Just take it anyway . . . stick the fingers up.”

Even though he knew their business wasn't solvent, Drumm encourage Bowe to seek deposits for a bank he knew was going to fail:
“Correct and right. So OK, so just keep nursing along . . . jack the [interest] rates up. That’s what I really meant, get the f***in’ money in, get it in,” he said.

The revelation that one of its national banks intentionally may have worsened the Irish economy in a time of national crisis, has shocked many. 

A wave of outraged comments have swept the German media after it was revealed Monday that British secret Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) wiretapped the dataflow of Germany’s major transatlantic cable.

The northern German public broadcaster NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported late on Monday that Germany’s external intelligence service BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst) has been in the dark about GCHQ wiretapping Transatlantic Telephone Cable No. 14 (TAT-14) connecting Germany with the US via UK, in the framework of its Tempora data collection project.

The TAT-14 fiber optic cables entered service in 2001. It is operated by private consortium German Telekom and used by around 50 international communication companies for phone calls, internet connection, data transfer etc.

Countries like Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and the UK itself also use this cable for internet connection to North America.

The capacity of the 15,000km TAT-14 is enormous; it transfers hundreds of gigabytes of data per second in both directions. The report claimed British GCHQ has already had access to 21,600 terabytes of private and business German data transferred through the cable.

The initial reaction from official Berlin concerning Edward Snowden’s revelations about British intelligence straddling Germany’s major fiber optics cables without Berlin’s knowledge was rather moderate.

Senior German Interior Ministry official Ulrich Weinbrenner admitted to the Bundestag committee that it was known “in general form” that foreign tapping programs - like American PRISM and British Tempora - existed.

Having met American President Barack Obama last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautiously commented that collecting information needs ‘proportionality’ and that “the free democratic order is based on people feeling safe.”

However, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert announced that Berlin wanted explanations from NATO allies “on what legal basis and to which extent” surveillance had been conducted. 

 The head of the Free Democratic Party parliamentary group, Rainer Brüderle, demanded an investigation.

"A comprehensive monitoring of citizens in the network cannot and will not be accepted ," he told Passau Neue Presse.

"We need to step back here and say clearly: mass surveillance is not what we want," said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green member in charge of a planned overhaul of the European Union's data protection laws.

"We urge the Federal Government and the EU Commission to  initiate an infringement proceedings against the UK government," which would have to deal with the matter, Albrecht said to Berliner Zeitung.

"The Federal Government and the Commission must take the issue of protecting fundamental rights seriously," the rapporteur added in the Judiciary Committee.

Albrecht’ thoughts were echoed by CSU MEP Manfred Weber who told Berliner Zeitung that "If European law has been broken, such as in relation to the retention, the Commission must act." The harshest comment came from German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who dubbed the total eavesdropping from a NATO ally a “Hollywood nightmare.”

Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar called on the federal government to proceed on an international level against data espionage from abroad.

"The federal government must insist that our emails will not be penetrated by foreign intelligence services," he demanded according to Bild newspaper.

The methods used by the American NSA and British GCHQ agencies are “secret, but lawful” and “subject to proper UK statutory controls and safeguards,” stated UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.

But such statements have produced little effect on the public or within expert communities. “How much and which data of German citizens and companies had been secretly accessed by the Anglo-American intelligence services NSA and GCHQ, for example by tapping glass fiber cables?” questioned Greens party parliamentarian Hans-Christian Ströbele, as quoted by Deutsche Welle (DW).

“The shoulder-shrugging explanation by Washington and London that they have operated within the law is absurd. They are not our laws. We didn't make them. We shouldn't be subject to them,” Spiegel online columnist Jakob Augstein. “We have not asked the NSA and GCHQ to ‘protect’ us,” he said.
Gisela Pilz, a data protection expert with the parliamentary group of the liberal FDP, the junior partner in the governing coalition, agrees.

