Saturday, October 29, 2011

Turkey suicide bomb attack

  A female suicide bomber killed two people and herself in an attack Saturday in Turkey's eastern Bingol province, the Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Bingol Governor Mustafa Hakan Guvencer said 20 people were also hurt when the woman detonated her explosives in the town of Bingol, the agency said.

He told the agency that one of the two victims killed was a woman.

Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin said the injured were being treated in hospital.

Turkey has suffered a number of violent incidents in recent weeks.

An attack 10 days ago in the country's southeastern Hakkari province, blamed on Kurdish separatists, left 24 soldiers dead and 18 injured.

Last month, at least three people were killed by an explosion in the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara. A Kurdish rebel splinter group later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Arsenal thrilling win against Chelsea

A Robin van Persie hat-trick earned Arsenal a thrilling 5-3 win over their west London rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Chelsea started the match strongly taking the lead in the 14th minute when Juan Mata delivered an inch-perfect cross for Frank Lampard to guide a header past Szczesny in the Arsenal goal.

The home side continued to dominate possession but Arsenal hit back in the 36th minute when Aaron Ramsey threaded the ball through to Gervinho who selflessly squared the ball back for van Persie to side-foot past Petr Cech.

Chelsea had a goal disallowed two minutes later with Ramires being ruled offside, but earned a deserved halftime lead when John Terry bundled the ball home from a corner kick in the 45th minute.

Arsenal were far from finished though and hit back four minutes after the break as Alex Song played in Andre Santos who squeezed a shot underneath Cech to level the scores at 2-2.

Six minutes later, Theo Walcott gave the Gunners the lead -- unleashing a fierce shot inside Cech's near post after outwitting three Chelsea defenders.

A 25-yard strike from Mata restored parity for Chelsea in the 80th minute, but van Persie put Arsenal ahead again five minutes later, pouncing on a mistake by John Terry to slot home his second before lashing home his third in injury time to seal a remarkable win.

Manchester United bounced back from the 6-1 battering from their city rivals last weekend edging past Everton 1-0 at Goodison Park.

Havier Hernandez was on hand to side-foot home from a Patrice Evra cross in the 19th minute to give United the lead after they had made a bright opening to the match.

Everton battled their way back into the match and came close to an equalizer -- Leighton Baines hitting the crossbar from a free-kick, while David De Gea saved smartly from Leon Osman.

But despite the pressure, United held firm to cement second place in the table behind leaders, Manchester City who enjoyed a comfortable 3-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Edin Dzeko opened the scoring for City in the 52nd minute with Aleksandar Kolarov adding a second 15 minutes later.

City's Belgian defender Vincent Kompany was sent off in the 75th minute for a challenge on Kevin Doyle -- the resulting penalty was converted by Stephen Hunt.

But Adam Johnson (who came on for Dzeko midway through the second half) netted in injury time to ensure Robert Mancini's side maintained their five-point lead at the top of the table.

First half goals from Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll proved enough for Liverpool who beat West Bromwich Albion 2-0 at The Hawthorns.

Liverpool were awarded a penalty in the 9th minute when Luis Suarez was bundled over in the box -- Adam making no mistake with the spot kick.

Suarez was involved again in the second, setting up Carroll who poked a shot past advancing West Brom keeper Ben Foster.

Despite a host of chances in the second half Liverpool couldn't extend their lead, but the win lifts them to fifth. West Brom are 13th with 11 points.

Norwich City came from two goals down to earn a 3-3 draw at home to Blackburn Rovers -- a result which keeps Steve Kean's side in the bottom three. Norwich are in eighth place.

Sunderland also came from behind to earn a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa.

Goals from Villa's Bulgarian midfielder Stiliyan Petrov (20th minute) and Richard Dunne (85th minute) were canceled out by Connor Wickham, who scored seven minutes before half time and Stephane Sessegnon who stole a point for Sunderland seconds before the final whistle.

Swansea City continued their promising start to season with 3-1 over struggling Bolton Wanderers. The result moves them up to 10th place.

Bolton, meanwhile, are second from bottom with six points, one point ahead of Wigan who suffered their third home defeat of the season losing 2-0 to Fulham.

Goals from Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele lift Martin Jol's side up to 15th.

British soldiers in Libya are going home

British soldiers involved in the NATO operation in Libya are headed home, the U.K. defence ministry said, following a decision to end the mission next week.

After seven months of an aerial bombing campaign that helped depose longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, NATO said Friday it is ending its mission in Libya on Monday.

"Our armed forces can be immensely proud that their hard work has assured the liberty of the Libyan people. This is a job well done and we will be sending our crews home from tonight," U.K. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said Friday. "I have given my personal thanks today to some of the aircrew and support personnel at Gioia del Colle."

Most British military assets have been based at the Gioia del Colle airfield in Italy during the campaign.

British air assets, including tankers and surveillance aircraft, will return home in the coming days, he said in a statement.

At the peak of the mission, Britain had 2,300 personnel, 32 aircraft and four ships, the defence ministry said.

Some operations will continue until Monday, but on a smaller basis that will require less aircraft.

NATO's announcement comes after the United Nations Security Council rescinded its March mandate for military intervention to protect civilians targeted during anti-regime protests.

Meanwhile, Gadhafi's relatives said NATO's actions led to the strongman's death, and plan to file a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court, a lawyer representing the family said.

"All of the events that have taken place since February 2011 and the murder of Gadhafi, all of this means we are totally in our right to call upon the International Criminal Court," said Marcel Ceccaldi, the lawyer.

Questions have been raised about how Gadhafi was killed.

Amateur videos showed him alive when captured by the opposition. He died from a shot in the head, officials said, but the circumstances surrounding the shot remain unclear.

St. Louis Cardinals Wins the World Series

The St. Louis Cardinals finished their improbable run Friday night with a convincing 6-2 win, beating the Texas Rangers and giving the franchise another World Series championship.

Instead of the furious comebacks the Cards have been known for this year, the Cards grabbed a commanding lead in the fifth inning Friday and held on.

"We got it. It is unbelievable," outfielder Allen Craig said. "This is an unbelievable group of guys. I am just glad to be a part of this."

Craig, who caught the last out of the game, was more than a part of it. He hit a home run in the third inning of Friday's game and stole a home run from Ranger Nelson Cruz leaping over the wall to bring the ball back.

Another one of the stars of Friday's game was Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who had two hits and knocked in two RBIs. Another St. Louis star was hurler Chris Carpenter, who continued his undefeated postseason run by stymieing the Rangers for six innings Friday.

Rangers pitchers were plagued with wildness Friday and throughout the series.

In the fifth inning, the Cardinals were able to get two runs and jump to a commanding 5 to 2 lead without getting a hit, capitalizing on Rangers' walks.

The win gives the Cards their 11th World Series championship. The Cardinals last won the championship in 2006.

Friday's win may have seemed a little melodramatic compared to the instant-classic World Series game Thursday, when the Cardinals displayed their never-say-die attitude.

The Cardinals were pushed to within their last strike in the ninth and 10th innings only to come back and erase two-run deficits both times.

They finished the comeback in the 11th inning beating the Rangers 10 to 9 on David Freese's walk-off home run.

Freese was named the most valuable player of the series.

"This is a dream come true," Freese said. "This is why you keep battling."

Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said the fans, cheering and supporting, helped his team to the muster the strength to comeback so many times.

"It is amazing, incredible," La Russa said. "This is for you, fans. Thank you so much."

Comebacks are nothing new for the Cards, who made a furious dash just to reach the postseason. The team erased a 10.5-game deficit with the Atlanta Braves in the last month of the regular season just to make it to the playoffs. They punctuated that comeback by taking the must-win last two games of the season and stealing the National League wild card from the Braves.

