Twitter Suspends 125,000 'Terrorism' Accounts

Twitter has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts - most related to Islamic State.

The accounts have been shut down over the past eight months as social media firms respond to pressure from the US government for them to be more proactive.

Twitter has been using spam-fighting technology to seek out accounts.

Islamic State is known to use social media to radicalise and lure recruits, prompting Twitter to "significantly" increase the size of its reviewing team.

The company said it had already had seen "an increase in account suspensions and this type of activity shifting off of Twitter".

But it added there was no "magic algorithm" for identifying terrorist content.

"Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups," Twitter said in a statement.

"We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism."

The statement added that the company would continue to "engage with authorities and other relevant organisations to find solutions to this critical issue and promote powerful counter-speech narratives".

Child pornography had previously been the only abuse that was automatically flagged by technology for human review.

iPhones 'disabled' if Apple detects third-party repairs

The problem is known as "error 53" and has appeared in Apple products before.

The Guardian reports that users' phones were disabled after the Touch ID home button was repaired by a non-Apple engineer.

The issue appears to arise once devices have been updated to the latest operating system, iOS 9.

In its report, the Guardian cites the experiences of a freelance photographer, Antonio Olmos, who says the problem occurred on his phone after he upgraded its software.

"When Olmos, who says he has spent thousands of pounds on Apple products over the years, took it to an Apple store in London, staff told him there was nothing they could do, and that his phone was now junk," the paper notes.

Photos 'irretrievable' 

Many iPhone 6 customers have been discussing error 53 online. 

At Apple's discussion forums, one user named wallihall wrote: "With this update I'm unable to use the phone, and still have to pay for the phone itself.

I did get the front screen replaced, and I understand that it's now considered "tampered with", but at least let me use my iPhone on the old IOS system... I can't retrieve old photos or important documents I once had."

Apple told the paper that iPhone software checks whether any repairs were authorised by Apple.

A spokeswoman said: "When an iPhone is serviced by an unauthorised repair provider, faulty screens or other invalid components that affect the touch ID sensor could cause the check to fail if the pairing cannot be validated. 

"With a subsequent update or restore, additional security checks result in an 'error 53' being displayed."

Apple has advised users facing the problem to contact Apple support.

Congo to probe alleged sex abuse by peacekeeers in CAR

The allegations are the latest in a barrage of claims of troops assaulting civilians they are supposed to protect in CAR [Reuters]

The Republic of Congo has launched an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse involving its troops serving as UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR).

"Under a memorandum of understanding between the Congolese government and the office of the UN secretary general it has been decided that an administrative inquiry will be carried out," Communications Minister Thierry Moungalla said on Friday.

The defence ministry will lead the investigation and "verify the veracity of the allegations", after Human Rights Watch (HRW) brought the cases to the attention of MINUSCA, the UN's stabilisation mission in CAR.

MINUSCA said it had "identified seven new possible victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in Bambari", in the centre of the country, involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A UN probe "found sufficient initial evidence that five of the victims were minors and had been sexually abused and that one adult had been sexually exploited", MINUSCA said in a statement.

Following the claims, the UN said it would repatriate 120 peacekeepers from the Republic of Congo, a month after asking DRC to send home its contingent.

On Thursday, HRW released a statement documenting eight new allegations of rape or sexual exploitation by UN troops in the same region of Bambari.  

All eight survivors said that they believed the peacekeepers responsible were from the Republic of Congo or the DRC, according to HRW, which alleged the abuse took place between October and December 2015.  

MINUSCA said one of the allegations passed on by HRW had been previously reported and is currently under investigation. 

"Among the survivors are a 14-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman who said peacekeepers gang-raped them near Bambari airport in the center of the country," HRW said.

CAR is struggling to recover from a cycle of violence that began after a 2013 coup, pitting mainly Muslim rebels against Christian militias, but international peacekeeping efforts have been undermined by a string of sex abuse claims.

Moungalla said Brazzaville had a "zero tolerance" policy on rights abuses and would "roundly condemn" the abuse if proven by the investigation.

The allegations are the latest in a barrage of claims of troops assaulting civilians they are supposed to protect in CAR.

While most of the cases concern UN peacekeepers, France's Sangaris force and the EU's EUFOR mission have also been accused of similar crimes.

