[ARABNEWS] Police in Spain have captured a cybercrime gang made up of Ukrainians and Russians that allegedly stole more than 1 billion euros ($1.24 billion) from financial institutions worldwide in a five-year spree, authorities said Monday.
The gang’s alleged criminal mastermind, identified as a Ukrainian and named only as "Denis K.," was tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! in the coastal city of Alicante, 350 kilometers (220 miles) southeast of Madrid, according to statements issued by Spanish police and European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... law enforcement agency Europol.
Three suspected accomplices, said to be Russian and Ukrainian, were also arrested, Spanish authorities said. In Ukraine, police said that an unidentified 30-year-old man linked to the gang was cooperating with authorities.
The hackers ‐ whose activities have long been tracked by security researchers ‐ used malware to target more than 100 financial institutions worldwide, sometimes stealing up to 10 million euros in each heist. Almost all of Russia’s banks were targeted, and about 50 of them lost money in the electronic robberies, authorities said.
The gang used well-worn techniques such as booby trapped emails to break into banks and compromise the networks controlling ATMs, effectively turning the machines into free cash dispensers.
Ross Rustici, a senior director at Boston-based digital security firm Cybereason, said the gang stood out from others because of the amount of care and planning it put into operations.
"They’re unusual in how slow and methodical they are and how organized they are," Rustici said. Other groups use similar techniques in isolation, "but nobody before them had strung all those things together on such a scale," he said.
Authorities said that the gang converted its illicit gains into bitcoins and used the cryptocurrency to purchase big ticket items, including houses and vehicles, in Spain.
Rustici said it seemed likely the gang members botched their effort to launder their ill-gotten gains.
"That’s usually what happens with these who are very good on the network side, they make mistakes on the money side," he said. "You can’t buy a nice villa on the Mediterranean with cryptocurrency. Or at least not yet."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
Ukranians and Russians - partners in crime.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/27/2018 12:01 Comments ||
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Headline may be a touch dramatic. Actually, according to the article:
The study, of more than 100,000 U.S. adults, found the odds of high blood pressure were a bit higher among people who liked their meat grilled, broiled or roasted, versus those who favored more temperate cooking methods.
The same was true of people who were partial to well-done meat. Compared with fans of rarer meat, they were 15 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure over 12 to 16 years. Still, anyone who gets a steak well done deserves whatever happens to them.
Don’t tell the Special Forces guys who developed different habits in the field.
#8
From the makers of Unscented Pilchard...
Unborn and undead, but sepultured
In pure stainless cloisters:
Oy, vey! Oinkin' oysters!
A Pearl of a Pork Chop! It's Cultured!™
#9
Hey ZF! On a parallel note, read yesterday that one of the rabbi's on the european committee that certifies food as kosher stated that in his opinion, pork grown in a laboratory would be kosher. As it didn't come from an unclean animal, etc.
I do know that Israel is second in the world in consumption of turkey ham, right ahead of Saudi Arabia.
The end times are upon us.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/27/2018 15:15 Comments ||
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#10
Not what I'd call crystal clear -
People who grilled, broiled or roasted their meat more than 15 times a month had a 17 percent greater risk of high blood pressure, versus people who used those cooking methods fewer than four times a month. "Meat" included beef, poultry and fish.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2018 17:50 Comments ||
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#11
A stupid project to confirm that eating meat (i.e., Bambi, moo cows, chickies, duckies, Porky Pig) are bad for your health. This has some vegan/PETA agenda stamped all over it.
Consider that man ate meat as a primary source of nutrition until about 7000 years ago. Agriculture began on the premise that the alcohol from fermenting wet bread was an effective water purifier.
This don't eat meat shit is getting old.
I like my steak medium rare, I like eating protein from animals and my blood pressure only goes up in the presence of idiot vegetarians trying to tell me that their diet is more "natural" for man than broiled Mammoth or sauted water buffalo.
#2
Because some Trunks got their hands on it, it is now cursed. Give it free to the Donks and no one says anything. Sort of like that other business, you know, the one where if its free its legal, but try charging for it and they'll arrest you, even if all the adults involved consent.
[AJC] LONDON - British prime minister Theresa May says former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter may never recover from a nerve-agent attack that has left them in critical condition.
May says "their condition is unlikely to change in the near future, and they may never recover fully."
May told lawmakers that more than 130 people in the English city of Salisbury may have been exposed to the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals. More than 50 people have been assessed in hospitals.
