BBC News

Egypt: Football Riots leave 74 dead

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Cairo (CNN) -- Political tensions flared Wednesday after more than 70 people were killed when fans rushed the field and rioted at a soccer game in Egypt.

It was unclear whether intense sports rivalries or political strife caused the clashes in the northeastern city of Port Said.

Hours after the fighting, protesters in Cairo chanted, "Down with military rule." And the secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood party blamed Egypt's military for the deaths.

Egypt's interior ministry blamed fans for provoking police.

A committee will investigate the circumstances surrounding the fighting, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said in a statement early Thursday.

The clashes left at least 74 dead, Egypt's health ministry said in a statement. At least 1,000 people were injured, 150 of them critically, ministry spokesman Dr. Hisham Shiha said. Most of the injured had concussions and deep cuts, he said.

The fighting occurred in a stadium in Port Said after the home Al-Masry team beat Cairo's Al-Ahly team 3-1.

Fans from both sides bashed each other with rocks and chairs, said Mohamed Sultan, head of the ambulance association in Port Said.

Many of those who died fell from bleachers inside the stadium, according to Ahmed Saeed, an official from the Port Said governor's office.

Others suffocated, said Al-Ahly fan Amr Khamis, who returned to Cairo early Thursday with his head bandaged after an Al-Masry fan beat him with a wooden stick.

"The police opened the gates separating us from the Masry fans and their hooligans attack us with everything: rocks, glass bottles, knives, swords. Some had guns. ... How did the police allow them with these weapons into the bleachers?" he said.

Authorities contributed to escalating violence, said Mamdouh Eid, the executive manager of the Al-Ahly fans committee.

"The police stood there watching, and the ambulances arrived late. I carried several dead fans in my arms," he said.

Tension was building throughout the game, Eid said, as Port Said fans threw bottles and rocks at players.

"There were organized groups in the crowds that purposely provoked the police all through the match and escalated the violence and stormed onto the field after the final whistle," said Gen. Marwan Mustapha of Egypt's interior ministry. "Our policemen tried to contain them, but not engage."

At least 47 people were arrested after the clashes, he said.

The interior ministry and the military were not responsible for what happened, Gen. Ismail Osman, a member of Egypt's military council, told Mehwar TV.

"Security is lacking now more than ever before. The government must be more stringent," he said.BBC News

Mitt Romney Wins Florida Republican Primary Against Newt Gingrich

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Mitt Romney won more than 45% of the vote while Newt Gingrich, his closest competitor, won just over 30%. The campaign was characterized by overwhelmingly negative campaigning with more than $17 million spent in negative advertising campaigns.
This was the largest of the four Republican presidential nominating contests held, so far, this year.

The win restores Romney to the position of frontrunner for his party's nomination to face President Barack Obama in November but former House speaker Gingrich, who won the South Carolina primary on January 21, has vowed to fight on.

BBC News

Khaled Mashal

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:59:00 +0000

Khaled Mashal, born May 28 1956 has been the main leader of Hamas since the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004. In addition, Mashal heads the Syrian branch of the political bureau of Hamas.

Khaled Mashal was born in Silwad, a village north of Ramallah and moved to Jordan in 1967. While attending Kuwait University, Mashal, as an Islamic student leader, challenged the dominance of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization, participating in the foundation of the Islamic Haqq Bloc, which competed with Fatah for leadership of the General Union of Palestinian Students in Kuwait. After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal came to lead the Kuwaiti branch of the organization. Mashal moved from Kuwait to Jordan in 1991. Since the expulsion of the Hamas leadership from Jordan in August 1999, Mashal lived in Qatar before moving to the Syrian capital of Damascus in 2001. In 2010, The British Magazine New Statesman Listed Khaled Mashal at number 18th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

Source: Wikipedia
BBC News

Khaled Meshaal, Hamas leader Visits Jordan

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:47:00 +0000

Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, is due to make his first official visit to Jordan, 13 years after Hamas leaders were expelled from the country. Mr Meshaal will be accompanied on his visit to Jordan by Qatar's Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamad Bin Tamim al-Thani, who will mediate.

Khaled Meshaal is expected to hold talks with Jordan's King Abdullah.

