ABORTED DREAMS

She tried to deny the adage that everything happens for a purpose. Here she was her graduation so close. She felt her stomach bulging slightly bigger than the previous day. Soon it would be common knowledge that she was expectant, no, pregnant. Expectant is rather too formal. She cringed at the thought of jeers from her peers; something that made her thinks that it wasn’t real. It wasn’t her and she would do anything to get rid of it. Whatever it takes the baby will not see this world.

Her name is Becky.

She isn’t any ordinary girl. Men ogle at her wherever she goes. Her behind has caused many accidents than alcohol. In fact the slogan should be changed to ‘don’t drive behind Becky.  Its looks plastic, it looks real, it looks extraordinary. Her face too is an epitome of beauty−everything about her is measured to perfection− her nose, her eyes, her lips are all what a real woman should look like.

But behind her beauty, misery is hidden. Underneath her charming smile there is pain. She gallantly conceals all of it behind her gracious walk, her toe length flowery dress raising dust as she struts along the dusty road. She is heading to her uncle’s place. He takes care of her needs. Her parents are too old to fend for her. All her siblings are drunkards, thus bequeathing the burden of her educational needs to her maternal uncle. And the good old man has been doing this for quite a while now. He is to be eased of the burden soon since Becky is four months away from clearing her university education.

Becky’s mind weighed all the options of her life and she couldn’t bring herself to disappointing her uncle. The unborn baby seemed to have heard her thoughts for she felt it move. Her mind seemed address it;

“Sorry you have be null sooner than today. I have heard plenty of stories about the consequences and I think am more than ready to face any of it. Am sorry I have been promiscuous and don’t even know your dad. The three of them denied me at the instant I told them I was expecting you. I know you know what I go through daily; you are always part of me. I’m sorry for this. I’m sorry for denying you the chance to see this world. I’m sorry you won’t see any sunshine in your world.

I think am saving you the evil that is rampant over this world. Terrorism is the norm, politicians taking us for a ride. Recently they launched a standard gauge railway. You wouldn’t have seen it because greed has robbed us the sense to judge good from bad……” her thoughts went on until she came to a familiar ground, the meeting point of her and her boyfriends. She sprung from her reverie and straight into reality. She was a few metres past her uncle’s abode.

She turned back and walked slowly. A numbing feeling took over her. Why did she have to think of such a thing? She asked herself again and again, each time failing to come up an answer. Everything seemed to justify her decision to abort. A cloud of regret would occasionally engulf her. She regretted for being too greedy. She wanted to live a life beyond her means without working for it. All the men who approached her managed to get all of her provided he had some money to spend. It didn’t take long before she realized that one wasn’t enough. She felt the need to be loved transcend all things. That seemed a wrong decision. The man she loved couldn’t be able to provide for her and she settled for three, each with a role to play. She fulfilled lustful desires f two of them and filled love for the other. And that’s how she became pregnant.

All of them fled when they heard the news. She should have lied to them then go a far off place where they could send some cash for her upkeep, without the knowledge of the existence of  a baby. But that wouldn’t be possible with her uncle taking care of her educational needs. She couldn’t afford to disappoint him at homestretch. This made her think it was the right decision to abort.

She knocked at the black metallic gate with fancy design at the top. There was no response. She knocked again. She knocked and pushed at the same time. It hadn’t been locked as it usually was. The watchman wasn’t there either. She walked carefully on the concrete pavement hoping her uncle was around. Being a Saturday, she expected him to be at home. She looked around and saw his car packed, the watchman appeared around it with a bucket full of water, a sign that had she delayed a few minutes she couldn’t have found him.

Before she could reach the door to his bungalow, he emerged dressed in a well pressed black suit. A white shirt shone underneath and black shoes complemented him burly frame. He greeted her and told her that he had some important business to attend to. He knew what she wanted and reached his brown leather wallet. He removed a bunch of notes then counted three of them and handed them to her. The rest he slipped into his wallet without looking at her. She was invisible for a while but not when he disappeared into his Mercedes, he waved good bye and drove off.

