By ROBERTO CANDIA and EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writer Roberto Candia And Eva Vergara, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago
TALCA, Chile – A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but the death toll was rising quickly.
In the town of Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, Associated Press journalist Roberto Candia said it felt as if a giant had grabbed him and shaken him.
The town's historic center, filled with buildings of adobe mud and straw, largely collapsed, though most of those were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) quake. Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.
Many roads were destroyed, and electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas — meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.
Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific, and Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened.
Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake, and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.
"We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks," she said from an emergency response center. She said Chile has not asked for assistance from other countries, and urged Chileans not to panic.
"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately," she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 29 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down.
Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage, Bachelet said.
Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
Santiago's subway was shut as well and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister told Chilean television. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.
Candia was visiting his wife's 92-year-old grandmother in Talca when the quake struck.
"Everything was falling — chests of drawers, everything," he said. "I was sleeping with my 8-year-old son Diego and I managed to cover his head with a pillow. It was like major turbulence on an airplane."
In Concepcion, 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.
A 15-story building collapsed: "I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, who lived in the building but somehow escaped with no major injuries.
Abarzua said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake hit, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."
Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, is 60 miles (95 kilometers) from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
The quake also shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) away on the Atlantic side of South America. It was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) east of the epicenter.
Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor," he said. "I felt terrified."
Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.
"But then I thought, `Oh, there's no train here.' And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed."
The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught partiers leaving a disco.
"It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "urgent action to protect lives and property" in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and territories subject to tsunami warnings.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts," the warning center said. It did not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.
___
Eva Vergara reported from Santiago, Chile. Associated Press Television News cameraman Mauricio Cuevas and writer Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago, and AP writer Sandy Kozel in Washington contributed to this story.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_earthquake
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Boozy ape sent to rehab
Ai Ai, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, enjoys a cigarette after a meal in her glass enclosure at the zoo in Xian, in central China's Shaanxi province, in this August 2005 file photo. A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, a popular daily reported on Friday.
Photograph by: File, Reuters
info came from http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Boozy+chimp+sent+rehab+Russia/2616639/story.html
The gun-toting boys from Brazil who rule Rio’s ‘Corner of Fear’
A boy steps boldly into the night traffic and waves a gun to bring the cars to a halt, clearing a path for a motorcycle which screeches into the intersection. Riding pillion is another boy, brandishing a machinegun.
Later two teenagers, also riding pillion on motorbikes, flash their guns at other motorists; nearby, a boy can be seen taking aim with a rifle equipped with a telescopic sight. Other youths wander the street smoking crack.
For residents, the junction between the busy Dom Helder Câmara and dos Democráticos, in North Rio de Janeiro, has become known as the Corner of Fear — and video footage of daily life there has shocked a nation already familiar with guns and violence.
The latest images, captured by undercover journalists from the Rio tabloid Extra, have exposed the city’s criminal youth culture in a manner that echoes the journalistic investigation featured in the film City of God.
The age of the criminals — one pistol-toting boy is 12 — is obvious cause for alarm, but so is the seeming impunity with which they act.
The video footage has provided a glimpse into the city’s underworld that hardly touches Rio’s wealthier citizens.
Local newspapers rarely show at first hand the violence that permeates the city’s slums (favelas). Since the brutal torture and murder of the journalist Tim Lopes — who was caught filming secretly in the Vila Cruzeiro favela in 2002 — Brazilian reporters have been reluctant to take their cameras into slum areas. Any reports that are filed tend to come from correspondents talking from inside armoured cars, or are images showing the aftermath of a shooting.
“What is shocking is this parallel power, the fact that they are very young,” said André Cabral De Almeida Cardoso, 41, a teacher. “They are so brazen about it.”
Valera dos Santos, 34, a maid who lives in a favela in São Paulo, said: “My God, I’ve never seen pictures like this. It’s absurd, they’re just boys.”
The journalists who captured the images were also taken aback. “Even knowing the reality of what could happen, you are still shocked by the glamour that these weapons represent in the arms of minors,” said Fernando Torres, 27, one of a team of three who spent four nights undercover at the Corner of Fear.
“These images are desolate,” said Lucy Petroucic, 56, a translator. “These boys have become little Taleban who think they have nothing to lose.”
Within hours, police arrested one of a group of bandits shown in the video and promised that changes were on the way. Luiz Fernando Pezão, Rio’s Deputy Governor, told reporters that a new police base would open nearby in May.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Ohno becomes most decorated US Winter Olympian
Feb 20, 11:50 PM (ET)
By BETH HARRIS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Trailing the South Koreans and a pair of Canadian brothers, Apolo Anton Ohno had to rally on the last lap to make history.
With the gold and silver out of reach, Ohno scooted furiously past brothers Charles and Francois Hamelin to earn a bronze in the short-track 1,000-meter final Saturday night, making him the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian.
Lee Jung-su of South Korea won and teammate Lee Ho-suk earned the silver.
Ohno's seventh career medal broke a tie with long-track speedskater Bonnie Blair. He now has two gold, two silver and three bronze medals in his three Olympic appearances. The skater from Seattle already earned a silver in the 1,500 last weekend.
Ohno's medals are the most of any short-track skater.
He appeared relieved as he crossed the finish line, having skated near the back of the pack early in the nine-lap race. Ohno briefly moved up to second, then dropped to last with three laps to go, forcing his rally near the end.
Ohno grabbed an American flag and skated around, then patted his long-time South Korean rivals on their shoulders.
He has two more events in Vancouver to add to his medal cache.
In the women's 1,500 final, Zhou Yang of China easily won the gold medal.
Zhou breezed to the finish line Saturday night, well ahead of Lee Eun-byul of South Korea, who earned the silver. Park Seung-hi of South Korea took the bronze.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100221/D9E0BMV00.html
By BETH HARRIS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Trailing the South Koreans and a pair of Canadian brothers, Apolo Anton Ohno had to rally on the last lap to make history.
With the gold and silver out of reach, Ohno scooted furiously past brothers Charles and Francois Hamelin to earn a bronze in the short-track 1,000-meter final Saturday night, making him the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian.
Lee Jung-su of South Korea won and teammate Lee Ho-suk earned the silver.
Ohno's seventh career medal broke a tie with long-track speedskater Bonnie Blair. He now has two gold, two silver and three bronze medals in his three Olympic appearances. The skater from Seattle already earned a silver in the 1,500 last weekend.
Ohno's medals are the most of any short-track skater.
He appeared relieved as he crossed the finish line, having skated near the back of the pack early in the nine-lap race. Ohno briefly moved up to second, then dropped to last with three laps to go, forcing his rally near the end.
Ohno grabbed an American flag and skated around, then patted his long-time South Korean rivals on their shoulders.
He has two more events in Vancouver to add to his medal cache.
In the women's 1,500 final, Zhou Yang of China easily won the gold medal.
Zhou breezed to the finish line Saturday night, well ahead of Lee Eun-byul of South Korea, who earned the silver. Park Seung-hi of South Korea took the bronze.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100221/D9E0BMV00.html
Friday, February 19, 2010
Obama to tout housing help Friday in Las Vegas
Feb 19, 7:05 AM (ET)
By BEN FELLER
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.
Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.
Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.
Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.
The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.
Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.
For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.
Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.
The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.
Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html
By BEN FELLER
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.
Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.
Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.
Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.
The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.
Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.
For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.
Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.
The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.
Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html
Tiger Woods says sorry, golf return still unknown
By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson, Ap Golf Writer – 1 hr 31 mins ago
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Missing his smile and aura of invincibility, Tiger Woods finally showed his face to a waiting world Friday and apologized again for cheating on his wife, without revealing the scope of his infidelity or when he will return to golf.
Standing at a podium before a presidential-blue backdrop in a hushed room of his closest associates, Woods stumbled a few times as he read a 13 1/2-minute statement. He offered no new details of what happened or what's next, except that he was leaving Saturday for more therapy.
"I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did," Woods said.
Woods' wife, Elin, did not attend his first public appearance since he crashed his car into a tree outside their home three months ago, setting off shocking allegations of rampant extramarital affairs.
"I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated," Woods said. "What I did was not acceptable."
Woods alternately looked into the camera and at the 40 people in the room, raising his voice only to deny that his wife ever hit him and to demand that the paparazzi leave his family alone. Beyond that, there were stretches when Woods — with his formidable business empire — could have been reading from a tough corporate report.
He entered the room alone. When he finished, he stopped for a long embrace with his mother, Kultida, who said she whispered in his ear, "I'm so proud of you. Never think you stand alone. Mom will always be there for you, and I love you."
Regaining trust and support from everyone else might not be so easy.
Woods already has lost two corporate endorsements — Accenture and AT&T — and he has gone from being perhaps the most famous athlete in the world to a punch line in night clubs and on talk shows.
"It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made," Woods said. "It's up to me to start living a life of integrity."
Woods left therapy on Feb. 11 and has been spending time with his two children and his mother — but not his wife — in Orlando, according to a person with knowledge of Woods' schedule. The person, not authorized to release such information, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Woods did not say how much longer he would be in therapy, only that "I have a long way to go."
Pool photos were released Thursday of Woods hitting golf balls on the practice range.
"I do plan to return to golf one day," Woods said. "I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game."
Just as unpredictable is the future of his marriage. Woods said he and his wife have started discussing the damage he has done.
"As Elin pointed out to me, my apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time," Woods said. "We have a lot to discuss. However, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us."
After an embrace with his mother, Woods hugged the two women who sat on either side of her — Amy Reynolds, formerly of Nike who now works for Tiger Woods Design, and Kathy Battaglia, who is Woods' administrative assistant at ETW Corp.
He made his way down the front row and greeted others — his chief financial officer, Web site administrator, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Notah Begay, who played with Woods at Stanford and withdrew from the PGA Tour event in Mexico.
Begay said Woods had a long, tough recovery ahead of him — not only at home, but before thousands of fans behind the ropes.
"It's a little bit harder than making a swing change," Begay said.
Woods remained composed throughout the statement, pausing briefly before the first of several apologies. At times, however, he looked into the camera almost on cue. Begay said he got choked up listening, and felt his words were sincere.
"This is as emotional as I've ever seen him in public," Begay said.
The only employee not on the front row was Bryon Bell, his friend from junior high who now is president of his design company. Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG, sat on the last of three rows with 14 PGA Tour executives.
"He's an American hero. And he's had his issues," Finchem said. "At the end of the day, he's a human being. We all make mistakes. My personal reaction was that his comments were heartfelt. He clearly recognizes that there has been serious impact to a wide range of individuals and organizations."
Some of the eight players at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona watched the coverage before the third round.
"From a guy that's done a lot of tough things in golf over the years, it was probably one of the most difficult things he's ever had to do," British Open champion Stewart Cink said. "And it was something probably that's going to help him along the way of healing."
In Sweden, Elin's father, Thomas Nordegren, saw Woods' confession.
"I watched it but I have nothing to say right now," Nordegren told The Associated Press. Elin's mother, Barbro Holmberg, declined to comment through her spokeswoman.
Friday's event was tightly controlled, with only a few journalists allowed to watch Woods live. The confession became a major television event with the networks breaking in to show it.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos called the speech "one of the most remarkable public apologies ever by a public figure."
Said golf analyst David Feherty on CBS: "The vast number of people just want their Tiger Woods back."
Certainly, no other PGA Tour player could command this kind of attention.
But Woods has always been special on the course and in popular culture. Television ratings double when he is in contention, which has happened a lot on his way to winning 71 times on the PGA Tour and 14 majors, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus watched the announcement, but a spokesman said he would have no comment.
Most of the associates left the room when Woods finished speaking. Among those who stayed were Mrs. Woods, who rarely gives interview but in this case said, "I would like to talk."
