Thousands of Gmail accounts hacked in Iran: Google

The phishing campaigns are being launched inside Iran and represent a big surge in the region’s hacking activity before Iran’s presidential election on Friday.

Internet giant Google says it has blocked a “politically motivated” phishing against thousands of gmail users in Iran on the eve of the country’s presidential election.

“For almost three weeks, we have detected and disrupted multiple email-based phishing campaigns,” Eric Grosse, Google Inc.’s vice-president for security engineering, wrote in a post on Google’s blog.

“The timing and targeting of the campaigns suggest that the attacks are politically motivated,” Grosse said without elaborating.

The phishing campaigns are being launched inside Iran and represent a big surge in the region’s hacking activity before Iran’s presidential election on Friday, Grosse said.

The hackers direct gmail users in Iran to fake account maintenance pages where they are asked to give their username and password, Grosse said.

Google used its Chrome browser to detect a phishing campaign in 2011, when a young Iranian student claimed he hacked gmail accounts belonging to anti-government dissidents in a personal “patriotic” initiative unconnected to the government.

Moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani has emerged as the favourite in Iran’s presidential race, after former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani threw their support behind him.

A former chief nuclear negotiator, Rowhani, is keen to transform Iran’s damaged relations with the west.

Pro-reform candidate Mohammad Reza Aref pulled out of the contest, saying he was asked to do so by Khatami.

Presidential incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cannot run for a third term in office.

Indians in Kuwait gathered at Embassy to seek help

Hundreds of Indian expat workers, majority of them from Rajasthan, gathered on the Indian embassy premises seeking the embassy’s help in securing either release or information of people who were arrested during a raid in Bneid Al- Gar last week. The workers numbering over 300 request the embassy to intervene on their behalf. They complained to the embassy officials that there was no information about them after the arrest.

Acting Ambassador Vidhu P Nair spoke to the gathered people and held separate talks with their representatives in his office. He will be meeting the consular director at the Kuwait Foreign Ministry on Monday morning, informed the Embassy officials.

Embassy officials informed IndiansinKuwait.com that they visited detained Indians at deportation centers. The embassy is also in constant touch with foreign ministry officials in New Delhi.

According to the present residency law in Kuwait, people who enter the country on Article 20 visas are permitted to work only under their sponsors. Authorities are targeting those who are illegally staying in the country, those holding domestic work permits but not working for their sponsors and those holding work visa but working for other companies that their original sponsor.

Source : http://www.IndiansinKuwait.com

Petrofac in $3.7bn Abu Dhabi deal

Petrofac Emirates is partnering with Daewoo Shipbuilding

British oil and gas group Petrofac said on Thursday that its Petrofac Emirates joint venture firm has won a $3.7-billion (2.8-billion-euro) contract to develop a key field in Abu Dhabi.

“Petrofac is pleased to announce that Petrofac Emirates, its joint venture with Mubadala Petroleum, has been awarded a contract by Zakum Development Company for the Upper Zakum, UZ750 field development in Abu Dhabi,” said a statement from the London-listed firm.

“The contract is worth approximately $3.7 billion and has been secured by Petrofac Emirates in consortium with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd.”

The group added that Petrofac Emirates’ share of the contract was valued at $2.9 billion.

7 Innocent Gestures That Can Get You Killed Overseas

 

If you’ve ever had your penis cut off and/or been executed while on holiday, you’ll probably know that it’s easy to offend people from other cultures. Unless you learn the ways of the place you’re visiting, even the most well-meaning tourist can regularly find his oesophagus stuffed with burning goat. But surely just plain common sense and good manners will save you, right?Wrong.

Extend Your Hand, Palm Outward in Greece

What you think you are saying:
“Phew! That was a heck of a moussaka. I’d eat another portion, but I’m completely stuffed.”

What you are actually saying:
“Phew! That was a heck of a moussaka. I’d eat another portion, but I’m too busy rubbing handfuls of shit in your face.”

What the hell?
In Greece, the “hand out” gesture is known as the moutza, and it dates back to the time of the Byzantine Empire, when criminals would be paraded through the streets on horseback, their faces blackened to indicate their shame. If they were lucky, the blackening agent would merely be charcoal. If they were unlucky, it would be a substance much, much worse …

SHIT, is what we’re saying here. Their faces would be covered in SHIT.

