Tens of thousands rally for Argentina's biggest protest in years

Thousands of pot-banging, flag-waving, banner-hoisting demonstrators massed in Buenos Aires for Argentina’s largest anti-government protest in years. Common themes at the protest included the nation's high levels of crime, corruption and inflation.

The demonstration, which lasted nearly four hours, was aimed at the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kircher. Police officials said at least 30,000 people participated, while local media reported that hundreds of thousands turned out.

Protesters angry at the nation’s current state banged pots and pans as Argentinians young and old rallied until almost midnight.

A column of demonstrators carried a 200-meter-long flag. As they marched through the city, they were greeted with noisy pans, tambourines, and honking car horns.

Protesters chanted, “We’re not afraiid!" as they swarmed into the Plaza de Mayo and surrounding area, right in front of the presidential palace.

They shouted, whistled, and held banners that read "Constitution is written with C, not K," referring to the ‘K dictatorship’ of Fernandez de Kircher’s government.

Another sign read, “Stop the wave of Argentines killed by crime, enough with corruption and say no to the constitutional reform.”

The sign referred to a widely held fear that President Fernandez will attempt to stay in office for a third term through a constitutional reform ending presidential term limits.

The protesters rattled off a long list of complaints about the current government: The country’s soaring inflation, violent crime rates and high-profile corruption.

"I came to protest everything that I don't like about this government and I don't like a single thing starting with [the president's] arrogance…they're killing policemen like dogs, and the president doesn't even open her mouth. This government is just a bunch of hooligans and corrupters,” 74-year-old retiree Marta Morosini told AP.

Protests took place in other cities throughout Argentina, including the major cities of Cordoba, Mendoza and La Plata.

In countries elsewhere around the world, demonstrators gathered in front of Argentinean embassies and consulates.

Around 50 angry demonstrators gathered in front of the consulate in Rome shouting,“Cristina, go away.”

In Madrid, another group of about 200 protesters braved the rain to bang pots outside the Argentinean consulate.

"In Argentina, there's no separation of power and it cannot be considered a democracy…Cristina is not respecting the constitution. The presidency is not a blank check and she must govern for those who are for her and against her,” Marcelo Gimenez, a 40-year-old Argentinean who currently resides in Spain said.

During a speech on Thursday, Fernandez did not directly address the protests, but instead defended her government’s policies and affirmed her dedication to the job.

"Never let go, not even in the worst moments," she said."Because it's in the worst moments when the true colors of a leader of a country comes out."

Fernandez won a second term last year with 54 percent of the vote.

Her administration has been accused of alienating large sections of the middle class, and has drawn criticism for limiting imports and imposing controls on foreign currency exchanges, making it difficult for Argentines to travel abroad.

WikiLeaks’ web host raided by Swedish police

The Stockholm-based web host for WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay has been raided by Swedish police. Four of the firm’s servers were seized, though it remains unclear exactly who was being targeted.

The Stockholm-based web host PeRiQuito AB, or PRQ, was targeted by police on Monday, the company’s owner Mikael Viborg told local media.

"PRQ.se, one of a number of ISPs used by WikiLeaks has been raided by Swedish police; 4 servers seized. Police still in office," WikiLeaks tweeted on Monday.

A large swatch of filesharing sites, including The Pirate Bay and PRQ’s own website have been down since the raid, though Viborg says the technical issues were unrelated to the seizure of the servers.

Other bittorrent sites which are currently unavailable include torrenthound.com, linkomanija.net and tankafetast.nu, release blog RLSLOG.net, and the sports streaming sites atdhenet.tv, hahasport.com, sportlemon.tv and stopstream.tv, Torrent Freak reports.

Viborg says the search warrant was related to intellectual property violations, though it remains unclear whose servers were impounded.

The Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that a raid had taken place, but did not provide any additional information.

Several Swedish government agencies and businesses were the victims of cyber attacks in the days leading up to the raid. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, though Swedish police claim they are linked to the ongoing sex crimes investigation against WikiLeaks-founder Julian Assange.

