"I will confess that I don’t like the word ‘balance,’ because I think we have to cast aside the notion that our liberty and our security are...values that are on the opposite sides of a see-saw—that when one is up, the other necessarily must be down. The plain fact of the matter is that you cannot live free if you live in fear," she said Wednesday during a speech on transatlantic counterterrorism cooperation at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Increased liberty is a 'result' of increased security. If your liberty isn't increasing when a new security policy is implemented, then it isn't YOUR security that's being increased ...

Two Republican candidates for Nevada's Congessional District 1 have answered the Gun Rights Political Questionnaire.  Michele Fiore and Craig Lake  have given gun owners specific and unequivocal answers on where they stand on the right to keep and bear arms.

Gotta love it ...

Thai watch

In another brazen and controversial move, more than 200 red-shirt guards stormed into Chulalongkorn Hospital last night to check if there were soldiers inside the hospital buildings. The hour-long incident at the hospital, which is located right next to the red-shirt rally site, was monitored closely on Twitter and triggered a storm of criticism within the social media community. However, a source said Adisorn gave in after DAAD co-leader Payap Panket, wanted by police for his role in the tumultuous red campaign, insisted that he be allowed to inspect the area.

Also ...

The Red Shirt faction in Bangkok, Thailand has made an appeal to the EU to send observers to help prevent a military crackdown.  The growing chaos in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand has had governments warning its citizens' off travel in Thailand.

Cool pic of Saturn ...

Naxal watch

The fight is over land, much of it in the interior, that has rich deposits of coal and bauxite. On one side of the struggle are the rebels--perhaps 10,000 of them armed and out in the field every day, and a militia of 100,000 who can be called up on short notice. Driven by a violent ideology, the Naxalites claim to be fighting for the land rights of the poor, especially farmers and small indigenous tribes who know only an agrarian way of life. On the other side are the wealthy families behind Tata Steel, Jindal Steel & Power and Vedanta Resources (run by mining mogul Anil Agarwal), who want to develop the untapped resources. (The three companies rank 345, 1,131 and 923 on the Global 2000 list.) Caught in the middle of the conflict between Maoists and billionaires are thousands of villagers.

Hmmm ... the same as it ever was ...

(via Reason)

The Chinese government is looking to force security vendors to disclose their encryption information based on new regulations that will come into effect on Saturday.

I bet they are ...

Antivirus giant Symantec is getting serious about encryption. The company announced Thursday that it's buying the encryption-focused firms PGP and Guardian Edge, paying $300 million for PGP and $70 million for the smaller firm. In a statement, Symantec emphasized that buying the two privately-held companies is part of its larger shift to "information-centric" security--a trend towards placing protections in data itself, no matter where it travels, rather than protecting the borders around that data with technology such as firewalls or antivirus software. That's become a higher priority as data more often resides on mobile devices or is distributed in off-site servers, sometimes controlled by a contractor or a storage-as-a-service company such as Google or Amazon.

He has a valid license to carry a concealed weapon. So why was a decorated Vietnam veteran still arrested for having his gun on him? Robert Keathley says he was just minding his business when Detroit police pulled him over for a routine stop. He offered up that he had a Concealed Pistol License, commonly called a CCW (the old term was "carrying a concealed weapon"). There should have no problem, right? Wrong!

A suspect has been arrested as a co-conspirator in two drive-by blow-dart attacks, according to Delaware State Police. Tips played a role in the apprehension of Hamilton Smith, 20, of Bear, Del., who was charged Feb. 9 with two counts of second-degree assault and second-degree conspiracy, both felonies.

Sometimes, stuff that seems like a really good idea at the time turns out not to be ... and at times like that it's cheaper to be invisible than it is to be invincible ...

Russian lawmakers are considering extending new powers to the F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., allowing its officers to summon citizens and issue verbal or written warnings that their activities are “unacceptable” and leading toward a crime, even if no violation has occurred.

The researchers also noticed that the dust inside the magnetically shielded zone is brighter than the surrounding areas, which might have something to do with the solar wind weathering that surface differently over the eons. "I think this is a very exciting observation," said lunar researcher Jasper Halekas of the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. "There have been a number of indications that theses things were taking place. (But) this is the first directed study that really tells you 'they are there.'"

Interesting ...

Naxal watch

Suspected Maoists blew up a railway track near Midnapore town in West Bengal's West Midnapore District on Tuesday, disrupting rail services in the region. The incident took place on the second-day of the two-day shutdown call given by the rebels in the three states of West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand demanding release of six Maoists, who were arrested earlier. Train services in the Kharagpur division have been affected by the incident. Due to the impact of the blast, rail slippers were blown off and a huge crater was created below the tracks at Puturia between Midnapore and Bhadutala stations. 

In late 2008, the Strategic Command’s Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations (JTF-GNO) put in place an immediate ban on the use of flash drives — USB storage devices that have become the modern version of the floppy disk. Used throughout the Defense Department to physically carry data between systems or transport personal files for use on shared systems, USB drives were at least partially responsible for a rapidly spreading virus attack on DOD’s Secret IP Router Network and Unclassified but Sensitive IP Router Network. On unclassified systems, the virus might have provided a back door for hackers to extract data.

The father of the convicted shooter in the Rogersville Wal-Mart sniper case was sentenced to one year in prison Friday for attempting to help his son hide from police days after the shooting. Ronald Eugene Brewer Sr., 54, 126 Bailey Johnson Road, Rogersville, pleaded guilty Friday to accessory after the fact, a Class E felony. He was sentenced by Judge John Dugger to one year in prison and fined $100. He will be eligible for parole after serving 30 percent of his sentence.

Sounds like the judge recognized that he didn't really have a lot of choice ...

Not even James Bond would scoff at the beautiful Hyper-Sub. After all, how could he not want to step foot onto a $3.5 million submersible powerboat?

Christmas is right around the corner ...

When the helicopter took off from a guided missile destroyer, it was about 4,000 meters away from the MSDF destroyer Suzunami. As the chopper flew closer to the Suzunami, the destroyer ordered it several times by radio not to fly any closer to the Japanese destroyers. However, the helicopter ignored the orders and continued toward the Suzunami. Ultimately the helicopter was only about 90 meters away from the Suzunami at a height of about 30 meters, lower than the destroyer's mast.

Sounds like propaganda ... the question is by whom and for what reason ...

Thai watch

The bomb, hidden in a motorcycle with a sidecar carrying coconuts, was detonated by attackers yesterday when the soldiers’ car drove past on Road 418, which links Pattani to Yala. The victims are being treated at Yala General Hospital. Two are in serious condition, police said. In Khok Pho district yesterday, insurgent suspects ambushed five staff from tambon Na Pradu municipality, killing one and injuring four, police said.

Following the massacre of 76 security personnel — 75 of whom belonged to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) — in Dantewada earlier this month, the government is seriously considering raising a dedicated anti-Naxal force, trained to take on Left Wing extremists in the jungles of central India.

The drive is designed to thwart attempts by hackers to steal money from online bank accounts by providing a self-contained secure environment for online financial transactions that avoids malware that may already be on a computer. IronKey Trusted Access for Banking is based on the IronKey, a ruggedized flash storage drive that uses 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) hardware encryption that meets the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2, a U.S. government standard for the protection of sensitive information.

