How is it possible to rack up charges for shoplifting and child abuse at the same time? By tossing your infant daughter at the deputy coming to arrest you. Police say Pensacola's Ashley Wright, 23, was spotted by a store employee hiding about $250 worth of (adult) clothes in her daughter's baby stroller, reports WJHG. When she left the store and got in her car, a deputy approached and ordered her out. She refused, and held the baby carrier between him and her, saying, "You will have to shoot through the baby to get to me," reports the Smoking Gun.
She then got out of the car and started running, still carrying the baby carrier. As the deputy chased her, she "threw the baby carrier … at me, about shoulder height," he writes. She missed, but the 3-month-old wasn't injured. Wright, however, soon fell and was arrested. She later told police that her "night of bad decisions" probably had something to do with the beer she drank earlier.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Teen was among three of 307 passengers and crew on Seoul-to-San Francisco flight to be killed
A Chinese student on board the ill-fated Asiana Flight 214 survived the crash-landing of the Boeing 777 only to be killed on the runway by an emergency vehicle racing toward the downed plane, the San Mateo County Coroner said Friday.
Ye Meng Yuan, 16, died from "multiple blunt injuries consistent with being run over by a motor vehicle. Those injuries indicate she was alive at the time,'' said coroner Robert Foucrault. Internal bleeding ruled out any chance she was already dead when she was struck,'' Foucrault said.
"She was alive when she received the injuries," he said.
It was unclear whether Yuan, part of a group scheduled to attend a three-week California summer camp, was struck by more than one vehicle.
Yuan and 16-year-old classmate Wang Linjia were pronounced dead at the scene of the July 6 crash at San Francisco International airport. A third victim, 15-year-old Liu Yipeng, died from injuries July 12. The three attended Jiangshan Middle School in Zhejiang, an affluent coastal province in eastern China.
More than 180 passengers were injured.
Police and fire officials confirmed last week that Ye Meng Yuan was hit by a firetruck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777, but had not determined whether she was already dead at the time. She was covered with flame-retardant foam when she was struck and found in the tracks that the vehicle made in the foam, according to the San Francisco Police Department, which investigated the case.
San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne Hayes-White said a specialized emergency vehicle may have run over the prone body.
"Obviously, this is devastating news for us, a tragic accident,'' she said. "We are heartbroken."
The post-crash tarmac was a hectic scene, filled with crash debris, fleeing passengers and crew and first responders extinguishing fires and rescuing those still aboard.
"It' was a difficult scene" to navigate, she said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
President Obama said Friday that all Americans should respect the George Zimmerman verdict of acquittal, but white Americans should also understand that African Americans are pained by Trayvon's Martin's death and continue to face racial discrimination.
"Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," the nation's first African-American president said during a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room.
Obama, who last year said the 17-year-old Florida shooting victim could just as easily have been his son, talked about how he has been subjected to casual prejudice. He also said African Americans need to address the problems of violence in their own communities.
African-American males know they are more likely to be both "victims and perpetrators of violence," Obama said, and "somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else."
The problem is that so many people paint with a "broad brush" and see all black young men as potential criminals, Obama said.
A Florida jury acquitted Zimmerman on Saturday night of murder in the 2012 death of 17-year-old Trayvon.
In an extraordinary 19-minute speech, Obama spoke personally and at times emotionally about the frustrations African-Americans have with the justice system, and the continuing racial divides that shadow the nation.
"I think it's important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away," Obama said, and "it's going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching."
Obama told reporters that, like other African Americans, he has been followed by security guards while shopping, and has seen motorists lock their doors or women hold tighter to their purses as as he walked near them. While didn't want to "exaggerate," Obama said "those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida."
He cited racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and how blacks tend to be charged more often with drug offenses and sentenced to longer prison terms than whites. He also said it's fair to wonder what would have happened in Florida if the shooter had been a young African-American.
Obama said he respects the different views of the verdict, but the trial was conducted professionally, and "once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works." While demonstrations and peaceful protests are understandable, he said violence "dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family."