She said her son has a "good heart and good soul" but made a mistake. Mrs. Woods, raised in Thailand, also claims the media showed a "double standard" by keeping the sex scandal in the news for so long.
"Some of media, especially tabloid, hurt my son bad," Mrs. Woods said. "He didn't do anything illegal. He didn't kill anybody. But he try to improve himself. He try to go to therapy and help. He change that and making better. When he go do all this thing, he will come out stronger and a better person."
As his Thai-born mother sat with arms folded across her chest, Woods said part of his rehab would include a return to his Buddhist faith. Woods said his mother raised him as a Buddhist, and he practiced his faith "until I drifted away from it in recent years."
"Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security," Woods said. "It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
The companies that have stuck most closely by Woods, Nike Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc., reiterated their support.
"Tiger has apologized and made his position clear. Nike fully supports him and his family. We look forward to him returning to golf," the company said in a statement.
EA Sports president Peter Moore said: "It was good to see Tiger address the public today, and we're supportive of his focus toward family and rebuilding his life."
Woods' appearance drew reaction from all corners, even at the Winter Games in Vancouver.
"It's a bummer, his personal life," Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White said. "He's trying to pick his words very carefully and apologize. I respect that."
Veronica Siwik-Daniels, one of Woods' alleged mistresses and a former pornographic performer, watched the event with her attorney in a Los Angeles radio studio. She said she wants an apology for the unwanted attention the scandal has brought her.
"I really feel I deserve to look at him in person face to face in the eyes because I did not deserve this," she said.
___
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum in Marana, Ariz., Associated Press writers Antonio Gonzalez in Ponte Vedra Beach, John Rogers in Los Angeles, and AP Retail Writers Ashley Heher in Chicago and Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_sp_go_ne/glf_tiger_woods
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Missing his smile and aura of invincibility, Tiger Woods finally showed his face to a waiting world Friday and apologized again for cheating on his wife, without revealing the scope of his infidelity or when he will return to golf.
Standing at a podium before a presidential-blue backdrop in a hushed room of his closest associates, Woods stumbled a few times as he read a 13 1/2-minute statement. He offered no new details of what happened or what's next, except that he was leaving Saturday for more therapy.
"I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did," Woods said.
Woods' wife, Elin, did not attend his first public appearance since he crashed his car into a tree outside their home three months ago, setting off shocking allegations of rampant extramarital affairs.
"I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated," Woods said. "What I did was not acceptable."
Woods alternately looked into the camera and at the 40 people in the room, raising his voice only to deny that his wife ever hit him and to demand that the paparazzi leave his family alone. Beyond that, there were stretches when Woods — with his formidable business empire — could have been reading from a tough corporate report.
He entered the room alone. When he finished, he stopped for a long embrace with his mother, Kultida, who said she whispered in his ear, "I'm so proud of you. Never think you stand alone. Mom will always be there for you, and I love you."
Regaining trust and support from everyone else might not be so easy.
Woods already has lost two corporate endorsements — Accenture and AT&T — and he has gone from being perhaps the most famous athlete in the world to a punch line in night clubs and on talk shows.
"It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made," Woods said. "It's up to me to start living a life of integrity."
Woods left therapy on Feb. 11 and has been spending time with his two children and his mother — but not his wife — in Orlando, according to a person with knowledge of Woods' schedule. The person, not authorized to release such information, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Woods did not say how much longer he would be in therapy, only that "I have a long way to go."
Pool photos were released Thursday of Woods hitting golf balls on the practice range.
"I do plan to return to golf one day," Woods said. "I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game."
Just as unpredictable is the future of his marriage. Woods said he and his wife have started discussing the damage he has done.
"As Elin pointed out to me, my apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time," Woods said. "We have a lot to discuss. However, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us."
After an embrace with his mother, Woods hugged the two women who sat on either side of her — Amy Reynolds, formerly of Nike who now works for Tiger Woods Design, and Kathy Battaglia, who is Woods' administrative assistant at ETW Corp.
He made his way down the front row and greeted others — his chief financial officer, Web site administrator, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Notah Begay, who played with Woods at Stanford and withdrew from the PGA Tour event in Mexico.
Begay said Woods had a long, tough recovery ahead of him — not only at home, but before thousands of fans behind the ropes.
"It's a little bit harder than making a swing change," Begay said.
Woods remained composed throughout the statement, pausing briefly before the first of several apologies. At times, however, he looked into the camera almost on cue. Begay said he got choked up listening, and felt his words were sincere.
"This is as emotional as I've ever seen him in public," Begay said.
The only employee not on the front row was Bryon Bell, his friend from junior high who now is president of his design company. Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG, sat on the last of three rows with 14 PGA Tour executives.
"He's an American hero. And he's had his issues," Finchem said. "At the end of the day, he's a human being. We all make mistakes. My personal reaction was that his comments were heartfelt. He clearly recognizes that there has been serious impact to a wide range of individuals and organizations."
Some of the eight players at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona watched the coverage before the third round.
"From a guy that's done a lot of tough things in golf over the years, it was probably one of the most difficult things he's ever had to do," British Open champion Stewart Cink said. "And it was something probably that's going to help him along the way of healing."
In Sweden, Elin's father, Thomas Nordegren, saw Woods' confession.
"I watched it but I have nothing to say right now," Nordegren told The Associated Press. Elin's mother, Barbro Holmberg, declined to comment through her spokeswoman.
Friday's event was tightly controlled, with only a few journalists allowed to watch Woods live. The confession became a major television event with the networks breaking in to show it.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos called the speech "one of the most remarkable public apologies ever by a public figure."
Said golf analyst David Feherty on CBS: "The vast number of people just want their Tiger Woods back."
Certainly, no other PGA Tour player could command this kind of attention.
But Woods has always been special on the course and in popular culture. Television ratings double when he is in contention, which has happened a lot on his way to winning 71 times on the PGA Tour and 14 majors, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus watched the announcement, but a spokesman said he would have no comment.
Most of the associates left the room when Woods finished speaking. Among those who stayed were Mrs. Woods, who rarely gives interview but in this case said, "I would like to talk."
She said her son has a "good heart and good soul" but made a mistake. Mrs. Woods, raised in Thailand, also claims the media showed a "double standard" by keeping the sex scandal in the news for so long.
"Some of media, especially tabloid, hurt my son bad," Mrs. Woods said. "He didn't do anything illegal. He didn't kill anybody. But he try to improve himself. He try to go to therapy and help. He change that and making better. When he go do all this thing, he will come out stronger and a better person."
As his Thai-born mother sat with arms folded across her chest, Woods said part of his rehab would include a return to his Buddhist faith. Woods said his mother raised him as a Buddhist, and he practiced his faith "until I drifted away from it in recent years."
"Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security," Woods said. "It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
The companies that have stuck most closely by Woods, Nike Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc., reiterated their support.
"Tiger has apologized and made his position clear. Nike fully supports him and his family. We look forward to him returning to golf," the company said in a statement.
EA Sports president Peter Moore said: "It was good to see Tiger address the public today, and we're supportive of his focus toward family and rebuilding his life."
Woods' appearance drew reaction from all corners, even at the Winter Games in Vancouver.
"It's a bummer, his personal life," Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White said. "He's trying to pick his words very carefully and apologize. I respect that."
Veronica Siwik-Daniels, one of Woods' alleged mistresses and a former pornographic performer, watched the event with her attorney in a Los Angeles radio studio. She said she wants an apology for the unwanted attention the scandal has brought her.
"I really feel I deserve to look at him in person face to face in the eyes because I did not deserve this," she said.
___
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum in Marana, Ariz., Associated Press writers Antonio Gonzalez in Ponte Vedra Beach, John Rogers in Los Angeles, and AP Retail Writers Ashley Heher in Chicago and Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_sp_go_ne/glf_tiger_woods
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Police push for warrantless searches of cell phones
When Christian Taylor stopped by the Sprint store in Daly City, Calif., last November, he was planning to buy around 30 BlackBerry handhelds.
But a Sprint employee on the lookout for fraud grew suspicious about the address and other details relating to Taylor's company, "Hype Univercity," and called the police. Taylor was arrested on charges of felony identity fraud, his car was impounded, and his iPhone was confiscated and searched by police without a warrant.
A San Mateo County judge is scheduled to hear testimony on Thursday morning in this case, which could set new ground rules for when police can conduct warrantless searches of iPhones, laptops, and similarly capacious electronic gadgets.
This is an important legal question that remains unresolved: as our gadgets store more and more information about us, including our appointments, correspondence, and personal photos and videos, what rules should police investigators be required to follow? The Obama administration and many local prosecutors' answer is that warrantless searches are perfectly constitutional during arrests.
"There are very, very few cases involving smartphones," Chris Feasel, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said in an interview on Wednesday. "The law has not necessarily caught up to the technology."
Feasel said the county's position is that a search of a handheld device that takes place soon after an arrest is lawful. "It's an interesting issue that may decide the future of how courts handle these kinds of cases, especially smartphones and iPhones," he said.
Attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco civil liberties group that's representing Taylor, have asked the court to suppress any evidence obtained from the search of his iPhone. They say the search was "unconstitutional" because it was done without a warrant--and they say it also may have violated a 1986 federal law designed to protect the privacy of e-mail messages.
Privacy advocates say that long-standing legal rules allowing police to search suspects during an arrest--including looking through their wallets and pockets--should not apply to smartphones because the amount of material they store is so much greater and the risks of intrusive searches are so much higher. A 32GB iPhone 3GS, for instance, can hold approximately 220,000 copies of the unabridged text of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"Neither the search of (Taylor's) vehicle nor the search of his iPhone was justified by any exception to the warrant requirement," the EFF and its co-counsel, San Francisco attorney Randall Garteiser wrote in a brief filed earlier this month.
Sex photos drew federal lawsuit
Concerns about privacy are not merely hypothetical. In March 2008, Nathan Newhard was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Culpeper, Va., and his cell phone was seized. In the pictures folder of the cell phone were multiple pictures of Newhard and his then-girlfriend, Jessie Casella, nude in sexually compromising positions.
Newhard and Casella--at that point no longer a couple--filed separate civil rights lawsuits against Sgt. Matt Borders, who they said alerted the rest of the police department on the radio "that the private pictures were available for their viewing and enjoyment." Newhard claimed that, as a result of the incident, he was nonrecommended for continued employment with the Culpeper school system, where he had worked before the arrest.
A federal judge in Virginia last year agreed that the police conduct was "irresponsible, unprofessional, and reprehensible" but said that Culpeper police officers could not be held legally responsible because they did not violate any clearly established constitutional rights. In addition, the court pointed out, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that "officers may retrieve text messages and other information from cell phones and pagers seized incident to an arrest" to preserve evidence.
The problem for EFF and its co-counsel in the San Mateo County case is that, while the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up the issue, a number of other courts have reached similar conclusions. In 2007, the Fifth Circuit concluded that police were permitted to conduct a warrantless search for call records and text messages during an arrest. So did the Seventh Circuit in a 1996 case dealing with information from numeric pagers ("It is imperative that law enforcement officers have the authority to immediately 'search' or retrieve, incident to a valid arrest, information from a pager in order to prevent its destruction as evidence.")
"There's a very good case that the police, as awful as it sounds, should be able to go through the contents of this phone," said Adam Gershowitz, a professor at the South Texas College of Law who has written a paper on the topic. "Courts for the most part have held that a phone is like a container, a wallet or a purse."
Then again, does an iPhone or Nexus One really have that much in common with a numeric pager? "The Fourth Amendment requires a search to be reasonable," Gershowitz said. "At a certain point it just becomes so excessive as to be unreasonable, and we may be getting close to that point."