Images Show N Korea Rocket 'Close To Blast-Off'

North Korea has announced it will launch a rocket carrying what it called an earth observation satellite sometime between 8 and 25 February, around the time of the birthday of late leader Kim Jong-Il, the father of Kim Jong-Un.

The launch would constitute a violation of UN sanctions as similar technology can be used for ballistic missiles.

A report by Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea-monitoring project, said the presence of the fuel trucks at the launch pad "likely indicated the filling of tanks within bunkers at the site rather than a rocket itself".

"In the past, such activity has occurred one to two weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Korea's announced launch window," the report added.

A US government source said US intelligence agencies believed North Korea could be ready by the US Super Bowl kick-off on Sunday, which will be Monday, Korea time.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Chinese President Xi Jinping of China, North Korea's main ally, and agreed that the secretive nation's planned launch would represent a "provocative and destabilising action," the White House said.

The two leaders said they would also co-ordinate efforts to respond to North Korea's purported hydrogen bomb test last month.

"The leaders emphasised the importance of a strong and united international response to North Korea's provocations, including through an impactful UN Security Council Resolution," the White House said.

Three missing, 87 rescued after South Africa mine collapse

Almost 90 miners were rescued and three were still missing after a cave-in at a gold mine in northeastern South Africa on Friday, the firm that owns the mine said.

The collapse at the mine's main entrance trapped 87 workers underground, all of whom were rescued, Vantage Goldfields said in a statement. However, three others who had been working on the surface at the time of the collapse could not be accounted for.

No fatalities were reported. However, there was confusion regarding the number of workers involved.

"As we speak they might already all be out. Most have been evacuated," Mike McChesney, chief executive of the small gold producer told Reuters by telephone from the mine in Barbeton town in Mpumalanga province about 225 miles east of Johannesburg.

McChesney and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union initially said 115 workers had been trapped.

South Africa's mines are the deepest and among the most dangerous in the world. Fatalities in the industry have been falling due to both improved safety practices and a reduction in the labor force as production declines.

Vantage Goldfields is an Australia-based company mining gold at Barberton, a town that traces its origin in the country's 19th century gold rush. Vantage was delisted from the Australian bourse in January 2015.

The mine workers union later said 78 workers had been rescued and three workers were missing. The reason for the discrepancy between the union's figures and the company's was not immediately clear.

"At this point, it’s unclear what caused the disaster," Manzini Zungu, a spokesman for the union said.

Last year, 77 workers were killed in mining accidents, the lowest number on record, compared with 84 in 2014.

US military releases small batch of abuse case photos

At least one person has been sentenced to life in prison after investigations, the Pentagon says [Reuters]

The US military has released 198 photographs of alleged abuse in army facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, with many of the images showing close-ups of cuts and bruises to arms and legs of prisoners.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit more than a decade ago for the photos, said the images were part of a larger collection of 2,000 mostly unreleased photographs.

The Pentagon has refused to release additional images, citing national security concerns.

"The still-secret pictures are the best evidence of the serious abuses that took place in military detention centres," ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement.

"The government's selective disclosure risks misleading the public about the true extent of the abuse."

The Pentagon said the photos that were released came from criminal investigations into 56 allegations of misconduct by US personnel more than a decade ago.

It said 14 of those allegations were substantiated and at least one service member was sentenced to life in prison as a result of investigations.

The identities of men in photos are concealed and there is little or no context to suggest exactly how they might have been injured.

Officials declined to provide more information and it was unclear which images were connected to that case, or whether the detainee involved had survived.

None of the images are thought to originate from Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, where US soldiers were implicated in physical and sexual abuse, infliction of electric shocks, and mock executions.

That scandal first broke when photos showing soldiers abusing detainees were published in US media in 2004.

Between 2004 and 2006, 11 soldiers, including Lynndie England who smiled beside naked prisoners being subjected to sexual abuse, were convicted in court martials.

The identities of men in photos released by the Pentagon are concealed [Reuters]

Will Julian Assange walk free?

The British government has long argued that it is obliged to respond to an arrest warrant issued by a court in Sweden, where Julian Assange is wanted for questioning over a rape allegation.

For its part, the Swedish government has countered that a decision by a UN panel that Assange's freedom of movement should be restored has no formal impact on the investigation under Swedish law.

Assange is a computer hacker who enraged the United States by publishing online hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks, a website he founded.

A US grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks is ongoing.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London since June 2012, to avoid extradition to Sweden.

So what is next for Assange? And is politics at play in this legal saga?