MPGH News (6/7/13)

**[MPGH]Psychotic** · 06-07-2013

32nd Edition
6/7/13

Nothing happened this week, sorry! Come back next week.

Postbans

Congratulations to @Earl Sweatshirt on 8,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Frost on 1,337 posts!
Congratulations to @Snape on 12,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Extreme_XB on 1,337 posts!
Congratulations to @Hero on 23,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Temperrr on 9,000 posts!

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to @damanakin!
Happy Birthday to ogkush317!

Promotions/Special

@Antipathy is now a member of the News Force!
@Doc is now a member of the News Force!
@Genesis is now a member of the News Force!

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Postbans

User News

- The following User News Edition contains 3 weeks worth of milestones.

Congratulations to @Earl Sweatshirt on 8,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Frost on 1,337 posts!
Congratulations to @Snape on 12,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Extreme_XB on 1,337 posts!
Congratulations to @Hero on 23,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Temperrr on 9,000 posts!
Congratulations to @ZeroTroubles on 3,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Horror on 3,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Lonesome Cowboy on 4,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Blue on 6,000 posts!
Congratulations to @.REZ on 9,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Dreamer.JR on 4,000 posts!
Congratulations to @mAULed on 2,000 posts!
Congratulations to @KSIOlajidebt on 2,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Dr. John Zoidberg on 2,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Vice-Versa on 15,000 posts!
Congratulations to @DisturbedA7X on 1,337 posts!
Congratulations to @Barstarzz on 2,000 posts!
Congratulations to @Hannibal on 25,000 posts!

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to @damanakin!
Happy Birthday to @ogkush317!
Happy Birthday to @Fluxie!
Happy Birthday to @GlowingStone!
Happy Birthday to @D3DR3VO!
Happy Birthday to @chickeninabiskit!

Promotions/Special

@Antipathy is now a member of the News Force!
@Doc is now a member of the News Force!
@Genesis is now a member of the News Force!
@Julma Henri is now a member of the Editor Force!
@Domokun_index is now a memeber of the Editor Force!

Resignations/Demotions

@Ethen is now a cocksucker.
@Contribution is now a cocksucker.
@hax3rman is now a cocksucker.

Interview - [MPGH]Genesis

Interview - CanadaFrost

US & Canada
US confirms Verizon phone records collection
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: BBC

The US National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of Americans, US officials have confirmed.

Yes, it appears as if everything about integrity has gone down the drain and continues to get worse by each day.
The first report about this came in from the Guardian newspaper.

Coincidentally they use the same excuse as always for doing what they do. It was used to stop a "significant" terrorist attack on the US.

The Senior US Senator Dianne Feinstein confirmed that the so called secret court order was a three-month renewal to allow this to keep going for the safety of the US. The following statement won't really come as a much of a chock either as we've all really heard all of these excuses before, a thousand times.

According to the US House intelligence committee chairman, Mike Rogers, it was completely legal for them to do so as it apparently was

authorized by Congress and it had not been abused by the Obama administration.
He had stated that it had prevented a "significant" attack on the US "Within the past few years" - But as always in politics it's left very vague so that it appears as if they have more control than they'd like you to know.

He declinded to offer more information.

Latin America
Mexico rescues 165 kidnapped migrants near US border
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: BBC / Huffington Post

A total of 165 kidnapped migrants was rescued near the US border on Tuesday, in the municipality of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz but was only just recently reported. Most of the victims were from Central American countries.

The migrants were trying to cross the US border illegally but were taken hostage in northern Tamaulipas state by a gang who demanded

cash from their relatives for their release that were never intended to happen.

The most likely story about what might have happened to date seems to be that the migrants were betrayed by human trafficking gangs who were paid in order for the migrants to get into the US. and instead of taking the migrants across the border they were handed over to another criminal organisation that operates in northern Mexico.

The kidnappers had been phoning the relatives of the kidnapped migrants in order to blackmail them for money, said government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez. The army was then alerted of the presence of heavily armed men at a property located in the area, said Mr Sanchez.