Once in the playoffs, the Cards defeated division champs Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies. Both feats defied oddsmakers.

Central Bangkok spared worst of flooding and more high tides will come

The central business district of Bangkok dodged severe flooding Saturday afternoon, but surrounding areas of the bustling capital faced further inundation at the next high tide.

A dreaded tide on Saturday spurred residents' fears that it would overwhelm defenses along the Chao Phraya River and its many canals.

Bangkok's outer suburbs were already submerged, but the central city has been largely spared the misery Thailand has been suffering for months in the nation's worst flooding since 1942.

In the east and the north of the city, water was at waist-level in some neighborhoods.
But the city -- which sits barely above sea level -- still faces two converging threats.


Massive runoff was flowing south to the sea through Bangkok, as high tides pushed the water in the opposite direction.

"The challenge is to manage the huge runoff from the north passing via the city on its way to the Gulf of Thailand," a Red Cross bulletin said.

Bangkok's Chinatown area -- normally hopping with activity on a Saturday afternoon -- was largely desolate, with few passers-by wading in knee-deep water.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra ordered work crews Friday to cut channels in roadways to allow faster drainage, according to the MCOT news agency. But the plan was rejected late in the day in favor of dredging canals and using pumps, the Bangkok Post reported.

Health concerns were rising with the water.

Bangkok residents plodded through murky waters without knowing what lurked within, the risk of infection and communicable disease worrying health officials. The government sent out crocodile hunters after reports of crocodiles and snakes in the filthy floodwater.


"We were hearing disturbing reports of dangerous animals such as snakes and crocodiles appearing in the floodwaters, and every day we see children playing in the water, bathing or wading through it trying to make their way to dry ground," said Annie Bodmer-Roy, spokeswoman for the humanitarian agency Save the Children.
As floodwater entered homes, some Bangkok residents still in the city made plans to leave.

Thanyarat Hemkittiwat said she was going to stay with relatives outside the city.

"Some families in southern Bangkok had their house flooded," said the 31-year-old worker at a furniture export company, which was shut after it also was flooded. "The water level is 2 meters (six feet) high and smells very bad," she said.

The Bangkok Post reported that government buses had evacuated a number of elderly residents from the northern and eastern suburbs, and would pick up residents of the capital on Saturday and take them out of Bangkok. As of Saturday, an estimated 1 million of the city's 12 million residents had left.


Another Bangkok resident said she was worried about abandoning her house, which has been flooded for five days, and would not leave.

Panic buying has led to a shortage of food and bottled water in the capital, residents said.

And the worst might not yet be over.

Another high tide -- expected to reach about 4 meters (13 feet) high -- is forecast for Sunday morning.

Officials urged tourists to steer clear of Bangkok, while noting that many of the other tourist spots, such as Phuket, remained dry and open for business.

Thailand's Ministry of Public Health had transferred 280 of the capital's 520 patients in severe condition to 22 hospitals upcountry, the MCOT news agency reported.

The remaining 240 patients will be taken to hospitals in other provinces by Sunday, it said, citing Permanent-Secretary for Health Paichit Varachit.


Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri said that, after months of flooding, 107,101 Thais have been diagnosed with stress, 6,214 with depression and 878 at risk of suicide. In all, 1,356 people were under observation by health officials, the minister said, according to MCOT.

The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert on Thursday, recommending against all but essential travel to affected areas. It noted that most tourist destinations, such as Phuket and Chiang Mai, were unaffected.

U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenny said the crisis was slow-moving and it was hard to know what would be hit next.

The floods, caused by monsoon rains that saturated rivers, have killed 373 people nationwide and affected more than 9.5 million people,

Are you there? Share photos, video but stay safe
 The government has called the flooding the worst to afflict the nation in half a century and said it might take more than a month before the waters recede from some areas.


The government has set up more than 1,700 shelters nationwide, and more than 113,000 people have taken refuge in them.

Overall damage from the floods could exceed $6 billion, the Thai Finance Ministry said.

Hundreds of wounded Libyans will treated in Germany

More than 300 wounded Libyans will arrive in Germany to be treated in hospitals within the next 10 days in an operation approved by Libya's interim government, the German Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"Our expectation of the amount of the wounded Libyans treated in German hospitals changes each hour," said Thomas Holz of the German health service Almeda. According to Almeda's marketing chief Michael Blasius, the company expects the number of Libyan patients to rise.

Already, 111 Libyans who arrived in 20 planes are receiving treatment in German civilian hospitals. Four further planes were expected to land in German territory Friday.
"Some of those patients will be transferred to countries like France, Great Britain, Turkey and the U.S.," Blasius told CNN on Friday.

The United States plans to provide treatment for at least 28 wounded Libyan fighters. U.S. officials said Thursday that at least 24 would be taken to a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, because their wounds cannot be treated in Libya. An additional four will go to U.S. medical facilities in Germany, according to Major Janelle Jeffrey of the U.S. Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany.

Libya's National Transitional Council requested the U.S. medical treatment, which is being offered as a humanitarian gesture and support for Libya's democratic aspirations, U.S. officials said.

Almeda said it received the health service request by Libya's new Finance Ministry on October 14. Four days later, the first military plane arrived in Germany with dozens of wounded Libyans.

That was a day after German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler announced Germany would offer medical help to the NTC.

Three so-called "scouting teams" are currently screening Libyan and Tunisian hospitals, searching for heavily injured Libyans who might benefit from treatment abroad.

Almeda told CNN there would be two further scouting teams in Tunisia and Libya at the beginning of next week.

Many wounded Libyans had already received treatment in Tunisia, according to Blasius.

Islamic Jihad: Israeli forces strike training camp

Two Islamic Jihad commanders were among seven militants killed Saturday by Israeli strikes targeting a training camp in Rafah, Gaza, according to the militant group and medical sources.

Two other members of the organization were injured, medical sources said.

"Our response will be inside Israel very soon," said Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for the militant group.

After Israeli forces struck the training camp Saturday, militants fired three rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, according to Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

One struck a building in Ashdod, he said. An Israeli man in Gan Yavne was slightly injured by shrapnel.

A graduation ceremony was taking place at the time of the original Israeli strikes, Ahmed said. At least 10 other people were wounded in the attack, witnesses said.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said it targeted a terrorist group in southern Gaza that was preparing to fire long-range rockets into Israel. The spokesman would not name the group, but said it was part of a larger organization.

The Israeli airstrikes targeted the same group responsible for recent rocket attacks on the Israeli port city of Ashdod, according to the Israeli military spokesman.

Rebel attack in South Sudan

South Sudanese rebels launched an attack in oil-rich Unity state that killed 39 people, a spokesman for that fledgling government said Saturday.

Yein Matthew, the government spokesman, said the attacks in Mayom were carried out against civilians by militias of the South Sudan Liberation Army.

South Sudanese government forces were pursuing the attackers through nearby woods, according to Matthew. One militia leader has been captured and is being questioned.

Liberation army members have clashed with the military of South Sudan, which separated from Sudan and became independent in July.

Since then, the world's newest nation has been challenged by a number of rebel militias. Led by former officers of the southern army that fought Khartoum in a 22-year civil war, the militias have taken up arms against their former comrades for various reasons.

The South Sudan Liberation Army, for instance, has said that it is fighting corruption and domination of Dinkas, the new nation's main ethnic group.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has offered amnesty deals to the rebels. Several truces have not been honored, according to the Enough Project, which seeks to end genocide and crimes against humanity.

NATO: Kabul suicide bomb attack

Five troops and eight civilians were killed in central Kabul when a suicide bomber struck a vehicle in a military convoy, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Saturday.

One Canadian was killed in the attack, said Lt. Colonel Christian Lemay.

A U.S. military official had said earlier that 13 Americans had died, but an ISAF spokesman could not confirm that number.

