Federal authorities last week arrested five men in connection with a 2005 database breach at LexisNexis Group that the database giant said led to the theft of personal records on more than 310,000 individuals.
Some of the accused individuals, who range in age from 19 to 24, were also involved in the theft last year of revealing photos and other information from hotel heiress Paris Hilton's cell phone, and in using stolen or illegally created accounts at LexisNexis subsidiaries to look up Social Security numbers and other personal information on dozens of other Hollywood celebrities.
Internet users witnessed yet another wave of spam, worms, viruses and other online attacks in 2005, and experts predict the online world will grow even more dangerous this year.
Continued on Page 49
Kuwaiti reformists campaigning on an anti-corruption platform, some of them Islamists, have made strong gains in parliamentary elections. But women, who were voting and standing for the first time, have failed to win any seats.
State media reported a high turnout in the election, in which women made up 57% of the electorate. There were 28 female candidates, out of a total of 252 candidates, standing for 50-seat parliament. Two of the women candidates topped 1,000 votes but were beaten by their male rivals, AFP news agency reports.
The opposition reformists - many of whom are Islamists - gained four seats, taking their total number of seats in parliament to 33. State media reported a turnout of up to 78% in some voting centres.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2006 00:00 ||
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Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has told the Jatiya Sangsad that Bangladesh had already lodged a strong protest against India's move for inviting tenders to explore oil and gas in the undemarcated areas in the Bay of Bengal.
Replying to a question from treasury bench member, Begum Zia, Wednesday, stressed that the two countries should immediately resolve some issues, which were not yet settled. However, she said, cooperation in the fields of trade and commerce, education, culture and other sectors have increased between the two countries, Bangladesh Observer reported from Dhaka. "Dhaka feels that these issues should be resolved through discussion," Begum Zia said, adding that the Bangladesh government had held discussion with India, especially on the process to demarcate the land border, creating peaceful atmosphere along the border areas, stop killing of innocent Bangladesh nationals in the border and stopping the push-in of Bengali speaking Indians to Bangladesh.
Besides, she said, different activities are on to reduce the existing huge trade imbalance between the two countries.
The Indian government was informed of Bangladesh's grave concern about the proposed river-linking through diplomatic note and the matter was raised at the India-Bangladesh joint river commission meeting, she added. In this connection, the Prime Minister referred to her visit to India and said that she had very fruitful discussions on bilateral matters with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in an atmosphere of cordiality and friendship. "I have informed matters related to Bangladesh interests to Indian Premier and sought his sincere cooperation," she said.
Begum Zia also said that a favorable atmosphere was created after her visit to India for holding discussions on various bilateral issues between the two countries. She expressed her belief that the two countries would utilize this favorable atmosphere for further strengthening the friendly relations between them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2006 00:00 ||
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There are several portions of the Indo-Bangla border that have not been permanently demarcated.
On land, this includes enclaves of each other's territory, completely surrounded by either India or Bangladesh.
At sea, the two countries have to settle maritime boundaries according to UN law of the sea treaty.
There is an almost reflexive negative Bangladesh response to any moves that would benefit India, even if Bangladesh itself would benefit enormously.
Thus having a settled boundary (and bear in mind that India is the bigger state territorially so its share of the Bay of Bengal would be larger) would benefit India's fisheries, its oil and gas etc and so is opposed. Better the issue be unsettled than India benefit.
Unocal left Bangladesh in frustration because it would not allow development of its gas reserves because the potential buyer of gas would be India.
Better the gas stay in the ground than it be used by India.
The Indian firm Tata, wanted to invest ten billion dollars in iron ore mining and steel production with downstream facilities.
This has gotten nowehere because Tata is an Indian firm.
Of course, the gas sales and the steel plants could radically improve the Bangladesh economy, but because it could benefit India as well, it is opposed.
Both main political parties in Bangladesh campaign on anti-India platforms, each accusing the other of being subservient to Indian interests.
I suspect that islam plays a great role here.