Said Obama: "Now, the question for me at least, and I think for a lot of folks, is where do we take this?"
While the Justice Department investigates whether to charge Zimmerman with civil rights violations in the wake of Trayvon's 2012 death, Obama pointed out that "traditionally, these are issues of state and local government."
Officials at the state and local levels should examine whether changes to laws can head off violent confrontations, Obama said. He cited laws to ban racial profiling, and proposed new kind of training for law enforcement in order "to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists."
The president also questioned the wisdom of Florida's "stand your ground" law, which, in the view of critics, all but encourages confrontation that could turn deadly.
People should ask themselves if Trayvon had the right to stand his ground, Obama said, adding: "Do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened?"
The nation should also think about ways to "bolster and reinforce our African American boys," Obama said, saying there are too many kids out there who need help, but "are getting a lot of negative reinforcement."
Obama said all Americans should do "soul-searching" in the wake of the verdict and the reactions to it, but questioned whether a full-blown "national conversation" would do much good if too many politicians or pundits were involved.
"On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there's the possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?" Obama said.
Borrowing a quote from Abraham Lincoln, Obama said political leaders should do whatever they can to encourage ''the better angels of our nature." rather than "using these episodes to heighten divisions."
Obama also said that Americans should realize that, over the course of decades, American race relations have improved, citing his daughters and their friends as examples. While that doesn't means "we're in a post-racial society," Obama said there is progress.
"I don't want us to lose sight that things are getting better," Obama said.
Obama also paid tribute to Trayvon's parents, saying that "I can only im
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia moved Friday to curtail the record number of people attempting the dangerous boat journey to claim asylum, pledging that no one who arrives in Australia by boat without a visa will ever be granted permission to settle here.
Under the tough new policy, all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat would be sent to a refugee-processing center in nearby Papua New Guinea, which like Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Conventions. If they are found to be genuine refugees, they will be resettled in that country but forfeit any right to asylum in Australia.
Thousands of asylum seekers fly into Indonesia every year, where they pay smugglers to ferry them in often unsafe, overcrowded vessels to Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean that is its nearest point to Indonesia. Accidents at sea have killed more than 600 people since late 2009, and a long-term solution has bedeviled successive Australian governments going back more than a decade.
Mr. Rudd, who is facing a hotly contested federal election within weeks, acknowledged that the policy was harsh and likely to face legal challenges. But he said that something had to be done to protect the lives of asylum seekers and restore the integrity of the country’s borders.
“Australians have had enough of seeing people drowning in the waters to our north,” Mr. Rudd said at a news conference. “Our country has had enough of people smugglers exploiting asylum seekers and seeing them drown on the high seas.”
“As of today asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia,” he said.
No issue looms as large over Australian politics as how do deal with asylum seekers, and the crossings involving fatalities have continued without any sign of abatement. On Wednesday the government announced that a boat carrying around 150 asylum seekers had capsized in the Indian Ocean, killing four people. An infant was killed in a similar accident the previous week.
Under the so-called Pacific Solution of former Prime Minister John Howard a decade ago, asylum seekers were transported to nearby island nations like Papua New Guinea and Nauru for lengthy processing meant to remove the incentive for claiming asylum on Australia’s shores. The policy, which was roundly criticized by human rights advocates, was abandoned when Mr. Rudd became prime minister for the first time in 2007.
But Mr. Rudd’s policy has backfired, leading to an explosion in the number of arrivals from 161 asylum seekers in 2008 to 11,599 in just the first three quarters of 2012-13, the latest period for which official statistics have been published. The majority of arrivals are from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
In 2012, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard effectively revived the Pacific Solution, opening offshore detention centers in Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. The number of spots at those two centers, however, was not nearly adequate to hold the steady stream of new arrivals, and Australia is now facing a backlog of some 20,000 people awaiting processing.
Mr. Rudd said that there would be no cap on the number of people who could be sent to Papua New Guinea under the new agreement, but that the policy would be re-examined after one year. It was not immediately clear how much it would cost to build adequate facilities in Papua New Guinea, nor did Mr. Rudd say how much of that cost burden would be shouldered by Australia.