When the army stormed the from they found 165 people, including seven children and two pregnant women.

The victims are from El Salvador (77), Guatemala (50), Honduras (23), Mexio (14) and there is also a citizen from India.

Africa
South Africa's Puddles the Clown wins case against FHM
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: BBC

South African clown Norman Pudney has won a defamation suit against men's magazine FHM after it had printed his picture with a report that compared jesters to cross-dressing drug addicts. Mr. Pudney, a beloved entertainer for about 30 years, got awarded $6,000 (£3,900) in damages.

Pudney told the BBC that he had sued FHM to defend a "profession that is meant to be well-received".

FHM has not commented on this.

Asia
Afghans angry at 'lenient' Robert Bales massacre sentence
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: BBC

At a US military hearing on Wednesday a Staff Sgt. by the name Robert Bales, 39, admitted to killing 16 civilians in March 2012

A date for where the jury will decide has not yet been set, but it's preliminary date is sometime in August, in whether he is to be sentenced to life

with or without the possibility of parole.

The villagers in Kandahar province has been upset about this, they say that he's been treated far to leniently and that he should be hanged for his deeds.

Most of his victims were children or women, and many of them were shot in the head and the some of the remains were piled up and burnt

Europe
EU-Stop for SharkFinning
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: SVD

Ten years after the EU banned the so-called sharkfinning practice, it's last legal loop-hole is about to be shut down to stop the system of catching sharks and cutting their fins of to just throw them back in the ocean to die.

Despite opposition from Portugal voting member countries of the EU removed an exemption given to some fishermen the right to litigate the sharks on board,

which has led to some uncertainties regarding whether the rules are being followed. Henceforth, it will be prohibited to all sea-born vessels in EU waters and EU vessels worldwide to take anything but the whole shark back to shore.

Middle East
Tunisian soldiers killed in blast near Algerian border
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: BBC

Two Tunisian soldiers have been killed and at least another two have been wounded in a roadside explosion that occurred near the border with Algeria and it is the latest in a series on attacks on soldiers pursuing militant Islamist along the border.

"Two soldiers were killed... in the hunt for terrorists," army spokesman Mokhtar Ben Nasr said.

The militants - many of them has been linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

UK
Prince Philip admitted to hospital for operation
Date: 6 June 2013
Source: BBC / CBS

The duke was admitted to the London Clinic and he's expected to stay in the hospital for up to two weeks for a "following abdominal investigation"
It will take place on Friday under general anaesthetics.

It's a planned visit, not an emergency, admittance.

The duke was admitted to the London Clinic "following abdominal investigations" and is expected to stay in the hospital for up to two weeks.

The Palace said in a statement that "further updates will be issued when appropriate".

"No gaming news besides everything you already know about the PS4 and XBOX one." - Nitekillr

Come back next week!

Microsoft's Xbox One Spy

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft officially revealed their next generation console the Xbox One on May 21'st.
It features updated hardware including 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a AMD 8 core APU, however two of the most controversial features of the Xbox One were the addition of Kinect 2.0 and Microsoft's "DRM".
The DRM aspect of Xbox One means that the Console will check if it's connected to the internet once every 24 hours, and if it's not then you will be unable to play games until it is. This has induced a widely negative reaction among gaming enthusiasts and casual gamers alike, claiming that the DRM is unfair and defeats the purpose of Console Gaming.

While that is true there is something else about the Xbox One that has slowly flown under the radar in the last couple weeks and that's the fact that Microsoft has changed their Terms of Service to allow the Xbox One to theoretically "spy" on you. Due to the Xbox One requiring an internet connection, as well as requiring 'Kinect' - Microsoft's HD Camera and dual microphone device for the console to function. It's said that Microsoft could allow Kinect to monitor your activity when the Xbox One isn't even powered on, it's able to record your movements as well as judge how many people are in the room with you. This could allow Microsoft to charge more for movies based on the amount of people in your room, as well as constantly send back recordings and data to Microsoft. Weeks ago another patent was filed that enabled Microsoft to 'reward' users that remain put on the couch while an advertisement was playing.
It's without a doubt that Microsoft's Xbox One will be one of the most controversial consoles in gaming history.

