NSA Surveillance Scandal: Snowden Gives Up On Russian Asylum

6:41 PM?Doors kept closing for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden tonight, as the former U.S. government contractor withdrew his request for asylum in Russia and got a new batch of refusals from some of the 19 countries he has reportedly begged for mercy. In his appeal to the Polish government, which was rejected, he said he fears execution or life imprisonment in the United States. Meanwhile, the Bolivian president's jet made an unexpected stop in Vienna after leaving Moscow today, leading to rumors that Snowden was aboard.

Snowden Betrayed, Washington Post Attacks Whistleblower

2:46 PM?Along with The Guardian, a more popular newspaper based in England, the Washington Post first published the surveillance revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Now that Snowden's in limbo and the U.S. government is making threats around the world to keep the 30-year-old former intelligence contractor from asylum, the cowardly Washington establishment paper has gone on the offensive?against Snowden, who gave the paper one of its few big stories of this century.

Snowden Breaks Silence ... Or Does He?

Monday, July 1, 2013 7:55 PM?For the first time since he dragged the NSA's surveillance machine into the light, Edward Snowden has released a statement to the public. But did he write the strangely structured missive, or is it a hoax? Snowden remains in Moscow, reportedly still within the transit zone of the international airport there, a month since his revelations to The Guardian and Washington Post brought the extent of Silicon Valley and British cooperation with the NSA and FBI's widespread, wholesale monitoring of all telephone and Internet activity.

Snowden Asks For Asylum In Russia

2:02 PM?Surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for political asylum in Russia, U.S. news agencies are now reporting. Russian President Vladimir Putin now says he'll never give Snowden to the Americans, while also warning Snowden against harming Russia's "American partners" with more NSA leaks. But Snowden has officially asked to stay, Putin says.

Did WikiLeaks Get Snowden Stuck In Moscow?

1:14 PM?Surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden might have left his safe haven in Hong Kong thanks to some bad advice from the WikiLeaks team, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. Russian President And new details of the Prism program revealed by the former NSA contractor now show at least 117,675 individuals are "targets" of a system that can watch users in real time as they send texts and emails. Developing...

Thursday, June 27, 2013 12:09 PM?With NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden still in hiding at the Moscow airport, the writer who broke the story is now being targeted by the tabloids. Glenn Greenwald, the American lawyer and blogger who now works for The Guardian, was once a business partner in a porn company and owes back taxes. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is downplaying the U.S. pursuit of Snowden, telling his press pool that he wouldn't "scramble jets" to catch the 30-year-old former intelligence contractor. Snowden has been on the run since he first revealed details of Verizon's participation in a telecommunications industry program to store information on all telephone calls, and then broke news of the NSA/Silicon Valley PRISM system that watches over the whole Internet.

Snowden Hides In Moscow Airport

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 3:01 PM?The former NSA contractor who turned the world's attention to widespread surveillance of telephone and Internet users is still within the "transit zone" of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Snowden, the 30-year-old American who leaked details of the NSA's massive electronic spying operation to The Guardian and Washington Post, is now the subject of an international struggle between the United States, China and Russia.

11:45 AM?Russian president Vladimir Putin has flatly rejected Washington's demands that Snowden be handed over to the Americans, describing Snowden as a "transit passenger" and "free man" who could travel wherever he liked. But Putin encouraged Snowden to move fast to his destination, whether Ecuador or another nation friendly to Snowden's cause.

Snowden a No-Show On His Flight To Cuba

Monday, June 25, 2013 11:56 AM?Edward Snowden's seat on the Russian airliner to Cuba was empty today, with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange announcing that the NSA whistleblower is safe but giving no other details. Snowden is seeking political asylum in Ecuador after fleeing Hong Kong and reportedly arriving in Moscow on Sunday. Washington has revoked Snowden's U.S. passport and Secretary of State John Kerry is demanding that the Russians hand over the former intelligence contractor.

Monday, June 24, 2013 10:26AM?Was Snowden's purchased seat on the Aeroflot jet to Havana just a trick to fool reporters? Dozens of journalists were on the flight, but he wasn't.

Sunday, June 23, 2013 1:00PM?Russian media has confirmed that Edward Snowden is now in Moscow after leaving his secret Hong Kong hideout. The same sources reported he has a ticket for an Aeroflot flight to Havana, Cuba, leaving tomorrow at 2PM.

Snowden's final destination may not be Havana, however. The current speculation is that he may go to Caracas after landing in Havana. Other rumors point to Iceland. Wikileaks claims his final destination is Ecuador. Julian Assange and his organization claim they are helping him.

U.K. Internet Spying & U.S. Drone Evidence

Friday, June 21, 2013 3:40 PM?The extent of the FBI's domestic drone spying is revealed by "drone licenses" released to the Electronic Freedom Foundation. News of the drone documents follow FBI Director Robert Mueller's admission to U.S. senators that drones are already spying on Americans on U.S. soil. The Guardian continues revealing details of the massive spying operations, with new evidence showing the U.K. intelligence services tapped into the same Internet pipelines fully monitored by the NSA.

