Telstra, Australia’s largest phone company, stored emails and phone calls to be handed over to US intelligence upon request, according to an agreement it signed in 2001 with the FBI and US Department of Justice.

The copy of the 12-year-old agreement, which was posted online on Friday by news website Crikey, is in confirmation of this week’s earlier leak by Edward Snowden, revealing that large amounts of communication data sent around the world via undersea cables could be intercepted by the US, based on the agreements federal agents signed with foreign corporations.

According to the leaked document, undersea cabling company Reach – a joint venture of Telstra (then 50.1 percent-owned by the Australian Government) and PCCW, a Hong Kong corporation – had to send all communications to or from US to a storage facility “physically located in the United States, from which Electronic Surveillance can be conducted pursuant to Lawful US Process.” The document also specifies the facility should be run exclusively by US staff.

The US demanded the ability to have access to all emails and phone calls between the US and other countries, meaning foreign citizens also had their data landing in America. Apart from the content of communications, Reach was supposed to supply call associated data, subscriber information and billing records.

Those were to be stored on American soil for no less than two years.

The Australian Greens Party has called on Telstra to “immediately disclose details” of the deal, which allowed “the FBI and US Department of Justice to monitor calls and data traffic via the company’s undersea cables,” according to the party’s website.

“This is an extraordinary breach of trust, invasion of privacy, and erosion of Australia’s sovereignty,” Greens Party Senator Scott Ludlam said.

Telstra has meanwhile issued a statement justifying the deal.

“This agreement, at that time 12 years ago, reflected Reach’s operating obligations in the US that require carriers to comply with US domestic law,” the statement says.

The disclosure of the deal between the Australian telco and the US intelligence comes in the wake of Edward Snowden’s disclosures detailing a top-secret NSA surveillance program.

The White House continues to justify the practices as legally-authorized amid mounting criticism from the public and politicians. Snowden is seeking asylum to avoid prosecution in the US, where he is accused under the Espionage Act.

Source: RT.com

GLENDALE—The current two-term Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Armenian Bar Association, Garo B. Ghazarian, Esq., was unanimously elected Chairman of Glendale Civil Service Commission on June 26, 2013. The Commission serves as a quasi-judicial body in hearing employee appeals against disciplinary actions such as suspension, reduction or removal. It also establishes the rules and policies under which Glendale’s merit system operates, insuring continuation of Glendale’s reputation as a city whose employees attain and keep their positions on the basis of ability, training and experience, rather than political patronage.

In nominating him to the top post, outgoing two-term Chairman of the Commission, Arthur Devine commended Commissioner Ghazarian as being the hardest-working and the most-prepared Commissioner with whom he had ever worked with in all his years on the Commission. In taking the helm of the Civil Service Commission, Ghazarian applauded the outgoing Chair Devine’s distinguished service and leadership. Ghazarian also thanked his fellow commissioners for their vote of confidence. He pledged to continue to serve the City of Glendale, its citizens, and the City’s 1500 civil service employees.

Filling the post of Vice-Chairman of the Commission – a position Mr. Ghazarian held until his election as Chair – is Commissioner Ara Hatamian, who was unanimously elected. Commissioners Arthur Devine, Sam Manoukian and newly-appointed Commissioner Talin Yacoubian, who replaces the distinguished long-term Commissioner John Gantus, make up the rest of the Civil Service Commission.

In addition to his nationwide criminal defense law practice, Mr. Ghazarian is also the Dean and a professor of law at Peoples College of Law in Los Angeles. He has lectured extensively to law enforcement agencies and is a former guest instructor at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He is a board member of the Mexican-American Bar Association – Political Action Committee, and serves on its Judicial Evaluations Committee.

July 12, 2013 | 13:07

PanARMENIAN.Net – Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has resigned as MP and parliament (duma) speaker of Chukotka autonomous region to be replaced by ethnic Armenian Aramais Dallakyan, according to RIA Novosti.

Abramovich’s resignation was prompted by the law prohibiting officials from possessing of property abroad that entered into force on May 7, 2013.

A woman identified as a Saudi Arabian princess has been accused of holding a domestic servant against her will at her condominium in Irvine, California, CNN reports.

Meshael Alayban, 42, faces one felony count of human trafficking. Court details released Thursday say Alayban is one of the wives of Saudi Prince Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud.

Alayban appeared in an Orange County court in Santa Ana on Thursday, July 11, and the judge continued the arraignment until July 29. In the courtroom, Alayban was kept inside a cage-like holding space and spoke with her attorney through the wire webbing.

Alayban is being held in the Orange County jail in lieu of $5 million bail. She faces a maximum sentence of 12 years if convicted.

Police say the servant is a 30-year-old woman, originally from Kenya, who managed to escape Tuesday and flag down a bus. A passenger helped her contact the Irvine Police Department.

Investigators say the alleged victim had contracted to work with Alayban’s family in Saudi Arabia in March 2012. Her salary was set at $1,600 a month for working eight hours a day, five days a week. But once she arrived in Saudi Arabia, the servant says, her passport was taken from her. She also says she was paid only $220 a month and forced to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Alayban’s attorney, Paul S. Meyer, indicated in a statement, however, that the incident is essentially a labor dispute.

Meyer told the court during the bail hearing that “the police report confirms that there was no physical abuse, no physical restraint, and that the complaints were about hours worked and wages paid,” according to his statement.

“We intend to fully investigate all facts, and expect that the truth will resolve this matter,” Meyer’s statement said.

Police say Alayban’s family traveled to the United States in May with the alleged victim and four women from the Philippines under similar contracts.

Armed with a search warrant, Irvine detectives and immigration and homeland security agents later found the four other women in the condominium, a news release from police and the Orange County District Attorney’s Office says. Police say all five women are in good health, and at this time, there are no indications of physical abuse.

This is the first forced labor human trafficking case to be prosecuted in Orange County under California’s Proposition 35, which passed in November and increased the penalty for human trafficking.

Within the framework of its cultural program for the year 2013, the Italian Embassy, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, will present a Special Concert in “Zvatrnots” Temple by the “Ensemble Vivaldi” of the Italian world famous Orchestra “I Solisti Veneti”.

Special pieces drawn from the Italian Baroque and Classic Musical Repertoire will be proposed to the Armenian public during the Concert.

Tomaso Albinoni, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Tartini, Gioacchino Rossini, Aram Khachaturian, Nicolo’ Paganini and others are the composers purposely chosen for this special performance in Yerevan.

The Concert will take place in the “Zvartnots” Temple area on Friday, July 12, 2013 at 19:30, reported the Italian Embassy in Yerevan.