The United States Navy and the Indian Navy are engaging in the 14th round of the Malabar series of exercises that will involve practicing anti-submarine warfare and special operations. According to a feature on The Telegraph India, this is something that the Indian Navy does not do with any other Navy except the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy flotilla arrived in Goa on Friday afternoon. Participating in the exercises are the U.S. Navy SEALs, who will be part of the frontline units of the exercise. This is reportedly the first time that the U.S. Navy is sending the SEALs to these exercises.

"Is this a drastic call to action? Of course it is," Fritchey said. "Is it warranted when we are losing residents to gun violence at such an alarming rate? Without question. We are not talking about rolling tanks down the street or having armed guards on each corner." What he envisions, Fritchey said, is a "heightened presence on the streets," particularly on the roughly 9 percent of city blocks where most of the city's violent crimes occur.

Anything but allow the citizens to exercise their right to bear arms ... you all need to elect some less corrupt individuals if you ever want peace and security ...

Naxal watch

The Maoists struck hard during their economic blockade, blowing up a culvert on a road near Bandhugaon in Orissa's Koraput district. They also blocked the roads, disrupting normal traffic. The naxals have called for a week-long economic blockade, protesting against the proposed Operation Green Hunt. Many areas in Makangiri and Koraput districts remained cut off, as naxals blocked the roads by felling trees and rocks.

Also ...

Even as the Railways are busy picking up the pieces following a series of Naxal attacks across the country, causing it losses worth crores of rupees and major operational delays, the world’s largest carrier of train passengers is faced with a new threat — terrorists. The Railway Board has sought to know from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) the steps it’s taking to protect luxury trains such as the Deccan Odyssey and the Maharaja Express from terror attacks. Trains in UP are already on the terror radar: Mohd Salman — an Indian Mujahideen operative held in Azamgarh — has confessed that the terror group had plans to blow up the Palace on Wheels (a luxury train), along with bridges. The design was to kill foreigners and seek maximum publicity.  

'Piracy in that area is a complex issue. The Gulf of Aden is a huge area traversed by ships from several countries. There are several honest fishermen sailing there too. The problems are many,' Pillai, Pillai, who has battled pirates off the Somalian coast, said. Rear Admiral Kevin Donagan, who is leading the US naval contingent in the Malabar exercise, admitted that piracy in Gulf of Aden was a difficult issue which could not be solved overnight. 'The good news is that several governments are coming together to find a solution. I feel that if we remain positive in that direction, we would make progress against piracy in that region,' Donagan maintained.

The provisions would give police extraordinary powers of preventive arrest and could force people to show up at secret hearings to testify about possibly pending criminal acts, under penalty of imprisonment. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson touted the measures on Friday as necessary tools to fight terrorism. The provisions had a five-year sunset clause when Parliament passed them as part of Canada’s original 2001 anti-terrorism law following the Sept. 11 hijackings in the United States that year. They expired in March 2007 when the Commons voted down a Tory motion to renew them, but not before the Conservatives painted the Liberal opposition as soft on terrorism.

Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed several times in the chest while saving a woman from a knife-wielding attacker. Then he bled to death while dozens of people walked by -- one stopping to snap a picture of the dying man with his cameraphone before leaving the scene.

I gather that folks in NYNY are less afraid of their conscience than they are of calling 911 ...

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Gunmen in Mexico have attacked a convoy with the top security official in the western state of Michoacan, killing four people and wounding 10. Officials say Public Safety Secretary Minerva Bautista was among the injured, but is now recovering. Some 20 people with assault rifles and grenades carried out the attack.

Mexico seems to be coming apart at the seams ...

A Taliban commander whose men ambushed an army convoy two days ago in a Pakistan tribal district has vowed to uphold a seven-month-old peace deal with the government in a bid to a avert military offensive, a media report said Saturday. Warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur has directed his fighters to refrain from attacking security forces and government installations in North Waziristan, English-language daily The News reported.The statement was published two days after Taliban militants attacked a security convoy in the district, killing eight troops and injuring 15 more.

Probably should have been sorry beforehand ... more effective ...

Rio Grande watch

About noon, federal and municipal police vehicles were patrolling the Bosques de Salvarcar neighborhood in south Juárez when a street vendor at the intersection of Durango and Santiago Troncoso Avenues asked for help. When the officers stopped to assist, a group of armed men arrived in several vehicles, opened fire and killed five federal agents and the police officer.

For many years, astronomers and engineers at various space agencies have been working towards achieving a very challenging goal – conducting a successful sample-return mission to a nearby asteroid. This June, the Japanese space agency JAXA could become the first to actually pull this off. Its battered Hayabusa space probe is currently on its way back after meeting up with the small, potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa, back in 2005. It is scheduled to drop a small canister containing the samples it collected from the surface of the space rock in the Australian outback, in only two months' time. Over the last five years, the small probe has suffered numerous glitches in various systems, which made its controllers almost call it quits on several occasions. However, the spacecraft proved to be more resilient than anyone thought, and engineers managed to patch things up from the ground sufficiently well to grant Hayabusa a fighting chance of reaching Earth. At this point, it is basically “limping” its way back home, but JAXA officials are convinced that it will eventually make it.

IMAGINE 150 fraternity brothers packed into a container the size of a three-bedroom house. Announce you are breaking hallowed traditions by taking away their cigarettes and admitting women. Then lock the doors and push the container deep into the sea, for months at a time. This is what the US navy, after decades of contemplation and controversy, has decided to do with its submarine force, an elite fraternity of 13,000 active-duty sailors that has been patrolling the oceans for 110 years.

They will probably get over it ...

China watch

The Chinese modernisation plan of its Navy and building a sophisticated submarine fleet will curb the freedom of action of the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean. The Yalong Bay in the South of the Hainan boasts of an underground submarine base. The Chinese Navy is proud of it and looks upon its submarine fleet as the Defender of the Nation as well as the dissipater of the enemy fleet. It is understood that the Chinese Navy has 60 plus submarines poised to aim, shoot and kill a man of war of an enemy country. Generally speaking, the military strategists were of the opinion that China was 20 years behind America in armaments, guns, fighter jets and war ships. However, it is the considered opinion of the up-to-date strategists and planners that China is fast catching up. The warning bell has already rung and it is for the US Navy to take note of the growing prowess of the Chinese Navy.

But given that mobile connections have long outnumbered fixed-line telephones and, because of their sheer convenience, cellphones have emerged as the most popular mode of communication, this is hardly an advantage. If the traditional system of tapping is ‘switch-based’, the new form is ‘off the air’. There are separate off-air monitoring systems for GSM and CDMA cellphones. Though they are designed to be mounted on a table or even fit into a bag, these high-tech gadgets are powerful enough to cover a whole city and track up to 1,000 simultaneous conversations. Despite their unimaginable potential for damage, they come relatively cheap with each set estimated to cost Rs 1-2 crore.

You don't hear much about this here ...

Not surprisingly, the Maoists now loom large in every conversation. As the outpouring of opinions on television and not a few newspapers shows, they have become the targets of rage in the new India. But one can only wonder how many of the millions that daily face extortion by unaccountable petty bureaucrats; that wait for years at courts for a justice that is never rendered; and know that a third of candidates that political parties ask them to vote for are criminals, share this rage. Today, many of them must be looking at their government with new eyes and asking questions it had not occurred to them to ask before.