"We observe with a great deal of concern and dismay the amount of data that has been collected and stored," she told DW.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government was caught in the crossfire of criticism for not ensuring national digital security.

It is the responsibility of the German government to see that foreign agencies no longer process the data of German citizens and companies, Augstein stressed, because “a government that cannot make that assurance is failing in one of its fundamental obligations: to protect its own citizens from the grasp of foreign powers,” he concluded. “Germans should closely observe how Angela Merkel now behaves.”

The head of the Bundestag's intelligence supervisory committee, opposition Social Democrats deputy Thomas Oppermann, called to speed up the elaboration of data privacy legislation currently being drafted in the EU.

Amnesty International urges the US not to hunt down Edward Snowden since “no one should be prosecuted for disclosing human rights violations by the government.” They also said the NSA leaker cannot be extradited while his asylum bid is underway.

“No one should be charged under any law for disclosing information of human rights violations by the US government. Such disclosures are protected under the rights to information and freedom of expression,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

Snowden, who is behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA history, was charged under the Espionage Act in the US. "It appears he is being charged by the US government primarily for revealing its and other governments’ unlawful actions that violate human rights,” the human rights watchdog’s official pointed out.

As the American authorities’ world-wide chase for Snowden continues, Washington has called on states in the Western Hemisphere to surrender the NSA whistleblower to US jurisdiction. Snowden – who turned 30 four days ago – arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on Sunday and has since then remained in a transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport in the Russian capital. His arrival “came as a surprise” for Russian authorities, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. The Russian leader also dismissed all accusations against Russia in connection with the Snowden case as “rubbish and nonsense.”

“As a transit passenger he is entitled to buy a ticket and fly wherever he wants to. He does not cross [Russia’s] state border, therefore he does not need a visa,” Putin underlined.

Snowden requested political asylum in Ecuador and the country’s government vowed to analyze his bid and then make a decision on the matter.  Additionally, WikiLeaks  – which has remained in contact with the NSA leaker and provided him with assistance - approached Iceland and other countries with a formal request for Asylum for Snowden. 

Earlier, the whistleblower’s American passport is thought to have been revoked – which, according to Amnesty International, interferes with the NSA leaker’s rights to freedom of movement and seeking asylum elsewhere.

“Regardless of where Snowden ends up he has the right to seek asylum. For such a claim to succeed, he must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution. Even if such a claim failed, no country can return a person to another country where there is a substantial risk of ill-treatment,” said Amnesty International’s Brown.

The organization believes Snowden’s forced transfer to American soil would put him at risk of human rights violations and “must be challenged.” Michael Bochenek, Director of Law and Policy at the activist group, told RT they “raised a lot of concerns” about the crimes for which he is being sought and the treatment he might receive upon his surrender to the US.

“With respect to the treatment, we know from other cases – for e.g. from the case of Bradley Manning – that individuals have been subjected to what, not just we, but also UN officials have called “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” And that is yet another potential violation of human rights law to which somebody should not be subjected. It’s a reason not to extradite,” he said. 

In his view, there is nothing wrong with governments keeping secret information on international security, and particularly information that can hurt anyone if disclosed. But, Bochenek went on to say, that was not what the Obama Administration or his predecessor President Bush’s administration were trying to do.

“What we are really seeing now is a continuation and argumentation of the policies that began with President Bush really to extend government power to the utmost and beyond and also to use all the tools at their disposal to enforce a vision of the world in a sense of the projection of the US power that too often is disregarding [of human rights],” he stated.

Now that it is getting harder for governments around the world to keep information classified, they should keep in mind that when they “invade the privacy” of their own or foreign citizens without any cause or suspicious bit only “in order to get information you think might be useful someday in some sense” - questions will be asked.

“The chickens will come home to roost, as they say in the US,” Bochenek pointed out.

 Washington’s allegations over US fugitive Edward Snowden are ‘unacceptable’ as he never crossed the Russian border, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. As a consequence, any attempt to accuse or threaten Moscow by the US is unfounded.