From pagers to iPhones
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, of course, prohibits "unreasonable" searches and seizures.
Warrantless searches generally violate the Fourth Amendment. But the Supreme Court has allowed an exception permitting warrantless searches at the time that someone is being arrested, on the grounds that police should be allowed to look for weapons or items that could be linked to an alleged crime. A second exception to the warrant requirement is a "booking search" that allows police to establish an inventory of the defendant's possessions.
The examination of Taylor's iPhone by the Daly City police department was a two-step process. After Taylor was taken to the prisoner processing center, Daly City detective Joseph Bocci conducted what prosecutors describe as a "limited search of the iPhone." Then, armed with a search warrant, Bocci completed an analysis of the phone's contents.
Meanwhile, Taylor's business seems to be languishing. The HypeUOnline.com blog, created after his arrest, features only three test posts. And the linked Twitter account features only a series of messages titled "2,218 New Followers Within 7 Days" and "Make Money On Twitter" that include links to a non-existent Web page. (Prosecutors say Taylor has prior convictions for forgery, fraud, and identity theft.)
Another reason why a search of Taylor's phone was constitutional, said Feasel, the deputy district attorney, is because "of the transitory nature of that information, because iPhones do present interesting issues with regards to e-mails, and because the iPhone with the 3.0 operating system does have a feature known as a remote wipe."
"The potential for destruction of evidence by a defendant further bolsters our argument regarding limited search incident to arrest," Feasel said.
There is a dispute about whether the iPhone was protected with a password. San Mateo County said in court papers that there is no evidence "that the iPhone was locked." Feasel said that if there had been a password, "there would need to be a search warrant."
EFF, on the other hand, says its client is positive that Bocci, the detective, "bypassed the password" on the iPhone. Jennifer Granick, an EFF attorney, says she plans to ask the officer about it during Thursday's hearing.
There are guides online showing how to do just that, including one titled "Defeating the iPhone Passcode." The technique works on both jail-broken and unaltered iPhones and involves overwriting an iPhone file that stores the password. A $29.99 Windows application called QuickPWN reportedly does the trick.
"If the government can look at a paper appointment book, why can't they look at a contact list on an iPhone?" said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who has written extensively about electronic investigations. "Where I think things get much more difficult is searching through the phone using keyword searches."
A 2007 decision by a San Francisco federal judge, which CNET reported at the time, noted that "the line between cell phones and personal computers has grown increasingly blurry" and that the U.S. Department of Justice "asserted that officers could lawfully seize and search an arrestee's laptop computer as a warrantless search incident to arrest." The Obama Justice Department, in a series of prosecutions including one in Nebraska involving a crack cocaine dealer, has taken the same position about warrantless searches of cell phones.
"I think eventually courts will probably have a new rule" for smartphone searches, said Kerr, the George Washington law professor. "The question is, what the limit will be? You can imagine different possibilities. Maybe there's a time limitation. We just don't know. It's too early."
info came from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10455611-38.html
But a Sprint employee on the lookout for fraud grew suspicious about the address and other details relating to Taylor's company, "Hype Univercity," and called the police. Taylor was arrested on charges of felony identity fraud, his car was impounded, and his iPhone was confiscated and searched by police without a warrant.
A San Mateo County judge is scheduled to hear testimony on Thursday morning in this case, which could set new ground rules for when police can conduct warrantless searches of iPhones, laptops, and similarly capacious electronic gadgets.
This is an important legal question that remains unresolved: as our gadgets store more and more information about us, including our appointments, correspondence, and personal photos and videos, what rules should police investigators be required to follow? The Obama administration and many local prosecutors' answer is that warrantless searches are perfectly constitutional during arrests.
"There are very, very few cases involving smartphones," Chris Feasel, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said in an interview on Wednesday. "The law has not necessarily caught up to the technology."
Feasel said the county's position is that a search of a handheld device that takes place soon after an arrest is lawful. "It's an interesting issue that may decide the future of how courts handle these kinds of cases, especially smartphones and iPhones," he said.
Attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco civil liberties group that's representing Taylor, have asked the court to suppress any evidence obtained from the search of his iPhone. They say the search was "unconstitutional" because it was done without a warrant--and they say it also may have violated a 1986 federal law designed to protect the privacy of e-mail messages.
Privacy advocates say that long-standing legal rules allowing police to search suspects during an arrest--including looking through their wallets and pockets--should not apply to smartphones because the amount of material they store is so much greater and the risks of intrusive searches are so much higher. A 32GB iPhone 3GS, for instance, can hold approximately 220,000 copies of the unabridged text of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"Neither the search of (Taylor's) vehicle nor the search of his iPhone was justified by any exception to the warrant requirement," the EFF and its co-counsel, San Francisco attorney Randall Garteiser wrote in a brief filed earlier this month.
Sex photos drew federal lawsuit
Concerns about privacy are not merely hypothetical. In March 2008, Nathan Newhard was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Culpeper, Va., and his cell phone was seized. In the pictures folder of the cell phone were multiple pictures of Newhard and his then-girlfriend, Jessie Casella, nude in sexually compromising positions.
Newhard and Casella--at that point no longer a couple--filed separate civil rights lawsuits against Sgt. Matt Borders, who they said alerted the rest of the police department on the radio "that the private pictures were available for their viewing and enjoyment." Newhard claimed that, as a result of the incident, he was nonrecommended for continued employment with the Culpeper school system, where he had worked before the arrest.
A federal judge in Virginia last year agreed that the police conduct was "irresponsible, unprofessional, and reprehensible" but said that Culpeper police officers could not be held legally responsible because they did not violate any clearly established constitutional rights. In addition, the court pointed out, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that "officers may retrieve text messages and other information from cell phones and pagers seized incident to an arrest" to preserve evidence.
The problem for EFF and its co-counsel in the San Mateo County case is that, while the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up the issue, a number of other courts have reached similar conclusions. In 2007, the Fifth Circuit concluded that police were permitted to conduct a warrantless search for call records and text messages during an arrest. So did the Seventh Circuit in a 1996 case dealing with information from numeric pagers ("It is imperative that law enforcement officers have the authority to immediately 'search' or retrieve, incident to a valid arrest, information from a pager in order to prevent its destruction as evidence.")
"There's a very good case that the police, as awful as it sounds, should be able to go through the contents of this phone," said Adam Gershowitz, a professor at the South Texas College of Law who has written a paper on the topic. "Courts for the most part have held that a phone is like a container, a wallet or a purse."
Then again, does an iPhone or Nexus One really have that much in common with a numeric pager? "The Fourth Amendment requires a search to be reasonable," Gershowitz said. "At a certain point it just becomes so excessive as to be unreasonable, and we may be getting close to that point."
From pagers to iPhones
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, of course, prohibits "unreasonable" searches and seizures.
Warrantless searches generally violate the Fourth Amendment. But the Supreme Court has allowed an exception permitting warrantless searches at the time that someone is being arrested, on the grounds that police should be allowed to look for weapons or items that could be linked to an alleged crime. A second exception to the warrant requirement is a "booking search" that allows police to establish an inventory of the defendant's possessions.
The examination of Taylor's iPhone by the Daly City police department was a two-step process. After Taylor was taken to the prisoner processing center, Daly City detective Joseph Bocci conducted what prosecutors describe as a "limited search of the iPhone." Then, armed with a search warrant, Bocci completed an analysis of the phone's contents.
Meanwhile, Taylor's business seems to be languishing. The HypeUOnline.com blog, created after his arrest, features only three test posts. And the linked Twitter account features only a series of messages titled "2,218 New Followers Within 7 Days" and "Make Money On Twitter" that include links to a non-existent Web page. (Prosecutors say Taylor has prior convictions for forgery, fraud, and identity theft.)
Another reason why a search of Taylor's phone was constitutional, said Feasel, the deputy district attorney, is because "of the transitory nature of that information, because iPhones do present interesting issues with regards to e-mails, and because the iPhone with the 3.0 operating system does have a feature known as a remote wipe."
"The potential for destruction of evidence by a defendant further bolsters our argument regarding limited search incident to arrest," Feasel said.
There is a dispute about whether the iPhone was protected with a password. San Mateo County said in court papers that there is no evidence "that the iPhone was locked." Feasel said that if there had been a password, "there would need to be a search warrant."
EFF, on the other hand, says its client is positive that Bocci, the detective, "bypassed the password" on the iPhone. Jennifer Granick, an EFF attorney, says she plans to ask the officer about it during Thursday's hearing.
There are guides online showing how to do just that, including one titled "Defeating the iPhone Passcode." The technique works on both jail-broken and unaltered iPhones and involves overwriting an iPhone file that stores the password. A $29.99 Windows application called QuickPWN reportedly does the trick.
"If the government can look at a paper appointment book, why can't they look at a contact list on an iPhone?" said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who has written extensively about electronic investigations. "Where I think things get much more difficult is searching through the phone using keyword searches."
A 2007 decision by a San Francisco federal judge, which CNET reported at the time, noted that "the line between cell phones and personal computers has grown increasingly blurry" and that the U.S. Department of Justice "asserted that officers could lawfully seize and search an arrestee's laptop computer as a warrantless search incident to arrest." The Obama Justice Department, in a series of prosecutions including one in Nebraska involving a crack cocaine dealer, has taken the same position about warrantless searches of cell phones.
"I think eventually courts will probably have a new rule" for smartphone searches, said Kerr, the George Washington law professor. "The question is, what the limit will be? You can imagine different possibilities. Maybe there's a time limitation. We just don't know. It's too early."
info came from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10455611-38.html
Frustration Mounts After Latest Newark Breach
Parts of Newark Liberty International Airport were closed again this week due to a security breach, the second security snafu in six weeks.
It was calm at Newark on Thursday, but that definitely wasn't the case Monday when a security breach forced the closure of parts of Terminal A for over an hour.
The reason for the security breach was a real doozy -- a passenger was flagged for having suspicious objects in his carry-on bag but a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said that agents stopped the wrong passenger for rescreening and the passenger with the suspicious objects got away.
Stay Updated: Download CBS2's Free iPhone App Now!
When agents couldn't find the passenger after shutting down the operations for an hour they went to all gate areas to screen passengers but they never found the person.
The problem is it was the second security breach at the airport in six weeks. On Jan. 3 a security breach caused the airport to shut down Terminal C for six hours, stranding 16,000 passengers for days and entangling flights around the world.
"You cannot allow back-to-back major mistakes like this, security gaps like this to occur, especially such flagrant ones as this," Rep. Peter King said.
King, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, is especially concerned because, he said, al Qaeda terrorists are constantly on the lookout for holes in our security system.
"It's a crisis or tragedy waiting to happen," Rep. King said. "Everything we do is being watched by al Qaeda. When they see such an easy way to breach security at Newark Airport we have to assume, we have to assume al Qaeda will try to take advantage."
Passengers were stunned at news of the latest breach.
"Shocking. I would expert security to be a little more tighter than that," said Edin Haya of Paterson, N.J.
"It's a little bit concerning. I like to see people be safe and that calls into question the security procedures yet again," added Nelson Hurt of Chatham.
This comes as the airport scored dead last in a national survey of airport customer satisfaction. One big trouble spot is poor security checks.
A TSA spokesman said the agency is reviewing the in incident and will take appropriate action against the officer responsible for flagging the wrong passenger.
info came from http://wcbstv.com/local/newark.airport.security.2.1502898.html
It was calm at Newark on Thursday, but that definitely wasn't the case Monday when a security breach forced the closure of parts of Terminal A for over an hour.
The reason for the security breach was a real doozy -- a passenger was flagged for having suspicious objects in his carry-on bag but a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said that agents stopped the wrong passenger for rescreening and the passenger with the suspicious objects got away.
