Pakistan's ISI spying on Indian security using malwares through mobile gaming, music apps: Govt

New Delhi: Indian security forces are being spied by Pakistan's snooping agency ISI using 
malware through mobile gaming and music applications such as Top Gun, mpjunkie, vdjunky, talking frog, the government said in Parliament on Wednesday.

Not only this Pakistan's spy agency was making efforts to trap ex-servicemen in the garb of providing job opportunities and financial aid for spying informed Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, responding to a question in Lok Sabha,

"There are reports that Pakistani intelligence agencies are spying on Indian security forces by sending malwares in mobile appssuch as Top Gun (game app), mpjunkie (music app), vdjunkey (video app), talking frog (entertainment app," the minister said.

He said during the period 2013-16, seven ex-servicemen were arrested/detected for espionage activities for the ISI.

"The Indian security forces have been sensitised about Pakistan's ISI using dubious applications on smartphones," he said.

"Besides, the government has circulated Computer Security Policy and Guidelines to all the ministries/departments on taking steps to prevent, detect and mitigate cyber attacks which includes sanitisation of staff and officers, installations of CCTV and biometric for electronic surveillance with well defined crisis management plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism for implementation," Mr Chaudhary said.

How can you see the Past

Have you ever wished you could look into the past? It’s theoretically possible. In fact, you’re doing it right now.

The closest star you can see is the sun, which is just over 8 light minutes away from us. When see the sun, you are not seeing the present – you are seeing it as it was 8 minutes ago.

The sun could literally disappear and you would have no way of knowing about it for 8 minutes.

Some of the stars we see in the night sky are over 100 light years away. When you view them, you are literally looking 100 years into the past.

The brightest star you can see is Alpha Centauri, located 4.3 light years away (to be accurate, what you see is actually a collection of three stars). The light reaching Alpha Centauri right now is light emitted 4.3 years ago – stuff from 2010. If some entity in that region is looking at earth using a ridiculously good telescope, it is seeing earth’s past.

If you could find a way to put a giant mirror into space several light years away, you could theoretically watch your own history. The farther away you put it, the further back in time you could see. If it was 50 light years away, you’d be seeing earth 100 years into the past.

All the light you have ever emitted your entire life is still traveling across the universe somewhere – maybe not so easy to collect, but your past is theoretically obtainable.

So this is all nice sounding, except having to repeatedly say “theoretical”. What about something practical?

I once was at a high school baseball game where 2 fields sat opposite each other with concurrent games being played. I found it amusing how I could see the crack of the aluminum bat hitting the ball on the field in the distance a moment before I actually heard it. And then it occurred to me – I was hearing the past.

This is the same phenomena we experience when we see the crack of lighting only to wait a few seconds to listen to the following thunder. The reality though, is that everything we sense comes to us after it occurred. As fast as light travels, it still requires time to reach our eyes – time so small we can’t perceive it, but it is not possible to actually see the present. Thus, we are currently seeing the past.

To a lesser extent, when we record video and replay it, we are seeing the past in a form of stored light. It is not as romantic as putting a giant mirror in deep space, but it operates within the same realm of ideas.

We shouldn’t underestimate just how awesome video technology is. We have a manner of seeing the past that was not available to anyone living more than 150 years ago (and realistically much more recent than that).

I’m not that old but my parents never had a video recording device when I was young so there isn’t any video of myself as a child. I have only some photos and memories to explain what I was like to my kids. This saddens me somewhat as I’d love to reminisce, to see my parents and I when I was young, to relive some of the ordinary events that made up my childhood.

But at least I have photos. So much of human history had nothing but their own minds to relive the past. Think about that. How lucky are we? The ability to see the past though video would have been a dream to most humans in history. Yet we don’t even think twice about carrying video devices in our pockets.

Its funny, we live in a generation where people are getting apprehensive about video – a completely rational and understandable response to the ease at which we can now be filmed without permission. Yet I wonder, how much do we take this amazing technology for granted?

Do you wish you could see more of your past?

Slovakia adopts law to effectively block Islam from becoming official state religion

Bratislava: Parliament in Bratislava has approved a bill that effectively prevents Islam from being registered as a state religion in the near future.

Sponsored by the Slovak National Party (SNS), which is a member in Prime Minister Robert Fico's coalition, the legislation was passed Wednesday, Reuters reported. The law was approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament, comprising both ruling and opposition parties.

The new law more than doubles the required number of a religion's followers for it to qualify for state subsidies and run its own schools. At least 50,000 members, against the previous 20,000, has now been set as a threshold for gaining official.

Currently, 62 percent of Slovakia's 5.4 million population are declared Roman Catholics.

Slovakia's far-right People's Party-Our Slovakia wanted to raise the bar to 250,000, but their proposal was turned down by a majority of lawmakers.

"Islamization starts with a kebab and it's already under way in Bratislava, let's realize what we can face in five to 10 years," chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Andrej Danko said, as cited by Reuters. "We must do everything we can so that no mosque is built in the future," the politician was quoted as adding.

According to the last census, Islam has some 2,000 followers in Slovakia, Reuters reported, adding that there are no recognized mosques in the central European country. The Islamic Foundation in Slovakia, which has not commented on the new legislation so far, puts the number at around 5,000.

Katchatheevu: The big issue over a small island

Katchatheevu, an uninhabited islet in the Palk Strait, is the centre of a long-standing dispute between the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

 During her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa pushed for the retrieval of Katchatheevu, the centre of a long-standing dispute between the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

On 26 August 2014, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Centre, told a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha: “If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back.”

What is Katchatheevu?