 “Russia has nothing to do with Snowden's movements, he chose route himself and didn't cross the Russian border,” said Lavrov during a press conference with the Algerian foreign minister.

 DETAILS TO FOLLOW

The US has gone from ‘model of human rights’ to manipulator of internet rights, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party wrote. China has struck back at the US over its allegations that Beijing allowed NSA leaker Edward Snowden to leave Hong Kong.

The damning article in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the party’s official newspaper, came in response to Washington’s accusations of the “deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant.”

Addressing Washington’s allegations, the People’s Daily wrote that China could not accept "this kind of dissatisfaction and opposition.”

"Not only did the US authorities not give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for handling things in accordance with the law,” wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science in the People's Daily commentary. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also denounced the US accusations as "groundless and unacceptable.”

The Hong Kong government released an official statement on Sunday, saying that US fugitive Edward Snowden had left the Chinese territory for Moscow legally and voluntarily. The statement also mentioned that the extradition documents submitted by the US on charges of espionage were not sufficient to warrant Snowden’s arrest under Chinese law. 

 The column praises the former CIA contractor for “his fearlessness that tore off Washington's sanctimonious mask."Snowden has been branded by the US as ‘traitor’ by US politicians for the leaking of classified documents to The Guardian newspaper that revealed the existence of the spy program PRISM.  

"In a sense, the United States has gone from a model of human rights to an eavesdropper on personal privacy, the manipulator of the centralized power over the international internet, and the mad invader of other countries' networks," the People's Daily said. 

The case of Edward Snowden has captivated world media since he fled from the US in May. Although the fugitive’s whereabouts are unknown, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange confirmed to RT that Snowden was en route to Ecuador via Moscow accompanied by WikiLeaks legal representative Sarah Harrison.  

 Snowden was checked in for a flight from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, yesterday, but there was no sign of him on the plane, according to RT’s correspondent Egor Piskunov. As a consequence, it is now thought that he is still in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. 

The whistleblower has applied for asylum in Ecuador and the country’s government confirmed that it is processing the application.

Amnesty urges US: ‘Refrain from manhunt’

The US has called on all countries in the northern hemisphere to surrender Snowden to US jurisdiction and has resolved to seek cooperation from his destination country. However human rights organization Amnesty International has launched an appeal, urging the US not to prosecute anyone who discloses data on US government human right violations.

"No one should be charged under any law for disclosing information of human rights violations by the US government. Such disclosures are protected under the rights to information and freedom of expression," said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

In addition, the organization also stressed that an individual who has an asylum bid underway cannot legally be extradited.

When it comes to the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, there has been far more conjecture than concrete fact. While Washington would do anything to get its hands on the whistleblower, tracking down Snowden has turned into a full on cloak and dagger affair.

On Sunday Edward Snowden left Chinese territory two days after espionage charges were leveled against him, setting off an international game of cat and mouse which has the United States’ massive global intelligence apparatus trying to cut the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor off at the pass.

The White House for its part seemed to be certain that Snowden did in fact reach Moscow after taking off from Hong Kong on Sunday.“We have known where he is and believe we know where he is now,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during a Monday afternoon briefing. “It is our assumption that he is in Russia.”

“I’m not going to get into specifics, but it is our understanding that he is still in Russia,” Carney continued. "We have asked the Russians to look at all the options and expel Snowden to the US,” he said.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said on Monday that Snowden was in a “safe place.” Assange, who was unable to give further information as to Snowden’s whereabouts, claimed that Snowden had left Hong Kong on June 23 “bound for Ecuador via a safe pass through Russia and other states."

Shortly after Snowden allegedly arrived in Moscow, the government of Ecuador announced it had received an asylum request from the fugitive whistleblower. Assange claimed Snowden, whose passport was reportedly revoked one day prior to his departure from Hong Kong, was further granted a refugee document of passage.