Defense attorneys say a man shot his girlfriend’s ex-husband 29 times with an assault rifle in self-defense, not as part of a murder plot to collect a $100,000 life insurance policy as prosecutors allege.

Sounds like a hard sell ...

In fact, recent polls indicate that not only will Mockus make it to a run-off, but he even has a decent chance of beating Santos. According to one survey, if the election were held today, Mockus would lose a second round by only about five percentage points. It is therefore not surprising that President Uribe, who until recently was quietly enjoying the final weeks of his incredibly popular two-term presidency, has re-entered the dirty world of Colombian politics to assail the Green Party candidate. His strategy of attack was equally unsurprising. Uribe’s hard-line security policies were a major reason for his immense popularity and he frequently denounces his opponents for their supposed weakness on security issues. Mockus’ academic background, nerdy demeanor and sunflower attire make him an easy target for such criticism.

Rio Grande watch

When a police officer is killed in Mexico, as seven of them were Friday on the streets of Ciudad Juárez, the sad question that immediately arises is, “Whose side were they on?” The drug gangs wreaking so much havoc throughout Mexico have long bribed officers to help keep their shipments of narcotics flowing. Traffickers consider police officers working for rival gangs to be the enemy.

Thai roundup

Thai emergency services and the health ministry said Friday that one person was killed in grenade blasts that hit Bangkok’s business district. A Thai deputy prime minister put the death toll at three shortly after the five explosions which hit late Thursday, tearing through a pro-government crowd facing off against “Red Shirts” anti-government campaigners. The Bangkok Emergency Medical Service said however that a 26-year-old Thai woman was the only confirmed fatality, and that 85 were injured included three foreigners from Australia, Indonesia and the United States. “As of now we can confirm that one person is dead. We cannot find the other two people reported dead, after checking with hospitals,” an official at the centre told AFP. The public health ministry also said that one person was killed but put the number of injured at 78. It said that four foreigners were among those hurt, including one Japanese.

And ...

Hotel occupancy in Bangkok has crumbled to 20 percent, tourism operators say, down from about 80 percent in February, squeezing an industry that supports six percent of the economy. "We will have to revise the growth rate again, expecially after this month and last month, as we can see that the protests have had a big impact on tourism," Abhisit said in his weekly television broadcast. He said the government would have to revise down its forecasts of 4.5 percent economic growth this year.

Also ...

Hundreds of Thai riot police confronted anti-government protesters at a barricade in Bangkok's business district on Friday, a day after grenade attacks in the area killed three people, but later pulled back without violence. Police demanded that the "red shirts" dismantle the barrier, Thai television said, but the protesters made no move to do so. A Reuters photographer said red shirts poured fuel on the barricade, made up largely of tires. The police later pulled back and the protesters also withdrew to the camp they have set up behind the barrier on the edge of the Silom business district.

A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a reservoir of molten rock (like a huge pool of melted rocks) below the earth’s surface. Unlike mountains, which are pushed up from the earth’s crust, volcanoes are formed by their buildup of lava, ash flows, and airborne ash and dust. When pressure from gases and molten rock becomes strong enough to cause an explosion, it erupts and starts to spew gases and rocks through the opening.

A rocket carrying the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, commonly referred to as the "space plane," took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The space craft will significantly increase US fighting power and shows that the country has ambitions to "reach space and threaten us," Kornukov argued. "The US has completely spit on calls from Russia and the world to abandon plans for the deployment of weapons in space," he said.

Also ...

"As a superpower, the US has been calling for nuclear disarmament all these years and urged other countries to be more responsible for world peace and safety," Zhao said. "But in the meantime, its development of the space plane may lead to an arms race in space." Zhai Dequan, deputy secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said the impact of the space plane "may not be serious enough to trigger an arms race in space", but it has demonstrated US resolve to take a leading position in it.

Researchers at NASA have broken new ground, releasing never-before-seen high definition images – with clarity 10 times better than HD television – of the sun from a new spacecraft on Earth Day. For the first time ever scientists are able to study the sun in its full effect, and new technologies are bringing a new understanding of how solar activities affect the Earth and climate change.

Cool pics ...

Naxal watch

"Government will continue to follow its two-pronged approach of development and calibrated police action to deal with the Naxal problem," Chidambaram said. He said the debate on what should take place first- development or police action- is misplaced. "The decision will vary from situation to situation and from State to State and no fixed prescription is possible. In some areas, it may be possible to undertake some developmental activities, to be followed immediately by steps to strengthen security and in other areas, it may be necessary to first launch police action to regain control of the territory, followed by vigorous developmental activities," Chidambaram said.

That's the warning from CCW Business Lawyers following the news that the Digital Economy Act has been passed, signalling a distinct change of pace in the battle against online piracy and file sharing sites like Pirate Bay. Alison Marshall, solicitor with CCW, said, "Disconnection may be a year away but the worry for parents who are less computer literate than their kids is that they are often unaware of what their kids are doing online. "If the disconnection power is used, a teenager's illegal file-sharing could lead to the family internet access being removed.

Good thing the Brit gubmint had the foresight to disarm the subjects before pulling this crap ... even so, I bet there  will be running battles in the streets before the next winter ...

The ten-day long Indo-US wargames began on Friday in the Arabian Sea, strengthening the relationships between the two navies to maintain peace and stability. The thrust of the Malabar CY 10 exercise this year would be on Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Surface Firings, Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO), Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) and Submarine Operations.

Comedy Central has not seen fit to censor the show when it has insulted other religious leaders, political leaders, or protected groups. However, they did react to terrorism. The radical Islamic terrorist simply made a threat and Comedy Central surrendered. Radical Islamic Terrorist: 1, The First Amendment and American Freedom: Ø

It seems that we can't wait to change things around to prevent the tangos from winning ... too bad that changing things around IS them winning ...

Get ready for a C-note in 3-D. New $100 bills unveiled Wednesday flank the familiar face of Ben Franklin with an assortment of anti-counterfeiting technology, including a touch of "Avatar" via a new blue security strip. The 3-D strip features tiny Liberty Bells that morph into the number 100 when the bill is tilted, one of several changes that Treasury officials hope will frustrate global counterfeiters.

For the last few years, the United States and other Western nations have been training thousands of Palestinian police as part of efforts to build institutions for a new Palestinian state.  For the most part, the forces have succeeded in creating better security in the West Bank. Businesses are booming, and polls show most West Bank residents feel safer. However, many Israelis see the security forces as a de-facto army under Palestinian command that could one day turn against the Jewish State.

Lawyers representing the students subpoenaed the surveillance video. The university handed over some of the video but not all of it. Even now, two minutes of the university’s surveillance tape is still missing. But a spokesman said it is not the portion of the tape from the time when student Jack McKenna was allegedly beaten by Prince George's County Police.

"What I'm concerned about is people who have no training can carry a gun for no other purpose than to make a public statement," said Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Saldana of San Diego, who introduced legislation that would prohibit packing unloaded guns in plain sight. Saldana, testified wearing a bullet proof vest to emphasize the point that unloaded guns pose a threat because they can be loaded in seconds. "Open carry advocates have displayed weapons along Pacific Beach and elsewhere in the San Diego region in demonstrations, raising concerns among some citizens and drawing police to investigate," Saldana said.

