WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Finally Arrested

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange surrendered to London police on Tuesday.  He is charged with sex-crimes in Sweden. Assange has been refused bail by a court in London because of the risk of the him fleeing. He is still in custody pending a hearing next week and will fight extradition to Sweden.

Since the release of the cables last week, WikiLeaks has encountered many challenges. Its bank accounts canceled, its website attacked and several criminal investigations against them. But now it seems that the target is not WikiLeaks but the
founder himself. Assange, a 39 year old Australian is accused by two women he met while in Sweden. He is accused in two different cases. One being rape and sexual molestation, the other is sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. Assange denies all the allegations and suggested that the prosecution is politically motivated.


WikiLeaks' spokesman said that it will not stop releasing secret documents. Mr Stephens said Wikileaks would continue to publish material and added: "We are on cable 301 and there are 250,000 secret cables."

He is charged with the following:
1) Used his body weight to hold down Miss A in a sexual manner.
2) Had unprotected sex with Miss A when she had insisted on him using a condom.
3) Molested Miss A "in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity".
4) Had unprotected sex with Miss W while she was asleep.

Source: www.mb.com.ph ; www.bbc.co.uk


UPDATE: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange granted bail after supporters agreed to post a £200,000 cash deposit. But was sent back to prison as Swedish prosecutors appeal against decision to grant him bail. The whistleblower returned to Wandsworth prison in solitary confinement while waiting to appear at the High Court within 48 hours where a more senior judge will consider the appeal and whether to overturn the bail decision.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Being Pro-Active is Metro Manila's Traffic Solution

What is pro-ac·tive? Be definition it means acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty or tending to initiate change rather than reacting to events. This is the attitude that the MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) and PNP(Philippine National Police) should have.

I was curious of the word when Lila Delima said in an interview that the police should be pro-active. And after seeing every possible definition, I said to myself, our traffic officials are not pro-active. If you drive in metro manila, you would know what i mean. 

Metro Manila have lots of uneducated, unlicensed and reckless drivers. But does the MMDA and PNP do anything about it? I'll give you scenarios and let us see. 

Pedicab/tricycle counterflowed

Pedicab/tricycle  beats a red light

Pedicab/tricycle swerves in front of you

Public jeepneys and buses beats a red light

Public jeepneys and buses stops in the middle of the road

Public jeepneys and buses swerves from left side to right side of a 4 lane road

You see these things happen while the MMDA and PNP is around. Yet they do nothing. but if a private vehicle does these violations, things would be different. MMDA and PNP are bias to private vehicles. Either they are scared of these violators in the public sector or they are being paid. Either way this is the main causes of traffic jams in Metro Manila. 

This is where pro-active should be practiced. If MMDA and PNP are pro-active and enforce the law and traffic rules to all drivers and vehicles, no matter how small, big, poor, rich, powerful they are, traffic would be smoother in metro manila. Is this too much ask?

Kuliglig or Motorized Pedicabs Banned in Main Roads

Mayor Alfredo Lim banned the "kuligligs" (motorized pedicabs/tricycle) from major streets. These "kuligligs" has been a traffic problem of Manila since they began building them. Drivers of these vehicles do not have licenses, insurance or driving etiquette. 

Some say why not register it in the LTO just like with the Jeepneys. These kind of vehicle is not recognized by the Land Transportation Office. They refuse to register the kuliglig because it uses a boat motor and is against the provision of the Clean Air Act.

This is a brave move by Mayor Lim. The number of kuligligs on streets is rising and now around

10,000. They violate traffic rules by resorting to counterflows and bullying other motorists. But this is not the root of the problem. This happened because traffic officials in the MMDA or PNP do not strictly implement the traffic rules. They are bias to private vehicles. If they see a "kuliglig", pedicab, tricycle or jeepneys making counterflows, not following road signs and stop lights, they look the other way around. Some say they are paid "kotong" and some say they are scared of the drivers. In any case, the traffic officials are at fault and should change.

Traffic officials  should be PRO-ACTIVE. Even the slightest traffic violation should be corrected no matter how poor or how small the violator is. If they do this, that's when people learn to follow the traffic rules.

The kuliglig drivers rallied in Manila on Wednesday and resulted to violence. Here's what Mayor Lim has to say about the incident.

Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net, www.mb.com.ph

Image by Candice L. Reyes

Russian Man Allegedly Responsible For a Third of Spam e-mails

Russian Oleg Nikolaenko is now dubbed the "King of Spam" after being accused of being responsible for one-third of the spam you get in your e-mail's inbox. According to court documents and FBI affidavits, experts looking into the "Mega-D" spam automated botnet which Oleg Nikolaenko, just 23,  is said to be the plan's mastermind.

"'Mega-D" was likely the largest botnet in the world, accounting for 32 percent of all spam," the court documents said. "Security researchers estimated that the botnet was capable of sending
ten billion spam e-mail messages a day."

Oleg Nikolaenko pleaded not guilty Friday at his arraignment in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, federal court.He was denied bail.

Source: www.cnn.com