Mr Meshaal has been based in Syria, but following the violence there he and other exiled Hamas leaders are reported to be looking for a new home.

Jordan is considering whether to re-establish ties with Hamas.

The Jordanian government expelled the Hamas leaders in 1999 for what were deemed "illicit and harmful" activities.

Jordan is believed to be trying to raise its profile in efforts to reconcile Hamas with the rival Palestinian faction, Fatah.

The authorities in Amman have already been hosting informal talks to try to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Despite the possible rapprochement with Hamas, Jordan does not want to get too close and has made it clear that Hamas cannot set up a base in the kingdom.

Hamas itself has denied any plan to move its headquarters from Syria.

"There is no change, and Hamas has not taken any decision to leave Syria," a spokesman, Fawzu Barhum, told AFP news agency.

BBC News

Yemen-USA: President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrives in US for Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:40:00 +0000

The embattled president of Yemen arrived Saturday in the United States for medical treatment, according to a statement from the country's foreign press office.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived at an unspecified location after a journey that took him from Oman, through London. His staff has said he is to be treated for burns suffered during an assassination attempt in June.

The one-line Yemeni statement said Saleh was in the United States for a "short-term private medical visit."

After months of unrest, Saleh agreed in November to end his 33-year-rule of the Arabian state. His trip comes as Yemen prepares for an election on Feb. 21 to select his successor.

In a speech before he left Yemen for Oman a week ago, Saleh promised to return home before the election, but the United States and its allies have pressured him to leave Yemen for good.

American officials don't wish him to settle in the United States, however, over concerns that it would be seen as harboring an autocratic leader accused by many of his countrymen of using violence to remain in power. Opponents have accused him of trying to interfere in Yemen's new unity government, even after he supposedly relinquished authority two months ago. He spent three months in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, only to return to Yemen, prompting more protests.

Saleh's travel plans in the United States have not been disclosed for security reasons.

This article appeared on page A - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/28/MN481MVV5K.DTL#ixzz1kqXHwvPH
BBC News

Azarenka Beats Sharapova In Australian Open Title

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:30:00 +0000

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Victoria Azarenka beat Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 Saturday night to win the Australian Open and take over the women's No. 1 ranking, all in her first Grand Slam final.

The 22-year-old Belarusian Victoria Azarenka had her serve broken in the opening game and was down 2-0 after a nervous start before winning 12 of the next 13 games to take the match away from Sharapova, a three-time major winner and the 2008 Australian champion.

She became only the third woman to earn the No. 1 spot after winning her first Grand Slam title. Caroline Wozniacki vacated the top spot when she lost in the quarterfinals, leaving Azarenka and Sharapova to play for the title and the top ranking.

"Wow," Azarenka said as she first spoke to the crowd, then started giggling. She thanked her support team, saying "You made me realize I can believe in myself and I can finally raise this trophy."

And she paid special credit to her grandmother, "the person who inspires me the most in my life."

Azarenka has been a distinctive presence at Melbourne Park as much as for her shrieks and hoots with each shot and seemingly boundless energy as for her white shorts, blue singlet and lime green head and wrist bands.

BBC News

Julian Assange to Host Conversations on TV Show

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:12:00 +0000

In yet another twist to the pretzel-like Julian Assange story, stay tuned for Mr. Assange’s talk show, set to air in March.

Mr. Assange’s whistle-blower site, WikiLeaks, announced in a news release on Tuesday that Mr. Assange would host a show involving 10 half-hour conversations with “key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world.” It said the theme of the conversations would be “the world tomorrow.”

On Wednesday, that announcement took on greater meaning with the news that the Kremlin-backed network RT (formerly Russia Today) would be carrying the series, giving the show exposure across the world, including in the United States where the network can be seen by 50 million people, including in New York, Washington and Los Angeles.

The RT announcement of the Assange show was a bit more breathless, saying Mr. Assange’s show “will focus on his favorite topic: controversy.”

The RT network broadcasts in English, Spanish and Arabic, and says its global reach is 430 million people. Its slogan is “Question More.”