She watched the sleek car recede as the old watchman closed the gate. She paced up and down before going away. Her aunt and cousins were home but she felt like being alone for a while.  Her hands were sweaty due the nervousness that had gripped her. She felt all she had lived for disintegrate in her hands into nothingness, beyond the point of being salvaged. Her eyes were itchy owing to the tears building up without an outlet. She didn’t want to cry. It wasn’t prudent of her. She had made up her mind and nothing could stop her.

Becky writhed in pain. Blood was all over her room. She lived in the ladies’ hostel with two of her friends who were not around. It was a weekend and they were all out, perhaps with their boyfriends or wherever they could find fun. She bled alone, all her sheets were soaked with blood. She stared at death and she was gallant enough to see through her last moments without letting out a cry of help. All the dreams she carried accompanied her to the underworld.

China railway attack brings courage, despair

BEIJING — Li Jinmei sat with her mother in the square outside Kunming railway station Saturday night as Li's husband took their 6-year-old daughter to buy train tickets. After the Lunar New Year break, the family was returning to another city in southwest China, where his welding job doesn't pay much but still more than farming their small plot.
Then terror descended.
"Suddenly I saw everybody was running and screaming, so I followed them too," said Li, 32. More than 10 men and women, some dressed in black and masked, all bearing knives, had begun slashing and stabbing anyone they could reach, including children.
Close to the ticket hall, Li's husband, Pan Huabing, saw an attacker launch a blow at his daughter and threw himself in its path. Cut badly on the throat, he clutched his unharmed daughter on the ground. As another assailant approached, Pan's friend Zuo Ruxing, a fellow welder, grabbed the girl and his own son, also 6, and ran for their lives, he told The Beijing News.
At a nearby hotel, a desperate Li later found them. Police ended the carnage by shooting dead four of the suspected attackers, including one woman, said state broadcaster CCTV Sunday. The one assailant taken alive, wounded by police fire, was also female. Police were searching for at least five more.
At least 29 people were killed and 143 wounded. according to Xinhua News Agency. The incident ranks as one of China's worst and most deadly acts of terror, according to city authorities. Xinhua cited them saying evidence shows the attack was by "Xinjiang separatist forces" who seek independence for the vast region of Xinjiang in China's northwest. It is home to 10 million Uighur, a mostly Muslim people.
As Kunming residents struggled to come to terms with the bloodshed visited upon their usually peaceful city, a popular holiday destination in China, many relatives faced anxious waits for the wounded and missing.
"Thanks to Mr. Zuo, and my husband, my daughter could keep her life," a grateful Li Jinmei said by telephone from her husband's hospital, one of 11 treating the injured.
But after seven hours of surgery, "doctors said he isn't out of danger. He's still in an ICU," said Li, who worries about the mental impact of the horror their daughter witnessed. "I'm a housewife. I've never heard of Uighurs before. I only know we have no enmity against them, but how could they be so cruel?" she said. "I can't understand why they would do that to my child and my husband."
Chinese authorities, issuing the same judgment given to several recent assaults on police stations in Xinjiang, said Saturday's incident was "a premeditated, organized, serious, violent terrorist attack" by Xinjiang separatists. Beijing blames outside forces and religious extremists for fomenting trouble between the Uighur and the Han, China's majority ethnic group, who have migrated to Xinjiang in recent decades.
Uighur activist groups accuse Chinese authorities of causing unrest through repressive, discriminatory policies. The U.S. State Department said last week there was "severe official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, association and assembly of ethnic Uighurs" in Xinjiang in 2013.
Adding to calls for swift action from China's Communist Party leader, Xi Jinping, the domestic security chief Meng Jianzhu, who had rushed to Kunming, said "the terrorists were devoid of conscience, brutally attacked unarmed civilians, exposed their anti-humanity and anti-society nature, and they should be harshly punished in accordance with the law," Xinhua reported.
A commentary carried by Xinhua on Sunday titled "Nothing justifies civilian slaughter in China's "9-11'" argued that China's recent decision to establish a national security committee chaired by Xi is "very timely and necessary." After Saturday, "a nationwide outrage has been stirred. Justice needs to be done and terrorists should be punished," the commentary said.
Most previous incidents of Xinjiang-related violence have been limited to Xinjiang. Saturday's attack in Yunnan province, more than 1,000 miles to the southeast, follows another in Beijing last October, when a Uighur family of three drove a car into Tiananmen Gate and detonated it, killing themselves and two pedestrians and injuring 40 people.
This second incident "will be quite worrying for Beijing, as it shows the spread of the sphere of activity to the Chinese heartland, and a few steps along in developing their strategy by a separatist or terrorist organization," said Michael Clarke, an expert on Xinjiang and terrorism at Australia's Griffith University.
Although Beijing insists that Xinjiang terror attacks are inspired from abroad, Saturday's assault, like many in recent years, still reveals "a low level of sophistication, being armed with knives, not the sophisticated, well-armed terror attack of the al-Qaeda variety," Clarke said.
Chinese state policy "is partly responsible for what we're seeing," he said, because of Uighur anger at crackdowns on Islamic practice, and other ways of controlling Uighur culture, and the perception that Xinjiang is being colonized by Han immigrants.
"Severe discrimination and repressive policies lead to Uighur people being wounded in their hearts, and may provoke the victims to adopt these kind of extreme measures," Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman in Sweden for the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group, said in a written statement. He said there was no justification for attacks on common people.