Hmmm ... she must be tired of being a public servant ...

Anti-government demonstrators take part in a rally in Ratchaprasong shopping district on April 14, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. Thousands of 'Red Shirt' protesters have moved into the commercial district of the city claiming to be preparing for the next stage of their campaign to remove the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

A bunch of pics that make me doubtful about what's going on there ...

It may seem like a harmless, miniature version of the space shuttle, but some industry analysts are wondering if the secretive robotic spacecraft set to launch Thursday from Cape Canaveral has a more sinister side. "Are we looking at a new space vehicle or an orbital bomber that's capable of attacking from space?" said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a website for military policy research. "At this point, it's hard to say."

Naxal watch

Political parties across the spectrum in the central Indian state of Jharkhand have come together to press the Shibu Soren government to step up anti-Naxal operations in the state, which has, in the recent years, witnessed a steep rise in violence perpetrated by the extreme left-wing rebels. The state of Jharkhand, which received minimal development funds from undivided Bihar when it came into existence in 2001, is already facing huge resettlement and rehabilitation issues. "Till now Chief Minister Shibu Soren has been giving contradictory statements on Naxals. At least now his government and allies should take the issue very seriously and step up anti- Naxal operation with commitment," local Congress leader Radhakrishna Kishore said in a recent statement.

This study, which is to appear in the scientific journal Applied Physics Letters, will now enable everyday use of "one-time pad" encryption, which is the only known method that is theoretically unbreakable, according to the researchers. In the past, this has only been used for short messages requiring particularly high security, such as data sent by the military or security services.

Escaping a well-laid and well-executed ambush is difficult for troops in any combat situation irrespective of their level of training. All tactical commanders, therefore, take the usual precautions that are provided in any standard training manual to avoid getting into an ambush and these are known to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other paramilitary personnel and combat troops at all levels of the command structure. However, if for some reason precautions are not taken, breaking out is difficult, if not impossible. One has to be simply lucky to survive the attack. The view that the CRPF soldiers were killed because of deficiencies in training is, therefore, simplistic.

The United States Air Force has announced that it will launch a secret space plane that has sparked speculation about the militarization of space. The Pentagon has set April 21 as the date for the launch of the robotic space plane known as the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), which is a reusable unmanned plane capable of long outer space missions at low orbits. Since the nature of the project is shrouded in mystery, defense analysts allege that the US military is building the first generation of US 'space Predator drones' that will build up the United States' space armada, the Christian Science Monitor wrote in a recent article.

Launching the country's first Anti Submarine Warfare Corvette (ASWC) for the Indian Navy at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) Limited here on Monday, M.M. Pallam Raju, Union Minister of State for Defence, said three more such P-28 Corvettes will be launched by the GRSE by 2015. Pointing to the completion of the Rs. 560 crore modernisation programme of the GRSE scheduled for 2011, Mr. Raju said the dock's building capacity will be boosted manifold as it could then manufacture frigates.

Egypt's powerful security ministry warned that its forces could open fire on pro-democracy protesters if necessary, media reports said Monday, drawing criticism from groups calling for political reform in a parliamentary election year. An Interior Ministry adviser delivered the warning at a parliamentary hearing in which opposition lawmakers questioned him over the use of force against protesters at an April 6 demonstration. Several dozen protesters managed to briefly assemble in front of parliament to call for constitutional reforms and fairer presidential elections before plainclothes security men knocked some over and dragged them away.

A new red-shirt radio station went on air on Saturday in the Rajprasong intersection protest-site area, in a move to counter the continued shutting down of red-shirt media by the government under emergency rule. "They should allow us to criticise [the government], but instead they shut our ears and eyes," Chinawat Haboonpak, a red-shirt leader told the crowd at the intersection yesterday morning. "We ask for just one television channel, but they have taken it away from us and shut our ears and eyes again." The new station - on FM 106.80 - broadcasts from a new tower installed near Lumpini Park and calls itself Rajprasong Community Radio. Its reception can be received all the way to Bang Na area, in eastern Bangkok.

It's probably a good idea not to advertise the location of you pirate radio broadcast tower ...

As a stunned Government took stock of the situation and mulled various strategies, Naik said the IAF will be ready to join the operations against the Naxals if a decision is taken in this regard. He said the Military is trained for lethal operations to inflict maximum lethality. "The military--Air Force, Army and Navy--are not trained for limited lethality. The weapons that we have are meant for the enemy across the border." "Therefore, I am not in favour of use of Air Force in situations like the Naxal problem," the air chief said.

Sounds awfully ... uhh ... sane!

More recent desktop computers are powerful enough to drive, and in some cases enhance harder-to-crack encryption algorithms such as AES, enabling the option of running encrypted devices as standard. This takes away the need to worry about whether or not a certain piece of data should be encrypted, and indeed it removes the risk of forgetting. But full-disk encryption brings with it another challenge, that of key management. For an individual user installing their own software it’s not such an issue – you set up your own password and keep tabs on it in the normal way (hopefully not by writing it on a post-it and sticking it on the wall). Meanwhile, for a company, keys need to be managed at a central point. While tools exist for this, someone needs to maintain them and respond to user requests when keys are forgotten.

A veteran FBI official drew on 30 years of experience with the bureau to talk to local police about managing an "unstructured" crisis — one like the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, where coordinated shooting and bombing incidents took place across the city formely known as Bombay. While a similar incident has not taken place in the United States, the speaker, Danny Coulson, a retired deputy assistant director for the FBI, spoke at the annual Mid-Hudson Association Chiefs of Police Command Development Training Seminar last week about preparing patrol-level officers to handle such an attack. Coulson emphasized the importance of patrol and school resource officers because they are usually the first law enforcement officials to respond to a crisis. SWAT teams often don't get there until a while later, when it could be too late, he said."The SWAT is not the answer, it's an answer," he said.

Last November, researchers with the Clemson Conservation Center, North Charleston, S.C., held a video conference with Hamburg Area students. The center is restoring the H.L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine that sank Feb. 17, 1864. No one knows why the submarine sank. That's where the students come in. Two witnesses - a Union sailor aboard the ship that the Hunley sank and a Confederate soldier waiting on shore - reported seeing a blue light in the waters. It is speculated the Hunley's lantern cast that light, so the researchers have asked the students to recreate and test a working lantern replica. "We had a bunch of kids who said, 'Wow, I get it. We're not just playing around. This is the real deal,' " Principal Chris Spohn said. "They were intrigued by that."

More than 2,000 have been arrested for violating the gun ban imposed by the Commission on Elections as the campaign period nears the homestretch. Radio dzXL on Monday cited figures from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showing that 2,053 people had been arrested since January 10.

Hmmm ... never seems to be any data on what statistical effect its had on election violence ...

A wide scale operation was launched to catch the assailants after the attack, said Güzeloğlu. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the attack with a message. Erdoğan said, "such malicious attacks targeting Turkey's peace, unity and solidarity can never reach their aims. The damned mentality behind these attacks which hope to benefit from terror, is bound to fail thanks to the common sense, nonchalance of our nation and determination of our state."

As is so often the case, it depends on what their aims are ...