Stay Updated: Download CBS2's Free iPhone App Now!
When agents couldn't find the passenger after shutting down the operations for an hour they went to all gate areas to screen passengers but they never found the person.
The problem is it was the second security breach at the airport in six weeks. On Jan. 3 a security breach caused the airport to shut down Terminal C for six hours, stranding 16,000 passengers for days and entangling flights around the world.
"You cannot allow back-to-back major mistakes like this, security gaps like this to occur, especially such flagrant ones as this," Rep. Peter King said.
King, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, is especially concerned because, he said, al Qaeda terrorists are constantly on the lookout for holes in our security system.
"It's a crisis or tragedy waiting to happen," Rep. King said. "Everything we do is being watched by al Qaeda. When they see such an easy way to breach security at Newark Airport we have to assume, we have to assume al Qaeda will try to take advantage."
Passengers were stunned at news of the latest breach.
"Shocking. I would expert security to be a little more tighter than that," said Edin Haya of Paterson, N.J.
"It's a little bit concerning. I like to see people be safe and that calls into question the security procedures yet again," added Nelson Hurt of Chatham.
This comes as the airport scored dead last in a national survey of airport customer satisfaction. One big trouble spot is poor security checks.
A TSA spokesman said the agency is reviewing the in incident and will take appropriate action against the officer responsible for flagging the wrong passenger.
info came from http://wcbstv.com/local/newark.airport.security.2.1502898.html
Pilot Crashes Into Texas Building in Apparent Anti-IRS Suicide
A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an Austin, Texas, office building where nearly 200 federal tax employees work on Thursday, ignited a raging fire that sent massive plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the seven-story structure.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the incident was a single act by a sole individual, who appeared to be targeting the federal building. He refused to classify it as terrorism.
"I call it a cowardly, criminal act and there was no excuse for it," Acevedo said at a news conference.
The FBI identified the pliot as Joseph Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer. Stack was confirmed dead, but his body has not yet been recovered.
At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, thirteen others were treated and released said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton.
Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul told reported the incident was, "not tied to overseas terror organizations."
A U.S. law official said investigators were looking at a lengthy, anti-government "manifesto" Stack is believed to have written on his Web site. The message outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer." Click here to read the "manifesto" that was published on Stack's Web site.
About 190 IRS employees work at 9420 Research Boulevard, the building that Stack crashed into. IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford said the agency is trying to account for all of its workers.
IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming toward the building, TheStatesman.com reported.
“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said, according to the Web site.
SLIDESHOW: Small Plane Crashes Into Austin Office Building
He said the plane veered down and smashed into the lower floors. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor,” he said.
In what appears to have been his suicide note, Stack is believed to have written:
"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?' The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time...
"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer...
"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the note, dated Thursday, reads.
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said he was shocked by the "tragic events," but did not directly address Stack's rant against the government agency.
"This incident is of deep concern to me," the statement read. "We are working with law-enforcement agencies to fully investigate the events that led up to this plane crash."
Stack took off in a Piper Cherokee from Georgetown Municipal Airport in Texas at 9:40 a.m. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said he didn't file a flight plan. The plane crashed into the building in Austin about 20 minutes later.
Click here for chilling eye-witness acccounts of Texas plane crash.
The Department of Homeland Security said it did not believe the crash was an act of terrorism. President Obama was briefed on the incident. As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and was conducting an air patrol over the crash area.
Police said the situation was "totally contained." "This is an isolated incident, there is no cause for alarm," a spokesman for the Austin Police Department said during a news conference.
Stuart Newberg, who was in the area right before the crash, said the plane was flying low and fast when it plowed into the building, according to The Statesman.com.
“It was flying low and fast and I did a double take," Newberg said, according to the Web site.
"I thought it was a play remote control plane. Then I saw the smoke."
He told the paper he thought the plane seemed “very controlled.”
In a neighborhood about six miles from the crash site, a home listed as belonging to Stack was on fire earlier Thursday. Two law enforcement officials said Stack apparently set fire to his home before embarking on his suicide mission.
MyFoxAustin.com said firefighters reported that the entire house was on fire, including the fence, when they arrived on the scene.
Neighbors said they heard a loud explosion in the house Thursday morning right before it became engulfed in flames.
MyFoxAustin.com reported that a 12-year-old girl and a woman were rescued by a neighbor from the $236,000 home. The station reported that the girl is believed to be Stack's stepdaughter. Other media reports indicated that these individuals may have alerted authorities to Stack’s actions.
A neighbor told MyFoxAustin.com that Stack was an experienced pilot who owned his own plane.
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported several "walking wounded" at the scene of the crash. Paramedics set up a triage center at the scene.
Early reports that the building housed the FBI field office in Austin turned out not to be true. An FBI spokesman told Fox News that the FBI office in Austin is near where the plane crashed, but not in the same building. There are some federal offices in the building, though authorities couldn't identify which ones.
The NTSB was sending staff out of Dallas and Washington to the scene.
Witnesses were asked to contact the Austin Police Department at 210-650-6196 with any information that might be useful in the investigation.
According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.
In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.
Click here for more from MyFoxAustin.com.
NewsCore contributed to this report.
FoxNews.com's Michelle Maskaly, The Statesman.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
info came from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586581,00.html
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the incident was a single act by a sole individual, who appeared to be targeting the federal building. He refused to classify it as terrorism.
"I call it a cowardly, criminal act and there was no excuse for it," Acevedo said at a news conference.
The FBI identified the pliot as Joseph Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer. Stack was confirmed dead, but his body has not yet been recovered.
At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, thirteen others were treated and released said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton.
Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul told reported the incident was, "not tied to overseas terror organizations."
A U.S. law official said investigators were looking at a lengthy, anti-government "manifesto" Stack is believed to have written on his Web site. The message outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer." Click here to read the "manifesto" that was published on Stack's Web site.
About 190 IRS employees work at 9420 Research Boulevard, the building that Stack crashed into. IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford said the agency is trying to account for all of its workers.
IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming toward the building, TheStatesman.com reported.
“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said, according to the Web site.
SLIDESHOW: Small Plane Crashes Into Austin Office Building
He said the plane veered down and smashed into the lower floors. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor,” he said.
In what appears to have been his suicide note, Stack is believed to have written:
"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?' The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time...
"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer...
"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the note, dated Thursday, reads.
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said he was shocked by the "tragic events," but did not directly address Stack's rant against the government agency.
"This incident is of deep concern to me," the statement read. "We are working with law-enforcement agencies to fully investigate the events that led up to this plane crash."
Stack took off in a Piper Cherokee from Georgetown Municipal Airport in Texas at 9:40 a.m. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said he didn't file a flight plan. The plane crashed into the building in Austin about 20 minutes later.
Click here for chilling eye-witness acccounts of Texas plane crash.
The Department of Homeland Security said it did not believe the crash was an act of terrorism. President Obama was briefed on the incident. As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and was conducting an air patrol over the crash area.
Police said the situation was "totally contained." "This is an isolated incident, there is no cause for alarm," a spokesman for the Austin Police Department said during a news conference.
Stuart Newberg, who was in the area right before the crash, said the plane was flying low and fast when it plowed into the building, according to The Statesman.com.
“It was flying low and fast and I did a double take," Newberg said, according to the Web site.
"I thought it was a play remote control plane. Then I saw the smoke."
He told the paper he thought the plane seemed “very controlled.”
In a neighborhood about six miles from the crash site, a home listed as belonging to Stack was on fire earlier Thursday. Two law enforcement officials said Stack apparently set fire to his home before embarking on his suicide mission.
MyFoxAustin.com said firefighters reported that the entire house was on fire, including the fence, when they arrived on the scene.
Neighbors said they heard a loud explosion in the house Thursday morning right before it became engulfed in flames.
MyFoxAustin.com reported that a 12-year-old girl and a woman were rescued by a neighbor from the $236,000 home. The station reported that the girl is believed to be Stack's stepdaughter. Other media reports indicated that these individuals may have alerted authorities to Stack’s actions.
A neighbor told MyFoxAustin.com that Stack was an experienced pilot who owned his own plane.
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported several "walking wounded" at the scene of the crash. Paramedics set up a triage center at the scene.
Early reports that the building housed the FBI field office in Austin turned out not to be true. An FBI spokesman told Fox News that the FBI office in Austin is near where the plane crashed, but not in the same building. There are some federal offices in the building, though authorities couldn't identify which ones.
The NTSB was sending staff out of Dallas and Washington to the scene.
Witnesses were asked to contact the Austin Police Department at 210-650-6196 with any information that might be useful in the investigation.
According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.
In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.
Click here for more from MyFoxAustin.com.
NewsCore contributed to this report.
FoxNews.com's Michelle Maskaly, The Statesman.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
info came from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586581,00.html
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Marines spearhead major Afghanistan offensive
MARJAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Marines spearheaded one of NATO's biggest offensives against the Taliban in Afghanistan on Saturday, in an early test of President Barack Obama's troop surge policy.
WORLD
Marines in helicopters landed in Marjah district, the last big Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, in the first hours of a NATO campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas before U.S. forces start a planned 2011 drawdown.
They fired at least four rockets at militants who attacked from compounds near the bazaar in Marjah town. Hours later, the area was still gripped by the firefight.
There was one Marine casualty in the unit in which a Reuters correspondent was embedded. In their house nearby, a family huddled in one room, laundry flapping on the line outside.
"We are currently moving to seize our objective. We have been in contact for five hours from the southwest, north and east and we are moving to push to finish securing the areas of insurgents still," Lieutenant Mark Greenlief told Reuters.
The Marines' first objective was to take over the town center, a large cluster of dwellings, and they called in two Harrier jets which flew over a Taliban position at the edge of the town center and fired on the militants with machineguns.
Like civilians in the district of up to 100,000 people, the U.S., British and Afghan troops risk being blown up by booby traps the Taliban are believed to have rigged in the hundreds to try to slow the advance.
A local Taliban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters earlier about 2,000 fighters were ready to fight.
Also in southern Afghanistan, five NATO troops, including three Americans, died after roadside bomb strikes, and a shooting in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, NATO said in a statement.
It was not clear whether they were killed during the offensive but the violence illustrated how vulnerable they still were after eight years of fighting the Taliban.
Helmand task force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said a British solider was killed in an explosion while on vehicle patrol during the operation. It was not clear whether the solider was one of the five.
15,000 TROOPS IN OPERATION
NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy emphasizes seizing population centers and avoiding combat in built-up areas whenever possible.
McChrystal has stressed precautions to avoid killing civilians, and the number of civilians killed by NATO troops has declined since he took command in mid-2009.
Heavy casualties may ruin the government's chance of gaining more support from Afghans. NATO forces advised civilians not to leave their homes. Some have already fled Marjah.
"The international forces must adopt certain procedures and mechanisms during operation in Marjah to protect civilians," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
In Marjah, resident Abdel Aziz, 16, told the Marines through a translator, "All the walls between the streets and houses are surrounded by bombs. Most people have gone to Lashkar Gah. That's where we want to go today."
An elderly neighbor emerged from her house and asked Marines not to fire at it. "This is just my house," she said.
HEAVILY BOOBY-TRAPPED
After helicopters began ferrying U.S. Marines into Marjah, British troops flew into the northern part of Nad Ali district, and tanks and combat engineering units followed.
"The first phase of the operation is proceeding very successfully. The Taliban have heavily booby-trapped the area, but there has not been any fierce fighting yet," Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal told a news conference.
"We have seized 11 key locations in the district and the resistance from the insurgents has been subdued."