The U.S. official emphasized details are continuing to unfold. A heavily damaged vehicle was believed to be an armored bus that was carrying U.S. troops from one base to another. A senior NATO official identified it as a custom-built, heavily armored Rhino.

The attack caused a "number" of NATO and local Afghan casualties, ISAF said in a statement. Four Afghans, including two students, were also killed, said Hashmat Stanikzai, spokesman for Kabul's police chief.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed Saturday's attack in a text message, saying it killed "16 foreign soldiers, one civilian" and injured many others.

Taliban casualty counts are often inflated; there was no other reliable indication 16 foreigners were killed.

Stanikzai said the vehicle used in the attack appeared to be a red Toyota Corolla packed with a significant amount of explosives.

It was unclear how many people were wounded, said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul expressed condolences to families and said it will continue the victims' "dedicated work on behalf of peace in this country and region."

"It's a shock. It makes you mad. It makes me angry," said U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. "We are not going to let these guys win."

The attack was one of two targeting NATO-led forces on Saturday.

U.S. and coalition casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq

A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform turned his weapon on coalition forces during training, killing three and wounding several others, ISAF said. The shooter was killed in the incident in southern Afghanistan.

The coalition did not provide any other details about the shooting, and did not disclose the nationalities of those killed.

In another suicide attack in northeastern Afghanistan, a woman in a burqa detonated herself near the nation's intelligence agency.

She tried to enter the National Directorate of Security and was shot at, but she still managed to detonate herself, said Sabour Alayar, deputy police chief of Kunar province.

Two officers and two civilians were wounded, he said, adding that the female suicide bomber was about 25 years old.

Alayar said they had intelligence of a suicide bomber looking for a target, and their security forces were on alert.

Gen. John R. Allen, commander of ISAF, condemned Saturday's attacks across the country.

"I am both saddened and outraged by the attacks that took place today against Coalition forces and the people of Afghanistan," Allen said in a statement. "The enemies of peace are not martyrs, but murderers. To hide the fact that they are losing territory, support, and the will to fight, our common enemy continues to employ suicide attackers to kill innocent Afghan fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, as well as the Coalition forces who have volunteered to protect them."

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan marked its 10th year earlier this month having passed two major milestones: The Taliban has been forced out of power and Osama bin Laden is dead.

But Afghanistan has been hit by a wave of high-profile attacks in recent months that have jeopardized the peace negotiations.

September's turban bomb assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, revered by many as a father of the Mujahedeen movement that ousted the Soviets in the 1980s, appears to have dealt the biggest blow to the peace process.

Rabbani was the chairman of President Hamid Karzai's High Council for Peace, which has been trying for a year to foster dialogue with the Taliban -- a strategy that Karzai publicly abandoned following Rabbani's killing.

Nearly 2,800 troops from the United States and its partners have died during the 10 years of war, according to a CNN count.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Could 'Earthscraper' turn architecture on its head?

A team of Mexican architects have designed a 65-story glass and steel pyramid to sit in the middle of Mexico City's most historic plaza. But, if it ever gets built, you won't see it anywhere on the skyline.

That's because it would be the world's first ever "earthscraper" -- a 300-meter deep office and living space with ambitions to turn the modern high-rise, quite literally, on its head.

"There is very little room for any more buildings in Mexico City, and the law says we cannot go above eight stories, so the only way is down" explains Esteban Suarez, co-founder of BNKR Arquitectura, the firm behind the proposals.


"This would be a practical way of conserving the built environment while creating much-needed new space for commerce and living," he added.

But would it really be that practical? The design, which would cost an estimated $800 million to build, is the shape of an inverted pyramid with a central void to allow for some much-needed natural light and ventilation.

Suarez says the first 10 stories would hold a museum dedicated to the city's history and its artifacts. "We'd almost certainly find plenty of interesting relics during the dig -- dating right back to the Aztecs who built their own pyramids here," he says.

The following 10 floors are assigned to retail and housing, with the remaining 35 intended for commercial office space, says Suarez.


Suarez concedes that getting natural light and fresh air down to the lower floors will be a problem and he is investigating a "system of fiber optics" that could deliver sunlight from the surface.
The design also includes a series of a series of "earth lobbies" that would store plants and trees with the intention of improving air-quality and, no doubt, the gloomy subterranean landscape.

Suarez says renewable energy could be generated by a turbine powered from collected groundwater. Enough to keep the lights on in an underground office block 24 hours a day? "I couldn't say at this stage" replies Suarez.


But although it has the hallmarks of a fossil-fuel guzzling Goliath -- and a name to match -- Suarez says the "Earthscraper" has great eco-credentials. "In many ways, this project is all about the environment -- not just in how we preserve our historic skyline, but how we prevent the serious problem of urban sprawl into the countryside," he says.

According to the 32-year-old architect, Mexico City's main square -- commonly known as the "Zocalo" -- is one of the biggest city plazas in the world. "It's a massive empty plot, which makes it the ideal site for our program," he said.

To conserve the numerous activities that take place on the 190,000 square-foot plaza throughout the year -- including concerts, protests, open-air exhibitions and military parades -- the void will be covered with a glass floor that Suarez believes will allow the life of the "Earthscraper" to blend with everything happening on top.

At present, Suarez and his team are in the process of presenting their idea to the local authorities. So, if you were in their shoes, what would you say? Is the "Earthscraper" a genuinely feasible innovation or a pretty but impractical pipe dream? Tell us you thoughts in the comments section below.



A Massive hack hit 760 companies

A massive cyberattack that led to a vulnerability in RSA's SecurID tags earlier this year also victimized Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many other big-named companies, according to a new analysis released this week.

A list of 760 organizations that were attacked was presented to Congress recently and published by security analyst Brian Krebs on his blog Monday.
The list is the first glimpse into the pervasiveness of the attack that brought RSA to its knees. Those in the security industry have long suspected that RSA was not the hack's only victim, but no other companies have been willing to talk publicly about whether they had also been compromised.

The names mentioned on Krebs' list include about a fifth of the Fortune 100, as well as many other massive corporations.
Abbot Laboratories , Charles Schwab , Freddie Mac, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Wells Fargo  are all named.
Tech giants like Amazon , IBM , Intel , Yahoo , Cisco , Google , Facebook, and Microsoft  are also included, as well as government agencies like the European Space Agency, the IRS, and the General Services Administration. Government security contractor Northrop Grumman  was on the list, as was MIT.
The list of affected companies was obtained from a breached "command and control" server, the name for a machine that hackers use to direct the fleets of compromised PCs that they have gained control over. Krebs said he wasn't at liberty to reveal how that server was discovered or who analyzed the data.

The names came to light after researchers traced back the corporate networks that were communicating with the server that attacked RSA. The first victims started "phoning home" as early as November 2010, Krebs said.
But there's a big caveat: As Krebs was quick to note, many Internet service providers were on the list, most likely because their subscribers were attacked using their network, not because the companies themselves were compromised. That means that companies like Comcast , Windstream , Verizon , AT&T  and Sprint  may be off the hook.

The cost of cybercrime

But Google and Amazon, which host Domain Name System services to help people surf the Web, may also have made the list because of activity on their networks, not within their corporate walls. And some companies -- especially security technology vendors like McAfee -- could be named because they discovered the attack and intentionally compromised their own systems in an attempt to reverse-engineer the malware used in the hack.

One last footnote: It's not clear how deeply the hackers were able to penetrate each compromised business' systems. RSA got hammered -- the attackers used the breach to plant malware that let them gain access to RSA's systems -- but other companies may have fended off the intrusion without any damage.

Microsoft, one of the few companies we contacted that was willing to talk on the record about the attack, said it has "not seen any evidence supporting the claim." Several other companies gave similar statements but asked not to be named in this story.
Still, experts say the revelation of the massive number of companies involved in the attack shouldn't be taken lightly.

