Six In The Morning

  Explosions hit cars of Hamas officials in Gaza City

  Palestinian security sources say two people injured in blasts targeting officials of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

19 Jul 2015 08:36 GMT

Two people have been injured in multiple car explosions in northern Gaza City, Palestinian security sources said.

The sources said six explosions took place at same time on Sunday morning in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.

The cars belonged to officials of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.

Interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Buzom released a brief statement in which he accused “vandals” seeking to destabilise Gaza of carrying out the explosions.

He said security officials started an investigation and would pursue the criminals.

 A Government Divided: Schäuble’s Push for Grexit Puts Merkel on Defensive

 German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had a plan to push Greece out of the euro zone. Chancellor Merkel wasn’t sure what to do about it. The result is widespread resentment of Germany and a damaged Franco-German relationship.

By SPIEGEL Staff

There are days when Wolfgang Schäuble’s staff would prefer to be somewhere else. In Timbuktu perhaps, or up on the Acropolis. In any case, far, far away.

Last Thursday, the German finance minister rolled into an elevator in the Reichstag in Berlin. He was irritated, for he soon had to appear before the Affairs of the European Union Committee to defend a bailout plan for Greece that he didn’t even believe in. “Grottenfalsch,” as he would say — “dreadfully wrong.”

 Australia’s war on cats: Government plans to cull 2 million by 2020

  Australia’s feral cats are reportedly responsible for dwindling numbers among some endangered species

Ishaan Tharoor

The Australian government has announced plans to cull up to 2 million feral cats by 2020 in a bid to preserve dozens of native species that authorities claim face extinction because of the cats’ predatory behavior.

Speaking to a national radio station, Gregory Andrews, the country’s first threatened-species Commissioner, said Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt “is declaring war on feral cats, and he’s asked me to take charge of that programme.”

Hunt unveiled the five-year plan at a Melbourne zoo on Thursday, vowing to protect Australia’s native mammal and bird populations.

Local elections in North Korea unlikely to bring change

 First local polls in country since Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011 seen by many as a sham.

19 Jul 2015 02:14 GMT

North Korea is set to hold its first local elections since Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011.

Sunday’s elections, which are held every four years, will select deputy positions at provincial, city and county assembly levels.

Citizens have the opportunity to vote for only one candidate for each position selected by the ruling party.

Dae Young Kim, a South Korean reporter who has extensively covered stories from North Korea, said that although democratic in name, the elections are in practice a foregone conclusion.

 South Korea spy kills himself amid hacking scandal

 

BBC

An employee of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) spying agency has been found dead in his car after apparently taking his own life on a mountain road, police say.

His death comes as a scandal over phone-hacking gathers pace.

The man left a suicide note admitting that he had deleted important information about the hacking.

It has emerged that mobile phones were tracked and monitored just before the presidential election in 2012.

Government and NIS officials have denied opposition claims that the spyware – bought from an Italian company – was used to monitor South Koreans in general.

 (From Bangkok Post Sunday)

  By AT Editor on July 19, 2015 in Top News

The Thai military and police struck deals as recently as December to allow them to use hacking software to monitor mobile phones and computers, raising concerns of privacy violations.

The revelation came after WikiLeaks released more than one million searchable emails from the Italian surveillance malware vendor Hacking Team (HT) on July 8, showing the inner workings of the controversial global surveillance industry.

The Bangkok Post Sunday learned of the deals by sifting through hundreds of the company’s emails and documents, which name the Royal Thai Army and Royal Thai Police as customers of its remote control systems. Read more