While hardly a wallflower when in front of the cameras, Mr. Assange has no previous experience in broadcasting. In fact, when his site was roiling global politics, and journalism, with its release of United States diplomatic cables, much of the debate centered on the question of whether Mr. Assange is a journalist?

In an article on RT.com, the network said the show would be filmed at the rural British home where Mr. Assange has been under house arrest for more than a year as he fights extradition to Sweden on charges of s88xual misbehavior. The first episode, it said, will be shot just before Mr. Assange’s appeal date at the British Supreme Court. “Details of the episodes and the guests featured are secret for now,” RT wrote.
Source
BBC News

Mega-Kim: The fast, fabulous, fraudulent life of Kim Dotcom

noreply@blogger.com (Igihozo) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:54:00 +0000

Since the shutdown of Megaupload, stories have erupted about the life and exploits of the company's founder, a self-styled "Dr. Evil" of file sharing. Kim Dotcom's opulent digs, high-end cars, fondness for models and other Bond-villain-esque behaviors have been splashed across websites and have confused evening newscasts for the last week.

The man once known as Kim Schmitz (and as Kimble, and as Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and finally as Kim Dotcom), now awaiting extradition from New Zealand to face charges of conspiracy, money laundering and copyright crimes in the US, has enveloped his actual life in a cloud of hype and bluster that echo the worst of the dot-com bubble from which he took his new surname. In 2001, the Telegraph called Schmitz "a PR man's nightmare and a journalist's dream."

Schmitz wrote recently that all that's behind him a now; a family man, he's even happy to meet the neighbors for coffee. But when New Zealand police arrived at his mansion outside Auckland last week with helicopters, they cut their way through various locks and then into the home's safe room, where Dotcom was reportedly standing close to a sawed-off shotgun, and they took him into custody. The worldwide raids, in which hundreds of servers were also seized in the US and in which 100 officers raided homes and offices in Hong Kong, have just added another layer to the legend Dotcom has been building since he was a teenager: god of hackers, Midas-touch Internet investor, Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer champion.

Dotcom has gone out of his way since the early 1990s to put himself at the center of media attention. He's certainly got it now. But who, really, is this guy?

Born in Kiel, Germany to a Finnish mother (the source of his dual citizenship), Schmitz has made a career out of being larger than life, which seems appropriate for a six foot, six inch man (give or take an inch—his height seems to change with every report) who can fill a room with his 300+ pound presence.

In the early 1990s, Schmitz used a little hacker cred and the growing paranoia over the powers of computer hackers and phreakers to launch a media-powered cybersecurity career. He got his first shot at media stardom in 1992, when he was interviewed by the German press and then featured in a December Forbes article on the "computer hacker crime wave." Schmitz took advantage of the complete lack of technical credibility of reporters and the growing "hacker mystique" to create a sexier, more dangerous version of himself—if not James Bond, then Dr. No.

Giving his hacker handle "Kimble" (which he later claimed was taken from the name of the main character in the film The Fugitive), and claiming to be the leader of an international hacker group called Dope, Schmitz said he had hacked hundreds of US companies' PBX systems and was selling the access codes at $200 a pop, bragging that "every PBX is an open door to me." He also claimed to have developed an encrypted phone that could not be tapped, and to have sold a hundred of them.

In his 2001 interview with the Telegraph, he also claimed to have hacked Citibank and transferred $20 million to Greenpeace, a claim refuted by Greenpeace, which had a total operating budget of just twice that in the mid-1990s. (While Citi was hacked in 1996, it was by a group of Russian hackers—and they certainly didn't donate the money to charity.) He also claimed to have hacked NASA and said that he had accessed Pentagon systems to read top-secret information on Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War.

There's no record to substantiate most of this; perhaps some of it is true. What he did do was steal phone calling card codes and conduct a premium number fraud similar to the recent rash of Filipino phreaking frauds. He bought stolen phone card account information from American hackers. After setting up premium toll chat lines in Hong Kong and in the Caribbean, he used a "war dialer" program to call the lines using the stolen card numbers—ringing up €61,000 in ill-gained profits.

Schmitz was also playing pirate in other ways. Andreas Bogk, a member of the Chaos Computer Club, recently told the Wall Street Journal that Schmitz set up a computer system for the uploading and downloading of pirated PC software, charging people for access. (Schmitz exposed the scheme in an interview with a German television news program, and it was subsequently shut down by Deutsche Telekom.)