But many have been highly critical of conditions at the Manus Island camp, and the announcement immediately drew the ire of rights groups. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued a damning report last month that called conditions there “below international standards for the reception and treatment of asylum-seekers” and warned about the “harsh” living arrangements for men in particular.
“The new plans to resettle all asylum seekers that are found to be refugees in PNG shows not only a complete disregard for asylum seekers but absolute contempt for legal and moral obligations,” Graeme McGregor, Amnesty International Australia’s refugee campaign coordinator, said in a news release.
“Mark this day in history as the day Australia decided to turn its back on the world’s most vulnerable people, closed the door and threw away the key,” he said.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Dick Cheney’s daughter wants to be a senator! To give Wyoming a conservative voice! Well, it’s about time somebody thought of that.
“Over the last several years, citizens across our great state have urged me to consider running for the Senate,” Liz Cheney said, announcing her candidacy via YouTube. This is now the way to do everything in politics. Soon we will be breathlessly reporting that the new president just posted his Inaugural Address video.
But a couple of problems with that statement. One is that Cheney only moved to Wyoming last fall, so people were apparently begging her to represent them while she was there on vacation.
Lately, we’ve had a lot of politicians explain that they’re running for office because folks kept coming up and begging them to go for it. Generally, these are people whose plans are deeply unwelcome by the other members of their party. But nobody ever says, “I have decided to heed the clarion call of my insatiable need for attention.” Instead, they blame it on random pedestrians.
Everybody knows that no sane politician will actually decide to embark on a major campaign because the man on the street decreed it must be so. Particularly if you are in a place like Wyoming where there actually aren’t all that many streets and the people you are running into are attending your fund-raisers.
“I thought we were friends,” the blindsided incumbent, Mike Enzi, said of his new opponent. If he wins, he should definitely send her that statement embroidered on a pillow.
The Senate races aren’t till 2014, but things are already heating up. True, they’re a little warmer in some places than others. For instance, if you’re a Democrat who thinks it would be fun to run for office, there’s still that opening in West Virginia. Really. Just move there and post an announcement on YouTube.
We’ll get a preview this October when New Jersey voters elect a successor to the late Senator Frank Lautenberg. Right now, the money is on Mayor Cory Booker of Newark. If you do not know who Cory Booker is, send him a note and he will come to your house and introduce himself. Or find your lost car keys. Or clean your furnace. Really, just give him a list.
You may be wondering why New Jersey is having a Senate election just a few weeks before everybody there goes to vote for governor. Because Nov. 5 is Chris Christie’s day, that’s why. Keep away from it.
But about Wyoming. Nobody expects the Republicans to lose Enzi’s seat, but there is currently nothing that makes the Democrats happier than seeing the opposition torn apart by a primary featuring scary right-wing candidates. Particularly scary right-wing candidates with famous names that will remind the nation of how we came to have a war in Iraq.
Plus, the opinion of Wyoming residents is extremely important. When it comes to Senate seats, in fact, each Wyoming registered voter is approximately 70 times more important than a registered voter in California. Obviously, they’re exceptionally smart. Otherwise the founding fathers would never have let that happen.
So what do you think Wyoming wants? Somebody younger? Cheney is 46, and apparently planning on suggesting — in the most discreet way possible — that Enzi is toast at 69. Since the average age of the current Senate is around 62, however, he is barely brown around the edges.
Somebody further to the right? Enzi was ranked the eighth most conservative human being in the Senate in the last National Journal survey. No. 1 was James Risch of Idaho. Would “Elect a Woman Who’s More Extreme Than the Idaho Guy” be a compelling campaign slogan?
Do you think Wyoming wants somebody who will be more impossible for the other senators to work with? Enzi is a low-key, well-liked kind of legislator, and Liz Cheney is definitely sending a message that she’s not going to do that. “I will never compromise when our freedom is at stake,” Cheney said stoutly. Freedom is, of course, at stake every single minute of the day.
