Anonymous struck again on Monday morning -- and the backlash by the infamous hacking group may not be over yet. Anonymous, which took down Strategic Forecasting's Web site over the weekend, has vowed to strike again. This time, the targets are Stratfor members who are speaking out to support the firm.
As a result of the hack, Stratfor said it has reason to believe the names of its private corporate subscribers have been posted on other Web sites. Its Web site remained down Tuesday afternoon. The last update from Stratfor was Sunday night.
Stratfor sees the hack as retaliation for the treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst charged with leaking more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables to the WikiLeaks Web site. WikiLeaks posted many of the cables.
Global Clients Compromised
"It's come to our attention that our members who are speaking out in support of us on Facebook may be being targeted for doing so and are at risk of having sensitive information repeatedly published on other Web sites," the company wrote on its Facebook page. "So, in order to protect yourselves, we recommend taking security precautions when speaking out on Facebook or abstaining from it altogether."
The firm said it was diligently investigating the issue. The data is of an especially sensitive nature, considering Stratfor is a global intelligence firm that deals in business, economic, security and geopolitical affairs. Clients include the U.S. Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Doctors Without Borders and Bank of America.
"Anonymous keeps doing this because it works, and that's part of the problem," said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research. "PayPal has been the No. 1 target." Anonymous gained fame last year when it issued a hit list of Web sites hostile to WikiLeaks, including PayPal, Visa and MasterCard.
Anonymous Backlash
Kerravala is correct. Anonymous attacks work in that they disrupt the business world, but authorities are beginning to find success cracking down on Anonymous members. The first major arrest was made by Dutch police in Dec. 2010 in conjunction with the cyberattacks to protest shutdown of financial contributions to WikiLeaks.
In June, Spanish police celebrated the arrest of three men who allegedly were part of the computer hacking group that launched cyberattacks against Sony's PlayStation Network, among others. Authorities in Turkey, Australia and Great Britain have also made arrests of alleged Anonymous members. But the Anonymous arrests haven't stopped the attacks. Indeed, 2011 saw the rise of hacktivism on many fronts.
Paul Henry, a security analyst at Lumension, told NewsFactor one year ago today that the world hadn't heard the last of WikiLeaks. On Dec. 27, 2011 he said he expected the impact of WikiLeaks to expand well beyond simply embarrassing governments, to releasing data that would cause harm to big-business reputations.
He was right. Despite the fact that its funding has been largely strangled, WikiLeaks continues to be a force to be reckoned with, even if it's only through the attacks of groups like Anonymous.
NBA regular season finally arrives with five games on Christmas Day. But TV and technology are changing league revenues and how America will see the NBA regular season.
The NBA regular season finally begins Christmas Day with a slate of five games: Oklahoma City vs. Orlando, the Golden State Warriors vs. the Los Angeles Clippers, the Boston Celtics vs. the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls vs. the Los Angeles Lakers, and, in a rematch of last year?s finals, the Miami Heat will meet up with the Dallas Mavericks.?
Skip to next paragraph
So all is back to normal in professional basketball? Not quite. And it's just not the lockout-shortened season will feature 66 games instead of the usual 80-plus.
TV and TV technology are changing the league's revenue streams. And the NBA will have to catch up, if it wants to capitalize on its potential.
Start with the least obvious: Fans are less inclined to go to an actual game.
Oh, they still show up.?Over the past decade, the top attracting team (which changes from year to year) has averaged between 20,000 and 22,000 attendees per game. But except for the top-tier seats, they're less willing to pay for the experience, because it's better watching games at home.
?The gate revenues have been flat and falling since 2006,? says?Kenneth Wilbur, a marketing professor at Duke University?s Fuqua School of Business. So??teams are altering their mix of ticket prices.... Court seat prices are rising just as fast as they ever have. But in the second or third tier of seats in the arena, you get a better view at home. Those prices have been falling in a lot of NBA cities.?
If teams are seeing smaller gate revenues, their TV profits?continue to grow. The NBA has a $485 million annual contract with ABC/ESPN, as well as a $445 million deal with TNT. That works out to about $31 million for each of the league's 30 teams, a deal that wasn?t affected by the games lost during the lockout. Both contracts go through the 2015/16 season.