If you really want to piss a Greek person off, you can go for the double moutza, which features both hands splayed above your head. However, this will also make you look like a backup dancer from Cats, so it’s your call.

Give the Thumbs-Up In The Middle East

What you think you are saying:
“Ayyyyy! I’m the fuckin’ Fonz!”

What you are actually saying:
“Ayyyyy! I’m going to jam my thumb in your anus!”

What the hell?
It’s not just the Middle East. This seemingly universal gesture is also hideously offensive in West Africa and South America, whose citizens would doubtless get really confused if they ever watched Ebert and Roeper. “This movie is great, Bill! So great that I’d like to anally rape it with my thumb!”

The thumbs-up sign has been confusing people for thousands of years. Contrary to Hollywood legend, Roman gladiators were not spared by a thumbs-up, but by a hidden thumb. If the origins of both gestures are linked, we can only assume this meant, “Do not kill the prisoner, he seems the perfect solution to the emperor’s arthritic finger.”

Finish Your Meal In Thailand / The Philippines / China

What you think you are saying:
“This is a delicious meal. I mean it. I’m not the kind of guy who would lie about something like this. In fact, your meal was so fucking fabulous that I am going to finish every last morsel and then lick the plate so bright that it reveals the face of God.”

What you are actually saying:
“You call yourself a host? I came here for a meal, not some Lilliputian hors d’oeuvre that wouldn’t satisfy a mouse after a sizable brunch. Look at me. No, in the eyes. You disgust me.”

What the hell?
It is always important that the host provides you with tasty food. However, in countries where steak in bleu cheese sauce costs approximately the same as a lung transplant, it is more important that the host provides you with enough food.

In China, if you finish every last bite of your meal, you are implying that you weren’t given enough. Therefore, even if the meal is the most sexually delicious thing that has ever slid down your throat, you should still leave one last morsel on the plate to stare up at you mournfully while you eye it with ill-concealed resentment.

That said, the Orient isn’t as uptight as this example suggests. In China it’s considered perfectly good manners to talk with your mouth full and to burp after your meal. Farting seems to vary according to the situation and your current company, so ask ahead of time. Lighting the fart is frowned upon in almost all provinces.

Say “Hi” to a Member of the Opposite Sex in Saudi Arabia

What you think you are saying:
“Hi Steve! How’s things? Fancy getting a decaf latte?”

What you are actually saying:
“Hi, Steve! How’s things? Fancy booking a hotel room so that I can do immoral sex acts on you in the name of Satan?”

What the hell?
According to sharia religious laws, it is deeply immoral for a woman to greet a man in public, or associate with any man other than her husband without an escort. In February 2008, one American woman openly conversed with a man in Starbucks, and was promptly arrested, strip-searched and forced to sign false confessions.

Though, perhaps this is nitpicking considering women are not allowed to drive, vote, own shops, testify in court or ride bicycles there. Bizarrely, it’s perfectly fine for women to fly high-powered jet planes, although they’re clearly fucked if they feel like taking a bicycle to the airport.

The point being, if you’re a woman and are planning a move to Saudi Arabia, offending them with the whole public greeting thing is probably the least of your problems.

Give an Even Number of Flowers in Russia

What you think you are saying:
“Darling, this week has been the most wonderful of my life. Since I first felt the sweet joy of your caress, I have truly come to know what it is to love and to be loved. Please accept these half-dozen roses as a symbol of my eternal tender devotion.” (Lean forward for kiss.)

What you are actually saying:
DEATH! DEATH! DEEEEEEAAAAAAAATH!!!!!!

(Lean forward for kiss.)

What the hell?
In Russia, even numbers of flowers are only ever given at funerals, and such a gift is seen as inviting death, which you obviously don’t want to do unless you’re banging a goth chick.

Choosing the right gift seems to be a minefield of morbidity everywhere you go. Never give a clock to a Chinese person, as the word “clock” is almost identical to a word for “death.” Don’t wrap your present in white paper there either, as this suggests funerals. And for God’s sake, don’t give anyone in Bangladesh white flowers or they will presumably be obliged to buy a spade and bury themselves while muttering at you reproachfully.