Do you think Wyoming wants a fresh face? Cheney is extremely fresh, having lived in the Virginia suburbs until recently. In her YouTube announcement, she basically argued that her genes were from Wyoming, where her grandmother was the first female deputy sheriff of Natrona County. She frequently points out that her great-grandmother was a settler who walked across the state in her bare feet. If we could get a re-enactment of that, it could make this a campaign for the ages.
Meanwhile, her supportive father has agreed to take part in Wyoming’s annual antelope hunt competition with Colorado. Exciting things happen when Dick Cheney goes off to shoot wild critters.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
SANA, Yemen — I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died.
The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen.
I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead.
Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. It was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew — that it was responsible for his death.
The attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., said only that Abdulrahman was not “specifically targeted,” raising more questions than he answered.
My grandson was killed by his own government. The Obama administration must answer for its actions and be held accountable. On Friday, I will petition a federal court in Washington to require the government to do just that.
Abdulrahman was born in Denver. He lived in America until he was 7, then came to live with me in Yemen. He was a typical teenager — he watched “The Simpsons,” listened to Snoop Dogg, read “Harry Potter” and had a Facebook page with many friends. He had a mop of curly hair, glasses like me and a wide, goofy smile.
In 2010, the Obama administration put Abdulrahman’s father, my son Anwar, on C.I.A. and Pentagon “kill lists” of suspected terrorists targeted for death. A drone took his life on Sept. 30, 2011.
The government repeatedly made accusations of terrorism against Anwar — who was also an American citizen — but never charged him with a crime. No court ever reviewed the government’s claims nor was any evidence of criminal wrongdoing ever presented to a court. He did not deserve to be deprived of his constitutional rights as an American citizen and killed.
Early one morning in September 2011, Abdulrahman set out from our home in Sana by himself. He went to look for his father, whom he hadn’t seen for years. He left a note for his mother explaining that he missed his father and wanted to find him, and asking her to forgive him for leaving without permission.
A couple of days after Abdulrahman left, we were relieved to receive word that he was safe and with cousins in southern Yemen, where our family is from. Days later, his father was targeted and killed by American drones in a northern province, hundreds of miles away. After Anwar died, Abdulrahman called us and said he was going to return home.
That was the last time I heard his voice. He was killed just two weeks after his father.
A country that believes it does not even need to answer for killing its own is not the America I once knew. From 1966 to 1977, I fulfilled a childhood dream and studied in the United States as a Fulbright scholar, earning my doctorate and then working as a researcher and assistant professor at universities in New Mexico, Nebraska and Minnesota.
I have fond memories of those years. When I first came to the United States as a student, my host family took me camping by the ocean and on road trips to places like Yosemite, Disneyland and New York — and it was wonderful.
After returning to Yemen, I used my American education and skills to help my country, serving as Yemen’s minister of agriculture and fisheries and establishing one of the country’s leading institutions of higher learning, Ibb University. Abdulrahman used to tell me he wanted to follow in my footsteps and go back to America to study. I can’t bear to think of those conversations now.
After Anwar was put on the government’s list, but before he was killed, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights represented me in a lawsuit challenging the government’s claim that it could kill anyone it deemed an enemy of the state.
The court dismissed the case, saying that I did not have standing to sue on my son’s behalf and that the government’s targeted killing program was outside the court’s jurisdiction anyway.
After the deaths of Abdulrahman and Anwar, I filed another lawsuit, seeking answers and accountability. The government has argued once again that its targeted killing program is beyond the reach of the courts. I find it hard to believe that this can be legal in a constitutional democracy based on a system of checks and balances.
The government has killed a 16-year-old American boy. Shouldn’t it at least have to explain why?
Nasser al-Awlaki, the founder of Ibb University and former president of Sana University, served as Yemen’s minister of agriculture and fisheries from 1988 to 1990.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man who killed his 13-year-old neighbor last year testified Thursday the shooting was "justice" because he thought the teen had broken into his home and stolen weapons.
John Henry Spooner, 76, said the suspicion that Darius Simmons stole expensive shotguns of deep sentimental value left him "very, very angry." Police searched Darius' home after the shooting and didn't find the weapons.