It has been reported that Snowden was snaking his way around the globe to avoid capture, with a complicated route which would have seen him fly from Moscow to Caracas via Havana, with the expectation that he would later travel on to the Ecuadorian capital Quito.

While the state-controlled Russian airline Aeroflot said that he had checked in for flight SU150 to Havana with two seats (17A and 17C) in his name on Monday, seemingly half the world’s press corps was on board, but Snowden was conspicuously absent.  

The fact that hefailed to board a Moscow-to-Havana flight on Monday following his hasty escape from Hong Kong one day prior begs the question: did the world’s most infamous whistleblower step foot on Russian soil at all? 

 Wikileaks and unnamed sources

The government of Hong Kong never specified Snowden’s destination, only stating that he had in fact left Chinese territory for “a third country” on Sunday. The Russian government has made no official comment regarding the whistleblower either.

Although reporters noted the heavy presence of Russian security services at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov disavowed any knowledge of Snowden’s arrival in the Russian capital.

“I don’t [know if he's planning to stay in Moscow]. I heard about his potential arrival from the press. I know nothing,” Peskov told the Guardian on Sunday.

When RT contacted Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) regarding the matter, the agency declined to comment.

With no corroborating video footage, the only actual proof that Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday evening stem from three primary sources: WikiLeaks, the government of Ecuador and anonymous sources working within the airport.

Wikileaks, whose representative Sarah Harrison reportedly accompanied Snowden on the flight, regularly sent out tweets up until flight SU213 touched down in the Russian capital around 5:00 p.m. local time. 

The anti-secrecy group said in a statement that the former CIA technician is on his way to Ecuador "via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks."

A source from within WikiLeaks, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to RT that the rogue NSA leaker was indeed on the flight, passing on the names of Ecuadorian officials who were slated to meet Snowden at the airport.

An unnamed Aeroflot official also told Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency that the former CIA technician was indeed on board Flight SU213 which landed in Moscow.

Shortly after flight 213 landed, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino tweeted that “The Government of Ecuador had received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden.” Cars baring license plates for the Ecuadorian diplomatic mission were spotted at Moscow International Airport Sheremetyevo. 

Ecuador's ambassador to Russia, Chavez Zavala, was also seen at the airport. Just moments before stepping into a hotel on the airport’s premises, he reportedly told journalists: "We're waiting for [Sarah] Harrison. We're going to talk to them."

Although Snowden had reportedly taken a suite at the «V-Express» Capsule Hotel in Terminal E of the airport’s transit area, no visual confirmation of the former contractor has surfaced despite the myriad passengers and swarm of journalists staking out quite possibly the world’s most wanted man.
A source at Aeroflot told Interfax news agency that Snowden had checked into the hotel, noting that “he cannot leave the terminal as he has no Russian visa." Harrison, he added, did have a Russian visa.

Another source told the agency of the unprecedented security measures which had been taken “to maintain Snowden's security and to guarantee his safe departure.” “Everything has been done to allow Snowden to spend the night peacefully at the airport's capsule hotel and to fly quietly to Cuba," the source continued.

However, on Monday evening a source at the hotel later told RT that Snowden had in fact never checked in or out of the facility.

It bears recalling that WikiLeaks, which did everything possible to draw attention to Snowden’s location between takeoff and landing, has a vested nterest in concealing the fugitive whistleblower's actual movements.

Ecuador has already shown its willingness to take big political risks by granting Assange diplomatic asylum at its London embassy, where the Wikileaks founder has remained holed up for over a year. With round the clock police surveillance and a diplomatic standoff with the UK government set to last for years, Quito might have decided on avoiding another diplomatic showdown by facilitating Snowden’s safe passage before he arrives in Ecuador.

Destination unknown

Once Snowden failed to show for his Havana-bound flight, RT’s Irina Galushko noted there were at least four flights leaving on Monday that could put Snowden on route to Ecuador. A source familiar with the situation earlier told Interfax that Snowden might take the next flight to Latin America via Cuba.