Muslim "honor and dignity" is offended by the subservient role to the "hindoo kaffirs"
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 8:02 Comments ||
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stopping the push-in of Bengali speaking Indians to Bangladesh.
This refers to the Indian attempts to deport some of the estimated twenty million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in India.
According to Bangladesh, there are no illegals in India.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 8:05 Comments ||
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This is so stupid. They could joint venture the disputed areas and share the wealth. Thanks, John for the enlightening information. Here is a golden chance for Bangladesh to climb out of the poverty that they are in, and they dig their hole deeper. Shows you what happens when you mix Islam with well waters full of arsenic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/01/2006 12:34 Comments ||
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Another example is the trans asian highway system which would link the various nations.
It would radically uplift the entire region via the trade potential.
Bangladesh did not join because it "did not wish to be a transit corridor for India".
India will instead connect to the grid via Burma, going the long way around via the north east states.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 17:06 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2006 00:00 ||
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Are British pollsters as agenda driven as most of the American ones? More importantly, if the opposition can't provide electable candidates, Mr. Blair's changed status isn't going to change anything, much like the Democratic Party's problems on this side of the pond.
Posted on the off-chance that Europe still matters.
The Spanish prime minister has said his government will begin talks with the banned Basque separatist group Eta. The statement in parliament by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a moonbat Socialist, was broadcast live on Spanish TV. "The government is going to start negotiations with Eta," he said. The group is demanding Basque independence.
Eta declared a permanent ceasefire on 22 March. The group has been waging an armed campaign for more than 30 years and is blamed for more than 800 deaths.
Used to be murderers were prosecuted.
Before Mr Zapatero's statement, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba had met party leaders to discuss the verification of the ceasefire.
Spain's opposition Popular Party (PP) recently broke off co-operation with the government, after the Basque branch of the Socialist Party said it would pursue talks with Batasuna, Eta's banned political wing.
Mr Zapatero stressed that "democracy will not pay any political price to achieve peace" with Eta and he did not give a date for the start of talks. "The process is going to be long, tough and difficult. We'll handle it with determination and prudence, with unity and loyalty and always with respect to the memory of the victims," he said.
Utter nonsense. He's 90% of the way to conceding everything the ETA wants.
He said recognition of the different political viewpoints in the Basque region would set the ground rules for this process of dialogue.
Surveys show that the majority of Spaniards support his attempt to bring peace to the Basque region, but a large minority are completely against talking to Eta, the BBC's Danny Wood reports from Madrid. Many victims' associations accuse the prime minister of surrendering to terrorism. They say the only way to defeat Eta is through the justice system and police actions.
Any group of people that considers themselves a nation will be one. Any nation that considers itself more than one group of people won't be a nation for very long.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2006 00:00 ||
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Euroburgers, email me please. I'll be in Al-Andalus later this summer, and a Europalooza beckons...
This article is written in such a way, I need to go wash my hands after reading. I don't usually even click on a NYT article, but this one I had to read. Sheezz. It's as tho the author just had to see if he could excel at dripping condescended hatred with his words.
Selected paragraphs.
Caption under picture:
There is a lens in the birdhouse at the driveway of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's home at St. Michaels, Md.
....
One is Vice President Dick Cheney, 65, who paid $2.67 million last September for a house that resembles a wide, squat Mount Vernon. Another is his old friend Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, 73, who in 2003 paid $1.5 million for a brick Georgian that was last a bed-and-breakfast. Among other recognizable owners in the area are Tony Snow, President Bush's new press secretary; Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's presidential campaign manager in 2004; Nicholas Brady, President George H. W. Bush's treasury secretary; and John S. D. Eisenhower, a writer and historian and the son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
.....
In St. Michaels, you also don't see much of the one-upping of Joneses or architectural bullying found in showier coastal resorts. The old farm families and the wealthy weekenders like the Rumsfelds and Cheneys look out over acres of lawn rolling down to the sea grass and their own private docks. But the homes are hidden down two-lane roads with cunning yellow signs on utility poles that say, menacingly and untruthfully, "No Outlet," and then down driveways shrouded by trees and lined with thick and impenetrable hedgerows. Letting terrorists know there is another way out.