That's a healthy development, for the most part. The NBA is coming off a strong ratings performance to cap last season. The league finals between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks netted an average 17.3 million viewers per game. Game 6, in which the Mavericks bested LeBron James and company to win the title, was seen by nearly 24 million people. It was the most watched Game 6 since 2000, and it led to ABC having its best summer week in over a decade.
In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, by the Korea News Service, Kim Jong Un, center, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's youngest known son and successor, visits at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, to pay respect to his father. At far left front is Jong Un's uncle Jang Song Thaek. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011, by the Korea News Service, Kim Jong Un, center, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's youngest known son and successor, visits at Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, to pay respect to his father. At far left front is Jong Un's uncle Jang Song Thaek. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 by the Korea News Service, North Koreans pay respects to their late leader Kim Jong Il in front of his portrait in Chagang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
In this Friday, Dec. 24, 2011 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 by the Korea News Service, Kim Yong Nam, president of Presidium of North Korea's parliament, center, and other officials lay wreaths to mark the 94th anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Suk, mother of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) JAPAN OUT UNTIL 14 DAYS AFTER THE DAY OF TRANSMISSION
Visitors stand beside banners hanging on the wire fence, wishing for reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of the Panmunjom (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)
Visitors look at a map of demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the Imjingak Pavilion, near the border village of the Panmunjom (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea identified Kim Jong Il's son as head of a top ruling party body Monday, a post that gives him authority over political matters in addition to the military control attributed to him in recent days.
Kim Jong Un has rapidly gained prominence since the death of his father on Dec. 17, with the state media showering new titles on him almost daily.
On Saturday, state media referred to the younger Kim as "supreme leader" of North Korea's 1.2 million-strong armed forces and said the military's top leaders had pledged their loyalty to him. On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper described him as head of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party ? a post that appears to make him the top official in the ruling party.
Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea for 17 years, wielded power as head of three main state organs: the Workers' Party, the Korean People's Army and the National Defense Commission. His father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung remains the nation's "eternal president" long after his 1994 death.
The Kim family has extended its control over the country of 24 million people to a third generation with Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was revealed last year as his father's choice among three sons for successor.
He was named a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party, but was expected to ascend to new military and political posts while being groomed to become the next leader.
Monday's reference to his new title was in commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Workers' Party, urging soldiers to dedicate their lives "to protect the party's Central Committee headed by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un." The editorial called on the people to become "eternal revolutionary comrades" with Kim Jong Un, "the sun of the 21st century."
The language echoed slogans used years ago to rally support for Kim Jong Il, and made clear the son is quickly moving toward leadership of the Workers' Party, one of the country's highest positions, in addition to the military.
North Korea refers to Kim Il Sung as the "sun" of the nation and his birthday is celebrated as the "Day of the Sun," and state media have sought to emphasize Kim Jong Un's role in carrying out the Kim family legacy throughout his succession movement.
His titles are slight variations of those held by his father, but appear to carry the same weight. It was unclear whether the nation's constitution had been changed to reflect the transfer of leadership as when Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death.
A day earlier, state TV showed footage of Kim Jong Un's uncle and key patron, Jang Song Thaek, in a military uniform with a general's insignia. It was the first time that Jang, who was promoted last year to vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party along with Kim Jong Un, was shown on state TV in military garb.
Mourning continued, meanwhile, despite frigid winter weather, in the final days before Kim Jong Il's funeral is set to take place Wednesday and a memorial Thursday.
People continued lining up Monday in central Kim Il Sung Square, where a massive portrait that usually features Kim Il Sung has been replaced by one of Kim Jong Il, to bow before his smiling image and to lay funereal flowers. Heated buses stood by to give mourners a respite from the cold, and hot tea and water were distributed from beverage kiosks.
South Koreans were among the mourners in Pyongyang. The widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, whose late husband had ties to the North, each led delegations that drove across the heavily fortified border to Pyongyang.