“He’s probably got another ticket also via Cuba, as there are no direct flights [from Moscow] to Caracas or Quito.”

Like so much other information that has leaked out of Moscow’s international hub, nothing ever materialized. The same source later told Interfax that Snowden was probably already outside of the Russian Federation.

Speaking at a joint press conferred with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, Secretary of State John Kerry said he had no knowledge of Snowden’s final destination, adding he would be deeply troubled if Moscow or China had prior notice of Snowden’s travel plans, Reuters reports.   

More baffling to Washington is how Snowden ever left Hong Kong as his passport had been revoked one day prior. On the same day, the US asked Hong Kong to hand over Snowden under the terms of a 1998 extradition treaty with the Chinese territory.

However, The Hong Kong special administrative region [HKSAR] government said their decision not to block Snowden’s departure stemmed from the fact that “the documents provided by the US government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.” “As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong. The HKSAR government has already informed the US government of Mr Snowden's departure,” the statement continued.

On Friday, federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Snowden for leaking a trove of documents regarding the NSA’s clandestine surveillance programs.

Snowden was charged with theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.” The last two charges were brought under the 1917 Espionage Act, which allow for the issuance of an international arrest warrant against him.Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the US, said it would be under no obligation to hand over a US citizen. Foreign Minister. Sergey Lavrov has previously said Russia would be willing to consider an asylum request from Snowden. However, an unnamed security official told RIA-Novosti news agency on Monday that no orders for Snowden's arrest have been dispatched through Interpol to Russian law enforcement agencies. Speaking from Hanoi on Monday, Patino said he did not know Snowden’s current whereabouts, or where the whistleblower planned to travel next.

The Ecuadorian FM, who read a letter in which Snowden likened himself to Bradley Manning, the US army private who is currently on trial for leaking classified information to Wikileaks, intimated that the former NSA contractor’s asylum request would be considered on human rights grounds.
Following news that Snowden’s passport had been revoked, State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said he "should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States."

That Snowden could leave Hong Kong on an invalidated passport despite the charges leveled against him speaks volumes about the fallout from the United States sweeping surveillance activities.
And despite the massive troves of information the US government continues to cull both at home and abroad through PRISM and related surveillance programs, one critical fact remains elusive: where in the world is Edward Snowden?

Taliban has launched an attack in central Kabul, targeting the presidential palace, the CIA and ISAF headquarters, the Ministry of Defense, as well as an international hotel. All the assailants have been killed in the 90-minute showdown.

A Reuters reporter who was at the palace to cover a presser by president Karzai along with some 20 other journalists said heavy gunfire was heard, and smoke from an explosion had blanketed the area.
First of all, one insurgent reportedly opened fire with an automatic rifle at a gate to the palace.
Then, palace guards, as well as guards from the adjacent CIA compound, reportedly fired back when several attackers fired on the west gate as journalists were waiting to enter the compound for the president’s press conference.

All the insurgents were killed in the 90-minute showdown, according to Kabul police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi. 

“What I saw from the outside of that gate is more of a blast wall around the green zone area, as there were giant holes in the concrete walls, and the entire gate was destroyed. Apparently, one vehicle was able to get inside, and one vehicle was stopped at the gate, and that’s when the attack began,” local journalist Courtney Body told RT.

It was not immediately clear whether Karzai was in the compound at the time. The area of the city where the attack took place is the site of several important organizations, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, as well as the headquarters for the CIA and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Up to 10 blasts heard in Kabul, near Palace, CIA, ISAF HQ, UNAMA. Smoke rising over central #Kabul pic.twitter.com/9F54LmmdAb via @nohodge
— Harun Najafizada (@BBCNajafizada) June 25, 2013

The American Embassy in Kabul was reportedly placed on lockdown, with ISAF confirming a lockdown over its Twitter feed; other facilities in the area are said to be under lockdown as well. According to the BBC, SMS messages were sent on behalf of the Taliban stating that targets were the presidential palace, the Ministry of Defense, as well as the Ariana Hotel, which is popular with international visitors.  