The 15,000-troop operation was named Mushtarak, or "together," perhaps to highlight that NATO and Afghan forces were determined to work closely to restore stability to Afghanistan.
Whether the apparent early success can translate into a more permanent end to the insurgency may depend on the government's ability to ensure long-term political and economic stability.
"Our aim is not the elimination of the insurgents, the goal is developing the influence of central government, safeguarding the civilians and providing long-term security and stability," Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters in Kabul.
Marjah has long been a breeding ground for insurgents and lucrative opium poppy cultivation, which Western countries say funds the insurgency.
Even if NATO deals a heavy blow to the Taliban in Helmand, militants on the U.S. hit list operate from other sanctuaries inside Pakistan or close to the border.
U.S.-allied Pakistan is reluctant to pursue them as it sees these groups as assets to counter the influence of rival India in Afghanistan.
Decades ago, the Marjah area was home to an Afghan-U.S. development project. Its canals, which criss-cross lush farmland, were built by the Americans.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by Michael Georgy and Bryson Hull; Editing by Louise Ireland)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B1ZJ20100213
WORLD
Marines in helicopters landed in Marjah district, the last big Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, in the first hours of a NATO campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas before U.S. forces start a planned 2011 drawdown.
They fired at least four rockets at militants who attacked from compounds near the bazaar in Marjah town. Hours later, the area was still gripped by the firefight.
There was one Marine casualty in the unit in which a Reuters correspondent was embedded. In their house nearby, a family huddled in one room, laundry flapping on the line outside.
"We are currently moving to seize our objective. We have been in contact for five hours from the southwest, north and east and we are moving to push to finish securing the areas of insurgents still," Lieutenant Mark Greenlief told Reuters.
The Marines' first objective was to take over the town center, a large cluster of dwellings, and they called in two Harrier jets which flew over a Taliban position at the edge of the town center and fired on the militants with machineguns.
Like civilians in the district of up to 100,000 people, the U.S., British and Afghan troops risk being blown up by booby traps the Taliban are believed to have rigged in the hundreds to try to slow the advance.
A local Taliban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters earlier about 2,000 fighters were ready to fight.
Also in southern Afghanistan, five NATO troops, including three Americans, died after roadside bomb strikes, and a shooting in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, NATO said in a statement.
It was not clear whether they were killed during the offensive but the violence illustrated how vulnerable they still were after eight years of fighting the Taliban.
Helmand task force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said a British solider was killed in an explosion while on vehicle patrol during the operation. It was not clear whether the solider was one of the five.
15,000 TROOPS IN OPERATION
NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy emphasizes seizing population centers and avoiding combat in built-up areas whenever possible.
McChrystal has stressed precautions to avoid killing civilians, and the number of civilians killed by NATO troops has declined since he took command in mid-2009.
Heavy casualties may ruin the government's chance of gaining more support from Afghans. NATO forces advised civilians not to leave their homes. Some have already fled Marjah.
"The international forces must adopt certain procedures and mechanisms during operation in Marjah to protect civilians," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
In Marjah, resident Abdel Aziz, 16, told the Marines through a translator, "All the walls between the streets and houses are surrounded by bombs. Most people have gone to Lashkar Gah. That's where we want to go today."
An elderly neighbor emerged from her house and asked Marines not to fire at it. "This is just my house," she said.
HEAVILY BOOBY-TRAPPED
After helicopters began ferrying U.S. Marines into Marjah, British troops flew into the northern part of Nad Ali district, and tanks and combat engineering units followed.
"The first phase of the operation is proceeding very successfully. The Taliban have heavily booby-trapped the area, but there has not been any fierce fighting yet," Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal told a news conference.
"We have seized 11 key locations in the district and the resistance from the insurgents has been subdued."
The 15,000-troop operation was named Mushtarak, or "together," perhaps to highlight that NATO and Afghan forces were determined to work closely to restore stability to Afghanistan.
Whether the apparent early success can translate into a more permanent end to the insurgency may depend on the government's ability to ensure long-term political and economic stability.
"Our aim is not the elimination of the insurgents, the goal is developing the influence of central government, safeguarding the civilians and providing long-term security and stability," Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters in Kabul.
Marjah has long been a breeding ground for insurgents and lucrative opium poppy cultivation, which Western countries say funds the insurgency.
Even if NATO deals a heavy blow to the Taliban in Helmand, militants on the U.S. hit list operate from other sanctuaries inside Pakistan or close to the border.
U.S.-allied Pakistan is reluctant to pursue them as it sees these groups as assets to counter the influence of rival India in Afghanistan.
Decades ago, the Marjah area was home to an Afghan-U.S. development project. Its canals, which criss-cross lush farmland, were built by the Americans.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by Michael Georgy and Bryson Hull; Editing by Louise Ireland)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B1ZJ20100213
Toyota to recall 8,000 Tacomas in U.S.: document
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp will recall about 8,000 model-year 2010 Tacoma pickup trucks in the United States, the latest in a series of recalls that have hurt the automaker's sales and its reputation for quality.
In a document sent to U.S. dealers on Thursday and obtained by Reuters, Toyota said the all-wheel drive version of the 2010 Tacoma trucks may have a component containing cracks in the joint portion of the drive shaft due to an "improper manufacturing process control."
The cracks may lead to the separation of the drive shaft and the separated shaft may come into contact with the road surface, potentially causing drivers to lose control of the vehicle, the document showed.
The front drive shafts are manufactured by Dana Holding Corp, and the affected vehicles were produced from mid-December 2009 to early February, according to the document.
Representatives at Toyota were not immediately available for comment. Ohio-based supplier Dana was not immediately available for comment.
The latest move follows a string of recalls over the past few months that cover more than 8.5 million vehicles globally due to the risk that a loose floormat or a sticky accelerator pedal may lead to unintended acceleration.
Toyota notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday of its intention to conduct a safety recall, the document showed.
The potential defect in Tacomas was discovered during the manufacturing process of the front drive shaft at supplier Dana, the document showed. Toyota said it was not aware of any accidents related to the condition.
The 2005-2010 model year Tacoma trucks were also involved in a safety recall last September for the risk of unintended acceleration, which Toyota said was linked to floormats that can become lodged under the acceleration pedal.
Toyota sold about 112,000 Tacomas in the United States last year, down from nearly 145,000 in 2008.
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B4ZM20100212
In a document sent to U.S. dealers on Thursday and obtained by Reuters, Toyota said the all-wheel drive version of the 2010 Tacoma trucks may have a component containing cracks in the joint portion of the drive shaft due to an "improper manufacturing process control."
The cracks may lead to the separation of the drive shaft and the separated shaft may come into contact with the road surface, potentially causing drivers to lose control of the vehicle, the document showed.
The front drive shafts are manufactured by Dana Holding Corp, and the affected vehicles were produced from mid-December 2009 to early February, according to the document.
Representatives at Toyota were not immediately available for comment. Ohio-based supplier Dana was not immediately available for comment.
The latest move follows a string of recalls over the past few months that cover more than 8.5 million vehicles globally due to the risk that a loose floormat or a sticky accelerator pedal may lead to unintended acceleration.
Toyota notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday of its intention to conduct a safety recall, the document showed.
The potential defect in Tacomas was discovered during the manufacturing process of the front drive shaft at supplier Dana, the document showed. Toyota said it was not aware of any accidents related to the condition.
The 2005-2010 model year Tacoma trucks were also involved in a safety recall last September for the risk of unintended acceleration, which Toyota said was linked to floormats that can become lodged under the acceleration pedal.
Toyota sold about 112,000 Tacomas in the United States last year, down from nearly 145,000 in 2008.
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B4ZM20100212
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
'Miss Me Yet?' Billboard With Photo Of Bush Is Real; Not An Internet Trick
By Mark Memmott
Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth -- nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web.
But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he's seen it with his own eyes:
There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?"
Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.
Bob says there's no readily apparent claim of ownership on the billboard, so he's heading back to the scene to see if he can find out who's behind the message. He's also got some local politicos looking into it. He'll keep us posted.
At first glance, it would seem to be from some person or group who isn't thrilled by President Barack Obama's performance so far -- unless it's a more ironic message from those who didn't think too much of Bush and want to remind voters about him.
Anyone out there know anything about where it came from? Tell us and we'll pass the word to Bob. As he says, we could do a little crowdsourcing.
Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth -- nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web.
But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he's seen it with his own eyes:
There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?"
Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.
Bob says there's no readily apparent claim of ownership on the billboard, so he's heading back to the scene to see if he can find out who's behind the message. He's also got some local politicos looking into it. He'll keep us posted.
At first glance, it would seem to be from some person or group who isn't thrilled by President Barack Obama's performance so far -- unless it's a more ironic message from those who didn't think too much of Bush and want to remind voters about him.
Anyone out there know anything about where it came from? Tell us and we'll pass the word to Bob. As he says, we could do a little crowdsourcing.
Moscow says U.S. missile shield aimed at Russia
MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Tuesday that plans for a U.S. missile shield are directed against his country.
"The development and establishment of the (U.S.) missile shield is directed against the Russian Federation," Interfax news agency quoted Russian armed forces chief of staff, Nikolai Makarov, as saying. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Steve Gutterman)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6181JK20100209
"The development and establishment of the (U.S.) missile shield is directed against the Russian Federation," Interfax news agency quoted Russian armed forces chief of staff, Nikolai Makarov, as saying. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Steve Gutterman)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6181JK20100209
China confirmed as world’s top exporter
By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt and Geoff Dyer in Beijing
Published: February 9 2010 10:16 | Last updated: February 9 2010 10:16
China overtook Germany last year to become world export champion, official figures confirmed on Tuesday.
December trade figures for Germany highlighted the hit Europe’s largest economy took in 2009 from the collapse in global economic confidence at the start of the year. German goods’ exports fell by 18.4 per cent compared with the previous year – the biggest year-on-year fall since 1950, according to the federal statistics office. Overall, German exports last year were equivalent to $1,121.3bn, which compared with the $1,201.7bn exported by China.
In Germany, the loss of the “Exportmeister” label is not seen as a massive blow, however. China had long been on track to take the title and its loss might deflect some of the international criticism the German government has faced for not doing more to boost domestic demand. German imports fell by 17.2 per cent last year – almost as fast as exports.
Meanwhile, Germany can take comfort from a surprisingly strong rebound in exports at the end of last year. Exports rose in December for the fourth consecutive month and were 3 per cent higher than in November, continuing a robust recovery since the May.
The data suggest exports helped boost overall economic growth in the final quarter of last year, and will offset some of the gloom created last week by disappointing figures for German industrial orders at the end of 2009.
Simon Junker, economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said business confidence surveys and orders in the pipeline suggest German exports will continue to grow in coming months – but their dynamism might start to slow as a result of the problems that have hit Greece and other highly indebted eurozone countries.
“The structural problems in many trading-partner countries, which have become apparent recently in several eurozone periphery countries, will prevent a sharp upswing of Germany’s export driven industry,” Mr Junker argued.
China’s goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16 per cent over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978. In recent months there have been signs of a pick-up in exports, including a 17.7 per cent year-on-year increase in December and analysts expect a 20 per cent increase in January when the figures are released later this week. However it is not clear yet if the rebound reflects restocking by customers in Europe and the US which had let inventories run down during the crisis or if it is the result of recovering demand from consumers.
China’s trade surplus dropped 34 per cent last year to $196bn as stimulus spending led imports to decline at a slower rate than exports. However some economists predict the surplus could start to widen again this year as the global economy recovers and Chinese investment slows.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
info came from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35de8406-155c-11df-8f05-00144feab49a.html
Published: February 9 2010 10:16 | Last updated: February 9 2010 10:16
China overtook Germany last year to become world export champion, official figures confirmed on Tuesday.
