Slashdot Mirror

From there:

[Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo] Patino said Ecuador was still considering Snowden’s request for asylum while also delivering what appeared to be an impassioned defense of former the CIA contractor. Patino, whose government has been sharply criticized for silencing journalists at home, insisted that Snowden’s case was fundamentally one based on the principle of human rights and praised Snowden for disclosing a surveillance program that had affected nations around the globe.

He cited U.S. refusals to extradite bankers convicted in crimes in Ecuador, saying Quito was now free to exercise its “sovereignty” in the same way. When asked if he was concerned about damaging his nation’s economic relationship with Washington, Patino remained adamant.

“Ecuador puts its principles above its economic interests,” he said.

Hoo boy. I'm almost beginning to feel sorry for the US diplomatic establishment. After HK's eloquent fuck-you-and-lolno to the states, EC brings a bigger one.

I don't think Clinton's ordering the spicy soup today—plain noodles will do. Something about the excess perspiration these past few days...

The HKSAR Government today (June 23) issued the following statement on Mr Edward Snowden:

Mr Edward Snowden left Hong Kong today (June 23) on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel.

The US Government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR Government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden. Since the documents provided by the US Government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR Government has requested the US Government to provide additional information so that the Department of Justice could consider whether the US Government's request can meet the relevant legal conditions. As the HKSAR Government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong.

The HKSAR Government has already informed the US Government of Mr Snowden's departure.

Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government has formally written to the US Government requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies. The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong.

Ends/Sunday, June 23, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:05

Full text below (copied from page source)

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong and is on a commercial flight to Russia, but Moscow will not be his final destination.

The fugitive whistle-blower boarded the Moscow-bound flight earlier on Sunday and would continue on to another country, possibly Cuba then Venezuela, according to media reports.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden had departed "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel".

The 30-year-old left from Chep Lap Kok airport on a flight scheduled for 10.55am. He is believed to have boarded Aeroflot Flight SU213, which landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport at 5.03pm local time, according to the airport's website.

"Snowden left Hong Kong on his own will," a government source told the Post, adding that the Hong Kong government had not provided Snowden with any assistance or protection during his whole stay. The source dispelled media claims that the government had provided him a "safe house".

It was understood that Snowden's departure was a relief to the Hong Kong government, which had been making all legal preparation to deal with new developments regarding the case.

Regina Ip, former secretary of security, told the New York Times : "I think [the US] government will be upset for a while, but I hope that they will shrug it off, because our government acted in accordance with the law. Our government officials can breathe a sigh of relief."

Final destination?

Russian news agencies Interfax and Itar-Tass reported Snowden is booked on a flight from Moscow to Cuba on Monday. Itar-Tass said Snowden would fly from Havana to Caracas, Venezuela.

“A passenger under that name will arrive in Moscow from Hong Kong today on flight SU213, and tomorrow, on June 24, he will fly to Havana on flight SU150,” the state news agency ITAR-Tass quoted a source at the airline as saying. “Also tomorrow, he will go to Caracas from Havana on a local flight.”

There is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong

--Hong Kong government

'No legal basis'

The Hong Kong government said it had notified the US government about Snowden's departure.

Snowden is wanted by the US government after he disclosed classified documents detailing the clandestine cybersnooping programmes carried out by Washington’s National Security Agency.

The US government on June 14 filed espionage and theft charges against the former CIA technician, and the US National Security Council confirmed that it had put in a formal extradition request to the Hong Kong government.

The Hong Kong government said on Sunday that it had requested more information so the Department of Justice could consider whether to go forward with the US extradition request.

“As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong,” the statement said.

Later on Sunday, China's foreign ministry said: "The central government always respects the HKSAR government's handling of affairs in accordance with law."

WikiLeaks' role

WikiLeaks, whistle-blowing website founded by Julian Assange, said on Twitter it had helped Snowdwn secure political asylum in a “democratic country”. It also said it had arr

Dave: Flush the toilet, HAL.

HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.


And also a bit offtopic but still an importent reminder:
http://www.info.gov.hk/dh/diseases/ap/eng/flushtoi let.htm

I couldn't find the details about this badge anywhere in the http://www.scout.org.hk/. Apperantly they have not uploaded the details of this new badge or they're not enthusiastic about it.

From the Standard [1], this badge is NOT a MERIT BADGE. It's a proficiency badge which you cannot put it on the scout shirt. Besides, what you only need to do is to attend a series of seminars/indoctrinations as you see fit, and vola, you got the badge. The local media did try not to twist the story too much. So it's not really a matter of brainwashing after all, and Slashdotters should not really go crazy about this subject. Besides, some1somewhere was right on his post #12424010 http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=14823 3&cid=12424010, this does not really matter anyway because no one would really care.

The HK SAR government seems to be quite enthusiastic about this and issued a press release [2].

References:
[1] http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Metro/GE04A k06.html
[2] http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200504/30/04290 171.htm

As a citizen here I found myself responsible for clarifying some of the misunderstandings slashdotters have on Hong Kong:

- HK's judiciary system is definitely, entirely, totally different from that in China. It is inherited from the British colony before 1997, much more "civilized", transparent (= costly), and, in some sense, fair. This is what "one country, two systems" is for.