Did Jared Leto look like Jesus at the Oscars?

olie Lee, business today 2014

(Photo: Jeff Vespa, WireImage)

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With his long, flowing locks and white suit, Jared Leto looked a lot like Jesus at the 86th Academy Awards, Twitter users commented. Do you think he did?
Leto won an Oscar for best supporting actor in Dallas Buyers Club.

Oscars: Top moments from the 86th Academy Awards

The 86th Academy Awards honors the best in film. Business Network brings you the best moments of the night.
Big winners
Gravity went into the night tied with a leading 10 nominations with American Hustle — which was ultimately shut out — and the white-knuckle space thriller won seven, including original score, cinematography, film editing, sound mixing, sound editing and visual effects.
Among the big Oscar winners were:
Best picture: 12 Years a Slave
Best director: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Best actor: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Best supporting actor: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best supporting actress: Lupita N'yongo (12 Years a Slave)
LIST:Winners and nominees
VOTE:Who was the best dressed?

Actress Cate Blanchett accepts the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role award for 'Blue Jasmine' onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2014 in Hollywood.(Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images)

Red carpet fashion

Lupita Nyong'o arrives at the 86th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Among the most-anticipated looks was Lupita Nyong'o, who continued her sartorial winning streak in a light-blue Prada gown. The actress, from Kenya, said the blue color reminded her of Nairobi.
Anna Kendrick pulled an Angelina Jolie, wearing a dress with a thigh-high slit. Olivia Wilde and Kerry Washington stylishly dressed up their baby bumps. Lady Gaga looked surprisingly normal in a strapless Versace gown.

Liza Minnelli arrives at the 86th annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre.(Photo: Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY)

Other buzzed-about looks: Liza Minnelli matched her cobalt blue pants suit with a streak of blue in her hair. Pharrell Williams showed up on the red carpet in tuxedo shorts.

Rain can’t dampen stars’ spirits or style Wet weather isn’t ideal for the red carpet, but when it comes right down to it, there’s no such thing as raining on the Oscars fashion parade. Hollywood’s biggest stars pulled out all the style stops for Sunday’s show, where this year’s standouts were sure to earn a place in fashion history. USA TODAY’s fashion team pinpoints the highlights. Reporting by Cindy Clark, Donna Freydkin, Carly Mallenbaum, Andrea Mandell, Alison Maxwell,USA TODAY Photos by Robert Hanashiro, Dan MacMedan, Todd Plitt, USA TODAY Lupita Nyong’o arrives.  (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USAT)

Powerful acceptance speeches
In accepting the award for best supporting actor, Jared Leto thanked his mother, a teenage high school dropout and single mom from Louisiana who taught her children "to be creative, work hard and be special."
Leto also used his speech to acknowledge struggles in other countries. "To all of the dreamers out there around the world watching this tonight, in places like the Ukraine and Venezuela, I want to say, 'we are here,'" Leto said.