A police officer left seriously ill after the March 4 attack was released from hospital last week.
The U.K. blames Russia for the attack, but Moscow denies responsibility. On Monday about 20 countries, including the United States, joined Britain in expelling Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning.
[ARABNEWS] North Korea leader Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... has visited China, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing three unnamed sources, in what would be his first known overseas trip since taking power in 2011 and ahead of a potential summit with US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... Details of his visit including its purpose and itinerary were not yet known, Bloomberg said. Japanese media reported earlier on Monday that a high-ranking Pyongyang official appeared to have arrived by train in Beijing.
Kyodo, citing sources close to the matter, said the visit of the official was intended to improve ties between Beijing and Pyongyang that have been frayed by North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and China’s backing of tough sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Security Council.
The visit could not immediately be confirmed by Rooters.
Footage from Nippon News Network, owned by Nippon TV, showed what an announcer described as a green train carriage with yellow horizontal lines, part of a 21-car train, similar to the kind that Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il, rode when he visited Beijing in 2011.
Beijing has traditionally been the closest ally of secretive and isolated North Korea. But Kim is due to hold summit meetings separately with China’s rivals, South Korea and the United States.
"Such a visit would reflect China’s effort to get back in the game," said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. "Xi would not tolerate being third in line to meet Kim."
Asked earlier at a daily news briefing about reports of an important North Korean visitor arriving at the Chinese border city of Dandong, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation.
Nobody answered the telephone at the North Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday evening.
"The government is closely communicating with relevant countries and monitoring the situation," South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement via a messaging app earlier on Monday.
Asked about the report that Kim was in China, White House front man Raj Shah told news hounds on Monday: "We can’t confirm those reports. We don’t know if they’re necessarily true."
A lot of the military want NKor to fire rockets as much as possible and even hit Japan just to make a point. The civilian side (Xi) wants to avoid anything that interferes with economic development. Since Xi decided to expand his power, the civilian side is probably in command on this particular visit by KimJU.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2018 9:59 Comments ||
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#5
Betting a quarter that the key question was :"So, you got my back, right?"
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/27/2018 11:14 Comments ||
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#6
Betting a quarter that the key question was :"So, you got my back, right?"
#4
I used to laugh with the staff at the recycling center when dropping off "e-waste" that it was just going to be shipped to China or Africa and dumped in a hole, same as it otherwise would have been here.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2018 8:13 Comments ||
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#5
I wonder if we buy waste disposal from them,
then they do the ocean dumping.
#6
"Where should I put my pants?"
"Over there on the chair, by mine"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2018 13:08 Comments ||
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#7
If the Asian giant closes off its waste management market, recycling centers across the US will be faced with a hard choice. They can either hire a much more expensive workforce which would raise prices for their services, require households to sort their own waste or be forced to use more landfills across all fifty US states.
Sort? We can't even get people to separate!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2018 18:18 Comments ||
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[Guardian] The desire to conserve cash is seen not just as a question of personal morality but a way to support the country’s interests. The gathering of downfall twigs and branches for the kitchen.
The German habit of saving money is so entrenched it has come to define the national character, according to the curators of an exhibition who say they hope to spark a much-needed debate about whether the obsession is healthy.
Saving ‐ History of a German Virtue at the German Historical Museum in Berlin seeks to uncover why saving money is central to most Germans’ lives ‐ even in times of historically low interest rates.
"In Germany everyone takes it for granted that they should save, both privately and on a state level," said Robert Muschalla, an economic historian and the main curator. "The idea of making sure you stay in the black, is seen as a goal that is worth striving for at all costs, and is fetishistically stuck to."
Saving boxes, money socks and piggy banks from every era since the foundation of the German nation in 1871 are on display in the exhibition. They illustrate the everyday acceptance of saving in Germany, as well as the extent to which it has been linked not just with personal morality but with serving a national purpose.
"The fate of the nation rests solely in our own strength," reads the epithet on one box from the Nazi era. Another from 1900 reads: "Without saving your chest will be empty. If you have nothing, you’ll be a burden."
[Guardian] A French waiter fired for being "aggressive, rude and disrespectful" says his behaviour wasn’t out of line ‐ he’s just French.
Guillaume Rey, who worked at a Vancouver restaurant on Canada’s Pacific coast, filed a complaint with British Columbia’s Human Rights Tribunal against his former employer, claiming "discrimination against my culture".