A prosecutor alleged that Spooner traded the boy's life for guns in a desire for revenge.
"I wouldn't call it revenge. I would call it justice," Spooner said defiantly, drawing audible gasps from the courtroom. Darius' mother, Patricia Larry, threw up her hands and muttered, "Oh my god."
Spooner was testifying against the advice of his lawyer. Defense attorney Franklyn Gimbel told the judge during morning proceedings that his client had suddenly lost the mental competence to continue with the trial. The judge halted proceedings for a few hours until a court-appointed psychiatrist performed a brief examination and pronounced Spooner competent to continue.
Spooner was convicted Wednesday of first-degree intentional homicide. That verdict advanced the trial to a second phase to determine whether Spooner was sane at the time of the May 2012 shooting. The second phase was expected to wrap up Friday with testimony from a doctor hired by the prosecution. A doctor retained by the defense testified Wednesday that Spooner had anger issues that caused him to periodically detach from reality.
If the same jurors who convicted Spooner decide he was competent, he'll face life in prison. If they conclude he was mentally ill, he could be committed.
Spooner didn't testify in the first phase. The judge asked him Thursday if he wanted to testify in the second phase, and Spooner said he'd prefer to give a 15-minute statement. When told he could only address the jury in the form of sworn testimony and cross-examination, he agreed to take the stand.
Spooner mostly spoke in a calm voice but sounded anguished as he recounted how he confronted Darius and shot him in the chest. He recalled that someone had stolen four shotguns from his home two days earlier, and he was frustrated by a limited police response.
Gimbel asked him what caused him to shoot the boy.
"I wanted my guns back," Spooner replied, squeezing his eyes shut and resting his head against his fingertips. "I just wanted them back so bad."
Spooner never denied shooting Darius, and acknowledged wanting to kill the teen's older brother as well. Theodore Larry, 18, had rushed into the street to help his wounded brother.
"If there weren't other people behind him you would have shot him," prosecutor Mark Williams offered.
"I would have shot him," Spooner replied.
The strongest piece of evidence against Spooner was footage from his own surveillance cameras, which showed him confronting Darius on the sidewalk and pointing a handgun at him. The boy backpedaled a few steps with his hands up. Spooner then exchanged words with Darius' mother on her porch off screen, and then turned and fired one shot at Darius' chest.
The teen fled, and Spooner fired a second shot that missed. He tried to shoot a third time but the gun jammed.
Darius died a few moments later across the street, in his mother's arms.
Gimbel conceded from the outset that Spooner killed the boy, but argued during the first phase that the homicide may have been reckless but not intentional, because Spooner didn't mean for the shot to be fatal. The jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday before rejecting that argument.
Spooner had entered two pleas to the homicide charge: not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. That set up the trial to be conducted in two phases: the first to determine whether he was guilty of the homicide, and if so, a second to determine whether he was mentally competent at the time.
While Spooner didn't deny what he did, he had a hard time explaining to the prosecutor why he did it.
When Williams asked if he took the safety off the gun because he wanted to kill the boy, Spooner said he didn't know. Williams asked why Spooner fired a second time and Spooner again said he didn't know.
Finally, Williams asked whether Spooner felt bad about taking Darius' life.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The first really high-precision measurements of the composition of Mars' atmosphere suggest that the Red planet's atmosphere was much thicker than it is today, researchers, including an Indian origin scientist, say.
New findings from NASA's Curiosity rover provide clues to how Mars lost its original atmosphere, which scientists believe was much thicker than the one left today.
"The beauty of these measurements lies in the fact that these are the first really high-precision measurements of the composition of Mars' atmosphere," said Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan.
Atreya is co-author of two related papers published in the journal Science, and co-investigator on Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments, considered the rover's cornerstone lab.
SAM measured the abundances of different gases and isotopes in samples of Martian air, according to NASA. Isotopes are variations of the same chemical element that contain different numbers of neutrons, such as the most common carbon isotope, carbon-12, and a heavier stable isotope, carbon-13, which contains an additional neutron.