Schmitz's efforts to branch into the "legit" world of security consulting with his security company Data Protect initially backfired by exposing his real identity—and by allowing it to be connected to his hacker credentials. In March of 1994, he was arrested by police for trafficking in stolen phone calling card numbers. He was held in custody for a month, then arrested again on additional hacking charges shortly afterward—and again released. In 1998, he was convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud, 10 counts of data espionage, and an assortment of other charges. He received a two-year suspended sentence—because, at just 20, he was declared "under age" at the time the crimes were committed.

But Schmitz used the notoriety to boost his security business. He soon landed a security contract for Data Protect with the airline Lufthansa by demonstrating an apparent security vulnerability—though according to claims by others in the German hacking community, his connection to the airline was thanks to collaboration with an insider there, and to the hacking skills of an accomplice.

The influx of cash began to fuel Schmitz's fantasy fulfillment engine, funding his love of fast cars and outrageous antics. He promoted his new bad-boy rich hacker genius image through a bizarre Flash movie called Kimble, Special Agent, in which his cartoon alter-ego drives a "Megacar" and then a "Megaboat" before breaking into Bill Gates' compound and riddling the wall behind Gates with a machine gun (spelling out "Linux" with bullet holes). The cartoon was the first public demonstration of Schmitz's obsession with all things Mega.
Source
BBC News

Balthazar Garzon In The Dock For Investigating Franco Era Crimes

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:38:00 +0000

High-profile Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has gone on trial accused of violating a 1977 amnesty law by investigating civil war and Franco-era crimes.

The prosecution of Baltasar Garzon, who famously indicted late Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet, has been brought by two right-wing groups.

They say he overstepped his powers by investigating the disappearance of 114,000 people between 1936 and 1975.

Human rights groups have described the Supreme Court trial as a scandal.

Relatives of victims from the civil war and the subsequent dictatorship of General Francisco Franco were among those demonstrating in support of Judge Garzon outside the court in Madrid.

Background

On 18 July 1936, Spain's military - backed by Nazi Germany - attacked the democratically-elected government
It led to three years of Civil War and four decades of fascist dictatorship under Gen Francisco Franco
The war came to be seen as a battle between communism and fascism
It drew thousands of foreign volunteers, fighting on both sides
About 250,000 people died during the conflict
An amnesty in 1977, two years after Franco's death, ruled out public airing of events during that time
But families of some 114,000 who disappeared during those years have become increasingly vocal about wanting answers

Some 22 witnesses called by the defence to speak at the trial will testify for the families of victims.

"For the first time those people will be able to tell before a court what the dictatorship did to them," Emilio Silva, President of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, told the AFP news agency.

BBC News

Gulf Arab states mission Leaves Syria

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Gulf Arab states have announced that they are withdrawing from the Arab League's observer mission in Syria.

A statement from the Gulf Co-operation Council called on the UN Security Council to take up the issue and put new pressure on the Syrian government.

It came after Damascus rejected an Arab League call for President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy.

The UN says more than 5,000 people have died as a result of the crackdown on protests since they began last March.

BBC News

BlacBerry Co-Ceos Step Down

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:02:00 +0000

TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, announced Sunday they are stepping down from the once-iconic company that has struggled to compete in recent years.

The RIM founders will be replaced by Thorsten Heins, a chief operating officer who joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, RIM said.

Balsillie and Lazaridis have headed Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM together for the past two decades.

The Canadian company has suffered a series of setbacks and has lost tens of billions in market value.

Source

BBC News

Kim DotCom, MegaUpload Founder Appears in Court

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:50:00 +0000

(CNN) -- The founder of the shuttered file-sharing site Megaupload appeared in a New Zealand court Monday, as the U.S. Department of Justice seeks to extradite him and other company officials on criminal charges. But his lawyer insisted his client is innocent.

The U.S. authorities shut down Megaupload last week and announced indictments against seven people connected to the site, accusing them of operating an "international organized criminal enterprise responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works."