The restaurant, operated by Cara Operations, accused Rey of violating its code of conduct and said he persisted in his behavior despite verbal and written performance reviews.
In alleging discrimination Rey said French culture just "tends to be more direct and expressive".
He owes his sacking to his "direct, honest and professional personality", which he acquired while training in France’s hospitality industry.
Both parties agree Rey performed well at his job despite his allegedly disagreeable demeanour.
#6
There is a restaurant at Disney World that has a theme of being bossy to the patrons. I think it's called mom's or something. Perhaps the guy should get a job there, he might be a manager in no time.
#7
Sure, I walked into the dining room in my farm boots, jeans and brush popper shirt and the hostess suggested the atmosphere and seating in the bar was 'more casual'.
I asked for a dining table for six then ordered two entrees with sides and two beers. Drank the beers and when the plates arrived I asked for 2 'go' boxes.
[ConservativeTreehouse] Perhaps as early as this week we should anticipate hearing about completion a significant trade agreement with South Korea. The deal is known as "KORUS" (KOR+U.S.), and has been in negotiations for over a year.
Part of the recent agreement within the auto-sector of the deal, between Moon Jae-in and President Donald Trump, via Lighthizer and Ross, is an exemption of U.S. steel tariffs for South Korea in exchange for a doubling of U.S. auto exports; from 25,000 to 50,000 American made cars, per U.S. automaker, per year. Continues.
[PJ] WASHINGTON ‐ Retired Gen. David Petraeus, who was under consideration as President Trump’s secretary of State after the 2016 election, applauded Trump’s trade actions toward China as "long overdue" as well as his choice of CIA Director Mike Pompeo to lead the State Department.
"He’s a very bright individual ‐ No. 1 in his class at West Point ‐ that’s a special breed of an individual, Harvard Law School, successful businessman, obviously a successful political figure and has been a strong director of the CIA," Petraeus said during a Veterans in Global Leadership reception on Thursday evening.
"So what I would look for there, in particular, would be how quickly can they get qualified individuals nominated and confirmed, because a State Department without confirmed assistant secretaries of State is a State Department that doesn’t have one of its most important elements," he added.
Petraeus, who served CIA director under President Obama, said many people are wondering why it’s taking so long for the Senate to confirm assistant secretaries of State and why there has been "such an exodus" of senior ranking officials at the State Department.
"It’s hard to understand what is the dynamic here, what was all that about, but my hope would certainly be that Mike Pompeo, recognizing the issues that exist, will be able to work effectively with the White House and with the president, with whom he’s developed, obviously, a very strong relationship and mutual respect," he said. "He’s a strong leader and I would hope that we would see quick results on that front, in particular."
[DAWN] THE local currency market witnessed volatile trade last week after the State Bank of Pakistain allowed market forces to determine the dollar exchange rate.
The week was reduced to four trading sessions on account of Pakistain Day Holiday on March 23.
On the interbank market, the rupee lost one paisa on Monday.
The dollar drifted slightly higher at Rs110.57 and Rs110.58 against the prior weekend’s level of Rs110.56 and Rs110.57.
On Tuesday, the rupee plunged over four per cent against the dollar, initially hitting an all-time low above Rs116, due to the central bank’s sudden move to allow rupee devaluation amid economic strains.
Later in the session, the rupee recovered losses and settled at Rs114.80 and Rs115.20, still losing Rs4.23 on the buying counter and Rs4.62 on the selling counter.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A young man stated to be a ‘friend’ of Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud was shot dead over some ‘personal monetary’ dispute in Quaidabad early on Sunday morning, police said.
They added that Manal Khan Mehsud was travelling in a car when armed men attacked him in Gulshan-i-Buner. He sustained critical bullet wounds and died on the spot.
The body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2018 00:00 ||
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[Bus Insider] A man who believes the Earth is flat launched himself almost 2,000 feet into the air in a homemade rocket over the weekend.
"Mad" Mike Hughes, 61, ascended 1,875 feet in his crowdfunded rocket on Saturday before crashing back to Earth in the Mojave Desert outside Amboy, California.
"I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket ‐ I'm tired of that stuff," Hughes told The Associated Press after landing. "I manned up and did it."
Apart from a sore back and dinged-up rocket, Hughes told the AP he was fine. Hughes has generated controversy over his scientifically unsupported belief that the Earth is flat and shaped "like a Frisbee," as he describes it.