The houses have names. Mr. Rumsfeld's is Mount Misery and is just across Rolles Creek from a house called Mount Pleasant. On four acres, with four bathrooms, five bedrooms and five fireplaces, built in 1804, the Rumsfeld house is just barely visible at the end of a gravel drive.
....
Today, where the drive begins, Mount Misery seems a congenial place, with a white mailbox with newspaper delivery sleeves attached, a big American flag fluttering from a post by a split-rail fence and a tall, one-hole birdhouse of the sort made for bluebirds although the lens in the hole suggests another function. At the site of the article is a picture of the birdhouse with this caption, There is a lens in the birdhouse at the driveway of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's home at St. Michaels, Md.
...
Less than two miles from the Rumsfelds', past Southwind, where the late James A. Michener wrote much of his epic novel "Chesapeake," Church Neck Road dead-ends at private Fuller Road on the left. About a quarter-mile up, past grazing cattle and sheep and four other homes, is Vice President Cheney's nine-acre place, Ballintober.
The house, built in 1930, is rambling and white. It has a five-car garage, a pool, stately formal gardens, a laundry chute and large, glass-walled waterside rooms for entertaining. Coldwell Banker's real estate listing called it an "individually designed dwelling." It is also unapproachable. "The last time I went up Fuller Road," Katie Edmonds, an agent at Meredith Real Estate, said, "S.U.V.'s came out of the woods at me."
Neighbors also complain about federal security agents' shutting down Church Neck Road to let the Cheneys pass in their speeding brigades of shiny black S.U.V.'s. But they don't complain much, because the newcomers are thought to be good for property values. If the Cheneys and Rumsfelds are willing to buy here, after all, who wouldn't be?
...
Caption from another picture:
High Powered St. Michaels has become a weekend-home haven for some influential Washingtonians; even Joyce Rumsfeld shops at Big Al's Market.
...
The second-home owners cannot vote in local elections, but their needs, whimsies and appetites set the tone of the town. Approaching St. Michaels, Route 33 the only way in or out passes a lumberyard's lawn full of rocking chairs.
....
Some people view the new neighbors less cordially. On Railroad Avenue, which the Cheneys and Rumsfelds use to reach Church Neck, Cassandra Harrison, a mother of two who waits tables and cleans houses, was resting on the stoop of her one-story white ranch house.
She is grateful that the air space above the Cheneys' house is blocked. "It's a no-fly zone, and that's good," she said. "But I'm not happy. I don't think society's liking them so much." Ms. Harrison, 23, voted for the first time in 2004, she said, "just because I did not want him. I don't think that they tell us the truth."
But that is a minority view in Talbot County, which went 61 percent for Mr. Bush in 2000 and 58 percent in 2004. Support for the war in Iraq is waning here as it is most everywhere else. But the great majority of Mr. Nestlehutt's 790 parishioners, he said, are "tolerant," live-and-let-live urban Republicans, not hard-core social conservatives. Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld, he said, seem to fit right in.
..
This guy is trying for his Pulitzer like that ridiculous article in the WAPO that won one on the fashion dressing of Judge Robert's family. Disgusting. BDS in full force.
#1
The fashion critic won a Pulitzer? Absurd -- she never got past the waspish, "she ought to be wearing my fave labels," stage. And she was wrong, too -- her fave labels were completely unsuitable for Mrs. Robert's body type, and questionable for that situation. In my opinion, of course, and admittedly I've never been anywhere near a Pulitzer, although I might've got my name near a patent once. ;-)
#2
why not publish GPS coordinates so terrorists and protesters can Garmin ight onto the proerty. The NYT is on it's way out of business. They should be jailed for this crap
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2006 17:31 Comments ||
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Outrageous behaviour. The NYT are really pushing their luck.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/01/2006 17:33 Comments ||
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TW -- well, she did win, not for fashion, but for criticism---
For distinguished criticism, in print or in print and online, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
"Awarded to Robin Givhan of The Washington Post for her witty, closely observed essays that transform fashion criticism into cultural criticism."