On his blog, Krebs noted that if this could happen to one of the largest and most integral security firms, organizations that aren't focused on security had little hope of fending it off, let alone discovering it.
"If my blog post does anything, it's to get people to pay attention to it," Krebs told CNNMoney.

The sheer number of corporations mentioned in the list proves that no one is safe from attack.
"The only companies that haven't been compromised in some way, shape, or form are either insanely small, lucky or secure," said Dave Jevans, chairman of Ironkey, maker of a security-focused Web browser.
Hacks are almost a form of currency in the cybercrime economy. Hackers launch cyberattacks on as many victims as they can in order to sell their access to interested third parties.

For instance, a hack of MIT's network may not be valuable to anyone right now. But if the university were to do something to rattle, say, Anonymous in a year or two, hacktivists could go on underground channels and attempt to buy access to MIT's compromised systems.
That's why these hacks are called "advanced persistent threats." They often carry on for years without anyone knowing.

RSA came forward in March and admitted that it had been hacked, even though it likely didn't have to: regulations about public disclosure vary from state to state, and tend only to force companies to disclose hacks when customer data is revealed.

Companies don't like admitting that they've been compromised, but the fact that no other company spoke up about this attack is not necessarily indicative of secrecy.
"I'm sure 90% of these companies are just finding out they've been hacked along with the rest of us," Jevans said. "They don't even know they've been penetrated."
It's not uncommon for companies to be unaware of attacks.

In August, McAfee uncovered a wide-ranging, global cyber attack that impacted 72 organizations. The security company noted that the attack had been going on, undetected, for the five years. McAfee actually discovered the attack when the hackers finally made a mistake: They left logs of their attacks on a command and control server that McAfee uncovered in 2009.

Steve Jobs bio: The best tidbits

"Steve Jobs,' the biography of the late tech visionary that went on sale Monday, has already produced plenty of headlines: How Jobs met his birth father without knowing who he was, how he swore bitter revenge on Google for developing its competing Android system, and how he waited too long after his cancer diagnosis to get surgery that might have saved him.

But the 656-page book by hand-picked biographer Walter Isaacson also contains a wealth of smaller, but no less telling, details about the brilliant but difficult Apple co-founder.

Taken together, they build an illuminating portrait of a charismatic, complicated figure who could inspire people one minute and demean them the next. Even on their own, many of these snippets are still fascinating glimpses into an extraordinary life.

The CNN Tech team has been busy flipping through our copies of the book. Here are some of the more interesting nuggets we've found, in chronological order (we're still reading, so we'll add more as we go):

Childhood and early years


-- Jobs' wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, encouraged Isaacson to be honest about Jobs' failings. "You shouldn't whitewash it," she told him. "He's good at spin, but he also has a remarkable story, and I'd like to see that it's all told truthfully."
-- Jobs' birth mother insisted he be adopted by college graduates. The couple who had initially agreed to adopt Jobs in 1955 -- a lawyer and his wife -- backed out because they wanted a girl. So Jobs was placed instead with Paul Jobs, a high school dropout and mechanic, and his wife, Clara, a bookkeeper. When Jobs' birth mother found out, she refused to sign the adoption papers for weeks and only relented after extracting a pledge that the Jobses fund a savings account to pay for the boy's college education.

-- Jobs saw his first computer terminal as a boy when his father brought him to a NASA research center not far from where the family lived. "I fell totally in love with it," he said.

-- Jobs' famous rebellious streak first manifested itself in elementary school, where he often pulled pranks and once set off an explosive under his teacher's chair. He felt bored at not being challenged by his studies. In fourth grade, he was tested and scored on a high-school sophomore level.

-- Jobs was introduced to Steve Wozniak in high school by a mutual friend, and despite their age difference (Wozniak was five years older), the two bonded over their love of electronics and practical jokes. "I was a little more mature than my years, and he was a little less mature than his, so it evened out," Jobs said.

-- Jobs and Wozniak built a "Blue Box," a device that allowed them to make long-distance calls for free by fooling the networks' routing switches. The two pranksters used the box to call the Vatican, with Wozniak pretending to be Henry Kissinger and asking to speak to the pope. They spoke to several Vatican officials but never actually got the pope on the line.

-- Although it was private and more expensive than his parents could afford, Jobs insisted on applying to Reed College in Portland, Oregon. His parents drove him to the school, but he refused to let them come on campus or even to say goodbye to them. "It's one of the things in life I really feel ashamed about," Jobs said later. "I didn't want anyone to know I had parents. I wanted to be like an orphan. ..."

-- After Jobs dropped out of Reed, he talked his way into a $5-an-hour job at Atari, the video game company, because the chief engineer "saw something in him." Jobs believed at the time that his fruit- and vegetable-heavy diet would prevent body odor -- a theory that proved flawed. After Jobs' co-workers complained about his hygiene, the CEO asked him to work the night shift, where he would be alone.

-- Jobs quit Atari to go on a seven-month spiritual quest to India, where he contracted dysentery, had his long hair shaved off by a Hindu holy man and failed to find the inner calm he was seeking. His appearance changed so radically during his pilgrimage that his parents did not recognize him when they picked him up at the airport upon his return.

-- Jobs returned to Atari, where he and Wozniak collaborated on their first project: an early version of the hit video game "Breakout." But Jobs did not tell Wozniak they would be paid a bonus if they designed the game using fewer than 50 computer chips. Wozniak did it with 45 chips, but Jobs pocketed the entire bonus -- a fact his partner didn't find out for years. "I wish he had just been honest," Wozniak said later.

The origins of Apple

-- When it came time to name their new computer company, Jobs and Wozniak considered names like Matrix, Executek and Personal Computers Inc. before Jobs, who was eating a fruit diet and helping out at an apple farm, suggested Apple. "It sounded fun, spirited and not intimidating." he said. "Plus it would get us ahead of Atari in the phone book."

-- On April 1, 1976, Jobs, Wozniak and a third investor, former Atari engineer Ron Wayne, drew up the partnership agreement for Apple and began assembling computers in Jobs' parents garage. Wayne chipped in 10% but soon got cold feet and withdrew 11 days later. Had he stayed on, his stake at the end of 2010 would have been worth about $2.6 billion.


-- Jobs chose the Apple logo, an apple with a bite taken out of it, because he thought the other design option, a whole apple, looked too much like a cherry.

-- When it came time to assign employee badge numbers, Apple's first president, Mike Scott, gave Wozniak No. 1 and Jobs No. 2. Jobs was furious and demanded to be No. 1, but Scott refused. Finally, they reached a compromise: Jobs would be badge No. 0.

-- In Apple's early years, Jobs oversaw the hiring process and sought out applicants who were smart but somewhat rebellious. When one uptight candidate came in for an interview, Jobs began to toy with him, asking such offbeat questions as, "Are you a virgin?" and "How many times have you taken LSD?"

The Macintosh

-- When designing the Macintosh, Apple's engineers didn't trust the company Jobs had selected to build the computer's disk drive. So they went behind his back and asked Sony to get a disk drive ready. Sony sent a designer from Japan to Cupertino to oversee the secret project, but the Mac team made him hide in a closet every time Jobs came by.

-- On the day he unveiled the Macintosh in 1984, a reporter asked Jobs what kind of market research he had done on the product. Jobs scoffed and replied, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?"

-- Now a celebrity, Jobs brought several newly minted Macintoshes to New York City in early 1984. He gave one to John Lennon's 9-year-old son Sean at a party, where an enthralled Andy Warhol used the machine to draw a circle. At Warhol's suggestion, Jobs then took a computer to a baffled Mick Jagger, who didn't seem to know who Jobs was. When Jagger's young daughter Jade took to the machine immediately, Jobs gave it to her instead.