Intel's 'Haswell' CPU core released

Earlier this week at Computex, CPU maker Intel released their new mainstream lineup for 2013.
Their new CPU Architecture is codenamed 'Haswell' and is designed to bring performance enhancements as well as power savings over the old 'Ivy Bridge' Architecture.
Haswell brings a 10% performance increase over Ivy Bridge and represents the biggest single generational gain in power efficiency in the history of Intel Processors. This will benefit the users of Laptops and Ultrabooks by allowing them to be slimmer and less power hungry resulting in increased battery life. In fact some modern ultrabooks with the Haswell chip will be able to last up to 10 hours on a full charge, as well as up to 10 days on standby. Haswell also brings new graphics performance to the table with it's integrated "HD Graphics 4200/4400/4600/5000 series" - Higher-end CPU's will come with lower powered built in graphics chips to suit enthusiast needs, and the lower end Haswell CPU's will come with the higher end 5000 series graphics resulting in a gain of almost 3 times more powerful than last year's solution.

Computer maker Apple has already embraced the launch of Haswell by preparing their 2013 line of Macbook Air/Macbook Pro PC's. With Haswell at the heart of these new models, Apple is expected to make both models slimmer and lighter by decreasing the size of the battery due to Haswell's massive power savings. Along with the new hardware, the Retina Macbook pro line-up is also set for an inclusion of dual microphones, a HD front facing camera as well as faster Wi-Fi chips while the Macbook Air line-up can expect a Retina Display. Apple is set to make this news official when it's Worldwide Developers Conference begins on June 10th.

New twist in the Apple vs Samsung saga

Speaking of Apple, there has been a new twist in their legal battle with Samsung, the US International Trade Commission ruled that Apple had infringed on Samsung's patent rights.
It is possible that this would mean a ban on the sale of certain Apple products in the US including the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
Apple has announced they will appeal the ruling and the ban is already subject to review by the President of the United States whom can overturn the ban on public policy grounds. Apple can continue selling these two devices during this review period which will last up to 60 days.

Microsoft announces Windows 8.1 start menu

Well, not quite.
Earlier this week it was leaked that in a Windows 8.1 preview the 'Start button' had returned.
However Microsoft's announcements do not call this a Start button but rather a "Start tip button" - The new start button will just open the new Windows 8 Start screen and it's not related to the Start menu many power users had grown a liking to over the years, well played Microsoft.

Windows 8.1 contains many bug fixes and improvements to Windows 8 and will be a free update to all Windows 8 users. Bug fixes aside, Windows 8.1 allows users to boot directly to the desktop instead of the Windows 8 start menu, allow users to customize the size of tiles on the start screen, have custom lock screen slideshows, more start screen backgrounds and much more.
It's essentially noted that Windows 8.1 will be the first 'Service Pack' release to Windows 8 however Microsoft wants it's users to believe that they are simply 're-thinking' the interface. It's speculated that Windows 8.1 will be released for public interview at Microsoft's Build conference on the 26th of June.

Megaupload founder is granted access to evidence seized in raid

On Friday the 31st of May a New Zealand court has granted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom access to all evidence seized by police in a 2012 raid which has bolstered the Entrepreneur's fight against extradition to the United States against online piracy charges.
The High Court ruled that police must provide copies of evidence considered relevant to the U.S investigation, these include all materials that were forwarded to the FBI.
Any evidence seized in the raid, including computers, hard drives, files, and all other materials were deemed irrelevant and will be returned to the owner of the file sharing site.

Dotcom's lawyers have argued that the lack of access to the seized evidence has put them at a disadvantage in defending Kim and his colleagues against extradition.
The USA has launched a criminal investigation into Megaupload claiming that it facilitated online piracy and participated in money laundering
Kim Dotcom has denied these allegations saying his site was a storage facility for online files and nothing more, claiming that he could not be legally held accountable if the stored content on his site was obtained illegally.

MPGH News Team