NSA and Silicon Valley In Same Business

Thursday, June 20, 3:25 PM?The National Security Agency wants information on everybody. Tech giants such as Facebook and Apple and Google have information on everybody. They're all in the same business, and the subject of this massive combined technology-intelligence operation is you. Using Prism, the NSA snatches all Internet traffic as it flows in and out of the United States, which violates the U.S. Constitution.

And it's not just data that flows between the California technology giants and the NSA. Facebook's former security chief, Max Kelly, left the social network to take a similar job with the National Security Agency.

Snowden's "Wargame," FBI Drones Over USA

Wednesday, June 19, 2013 3:39 PM?The veteran leaks site Cryptome.org calls Edward Snowden's NSA leaks part of a growing "wargame," while the FBI's director has admitted to the Senate that drones are currently spying on Americans from the skies above the United States.

Opinion

Some tech experts say all this should be expected, some say it's no big deal.

Others say it's a march to fascism. Is privacy officially dead?

Tuesday, June 18, 10:45 PM?The surveillance of Americans' phone calls and Internet activity is "transparent," President Barack Obama said on television Monday night. The names of these secret programs revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden are turning up on job sites all over the Internet.

The NSA and FBI has had access to private accounts on Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple during the last six months, and appears to be expanding and extending online surveillance that first began with the controversial Patriot Act programs launched after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

Monday, June 17, 10:45 PM?Edward Snowden?the NSA contractor employee who revealed the secret US government spy program Prism on June 6?now says that more details are coming.

11:23 AM?Answering The Guardian readers' questions, Prism whistleblower Edward Snowden claims that more details are coming no matter what happens to him: "All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped."

10:42 AM?Apple has admitted that the government obtained data from 9,000 to 10,000 devices as part of investigations on "robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer?s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide." The company also claims it doesn't chat messages or videoconferences and that "it doesn't store Maps, location, or Siri data in any way that could identify you."

Saturday, June 15, 2013 3:00 PM?The Associated Press has numerous sources detailing that Prism's collaboration with tech companies is just the tip of the iceberg?the NSA actually captures every single bit of data that comes in and out the United States, storing it for analysis:

...larger NSA effort that snatches data as it passes through the fiber optic cables that make up the Internet's backbone. That program, which has been known for years, copies Internet traffic as it enters and leaves the United States, then routes it to the NSA for analysis.

Thursday, June 13, 2013 1:55 PM?The Silicon Valley giants are telling a very different story than the NSA, which explained in top secret Power Point presentations exactly how the data comes from the biggest Internet companies to the government's massive spying operations.

Patriot Or Traitor: Edward Snowden and the NSA Prism Surveillance Web

Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 7:25 PM?More Americans see Prism whistleblower Edward Snowden as a patriot than as a traitor, according to a new opinion poll. But the 29-year-old former intelligence contractor who leaked the details of the NSA's massive data mining operation is still unknown to most Americans?46% have no opinion on his motivations.

1:40 PM?Prism whistleblower Edward Snowden has resurfaced in Hong Kong, telling the South China Morning Post that he's "revealing criminality" and has no other motives. He plans to stay in Hong Kong and has more secrets to reveal.

Since the shocking revelations were revealed a week ago, Snowden has been vilified as a defector but also hailed by supporters such as WikiLeaks? Julian Assange.

?I?m neither traitor nor hero. I?m an American,? he said, adding that he was proud to be an American. ?I believe in freedom of expression. I acted in good faith but it is only right that the public form its own opinion.?

Snowden tells the Hong Kong paper, ?I will never feel safe."

Ron Paul Fears Edward Snowden Will Be Assassinated

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 11:39 PM?Congressman Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who first became a hero to young computer technicians in 2007, said today that he fears that the United States government will assassinate Edward Snowden using either a "cruise missile or a drone missile."

Google, Microsoft and Facebook released open letters today asking the U.S. government to get the tech firms off the hook for cooperating with widespread electronic spying on Americans by the biggest tech firms as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In Maryland, the father of Snowden's girlfriend described Snowden as a man of "strong convictions of right and wrong." But because Snowden is generally "shy and reserved," Jonathan Mills said he was shocked by the revelations.

Lindsay Mills, the 29-year-old girlfriend of Snowden, reportedly texted her father but did not reveal her whereabouts. Snowden disappeared from his Hong Kong hotel at least a day ago, and has yet to surface.

6:40 PM?While the world's attention turned to Edward Snowden's pole-dancing ballerina girlfriend today, the American Civil Liberties Union launched a legal backlash against the NSA and FBI's widespread domestic spying as Google and Apple sought permission from the U.S. government to disclose at least some of what's going on.

The ACLU lawsuit is the first challenge to the widespread phone company spying revealed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old American who has single-handedly brought the nation's attention back to the long forgotten issue of constant surveillance.