-- Jobs was impatient and in a bad mood one day in 1984 when a Bay Area policeman pulled him over for going more than 100 mph in a 55-mph zone. Although the cop warned him he'd go to jail if he was caught speeding again, Jobs honked at him and told him to hurry up writing the ticket. As soon as the cop left, Jobs immediately accelerated to 100 mph again. Said his companion at the time, "He absolutely believed that the normal rules didn't apply to him."

Leaving Apple for NeXT and Pixar

-- In 1985, fresh off his ouster as CEO of Apple, Jobs showcased his feisty side on a trip to the then-Soviet Union, where the Apple II was going on sale. First, in a meeting at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, he bristled at the suggestion that there were laws against sharing computer technology with the Soviets. Later, after praising Leon Trotsky, the Soviet revolutionary, Jobs was informed by the KGB agent escorting him that Trotsky was no longer considered "a great man." Jobs then went to deliver a speech to Russian computer students, one he began by heaping praise on Trotsky.

-- Jobs paid designer Paul Rand $100,000 to create a logo for his new computer company, NeXT. It went so well that Rand agreed to design a personal calling card for Jobs, which led to a "lengthy and heated disagreement" about the placement of the period after the "P" in "Steven P. Jobs." Rand placed it to the right of the "P." Jobs thought it should be nudged further left, under the "P's" curve. In the end, Jobs won.

-- An early backer of NeXT was Ross Perot, the billionaire Texan. He watched a PBS segment on Jobs and immediately called offering to invest. Jobs returned the call a week later. "I pick the jockeys, and the jockeys pick the horses and ride them," Perot told Jobs. "You guys are the ones I'm betting on, so you figure it out." Perot gave him $20 million.


-- Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates had an uneasy relationship. "Part of the problem," Isaacson writes, "was that the rival titans were congenitally unable to be deferential to each other." When Gates first visited NeXT headquarters in Palo Alto, Jobs kept him waiting 30 minutes, even though Gates could see through a glass wall that he was having casual conversations.

-- Digital animation was originally just to be a sideline for Pixar, the business Jobs bought from George Lucas for $5 million in 1985. The short movies' main purpose was to show off the hardware and software used to create them.

-- For a few years beginning in 1982, Jobs, then 27, was romantically involved with folk legend Joan Baez, who was 41. "He was both romantic and afraid to be romantic," she said.

-- In the early 1980s, Jobs, with the help of a private investigator, found his biological parents. But he would not contact his birth mother until after Clara Jobs, the woman who raised him, died in 1986. By contrast, Jobs had no interest in meeting his birth father, who he felt had abandoned his birth mother and sister. It would turn out that his birth father, Abdulfattah Jandali, owned a Syrian restaurant in Silicon Valley that Jobs had patronized several times, and that Jobs had met him.

-- After NeXT was bought by Apple, Jobs acted as de facto CEO until September 16, 1997, when he became "iCEO" -- an abbreviation that first signified "interim" but would eventually mean "indefinite."

Apple's rebound


-- When Apple unveiled iTunes and its innovative digital music store in 2001, Jim Allchin, who ran the Windows division for Microsoft then, sent an e-mail to four fellow executives saying: "We were smoked. How did they get the music companies to go along?" At the time, iTunes and the iPod only worked on Mac computers. Apple execs argued that the iPod should interface with Windows, too, and Jobs was alone in opposing that proposition. When he finally relented, he insisted that Apple make iTunes for Windows as well, so the company could control more of the experience.

-- At one point during the development of the iPod Mini, which was immensely popular and catapulted Apple's portable music players into the mainstream, Jobs considered killing the product because it was smaller in size and storage capacity, yet sold for the same price. He didn't quite understand the device's appeal among workout fiends because he didn't do sports.

-- During the creation of the iPod Shuffle, Apple engineers kept shrinking the device's screen in prototypes until Jobs had the idea to get rid of the screen altogether.

-- The only time Jobs could recall being tongue-tied was upon meeting one of his heroes, Bob Dylan, in 2004. Dylan invited Jobs to his hotel before a Bay Area concert, and they talked for two hours. Jobs was "really nervous" and afraid the aging Dylan would disappoint him, but "he was as sharp as a tack."

-- Jobs was the first person outside of U2 to get a pre-release copy of the band's 2004 album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." Bono wanted to be in an iPod commercial and wanted Apple to make a black iPod. Jobs told him, "We've tried other colors than white, and they don't work." He soon relented. Bono later compared Apple's creativity to that of a rock band, and said, "the lead singer is Steve Jobs."

-- Famed industrial designer Jony Ive was tasked with coming up with the successor to the candy-color translucent iMac, which was the bestselling desktop computer for some time. He wanted to develop a flat-screen monitor with the components integrated into the display unit. Jobs did not like that idea, and he invited Ive over to his backyard at home to brainstorm. The sunflowers in the garden maintained by Powell Jobs inspired the design of the iMac, which had a display connected to a dome base by a metal stem. When computer parts became compact enough a few years later, Ive's initial concept was used in the models that replaced the sunflower iMac.

-- Apple maintained two separate development teams working on cell-phone prototypes. P1 was a phone that looked like the classic iPod and included a track wheel. "It was cumbersome," said former Apple exec Tony Fadell. P2 was a touchscreen gadget, which in some prototypes had a physical keyboard, but more closely resembled the iPhone that we have today.

-- While in the hospital for a liver transplant in 2009, Jobs refused to wear a medical mask because he disliked the design. Barely able to speak, he demanded the doctors bring five options of masks so that he could choose the one that he liked best.

Siri, Iris and the dream of talking to our phones

The only scene I really loved in "Star Trek: The Voyage Home" was when Scotty tried speaking verbal commands to a Macintosh Plus. Keyboards always seem to get in the way of doing what I want to do -- and nowhere is this as apparent, or frustrating, as on smartphones and tablets.

With the recent launch of the iPhone 4S, Apple's not-really-new voice recognition system Siri has been getting a lot of attention.

Yet it took the India-based software company Dexetra just eight hours to create the initial version of Iris -- a blatant Android knockoff of Siri.

Even the name "Iris," which is the reverse of "Siri," stands for "Intelligent Rival Imitator of Siri" according to Dexetra's blog. (And yes, I'm just waiting for the trademark suit from Apple.)

Granted, Dexetra wasn't starting completely from scratch. This company had already been working on natural language processing and machine learning -- two notably thorny, complex technologies -- for more than a year.

A few days later, Dexetra made an improved version of Iris available as a free app in Google's Android Market and as of this writing it has been installed more than 50,000 times.
I put Iris on my Android phone this weekend, and it's amusing. For instance, here's a discussion I had with Iris yesterday:

Me: "What time is the John Scofield concert at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland tonight?"

Iris: "I have no idea."

Me: "Who is John Scofield?"

Iris: "John Scofield, born 1951, the musician." (Shows a photo of Scofield performing.)

Me: "Where is Yoshi's, Oakland?"

Iris: "Right now being pulled in by a black hole."

So Iris is about as entertaining as Siri seems to be. (I don't own an iPhone, but for comparison I've been checking out the STSS Tumblr blog, a crowdsourced collection of weird and wonderful wisdom from Siri.)

Still, neither Iris nor Siri seems very useful so far.

Fortunately, there are better voice control options on both the iPhone and Android handsets than either Siri or Iris. And they've been around for a while.

For some time the Android mobile operating system has had pretty well integrated speech-to-text functionality (Google Voice Actions). I use this often for texting, searching, navigating and e-mailing on the go.

Also, whenever I bring up a keyboard in any Android app, there's a microphone option for voice entry. Generally it recognizes pretty well what I want to say or do. If Android guesses wrong, I can use the keyboard to correct it, and it does seem to learn over time.