I have just been in a shoot-out with a gang of Bangkok’s red shirts... and lived. Well, they were only shooting water-pistols, and it was in a long-running and hilarious water fight – a modern twist on a traditional element of Songkran, the Thai New Year festival, which typically sees Bangkok descend into a city-wide water war.

Sounds like fun ...

Raipur: The much-criticised public distribution system is the only fledgling Government scheme which seems to have escaped the 'red terror' in the dense forests of Bastar region where Naxal writ runs large.

A second Navy anti-submarine helicopter went down in the West Sea, Saturday, less than a week after another Lynx chopper crashed in the same sea, leaving one dead and three others missing. All three crew members of the second Lynx were rescued after it made an emergency landing at around 10:13 p.m. in waters off the west coast. The British-made helicopter was on its way back to its 4,500-ton destroyer ``mother-ship'' after a patrol mission that involved identifying a mysterious object, which Navy officials said was found to have been a flock of birds.

He demanded an end to what he called the United States' "blind support" for Israel, which he said has 200 atomic warheads but has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Ahmadinejad also called for veto power for all members of the United Nations, a right now accorded only to the five permanent members of the Security Council. Talks on nuclear disarmament should henceforth be controlled by states that do not have atomic weapons, Ahmadinejad said, adding, "The involvement of the government of America will prevent any new treaty from being fair."

... or from favoring a wannabe despot like you ...

Thai watch

Two bungled operations against “Red Shirt” protesters in less than a week may point to a split in Thailand’s military that has stymied Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government, analysts say. The failed actions — an attempted crackdown last weekend, which killed at least 18 civilians and five soldiers, and a botched arrest of Red leaders Friday — came after the administration vowed to instill order in the capital. “This puts the government in a very difficult position. They can never really be sure that their orders will truly be implemented,” said Michael Nelson, of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

The recent coup in Kyrgyzstan came on the heels of the completion of the Asia Gas Pipeline in December 2009, a project that is unprecedented in scale and extent of collaboration among regional powers. The coup is still causing reverberations throughout Central Asia -- a region increasingly dependent upon uninterrupted energy transit routes to China, Russia, and the West. Though it has no oil or natural gas, the now deposed President Bakiyev would have done well to leverage Kyrgyzstan’s strategic location to frame itself as a critically important transit route between oil-rich Kazakhstan and gas-rich Uzbekistan and their fastest growing customer- China.

"He's one of the most determined focused men I've ever met," Bellavance said of Fournier. "He's had some very bad luck, but I have no doubt that if anyone can break the record, Michel can." Bellavance can't help but recall the last time Fournier tried the feat. An explosive bolt release connecting Fournier's capsule to the giant $100,000-plus balloon fired prematurely, leaving the crestfallen parachutist on the tarmac, his balloon floating away without him. The errant balloon was eventually found wrecked, about 25 kilometres away from the launch site.

Naxal watch

I am more convinced than ever after Dantewada that focusing on security issues to the exclusion of all other relevant factors is a one-eyed policy.Nothing will succeed against the Maoists unless we open up our second eye.I organised Rajiv Gandhi's many tours to the peripheries of India.It is ironic that his very first tour was to the Dantewada area,further south towards Konta,which has now become inaccessible.Through those years,I saw the way in which he interacted with tribals and learned what their grievances were and how to resolve them.

Just what the baddies need ... a Gandhi all up in their grill ...

Also ...

...There has been a grave tragedy and I did not lose my nerve, I did not lose my will. I have no fear. I do not fear the Naxalites. But if a horrible tragedy took place, I think, it is the moral responsibility of the minister to tender his resignation. And therefore, I tendered my resignation. ...The prime minister and the UPA Chairperson have rejected my resignation...

 Furthermore ...

District administrations of Jagdalpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur and Kanker, all part of undivided Bastar which was once one of the largest districts in the country, have informed senior officials in Raipur that it will be difficult for them to carry out the census exercise — counting of people, collection of biometric data for preparation of the National Population Register — in many areas in view of the Naxal threat.

It’s even easier for someone to see what you’re chatting about if you are using IM at cyber café, work area or on an open network. Tools like MSN-sniffer can easily display MSN chat text for other users connected to the same network, and there are many others for different chat programs. Even if you are chatting from home, there is a chance that someone could be snooping on your chat sessions. Thankfully, it is pretty easy to protect your chats from prying eyes, keep reading to learn how.

If you hold personal information on a Massachusetts resident, you were on the hook as of March 1. The question for security groups is, How do we comply with the myriad state-mandated data security laws without putting an undue burden on the business? And comply you must, because CMR 17.00 raises the stakes in terms of potential penalties. The law will be enforced, quite literally, in the breach, and companies can potentially be fined $5,000 per violation and per record lost. One stolen laptop loaded with a database containing the names and Social Security numbers of 200 Massachusetts residents puts you in the hole for a cool million. The Massachusetts law isn't remarkable in its overall requirements, but it is special in two areas. First, it requires businesses to attest that they have a working data security program in place to protect any personally identifiable information (PII) they've collected from state residents. Companies must maintain a comprehensive written information security program (WISP) that includes "technical, administrative, and physical safeguards" to protect PII. Covered businesses range from neighborhood dry cleaners to Fortune 100 companies, but the law stipulates that the program be appropriate to the size and resources of the business.

With governor Jan Brewer’s signature on the new “Constitutional Carry” firearm law today, Arizona becomes a beacon state for the nation on the gun-rights issue. Arizonans, who have been free to carry firearms openly since statehood in 1912, will now be free to carry discreetly as well, without permits or red tape. Low-crime Vermont has had this freedom intact since Colonial days. The permit system remains in place but will no longer be required for discreet carry. Alaska enacted a Constitutional Carry law in 2003, and Texas passed a limited version for traveling in 2007. Montana has enjoyed this freedom since 1991 on 99.4% of its land (outside city limits). These states experienced no increase in crime or accidents from the expanded freedom to discreetly bear arms in public. However, numerous dire warnings of “blood in the streets” preceded those new laws, but proved false. A list of circulating myths about the law, also known as “Freedom To Carry,” appears at the end of this article.

The cut on the Sea-ME-We-4 submarine cable between Alexandria and Marseilles, could have an impact on broadband connections in India. Though the cable cut happened on Wednesday, telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel, sent out a warning to subscribers, on Friday, that they may experience a drop in their broadband speeds. Indian operators, including Bharti Airtel and Tata Telecommunications, are part of the Sea-Me-We-4 under-sea cable consortium. So far only operators in the Western Asian region have felt any real impact of the cable cut. There are reports of disruption in services in Bangladesh also. A Bharti Airtel spokesperson said that the warning to subscribers have been sent as a measure of caution although there is no impact in India yet.

Pakistani authorities beat confessions out of some of the five northern Virginia men accused of planning terrorist acts in that country, the mother of one of the men said Friday. Amal Khalifa, mother of Ramy Zamzam, said her son looked gaunt when she briefly visited him in a Pakistan jail, where he was being held with four friends. "They wanted him to say he was there for terrorist reasons," Khalifa said in an interview with The Associated Press. She said she did not believe her son gave a confession, but that others did. The trial, in the Pakistani city of Sargoda, begins Saturday. Court proceedings have been closed to the press.