2:31 PM?The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald wrote the shocking stories based on Snowden's leaks, but Greenwald knows firsthand that surveillance dragnets allegedy created to target foreign terrorists are just as easily?and clumsily?turned on U.S. citizens critical of an overreaching government that increasingly seems to exist only to protect itself from the nation it ostensibly serves. The Nation's Lee Fang describes what was revealed just two years ago:

Two years ago, a batch of stolen e-mails revealed a plot by a set of three defense contractors (Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies, and HBGary Federal) to target activists, reporters, labor unions, and political organizations. The plans ? one concocted in concert with lawyers for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to sabotage left-leaning critics, like the Center for American Progress and the SEIU, and a separate proposal to "combat" WikiLeaks and its supporters, including Glenn Greenwald, on behalf of Bank of America ? fell apart after reports of their existence were published online. But the episode serves as a reminder that the expanding spy industry could use its government-backed cyber tools to harm ordinary Americans and political dissident groups.

The episode also shows that Greenwald, who helped Snowden expose massive spying efforts in the U.S., had been targetted by spy agency contractors in the past for supporting whistleblowers and WikiLeaks.

Majority of Americans Support NSA Spying

Monday, June 10, 2013 5:42 PM?NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has left his Hong Kong hotel as Republican members of Congress call for his extradition and the White House. The 29-year-old contractor for U.S. intelligence services provided details of Washington's decade-long spree of data collection on the phone calls and Internet use of all Americans, and now fears for his life.

Nearly 19,000 people have signed the "Pardon Edward Snowden" petition at WhiteHouse.gov. Daniel Ellsberg, whose life was upended by his decision to leak the Pentagon's bleak assessment of its war in Vietnam, today is praising Snowden's "conscience and patriotism."

Meanwhile, a solid majority of Americans surveyed by Pew Research Center say they're just fine with the constant surveillance of telephone calls and Internet use?56% of Americans support the illegal domestic spying, but only 27% of Americans claim to be closely following the scandal.

3:04 PM?Palantir, the Silicon Valley startup named for an evil all-seeing rock from Lord of the Rings reportedly behind the NSA's Prism program to spy on all Internet activity, takes the hobbit life very seriously. A company director explained in 2010 that a surveillance program called "Save the Shire" saw America's perceived enemies as orcs and dark wizards.

Sunday, June 9, 10:00PM?Edward Snowden: This is the man who told the world about PRISM, the NSA spy network capable of grabbing all your personal data?including private messages, photos and videos?with the help of America's top tech companies.

According to the Guardian, Snowden worked for the last four years at the National Security Agency. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," Snowden told The Guardian. ?I don?t want public attention because I don?t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing.?

Following the revelation of his identity, Edward Snowden was hiding in a Hong Kong hotel.

Despite Denials, Tech Companies Collaborated With NSA

Saturday, June 8, 3:30 PM?The Guardian has revealed the existence of a second NSA surveillance network. Its name is Boundless Informant and, unlike PRISM, it covers the entire planet. Unlike PRISM, however, this network doesn't capture the data but merely organizes it, indexing countries by the metadata obtained from local phone and computer networks.

3:10 AM?The New York Times says that Facebook, Google and Apple are collaborating with the NSA, rebutting the companies' carefully worded statements. According to their sources, companies like Facebook built specific systems so the government could easily request and access their data.

This information contradicts Zuckerberg's denial, posted on his Facebook page Friday afternoon, which has the vague sound of many, many lawyers parsing their own language:

Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access [added emphasis] to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday.

Google's Larry Page posted something that sounds remarkably similar to Zuckerberg's statement:

First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government?or any other government?direct access [emphasis added] to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a ?back door? to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday.

According to the Times, the key words here are direct access. The government didn't have a backdoor to access the data, but these companies built a system for them:

New York Times | Tech Companies Concede to Surveillance Program

[C]ompanies were essentially asked to erect a locked mailbox and give the government the key, people briefed on the negotiations said. Facebook, for instance, built such a system for requesting and sharing the information, they said.

Obama Says PRISM Exists To "Keep Us Safe"

Friday, June 7, 3:31 PM?A mysterious Facebook-connected startup called Palantir?a Lord of the Rings reference to a magical method of surveillance?appears to be the entity that runs the NSA's PRISM program just revealed to be spying on all Americans at all times, with Barack Obama's approval. Obama was in Silicon Valley this morning shaking down the tech billionaires for campaign money:

1:36 PM?Obama claimed the massive, unprecedented national surveillance system involves only "modest encroachments on privacy." As for any political fallout in Congress, Obama also made it clear that "your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed on exactly what we're doing."

12:41 AM?Barack Obama, speaking live in Silicon Valley right now, said the electronic snooping "helps protect us from terrorism" and insists all the eavesdropping of every mobile call, email, instant message and file attachment is completely legal. Obama is in San Jose raising campaign money from the Internet billionaires who allow the NSA to spy on all Americans.

11:18 AM?The nine major tech companies letting the U.S. government spy on all Americans all the time have denied being part of the wholesale surveillance program run by the National Security Agency and the FBI. The spies have full access to all Internet communications and mobile call data coming in and out of the United States and Britain?but the online collective known as Anonymous has already retaliated by dumping a huge trove of NSA documents on the Internet.