Then there is Vlingo, a voice control app for all the major smartphone platforms. I've tried it, and for some tasks it works reasonably well.

On the iPhone, Siri does integrate with some of Apple's own productivity tools (such as the calendar). But as my CNN.com colleague Mark Milian pointed out, Siri can't yet execute many basic commands like taking a picture.

Most importantly, Siri doesn't integrate with any third-party iOS apps, such as Shazam or Tweetdeck. Given Apple's closed iOS ecosystem, it's an open question whether such integration will ever happen.

Besides Siri, there are other iOS apps and tools that provide some voice control. ExtremeTech recently published a list.

Such baby steps are important -- but on any mobile platform, we're still a long, long way from phones that you can just talk to and they'll do what you say.

This is frustrating from the consumer perspective. Smartphones are, first and foremost, phones. They're supposed to be for talking.

Typing on any mobile device, through a physical or virtual keyboard, is a chore. That's why QR codes are getting popular -- they eliminate the need to type on a mobile device.

The challenge of typing on handheld devices is exactly why the kind of voice control Scotty expected is such an alluring and intuitive idea. Eventually we'll probably get there.

Nokia unveils the first Windows smartphones

How do you say "here goes nothing" in Finnish?Nokia's  bet-the-company moment is now underway, as the Finnish mobile phone maker unveiled two new smartphones Wednesday that will run Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system -- the first Nokia devices to run anything but the company's own software platform.

The struggling handset manufacturer is hoping the major strategy shift will boost its flagging fortunes in the booming smartphone market.
The two new devices, dubbed Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, will go on sale in Europe next month and represent the company's attempt to gain traction in the market dominated by Apple's  iPhones and Google's  Android operating system.

But Nokia has not yet committed to selling the phones in the United States. The company said it would begin selling Windows Phone devices here in early 2012, but it's not clear whether it will be a Lumia or another yet-to-be-released device.
Nokia did say it would sell U.S. devices next year built for the CDMA network, which Verizon  and Sprint use, as well as the HSPA standard, used by AT&T  and T-Mobile. Nokia's presence in the United States has been severely diminished in recent years, and it has not sold devices on the Verizon or Sprint networks since 2005.

As he unveiled the Lumia 800 in London, Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop said the company intends to be "leaders in smartphone design and craftsmanship." The top-tier Lumia 800 is based on the much-hyped N9 device, which Nokia unveiled earlier this year.

U.S. cell phones, tablets outnumber Americans

The Lumia phones put the emphasis on entertainment, navigation and sports, offering music mixes and a partnership with ESPN for mobile coverage.
The announcement follows Nokia's partnership with Microsoft in February. The phones, Elop said, were part of "a new dawn for Nokia."

Nokia also launched four new mobile phones that it said blur the line between smartphones and more traditional handsets by offering keyboards and touchscreens, combined with Internet access and integrated social networking.
Elop is under pressure to rejuvenate the company which, despite selling the highest volume of mobile phones worldwide, has suffered in the smartphone market. Earlier this year, Apple overtook Nokia to become the world's top smartphone maker.
Nokia announced last month that it plans to cut 3,500 jobs by the end of 2012. Those were in addition to 4,000 job cuts announced in April.

Obama reveals new refinance rules at Western trip start

President Barack Obama traveled to Las Vegas on Monday to launch a Western trip that mixes campaigning with presidential business -- and an appearance on "The Tonight Show."

After a campaign event at The Bellagio hotel and casino Monday afternoon, Obama met with homeowners at a private residence to announce new efforts to help homeowners with refinancing.

The government's Home Affordable Refinance Program will be changed to make it easier for homeowners to capitalize on current low interest rates by refinancing old, high-interest mortgages.

The new rules will allow homeowners who owe more than 125% of the market value of their homes to get the new loans.

"So let me just give you an example. If you've got a $250,000 mortgage at 6 percent interest rates, but the value of your home has fallen below $200,000, right now you can't refinance. You're ineligible," Obama said, according to a copy of his remarks released by the White House.

"But that's going to change. If you meet certain requirements, you will have the chance to refinance at lower rates, which could save you hundreds of dollars a month, and thousands of dollars a year on mortgage payments."

In addition, Obama told the gathering,"there are going to be lower closing costs, and certain refinancing fees will be eliminated -- fees that can sometimes cancel out the benefits of refinancing altogether." The changes also will allow consumers to shop around for better rates beyond their original lenders, he said.

Learn why the program probably won't help the real estate market

The president then traveled to Los Angeles, where he was expected to deliver remarks at two more campaign events.
On Tuesday, Obama will tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," according to the White House.

The last time the president appeared on the show, in March 2009, he caused controversy by attempting to poke fun at his poor bowling skills -- evident during a 2008 campaign stop. He told Leno he bowled 129 in the White House bowling alley and said his bowling skills were "like Special Olympics or something."

Before the show aired, the president called Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver to apologize, White House officials said, and stress his intention was not to humiliate the disabled. Shriver called Obama's apology "sincere and heartfelt," but noted in a written response, "This is a teachable moment for our country."

After the "Tonight Show" taping, Obama will travel to San Francisco for a fundraiser, according to the White House. On Tuesday night, he will be in Denver to push his jobs agenda. Other private fundraisers will also be sprinkled in, officials said.

A Democratic official estimates the campaign will haul in more than $4 million from six fundraisers in three states.

It's the second time in less than a month that Obama has headed west to push for jobs and raise campaign cash.

A senior campaign official noted the importance of spending time in the region, saying the "campaign has already established an extensive operation in Western states."

And they expect to make "heavy investments there."

The official singled out Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona, where the campaign has offices and field staff.

In 2008 Obama won decisively in Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, but lost to Republican John McCain in McCain's home state of Arizona.

This time around the economy remains under heavy downward pressure despite efforts by the Obama administration to turn things around.

In Nevada, home prices have plummeted by 53% since the peak, and according to online real estate site Zillow, 85% of the state's homeowners owe more than their homes are worth.

At his fundraiser at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas Monday, the president acknowledged that "things are tough right now," but he reminded the audience of some 300 supporters of his accomplishments.

"As tough as things are right now, we were able to stabilize this economy and make sure it didn't go into a great depression," the president said.

While the campaign is targeting key Western states, officials realize every vote will be critical.

"Our goal in 2011 is to build the biggest organization possible to compete on the widest playing field possible in 2012," the campaign official said.

4 killed in attack on car carrying school exam papers

Four people were killed and several injured in an attack on a vehicle carrying government officials transporting school examination papers in northeastern Kenya Thursday, police said.

The incident occurred about 110 kilometers (68 miles) from Mandera, a border town with Somalia, Kenya Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said.

It was unclear who carried out the attack on the car, he said, and police had been given conflicting accounts of what happened.

The Kenyan Red Cross said four people had been killed in heavy machine-gun fire on a small car heading from Mandera to a school.

Mandera is in a part of Kenya which suffers from chronic insecurity and both banditry and incursions by militant groups are relatively common.

Earlier this week, Kenya was shaken by twin grenade attacks in the capital, Nairobi -- one at a nightclub and a second at a crowded downtown bus station during rush hour -- which left one person dead and 20 injured.

A Kenyan man pleaded guilty Wednesday to being a member of the Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab and was charged with causing grievous bodily harm in the bus station attack.

It is not clear if Thursday's vehicle attack is linked to Monday's violence.

The U.S. Embassy in Kenya warned last week it had credible information regarding an imminent terror attack, but offered no details on who might carry out such an attack.

Kenya has been on edge since it sent troops across the border into Somalia nearly two weeks ago to pursue militants with Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group that the United States and other countries consider a terrorist organization. Kenya's action followed the recent abductions of tourists and aid workers in Kenya. It blames the abductions on Al-Shabaab, which has denied involvement.