They were greeted by North Korean officials during a stop at a factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, according to footage from AP Television News in North Korea. North Korea sent delegations to Seoul when the women's husbands died.
Meanwhile, a South Korean activist was also in Pyongyang to pay respects to Kim Jong Il but without South Korean government permission, her colleagues said in a statement. For South Koreans, making unauthorized trips to North Korea is punishable by up to three years in prison, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the three-year Korean war ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty.
___
Associated Press writers Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim and Jiyoung Won in Seoul, South Korea, and AP Korea bureau chief Jean H. Lee, contributed to this report. Follow AP's Korea coverage at twitter.com/newsjean and twitter.com/APKlug.
M'name's Sato, and I'm a Designer here at RolePlayGateway. Welcome to our humble website!
If you're addicted to roleplay, then let me tell you, you've stumbled onto the right place. We're one of the forefront text-based roleplaying hubs out there on the net!
Don't ever let anyone tell you that our dreams are unachievable! I'm in school to be a big-time screenwriter/film director. If I had listened to anyone along the way telling me it wasn't likely, I probably wouldn't have moved out of my little bubble community and gone to Chicago. Do what you love to do!
And it looks like what you love to do is read, write, and roleplay! That's what we're about at Gateway.
Just to get some housekeeping things out of the way, the first thing you're gonna want to do is get your ten forum posts out of the way. That link there will explain a bit more on why, and give you an index of threads to look up, so you you can get that number done pretty quickly.
The second thing you should do is look at the RPG Rules. It's dull, I know, but you need to know them, and see what sort of standards we set ourselves to as a community.
With that out of the way, dive right in!
If you have any questions about anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask. We're a friendly bunch.
PYONGYANG, North Korea?? North Korea hailed Kim Jong Il's son as "supreme leader" of the 1.2-million strong military, ramping up its campaign to install the young man as the nation's next leader even as the mourning for his father continued a week after his death.
Kim Jong Un made a third visit Saturday to the palace where his father's body is lying in state ? this time as "supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces" and accompanied by North Korea's top military brass, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
The new title and public show of support from the military leadership sent a strong signal that the nation will maintain Kim Jong Il's "military first" policy for the time being.
Earlier Saturday, the newspaper Rodong Sinmun, mouthpiece of the ruling Workers' Party, also recognized the young man's authority over the military by calling him "supreme commander" of the armed forces.
Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was unveiled in September 2010 as his father's choice as successor, will be the third-generation Kim to rule the nation of 24 million. His father and grandfather led the country under different titles, and it remains unclear which other titles will be bestowed on the grandson.
Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea in 1948, retains the title of "eternal president" even after his death in 1994.
Son Kim Jong Il ruled as chairman of the National Defense Commission, supreme commander of the Korean People's Army and general secretary of the Workers' Party.
Kim Jong Un was promoted to four-star general and appointed a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party. He had been expected to assume a number of other key posts while being groomed to succeed his father.
His father's death comes at a sensitive time for North Korea, which was in the middle of negotiations with the U.S. on restarting talks to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program in exchange for aid, and had been preparing for 2012 celebrations marking Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday. Suffering from a shortfall in basic staples after several harsh seasons, officials also had been asking for help feeding its people.
North Korea has emphasized the Kim family legacy during the sped-up succession movement for Kim Jong Un. State media invoked Kim Il Sung in declaring the people's support for the next leader, comparing the occasion to Kim Jong Il's ascension to "supreme commander" exactly 20 years ago Saturday.
At the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, Kim Jong Un and senior commanders paid silent tribute to the late leader, "praying for his immortality," KCNA said. The military also pledged its loyalty to Kim Jong Un, the report said.
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"Let the whole army remain true to the leadership of Kim Jong Un over the army," KCNA reported ? a pledge reminiscent of those made when Kim Jong Il was named supreme commander.
Slideshow: Journey into North Korea (on this page)
The call to rally behind Kim Jong Un, dubbed the "Great Successor" in the wake of his father's death on Dec. 17 from a heart attack, comes amid displays of grief across North Korea. The country is to remain in an official state of mourning until after Kim's funeral Wednesday and a memorial Thursday.