Four of those charged were arrested in New Zealand at the request of the U.S. government. They included Kim Dotcom, the site's founder, who is also known as Kim Schmitz. The New Zealand police detained Dotcom, a German citizen, on Friday after a dramatic raid on his luxury mansion in the affluent North Shore area of Auckland, the country's largest city.

In a packed court on Monday, Dotcom's lawyer, Paul Davison, argued that his client was innocent and should be granted bail.

"Mr. Dotcom emphatically denies any criminal misconduct or wrongdoing and denies the existence of any 'mega-conspiracy,'" Davison said in the North Shore District Court.

But the New Zealand government prosecutors, acting on behalf of the U.S. authorities, argued that Dotcom's bail request should be denied because he presented an "extreme" flight risk. Dotcom is a resident of both New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Anne Toohey, the prosecuting lawyer, said Dotcom had chartered private planes, helicopters and yachts in the past.

"This kind of access to private transportation is a significant issue in terms of flight," she told the court.

Megaupload, which traffic-tracking service Alexa ranked as the world's 72nd most visited website before it was taken down, allowed users to share and download files -- many of which were copyrighted works made available for download without permission, according to the U.S. authorities.

Full Story on CNN

BBC News

Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh To Go To US For Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:49:00 +0000

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Sunday that it had approved a travel request by Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh for medical treatment, but only "for a limited time."

The confirmation by the State Department came as Saleh was on his way to the U.S. via Oman, where he will stay for a few days.

"Ali Abdullah Saleh's request to travel to the U.S. for medical treatment has been approved," the agency said in a statement.

"As we have indicated, the sole purpose of this travel is for medical treatment and we expect that he will stay for a limited time that corresponds to the duration of this treatment," added the statement.

Saleh's travel came one day after the Yemeni parliament passed a law granting him a complete immunity and protects his aides from political motivated cases, as part of a power transfer deal signed by the president and the opposition in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23, 2011.

Under the deal, which aims to end 11 months of protests demanding an end to Saleh's 33-year rule, Saleh's party and the opposition coalition agreed to nominate Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as the sole presidential candidate for the early elections scheduled for Feb. 21.

In a speech on Sunday, Saleh announced his medical travel to the U.S., saying he will return for the inauguration of Hadi as the next president.

Saleh sustained serious injuries in a bomb attack at his presidential palace in June, 2011.
BBC News

Pop star Seal and supermodel Heidi Klum Split

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:41:00 +0000

(CNN) -- Pop star Seal and supermodel Heidi Klum have decided to split, the two said in statements released by their publicists.

"While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate," the statements said. "We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart."

Seal and Klum have four children together -- Leni, Henry, Johan and Lou.

"This is an amicable process, and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition," they said. "We thank our family, friends, and fans for their kind words of support. And for our children's sake, we appreciate you respecting our privacy."

Klum told CNN's Piers Morgan in October that she first met Seal, 48, when she was sitting in the lobby of a New York City hotel.

"My husband came into the hotel after he just went to the gym," the 38-year-old "Project Runway" host recalled. "He was wearing hot, little bicycle shorts, and he was very sweaty, and I was like 'oh, hello.'"

Seal his best known for his hits "Crazy" and "Kiss from a Rose," which appeared on the "Batman Forever" soundtrack.BBC News

Penn State football coach Dies at 86

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:10:00 +0000

The iconic Penn State football coach had been fighting lung cancer since November.

Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno (December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012) was an American college football coach who was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions for 46 years from 1966 through 2011. Paterno, nicknamed "JoePa," holds the record for the most victories by an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) football coach with 409 and is the only FBS coach to reach 400 victories. He coached five undefeated teams that won major bowl games and, in 2007, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach. Paterno was fired mid-season by Penn State trustees in November 2011, after long-time assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on child sexual abuse charges

BBC News

What Is Boko Haram?

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0000

People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad (Arabic: جماعة اهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad), better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram, is a terrorist organisation based in the northeast of Nigeria, in the areas predominated by the Kanuri people.Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2001 or 2002, the organisation is a Muslim sect that seeks to "abolish the secular system and establish an Islamic state" and "establish Sharia system of government in the country."