NSA Surveillance Program Is Called PRISM

Thursday, June 6, 2013 10:29 PM?The Washington Post reports that the NSA and FBI are working with the top nine U.S. tech companies?including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple?to capture all your e-mails, photographs, audio, video, and documents, in addition to wiretapping all your calls.

Their spying system is called PRISM. As a response, hackers group Anonymous have published 13 secret US government documents, including documents about PRISM and the Department of Defense's Strategic Vision for controlling the internet.

Newly exposed proof that all the major telecommunication companies in America continue to hand over all phone data to the National Security Agency means that the White House's illegal mass wiretapping of people suspected of no crime has continued for a dozen years.

Along with monitoring of web traffic, email and searches through the major telecom carriers, all phone calls been wiretapped with full cooperation of the communications companies since at least 2001. That the practice is illegal hasn't stopped the White House or NSA from continuing the wholesale surveillance. Congress reliably moves to make illegal spying legal whenever there's a scandal like the current Verizon outrage.

White House Says Spying On Millions of Verizon Calls a "Critical Tool"

Wednesday, June 6, 2013 9:03 AM?America's spy agencies have had full access to US cellphone call data to and from Verizon customers since April, the Guardian reports. The Obama Administration is defending the National Security Agency phone spying as a "critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States."

The secret order was obtained by the British newspaper and reported Wednesday night.

Reuters | Obama administration defends phone record collection

The Obama administration on Thursday acknowledged that it is collecting a massive amount of telephone records from at least one carrier, reopening the debate over privacy even as it defended the practice as necessary to protect Americans against attack. Read...

AP | White House Defends Collecting Phone Records

The White House on Thursday defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, calling such information "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats." Read...

Forbes | NSA's Verizon Spying Specifically Targeted at Americans

[T]he extent of the NSA?s surveillance shows that it has focused specifically on Americans, to the degree that its data collection has in at least one major spying incident explicitlyexcluded those outside the United States. Read...

CNN | Obama administration reacts to phone records report

A senior Obama administration official [...] stressed that the information acquired by the purported order "does not include the content of any communications or the name of any subscriber. It relates exclusively to metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call." Read...

Data from all incoming and outgoing calls is provided to the NSA under the top secret order, which the Washington Post describes as a "routine renewal of a similar order first issued in 2006." The White House did not specifically address the Verizon order this morning, but referred to at least one telecommunications company.

Past revelations of major U.S. telecommunications companies spying on Americans suspected of no crimes has shown that the other carriers have consistently opened their lines and data banks to America's spy agencies since 2001.

[Photos by the Associated Press and Getty Images. Illustrations by Front]

You're reading Kinja's front page, the showcase of the very best, must-see stories and discussions from Gawker Media blogs and the Kinja universe. Follow us on Twitter.

Source: http://front.kinja.com/nsa-surveillance-scandal-snowden-gives-up-on-russian-a-511588927

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Egypt president rejects army ultimatum, says he'll pursue reconciliation

The Egyptian military has given the country's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, an ultimatum to meet the people's demands or get out. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

By Ayman Mohyeldin, Charlene Gubash and Ian Johnston, NBC News

CAIRO - In a long-awaited response, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi early Tuesday rejected an order by the army to resolve a political crisis that has?drawn millions of people into the streets demanding his resignation, calling a deadline set confusing and saying he would instead pursue national?reconciliation on his own.

The presidency issued a statement at almost 2 a.m., nine hours after an ultimatum by Egypt?s military, which said the mass protests were an??unprecedented? expression of the will of the people and gave the government 48 hours to meet the opposition's demands.?

Morsi's response was much less direct than the army?s edict but seemed to indicate he had a different plan.

"The president of the republic was not consulted about the statement issued by the armed forces," it said. "The presidency sees that some of the?statements in it carry meanings that could cause confusion in the complex national environment."

The statement from Morsi's office continued, "The presidency confirms that it is going forward on its previously plotted path to promote comprehensive?national reconciliation ... regardless of any statements that deepen divisions between citizens."?

The army's earlier statement was read on state television just hours after the headquarters of Morsi?s Muslim Brotherhood movement were ransacked.? Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said if the crisis wasn?t resolved, the army would intervene.

The protesters' main demands are that Morsi announce early elections and step down, allowing a temporary government to take over.

"If the demands of the people are not realized within the defined period, it will be incumbent upon (the armed forces) ... to announce a road map for the?future,? the statement said. It was followed by patriotic music.

Protesters attacked and stormed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, calling for Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi to step down. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

The road map would be created by the army, which would also oversee the plan's implementation, the statement said.

It was unclear if the military was effectively demanding Morsi's resignation, but a Muslim Brotherhood politician insisted there would not be "a coup."

On his Facebook page Monday, Morsi said he was meeting with Gen. al-Sisi as well as Prime Minister Hisham Kandil. What they discussed was not disclosed.

Sixteen people were killed and more than 700 were wounded during the protests Sunday and early Monday.

The military statement stressed that the military would remain neutral in politics and maintain its role as protector of the people and the nation?s borders.

The statement said the military will "not be a party in politics or rule."

But it added the armed forces had a responsibility to act because Egypt's national security was facing a "grave danger."