In Pyongyang, mourners continued Saturday to bow and lay flowers at Kim's portrait at plazas and government buildings, including the Pyongyang Circus Theater and Kim Il Sung Square, even as temperatures dropped to 14 degrees below Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit).
At the April 25 People's Army House of Culture, workers at beverage kiosks handed steaming cups of water to shivering mourners, including children bundled up in colorful thick parkas. A sign urged mourners to thaw out inside a heated bus.
The order to provide food and warming huts for mourners came from Kim Jong Un, officials said.
Earlier, a throng of North Koreans climbed stairs and placed flowers and wreaths neatly in a row below a portrait of Kim Jong Il as solemn music filled the air and young uniformed soldiers, their heads shaved, bowed before his picture.
A sobbing Jong Myong Hui, a Pyongyang citizen taking a break from shoveling snow, told AP Television News that she came out voluntarily to "clear the way for Kim Jong Il's last journey."
For days, life in Pyongyang has come to a standstill, with shops and restaurants closed. Downtown Koryo Hotel, one of several in Pyongyang catering to foreigners, was nearly empty.
But there are signs that the country is beginning to move on.
"Streets, buses and the metro are all crowded with people going to their work. They are not giving way simply to sorrow," KCNA said. "They are getting over the demise of their leader, promoted by a strong will to closely rally around respected Comrade Kim Jong Un."
Among the mourners in Pyongyang was the youngest son of Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who is expected to take over the multibillion-dollar religious and business empire founded by his father in South Korea.
Interactive: Meet North Korea?s first family (on this page)
The Rev. Hyung-jin Moon helped carry a wreath to the main mourning site at Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang. The American-born Moon had been in North Korea earlier in the month. The church has several business interests in North Korea.
The Korean peninsula has remained in a technical state of war since the Koreas' 1950-53 conflict, but two groups from South Korea have received permission from the South Korean government to visit the North to pay their respects, South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Choi Boh-seon said Saturday.
One group will be led by the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and the other by the wife of a late businessman with ties to the North.
Citizens in Pyongyang, meanwhile, received a special gift from the late Kim Jong Il: loads of fish. State-run media said Kim was worried about the supply of fish in Pyongyang and had looked into the matter the day before he died.
Rodong Sinmun showed a photo of a woman covering her mouth in sadness and gratitude as she watched loads of herring and walleye pollack being distributed at a crowded grocery store where they were piled up in baskets.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MTV News remembers 'Jackass' daredevil Ryan Dunn, Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr and Cali Swag District's M-Bone, among others. By Tami Katzoff
Nate Dogg Photo: Mark Sullivan/ WireImage
This year we lost some of our brightest stars: artists that spanned the genres of rock, hip-hop and pop, as well as TV and film. They were at different stages in their careers — some just starting to rise, others already legends — but all left a distinct mark on pop culture, and their deaths affected us deeply.
Beloved hip-hop icons Nate Dogg and Heavy D influenced the generations of artists who followed them. Nate (born Nathaniel Hale) died at age 41 after suffering several health setbacks related to a stroke. One of the key players in the birth of the West Coast G-Funk sound, the crooner's silky smooth vocals touched classic tracks from Snoop Dogg and Warren G to 50 Cent and Ludacris. Fun-loving Heavy D, a major force in the New Jack Swing era, had hits with songs like "We Found Love" and "Nuttin' But Love," but he had also branched out into film and theater. He was 44 when he died this past fall.
We lost Mike Starr, former bassist for the groundbreaking Seattle grunge band Alice in Chains. Like Amy Winehouse, who also died this year at the age of 27, Starr's talent was often overshadowed by dependency on alcohol and drugs.
Gun violence claimed the life of 22-year-old Montae Talbert, the Cali Swag District dancer otherwise known as M-Bone. And Australian actor Andy Whitfield, who got his big break when he was cast as the lead in the Starz TV series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," was 39 when he succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Finally, the MTV family mourned the death of "Jackass" daredevil and "Viva La Bam" star Ryan Dunn. The 34-year-old died on a rural Pennsylvania road along with his 30-year-old passenger, Zachary Hartwell, when their car slammed into a guardrail and caught fire.