The sect is referred to in Hausa as Boko Haram translated as "Western education is sacrilege" or "Western education is a sin" is divided into three factions, and in 2011, it was responsible for more than 450 killings in Nigeria.

Though the group first became known internationally following sectarian violence in Nigeria in 2009, it does not have a clear structure or evident chain of command. Moreover, it is still a matter of debate whether Boko Haram has any links to terror outfits outside Nigeria with some claiming one of its factions maintains links with terror groups in Somalia, North Africa and Al-Qaeda. more from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram
BBC News

Goodluck Jonathan Nigerian President Visits Kano After Bombings

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:48:00 +0000

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan visited the sites of bombings in the northern city of Kano as the death toll from attacks in the region reached 176.

The militant Muslim group Boko Haram, which is fighting for sharia rule in country’s mainly Muslim north, claimed responsibility for blasts that struck eight government buildings on Jan. 20 killing at least 165 people, its spokesman, Abu Qaqa, said by phone. Another 11 people were killed when suspected Islamist gunmen attacked a bank, a police station and a hotel in the northeastern town of Tawafa Balewa today, police said.

“Any terrorist attack on one person is an attack on all of us,” Jonathan told reporters in Kano, saying his government will strengthen security in the city and the country. “We must join hands to fight, the terrorists can’t win Nigeria.”

Authorities in Africa’s top oil producer blame Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is a sin,” for bombings and attacks in the mainly Muslim north and the capital Abuja over the past year. The group claimed the Christmas Day bombing of a church near Abuja that killed 43 people and the Aug. 26 suicide-bombing of the United Nations building in the capital that killed 24 people. Islamic militants pose a worse threat to the country than the 1967-1970 Biafra civil war, Jonathan said on Jan. 8.

Government buildings in Kano, the biggest city in northern Nigeria, including a regional police office, a smaller station, the immigration office and a building used by the state security police, came under bomb and gun attacks by militants, police said. Jonathan, who had declared a state of emergency in parts of four states in the northeast region on Dec. 31 to battle the insurgency.

“It’s another declaration of intent and another indication of a problem that’s getting bigger, not smaller,” Antony Goldman, head of PM Consulting, which specializes in risk analysis in West Africa, said in a phone interview from London. The attacks represent a “significant challenge for the government.” BBC News

President Obama Sings Al Green's "Let's Stay Together"

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 06:52:00 +0000

The president thrilled the crowd of about 1,400 at the landmark Apollo Theater when he briefly launched into song, crooning a few lines of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" to the surprise of, well, just about everyone.

Even more -- he wasn't half bad.

"I - I - I -- I'm so in love with you," he crooned in a somewhat sheepish falsetto, as the audience roared in approval.

"I told you I was going to do it!" Obama shouted to someone just offstage. "The Sandman did not come out!"

Green, the legendary soul singer, was one of the two warm-up acts for the president. Obama assured him it was just a one-time tribute gesture.

"Don't worry, Rev. I cannot sing like you," he joked. "I just wanted to show my appreciation."

In his remarks, Obama pressed his case for a second term, and for his troops to be just as fired up as they were four years ago.

"I am just as determined now as I was then," he said, "and if you are willing to stand alongside of me, change will come."

BBC News

Newt Gingrich Beat Mitt Romney In South Carolina GOP Primaries

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:57:00 +0000

Newt Gingrich has convincingly beaten Mitt Romney in South Carolina's primary election, the latest leg in the battle to be the Republican candidate in November's US presidential poll.

With 95% of the vote counted, Mr Gingrich had 41% to Mr Romney's 27%.

Mr Romney was widely seen as the frontrunner, but the latest outcome is set to turn the race into a long, hard-fought campaign, correspondents say.

The South Carolina victor has won the nomination in each election since 1980.

Other Republican hopefuls, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and Texas representative Ron Paul are trailing badly, with 17% and 13% respectively.BBC News

Islamists Win In Egyptian Parliamentary Elections

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:47:00 +0000

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood won by far the biggest share of seats allocated to party lists in Egypt's first freely-elected parliament in decades, final results confirmed, giving it a major role in drafting the country's new constitution.