Check out this site
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2006/04/17/LI2006041700592.html
She submitted 10 articles that included Cheney's hunting dress, Rice in those incredible black boots and Mrs. Roberts.
I know, it doesn't make sense, but then, none of the decisions did. Bet this guy submits this "for criticism."
A Nerpa nuclear-powered submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy has begun sea trials.
The submarine, which went on sea trials on June 24, would be leased to the Indian Navy after its formal induction into the Russian Pacific Fleet next year, Vedomosti daily reported on Saturday.
The Amursky Shipyard based in Komsomolsk-on-Amur just across the Chinese border launched the construction of Nerpa nuclear-power submarine (project 971, type Shchuka-B) in 1991.
"The contract concluded with India (around 2004) on completing the construction and leasing of this submarine along with another submarine of the same type also constructed by the Amursky Shipyard to the Indian Navy led to renewal of the construction," the daily writes noting the secret character of the deal.
"Many times Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has avoided answering the question whether such contract has been concluded with India.
"In India the programme is coded as 'the perspective warship,' its financial implications are also not revealed. According to an official of one of the defence enterprises, India will spend not less than $400 million on completion of the construction of submarines," the daily said.
Indian diplomatic sources were reluctant to comment on the news report.
However, speaking on the condition of anonymity, they pointed that lease of nuclear submarine was part of the Gorshkov package, which included lease of TU-24 (Nato codename Backfire) strategic bombers.
During recent Russia visit the Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt and Naval Chief, Admiral Arun Prakash are understood to have reviewed the n-sub deal.
The Naval Chief had visited the Russian Pacific Fleet Headquarter at Vladivostok, which would be the title-holder of the nuke submarine to be leased to the Indian Navy for 10 years.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 12:06 ||
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MOSCOW: A nuclear-powered submarine that will reportedly be leased to India was launched at a shipyard in the Russian Far East, a news agency report said.
The Nerpa nuclear submarine was launched at the Amur shipyard and will join Russia's Pacific Fleet in 2007 after undergoing sea trials, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Vice-Admiral Anatoly Shlemov on Friday.
However, earlier reports said the Nerpa submarine was to be leased for 10 years to India under a 2004 secret deal. Indian and Russian officials have denied the reports.
Nerpa is the Project 971 third-generation submarine (NATO code name Akula-II), the most advanced Russian nuclear attack submarine. The Russian Navy's Akula-II submarines are equipped with 28 nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a striking range of 3,000 km. The Indian version is expected to be armed with the 300-km Club nuclear-capable missiles.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 12:25 Comments ||
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"Leased?" Odd.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2006 13:29 Comments ||
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From 1988 to 1991, a Soviet Skat (Charlie) class SSGN was leased to the Indian Navy.
Called the "Chakra" in Indian service, a lease, rather than purchase was agreed to avoid problems under the NPT treaty.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 13:51 Comments ||
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www.globalsecurity.org
The construction of a training center for the Indian defence officers in Sosnovy Bor, west of St Petersburg, confirmed Russias intentions to lease nuclear submarines to India. The international center started training 300 Indian Naval officers by mid-September 2005. This number suggested 4 Akula crews (2 on, 2 off duty rotations.) The leasing/buying of Akulas would train crews and augment force levels as the ATV goes into serial production.
The two Akulas, one said to be 70-85% complete and the other said to be 40-60% complete, would cost India some $400m. The leasing costs would amount to some $25m a year. The construction of both submarines and training of the crews could run up to around $2 billion.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 13:53 Comments ||
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#5
The Indian heavy engineering firm Larsen and Toubro is reportedly completing construction of the ATV Nuclear Submarine at its Hazira shipyard.
Launch is expected in 2008.