A source at Egypt's presidential palace said Morsi's office was not told in advance that the 48-hour ultimatum would be issued.

In Cairo's Tahrir Square, the vast crowd began to chant that the army and the people were one after al-Sisi's address. Army helicopters circled over the city flying Egyptian flags.

However, Yasser Hamza, a leader of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party,?warned against misinterpreting the army statement.?

"For an institution of state to come and stage a coup against the president, this will not happen," he said. "Any force that goes against the constitution is a call for sabotage and anarchy."?

In a formal response to al-Sisi's statement, an alliance of Islamist groups that includes Morsi's Brotherhood was careful not to criticize the army itself, instead saying that their political opponents were trying to manipulate the army to "assault legitimacy" in a way that would lead to a coup.

In a statement read at a press conference attended by a Reuters reporter, the alliance also said it respected all initiatives to resolve the country's political crisis but that they had to respect constitutional principles.?

As the military statement was read, U.S. President Barack Obama urged all sides to refrain from violence shortly after he arrived in Tanzania.

"We're all concerned about what's happening in Egypt," Obama said. "There is more work to be done to create the conditions in which everybody feels that their voices are heard and that the government is responsive and truly representative."?

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. is closely watching the situation in Egypt and is in touch with all sides, and?encouraged groups to avoid violence.

"Our message publicly and privately has been very consistent, that we want to see Egyptians succeed, that we don't take sides, we don't have a?particular party or group or interest that we're backing.? Ventrell said. ?Indeed, the only thing that we're backing is the Egyptian people and the goal?of their success in their democratic transition, that they can get their economy back on track, that they can fully see their democratic transition?succeed."

In a statement, the United Nations also called for Egyptians to resolve differences through ?democratic means.?

In the latest resignation in Morsi's government, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr offered to step down, state news agency MENA reported early Tuesday, without giving a source. Since Sunday, at least five other non-Brotherhood government ministers have tendered their resignations from the Cabinet, apparently in sympathy with the protesters, underlining a sense of isolation for the party that won a series of elections last year but has failed to build out alliances to form a broader consensus.?

The attack on the Brotherhood building was the bloodiest incident of the weekend's huge and mostly peaceful protests against Morsi.

It began after dark Sunday and continued for hours, with guards inside the suburban Cairo building firing on youths hurling fire bombs and rocks. Reuters cited medical and security sources as saying that eight people were killed, but the figure could not be independently confirmed by NBC News.

Protesters breached ?the Cairo compound's defenses and stormed the building. Crowds later carried off furniture, files, rugs, air conditioning units and portraits of Morsi, according to an Associated Press journalist. One protester emerged with a pistol and handed it over to a policeman outside. ?

Footage on local television showed broken windows, blackened walls and smoke coming out of the building. A fire was still raging on one floor hours after the building was invaded. One protester tore down the Muslim Brotherhood sign from the building's front wall, while another hoisted Egypt's red, black and white flag out an upper-story window and waved it in the air in triumph.

Lasers were used as part of a demonstration in Cairo against President Mohammed Morsi. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians flooded into the streets on the first anniversary of Morsi's inauguration on Sunday to demand that he resign.

The images were reminiscent of the destruction of the state security headquarters when President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011.

Organizers behind Sunday's protests -- who managed to get 22 million signatures calling on Morsi to step down -- ?said they would give him until Tuesday at 5 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) to meet their demands or they would call for nationwide strikes.?

Protesters also demanded?early elections, but late Sunday night word from the presidential palace was that Morsi had no intentions of calling them.?

Some anti-Morsi protesters spent Sunday night in dozens of tents pitched in the capital's central Tahrir Square and in front of the president's Ittihadiya Palace. They have vowed to stay there until Morsi resigns. Morsi supporters, meanwhile, went on with their sit-in in front of a major mosque in Cairo.?

Sunday's protests were the largest seen in Egypt in the 2? years of turmoil since the ouster of autocratic Mubarak in February 2011.?

NBC News' F. Brinley Bruton, Jeff Black, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Amr Nabil / AP

The headquarters of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was ransacked as widespread protests against President Mohammed Morsi turned violent.

Related:

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This story was originally published on Mon Jul 1, 2013 7:05 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663309/s/2e11e235/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C0A10C192295280Eegypt0Epresident0Erejects0Earmy0Eultimatum0Esays0Ehell0Epursue0Ereconciliation0Dlite/story01.htm

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Intergalactic magnifying glasses could help astronomers map galaxy centers

June 30, 2013 ? An international team of astronomers may have found a new way to map quasars, the energetic and luminous central regions often found in distant galaxies. Team leader Prof. Andy Lawrence of the University of Edinburgh presents the new results on Monday 1 July at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in St Andrews, Scotland.

If a star passes too close to a giant black hole found in the centre of a galaxy, it will be shredded by the strong gravitational field. This produces a flare-up in the brightness of an otherwise normal looking galaxy that then fades over a few months. In a large scale survey using the PanSTARRS telescope on Hawaii, Prof. Lawrence and his team studied millions of galaxies to search for this rare effect. They did find flare-ups but with very different behaviour to the 'star shredding' predictions.