- I can say nearly 99% of bittorrent activities here were for copyrighted materials. My confession: I occasionally do that myself, although more often to get a copy of ubuntu. Yes, we have many (compared with western countries) pirate shops here, but 1) there are really not that many, and they are concentrated in some areas; 2) almost all of them are ran by the gangs; we all recognize that buying pirates from them is equivalent to funding them to do illegal activities. So bittorrent is quite popular recently here, kind of like helping each others.

- This is definitely not the first time prosecuting someone for violating the copyright law. I remember some guys here sharing mp3 via ftp and got caught. This time it goes into headline in HK newspaper and even in slashdot simply because the technology used here: bittorrent, which was believed (at least by many) to be difficult to get caught.

- After the caught of that guy, the number of seeders, who were scared, dropped by at least 90%. The "random" warning letters help too (no, I haven't received any, poor luck~). However, we all know that we can still find many of them in websites in China...

- Littering in HK is actually fined HK$1500. This is severe because of SARS outbreak.

I'm not sure, but I don't think the US extradites US citizens to other countries.

Extracted from the US to:
Ireland

Hong Kong

Yugoslavia

I am by no means an expert on this, these are just some google results. zu

The Basic Law (something akin to a constitution) of Hong Kong provides in Article 8 that:

The laws previously in force in Hong Kong, that is, the common law, rules of equity, ordinances, subordinate legislation and customary law shall be maintained, except for any that contravene this Law, and subject to any amendment by the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

So basically Hong Kong has the same laws and legal system as it did before 1997.

Yes, the laws of Hong Kong and mainland China are radically different, and will probably stay that way.

If you're really interested, you might want to check out the Basic Law of Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, there is no law against buying pirate products. The law only states that selling/distributing pirate products is illegal. But the authorities are trying to http://www.info.gov.hk/cib/ehtml/pdf/consultation/ 2004copyright_e.pdf/change that, though.

I'm not sure, but I don't think the US extradites US citizens to other countries.

Extracted from the US to:
Ireland [archives.tcm.ie]

Hong Kong [info.gov.hk]

Yugoslavia [geocities.com]

I am by no means an expert on this, these are just some google results. wap

I'm not sure, but I don't think the US extradites US citizens to other countries.

Extracted from the US to:
Ireland [archives.tcm.ie]

Hong Kong [info.gov.hk]

Yugoslavia [geocities.com]

I am by no means an expert on this, these are just some google results. iaq

I'm not sure, but I don't think the US extradites US citizens to other countries.

Extracted from the US to:
Ireland [archives.tcm.ie]

Hong Kong [info.gov.hk]

Yugoslavia [geocities.com]

I am by no means an expert on this, these are just some google results. zr

The link should be link

I'm not sure, but I don't think the US extradites US citizens to other countries.

Extracted from the US to:
Ireland

Hong Kong

Yugoslavia

I am by no means an expert on this, these are just some google results.

I'm not sure, but I don't think the US extradites US citizens to other countries.

Extracted from the US to:
Ireland

Hong Kong

Yugoslavia

I am by no means an expert on this, these are just some google results.

If you liked the silly old guilder notes don't despair. The designers of those crazy Dutch notes had to look elsewhere for work when the Euro came in and they found it in Hong Kong; unfortunately their design for the HK$10 note, interesting as it is, looks nothing Chinese and everything Dutch.

There's also the problem of airport infrastructure. an 80m wide double decker airplane will have a very hard time fitting into any gate spot in an airport anywhere in the world, currently. The only exception I can think of is Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. It is so new that they might have engineered it with larger gate spots to accomodate future aircraft

Actually, the poster meant to say Hong Kong's International Airport at Chek Lap Kok which replaced Kai Tak in 1998. Although, Kai Tak may have been able to handle the new planes, since most aircraft never pulled up to the terminal. Even in 1998 the planes would park on the tarmac, mobile stairs would pull up to the doors, and a bus would take people to/from the terminal.

Obligatory Links:

Governmental web page on the history of Kai Tak.

Chek Lap Kok's airport guide in English.

I'm sure what you mean by South Asia refering to Korea, Taiwan, Japanese and Hong Kong, etc.

I think I can help but first you must answer the following questions:

1) Where is your company located? It matters to clarify the term 'oversea'. :)
2) What kind of e-learning management system are you selling?
3) You mentioned your company has a connection with a Korean telco. Does your software product has something related to mobile business? I'm not sure whether a Korean Telco could help you otherwise.
3) To identify the best strategy, you must tell us your goal and your target customers. Say, you'd have completely different strategies in dealing with corporate and public customers.
4) About finding of distributor, first you must answer 2)
5) The nature of partnership that could give you maximum profit may vary from one market to another(e.g. telco might demand huge share of profit in partnership, depends on the degree of monopolization there), and again, you must first answer 2). :)
6) Does your product support Unicode? Forget about South Asia market otherwise.

