Without a law banning export of toxic electronic waste in the United
\nStates, there has been no way to know if old cell phones, computers or
\ntelevisions originating there didn’t end up in some poor village in the
\ndeveloping world, where desperate people pull them apart by hand to recover
\nsome of the valuable metals inside.<\/p>\n
The Papua New Guinea jungle has given up one of its darkest secrets – the
\nsystematic slaughter of every male baby born in two villages to prevent
\nfuture tribal clashes.<\/p>\n
China is aggressively developing its power to wage cyber warfare and is now
\nin a position to delay or disrupt the deployment of America’s military
\nforces around the world, potentially giving it the upper hand in any
\nconflict.<\/p>\n
Coordinated groups of gunmen shot and blasted their way through tourist
\nsites in the Indian financial center of Mumbai, killing at least 101 people
\nand wounding more than 200 while apparently targeting American and British
\ncitizens for use as hostages.<\/p>\n
Currently even when e-waste (electronic trash) goes to a “green” recycler,
\nthe chances are high that toxic stuff from the developed world ended up in
\na huge pile in the middle of some village.<\/p>\n
By virtually wiping out the ‘male stock’, tribal women hope they can avoid
\ndeadly bow-and-arrow wars between the villages in the future.<\/p>\n
There has been an alarming increase in incidents of Chinese computer
\nattacks on the US government, defence companies and businesses. China now
\nhas both the intent and capability to launch cyber attacks “anywhere in the
\nworld at any time”.<\/p>\n
The attackers swept through two luxury hotels favored by foreigners, the
\nTaj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi, firing automatic weapons, throwing
\ngrenades and sending panicked guests scrambling for safety. Some guests
\nwere trapped inside the hotels for hours, even as a series of explosions
\nset fire to the Taj hotel, a landmark along of Mumbai’s waterfront.<\/p>\n
The U.S. generates an estimated three million tonnes of electronic waste,
\nsuch as cell phones and computers, each year. U.S. citizens bought some 30
\nmillion television sets this year and that number will be higher next year
\nas all U.S. TV networks switch to digital broadcasts Feb. 17.<\/p>\n
‘Babies grow into men and men turn into warriors,’ said Rona Luke, a
\nvillage wife who is attending a special ‘peace and reconciliation’ meeting
\nin the mountain village of Goroka.<\/p>\n
In 2007, about 5m computers in the US were the targets of 43,880 incidents
\nof malicious activity – a rise of almost a third on the previous year.<\/p>\n
Although Mumbai has been the scene of several terrorist attacks in recent
\nyears, experts said Wednesday’s assaults required a previously unseen
\ndegree of reconnaissance and planning. The scale and synchronization of the
\nattacks pointed to the likely involvement of experienced commanders, some
\nsaid, suggesting possible foreign involvement.<\/p>\n
‘It’s because of the terrible fights that have brought death and
\ndestruction to our villages for the past 20 years that all the womenfolk
\nhave agreed to have all new-born male babies killed,’ said Mrs Luke.<\/p>\n
Launching their attacks after dark, the terrorists struck almost
\nsimultaneously at the city’s domestic airport and a railway station and
\nsprayed gunfire at the Leopold Cafe, a restaurant popular with foreigners.
\nAs many as 16 groups hit nine sites on the southern flank of this crowded
\nmetropolis of 19 million.<\/p>\n
It is estimated that 100 containers of e-waste arrive in Hong Kong every
\nday and are then smuggled into China. It’s all coming from the U.S. and
\nCanada; much of this activity is illegal in China. But it is a very big and
\nprofitable industry so many officials in China and elsewhere are willing to
\nlook the other way.<\/p>\n
China’s ability to wage cyber warfare is now “so sophisticated that the US
\nmay be unable to counteract or even detect the efforts”. Given the
\ndependence on the internet of key sectors of US public life, from the
\nfederal government and military to water treatment, social security and the
\nelectricity grid, a successful attack on these internet-connected networks
\ncould paralyse the US.<\/p>\n
Mumbai is South Asia’s financial hub and an entertainment capital, with
\nmany of the glitzy targets symbolizing the new cosmopolitan face of the
\nworld’s largest democracy. Several witnesses said the gunmen demanded to
\nsee passports from cornered guests, separating American and British
\ntourists from the others. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said U.S.
\nofficials were not aware of any American casualties but were still
\nchecking.<\/p>\n
‘The women have had enough of men engaging in tribal conflicts and bringing
\nmisery to them.’ Tribal fighting in the region of Gimi, in the country’s
\nEastern Highlands, has been going on since 1986, many of the clashes
\narising over claims of sorcery.<\/p>\n
There has been concern about Chinese computer espionage since 2002, when a
\nlarge-scale series of cyber intrusions was launched on US military and
\ngovernment computer systems. In that attack, codenamed Titan Rain by the
\nUS, the Chinese downloaded up to 20 terabytes of data — twice the amount
\nstored in the entire print collection of the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n
In the chaos and confusion, it was difficult to confirm details or
\ndetermine the nationalities of hostages apparently being held on several
\nfloors of the damaged hotels. India’s NDTV 24×7 news channel reported that
\nthe gunmen were holding more than a dozen foreigners, including a Belgian
\nand an Indonesian.<\/p>\n
The mountain of e-waste grows each day as new electronic devices are
\ncreated to drive an economy rooted in endless growth. And consider that 85
\npercent of e-waste goes in landfills or is incinerated locally,
\ncontaminating the United States’ groundwater and air. Millions more
\nstockpiled computers, monitors and TV are sitting in basements, garages,
\noffices and homes.<\/p>\n
The sensational claims recall the Biblical story of the Old Testament
\npharaoh who ordered all midwives to kill Israelite baby boys because he
\nwanted to ensure there were never enough young men to fight in an army
\nagainst the Egyptians.<\/p>\n
Much of the activity is likely to emanate from groups of hackers, but the
\nlines between private espionage and government-sponsored operations are
\nblurred. Some 250 hacker groups are tolerated, and may even be encouraged,
\nby Beijing to invade computer networks. Individual hackers are also being
\ntrained in cyber operations at Chinese military bases. China is stealing
\nvast amounts of sensitive information from US computer networks.<\/p>\n
Firefighters could be seen helping guests to safety, and some later reports
\nsuggested that hostages at the Taj had been freed. Other reports said there
\nwere attacks at two hospitals, a police station and the Mumbai office of an
\nultra-Orthodox Jewish outreach group, Chabad Lubavitch.<\/p>\n
A resident of Agibu village, Mrs Luke said she did not know how many male
\nbabies were killed by being smothered, but it had happened to all males
\nover a 10 year period – and she suggested it was still happening. Choking
\nback tears she added: ‘It’s a terrible, unbearable crime, but the women had
\nto do it. ‘The women have really being forced into it as it’s the only
\nmeans available to them as women to bring an end to tribal fights.’<\/p>\n
Beijing is investing huge resources in cyber and space missions because it
\nsees America’s computer networks and space assets as its “soft ribs and
\nstrategic weaknesses”. The extent of its activities gives it the potential
\nto beat the US in military conflict.<\/p>\n
Huge waves caused by king tides smashed into dozens of villages and towns
\nin northern Papua New Guinea, destroying homes and flooding businesses and
\na hospital, local media reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Without a law banning export of toxic electronic waste in the United States, there has been no way to know if old cell phones, computers or televisions originating there didn’t end up in some poor village in the developing world, where desperate people pull them apart by hand to recover some of the valuable metals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[56,10,30,32,33,42],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}