Actor Jared Leto accepts the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role award for 'Dallas Buyers Club' onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on March 2, 2014.(Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images)

A teary Nyong'o said of her Oscar-winning supporting actress role in 12 Years a Slave, "It doesn't escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else's."
Ellen rocks as host
Ellen DeGeneres returned for a second time hosting the Oscars, after her first stint in 2007. Among her best lines from the night:

• "Things are so different now. Last time, for instance, when I was here Cate Blanchett was nominated, Meryl Streep was nominated, Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated, Martin Scorsese was nominated. So different."
• "Possibility number one: 12 Years A Slave wins best picture. Possibility number two: you're all racists."

Host Ellen DeGeneres speaks onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre.(Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images)

J-Law trips (again)
Jennifer Lawrence tripped over a cone on the red carpet, reminiscent of her tumble last year as she climbed the stage to accept the Oscar. During her opening monologue, DeGeneres called out Lawrence for falling and said, "If you win tonight, I think we should bring you the Oscar."

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Dancing with the stars
During the performance of his hit song Happy, Williams stepped off stage and danced with some stars in the front row, including N'yongo, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Lupita Nyong'o, left, dances with Pharrell Williams during his performance of "Happy" at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on March 2 in Los Angeles.  (Photo: John Shearer, Invision/AP)

Best. Selfie. Ever.
In a single selfie photo: DeGeneres, Meryl Streep, Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, N'yongo and Kevin Spacey. DeGeneres tweeted: "Best photo ever. #oscars." It became the most retweeted tweet ever and Twitter briefly crashed.

If only Bradley's arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscarspic.twitter.com/C9U5NOtGap
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

A big slice
"I have this crazy idea that I will order pizza," DeGeneres said, asking if anyone was hungry. "Two large, what'd you think?" DeGeneres had the pizza delivered and handed out slices to the people in the audience.

Brad Pitt, left, and Ellen DeGeneres, right, pass out pizza in the audience during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Los Angeles.(Photo: John Shearer, Invision/AP)

Pronunciation flub
John Travolta had the job of introducing Idina Menzel, who sang Let it Go from Frozen. Unfortunately, what came out sounded more like "Adele Nazim." The song won an Oscar for best original song.

What you need to now on Monday

Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius went on trial MOnday in Pretoria for the Valentine's Day 2013 shooting death of his model girlfriend, with South Africans closely following a case that could send him to prison for 25 years or more. South African press coverage of the slaying of Reeva Steenkamp in a bathroom in Pistorius's Pretoria home has been intense, with the feel of a tragic soap opera. Pistorius, 27, a former Olympian and double amputee called "Blade Runner" for his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs, goes on trial in North Gauteng High Court.
Oscars roundup
The period drama 12 Years a Slave won the Oscar for best picture, and Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, and Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club, took home the top acting awards at the 86th annual Academy Awards. Gravity filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón won the Oscar for best director. But the most buzzed about moment of the night might have been Ellen DeGeneres' A-list selfie. J-Law, Brad, Julia, Meryl, and other stars squeezed into the pic that millions would tweet so quickly that Twitter would briefly crash. Ellen's tweet has become the most retweeted post ever, almost doubling the previous record holder for most retweets, President Obama's November 2012 "four more years" re-election photo.
Kerry heads to Kiev as Ukraine crisis deepens
Russian troops have consolidated their hold on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula as the United States and others denounced the military movement, deepening the East-West standoff over the future of Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European foreign ministers announced plans for talks in Kiev aimed at easing rising tensions as Ukraine put its military on high alert and appealed for international help against a feared invasion by Russia. The uncertainty over the crisis has been roiling global markets.
Latest winter storm plasters big swath of USA
The winter that just won't end is at it again. A winter storm over the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley is expected to move northeastward to the Mid-Atlantic, eventually dumping 6-12 inches of snow across a swath that includes Washington, D.C., according to the National Weather Service. The federal government says its offices in the Washington area will be closed Monday due to the storm. The closure will keep tens of thousands of commuters off the roads.
Pharrell's new album arrives
G I R L, the new album by music phenom Pharrell, is set to arrive today, the day after the singer/songwriter and storied producer performed his nominated hit Happy on the Oscars The song, from Despicable Me 2, is among 10 tracks on G I R L, which features guests Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake and Daft Punk, the French duo who enlisted Pharrell for Grammy-winning smash Get Lucky.