Banned under former leader Hosni Mubarak and his predecessors, the Brotherhood has emerged as the winner from his overthrow. Islamists of various stripes have taken about two thirds of seats in the assembly, broadly in line with their own forecasts.

The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has promised all Egyptians will have a voice in the new parliament, but Islamists are now set to wield major influence over a new constitution to be drafted by a 100-strong body parliament will help pick.

Under a complex electoral system, two thirds or 332 of the seats in lower house are decided by proportional representation on closed party lists. The other third are contested by individual candidates.

According to final results of the staggered election issued by the High Elections Committee on Saturday, the Brotherhood's electoral alliance took a 38 percent share of the seats allocated to lists.

The hardline Islamist Al-Nour Party won 29 percent of list seats. The liberal New Wafd and Egyptian Bloc coalition came third and fourth respectively.

The Revolution Continues coalition, dominated by youth groups at the forefront of the protests that toppled Mubarak, attracted less than a million votes and took just seven of the 498 seats up for grabs in the lower house.

Having secured the biggest bloc, the FJP named Saad al-Katatni, a leading Brotherhood official who sat in the old parliament as an independent, as speaker of the assembly.

While the strong Islamist performance has alarmed liberal Egyptians and Western governments who had close ties to Mubarak, it is unclear if rival Islamists will team up in the assembly.

The FJP expressed its "confidence that Katatni will be at the same distance from all representatives, either those of the FJP or other parties."

This would "uphold the principle of democracy and consolidate the rules of political participation," the party said in a statement.

Kim DotCom

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:21:00 +0000

Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz; January 21, 1974), also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, is a German-Finnish computer programmer and businessman who has generated much publicity during the dot-com bubble and was convicted of insider trading, and embezzlement in its aftermath. He is also known as the founder of the Megaupload website and associated sites. On January 19, 2012 he was put into custody of New Zealand police under charges of criminal copyright infringement related to the MegaUpload site.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Schmitz
BBC News

Megaupload:NZ police cut way into mansion to make Internet fraud arrest

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:11:00 +0000

(Reuters) - New Zealand police broke through electronic locks and cut their way into a mansion safe room to arrest the alleged kingpin of an international Internet copyright theft case and seize millions of dollars worth of luxury cars, artwork and other goods.

German national Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, was one of four men arrested on Friday, a day before his 38th birthday, in an investigation of the Megaupload.com website led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The group was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising.

A police official said on Saturday that dozens of officers, backed by helicopters, forced their way into the mansion, nestled in lush, rolling farmland, after Dotcom refused them entry, a scene more reminiscent of a James Bond movie than the usual policeman's lot in rural New Zealand.

"Despite our staff clearly identifying themselves, Mr Dotcom retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic-locking mechanisms," said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organised & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand.

Officers broke the locks and Dotcom barricaded himself into a safe room which officers had to cut their way through to gain access.

"Once they gained entry into this room, they found Mr Dotcom near a firearm which had the appearance of a shortened shotgun," he said. "It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door."

PINK CADILLAC

Two firearms were seized and a 55-year-old New Zealand man has since been charged with illegal possession of a pistol. Computers and documents were also retrieved and more than NZ$10 million ($8 million) was seized from financial institutions.

Television footage showed vehicles, including a pink Cadillac and a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, being removed from the property.

The house where Dotcom was arrested was one of the largest and most expensive in the country, worth around NZ$30 million.

Located in hills northwest of New Zealand's largest city, the mansion is surrounded -- at suitably discreet distances -- by other substantial country homes and luxury lifestyle blocks complete with stables, swimming pools and tennis courts.

Dotcom leased the property after being blocked from buying it last year by the government after failing to meet a "good character" test for migrants, although he was granted residency in 2010.

Dotcom has previous convictions for hacking, insider trading and embezzlement from his time in Germany and Thailand, according immigration authorities, leading some opposition politicians to question why he was allowed to settle in the first place.

Standing some 6'7" tall and reportedly weighing around 300 pounds (136 kg), Dotcom appeared to revel in his outlaw reputation.

Personalized number plates on vehicles removed from the site read KIMCOM, HACKER, STONED, GUILTY, MAFIA, GOD and POLICE, according to the indictment.