According to Sri Lanka’s ministry of external affairs website, Katchatheevu is an uninhabited islet in the Palk Strait that was formed due to volcanic eruption in the 14th century. The 285-acre land, strategically important for fishing activities, was owned by the Raja of Ramnad (Ramanathapuram) and later became part of the Madras Presidency after the delimitation of Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait during British rule between the then governments of Madras and Ceylon. In 1921, both Sri Lanka and India claimed this piece of land for fishing and the dispute remained unsettled.

Ownership of the island was controversial up until 1974 as during British Rule the island was administered by both countries. India recognized Sri Lankan ownership. The legality of the transfer was challenged in the Indian Supreme Court since the recognizing was not ratified by the Indian parliament.This recognition of an island that is culturally important to fishermen of Tamil Nadu state in India has led to some agitations by Tamil Nadu politicians that it should be claimed to Indian sovereignty. The island is also important for fishing grounds used by fishers from both countries.The Indo-Sri Lankan agreement allows Indian fishermen to fish around Katchatheevu and to dry their nets on the island. As part of the Sri Lankan civil war, this arrangement led to many difficulties with the Sri Lankan Navy that is deployed to prevent smuggling of weapons by the rebel group LTTE. The island has a Catholic shrine that attracts devotees from both countries.

The main problem continues to grow as more fisherman move into the Sri Lankan sea area for illegal poaching. In 2010 the Sri Lankan government issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government saying the Indian court cannot nullify the 1974 agreement.

In June 2011 the new Tamil Nadu government led by Jayalalithaa filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the declaration of the 1974 and 1976 agreements between India and Sri Lanka on ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka as unconstitutional. The court ruled in the Berubari case that the cession of Indian territory to another country had to be ratified by parliament through amendment of the Constitution. Katchatheevu was ceded to Sri Lanka in violation of the court under the 1974 and 1976 agreements without the approval of two Houses of Parliament.

However, the Indian government has stated that “No territory belonging to India was ceded nor sovereignty relinquished since the area was in dispute and had never been demarcated” and that the dispute on the status of the island was settled in 1974 by an agreement, and both countries took into account historical evidence and legal aspects.

Indira Gandhi’s Emergency

In 1974, Katchatheevu was ceded to Sri Lanka by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi through the Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement to settle the maritime boundary in the Palk Strait with her counterpart Srimavo Bandaranaike. This forced M. Karunanidhi, then chief minister of Tamil Nadu, to write to Indira Gandhi on how the land was historically a part of Ramnad’s zamindari.

Though ceded to Sri Lanka, the agreement, which did not specify fishing rights, allowed Indian fishermen to fish around Katchatheevu and to dry their nets on the island.

During Emergency, with the Tamil Nadu government dismissed in 1976, without the consultation of the state assembly and Parliament, another agreement was finalized to determine the boundary in the Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal and restricted both the countries’ fishermen from fishing in the other’s waters.

In 1991, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the retrieval of Katchatheevu. During the civil war and with northern borders under the control of the LTTE (expand), the fishermen had easy access into the fishing grounds. Later in 2008, Jayalalithaa moved the Supreme Court to nullify the Katchatheevu agreements of 1974 and 1976.

As the war between Sri Lankan government and LTTE reached an end by 2009, the Sri Lankan government strengthened its security at maritime boundaries. When Indian fishermen crossed boundaries, arrests followed and talks for retrieval of Katchatheevu followed suit in Tamil Nadu. The Sri Lankan government claims that depletion of marine resources on its waters has affected the livelihood of fishermen.

Recent moves

2014: The Centre informed the Madras high court responding to a PIL that Sri Lanka’s sovereignty over Katchatheevu is a settled matter and fishermen from India do not enjoy any right to engage in fishing activities in the region.

2015: Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickramasinghe stoked a controversy in an interview for Chennai-based Tamil Channel (Thanthi TV), suggesting that Indian fishermen may be shot if they intrude into Sri Lankan waters.

“Why are you coming into our waters? Why are you fishing in our waters...? Stay on the Indian side... There will be no issue... No one will shoot anyone else... You stay on the Indian side, let our fishermen stay on the Sri Lankan side... Otherwise don’t make accusations of Human rights violation by the Navy. You came in there.”

Petition to make Clinton president largest in Change.org history

More than 4.6 million people sign an online petition calling for the Electoral College to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump.

Could the Electoral College elect Hillary Clinton? Millions of people have added their name to an online petition calling for a presidential bombshell.

A petition urging electors of the Electoral College to make Clinton, not Presdient-elect Donald Trump, the next US commander in chief is the largest in Charge.org history. The petition, started by social worker Daniel Brezenoff last month, has more than 4.6 million signatures.

Change.org's next largest petition, which aims to shut down a dog meat festival in China, has tallied just 2.6 million signatures in three years.

"Donald Trump is a danger to the Constitution," Brezenoff said in a release, "and the electors have the power to stop him." The petition argues that Clinton should be president because she won the popular vote. It calls on 149 electors to ignore their states' votes and instead cast ballots for Clinton on December 19.

Wait, isn't the election over? Here's a breakdown of how the Electoral College -- and US elections -- actually work. There have been instances of electors not voting for the candidate they're pledged to, but none have affected the outcome of a US presidential election, according to FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

The petition comes on top of a three-state recount effort launched by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Stein raised more than $9 million in donations for recounts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, states critical to the 2016 election.

The Trump and Clinton campaigns didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

In total, there are more than 6,233 petitions on Change.org related to President-elect Trump, covering everything from his administraion appointments to his positions on climage change.