Suicide bombers kill 11 in Pakistani capital

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a court complex in the Pakistani capital on Monday, killing 11 people and wounding dozens in a rare terror attack in the heart of Islamabad, officials said.
Initial reports suggested two men wearing explosive vests rushed into the court complex, threw hand grenades and started shooting, then blew themselves up, said Islamabad Police Chief Sikander Hayat.
He put the death toll at 11 as did another police official and a hospital spokeswoman where the dead were taken.
"It was certainly an act of terrorism," Hayat said in televised comments to reporters.
One of the attackers blew himself up outside the office of the lawyers' union president and the other outside the door of a judge's office, said Hayat.
The explosions sent lawyers and judges running in fear for their lives as police stormed in. Hayat said police subsequently searched the entire complex and found no additional attackers.
The area where the attack occurred is a warren of walkways filled with judges' chambers, lawyers' offices and restaurants and businesses catering to the legal community. The walkways are filled with copying machines for clerks and clients to make copies of legal documents, and prisoners wearing chains can often be seen walking through the complex on their way to and from court. Families of suspects on trial also often stand around the area, waiting for their loved ones to appear in court.
Pakistani television showed images of the area with windows blown out, walls torn and lawyers wearing the traditional black suit worn by all Pakistani lawyers carrying what appeared to be dead and wounded from the buildings. Policemen with weapons raised ran through the area and searched offices.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came as a shock to a city that has enjoyed a respite from the frequent bombings and shootings prevalent in other Pakistani cities.

Six important tax tips for homeowners

For tax year 2013, the standard deduction is $6,100 for single Americans and $12,200 for those married and filing jointly.
That means unless you can claim more than those amounts, there's no reason to itemize.
One of the most common ways to get over the threshold, however, is to own a house and unlock the many deductions that come with homeownership.
But it's not as simply as simply mailing a mortgage bill to the IRS and reaping the rewards. There are a bunch of very specific deductions that require specific paperwork.
Here are six important tax tips to look for if you're a homeowner:
Mortgage Interest
Claiming mortgage interest is the biggie, and one of the most common deductions among taxpayers.
"It's evolved over the last 10 years, but we now have a cap of $1.1 million in mortgage debt that we can deduct for tax purposes," said Monica Rebella, a certified public accountant in California. This includes first mortgages, as well as mortgages on second homes.
Rebella also points out that the deduction even covers multiple loans, so those with a primary residence in Ohio but winter home in Florida can claim the interest on both, so long as the total is under the $1.1 million cap.
Just be careful, she warns, of claiming a mortgage interest deduction on home equity loans that haven't been used to improve the property.
"If you refinanced your loan and decided, 'Hey, why don't we take another $50,000 out in equity,' but then you don't use that money to, say, build a pool, that's not fully deductible," Rebella said. "You have to use the money to improve the house, or you are not allowed a deduction for that."
Mortgage Insurance and Taxes Count, Too
In addition to mortgage interest, private mortgage insurance is also deductible.
Don't mistake private mortgage insurance, or PMI, for homeowner's insurance that protects against a fire or other loss. PMI comes into play with lower-income homeowners who often can't afford a big down payment, and instead pay a small monthly fee as insurance against default . The idea is to protect the lender against being stuck with a big loan with zero equity in the home, as well as to allow those without huge nest eggs to buy a property with minimal down payments.
If you make a private mortgage insurance payment, in most cases this is deductible.
Also worth noting is that local and state property taxes can also be itemized on federal tax returns. Particularly for lower-income Americans, there may be special property tax benefits available based on your community.
Going Green
Unless Congress extends existing tax credits for residential energy efficiency, 2013 is your last chance to claim up to $500 in green energy credits.
"Insulation, energy efficient windows and doors, high efficiency air conditioner and heaters — we still have credits for those," Rebella said.
Still, the cap is small at just $500, and it's not applicable if you claimed it previously since the credit was passed in 2011.
A separate and more substantial credit is available for solar energy installations, so long as they are on your primary residence and not a rental property.
"The credit is for 30% of the cost, including installation, including wiring, including everything," Rebella said.
Cancellation of Debt
Cancellation of mortgage debt is a very important part of filing your tax return and shouldn't be overlooked. That's because if you fail to report the debt forgiveness, it could result in a big change to your overall tax liability and hefty penalties from the IRS.
Rebella said that while foreclosures are not as common as they were a few years ago, debt forgiveness is still very common.
"Interestingly, I'm seeing these 1099-Cs, which is the form for cancellation of debt, on people that can no longer make their second [mortgage] on their home," she said.
In other words, some Americans who saw home prices rebound took out a home equity loan but are now having trouble making payments. Even if it's not the same as a foreclosure or a short-sale, if that second mortgage is written down by a lender then the borrower has to report that when filing their taxes.
Selling Your Home Unlocks Tax Breaks
Of course, for homeowners who have taken advantage of a resurgent housing market by selling their homes altogether, there are also tax implications.
If you sold a home in the past year, costs including title insurance, advertising and real estate broker fees can also be claimed on your return.
You can also claim certain repairs to reduce your capital gains on the sale, presuming they were made within 90 days of the sale and clearly for the intent of marketing the property.
And after the sale? If you had to find a new home because of a new job that is located more than 50 miles away from your old home, you may be able to deduct your reasonable moving expenses, too.
Casualty Losses
Especially given the very harsh winter weather we've seen recently, it's important to note that when disaster strikes you are able to claim a tax break for any significant losses.
"You have to have a loss more than 10% of your income," Rebella said. "So if you make $50,000, you have to pay $5,000 out-of-pocket before you get any deduction."
And for the record, that's an out-of-pocket loss. You won't get a deduction for losses that were covered by your insurer and that you were compensated for.
But Rebella notes that "some people don't update their insurance, or sometimes there's specific things [insurers] exclude so you can still have a casualty loss even with coverage."
Just make sure that before you claim a $3,000 flat screen was stolen by a burglar or that you had a fully finished basement damaged in a flood that you can prove the value.
"The biggest thing is documentation, documentation, documentation," Rebella said.
In this age of smartphones, it only takes a minute to snap a picture of valuable property — something good to have for both insurance claims as well as taxes, she said.
Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor's Guide to Finding Great Stocks.