You know what, screw giving a gift. You may come across as a selfish douchebag, but at least no one will hail you as the fourth horseman of the apocalypse.

Give a Gift With Your Left Hand, Pretty Much Anywhere

What you think you are saying:
“Thank you very much for letting me marry your daughter. She is very beautiful. In gratitude, please accept this dainty, yet tuneful instrument. Did I mention that I’m left-handed?”

What you are actually saying:
“Thank you very much for letting me marry your daughter. She is the most worthless heap of dog vomit I have ever encountered, and I dearly wish that she would die. In gratitude, please accept a generous portion of my own effluence. Did I mention that I hate you?”

What the hell?
Toilet paper may have been around in China since 589 AD, but for much of the world, it remains a prohibitively expensive luxury. In places such as India, Sri Lanka, Africa and the whole of the Middle East, doing anything with your left hand is seen as unclean, as it is (as least symbolically) your ass-wiping hand.

Eating out? Don’t even think about using your left hand. It’s better to come across as some kind of retarded monkey child than to imply that you rate your host’s food on the same level as a lightly-steamed assburger.

Of course, poop is not the only reason left-handedness is bad. According to the Qur’an, Satan himself was a southpaw, which is why he was able to successfully fool the right-handed batter that is mankind.

Give the “OK” Sign in Brazil

What you think you are saying:
“Hi Brazil, I’m US President Richard Nixon, and I’m feeling terrific!”

What you are actually saying:
“Hi Brazil, I’m US President Richard Nixon, and I’m feeling that you should all go fuck yourselves!”

(Note: The above examples are only valid if you are US President Richard Nixon)

What the hell?
In Brazil, the “OK” gesture is roughly equivalent to the finger in the US, which means you should not use it when your hotel manager asks you how your room is, unless you want to tell him that it’s purple and velvety and recently molested his wife.

The most famous incident of a misapplied “OK” sign was, in fact, Nixon’s visit to Brazil in the ’50s. While alighting from the aircraft, he lifted both hands to the cameras and double-fingered the entire nation. Nixon went on to greet the Brazilian Prime minister with a savage kick to the testicles, and concluded his visit by urinating from the window of a moving limousine.

If you’re visiting Brazil, you should also never touch any food with your fingers. Even stuff like pizzas and burgers should be eaten with a knife and fork. Not that you’ll ever need to apply this knowledge, because after reading this article, you’d be insane if you ever travel abroad again.

By: Tim Cameron

Sarkozy was paid £128,000 for Davos speech in which he insulted Israel to room full of Jewish businessmen

• Former French president talking at a fundraiser by the United Israel Appeal
• Suggests Palestinian homeland is only secure future for the Middle East
• Goes on to attack Israel for ‘surrounding herself with the walls of Jericho’
• Many in the audience so offended they threaten to withdraw donations
• Sarkozy celebrates 57th birthday with wife Carla Bruni on night out in Paris

Nicolas Sarkozy was paid more than £128,000 to criticise Israel to a room full of enraged Jewish business people, it emerged today.

Delivering a master class in how not to perform a paid-for conference speech, the former French president caused offence at the prestigious world economic forum at Davos, Switzerland.

Despite being hired to make his speech at a United Israel Appeal, Mr Sarkozy made it clear that he saw a proper Palestinian homeland as the only secure future for the Middle East. 

He attacked Israel for ‘surrounding herself with the walls of Jericho’, saying ‘it will be necessary to bring these walls down to prevent disaster.’

Mr Sarkozy’s words last Friday called for international pressure to be brought on Israel, so that it complied with Palestinian demands.

This outraged many in the room, who included influential business people with close links to the state of Israel.

His words were highlighted in the Times of Israel, which wrote: ‘The speech was reportedly poorly received by those present, who felt Sarkozy was venting his disappointment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘Many of the participants complained to the organisers and even threatened to withdraw their donations and convince others to do the same.’ 

The notoriously controversial Mr Sarkozy then left the room in the President Wilson Hotel in Davos, as many of the audience threatened to withdraw their donations.

 

Mr Sarkozy’s maternal grandfather was a Greek Jew. Sarkozy is a Catholic, but maintained strong links with Israel when he was French president up until last May.

He is currently at the centre of a number of corruption enquires, including one in which he is accused of accepting illegal cash payments from France’s richest woman.