It is expected to be armed with long range SLCMs.
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 14:06 Comments ||
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#6
I'm sure "Nerpa" means something fierce in Hindu theology/mythology, but it sure sounds like a smurf name to me...
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2006 14:16 Comments ||
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#7
Nerpa is a Russian name (a type of Baikal seal)
Posted by: john ||
07/01/2006 14:52 Comments ||
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#8
"Leased" > means Russia wants the $$$ [USD]while also being unsure how long will India will successfully avoid COMMUNIST/MAOIST destabilization-takeover. India was also reportedly negotiating for OSCAR II's, + TYPHOON FBMs but appears to have discounted the Typhoons in anticipation of reviewing new follow-on Russian FBM designs.
A former University of Vermont College of Medicine professor was ordered Wednesday to serve a year and a day in federal prison for using false data to obtain federal research grants.
An official with the National Institutes of Health said Poehlman's case marked the first time a researcher would serve time in prison for falsifying data to obtain federal grants.
Judge William Sessions III imposed the sentence despite Poehlman's plea in a letter to the court that he not be required to serve jail time, and his statement in court Wednesday that he was "someone who has changed. I'm not a professor. I realize that door has closed."
Poehlman, a specialist in exercise physiology, changed and made up research in applications and papers on the effect of menopause on women's metabolism, the impact of aging on older men and women, the impact of hormone replacement therapy on obesity in post-menopausal women, the study of metabolism in Alzheimer's patients and the effect of endurance training on metabolism.
In an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in connection with one $542,000 grant; the government said he defrauded federal agencies out of $2.9 million.
Pleaded? what's wrong with 'pled' ???
Poehlman also told Sessions that he was under pressure to win federal grants, saying the number of grants a researcher received "determined your academic wealth."
That is so-o-o-o-o-o true ...
The court also heard from Dr. Sally Rockey, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health's Office of Extramural Research, who said "science itself is compromised" when a researcher falsifies data. She called such data "a break in the chain, and all the links that follow can be compromised."
Rockey said Poehlman is only the second academic researcher charged with a federal crime for falsifying research results to get a federal grant. She said the first was a University of Pittsburgh professor who was convicted in 1988 but did not serve time in jail.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Kelley told the court, "This is part of a new era when people are taking this kind of conduct more seriously."
Sessions said before imposing the sentence: "I generally think deterrence is significant, perhaps more so in this case. The scientific community may be watching." Sessions told Poehlman he had "violated the public trust."
Yup, and you can bet the scientific community will hear about it, especially since the NIH will make sure they hear.
Poehlman arrived at the Burlington campus in 1987 as an assistant professor. He later worked for three years at the University of Maryland in Baltimore before returning to UVM and being made a full professor. During that time, according to the to the federal Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity, Poehlman falsified "preliminary studies" as justifications for further research in applications for 17 grants totaling $11.6 million.
Preliminary studies are what you present in your grant application; they demonstrate that 1) you can do the work you propose to do and 2) your ideas have a good chance of being correct. I'm an NIH grant reviewer, and the preliminary studies section of your grant is one of the most important parts of the entire application. If your preliminary data suck, your grant is DOA.
"While many of the grant applications were not awarded, NIH and USDA expended approximately $2.9 million in research funding based on grant applications with false and fabricated research data," says the Office of Research Integrity's Web site.
Poehlman will be permanently barred from getting more federal research grants, and was ordered to write letters of retraction and correction to several scientific journals.
Which is another problem, because the journals are inconsistent in how they handle these retractions. Plus, Poehlman had numerous co-authors, and the question becomes, did they know his data were falsified? Expect them to be under the microscope at their respective institutions.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia has told the Jatiya Sangsad that Bangladesh had already lodged a strong protest against India's move for inviting tenders to explore oil and gas in the undemarcated areas in the Bay of Bengal.
A former University of Vermont College of Medicine professor was ordered Wednesday to serve a year and a day in federal prison for using false data to obtain federal research grants.