Al-Shabaab has threatened to attack Kenya if it does not withdraw its forces from Somalia.

Al-Shabaab leaders contact Kenyan government to negotiate

Conflicting accounts emerged Thursday over whether the extremist group Al-Shabaab has signaled a desire to negotiate with Kenya amid a Kenyan military offensive targeting the group.

"They want to talk," said a Kenyan official who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

A spokesman for the Kenyan government, however, disputed that account and said Kenya wouldn't talk with Al-Shabaab even if the group did want to negotiate.

"Al-Shabaab has not contacted Kenya in any way," said the spokesman, Alfred Mutua. "There are no plans whatsoever for Kenya to negotiate with Al-Shabaab. Kenya does not negotiate with outlawed groups."

He said Kenyan troops have enjoyed success since crossing the border into Somalia to pursue Al-Shabaab, which the United States and several Western nations view as a terrorist organization.

"They are running scared. I think they are busy running for their lives," Mutua said. "They don't have time to talk."

Kenyan troops struck several Al-Shabaab training sites in Somalia early Thursday, a military spokesman said. The militant group, which includes many rival factions with different leaders, operates from Somalia.

The group's leaders were said to be reaching out for possible negotiations two weeks after Kenyan troops stormed into Somalia to hunt for Al-Shabaab, which Kenya blames for recent kidnappings of foreigners in the nation.

But Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Ali, Al-Shabaab's second-in-command who is also known as Abu Mansur, told supporters protesting in Mogadishu against the Kenyan incursion that if Kenya struck targets in Somalia, the militant group would strike back.
Kenya has said its forces aim to take the Somali port city of Kismayo, described by the United Nations as a key stronghold and source of cash for Al-Shabaab. The United Nations estimates the group collects up to $50 million a year from businesses in Kismayo, about half of its annual income.

Robow urged what he said were Al-Shabaab-trained fighters in Kenya to take action in return, with the Kenyan port of Mombasa a target.

''Carry out attacks with heavy losses on Kenya," Robow said. "If Kenya closes the sea port in Kismayo, attack its banks, its port, its foreign guests and wherever there is a high-value target."

Kenyan officials have declared self-defense justifies crossing the border with Somalia, saying a recent spate of abductions threatened its security and constituted an attack. Kidnappers have seized two aid workers and two European tourists in the past month.

"We have looked at what is going on ... and decided that unless we move in now, Al-Shabaab is not diminishing, it is becoming bigger and bigger," Mutua said.

The war on terror cannot be won without dismantling the group's power, he said.

Efforts to flush out the terror group will take a "couple of months, if that," Mutua said, adding that "weeks" would be a more ideal time frame.


Analysts and diplomats have raised concerns over the incursion, saying it gives the terror group a reason to strike Kenya.

"If there is anything we have learned in the last couple of decades is that foreign intervention, especially military intervention, doesn't work in Somalia," said Rashid Abdi, an analyst for International Crisis Group. "I definitely understand Kenya's anxiety about the terror threat emanating from Somalia ... but I think there is more that Kenya could have done inside the country."

While noting Kenya's "right to defend itself," the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi said it was not part of the decision to send troops to Somalia.

"The United States did not encourage the Kenyan government to act nor did Kenya seek our views," said Katya Thomas, the embassy's press officer. "We note that Kenya has a right to defend itself against threats to its security and its citizens."

Somali President Sharif Ahmed thanked Kenya on Wednesday for helping battle the extremist group two days after he accused the nation of overstepping its boundaries.

NATO mission in Libya was ended

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to end military operations in Libya.

The council adopted a resolution that rescinded its March mandate for military intervention in Libya, effectively canceling the NATO mission there as of Monday.
Libya's interim leaders declared their nation liberated last Sunday after the capture and death of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, commended the NATO mission as putting Libya on a path to freedom but tempered her remarks with a word of caution.

"We're very concerned that, as we move forward, that the authorities make maximum effort to swiftly form an inclusive government that incorporates all aspects of Libyan society, and in which the rights of all Libyan people are fully and thoroughly respected, regardless of their gender, their religion, their region of origin," Rice said.

"But for the United States, and, I think, for the United Nations Security Council, this closes what I think history will judge to be a proud chapter in the Security Council's history."

The French ambassador called it a completion of a mission started by a decision to prevent Gadhafi from slaughtering his own people.

"During the seven months that have followed, we have seen dramatic events where the Libyan people have succeeded to free themselves with the support of NATO," said Gerard Araud.

Meanwhile, Gadhafi's family will file a war crimes complaint against NATO with the International Criminal Court, a lawyer representing the family said Thursday.

Members of the family believe NATO's actions led to Gadhafi's death last week, said Marcel Ceccaldi.

"All of the events that have taken place since February 2011 and the murder of Gadhafi, all of this means we are totally in our right to call upon the International Criminal Court," Ceccaldi said.

The ICC had previously issued a warrant for Gadhafi's arrest, accusing him of crimes against humanity. It still has warrants out for the arrest of Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, and his brother-in-law and intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Sanussi.

Questions have been raised about exactly how Gadhafi was killed.

Amateur videos showed him alive when captured by the opposition. He died from a shot in the head, officials said, but the circumstances surrounding the shot remain unclear.

Ceccaldi said the Gadhafi family's complaint will be filed in the coming days.

"Now we will wait and see if the ICC is a judicial system which is independent and impartial," he added.

NATO's Libya campaign began in March, after the Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, which imposed a no-fly zone in the country's airspace and authorized member states "to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country ... while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory."

There were no opposing votes on the 15-member council, but China, Russia, Germany, India and Brazil abstained. Germany said it was concerned about a protracted military conflict.
The resolution became the basis for NATO's airstrikes in the North African nation.

In ending the mandate Thursday, the Security Council expressed concern at the proliferation of arms in Libya and said it intends to address that issue further. The resolution also expressed "grave concern about continuing reports of reprisals, arbitrary detentions, wrongful imprisonment and extrajudicial executions."

Last week, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis, commander of NATO's military forces, recommended that NATO wrap up its mission in Libya by October 31. NATO ministers gave preliminary approval to that plan.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said this week that Libya's National Transitional Council wanted NATO to stick around until it could establish governance.

However, Libyan Deputy Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told the 15-member council Wednesday that the Libyan people were looking forward to ending the NATO mission.

While Libyans were grateful for the international community's support, he said, such measures felt like an infringement of Libya's sovereignty.

The Libyan leader's embrace of Sharia raises eyebrows

Officials with Libya's interim government are reassuring the West that their religious views are moderate, after the country's interim leader called for the country's new laws to be based on Sharia, or Islamic law.

At a rally on Sunday in Benghazi, National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said, "As a Muslim country, we have adopted the Islamic Sharia as the main source of law. Accordingly, any law that contradicts Islamic principles with the Islamic Sharia is ineffective legally."

Jalil also suggested in his speech that he would like to see new Islamic rules implemented to limit how banks charge interest, and put an end to some of the Gadhafi-era restrictions on polygamy.

"The law of marriage and divorce, which deals with polygamy -- this law is against Islamic Sharia, and is now halted," he said.

That kind of talk could raise concerns among the fledgling government's Western backers.

In many Muslim countries, Sharia law forms the basis for the constitution, but is interpreted moderately. But in some, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is seen as grounds for cutting off the hand of a convicted thief, or even stoning a woman to death for adultery.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Tripoli just last week, offered a warning when she was asked whether there should be a role for Islamists in the new Libya.

"Groups and individuals who really believe in democracy should be welcome into that process," she said. "But groups that want to undermine democracy or subvert it are going to have to be dealt with -- by the Libyans themselves."