The CIA building in central Kabul was reported to be on fire shortly after the attack, according to 1TV News, a local news broadcaster.

Ambassador James Dobbins, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was currently in Kabul after returning from Doha over the weekend, where talks with the Taliban were derailed after the insurgent group opened an embassy-like compound, declaring it the 'Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.'

Taliban officials stated that the newly opened office in Qatar was a response to calls by opponents for the launch of a political process to reach some measure of peace, and end three decades of fighting in Afghanistan. 

Steve Zunes, a professor of international studies at the University of San Francisco, pointed out to RT, that the Afghan army would never succeed unless the Afghan people support the country's leadership in the first place.

“Even if they are very well trained, even if they have the very best equipment, the strength of the Afghan government <…> doesn’t have credibility with the Afghan people. While the Afghans don’t subscribe to the Taliban’s ideology, they are very frustrated with corruption, inaptitude, and arbitrariness of the Afghan government, including the ongoing repression. They’re resentful of the foreign presence to prop up this government. And it’s this kind of environment that leads to the rise of extremists. So it’s not a security question.”

 German prosecutors announced Monday that they are opening an investigation into a former commander of a Nazi SS-led hit squad who has been living in Minnesota since 1949. 94-year old Michael Karkoc concealed his past when he entered the US more than 60 years ago, saying he did not carry out any military service during World War Two.

But records obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act showed that he was an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion in 1943 and an officer in the SS Galician Division.  

The Legion is accused of torching villages and killing civilians in Poland.

But the evidence dug up by AP, although it shows that Karkoc’s unit was in the area, does not link him directly with the action.

Kurt Schrimm, the head of Germany’s special prosecutor’s office, which is responsible for investigating Nazi era war crimes, said he has opened a preliminary investigation to find further documentation and proof.

The only charges that can be brought against Karkoc are murder or accessory to murder, as under German law all other offences fall under the statute of limitations.

Germany has taken a tough line on former Nazis and those involved in Nazi war crimes and has insisted they must be prosecuted regardless of their age or health. Last year John Demjanjuk, a retired car factory worker from Ohio, died at the age of 91 while appealing his conviction that he took part in war crimes working as a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp.

Poland’s National Remembrance Unit has also announced that prosecutors are reviewing files on Karkoc’s unit for any evidence that would stand up an extradition request. The organization’s separate investigation found that Karkoc’s unit was involved in the Nazi suppression of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against German occupation and the killing of civilians in the village of Chlaniow in southeastern Poland.

Those finding were reportedly confirmed by the AP investigation.

The fact that Karkoc lied about his war time service may also see him extradited from the US as the Department of Justice has deported dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals who falsified the true nature of their war time service.

Following weeks of mass protests nationwide that persisted into the weekend, Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff has proposed a referendum for political reform in a bid to subdue public dissatisfaction that has brought a million Brazilians onto the streets.

On Monday, Rousseff pledged to invest 50 billion reais ($25 billion) on public transportation projects, holding discussions with state governors and mayors to find ways to defuse the demonstrations that have sprouted in some 80 municipalities across Brazil.

Protesters planned to continue gatherings in Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro, while small pockets of violence were reported over the weekend in smaller cities, such as Salvador.

A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest for better public services, a new political system and against the Brazilian PEC37 draft law, a proposed constitutional amendment that would take away the power of independent public prosecutors to probe crimes making it harder to combat corruption, in Rio de Janeiro downtown on June 24, 2013.(AFP Photo / Yasuyoshi Chiba)

In a bid to appease the major demands at play among the protesters, Rousseff met with representatives of the Free Pass Movement, a group that advocates for free public transport and which was instrumental to organizing initial protests triggered by proposed hikes to bus and subway services across the country.