December trade figures for Germany highlighted the hit Europe’s largest economy took in 2009 from the collapse in global economic confidence at the start of the year. German goods’ exports fell by 18.4 per cent compared with the previous year – the biggest year-on-year fall since 1950, according to the federal statistics office. Overall, German exports last year were equivalent to $1,121.3bn, which compared with the $1,201.7bn exported by China.
In Germany, the loss of the “Exportmeister” label is not seen as a massive blow, however. China had long been on track to take the title and its loss might deflect some of the international criticism the German government has faced for not doing more to boost domestic demand. German imports fell by 17.2 per cent last year – almost as fast as exports.
Meanwhile, Germany can take comfort from a surprisingly strong rebound in exports at the end of last year. Exports rose in December for the fourth consecutive month and were 3 per cent higher than in November, continuing a robust recovery since the May.
The data suggest exports helped boost overall economic growth in the final quarter of last year, and will offset some of the gloom created last week by disappointing figures for German industrial orders at the end of 2009.
Simon Junker, economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said business confidence surveys and orders in the pipeline suggest German exports will continue to grow in coming months – but their dynamism might start to slow as a result of the problems that have hit Greece and other highly indebted eurozone countries.
“The structural problems in many trading-partner countries, which have become apparent recently in several eurozone periphery countries, will prevent a sharp upswing of Germany’s export driven industry,” Mr Junker argued.
China’s goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16 per cent over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978. In recent months there have been signs of a pick-up in exports, including a 17.7 per cent year-on-year increase in December and analysts expect a 20 per cent increase in January when the figures are released later this week. However it is not clear yet if the rebound reflects restocking by customers in Europe and the US which had let inventories run down during the crisis or if it is the result of recovering demand from consumers.
China’s trade surplus dropped 34 per cent last year to $196bn as stimulus spending led imports to decline at a slower rate than exports. However some economists predict the surplus could start to widen again this year as the global economy recovers and Chinese investment slows.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
info came from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35de8406-155c-11df-8f05-00144feab49a.html
Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff
Authorities’ claim that virtual strip search pictures immediately destroyed proven fraudulent – use of devices needs to be halted now
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.
UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said last week that the images produced by the scanners were deleted “immediately” and airport staff carrying out the procedure are fully trained and supervised.
“It is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner,” Adonis told the London Evening Standard.
Adonis was forced to address privacy concerns following reports that the images produced by the scanners broke child pornography laws in the UK. When the scanners were first introduced, it was also speculated that images of famous people would be ripe for abuse as the pictures produced by the devices make genitals “eerily visible” according to journalists who have investigated trials of the technology.
However, the Transport Secretary’s assurances were demolished after it was revealed on the BBC’s Jonathan Ross show Friday that Indian actor Shahrukh Khan had passed through a body scan and later had the image of his naked body printed out and circulated by Heathrow security staff. “I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed – if you’re not well endowed,” said Khan, referring to how the scans produce clear images of a person’s genitals.
“You walk into the machine and everything – the whole outline of your body – comes out,” he said.
“I was a little scared. Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out. Then I saw these girls – they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said ‘give them to me’ – and you could see everything inside. So I autographed them for them,” stated Khan.
The story was carried by Yahoo News under the headline “Shah Rukh signs off sexy body-scan printouts at Heathrow”.
Khan’s reference to “girls” with printouts of his naked body scan can only refer to female airport security staff responsible for processing the images produced by the scanners, “professionals” who are supposed to instantly delete the images, according to Lord Adonis.
The revelation that airport security staff are completely abusing any notion of the professionalism promised by authorities by printing out and circulating images of naked body scans should set alarm bells ringing, especially in light of the fact that such images of minors break child pornography laws. British authorities have made it mandatory for travelers to submit to the naked body scanners when asked and have overturned previous rules that prevented under 18’s from passing through the devices.
Within days of the devices being introduced at Heathrow, staff have abused their professionalism and printed out naked scans of a famous actor for their own titillation.
We were promised all along that the body scanners “increased privacy” because they were only accessible to a single staff member who had no personal contact with the passenger taking the scan, in addition to the assurance that the images could not be saved and were instantly deleted. It in fact turns out that airport staff have been saving, printing and circulating naked body scans in complete violation of these supposed guarantees.
Furthermore, we were told that the identity of the person undergoing the virtual strip search would also be kept private. The fact that Heathrow employees must have known that the actor was about to take the body scan in order to print out copies of the image also proves this claim to be a total fallacy.
The abuse of the naked body scan images in this instance is a total violation of every data protection law in the UK. Far from treating the story in a comical manner, Khan should be filing a very expensive lawsuit and preparing for a successful and lucrative outcome.
In the meantime, the revelation that the naked body scanner images are being freely printed out and circulated by airport security staff should prove to be the death knell for plans on behalf of governments worldwide to institute the scanners on a widespread basis.
Courts have consistently found that strip searches are only legal when performed on a person who has already been found guilty of a crime or on arrestees pending trial where a reasonable suspicion has to exist that they are carrying a weapon. Subjecting masses of people to blanket strip searches in airports reverses the very notion of innocent until proven guilty.
Barring people from flying and essentially treating them like terrorists for refusing to be humiliated by the virtual strip search is a clear breach of the basic human right of freedom of movement. Security experts agree that such scanners would not even have stopped the incident that has been exploited to justify their widespread introduction – the Christmas Day underwear bomber.
Not only have the scanners proven to be a total violation of privacy, but major international radiation safety groups are now warning of the health risks they pose.
Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.
Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”
“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.
info came from http://www.prisonplanet.com/exposed-naked-body-scanner-images-of-film-star-printed-circulated.html
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.
UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said last week that the images produced by the scanners were deleted “immediately” and airport staff carrying out the procedure are fully trained and supervised.
“It is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner,” Adonis told the London Evening Standard.
Adonis was forced to address privacy concerns following reports that the images produced by the scanners broke child pornography laws in the UK. When the scanners were first introduced, it was also speculated that images of famous people would be ripe for abuse as the pictures produced by the devices make genitals “eerily visible” according to journalists who have investigated trials of the technology.
However, the Transport Secretary’s assurances were demolished after it was revealed on the BBC’s Jonathan Ross show Friday that Indian actor Shahrukh Khan had passed through a body scan and later had the image of his naked body printed out and circulated by Heathrow security staff. “I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed – if you’re not well endowed,” said Khan, referring to how the scans produce clear images of a person’s genitals.
“You walk into the machine and everything – the whole outline of your body – comes out,” he said.
“I was a little scared. Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out. Then I saw these girls – they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said ‘give them to me’ – and you could see everything inside. So I autographed them for them,” stated Khan.
The story was carried by Yahoo News under the headline “Shah Rukh signs off sexy body-scan printouts at Heathrow”.
Khan’s reference to “girls” with printouts of his naked body scan can only refer to female airport security staff responsible for processing the images produced by the scanners, “professionals” who are supposed to instantly delete the images, according to Lord Adonis.
The revelation that airport security staff are completely abusing any notion of the professionalism promised by authorities by printing out and circulating images of naked body scans should set alarm bells ringing, especially in light of the fact that such images of minors break child pornography laws. British authorities have made it mandatory for travelers to submit to the naked body scanners when asked and have overturned previous rules that prevented under 18’s from passing through the devices.
Within days of the devices being introduced at Heathrow, staff have abused their professionalism and printed out naked scans of a famous actor for their own titillation.
We were promised all along that the body scanners “increased privacy” because they were only accessible to a single staff member who had no personal contact with the passenger taking the scan, in addition to the assurance that the images could not be saved and were instantly deleted. It in fact turns out that airport staff have been saving, printing and circulating naked body scans in complete violation of these supposed guarantees.
Furthermore, we were told that the identity of the person undergoing the virtual strip search would also be kept private. The fact that Heathrow employees must have known that the actor was about to take the body scan in order to print out copies of the image also proves this claim to be a total fallacy.
The abuse of the naked body scan images in this instance is a total violation of every data protection law in the UK. Far from treating the story in a comical manner, Khan should be filing a very expensive lawsuit and preparing for a successful and lucrative outcome.
In the meantime, the revelation that the naked body scanner images are being freely printed out and circulated by airport security staff should prove to be the death knell for plans on behalf of governments worldwide to institute the scanners on a widespread basis.
Courts have consistently found that strip searches are only legal when performed on a person who has already been found guilty of a crime or on arrestees pending trial where a reasonable suspicion has to exist that they are carrying a weapon. Subjecting masses of people to blanket strip searches in airports reverses the very notion of innocent until proven guilty.
Barring people from flying and essentially treating them like terrorists for refusing to be humiliated by the virtual strip search is a clear breach of the basic human right of freedom of movement. Security experts agree that such scanners would not even have stopped the incident that has been exploited to justify their widespread introduction – the Christmas Day underwear bomber.
Not only have the scanners proven to be a total violation of privacy, but major international radiation safety groups are now warning of the health risks they pose.
Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.
Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”
“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.
info came from http://www.prisonplanet.com/exposed-naked-body-scanner-images-of-film-star-printed-circulated.html
Friday, February 5, 2010
Is US bullying Toyota on recall?
CHICAGO — The US transportation chief's public rebukes of Toyota's handling of a massive safety recall have raised eyebrows, given the US government's major stake in rivals General Motors and Chrysler.
"The optics are terrible because -- and this is what happens when a government owns a company - the two companies that are going to gain the most out of this are General Motors and Chrysler," said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland's business school.
"But their behavior is consistent with the general policy of the US government, whether it's dealing with coffeemakers or cars."
Safety officials understand that product design mistakes are inevitable and will work to help companies correct the problem and alert consumers. But they will not tolerate a slow or weak response, Morici told AFP.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sat down with reporters Wednesday to lay out a timeline of how US officials had "pushed Toyota to take corrective actions" on its pedal problems since 2007.
The meeting came a day after he issued a statement accusing the Japanese automaker of dragging its feet on recalling vehicles in danger of sudden, unintended acceleration due to pedals which could get trapped under floor mats or become "sticky."
He also caused a brief panic when he told a congressional panel that owners of 5.3 million Toyota vehicles affected by the recalls should "stop driving" them.
LaHood later sought to tone down his remarks, telling reporters: "What I meant to say and what I thought I said was if you own one of these cars or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it."
But he insisted that safety officials "will continue to hold Toyota's feet to the fire to make sure that they are doing everything they have promised to make their vehicles safe."
Legislators meanwhile signaled that they would expand their probe, demanding answers on why Toyota's Tacoma trucks -- which have a different pedal assembly than the 5.3 million vehicles recalled -- were also experiencing problems with sudden, unintended acceleration.
Toyota's top US official, Yoshimi Inaba, is set to testify at a congressional hearing Wednesday.
LaHood's strong initial comments could cause some "hysteria, but to some extent, we are such a litigious society, he has no choice but to say that because of the lawsuits that are lined up," said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Global Insight.
"If one more person is killed, they can say that the government didn't act; Toyota did not act."
Weston Konishi, an expert on Japan at the Mansfield Foundation think-tank, said he doubted either Washington or Tokyo wanted the Toyota flap to escalate.
"Toyota is now a real stakeholder in the US economy -- think of its auto plants and jobs -- so trying to score points against it would be somewhat self-defeating," he added.
Konishi said he could only see Toyota becoming the governments' business if the company cut off contracts with US manufacturers due to lack of confidence in quality control after the problems with the US-made pedals.
David Champion, director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports magazine, said the reaction to the recall was overblown.
"When you look at the statistics we are putting an awful lot of effort on a very small risk," he said.