The allegation is that Liliane Bettencourt, the l’Oreal heiress helped to fund Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign.

 

Anniversaire: Sarkozy celebrates his 57th birthday on a night out with his glamorous wife Carla Bruni in Paris yesterday

As Mr Sarkozy’s lawyers deal with such scandals, he is trying to establish himself as an international conference speaker in the style of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.

Mr Sarkozy’s efforts  at becoming a highly-paid raconteur have been hampered by the fact that he does not speak very good English, and his latest gaffe will also set his ambitions back.

PETER ALLEN

Saudi Arabia: For the first time women are appointed to parliament

Saudi King Abdullah has for the first time appointed 30 women to the country’s parliament, according to a royal decree. The decree gives women a fifth of the Shura Council, which is the formal parliament of the conservative, oil-rich kingdom but has very limited powers. All its 150 members are appointed by the king.

In 2011, Abdullah pledged to allow women to run for and vote in municipal elections, the country’s only polls, as part of his reform drive. The next election is set for 2015.

Saudi Arabia remains the only predominantly Muslim country that has yet to allow women the right to vote.

Saudi women are also not allowed to drive, and cannot travel unless they are accompanied by a male guardian or are over 45 years of age.

Moscow times

China is a threat to global good

As the world watches without being able to bring about a ceasefire, a humanitarian crisis is underway in Sri Lanka with nearly 170,000 civilians displaced and 50,000 trapped in the war zone.

It has become common for rampaging armed forces and also those in cahoots with terrorists the world is battling with, despots and dictators to cock a snook at the UN. Much of the cockiness lies in the covert moral and logistic support lent by China, hungry for resources for widening its reach to get a major slice of business in the troubled regions and make its presence felt.

The Sri Lankan offensive against the LTTE is not faulted as the terrorist organization has used all possible means of violence over the years to foment terror in this beautiful island resembling a tear drop in the Indian Ocean. Lots of blood sweat and tears have flowed for the fight for a separate Tamil homeland in protest for the marginalization of the Sri Lankan Tamils. But the process of terror was always condemnable and has encouraged later day terror groups like the al Qaeda to emulate their suicide attack techniques.

But what happened so suddenly that the Sri Lankan armed forces finally managed to decimate the formidable LTTE?

It was China once again. Having supported despots with blood on their hands in Africa and Myanmar for the sake of resources to feed a surging Chinese economy, Sri Lanka was a natural choice to complete the string of pearls in the Indian Ocean.

Having set about building and ramping up ports in Burma, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which would in be used for docking and refuelling of its navy, China is now building a $1 billion port in the fishing village of Hambantota in Sri Lanka’s north east, very close to the fighting zone. It would also double up as the Chinese Navy’s stop-over point during patrols to guard against piracy of oil imports from the Middle East and establish a base in the Indian Ocean all along the arc.

No wonder the Sri Lankan armed forces are fighting perhaps their last battle to crush the LTTE for ever with an urgency never seen before. Shunned by governments the world over including India when Sri Lanka sought arms for the civil war, China chipped in during the last two decades with arms supplies. Chinese arms supplies increased further when the US suspended all military aid to Sri Lanka citing gross human rights violations. Chinese aid to Sri Lanka jumped to $1billion last year leaving other nations far behind.

Like wise, China beefed up the Myanmar armed forces and stood with them when they were accused of human rights violations last year when monks and civilians rose in protest against rampant corruption, price rise and food shortage. Pakistan can act in self denial of not harbouring terrorists and fuel terror acts in neighbouring countries on the strength of Chinese military aid and support while the US and western powers resign themselves to the reality and cannot do much about it.

According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, Sri Lanka shopped for $37.6 million worth of arms and supplies for its army and navy. China gave 6 F7 fighter jets for free in 2007 as per reports of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. According to media reports, the bulk of arm shipments fro China was handled by Lanka Logistics and Technologies where the Defence Secretary who is the Sri Lankan president’s brother, has a major stake.

And the arms went into killing 75 civilians in a makeshift hospital by the Sri Lankan armed forces which lay very close to the battle zone. It was the only one available for the trapped civilians.

UN reports peg civilian casualties at 6500 since January this year as the Sri Lankan government vehemently denies and keeps the war zone out of bounds for journalists and aid workers.