SAM analysed the ratios of heavier to lighter isotopes of carbon and oxygen in the carbon dioxide that makes up most of Mars' atmosphere today.
Measurements showed that heavy isotopes of carbon and oxygen were more abundant in today's thin atmosphere compared with the proportions in the raw material that formed the planet (which scientists can deduce from proportions in the Sun and other parts of the solar system).
This provides not only supportive evidence for the loss of much of Mars' original atmosphere, but also gives clues to how the loss occurred. It suggests that the planet's atmosphere escaped from the top, rather than due to the lower atmosphere interacting with the ground, NASA's said.
"The isotope data are unambiguous and robust, having been independently confirmed by the quadrupole mass spectrometer and the tunable laser spectrometer, two of the SAM suite instruments," Atreya said.
"These data are clear evidence of a substantially more massive atmosphere, hence a warmer, wetter Mars in the past than the cold, arid planet we find today," said Atreya.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Testimony elicited during a Wednesday oversight hearing in Washington revealed that the United States intelligence community regularly collects email and telephone metadata from way more persons than previously thought.
Quizzed about the government’s investigative methods during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing early Wednesday, National Security Agency Deputy Director Chris Inglis said that the government obtains basic information pertaining to the communication records of potentially millions of more Americans than leaked NSA documents previously suggested.
After former NSA contractor Edward Snowden released classified files to the Guardian newspaper, journalists Glenn Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman cited one of those documents that said US investigators "analyzed networks with two degrees of separation (two hops) from the target" while conducting probes.
“In other words, the NSA studied the online records of people who communicated with people who communicated with targeted individuals,” the journalists wrote.
On Wednesday, however, Inglis enlarged the scope of that surveillance program by saying the NSA actually investigates persons that can come within three “hops” of an intelligence target.
NSA analysts can perform "a second or third hop query,” Inglis admitted during questioning.
Although powers vested in the US through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act forbid it from specifically targeting Americans, lawmakers critical of the program have cautioned that the personal data of too many US citizens are regularly swept up as government officials attempt to connect-the-dots using telephone and Internet metadata. By investigating persons within a third degree of separation and not just two, authorities broaden their probes by putting records from potentially millions of more persons, American and otherwise, into their hands.
Weighing in after the revelation, the Guardian’s Ackerman authored a new piece exploring just how extensive these powers really are.
“A three-hop query means that the NSA can look at data not only from a suspected terrorist, but from everyone that suspect communicated with, and then from everyone those people communicated with, and then from everyone all of those people communicated with,” Ackerman wrote.
“Do the math,” tweeted Cato Institute research fellow and author Julian Sanchez. “Your whole contact list. All their contact lists. All THOSE people's contact lists. That's a LOOOT of people.”
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Hong Kong (CNN) — Tsang Tsz-Kwan may look like an average student in Hong Kong with her standard-issue blue shift dress with a Chinese collar and sensible black shoes. But her ordinary appearance and shy manner mask a steely determination to triumph over tremendous odds.
She recently scored within the top 5% for nearly all her subjects in the city's college entrance examination — despite being blind and severely hearing-impaired from a young age. She also lacks sensitivity in her fingertips, which denies her the ability to feel the raised dots of Braille characters.
Rather than admit defeat, the 20 year old found an alternative way to read Braille — with her lips.
"In Primary 1 (the equivalent of Grade 1 in the United States), I noticed that she was always leaning forward," said Mee-Lin Chiu, a teacher at the Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired — the only special needs school in Hong Kong dedicated to the blind.
"She told me it was because she could read more clearly with her lips than her hands."
This is the first I have heard of someone being successful using the lips. Diane Wormsely, North Carolina Central University
Tsang herself admitted: "I know it's not a common approach and it sounds rather strange. Even I myself don't know how it came about," she added, calling it "miraculous."
In actual fact, the lips, tongue, and fingertips are particularly adept at spatial discrimination — they can perceive two points that are only 1-3 millimeters apart, according to the classic anatomy text, Field's Anatomy, Palpation and Surface Markings. In comparison, the legs or back of the hands can only detect two points with a separation of more than 50-100 millimeters.