Instead of seeing a fade over months, the objects they found look like 'normal' quasars, regions in the centre of galaxies where material is swirling around a giant black hole in a disk. But the quasars in the survey were not seen a decade ago, so must now be at least ten times brighter than before. Monitoring with the Liverpool Telescope on La Palma showed that they are also changing slowly, fading over a timescale of years rather than months.

The biggest surprise however was that the quasars seemed to be at the wrong distance. Measuring the characteristic shift in lines found in the spectrum of the quasars allows astronomers to measure the speed at which they are moving away from Earth. Knowing the way in which the universe is expanding enables scientists to deduce the distance to each object.

In the new survey, the quasars are typically around 10 billion light years away, whereas the galaxies that host them seem on average to be about 3 billion light years distant. The distances are rough estimates, so it could be that the estimated galaxy distances are completely wrong and that they are actually much further away. The black holes in their centres have then have flared up very dramatically, explaining why they seem so bright. But past studies of thousands of well-known quasars have never shown events on this scale.

If however the estimated galaxy distances are right, then Prof. Lawrence and his team believe they are looking at a distant quasar through a foreground galaxy. Normally this has little effect on the light of the quasar, but if a single star in the foreground galaxy passes exactly in front of the quasar, it can produce a gravitational focusing of the light which makes the background quasar seem temporarily much brighter.

This "microlensing" phenomenon is well known inside our own Galaxy, producing a brightening when one star passes in front of another. (It is for example also now being used to detect exoplanets). Microlensing may also be the cause of low-level "flickering" seen in some quasars. But this is the first time it has been suggested to cause such giant brightening events.

Prof. Lawrence sees real potential in this newly-discovered effect. "This could give us a way to map out the internal structure of quasars in a way that is otherwise impossible, because quasars are so small. As the star moves across the face of the distant quasar, it is like scanning a magnifying glass across it, revealing details that would otherwise simply be impossible to detect."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/dx2MD1m0pB4/130630225229.htm

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Syrian official: War causes $15 billion in losses

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? More than two years of fighting in Syria's civil war has damaged some 9,000 state buildings and run up $15 billion in losses to the public sector, a government minister said Sunday, shining a light on the devastating toll the crisis has taken on the country's economy.

Syria's civil war has laid waste to entire neighborhoods in the country's cities and towns, destroyed much of its manufacturing base and infrastructure and brought oil production and exports to a halt. The damage to the nation's human resources has been just as severe. More than a million people have fled the country and millions more are displaced within it. According to a U.N. estimate, more than 93,000 people have been killed.

In comments published in Syrian newspapers, Local Administration Minister Omar Al Ibrahim Ghalaounji said the $15 billion in damages to the public sector were sustained between March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began, and March 2013. He said they were the result of "terrorist attacks on government buildings and infrastructure."

The government commonly refers to those fighting to topple the Assad regime as "terrorists."

Former Syrian Planning Minister Abdullah al-Dardari, who leads a six-member U.N. team drawing up a comprehensive postwar reconstruction plan, recently estimated the overall damage to Syria's economy at $60-$80 billion.

He told The Associated Press that Syria's economy has shrunk by about 35 percent, compared to the 6 percent annual growth Syria enjoyed in the five years before the conflict began. The economy lost almost 40 percent of its GDP, and foreign reserves have been extensively depleted, he said.

Unemployment has shot up from 500,000 before the crisis to at least 2.5 million this year, he said.

Syria's currency plunged to a record low this month following a U.S. decision to arm rebel groups. The Syrian pound currently trades around 200 to the dollar, compared with 47 before the crisis.

When the conflict began, the government had some $17 billion in foreign currency reserves. Those have dropped from blows to two main pillars of the economy: oil exports, which used to bring in up to $8 million per day, and tourism, which in 2010 earned $8 billion. U.S. and European Union bans on oil imports are estimated to cost Syria about $400 million a month.

The government did not say how much currency it has left in its reserves, but the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit estimates it at a little more than $4.5 billion.

After the currency dive, Iran ? one of Assad's strongest allies believed to have supplied his government with billions of dollars since the crisis began ? quickly stepped in, offering a $1 billion credit line to help shore up the pound.

The weak pound has triggered a hike in prices, squeezing a Syrian population already beleaguered by the fighting.

To compensate people, a presidential decree last week offered a raise for the public sector, saying it could reach up to 40 percent depending on the salary of the civil servant. Pensions could also rise by up to 25 percent, the decree said.

Many Syrians complain they can barely make ends meet.

"Living in Syria is like being in a burning hell," a Damascus resident said Sunday via Skype. He identified himself only as Abu Khaled, fearing government retribution. "It's the rising prices on the one side, the war on the other, and in between killings and kidnappings, lack of security and bombs and rockets falling on our heads and homes."

In the long-run, the economic pinch could hamper the Assad regime's ability to fund his efforts to quell the armed rebellion.

In recent weeks, however, government forces ? bolstered by an influx of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group ? have clawed back ground lost to rebels over the past year, most importantly the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border.