But Libya's ambassador to the United States, Ali Suleiman Aujali, says the West should not be alarmed. "Sharia law, Islamic law, it is not against democracy, it is not against equality, is not against the relations with the other countries based on interests and respect and cooperation."

He says that women now enjoy new rights since the end of Moammar Gadhafi's regime. "There is no restriction against Libyan women to do anything now in Libya," he says.

And Jalil on Monday quickly reassured the international community that Libyans are moderate Muslims.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, "We were encouraged to see President Jalil make a clarification." But she reiterated a warning to Libya and other Islamic countries in transition, saying that "the number one thing is that universal human rights, rights for women, rights for minorities, right to due process, right to transparency be fully respected."

Jalil's embrace of Islam's role in Libya comes just as voters in neighboring Tunisia handed a victory to the moderate Islamist party Ennahda.


"Islam is clearly going to play a much stronger role across the region," says Robin Wright, a Mideast expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. "Whether it's Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and beyond -- as countries redefine their political systems, they are going to want to use the values of their faith to help define what they want next. But that doesn't mean necessarily they're going to be rigid Islamist regimes."

Still, she says, Libyan women are very concerned about equal rights in the post-Gadhafi era.

"The idea of allowing polygamy again -- or allowing the husband to marry again without asking permission of the first wife -- is something that is going to really resonate throughout Libya," she said.

2 still missing in Somalia kidnapping and one arrested

Two foreign aid workers kidnapped in Somalia remain missing but a Somali man who was believed abducted with them has been arrested, a Danish aid organization said Wednesday.

Gunman seized the two international workers, an American woman and a Danish man, after they visited humanitarian projects in the northern Galkayo area Tuesday afternoon, the Danish Refugee Council said.

"The Somalian aid worker, also missing, is now in the custody of the local police, and his role in the incident will be further investigated," the council said in a statement.

The pair, as well as the Somali man, were working for the council's demining unit, which aims to make civilians safe from landmines and unexploded ordnance.
The council said its staff members are very experienced and had been trained to work in high-risk areas. No shots were fired in the course of the kidnapping.

The organization has temporarily suspended its activities in the Galkayo area, considered part of Somalia's Puntland province, but is continuing its work elsewhere in the East African country, it said.

"We are very sad about the incident," said Ann Mary Olsen, head of the council's international department. "At the moment Somalia and the rest of Horn of Africa is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. People are in acute need of relief aid and it is quite tragic that we are targeted like this."

Olsen said the organization is working closely with local authorities to try to resolve the situation.

The council currently helps up to 450,000 people affected by drought and conflict in the Horn of Africa, its statement said, and has been involved in humanitarian efforts there for over a decade.

A number of high-profile abductions of foreigners have occurred in recent weeks in Kenya, close to the border with largely lawless Somalia. Those kidnappings have been blamed on the Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Body of Saudi crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz arrives in Riyadh

The body of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the heir to the Saudi throne who died in New York on Saturday, arrived Monday in the Saudi capital, greeted by crowds of people, authorities and troops.

The body was flown into Riyadh Air Base, according to two Saudi government officials.

The death of Sultan, the half-brother of King Abdullah, raises succession questions in the key oil-producing country at a time of turmoil in the Arab world.

Sultan was thought to be in his 80s. He had been ill for some time -- various reports indicated he was battling cancer -- and was receiving treatment in a New York hospital at the time of his death.

His burial is scheduled for Tuesday, officials have said.

Sultan had served for decades as the Saudi defense minister. President Barack Obama called him a "valued friend" of the United States.

Ascension to the Saudi throne does not pass from father to son. Instead, it's a complex process, and decisions in the conservative kingdom are often cloaked in secrecy.

King Abdullah set up the Allegiance Council in 2006 to allow for more transparency in the succession. It was unclear when the group, made up of members of the royal family, will be employed to make a decision on the next crown prince.

Sultan's death leaves his brother Nayef, a reputed conservative, as the likely successor. Nayef has served as the Saudi interior minister since 1975 and oversaw the kingdom's counterterrorism efforts.

Sultan took a leading role in Saudi Arabia's involvement in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, heading a coalition of about half a million troops from more than 30 countries.

Abdullah left a hospital in Riyadh on Saturday following successful back surgery, the Saudi Press Agency reported. It was the third back surgery in the past year for the 87-year-old king.

Obama risks Iraq for the political expediency

In his first inaugural address in 1953, newly elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower told the American people, "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose." This was a fitting and powerful response to the popular noninterventionism current of the 1950s from a five-star general who knew how to win a war.

The first and most important job of the president is to be commander in chief. Eisenhower knew that, as so did many of our great presidents. Today, we are in danger of losing that founding virtue.

President Obama's decision to order a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year will most likely lead to disaster. He greatly risks losing a country in which we have invested so much time, resources and, most importantly, human life. And he risks losing it to Iran, the world's largest sponsor of terrorism and our primary enemy in a serious Middle East proxy war.
"The long war in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year," Obama said Friday. It may come to an end for our troops, but it is far from over for the people of Iraq.

Only very few of the loudest opponents of the Iraq war advocated complete withdrawal. The U.S. military commanders recommended at least 15,000 troops remain. Obama once again ignored his generals, as he did with Afghanistan, and instead pressed ahead with a politically calculated decision.

Another view: "Who lost Iraq" is the wrong question

Perhaps this will gain him praise from the far left of his base, but this will not sit well with a vast majority of the American people. More than 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war.

The American people have been impatient with the war, but they know we were successful in Iraq. To throw this all away for political expediency is irresponsible. To be tired is one thing, to be irresolute is another. The frequent refrain of Osama bin Laden was that he could always wait us out and that we would eventually show ourselves to be the weak horse, not the strong horse. And, God forbid, if we lose Iraq, it will be on the shoulders of the commander in chief.

Under Obama's plan, a mere 160 U.S. troops would stay in Iraq to guard the U.S. Embassy. That is hardly enough troops to defend our own people. For comparison, the United States has 1,234 troops in Belgium, 1,894 troops in Bahrain and 678 troops in Qatar, according to the Department of Defense's active-duty military personnel records. We risk another Saigon moment by evacuating Iraq and leaving no support behind.

On my radio show, "Morning In America," Michael Rubin, who is the American Enterprise Institute's Middle East expert and teaches our troops at the Naval Postgraduate School, said with no qualifications that he thinks we will lose Iraq because of this.

Dan Senor, senior adviser and the chief spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq in 2003-2004, told me that the president's decision shocked and perplexed him. Iraq cannot survive sectarian violence and Iranian influence on its own, he added. Baghdad will surely move closer to Tehran in our absence.

Indeed, one can already see the influence of Tehran. Two weeks ago, Iraq publicly defended the actions of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an early and telling sign that Iraq was preparing for the withdrawal of American forces. The Iranians want influence in Iraq; Obama wants out of Iraq.

The president defends his actions on the basis of his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq and former President George W. Bush's withdrawal timeline of 2011. However, just until last week, the Obama administration was negotiating the Status of Forces Agreement with Nuri al-Maliki's government with the understanding that several thousand troops would remain in Iraq -- a clear break from his campaign pledge. More importantly, total troop withdrawal was never a platform of Bush's withdrawal timetable.

We know that Tehran is celebrating the president's announcement. Just weeks after spoiling an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., the United States will withdraw from its strongest post from which to engage Iran. We have given them an open road to Baghdad and unfettered weapons supply lines to Syria and Lebanon. By ceding Iran the high ground, the Obama administration has also undercut American and Israeli efforts to shut down Iran's nuclear weapons program.

In spite of all this, Obama will spend his re-election campaign trotting out his foreign policy accomplishments. He deserves credit where it is due. Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Gadhafi are dead. But should we see the loss of Iraq and the rise of Iran, all this will be for naught.
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