While Tsang may not be the very first person to resort to lip-reading Braille, she appears to be a rare case. "This is the first I have heard of someone being successful using the lips," said Diane Wormsely, a professor at North Carolina Central University who specializes in education for the visually impaired. Chiu also said that Tsang was the only student at Ebenezer to have used their lips — and is the sole case she is aware of in Hong Kong.
Lip-reading Braille is not without its challenges, however.
"Nobody could accept it in the beginning," Tsang said. "Even now, many people find it odd … It's caused some embarrassment when I read in public places and in front of people that I don't have a close relationship with."
Nobody could accept it in the beginning…Even now, many people find it odd. Tsang Tsz-Kwan
It also poses practical problems, as Braille books are typically large and heavy.
Nonetheless, Tsang said she is "grateful" to still have a way to learn about the world through the written word. Reading is one of her favorite past times — a source of intellectual stimulation and psychological refuge.
She also believes she can transcend her disabilities through hard work, determination, and the willingness to push herself outside of her comfort zone.
"Without the courage to challenge myself, there is surely no possibility of success," she said.
At Ebenezer, her classes were comprised of only ten students, whose shared disability enabled them to easily build close friendships. All materials were prepared in Braille and teachers were specially trained to work with the blind.
But in Form 1 (the equivalent of Grade 7 in the United States), Tsang decided to leave the comfort of Ebenezer and move to a regular secondary school, wanting to immerse herself in a more authentic, mainstream environment. "I have to facilitate my adaptation to society when I finish my studies and have to enter the workplace," she said.
Her transition to the city's Ying Wa Girls' School was not always easy. Classes were much larger and teachers did not have specialized training to work with blind students. Tsang had to send all printed materials to Ebenezer or the Hong Kong Society for the Blind for transcription into Braille. Reading and writing took her twice the amount of time it did for her peers, she said.
She learned she had to be more independent and make a greater effort to express her feelings and needs with staff and students, who were welcoming but unaccustomed to dealing with a blind person.
Without the courage to challenge myself, there is surely no possibility of success. Tsang Tsz-Kwan
One of her teachers, Kwong Ho-Ka, said that staff learned over time when to intervene to help her.
"If she needs something, she will let us know," Kwong said, adding that her fiercely independent student walked around the school campus unassisted, eschewing a walking stick and elevators and taking the stairs by herself.
Kwong, who clearly holds deep affection for her student, said that while Tsang was never bullied, social integration has been a gradual process.
"She has friends, but she's not part of some big group. For example, a gaggle of girls may be chatting about pop culture, but it can be difficult for her to enter the conversation. She may not recognize who is speaking in overlapping conversations and she lacks familiarity with pop culture."
Attending class with the same cohort of students over the past three years has helped a lot, Kwong said, and students have learned to make an effort to include Tsang in conversations.
Tsang said that she has made close friends. "I am grateful for their acceptance of me as a normal member of their social circle and throughout these years, they have given me a great deal of support and encouragement."
While her academic feats — she scored 5**, the highest possible grade, for Chinese, English, and Liberal Studies, 5* for Chinese Literature and English Literature and 4 for Math — have won her much acclaim in Hong Kong, Tsang admits that she surprised herself.
"I was really astonished and excited when I heard that my results in some of the subjects were far from my expectations," she said. "I felt my hard work this year has finally paid off."
I'm going to treasure what I still have. Tsang Tsz-Kwan
She hopes to study translation at university starting this fall to have a "balanced development in both Chinese and English."
"Whenever I come across some thought-provoking and touching books, I really wish I could translate them into different languages so as to share them with more readers," she added.
As she embarks on the new phase of her hard-won education, Tsang maintains matter-of-fact and philosophical. "The inconveniences and limitations (my impairments) bring will follow me my whole life …and I must have the courage to face the facts…I'm going to treasure what I still have."
"I would like to encourage everyone to have the courage and perseverance to go through all the ups and downs in our lives because I know everyone has their own difficulties. But one thing is for sure: where there's a will, there's a way."
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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