One video on YouTube shows him racing a Mercedes in the Gumball 3000 road rally and talking about bribing a Moroccan official.

Another clip shows a 2011 New Year's Eve fireworks display over Auckland organized and paid for by Dotcom to celebrate his family being granted residency. The display was reported to have cost $500,000.

PIRACY DEBATE

The arrests were made as the debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where Congress is trying to craft tougher legislation.

Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation on Friday, postponing a critical vote in a victory for Internet companies that staged a mass online protest against the fast-moving bills.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

Kimand the other men made a brief court appearance on Friday will appear again on Monday. They face extradition and a trial in the United States.

On Friday, in a show of support, hackers attacked and temporarily disabled a number of government and entertainment company websites, including the U.S. Justice Department's website.

U.S. Justice Department officials have said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders cited in a U.S. indictment was at the low end.

The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. Two of the offences carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.

The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom.

Some 100 officers raided four premises in Hong Kong on Friday including luxury hotel rooms, seizing computer equipment and freezing HK$330 million ($42.5 million) in financial assets, according to Hong Kong Customs.

Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet.

Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the U.S. indictment said. ($1 = 7.7616 Hong Kong dollars) ($1 = 1.2433 New Zealand dollars)

(Additional reporting by Chris McCall and James Pomfret; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Ron Popeski and Nick Macfie)

BBC News

Internet Antipiracy bills SOPA, PIPA shelved by Congress

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:07:00 +0000

Washington

Congressional leaders on Friday indefinitely shelved two antipiracy bills that had rallied the Internet and rocked Capitol Hill, dealing a major defeat to the traditional media industry while emboldening a new breed of online political activists.

Using a medium that helped organize protests against the legislation, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the majority leader, announced via Twitter that the vote would be delayed. But he indicated that the issue, which had been scheduled for a vote Tuesday, had not died.

"There's no reason that legitimate issues raised about Protect IP can't be resolved," he wrote, referring to the Senate bill by its shorthand name. "Counterfeiting & piracy cost 1000s of jobs yearly. Americans rightfully expect to be fairly compensated 4 their work."

In the House, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called off plans to formally draft his version of the antipiracy bill next month.

After vowing two days ago to move forward, Smith said in a statement Friday, "The committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation."

Supporters of the shelved bills as well as opponents pushing an alternative backed by the Internet giants Google and Facebook said differences could be bridged. But privately, congressional aides and lobbyists say the pressures of an election make action this year unlikely.

Lawmakers will not be eager to brave another firestorm incited by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and other popular websites.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a key opponent of the bills, said lawmakers had collected more than 14 million names - more than 10 million of them voters - who contacted them to protest the once-obscure legislation.

The Protect IP Act and its counterpart in the House, the Stop Online Piracy Act, had broad bipartisan support when they were drafted. The bills were pushed hard by the Hollywood studios, recording industry, book publishing world and U.S. Chamber of Commerce as antidotes to rampant piracy of U.S. cultural wares by offshore websites.

But many Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, saw the bills as a threat, and said they would stifle creativity on the Internet while forcing search engines and social media to become police officers for the Justice Department. Other outlets objected to any proposed laws that could crimp the free flow of information on the web.

The Internet giants rallied their troops to oppose such Washington stalwarts as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Source: This article appeared on page A - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

BBC News

Largest Distant Galaxy Cluster Spotted

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:41:00 +0000

The largest distant galaxy cluster has been spotted by astronomers using a telescope in the country of Chile.

Seven billion light years away and with two million billion times the mass of our Sun, the cluster was nicknamed "El Gordo" - which means "the Fat One" in Spanish.

One of the experts Professor Jack Hughes said that looking at El Gordo helps them understand the way the Universe was formed. He said "it could become the most massive cluster known about."

Galaxy clusters are described as the largest stable structures in our Universe.

They form when galaxies - like the Milky Way which contains our solar system - collide or merge together. Source

BBC News

Pope Benedict Against Gay Marriage

noreply@blogger.com (Esperanca) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:57:00 +0000

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said Monday that gay marriage was one of several threats to the traditional family that undermined "the future of humanity itself."

The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today.

He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman."

"This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself," he said.BBC News