PRQ became infamous for its maximalist approach to free speech issues concerning its policy on hosting.

Among its 2,000 or so clients, the firm has hosted WikiLeaks, the North America Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), Pedophile.se, and the Chechen rebel site Kavkaz Central.

The Pirate Bay said PRQ is no longer their host, though Viborg said WikiLeaks was still hosted by PRQ as of last summer, Forbes reported.

“Even though I loathe what they say, I defend them,” Viborg told Forbes last August regarding his pro-pedophile clients. “We don’t cooperate with the authorities unless we absolutely have to.”

PQR was founded by The Pirate Bay members back in 2004 and has been raided by police on two separate occasions.

In 2006, Swedish police confiscated 180 servers in connection with an investigation targeting The Pirate Bay. A second raid occurred in 2010 targeting a filesharing network known as “The Scene.”

The Pirate Bay and PRQ co-founder Svartholm Warg was extradited to Sweden last month to serve a one-year sentence for breaching copyright laws. He is also being charged with hacking into the Swedish IT security company Logica, a firm that services the Swedish tax office. The tax numbers of 9,000 Swedes were later leaked online, making headlines around the country.

Mad Mullah Republic of Iran to block Google, Gmail over 'Innocence of Muslims'

Tehran is set to block access to Google and Gmail in Iran as a response to the anti-Islam film which has already triggered worldwide protests.

Iran has restricted access to the Google search engine and Gmail. The move by the Iranians coincides with protests throughout the Muslim world – including Tehran – against an anti-Islamic film posted on Google’s video sharing site YouTube.

A deputy government minister announced the ban on Sunday on state television.

“Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide and will remain filtered until further notice,” said Abdul Samad Khoramabadi, an advisor to Iran’s public prosecutor’s office.

Google services which require a secure SSL [Secured Sockets Layer] are already reportedly out of service in Iran.

Data issued by Google showed that traffic in Iran was substantially down Monday, compared to the rest of September.

However, the unsecured version of the site, which is much easier to eavesdrop on, remains accessible. Users can access Gmail accounts by using virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow them to surf the web behind heavily encrypted firewalls.

Many Iranians, including school children, regularly use VPNs to bypass government restrictions on blocked Western websites.

The decision to filter Google and Gmail coincides with Iranian government plans to launch the initial phases of a national internet, an Iranian wide network, which will substitute services currently run through the World Wide Web.

The project has prompted fears that the Iranian authorities might be planning to pull out of the global market, but some experts believe the main reason they are creating it is to secure sensitive military and banking data from the outside world.

An Iranian IT expert told British newspaper The Guardian earlier in the year that, “Iran has fears of an outside cyber-attack like that of Stuxnet and is trying to protect its sensitive data from being accessible on the World Wide Web.”

Stuxnet was a computer worm designed to sabotage Iran’s uranium enrichment process, which hit the country’s nuclear industry in 2010.

The websites of many Western media outlets such as the BBC and CNN are already blocked in Iran. Facebook and Twitter are also often censored.

But many Iranians have voiced their dismay at the government on social networking sites like Twitter.

Golnaz Esfandiari, who has a blog called Persian Letters on the Radio Free Europe website, tweeted, “By blocking Gmail/Google, Iran government punishes its own people over anti-Islam movie. Most Iranians have not seen it/don’t care.”

Iran is widely considered to be one of the most censored countries in the world.

'US ambassador to Libya was shot like a dog' – Zyuganov

Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.

US authorities said the Twitter post by the leader of Russian communists in which he harshly commented on the US ambassador’s death at the hands of rioting mob in Libya would not be left without consequences.

Earlier this week Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), said in his official Twitter feed that the US ambassador to Libya was “shot like a dog”, adding that the diplomat had reaped what he had sown.

Officials in the United States expressed outrage over the comment and also said they were surprised by it, as Zyuganov has previously maintained close contacts with the US Embassy in Moscow.