In a video posted on his Facebook page, he said his goal for the launch was to see the Earth's shape.
"Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee? I believe it is," Hughes said. "Do I know for sure? No. That's why I want to go up in space."
Hughes' rocket hit estimated speeds of 350 mph before he pulled his parachute. He had to deploy a second parachute to keep from hitting the ground too hard.
"This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways," Hughes told the AP of his rocket.
#5
Big harpoon seems a stupid idea to me. You puncture space debris and you're likely to send a lot of little debris everywhere and at orbital velocities that can be dangerous.
Also debris is likely to be tumbling so the odds of the harpoon deflecting off the target is pretty high and might make the thing spin off more junk.
What they need are drones that can attach and fire enough propellant to send the bigger debris into a burn-up orbit, then detach and move along to the next big chunk (or to refuel from some kind of mother ship/spaceplan).
#6
Small micro-sats with solar sails that loft the bigger satellites into an orbital junkyard -- think of them as resources. For smaller debris put up some solar-powered lasers that will de-orbit the pieces. It just takes time and an in initial investment.
#7
I've yet to see how solar sails could work properly in LEO (where the junk is). You orbit in 90 minutes and half that time you are facing into the solar wind and half the time you are facing away. You can't tack like a boat. How does it work? Do you only get speed half the time and unfurl the sails and coast the other half?
#8
Solar sails are best used when you can use weeks, or months for the delta-V to change orbits. Low thrust also means low mechanical strength needed for the tether and the micro-sat pulling the junked satellite. As for tacking... change the geometry of the sail for steering.
[DAWN] Malaysia’s government proposed new legislation on Monday to outlaw fake news with a 10-year jail term for offenders, a move slammed by critics as a draconian bid to crack down on dissent ahead of a general election.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving an indebted state fund, and rights activists fear the new law could be used to criminalize news reports and critical opinions on government misconduct. A general election must be held by August but is widely expected in the next few weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2018 00:00 ||
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Call and raise on that stupid steak story from earlier today.
[Salon] - In a recent press release on its website, Greenpeace (a renowned health food organization! - ed.) called for a reduction in meat, dairy, and egg consumption. A new report by the organization states that "global meat and dairy production and consumption must be cut in half by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change." The report also confirms what many health professionals have said for years: Eating meat and dairy raises various health risks, including risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Indeed, calling for such a reduction is vital to the fight against global warming, as animal agriculture is the number-one driver of climate change.
Climate is controlled by penguin droppings and whale tears. Science settled by consensus. Ifs ya don't agree with me, you'll kill all the baby whatevers, Deniarist.
#7
They're best contribution to the future of humanity would be to 'off' themselves. Less pressure on the environment and human rate of consumption. Somehow, they never volunteer to do that.
#10
...Steaks, cold dead hands, you know the drill.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/27/2018 19:32 Comments ||
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#11
I usually have a salad and baked potato with my steak, which once ate grass to grow so large and tasty, so I'm a Vegan too
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2018 19:40 Comments ||
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#12
A cow is basically a machine to turn grass into meat and milk. You can cut out the middleman (middlecow?) and eat the grass yourself, but be warned - it's a lot of grass.
[DAWN] The United States joined Britannia's allies in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and around the world on Monday in expelling scores of suspected Russian spies in an unprecedented response to a nerve agent attack.
At least 113 alleged agents working under diplomatic cover were ordered out by 21 governments, dwarfing similar measures in even the most notorious Cold War spying disputes, and marking a British diplomatic victory.
Washington led the way, ordering out 60 Russians, in a new blow to US-Russia ties less than a week after President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... congratulated Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... on his re-election.
Canada, Ukraine, Albania and most European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... states matched the move with smaller-scale expulsions, after Britannia urged allies to respond to the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal.
Russia has denied it was behind the attempted liquidation, which left Skripal and his daughter gravely ill in perhaps the first nerve agent attack in Europe since World War II.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2018 00:00 ||
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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.
North Korea
[DAWN] A young man stated to be a ‘friend’ of Naqeeb Ullah Mehsud was shot dead over some ‘personal monetary’ dispute in Quaidabad early on Sunday morning, police said.
[Bus Insider] A man who believes the Earth is flat launched himself almost 2,000 feet into the air in a homemade rocket over the weekend.
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