"The question is, at what point do you start giving legitimacy to groups who fund Hamas?" Souder said. He was referring to Baca's association with the Council On American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which says it does not support terrorism. Raising his voice and pointing his finger at the congressman, Baca exploded: "For you to associate me (with terrorism) somehow through some circuitous attack on CAIR is not only inappropriate, it is un-American." In an interview with Reuters afterward, Baca said the congressman was playing politics. "Souder doesn't have a solution for dealing with extremism in the United States," he said. "I have a solution. I have a vision. I have relationships with the Muslim community and am working to make that vision a reality."

It would be nice to have a little more detail on the solution ...

In a ruling issued Thursday, the court sided with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a gun-rights group that sued CU and argued that a 1994 university policy banning concealed weapons from its campuses violates state gun laws. Attorneys for the group pointed to the Concealed Carry Act of 2003, a state law that prohibits local governments from adopting an ordinance to limit state concealed-carry rights. In Thursday's opinion, the judges wrote that the Concealed Carry Act applies to universities. The ruling revives a lawsuit that had been dismissed last spring by El Paso County District Judge G. David Miller, who said he found nothing in the state constitution that would stop CU from ordering a campus gun ban.

Within hours of arriving, I was undergoing agent skill training at the Carlisle Street headquarters of Quintessentially Secure, a privately owned global-security and bodyguard firm with offices in London, New York, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Launched two years ago as a member company of the private concierge club, Quintessentially, its founders are former British and American Army operatives, U.S. Secret Service agents, and emergency-rescue officers, including my contact, David, who wants his last name withheld for security reasons. When he and his team aren't busy running point on kidnapping cases or training diplomatic bodyguards and special forces, they have fun thinking up experiential packages for James Bond junkies and Jason Bourne wannabes.

Sounds like more fun than you can shake a stick at ...

The much-anticipated launch of an Indian rocket using home-grown engine technology has failed, with mission controllers losing control of the pioneering spacecraft minutes after launch. Thurday's launch of the GSLV-D3 rocket had made waves in the aeronautical community because it was the first time India was putting to test its own liquid cryogenic engine.

Unfortunate ...

"I expect to be around to see it," he said of pioneering U.S. trips starting with a landing on an asteroid — a colossal feat in itself — before the long-dreamed-of expedition to Mars. He spoke near the historic Kennedy Space Center launch pads that sent the first men to the moon, a blunt rejoinder to critics, including several former astronauts, who contend his planned changes will instead deal a staggering blow to the nation's manned space program. "We want to leap into the future," not continue on the same path as before, Obama said as he sought to reassure NASA workers that America's space adventures would soar on despite the impending termination of space shuttle flights.

Let's hope so ...

It should go without saying that if the company can get access to the plain text of the e-mails stored on its servers then somebody else can as well. Needless to say even if an online service proclaims they securely store your data and it can not be accessed that is not usually true. The only secure option is to encrypt the data while it’s still on your machine and then send it out. For instance I backup much of my data to an online store service. Before the data leaves my system it’s put into a TrueCrypt partition. Only I have the key to decrypt the partition so even if a government entity forced my storage provider to hand over my data there is no way for that provider nor the government to decrypt it (obviously I mean before I die, they could brute force the key but it would take practically a century and I doubt I’ll still be alive when they find out my encrypted partition contained nothing important nor incriminating).

Her comments brought an official complaint from a local activist under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 who claims the article was intended to drum up support for the Maoists. She can be held for several years without bail and jailed for two years if found to have violated the act.

Yeah, going after authors ought to improve security ...

William J. Lynn III, deputy secretary of defense, told National Space Symposium attendees here that the Defense Department will work closely with foreign governments to ensure that all space-faring nations obey the same procedures when operating satellites in orbit. A proliferation of nations that are in space means that there must be better coordination between nations to ensure that spacecraft do not collide with each other or with the growing amount of space debris.

" ... all space-faring nations ... " - What a cool ring that has to it!

E-mail encryption has been around almost as long as e-mail itself, but due to quirky installation and support requirements, the security technology hasn't been very popular with many enterprises. Fortunately, the current crop of e-mail encryption products and services includes options that are easy to deploy and use and that don't require a great deal of IT support to operate. One such easy-to-deploy option is Hushmail Business, an entirely hosted solution from longtime e-mail encryption player Hush Communications Canada. As a hosted service, the Hush offering carries no client-side installation requirements. However, the company does offer an Outlook plug-in that works with Exchange and automatically handles the authentication and exchange encryption keys—something that used to be a major support headache. On the server end, administrators need only configure a company e-mail domain with Hush to handle the encrypted e-mail traffic.

A single-user, free Hushmail account is a solution of beauty, too ... there is a link to the right ...

Now, however, a team of experimentalists from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) , in partnership with European quantum information scientists, has demonstrated a method of producing a certifiably random string of numbers based on fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. They report their results in the 15 April 2010 issue of Nature.

Interesting ...

In 1968, the United States and Russia signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which committed them to eliminating their nuclear weapons "at an early date" - but 40 years later their combined stockpiles contain over 10,000 warheads. President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev have just signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which together with the 2010 US Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), lays out steps to reduce nuclear arsenals. But at the speed disarmament is moving, it will be decades before the weapons become history.

The only way they will ever become history is if some other tech advance makes them impotent ...

"The launch of the new Severodvinsk submarine has been delayed for technical reasons," the source said, adding that the sub would be floated out and pass sea trials later this year. Graney class nuclear submarines are designed to launch a variety of long-range cruise missiles (up to 3,100 miles or 5,000 km) with nuclear warheads, and effectively engage submarines, surface warships and land-based targets. The submarine's armament includes 24 cruise missiles, including the 3M51 Alfa SLCM, the SS-NX-26 Oniks SLCM or the SS-N-21 Granat/Sampson SLCM. It is also equipped with eight torpedo launchers, as well as mines and anti-ship missiles such as SS-N-16 Stallion.

Two Chinese submarines and eight destroyers were spotted by the Maritime Self-Defense Force on Saturday heading southeast between the main island of Okinawa and Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Tuesday.

Casualism, a brand of hooliganism that originated in Britain in the 1980s, takes its name from the attire of its participants. These firms forsake the replica shirts and garb of the traditional hooligan in favour of brands such as Stone Island and Lacoste, allowing for easier penetration of opposing fans and nonhooligans (or ‘scarfers’). For this reason, they are potentially the most threatening. The subculture has experienced a massive revival over the past decade, with films Green Street and The Football Factory inadvertently serving to glorify the phenomenon. The model has spread across the continent, including France where further loss of life can be attributed to fan violence.

Hmmm ...

Chilling video captured by a security camera shows more than a dozen armed men carrying out a shooting spree in broad daylight that left eight people dead last month in Mexico's Chihuahua state. In the video obtained by CNN on Saturday, the men -- believed to be hit men for a drug cartel -- are seen opening fire with assault rifles into nearby vehicles and a housing complex.

It's pretty hard to tell what's going on in the video ... they don't seem to be awfully worried about the authorities showing up ...

The so-called Fedora bank robber has apparently hit for the fifth time in four months, this time in Carson City, Nevada.  Carson City Sheriff's Captain, Ken Sandage, says a man walked into the Carson City Branch of Bank of the West around four-thirty yesterday afternoon, wearing a brown fedora and a green jacket.  Captain Sandage says the suspect appeared to be wearing a fake beard, "Produced a gun.  It was silver in color. It appeared from the witnesses to be a revolver-type. He told the teller to put the money in the bag. They produced all the money that was in the till.  Shortly afterwards, he walked out of the building." Sandage says surveillance video of the suspect indicates the man's hair is short and gray.