Russia’s business daily Kommersant quoted a source in the US State Department as saying that there were a number of reciprocal measures that would demonstrate by example its attitude to such statements.

A source in President Obama’s administration told the newspaper that it was unlikely that Zyuganov would manage to maintain his previous warm relations with the US embassy, but there would be no public announcements for the time being.

However, Zyuganov must expect the reaction will be harsh in the extreme after the November presidential poll, the sources stated, adding that this will happen regardless of who wins the elections.

Initially, Gennady Zyuganov’s aides told the press that the Twitter account was maintained by a certain member of the press service, who claimed that he only typed his boss’s speech, word for word.

After the story broke in the conventional press, Zyuganov personally issued a comment claiming that his words had been taken out of context and distorted by the press service. He said that the actual comment was much longer and more than 10 people heard it, but the press service compressed it to just two or three phrases.

The Communist leader then went on to express his real stance on the present events in the world. He told reporters that the interference of the NATO member states in the internal affairs of other countries has recently put the world on the brink of a major war and that “all North Africa, Middle East, Syria have turned into a bloody mess.”

He said that no normal person would feel happy over the fact that the violence spreads to civilians and even diplomatic offices, but immediately added that it was the US politics of interference that had turned against the United States itself.

“This same ambassador participated in the actual military campaign against the Libyan leadership, gave instructions and finances and NATO troops bombed them from the air, turning the country into ruins,” Zyuganov said.

He added that the “shot like a dog” comment was about Muammar Gaddafi and was made a long time ago, but he had to bring it up again to show how neglecting the Muslim traditions turns against the US embassy and its representatives.

“All this violence and barbarism causes regret. But we must remember that those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind. This is the essence of my statement," Zyuganov told the press.

Chinese-made laptops’ latest feature: Pre-installed viruses

By the time you switch on your fresh-out-of-the-box laptop for the first time, it may already be infected with dangerous malware that can either harm you or turn your computer into a pawn in a criminal cyberwar.

­This accidental discovery was made by Microsoft’s digital crimes unit during an investigation into Chinese computer manufacturers, many of whom are illegally installing its Windows operating system onto their hardware.

"The cybercriminals are really changing the ways they try to attack you," Richard Boscovich, a former federal prosecutor and a senior attorney in Microsoft's digital crimes unit wrote in the company’s blog.

After Microsoft engineers purchased and tested local laptops, they discovered that 20 percent of them had become infected with viruses or malware at some point between leaving the assembly line and the date of purchase.

"We found malware capable of remotely turning on an infected computer's microphone and video camera, potentially giving a cybercriminal eyes and ears into a victim's home or business," Boscovich said. "Additionally, we found malware that records a person's every keystroke, allowing cybercriminals to steal a victim's personal information.”

Microsoft security officers found that most of the infected computers contained a powerful and malicious software program called Nitol. The malware apparently originated from a notorious server called 3322.org, which in 2009 was reported to be responsible for nearly a fifth of the world’s illegal transactions.

The US software giant filed a lawsuit with a Virginia District Court to block the server. The judge ruled in Microsoft’s favor earlier this week.

Server owner Peng Yong, the defendant in the trial, claimed that he had no knowledge of Microsoft’s findings and denied any responsibility.

"Our policy unequivocally opposes the use of any of our domain names for malicious purposes," Peng told the AP news agency.

In the first few days after the legal rulings, Microsoft says that it has already blocked some 37 million malware connections to 3322.org.

But as one source of malware is snuffed out, another is likely to grow in its place.

Microsoft said that no computer can be guaranteed to be virus-free as long as “unsecure supply chains” continue to exist in China. The country teems with lightly regulated electronics manufacturers, offering plenty of opportunities for fraud. And for the ordinary customer, finding out whether a hacker laid hands on your laptop after leaving the factory can be a tricky task.

"So how can someone know if they're buying from an unsecure supply chain? One sign is a deal that appears too good to be true. However, sometimes people just can't tell, making the exploitation of a broken supply chain an especially dangerous vehicle for infecting people with malware,” Boscovich said.