Does his financial support for Ukrainian political groups pose problems for his budding media empire?

Does his financial support for Ukrainian political groups pose problems for his budding media empire?

Story Highlights

• PandoDaily reported Omidyar had funded groups opposed to the Ukrainian government
• Turns out Omidyar had announced the aid on his website in 2011
• Journalism is increasingly funded by funders with social agendas

So what are we to make of the flap over contributions by eBay founder and nascent media titan Pierre Omidyar to anti-government groups in Ukraine?
Website PandoDaily published a story Friday reporting that Omidyar, along with the U.S. government, had bankrolled groups active in opposing the recently toppled government of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Omidyar is also funding First Look Media, a budding media colossus, to the tune of $250 million. His marquee hire is Glenn Greenwald, a crusading left-of-center journalist who has been the leader in coverage of the revelations of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
In a breathless article written as if it were unearthing major skullduggery, PandoDaily's Mark Ames wrote: "What all this adds up to is a journalistic conflict-of-interest of the worst kind: Omidyar working hand-in-glove with U.S. foreign policy agencies to interfere in foreign governments, co-financing regime change with well-known arms of the American empire -- while at the same time hiring a growing team of so-disant 'independent journalists' which vows to investigate the behavior of the US government at home and overseas, and boasts of its uniquely 'adversarial' relationship toward these government institutions."
Ames also claimed that Omidyar had purchased the silence of the "dream team" of writers he has hired and the rest of the fawning press, who were not weighing in on his questionable deeds.
Greenwald promptly ended that silence Sunday with a post that quickly took the air out of the "this just in" scoop when he pointed out Omidyar's aid had been disclosed in a press release on the Omidyar Network website when he made pro-democracy grants to the Ukrainian group and five others in 2011.
The famously independent Greenwald conceded that he hadn't known that before, just as he didn't know much about the funding sources of previous employers Salon and the Guardian, where he had broken so many stories about NSA surveillance. He said it didn't matter, because none of that would have affected his reporting. Just as the Omidyar "revelations" won't.
While there may be more to the story, at this juncture I hardly see a major media scandal here. But it does underscore that we are in very different waters.
For years, potential or actual conflicts of interest were off-limits in American journalism. Former Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. went to the extreme of refusing to vote, on the grounds that that very act might compromise his independence.
Two things have made a dent in the traditional approach: the rise of the freewheeling Internet, and the huge financial challenge facing traditional news outlets in the digital age. The latter has brought nonprofit journalism to the fore, and with it funders with social agendas.
So a new approach is achieving grudging acceptance: It's OK if funders, news outlets and journalists have a point of view, as long as it is fully disclosed, and as long as their factual reporting sticks to the truth.
For example: ProPublica has been heavily underwritten by a foundation with a liberal bent. But its investigative reporting has been widely praised as fact-based, on-target and not swayed by ideology.
Or take the NSA surveillance saga. Yes, Glenn Greenwald is an unabashed liberal. But his reporting has been totally solid. And the revelations in the Snowden documents he and Bart Gellman of The Washington Post and others have brought to light provided vital information to the American people and started a sorely-needed debate about privacy in the U.S.
So as the Omidyar venture, which has launched its first digital magazine, The Intercept, takes shape, it will be watched closely. But I continue to see it as source of hope, not alarm