"There has been something like 2,000 complaints of unintended acceleration in some 20 million Toyota vehicles -- it's almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
Champion lamented as "unfortunate" that it took the death of an off-duty California state trooper and three members of his family to prompt Toyota to issue a mass recall in September to address the problem.
But he said a congressional investigation was an "overreaction" and noted that the "sticky" pedal problem that caused Toyota to halt production and sales of eight models last month was not linked to any accidents or injuries.
"I'm sure it's going to hurt Toyota in the short term over the next year or so," Champion said.
"But if their products are as good as they have been in the past, we're going to see that Toyota's going to bounce back as Ford has from the Firestone (tire recall) fiasco."
info came from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im7AzPBsRb2Q_qT0FXa8DxrjjLwA
"The optics are terrible because -- and this is what happens when a government owns a company - the two companies that are going to gain the most out of this are General Motors and Chrysler," said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland's business school.
"But their behavior is consistent with the general policy of the US government, whether it's dealing with coffeemakers or cars."
Safety officials understand that product design mistakes are inevitable and will work to help companies correct the problem and alert consumers. But they will not tolerate a slow or weak response, Morici told AFP.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sat down with reporters Wednesday to lay out a timeline of how US officials had "pushed Toyota to take corrective actions" on its pedal problems since 2007.
The meeting came a day after he issued a statement accusing the Japanese automaker of dragging its feet on recalling vehicles in danger of sudden, unintended acceleration due to pedals which could get trapped under floor mats or become "sticky."
He also caused a brief panic when he told a congressional panel that owners of 5.3 million Toyota vehicles affected by the recalls should "stop driving" them.
LaHood later sought to tone down his remarks, telling reporters: "What I meant to say and what I thought I said was if you own one of these cars or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it."
But he insisted that safety officials "will continue to hold Toyota's feet to the fire to make sure that they are doing everything they have promised to make their vehicles safe."
Legislators meanwhile signaled that they would expand their probe, demanding answers on why Toyota's Tacoma trucks -- which have a different pedal assembly than the 5.3 million vehicles recalled -- were also experiencing problems with sudden, unintended acceleration.
Toyota's top US official, Yoshimi Inaba, is set to testify at a congressional hearing Wednesday.
LaHood's strong initial comments could cause some "hysteria, but to some extent, we are such a litigious society, he has no choice but to say that because of the lawsuits that are lined up," said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Global Insight.
"If one more person is killed, they can say that the government didn't act; Toyota did not act."
Weston Konishi, an expert on Japan at the Mansfield Foundation think-tank, said he doubted either Washington or Tokyo wanted the Toyota flap to escalate.
"Toyota is now a real stakeholder in the US economy -- think of its auto plants and jobs -- so trying to score points against it would be somewhat self-defeating," he added.
Konishi said he could only see Toyota becoming the governments' business if the company cut off contracts with US manufacturers due to lack of confidence in quality control after the problems with the US-made pedals.
David Champion, director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports magazine, said the reaction to the recall was overblown.
"When you look at the statistics we are putting an awful lot of effort on a very small risk," he said.
"There has been something like 2,000 complaints of unintended acceleration in some 20 million Toyota vehicles -- it's almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
Champion lamented as "unfortunate" that it took the death of an off-duty California state trooper and three members of his family to prompt Toyota to issue a mass recall in September to address the problem.
But he said a congressional investigation was an "overreaction" and noted that the "sticky" pedal problem that caused Toyota to halt production and sales of eight models last month was not linked to any accidents or injuries.
"I'm sure it's going to hurt Toyota in the short term over the next year or so," Champion said.
"But if their products are as good as they have been in the past, we're going to see that Toyota's going to bounce back as Ford has from the Firestone (tire recall) fiasco."
info came from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im7AzPBsRb2Q_qT0FXa8DxrjjLwA
Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks
By Ellen Nakashima
Thursday, February 4, 2010; A01
The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.
Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.
Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.
The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a "wake-up call." Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners."
But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA's warrantless interception of Americans' phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen.
"The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?" said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry.
On Jan. 12, Google took the rare step of announcing publicly that its systems had been hacked in a series of intrusions beginning in December.
The intrusions, industry experts said, targeted Google source code -- the programming language underlying Google applications -- and extended to more than 30 other large tech, defense, energy, financial and media companies. The Gmail accounts of human rights activists in Europe, China and the United States were also compromised.
So significant was the attack that Google threatened to shutter its business operation in China if the government did not agree to let the firm operate an uncensored search engine there. That issue is still unresolved.
Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, sources said, but the deal is taking weeks to hammer out, reflecting the sensitivity of the partnership. Any agreement would mark the first time that Google has entered a formal information-sharing relationship with the NSA, sources said. In 2008, the firm stated that it had not cooperated with the NSA in its Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Sources familiar with the new initiative said the focus is not figuring out who was behind the recent cyberattacks -- doing so is a nearly impossible task after the fact -- but building a better defense of Google's networks, or what its technicians call "information assurance."
One senior defense official, while not confirming or denying any agreement the NSA might have with any firm, said: "If a company came to the table and asked for help, I would ask them . . . 'What do you know about what transpired in your system? What deficiencies do you think they took advantage of? Tell me a little bit about what it was they did.' " Sources said the NSA is reaching out to other government agencies that play key roles in the U.S. effort to defend cyberspace and might be able to help in the Google investigation.
These agencies include the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
Over the past decade, other Silicon Valley companies have quietly turned to the NSA for guidance in protecting their networks.
"As a general matter," NSA spokeswoman Judi Emmel said, "as part of its information-assurance mission, NSA works with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates to ensure the availability of secure tailored solutions for Department of Defense and national security systems customers."
Despite such precedent, Matthew Aid, an expert on the NSA, said Google's global reach makes it unique.
"When you rise to the level of Google . . . you're looking at a company that has taken great pride in its independence," said Aid, author of "The Secret Sentry," a history of the NSA. "I'm a little uncomfortable with Google cooperating this closely with the nation's largest intelligence agency, even if it's strictly for defensive purposes."
The pact would be aimed at allowing the NSA help Google understand whether it is putting in place the right defenses by evaluating vulnerabilities in hardware and software and to calibrate how sophisticated the adversary is. The agency's expertise is based in part on its analysis of cyber-"signatures" that have been documented in previous attacks and can be used to block future intrusions.
The NSA would also be able to help the firm understand what methods are being used to penetrate its system, the sources said. Google, for its part, may share information on the types of malicious code seen in the attacks -- without disclosing proprietary data about what was taken, which would concern shareholders, sources said.
Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a privacy advocacy group, said companies have statutory authority to share information with the government to protect their rights and property.
info came from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057_pf.html
Thursday, February 4, 2010; A01
The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.
Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.
Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.
The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a "wake-up call." Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners."
But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA's warrantless interception of Americans' phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen.
"The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?" said Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an organization of current and former intelligence and national security officials that seeks ways to foster greater sharing of information between government and industry.
On Jan. 12, Google took the rare step of announcing publicly that its systems had been hacked in a series of intrusions beginning in December.
The intrusions, industry experts said, targeted Google source code -- the programming language underlying Google applications -- and extended to more than 30 other large tech, defense, energy, financial and media companies. The Gmail accounts of human rights activists in Europe, China and the United States were also compromised.
So significant was the attack that Google threatened to shutter its business operation in China if the government did not agree to let the firm operate an uncensored search engine there. That issue is still unresolved.
Google approached the NSA shortly after the attacks, sources said, but the deal is taking weeks to hammer out, reflecting the sensitivity of the partnership. Any agreement would mark the first time that Google has entered a formal information-sharing relationship with the NSA, sources said. In 2008, the firm stated that it had not cooperated with the NSA in its Terrorist Surveillance Program.
Sources familiar with the new initiative said the focus is not figuring out who was behind the recent cyberattacks -- doing so is a nearly impossible task after the fact -- but building a better defense of Google's networks, or what its technicians call "information assurance."
One senior defense official, while not confirming or denying any agreement the NSA might have with any firm, said: "If a company came to the table and asked for help, I would ask them . . . 'What do you know about what transpired in your system? What deficiencies do you think they took advantage of? Tell me a little bit about what it was they did.' " Sources said the NSA is reaching out to other government agencies that play key roles in the U.S. effort to defend cyberspace and might be able to help in the Google investigation.
These agencies include the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
Over the past decade, other Silicon Valley companies have quietly turned to the NSA for guidance in protecting their networks.
"As a general matter," NSA spokeswoman Judi Emmel said, "as part of its information-assurance mission, NSA works with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates to ensure the availability of secure tailored solutions for Department of Defense and national security systems customers."
Despite such precedent, Matthew Aid, an expert on the NSA, said Google's global reach makes it unique.
"When you rise to the level of Google . . . you're looking at a company that has taken great pride in its independence," said Aid, author of "The Secret Sentry," a history of the NSA. "I'm a little uncomfortable with Google cooperating this closely with the nation's largest intelligence agency, even if it's strictly for defensive purposes."
The pact would be aimed at allowing the NSA help Google understand whether it is putting in place the right defenses by evaluating vulnerabilities in hardware and software and to calibrate how sophisticated the adversary is. The agency's expertise is based in part on its analysis of cyber-"signatures" that have been documented in previous attacks and can be used to block future intrusions.
The NSA would also be able to help the firm understand what methods are being used to penetrate its system, the sources said. Google, for its part, may share information on the types of malicious code seen in the attacks -- without disclosing proprietary data about what was taken, which would concern shareholders, sources said.
Greg Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a privacy advocacy group, said companies have statutory authority to share information with the government to protect their rights and property.
info came from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057_pf.html
World stocks hit by fears of debt crisis contagion
Feb 5, 7:19 AM (ET)
By PAN PYLAS
LONDON (AP) - World stocks tumbled again Friday as investors worried that the debt crisis enveloping Greece may spread to other vulnerable countries in Europe such as Portugal, and amid fears that jobs data later will show that the U.S. recovery is weaker than expected.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 82.34 points, or 1.6 percent, at 5,056.97, while Germany's DAX fell 69.61 points, or 1.3 percent, to 5,463.63. The CAC-40 in France was 76.60 points, or 2.1 percent, lower at 3,612.65.
Once again, stock markets in Greece, Portugal and Spain led the retreat in Europe - Greece's main composite index was down a further 3.5 percent, while Portugal's PSI 20 fell 3 percent and Spain's IBEX dropped 2.6 percent.
Earlier in Asia, stock markets responded to the massive falls recorded in the previous session in Europe and the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average slid 2.6 percent, its worst performance in nine months.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 2.9 percent, or 298.89 points, to 10,057.09, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9 percent, or 55.91, to 2,939.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng buckled 3.3 percent to 19,665.08.
"It's been a dismal 24 hours for global markets as stock markets, commodities and currencies have fallen around the world, while bond default risk has soared, as investors have fled risky assets into the relative safety of the dollar," said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.
The catalyst behind the escalating jitters gripping investors is the debt crisis in Greece and the fear that it might move on to other countries, such as Portugal, Spain and Ireland, with weak public finances.
The question is whether these governments can deliver the deficit cuts they have promised. The Greek plan, which has been cautiously backed by the European Commission and the European Central Bank, is to get the budget deficit down from around 12.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2009 to below 3 percent in 2012.
But with strikes looming - customs and tax officials have already begun a 48 hour strike in protest at the planned austerity measures - investors remain skeptical at best.
As in the banking crisis of 2008, traders are looking at who may be next to suffer Greek-like budget difficulties and all eyes Friday will be on whether Portugal's minority government survives a showdown with opposition parties over its austerity plan.
"It has been a worry for Greece for weeks but it is now spreading like wildfire, driving equity markets lower, causing further concerns both about medium-term growth prospects and in currency markets," said Kit Juckes, chief economist at ECU Group.