In Sao Paulo, many of the throngs of demonstrators complained of insufficient investment in underground rail, currently a very limited service in relation to the size of the bustling metropolis, the largest city in Brazil and the world’s seventh-largest city by population.

Over the weekend, the more than 250,000 protesters that took to the streets voiced their opposition to legislation known as PEC 37, which would transfer power from federal prosecutors to investigate crimes.

Those proposed reforms were seen as a symptom of endemic corruption for the country, on the heels of an investigation that unraveled the biggest corruption case in Brazil's history - the "mensalão" cash-for-votes scheme that came to light in 2005, and ensnared the highly popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The timing of that legislation meant that it was added to an already lengthy list of demands by protesters, which all focus on what is seen as misdirected public spending on glitzy sporting events like the 2014 World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup, at the expense of public services. 

Thousands of people march during a protest on Consolação Street in Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 22, 2013 .(AFP Photo / Daniel Guimaraes)

 Rousseff has been quick to welcome peaceful protests, and on Monday announced her government’s intention to focus on five policy “pacts” for the country, including fiscal stability, a public referendum to form a Constituent Assembly for reform, and investment in education, health and public transportation.

Just prior to the nationwide protests Rousseff’s government had introduced a plan to hire medical professionals from abroad, a plan that was not well received by Brazil’s medical community as it was seen to introduce unfair competition for available positions. In response, the president stressed that Brazil’s doctors would always be considered ahead of international applicants.

It remained unclear whether the latest announcements would be seen as resolving the demands of protesters, many of which have vowed to stay on the streets until they feel concrete measures are being taken to reform Brazil’s political system and tackle corruption.

During her remarks on Monday, Rousseff pointed out that Brazil’s demonstrations were a reflection of social inclusion, and that “now the people on the streets want more.”

A lawyer for the former spy agency contractor has pointed out that Edward Snowden was told to flee Hong Kong by a middleman claiming to represent the Chinese controlled territory – which evidently could mean the advice was Beijing-backed.

Lawyer Albert Ho, who is also a Hong Kong legislator critical of China, indicated that he was approached by Snowden several days ago, according to Reuters.

The American asked the Hong Kong government if he could leave the city freely if he chose to do so, and tried to find out the Hong Kong government’s position on his situation.

After that, Ho met a senior Hong Kong official, who did not offer any comment.
However, Ho claims Snowden later told him an individual supposedly representing the Hong Kong authorities had contacted him and indicated he should leave the city, and wouldn't be stopped by the authorities.

Ho said he believed the middleman was acting on Beijing's orders. However, he had no solid evidence to prove it.

"They (Beijing) used someone behind the scenes to get Snowden to leave. And the Hong Kong government didn't have much of a role. Its role was to receive instructions to not stop him at the airport," Ho told Reuters.  

Ho stressed that in his opinion the case was clearly monitored and controlled by Beijing. 
"From seeing the nervousness with which the Hong Kong government didn't even give me any details at all <...>I have grounds to believe that the Hong Kong government had no authority over this case. That's to say the whole case was decided by Beijing."

Hong Kong is a former British colony which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 and although it retains an independent legal system and its own extradition laws, China is believed to have control over Hong Kong's foreign affairs. The Hong Kong government didn’t immediately comment on Ho's claims.

The Chinese government has expressed “grave concern” about the revelations of the US government's cyber attacks on Beijing.

“This once again proves that China is a victim of cyber attacks," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.

On Sunday, the NSA leaker fled from Hong Kong to Russia, and was supposed to board a plane for Havana, Cuba.

However, he wasn’t seen during the boarding which took place at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Monday.

The White House expressed objections to authorities in Hong Kong and China that the countries let the whistleblower flee, and to Russia, urging Moscow to extradite Snowden to the US as soon as possible.

"We expect the Russian government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the US to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."

Snowden has been charged by the US authorities with theft of federal government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. The last two charges fall under the US Espionage Act.