Headlines:

• Apple iPhone 5s Fingerprint Database to be Shared with NSA
• Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Ordered to Pay US Contractor's Legal Fees
• Iran Wants Nuclear Deal in Months, says President Rouhani
• Looking Forward to Meeting Indian PM in New York: Sharif

Details:

Apple iPhone 5s Fingerprint Database to be Shared with NSA

Tech-heads are eager to get their hands on the new Apple iPhone 5s next month and evidently Apple feels the same. This is due to the fact that their latest model comes equipped with fingerprint recognition technology as an added security feature. Privacy has become a major concern in today's technologically dominated society. Individuals keeping up with all the latest gadgets also run the risk of becoming exposed to unresolved bugs that could leave the user open to breaches in their personal security. Apple's official spokespeople have maintained a vague stance on the potential of sharing their fingerprint database with the NSA. Fortunately, after hours of phone calls I was finally able to speak with an employee that could answer some of my questions. "Absolutely the databases will be merged. This whole ‘fingerprint scan' idea originated from someone in our Government. They just didn't expect to be outed by Snowden, you know," said Tim Richardson, District Manager of Apple's North America Marketing Department. He went onto explain that the NSA and FBI have been compiling a special database for over a year now to use with the new Apple technology. Fingerprints from all over the nation. Cold cases. Fugitives of the law. Missing persons. [Source: National Report]

 

Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Ordered to Pay US Contractor's Legal Fees

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered four Iraqis who were imprisoned at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to pay nearly $14,000 in legal fees to defence contractor CACI, an Arlington, Va.-based company that supplied interrogators to the US government during the Iraq War. The decision in favour of CACI stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the former prisoners in 2008, alleging that CACI employees directed the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The suit was dismissed in June, when US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled that because the alleged acts took place on foreign soil, CACI was "immune from suit" in US court. Lee did not, however, directly address the question of whether CACI employees took part in the mistreatment of prisoners. The treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib exploded into an international scandal in 2004, when shocking photos emerged of prisoners being stacked on top of each other, threatened with dogs, and sexually abused. A little over a month after winning the dismissal this summer, CACI requested that the former prisoners be ordered to pay $15,580 to cover the company's legal expenses. Lawyers for the Iraqis disputed that their clients should pay CACI's bills, partly because the Iraqis had "very limited financial means, even by non-US standards, and dramatically so when compared" to CACI, according to a court filing. Moreover, they wrote, the initial claims against CACI, involving "serious claims of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and war crimes were dismissed on very close, difficult -- and only recently arguable -- grounds." Attorneys for the Iraqi prisoners have said they plan to file an appeal of the June dismissal this fall. CACI did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling. [Source: Huffington Post]

Iran Wants Nuclear Deal in Months, says President Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he wants to reach a deal with world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme in three to six months. He told the Washington Post he saw a resolution of the issue as a "beginning point" in easing US-Iran relations. Mr Rouhani said he was fully empowered by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to negotiate on the issue. On Thursday, Iran held talks with the P5+1 group of world powers on Tehran's uranium enrichment programme. In a rare encounter between US and Iranian officials, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as diplomats from the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany in New York. Asked about a timeframe for resolving the nuclear issue, President Rouhani told the Washington Post: "The only way forward is for a timeline to be inserted into the negotiations that is short." The shorter it is the more beneficial it is to everyone. If it's three months that would be Iran's choice, if it's six months that's still good. It's a question of months not years." Despite years of hostility between the US and Iran, Mr Rouhani said that if he and President Barack Obama got together they would both be "looking at the future". [Source: BBC]

Looking Forward to Meeting Indian PM in New York: Sharif

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said he looked forward to meeting his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to resume peace efforts between the two South Asian countries. Nawaz Sharif said this in a brief comment following Indian Prime Minister's statement in which he stated that he would meet the Pakistani leader on the side lines of UN General Assembly session in New York. "I will be very happy to meet him and we hope to pick up the threads from where we left in 1999," the prime minister said, when reporters sought his reaction to Singh's statement on meeting him. The meeting between the two leaders would be their first since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif swept to power in May this year, and it takes place in the backdrop of recent tensions along the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region. Earlier on Wednesday, Indian premier Manmohan Singh confirmed he would meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this weekend in a major step towards better relations following rising tensions. Singh said he will hold talks with Nawaz Sharif on the side lines of the UN General Assembly, the first such meeting in three years, amid heightened friction over a string of deadly military attacks across their border in disputed Kashmir. "During my visit to New York, I... look forward to bilateral meetings with the leaders of some of our neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan," Singh said in a statement before leaving for the United States. Singh will first head to Washington to meet President Barack Obama to try to strengthen economic ties between the two world's largest democracies including on nuclear power, before leaving for New York. "Over the past decade, our relationship with the United States, which is one of our most important relationships, has transformed into a global strategic partnership," his statement said. New Delhi and Islamabad have been working behind the scenes in recent weeks to secure a meeting, which was in jeopardy after deadly skirmishes in recent weeks between their militaries. The attacks repeatedly broke a ceasefire in place since 2003 along the de facto border in Kashmir. [Source: Dawn News]