If can't figure out any of the above then I think you should seek help from professional consultants, or approach the local Government directly. E.g. you could seek help here for the question concerning international business in Hong Kong. Probaly you could find info in doing business in China there.

... I could have made a fortune from the recording.

After the spending the entire night trying to coerce our new Dell linux server into submissions, and ODing on coca-cola, cigarettes and espresso, I guess that my brain waves could have been recorded for a quality high-energy e'd-up rave!

Hong Kong's Government has implemented PKI infrastructure for digital signature for their citizens. However, there has a fundamental fault in the system - not being thoughtful in distributing the root CA. First the root CA is not embedded in the browsers we commonly use, or have a upper root CA, which is included in browser, signed their root CA. They even allow citizen use floppy to transfer the CA issued to computer...hmm....

Anyway, the technology is mature, the things yet to be done are policy-making and legalese. Nothing is 100% secure, the CA issuer must bare the legal responsibility and liability. I wish they'd one day realize what is the legal implication of such a faulty CA system.

Hong Kong's Government has implemented PKI infrastructure for digital signature for their citizens. However, there has a fundamental fault in the system - not being thoughtful in distributing the root CA. First the root CA is not embedded in the browsers we commonly use, or have a upper root CA, which is included in browser, signed their root CA. They even allow citizen use floppy to transfer the CA issued to computer...hmm....

Anyway, the technology is mature, the things yet to be done are policy-making and legalese. Nothing is 100% secure, the CA issuer must bare the legal responsibility and liability. I wish they'd one day realize what is the legal implication of such a faulty CA system.

Here in Hong Kong there's a similar project(in Chinese) like ' PCs for Kids'. At first I thought it's doomed, until I know Microsoft is involved.

Well Microsoft does not alway mean to charity - especially when a shiny Microsoft logo is behind it.

5) Convince MS to enforce a method of stoping piracy of Office letting only people that *gasp* pay use it. Also convince MS to include advanced phone home features, complicated authentication / license rules, etc. Surely this would be the best thing for a free-beer alternative.

It's been done in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Government is already in bed with Business Software Alliance to help BSA to crush small business with taxpayers' money.

However, doesn't seem that people are learning their lesson, and the adoption rate of opensource alternatives is low. Would you mind come over here and change then mind?

5) Convince MS to enforce a method of stoping piracy of Office letting only people that *gasp* pay use it. Also convince MS to include advanced phone home features, complicated authentication / license rules, etc. Surely this would be the best thing for a free-beer alternative.

It's been done in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Government is already in bed with Business Software Alliance to help BSA to crush small business with taxpayers' money.

However, doesn't seem that people are learning their lesson, and the adoption rate of opensource alternatives is low. Would you mind come over here and change then mind?

In Hong Kong, that's what the Post Office is doing. We also have an Electronic Transactions Ordinance to back it up legally. The Ordinance gives the Post Office CA official recognition by the government. This gives the CA much better legal authority than simple inclusion in major browsers.

so you know, hong kong is the piracy capital of the world--those of you who think you're all l33t and with it when you download Blair Witch 2 Cam 0day, just know that half the population of hong kong has probably seen that movie off their $1.40 VCD screener which they bought at the corner of watsons.

okay, it is illegal to pirate software, movies, games, music. but it is done, and youll find it in every corner of every street in hong kong.

the mp3 scene here has become HUGE. companies advertise their mp3 players on buses, DSL isps offer free mp3 players after 9 months of stickin with their shit slow DSL--come on, an isp offering their customers a free mp3 player, it couldn't possibly be to playback music downloaded off napster now could it? its obvious what theyre trying to appeal to, and get this: this particular DSL provider is the BIGGEST in hong kong, and just happens to be Cable & Wireless HKT--by far the biggest phone company in hong kong, and the sole provider of land lines.

the govt however, has tried to stop this. 2 16-year-old kids were arrested and sentenced to 2 years for running 10-hit-a-day 5-song mp3 websites, in an attempt to scare the public. too bad the public heard about it, and i believe started some sort of demonstration, it is my understanding that the kids were released and their records wiped clean. some govt.

computers are common in hong kong, probably 99% of the urban population have had at least 2 computers thus far, and a good 70% of them, at a minimum, with internet access (check the exact stats here. every person i know not only has napster installed, but a quite substantial mp3 collection, and probably half of them have bought burners as a result.

a personal friend of mine was charged with some sort of hacking, which i wont go into, and his computer was confiscated, with his binder of burned cds, which included about 50 mp3 cds, plus what was on his hds. they were returned to him, fully intact.

but hk, in which only 50% of microsoft software users are actually using their software legally licensed, isn't quite as bad as some parts of china, where only 5% of their ms software is licensed (this figure is NOT an estimate... any admins feel like checking the logs, in particular the origin of this post?), the situation is MUCH worse, and the govt couldnt care less. govt officials, even higher up in the hierarchy, use pirated ms software. i found a .gov.cn website which included links to mp3 albums, and i will be sure to post it if i find the url again.

i really cant remember the topic of this post, oh well. its almost like MP3 is fully legal in hong kong. ive seen raids where cops would take away the vcd vendor, but not the guy with a bigger stall selling mp3 cds.