I'm surprised disguises don't get used more often. Makes it pretty hard to look for you once you've taken it off ...

The first annual National Robotics Week commenced this week with a series of regional events and activities aimed at increasing public awareness of the growing importance of “robo-technology” and the social and cultural impact that it will have on the future. National Robotics Week is scheduled for the second full week of April to recognize robotics technology as a pillar of 21st century American innovation. Its aim is to highlight the growing importance of robotics and to emphasize its ability to inspire students and build interest in technology and innovation.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - Eleven people, including three marines, were killed Tuesday in a series of bombings and attacks by suspected Islamic militants in the southern Philippines, military officials said. The marines were killed when the suspects behind the bombings ambushed them near the area where the first blast occurred in Basilan province's Isabela City, 900 kilometres south of Manila, marine commandant Major General Juancho Sabban said."The marines responded to the scene of the bombings, and they were ambushed by the armed men," he said. "I think this is to create havoc in the area."

Good thing Comelec has banned guns ...

At least it's easy to tell what team everyone's on ...

Also ...

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is now beginning to look ineffective as tens of thousands of red shirt protesters are still in downtown Bangkok, now for the sixth day. Every major shopping mall is closed, most of the stores in the Siam area are closed, and tourists are checking out of downtown Bangkok hotels in droves.

An international group of solar and space scientists has built the most complete picture yet of the full impact of a large solar eruption, using instruments on the ground and in space to trace its journey from the Sun to Earth.

Interesting ...

The disadvantage to this approach is that sensitive data can accidentally be stored outside the encrypted area. However, using a partially encrypted drive is better than no encryption at all. The other important thing to remember is that once you encrypt your data you CANNOT access it without the password. If you lose or forget that password, then you might as well consider that data lost. So be responsible with your password.

Also ...

At least once a month, it seems some vendor or techie claims to have broken a version of a hard drive full-disk encryption (FDE) program scheme, whether it's from Microsoft (my full-time employer), BitLocker, open source favorite TrueCrypt, or some other variant. All the stories and the hype are enough to make one wonder if FDE is dead. The brief -- and slightly qualified -- answer is no. There are a handful of clever attacks, as well as software to make them easier to pull off. Luckily there are easy ways to prevent most of them. We will start, however, with an attack that doesn't have an easy defense.

"Can the U.S. new nuclear strategy which authorizes the use of nuclear bomb against other countries, including Iran, be named other than 'state terrorism,' in its truest sense?" Mohammad Khazaee, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, asked a General Assembly committee on measures to eliminate international terrorism.

Keep that in mind while you're deciding what to do with all that U235 you're 'fugeing. We're peace-loving right up until you piss us off ...

Smith said that prior to the domestic dispute, Bell was cheating on him. That's right, Smith was being cuckolded by a quadruple amputee. That can't be good for the self-esteem. He turned on the TV and Bell got mad, he says. She punched him in the groin with her deadly nub and then proceeded to dowse him in urine from a bed pan.

Sounds like a fairly hard sell ...

Some 4,000 people took to the streets of the northern Mexican city of Monterrey and the Gulf city of Tampico over the weekend to protest violence and demand more security, organizers said.

When the shooting starts, police say a bullet grazed Evans's wig and it flies off. Evans tries to run out of the store, but trips over the rug and falls. He had the gun in his hand and got another round off. The owner continues to fire. Police says when he fell on the ground, "we believe that's when he ended up with the three rounds in him."

Blam, blam, blam, blam ... blam, blam, blam! Guy looks pissed that the dude he's killing has put him in that situation ...

These 5 items working together will stop more cyber attacks on your data, network and users than any other 5 items in the marketplace today.

What is different about this self-defense class called "Fight Like a Girl" versus other self-defense classes is there are no illusions. There are no flying sidekicks or jumping front kicks, it is all about women using their core strength to get away from a sexual attack.

It's got a cool name ...

These are the so-called Red Shirts, mostly country folk, who have been camping in the capital for a month. They are devoted to Mr. Thaksin but also increasingly asserting their newfound rights as individual voters and as the country’s strongest electoral bloc.

There seems to be a lot of revolution afoot, these days, what with Kyrg, the Philippines (at least in my estimate) and Thailand all more or less in the process ...

Also ...

Troops and protesters maintained a cease-fire in Bangkok today. Demonstrators are in makeshift camps near Government House, and in the city’s tourist and shopping heartland, where they are occupying a major intersection. Parts of the city’s elevated train system, known as the skytrain, remained closed for a third day today. Soldiers used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds, and protesters fought back with guns and bombs during the April 10 clash, government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said yesterday. Troops were ordered back to their bases to recuperate, he said.

It’s not every day that Major John Bini, a U.S. military surgeon, dons body armor before going into the operating room. But he did just that after an Afghan soldier was brought in on March 18 with an unusual head wound—a nearly three-inch unexploded shell lodged in the patient’s scalp.

That took some stones ...

"The U.S. president has implicitly threatened the Iranian nation with nuclear weapons. These remarks are very strange," Khamenei said on state television. "The world should not ignore it because in the 21st century, ... the head of a state is threatening a nuclear attack. The U.S. president's remarks are disgraceful," he added. "These remarks mean the U.S. government is a villain government that can't be trusted."

Natanz has a capacity of 60,000 centrifuges and Iran has been steadily enriching uranium there for years in defiance of three sets of UN sanctions and threat of a fourth. Western countries led by Washington suspect that Iran's nuclear programme masks a weapons drive but Iran denies these accusations, saying its sole aim is to produce electricity for a growing population.

The comet's death plunge was recorded by the sun-watching Solar and Heliospheric Observatory as the previously unknown icy wanderer barreled down on the sun from cosmic parts unknown, according to Spaceweather.com, a Web site dedicated to monitoring space weather.

Some cool pics ...

BULLHEAD CITY — Local law enforcement officers say there is no additional risk to the way they conduct their jobs after a bill passed the state legislature that says permits will no longer be required for people to carry concealed handguns in the state.

This looks promising ... 3 down, 47 to go ...

Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister who has declared herself the country's interim leader, said the deposed government will be held responsible for the bloodshed. "They became the enemies of the people when they opened fire on the patriots, the best sons of the nation," she said at the ceremony. The interim government brought criminal charges against the two sons of Bakiev, as well as his brother, who used to be the chief of security.

Geez ... good to know the new regime is reasonable ...

The Swedish military is set to shell out billions of kronor for two new state-of the-art submarines while also upgrading two older vessels, defence minister Sten Tolgfors has revealed, defence minister Sten Tolgfors has revealed.

US officials said Roza Otunbayeva had vowed not to interrupt operations from a military base the US uses to supply troops and supplies to Afghanistan. The US stopped troop movements from the base, near the capital Bishkek, last week during an anti-government revolt. Protesters overthrew the president last week but dozens died in the uprising.

History in the making ... I wonder if 60 years from now there will be Roza t-shirts ... only time will tell ...