With Qusair now in government hands, an emboldened military is seeking to retake rebellious neighborhoods in the nearby city of Homs, Syria's third largest and a flashpoint since the early days of the uprising.

On Sunday, Syrian warplanes shelled the old quarters of Homs, killing one woman and two children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and two activists who spoke to The Associated Press on Skype.

"They have wiped half the city off the map," said an activist who uses the name Abu Bilal. He and activist Tariq Badrakhan said it was the heaviest shelling of Homs since rebels seized control of parts of the city over a year ago.

Syrian forces also tried to push into the city from the Babout quarter, but fighters of the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra pushed them back, Abu Bilal said. The activists said at least five Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah fighters were killed.

About 70 people were killed Sunday, most of them rebels and soldiers, said the Observatory.

Also Sunday, the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, the country's main opposition block, called on the international community to protect civilians in Homs.

In the northern province of Aleppo, Syrian rebels shot down a helicopter flying over the town of Kufr Nabel, sending it crashing in a fiery ball, according to activists and state media.

Seven people were killed, most of them education officials flying in exam papers, state media said.

In a video posted online, a voice can be heard shouting "God is great" as an aircraft emitting plumes of smoke is seen smashing into a plain scattered with homes. The video corresponded to other AP reporting of the events depicted.

In the town of al-Kisweh near Damascus, when a car bomb exploded near a government building, wounding 10 people, activists and state-run media said.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Barbara Surk and Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-official-war-causes-15-billion-losses-143037131.html

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Bloody shows more about monster than gore

TV

Ree Hines and Anna Chan TODAY

3 hours ago

Showtime

Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan on "Dexter."

Summer is about to get really bloody! The return of "Dexter's" eighth and final season on June 30 means that viewers not only get their favorite blood-spatter analyst/vigilante serial killer back, they also get all the messes he helps investigate and of course, create.

"Dexter" leaves behind quite a few bloody murders each year, and its final season will no doubt have more of the same. But even as the Dark Passenger prepares to say goodbye, new creepy baddies -- including Hannibal Lecter -- have started stepping up to fill his bloody spot.

"Vampires and werewolves, those are always going to be cycling in and out. But then what is the scariest thing that is also a real possibility for people in their minds? The serial killer!" said Melanie McFarland, IMDb.com's TV editor. "The serial killer is a real life boogeyman."

And where there are murderers, whether they be supernatural or not, there will be blood. McFarland said that violence -- which tends to come with a bit of the red stuff -- in TV "has been upping the ante for a long time across the board," and not all of it is from killers such as Dexter.

"It's less about the blood than it is about the monster," she added.

Here are eight shows beyond "Dexter" -- both established and newer -- and their own monsters that leave viewers seeing red:

'Hannibal'
One of the new serial killers to come to the small screen is an oldie but goodie: Hannibal Lecter. This time he's played by Mads Mikkelsen in the new NBC drama, which premiered in April. Given the nature of Hannibal's many, many crimes -- not to mention the other murderers who make appearances -- it's no wonder the program might induce more than a few dry heaves. There are nearly decapitated heads (at the jaw, not neck!), women impaled on antlers, whole strips of skin ripped off from a living body, dismembered body parts and much more. As unappetizing as that sounds, the drama then tries to make viewers hungry by showing Hannibal cooking up some lavish meals that look nothing short of scrumptious -- until you remember his meat of choice.

'The Following'
Another new serial killer who reared his charming head this year was "The Following's" Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), an English professor and failed novelist who built a massive network of cult followers while imprisoned for the the murders of 14 female students. Carroll's crimes -- inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe -- were hardly romantic, and neither was the work of his devotees. The network of murderers left behind bodies with eyeballs removed, victims burned alive and even a basement full of tortured dogs.

'American Horror Story'
The warning is right in the FX drama's title: It's a "horror story," and horror stories are quite often scary and gory -- two things that are true of this program. The first season featured several murders along with bloody ghosts and a disfigured baby zombie thing. Season two offered up a tale in an insane asylum in the 1960s, where a Nazi doctor performed gruesome experiments on the residents, and also had a serial killer who seemed to take inspiration from "The Silence of the Lambs," killing women for their soft, supple skin. Oh, and he has a present day son who likes to follow in Daddy's bloody footsteps.

'Breaking Bad'
It's no surprise the drug trade would involve crime and blood. But the gore on "Breaking Bad" sometimes comes along with a science lesson too. Several bodies have been disposed of by using hydrofluoric acid to "melt" them, leaving bloody, gloopy messes in barrels, unaffected by the solution. (Except for that one time in the bathtub.) Beyond that, there's the gun violence, and who could forget the explosion that left Gus Fring with half a face?

'True Blood'
Blood and gore are just part of the landscape in Bon Temps. Vampires drink blood; they cry blood; and it leaks from their eyes and ears if they don't get a good day's rest. Heck, each time a vamp falls to the true death, there's a virtual explosion red, goopy remains. But even with all the bites, neck breaks and extreme violence the night crawlers are capable of, "True Blood's" werewolves are able to ramp up the gross-outs even more. It's bad enough when the weres go in for the kill in their canine form, but it's positively stomach churning when they revert to their human states to (respectfully) devour a dead member of the pack. At least the fairies give viewers a break -- at their most brutal, they're still just lobbing balls of light around.