How can I protect my PC’s privacy, and my IP address?

By Jack Schofield for the Gurdian.co.uk
EB wants something that does the same job as Webroot’s discontinued Window Washer, and he’d like to protect his internet address as well…
Although there are a few commercial programs that are similar to Webroot’s Window Washer — Privacy Guardian ($19.99) and Evidence Eliminator spring to mind — a free program does the job perfectly well: CCleaner.
Piriform’s CCleaner (crap cleaner) removes temporary files, history files, cookies, logs, auto-complete entries and other detritus from browsers and many other common programs. (The list can be expanded with CCEnhancer.) It also includes a Windows Registry cleaner. For best results, I’d run it immediately after a re-boot, with no other programs running. In your case, however, you might want to run it after you finish computing for the day.
As I’ve mentioned several times before, download CCleaner from the Piriform site, and do not follow any scam links from adverts on Google. Also, when installing CCleaner, remember to untick the offers to “Install Google Chrome as my default browser” and “Also include Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer” or whatever. I appreciate that companies make money from free software by bundling “foistware” but it should always be provided on an “opt in” basis.
Both Window Washer and CCleaner provide ways of removing files that other people might see, and they recover hard drive space from browser caches. (Google Chrome can easily consume a gigabyte.) But I tend to take the line that (a) nobody else should have access to your account; and (b) if you don’t want your PC to store files that might be a privacy risk, don’t keep them in the first place. For example, browsers already include a feature that says something like (in IE’s case) “Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed”. In IE, go to Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and scroll down to the Security section to enable it.
It’s not unusual for family members to share PCs, but they should use their own separate accounts. This also means you can give them standard accounts instead of administrator accounts, which greatly limits the amount of damage they can do. This is particularly important if some users are children.
“Switch user” is one of the options on the menu that lets you log off Windows, tell the PC to sleep or restart etc. It’s reasonably quick to switch between users if they are already logged on.
Multiple users obviously share a PCs programs and files, but things stored in user directories are private.

“Porn modes” and sandboxing

One problem for programs like Window Washer is that browsers now have privacy features that work even when different people are using the same Windows user account. In Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the feature is called InPrivate browsing, in Chrome it’s Incognito mode, and in Firefox, Private Browsing. In these modes, the browser limits the information it stores in memory, and it dumps the data when you close the private browsing tab or window.
The private browsing feature is often known as “porn mode” but it’s something that most people should find useful. It’s a good idea to use it when researching topics that most people would want to keep private: for medical and some financial searches, for example. It’s also the best mode to use on openly shared workspace or cybercafe PCs.
Another way to protect your privacy is to run programs inside their own virtual “sandbox” where they won’t affect the rest of the operating system. This also helps protect you from malware. Sandboxie is the best known free program for Windows, and I first mentioned it in Ask Jack in 2008. It is free for personal use, cheap to register, and commercial licenses are available.
I’m not aware of any good free alternatives to Sandboxie.
When you’ve finished browsing with a web browser (or another program) inside Sandboxie, everything is thrown away. The next step up from that is to throw away the whole operating system environment. This is most commonly done using a Linux Live CD, or by running a version of Linux from a USB thumb drive. This is a good way to browse the web using someone else’s PC without leaving a record. (The Enterprise version of Windows 8 also runs well from a thumb drive using Windows To Go.)