The IP address led police to the Weber County Library. Director Lynnda Wangsgard said police have asked to look at surveillance video from the library to try to track who may have sent the e-mail. Wangsgard said they have not denied footage to police, but they are waiting for a formal request to be filed to release any documents. She said this is because of government policy and because they are not sure what information police are looking for. "That IP address is not associated with a particular computer or building," she said. "In fact, a patron using Wi-Fi access in the parking lot could have generated that e-mail. So we're not sure which record, if any, we would have that would be relevant to the situation." Wangsgard said the library does have general surveillance video but does not monitor computers individually. "We don't spy on people using computers," she said. "We have general surveillance to protect against vandalism, but we may not have anything that is relevant to the situation. We won't know until we get the request."

“We call gun-free zones ‘disarmed victim zones,’” said Steve Khemthong of CCSU’s Riflery Club. As part of the Empty Holster Protest, gun club members put up posters inviting criminals to indulge in an on-campus shooting spree, saying potential victims have been “disarmed for your convenience.” This does not surprise Suzanne Anglewicz of the National Rifle Association. “Every state where right-to-carry laws were passed, crime rates went down,” she said Thursday night when the gun club hosted NRA University at CCSU, a two-hour seminar discussing the history of the NRA in particular and American gun laws in general.

RICHARD DAWKINS, the atheist campaigner, is planning a legal ambush to have the Pope arrested during his state visit to Britain “for crimes against humanity”. Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the atheist author, have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998.

Can't really picture it happening, but I guess we can wait and see ...

Away from the glamour of the forthcoming Malabar naval wargames and battling terrorism-piracy on the high seas, India and US are now on course to enhance measures to rescue Indian sailors if they get trapped deep underwater in a disabled submarine. Even as the US chief of naval operations Admiral Gary Roughead is slated to hold talks with defence minister A K Antony, Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and other top military brass next week, India is looking to extend the scope of US Navy's "global submarine rescue fly-away kit service" for its requirements. When India had first inked the contract for the rescue service in 1997, with an initial payment of $734,443, it was meant to be more of an interim measure till Navy acquired DSRVs (deep submergence rescue vessels) of its own.

Well, I'm glad he doesn't want to allow criminals to take over the city, but I find myself baffled over whether this is crime in the ordinary sense of the word. Sure, arson is a crime (a particularly awful crime, because fires can spread), but when arson is committed for a specific political purpose, it rises to another level entirely. I mean, if these fires had been started by animal rights activists who wanted to shut down a research lab, by anti-war activists who wanted to shut down a military recruiting center, or by a crackpot "Christian militia" group for some insane reason, there would be a huge uproar, but this story is being very selectively reported. Why is that? Surely, the goal of terrorizing a city into hiring back laid off firefighters no more justifies political arson than any other goal. Arson is a heinous crime, and if it is being committed to achieve a political purpose, that makes it more heinous. And even if we analyze it purely as crime, it resembles classic mob-style extortion; the old insurance racket. ("Pay up, or your building burns!")

It IS odd that something that so obviously does rise to the level of tango-action isn't being labeled as such ...

If the rebels are going to be operating in units of this size, India is going to have to substantially beef up its forces or continue to suffer lopsided losses. It is also going to need to do a better job of gathering intelligence on the rebel forces. It is unusual that a force of 700 enemy troops could go undetected until a trap was sprung.

Definitely sounds like some underestimating going on ...

A flight attendant smelled smoke and confronted Madadi, 27, who joked that he "was trying to light my shoes on fire" to mask the smell of the bathroom before proceeding to his seat, U.S. law enforcement officials said. The attendant challenged Madadi again, one of the officials said, and notified the air marshals on the plane when he declined a request to hand over his lighter. That is when Madadi's business trip to Denver started to become a minor international incident. The marshals talked to Madadi briefly, confined him to his seat, and activated a national alert system for all planes in flight through the pilot. Fighter jets were scrambled, and President Obama was warned about a possible terrorist threat.

I can't see the justification for having 'activated a national alert system for all planes in flight' ...

Also:

Hundreds of passengers for United, Continental, Delta and other airlines found themselves milling in the terminal or lined up on the sidewalk until they could be scanned. Trevino said she did not know what was inside the bag that prompted it to be flagged. She also said it was not immediately clear how the man was able to get through security before his bag was double-checked without being stopped. The incident took place just hours after LAX increased police patrols Wednesday night through early Thursday following an incident in which authorities say a diplomat from Qatar tried to smoke a cigarette in the bathroom of a plane headed from Washington, D.C., to Denver, then joked about lighting his shoe. LAX increased police patrols as a precaution.

The Nuclear Posture Review states that ballistic-missile submarines are the "most survivable leg of the U.S. nuclear triad" of nuclear-capable missiles, aircraft and submarines. There appears to be no "viable near or mid-term threats" to the survivability of these submarines, the review said.

Let's hope so ...

"But, as he now says himself, he forgot the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility. "It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here. It is the fact that he disappointed all of us and, more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. "Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.

Jealous, are we ...?

The suspect, the third secretary vice counsel at the Qatar Embassy in Washington, was apprehended by federal air marshals who were riding undercover on the flight that took off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, law enforcement sources told The Times. The man told authorities that he went to the lavatory and tried to light a cigarette. He made a joke about lighting a shoe bomb, according to the sources, who asked not to be named because of the ongoing investigation.

It will be interesting to hear how this shakes out. We seem to be all about the over-reacting these days ...

An Associated Press reporter saw opposition leader Keneshbek Duishebayev sitting in the office of the chief of the National Security Agency, Kyrgyzstan's successor to the Soviet KGB. Duishebayev issued orders on the phone to people Duishebayev said were security agents. He also gave orders to a uniformed special forces commando. Duishebayev told the AP that "we have created units to restore order" on the streets. What appeared to be a revolution in this mountainous former Soviet republic erupted when thousands of protesters furious over corruption and spiraling utility bills seized government buildings in Bishkek and clashed with police, who opened fire, killing dozens and wounding hundreds. The unrest did not appear likely to immediately spread across former Soviet Central Asia.

Interesting ...

The Pacid Group alleged that Asus, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, LG, Gigabyte, GBT, MSI, Motorola, Research in Motion, Nikon, Microsoft, Nintendo, HTC and Palm breached US patent number 5,963,646 and another patent 6,049,612. The first patent is called Secure Deterministic Encryption, Key Generator System and Method and was issued to inventors Guy Fielder and Paul Alito on the 5th of October 1999. The second patent also names the same inventor and is called File Encryption Method and System, issued on April the 11th, 2000.

Data security experts have given a mixed reaction to the news. Industry Jamie Cowper, European marketing director at data encryption firm PGP Corporation, said: "The addition of a £500,000 fine, on top of the overall cost of a data breach, should in theory provide enough of a financial deterrent for organisations reluctant to invest in their security strategies.

I wonder if these fines will be levied against Brit gubmint personnel when they have breeches or is it just for the peasants ...?

This eerie wreck image is not computer generated. It's the sonar image of Russian nuclear submarine B-159 (called K-159 before decommissioning), which has been lying 248m down in the Barents Sea, between Norway and Russia, since 2003. The Russian Federation hired Adus, a Scottish company that specialises in high-resolution sonar surveying, to evaluate if it would be possible to recover the wreck.

Cool pic, too ...