Sri Lanka is acting with the same nonchalance to global criticism and pressure as Myanmar’s armed forces did last year on the strength of a counter weight like China. Calls for evacuating the civilians have fallen on deaf years.

China’s desperate need for Hambantota had been cautioned by Pentagon’s Air Staff personnel Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher J. Pehrson in a 2006 paper and by the U.S. Joint Forces Command last November.

With a trail of blood from volatile Africa, Myanmar to Sri Lanka, China is a threat to global good and reticent about gross human rights violations and human catastrophes to preserve its own commercial interests.

US have also been accused of partying with despots and affecting civilian casualties, but democracy allows a groundswell of dissent as was evident in the last presidential elections. China has stifled a moral counterweight which makes it more dangerous.

Susenjit Guha

Related articles

• Neighbors Connection :Sri Lanka launches its first ever Satellite on Chinese Rocket (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)

• Sri Lanka: Humanitarian disaster in making  

The Largest Man-Made Marina In The World

 

 

The vision of Dubai Marina is to create an awe-inspiring city-within-a city that delights residents with its cosmopolitan, free-spirited atmosphere and unique, invigorating lifestyle. It will be an urban centre on the water, comparable to the most exclusive waterfront developments in the world’s leading cities. Dubai Marina is unlike anywhere else in Dubai, the Middle East and even the world.

700 year old Iranian Home

Allegedly, these homes in Iran, carved out of solid rock, were built on the order of 700 years ago and are still inhabited by people who have given them modern touches (you know, the little things like windows, doors, and electricity).  Pretty impressive when you consider that houses in America barely survive a century without extensive maintenance.

 

 

Neighbors Connection :Sri Lanka launches its first ever Satellite on Chinese Rocket

Sri Lanka launched its first communications satellite on Tuesday in partnership with a Chinese state-owned space technology firm, the Sri Lanka partner said, adding to unease in neighboring India about Beijing’s growing ties with the island nation.

The Sri Lankan government has emphasized the launch was a private effort, carried out by SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd and the China Great Wall Industry Corp. But Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa‘s youngest son, Rohitha, has been credited in domestic media as the creator of the satellite.

Vijith Peiris, chief executive of SupremeSAT, told Reuters in Colombo that the launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in western China was successful.

The joint launch marked the latest in a series of economic and military ties between the two countries, a relationship that is being closely watched by India.

“It reinforces the impression that Sri Lanka is getting slowly but surely closer to China,” said Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.

“From a larger geopolitical perspective, it sends a message to India that a country in its own backyard is cozying up with China.”

Economic and strategic rivals China and India fought a brief, high-altitude border war in 1962 and still have contested regions, though the defense relationship has improved.

Rhetoric flared anew recently after China issued a new passport with a map that shows two disputed border areas as Chinese territory. India responded by stamping its own map on visas it issues to holders of the Chinese passports.

China has been the largest lender to Sri Lanka, a $59 billion economy, since the end of a three-decade civil war ended in May 2009. China had provided military equipment to the Sri Lankan government to defeat ethnic Tamil rebels.

Since then, Sri Lanka has sought stronger defense ties with China, a fact that has irked India and the United States.

“NOT A CONCERN”

Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie visited Sri Lanka in September, offering grants to modernize Sri Lanka’s military training. Liang said the ties were aimed at maintaining regional stability and were not targeted at any third party.

During a visit to China early this month, Sri Lanka Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, younger brother of the president, met Liang and agreed to consolidate bilateral cooperation.

China has also become involved in construction of a strategic sea and air port in Sri Lanka’s southern district of Hambantota, also Rajapaksa’s constituency.

It is also involved in a coal-fired power plant, expressways, railways and irrigation works.

India has not officially protested the increasing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka and has even said the latest corporation on space technology was not a concern.

“It’s a commercial communication satellite. It’s going to be in a Chinese (orbit) slot and not in a Sri Lankan slot. At that far, you can’t do anything and it’s not a concern for us,” said an Indian diplomat based in Sri Lanka, speaking on condition of anonymity.

China, like other nations with the technical capability, has launched numerous satellites on a commercial basis for other countries.

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO, Arup Roychoudhury in NEW DELHI, and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Ken Wills)