Anonymous web surfing

Note that none of the above will do much to protect your privacy while you are online. To do that, please see my answer from December 2012: How can I protect my privacy online? That answer included some information on hiding your IP (Internet Protocol) address, which is a frequently asked question.
As you know, everything on the internet has an internet address, which is written as a group of four numbers. The Guardian, for example, is at 77.91.249.30. Lots of different websites will tell you your IP address, such as What Is My IP?.
If you have a broadband internet connection, your IP address is likely to stay the same over long periods, and websites can use it (along with cookies and so on) to identify and track you. One solution to this problem is to connect to a different IP address before you connect to any websites. This intermediate address is called a proxy. If you connect via an anonymous proxy, websites will think you are coming from that address, not your real IP address.
In effect, the proxy also changes your apparent location. For example, if you use a US-based proxy server, websites will think you are in the USA.
Several website list free proxy servers for those who know how to use them, such as Proxy4free. However, most people are best advised to use an anonymous web-surfing site, or an encrypted “virtual private network” (VPN) service. This not only protects your privacy from websites, it also protects your privacy from your internet service provider (ISP) and any related government snooping.
Of course, VPN providers can still see what you are doing, and it is in their interests to protect themselves if you do things that are illegal or against their terms of service, eg spamming.
Free anonymous services tend to limit users to activities that don’t require a lot of bandwidth. Web-surfing is OK. Watching videos and downloading large files may be limited or blocked. I often use services such as AnonyMouse and US Web Proxy. (Tunlr is an alternative way of getting round regional blocking: it’s a free service that works by changing your DNS settings. It enables users to watch services such as Hulu outside the US, or use BBC iPlayer inside the US.)

VPNs

If you want a full service, then you should subscribe to a VPN such as WiTopia, Hide My Ass!, GhostPath or VyprVPN. Again, for more details, see my earlier answer Using a VPN to protect your web use.
It makes sense to subscribe to a VPN if you travel a lot and therefore use Wi-Fi in hotels and public spaces. It’s even more advisable if you perform high-value transactions that involve trading or banking.
If you are unwilling or unable to pay, some VPN providers also offer free ad-supported services, such as AnchorFree’s HotSpot Shield and Optimal’s Wi-Fi Protector.
If you need more security and privacy than a VPN provides, there’s TOR, The Onion Router. This was “originally developed with the US Navy in mind, for the primary purpose of protecting government communications”. Today, it is used by people who need to put privacy first, including dissidents, whistle-blowers, activists, journalists, police and some military personnel. However, it’s relatively slow and, for most ordinary users, not a general-purpose solution for internet privacy.

Lupita Nyong’o wins best supporting actress Oscar

Lupita Nyong’o has won the best supporting actress Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards for her role in 12 Years a Slave, defeating a field that included Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine and American Hustle’s Jennifer Lawrence.
Nyong’o, who was born in Mexico but grew up in Kenya, played Patsey in 12 Years a Slave, her first film acting role; her most memorable scene was one in which she receives a flogging for wanting to wash with soap. The film was directed by Steve McQueen, and based on the real-life memoir of kidnap victim Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor); it also starred Michael Fassbender and Benedict Cumberbatch.
In a moving acceptance speech, Nyong’o said: “It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is due to so much pain in someone else’s” – the slaves whose story was told in Solomon Northup’s memoir on which the film was based.
She thanked her co-stars and her director Steve McQueen, saying: “Thank you for putting me in this position; it has been the joy of my life … I’m certain that the dead are standing around you and saluting you.”
She concluded with a message to children everywhere: “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

The Academy Awards are taking place at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles, and are being hosted by Ellen DeGeneres.