All this is hitting the euro hard as investors think a bailout of the periphery countries is becoming more likely by the European Union.
The euro has fallen below $1.37 for the first time since May last year, and by midmorning London time was trading 0.4 percent lower on the day at $1.3670 - while the euro has been undermined by concerns about its peripheral members, the dollar continued to attract support through its supposed safe haven status during times of risk aversion.
Commodity and energy prices have also been hit hard by the meltdown in risk assets - benchmark crude for March delivery was down a further 24 cents at $72.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after losing $3.84 overnight, while gold fell $8.40 an ounce to $1,054.
It's not often on the first Friday of the month that the markets are not totally focused on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, which often set the stock market tone for a week or two.
Disappointing weekly U.S. jobless claims figures Thursday stoked fears that payrolls will actually fall in January, whereas the consensus in the markets is for a 10,000 improvement.
"Today's U.S. employment report now feels like a sideshow, except that the market will probably react more to a weak figure than a strong one," said ECU Group's Juckes.
"A further fall in employment will increase fear about the lack of job creation and the implications for budget deficits and for demand," said Juckes.
Investors were hesitant ahead of the U.S. open - Dow futures were down 63 points, or 0.6 percent, at 9,916 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 8.5 points, or 0.8 percent, at 1,053.20.
The focus at this weekend's Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the world's leading industrialized economies has suddenly become a point of interest in the markets - with the G-20 now the world's main forum for economic cooperation, the G-7 was widely thought to be an anachronism.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi slid 3.1 percent to 1,567.12, Taiwan's market dived 4.3 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX benchmark dropped 2.3 percent.
---_
AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100205/D9DM0PQO1.html
By PAN PYLAS
LONDON (AP) - World stocks tumbled again Friday as investors worried that the debt crisis enveloping Greece may spread to other vulnerable countries in Europe such as Portugal, and amid fears that jobs data later will show that the U.S. recovery is weaker than expected.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 82.34 points, or 1.6 percent, at 5,056.97, while Germany's DAX fell 69.61 points, or 1.3 percent, to 5,463.63. The CAC-40 in France was 76.60 points, or 2.1 percent, lower at 3,612.65.
Once again, stock markets in Greece, Portugal and Spain led the retreat in Europe - Greece's main composite index was down a further 3.5 percent, while Portugal's PSI 20 fell 3 percent and Spain's IBEX dropped 2.6 percent.
Earlier in Asia, stock markets responded to the massive falls recorded in the previous session in Europe and the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average slid 2.6 percent, its worst performance in nine months.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 2.9 percent, or 298.89 points, to 10,057.09, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9 percent, or 55.91, to 2,939.40. Hong Kong's Hang Seng buckled 3.3 percent to 19,665.08.
"It's been a dismal 24 hours for global markets as stock markets, commodities and currencies have fallen around the world, while bond default risk has soared, as investors have fled risky assets into the relative safety of the dollar," said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.
The catalyst behind the escalating jitters gripping investors is the debt crisis in Greece and the fear that it might move on to other countries, such as Portugal, Spain and Ireland, with weak public finances.
The question is whether these governments can deliver the deficit cuts they have promised. The Greek plan, which has been cautiously backed by the European Commission and the European Central Bank, is to get the budget deficit down from around 12.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2009 to below 3 percent in 2012.
But with strikes looming - customs and tax officials have already begun a 48 hour strike in protest at the planned austerity measures - investors remain skeptical at best.
As in the banking crisis of 2008, traders are looking at who may be next to suffer Greek-like budget difficulties and all eyes Friday will be on whether Portugal's minority government survives a showdown with opposition parties over its austerity plan.
"It has been a worry for Greece for weeks but it is now spreading like wildfire, driving equity markets lower, causing further concerns both about medium-term growth prospects and in currency markets," said Kit Juckes, chief economist at ECU Group.
All this is hitting the euro hard as investors think a bailout of the periphery countries is becoming more likely by the European Union.
The euro has fallen below $1.37 for the first time since May last year, and by midmorning London time was trading 0.4 percent lower on the day at $1.3670 - while the euro has been undermined by concerns about its peripheral members, the dollar continued to attract support through its supposed safe haven status during times of risk aversion.
Commodity and energy prices have also been hit hard by the meltdown in risk assets - benchmark crude for March delivery was down a further 24 cents at $72.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after losing $3.84 overnight, while gold fell $8.40 an ounce to $1,054.
It's not often on the first Friday of the month that the markets are not totally focused on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, which often set the stock market tone for a week or two.
Disappointing weekly U.S. jobless claims figures Thursday stoked fears that payrolls will actually fall in January, whereas the consensus in the markets is for a 10,000 improvement.
"Today's U.S. employment report now feels like a sideshow, except that the market will probably react more to a weak figure than a strong one," said ECU Group's Juckes.
"A further fall in employment will increase fear about the lack of job creation and the implications for budget deficits and for demand," said Juckes.
Investors were hesitant ahead of the U.S. open - Dow futures were down 63 points, or 0.6 percent, at 9,916 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures fell 8.5 points, or 0.8 percent, at 1,053.20.
The focus at this weekend's Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the world's leading industrialized economies has suddenly become a point of interest in the markets - with the G-20 now the world's main forum for economic cooperation, the G-7 was widely thought to be an anachronism.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea's Kospi slid 3.1 percent to 1,567.12, Taiwan's market dived 4.3 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX benchmark dropped 2.3 percent.
---_
AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100205/D9DM0PQO1.html
Europe fears rock global markets
By David Oakley in London, Tony Barber in Brussels, Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt and Aline van Duyn in New York
Published: February 4 2010 20:38 | Last updated: February 5 2010 01:04
Growing fears over the health of Europe’s weakest economies and the outlook for US employment rocked global markets on Thursday, sparking sharp falls in risky assets ranging from equities to oil and gold.
The rout sent investors fleeing to the safety of US government debt, boosting the dollar to its highest level against the euro in more than eight months and sending US Treasury prices higher only days after the Obama administration forecast a $1,556bn deficit for 2010.
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“The risk aversion trade is back on as the debt problems of the Europe are for the first time bringing down global markets,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities in London.
The Portuguese, Spanish and Greek markets were among the hardest hit, as investor fears over their mounting public debt undermined confidence in their economies and the ability of their governments to fund burgeoning budget shortfalls.
Portugal’s stock markets fell 4.98 per cent, the biggest single day fall since November 2008. Spanish shares dropped 5.94 per cent to the lowest level since July, while Greek equities fell 3.89 per cent.
Attempts by Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, to boost confidence in eurozone public finances, by stressing that they compared “flatteringly” with those of other countries, failed to reassure investors.
In the US, the labour department reported that the number of workers claiming jobless benefits unexpectedly rose by 8,000 to 480,000 last week, casting doubt over the economy’s ability to create jobs.
The S&P 500 fell 3.11 per cent to 1,063.11 – its worst day since April 2009 – to its lowest level in three months. The FTSE 100 dropped 2.2 per cent and the FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 2.8 per cent. The price of a barrel of oil fell more than 5 per cent, the biggest daily drop in six months. In late New York trading, the benchmark crude oil contract was at $72.98. Gold was also hit, with a fall of 4.3 per cent to $1,062.
Dealers said investors were unwinding trades meant to profit from an economic recovery.
Tobias Levkovich, chief US equity strategist at Citigroup, said: “There has been selling by nervous investors of stocks and commodities, as they still have memories of the losses made in 2008 and want to make sure the gains from 2009 are not lost.”
The debt markets of Europe’s so-called peripheral economies also came under pressure as the yield spread between their bonds and Germany, the benchmark market, widened sharply.
Investors are also worried about the end of central bank emergency support measures that have propped up markets over the past year. With theUK on Thursday putting its quantitative easing programme on hold and the US soon to end its credit easing initiatives, investors fear the markets will come under renewed pressure.
Mr Trichet tried to soothe fears over European sovereign risk, saying the US deficit was expected to hit 10 per cent of gross domestic product this year – compared with about 6 per cent in the eurozone.
However, he kept up the pressure on individual eurozone countries, especially Greece, Spain and Portugal, saying clear plans for bringing public finances under control were of ”paramount importance”.
In Europe, Portugal was the focus of investors’ concerns about the eurozone as the parliament in Lisbon began voting on a bill on financial transfers to the regions. The bill risks undermining the government’s ability to cut its budget deficit, as promised, to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2013 from 9.3 per cent last year.
In Greece, tax collectors started a 48-hour strike, raising fears of prolonged social unrest that could derail the government’s three-year deficit-cutting austerity programme.
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info came from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a124518a-11cb-11df-b6e3-00144feab49a.html
Published: February 4 2010 20:38 | Last updated: February 5 2010 01:04
Growing fears over the health of Europe’s weakest economies and the outlook for US employment rocked global markets on Thursday, sparking sharp falls in risky assets ranging from equities to oil and gold.
The rout sent investors fleeing to the safety of US government debt, boosting the dollar to its highest level against the euro in more than eight months and sending US Treasury prices higher only days after the Obama administration forecast a $1,556bn deficit for 2010.
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“The risk aversion trade is back on as the debt problems of the Europe are for the first time bringing down global markets,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities in London.
The Portuguese, Spanish and Greek markets were among the hardest hit, as investor fears over their mounting public debt undermined confidence in their economies and the ability of their governments to fund burgeoning budget shortfalls.
Portugal’s stock markets fell 4.98 per cent, the biggest single day fall since November 2008. Spanish shares dropped 5.94 per cent to the lowest level since July, while Greek equities fell 3.89 per cent.
Attempts by Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, to boost confidence in eurozone public finances, by stressing that they compared “flatteringly” with those of other countries, failed to reassure investors.
In the US, the labour department reported that the number of workers claiming jobless benefits unexpectedly rose by 8,000 to 480,000 last week, casting doubt over the economy’s ability to create jobs.
The S&P 500 fell 3.11 per cent to 1,063.11 – its worst day since April 2009 – to its lowest level in three months. The FTSE 100 dropped 2.2 per cent and the FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 2.8 per cent. The price of a barrel of oil fell more than 5 per cent, the biggest daily drop in six months. In late New York trading, the benchmark crude oil contract was at $72.98. Gold was also hit, with a fall of 4.3 per cent to $1,062.
Dealers said investors were unwinding trades meant to profit from an economic recovery.
Tobias Levkovich, chief US equity strategist at Citigroup, said: “There has been selling by nervous investors of stocks and commodities, as they still have memories of the losses made in 2008 and want to make sure the gains from 2009 are not lost.”
The debt markets of Europe’s so-called peripheral economies also came under pressure as the yield spread between their bonds and Germany, the benchmark market, widened sharply.
Investors are also worried about the end of central bank emergency support measures that have propped up markets over the past year. With theUK on Thursday putting its quantitative easing programme on hold and the US soon to end its credit easing initiatives, investors fear the markets will come under renewed pressure.
Mr Trichet tried to soothe fears over European sovereign risk, saying the US deficit was expected to hit 10 per cent of gross domestic product this year – compared with about 6 per cent in the eurozone.
However, he kept up the pressure on individual eurozone countries, especially Greece, Spain and Portugal, saying clear plans for bringing public finances under control were of ”paramount importance”.
In Europe, Portugal was the focus of investors’ concerns about the eurozone as the parliament in Lisbon began voting on a bill on financial transfers to the regions. The bill risks undermining the government’s ability to cut its budget deficit, as promised, to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2013 from 9.3 per cent last year.
In Greece, tax collectors started a 48-hour strike, raising fears of prolonged social unrest that could derail the government’s three-year deficit-cutting austerity programme.
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