'The Walking Dead'
Shows just don't get more violent than this AMC hit, wherein characters routinely machete, smash and crossbow their way through crowds of undead threats. But don't take our word -- or that of any violence-loathing watchdog group -- for it. A recent study conducted by Funeralwise.com revealed that the show racked up a higher body count than any other small screen offering last season with approximately 38 deaths -- per episode! Of course, the vast majority of those killed were technically already dead.

'Sons of Anarchy'
The scariest thing about the bloody violence on "Sons of Anarchy" is just how real it seems. There aren't any vampires or zombies here. The monsters that commit the savage acts on "Anarchy" are all too human. Bikers obsessed with backstabbing, betrayal and paybacks punish each other (and each other's loved ones and innocent bystanders) in savage-yet-mundane ways. Head shots and beatings account for much of the death toll, but the occasional act of extra brutality (like the revenge torching of Tig's daughter) adds a shocking, gut-wrenching twist.

'Game of Thrones'
Beheadings? Check. Disembowelings? Check. Consuming a freshly plucked horse heart? Unfortunately, check. When it comes to jaw-dropping scenes of death and destruction, "Game of Thrones" has it all. In fact, it has something more -- a gruesome bonus. In addition to the violence, it packs an emotional blow. Sure, seeing random warriors fall in battle might make some viewers wince. And seeing a baddie lose an appendage is tough stuff too. But none of that compares to seeing more than one beloved character come to a horrific, blood-spurting end -- at the same time.

Which TV show do you think is the goriest? Click on "Talk about it" below and share your thoughts!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/dexter-hannibal-more-about-monster-all-blood-6C10442405

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Humerus reunion: Doc returns Vietnamese vet's arm

In this photo taken Sunday, June 30, 2013, Dr. Sam Axelrad displays in a hotel room in Hanoi the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966 in the former South Vietnam. On Monday the Houston urologist was traveling to meet the amputee, Nguyen Quang Hung. Axelrad, 74, amputated Hung's infected arm in October 1966 in a U.S. military hospital after Hung was shot by American troops near Hung's hometown of An Khe. The two veterans were reunited after a Vietnamese journalist wrote an article last year about Axelrad's search for Hung, prompting Hung's brother to contact the newspaper. (AP photo/Mike Ives)

In this photo taken Sunday, June 30, 2013, Dr. Sam Axelrad displays in a hotel room in Hanoi the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966 in the former South Vietnam. On Monday the Houston urologist was traveling to meet the amputee, Nguyen Quang Hung. Axelrad, 74, amputated Hung's infected arm in October 1966 in a U.S. military hospital after Hung was shot by American troops near Hung's hometown of An Khe. The two veterans were reunited after a Vietnamese journalist wrote an article last year about Axelrad's search for Hung, prompting Hung's brother to contact the newspaper. (AP photo/Mike Ives)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? An American doctor has arrived in Vietnam carrying an unlikely piece of luggage: the bones of an arm he amputated in 1966.

Dr. Sam Axelrad flew into the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Saturday from Houston. He was traveling through central Vietnam with his sons and two grandchildren Monday to meet the amputee, Nguyen Quang Hung, a former North Vietnamese soldier.

After Hung was shot in the arm by American troops, Axelrad, then a 27-year-old military doctor, amputated his infected right arm. His medic colleagues boiled off the flesh, reconstructed the arm bones and gave them to him, he says.

Axelrad, now a urologist, said he brought the skeletal keepsake back to the United States as a reminder of doing a good deed, but looks forward to returning it to Hung.

"It's just time for closure," Axelrad said Sunday at a hotel bar in Hanoi.

Hung was surprised, to say the least, to hear that he will be reunited with his lost limb.

"I can't believe that an American doctor took my infected arm, got rid of the flesh, dried it, took it home and kept it for more than 40 years," he said by telephone last week from his home. "I don't think it's the kind of keepsake that most people would want to own. But I look forward to seeing him again and getting my arm bones back."

After decades of silence, Axelrad learned that Hung was still alive after a Vietnamese journalist met Axelrad at a Hanoi hotel last July and wrote an article in a newspaper saying the American doctor wanted to return the bones.

Hung said his brother-in-law read the article and contacted the newspaper. The journalist, Tran Quynh Hoa, arranged the reunion, which was planned for Monday morning in Hung's hometown of An Khe, near the coastal city of Qui Nhon in central Vietnam.

Hung, 73, said he was shot during an ambush about 75 kilometers (46 miles) from An Khe in October 1966. After floating down a stream to escape a firefight and then sheltering in a rice warehouse for three days, he was evacuated by a U.S. helicopter to Axelrad's no-frills military hospital.

After the amputation, Hung spent eight months recovering and another six assisting American military doctors, he said. He spent the rest of the war offering private medical services in the village, and later served in local government for a decade before retiring on his rice farm.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-07-01-Vietnam-Missing%20Arm/id-059fffd49b0d47fca341c90ce73fce9a

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