Share your memories of those we lost this year in the comments below.
Afghanistan-bound trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces parked as authorities close the border at Torkham border post in Pakistan, Nov 27, 2011.
(Credit: AP)
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is considering plans to slap millions of dollars in new charges on future supplies taken through the country's land route for U.S.-backed Western troops in Afghanistan, senior Pakistani government officials and a minister have told CBS News.
The payments are being considered in the name of costs such as for "inspection of cargo" and "maintenance of infrastructure" worn down by trucks.
Though the exact scale of funds planned to be earned remains unclear, senior Western diplomats warned that the move could further strain Pakistan's already troubled ties with the U.S.-led international security assistance force or ISAF in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, findings of a U.S. military investigation in to a helicopter raid on two of Pakistan's army posts near the Afghan border on November 26th, found a lack of trust between the U.S. and Pakistan.
U.S.: Mistrust and mistakes led to Pakistani deaths
The killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in that attack prompted an unprecedented wave of protests from the country's civil and military officials. A senior Pakistani government official who spoke on background and discussed the new charges under consideration, said "we want to have a productive relationship with the U.S. and other friends in the Western camp. But unlike the past, every service that we perform will have to be paid for at a realistic price."
Western diplomats warned that Pakistan's demand for charging large sums of money on cargo for Afghanistan will not help improve its trust with its partners, including the U.S.
"The issue is not just financial. The problem is, we don't know how this plan (for higher charges) will play itself out diplomatically," one senior Western diplomat in Islamabad told CBS News on condition of anonymity. "I fear this plan will keep Pakistan locked in its currently strained relationship (with the U.S.-led western alliance) because the message from Pakistan will be a negative one."
Though Pakistan hasn't specified a timeline for resumption of the truck facility, the Pakistani government officials and a minister who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said they expect it to be resumed within weeks.
"Nobody wants to keep the facility shut forever. The bigger question now is, what will be the conditions attached for the future," said a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Pakistani government minister who also spoke on condition that he will not be named said "a decision has been reached in principal that when the supply route is re-opened, the trucks will have to bear a realistic cost which will go to the Pakistani government. In the past, each supply truck contributed less than $10 for passage through Pakistan. This is not realistic any more."
Meanwhile, Pakistan's foreign ministry officials defended a parliamentary review of the truck facility for Afghanistan. "Obviously, one thing is very clear that this exercise is not to wreck our relations with any particular country. This exercise is to streamline our cooperation on such a sensitive issue," said Abdul Basit, the spokesman of the foreign ministry in Islamabad.
In recent days, Pakistani officials have complained privately that Islamabad's hardening attitude towards the terms for future relations with its Afghanistan-based Western allies is driven in part by what it sees as punitive steps taken by the U.S.
"You have the United States tying future assistance to conditions like the secretary of state certifying that Islamabad is cooperating fully on counter-terrorism measures," said the Pakistani minister who spoke to CBS News. "We have lost about 40,000 people in our decade-old war on terror which we began when the U.S. attacked Afghanistan. The Americans still want us to prove that we are genuine in our efforts. What could be bigger nonsense than this?" asked the Pakistani minister.
The little grey ball is Dione, the third largest Saturn moon. The large brown sphere with the ethereal haze is Titan, the largest. On the background, that's Saturn and its rings. Never an astronomy picture looked so painterly to me. More »
Source: www.firstpost.com --- Thursday, December 22, 2011 A rich Chinese couple who had eight babies with the help of two surrogate mothers has been forced to move out of their villa following a public uproar. ...
Vice President Joe Biden has been on the phone to Baghdad and Erbil this week, frantically trying to coax Iraq's main political players back from the brink of a new sectarian confrontation less than a week after the last U.S. troops departed. But Iraq's political leaders paid little heed to Washington's advice and entreaties when the U.S. had 140,000 troops there; they're even less likely to comply now. Biden reportedly sought to persuade Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to back away from a warrant issued by his government for the arrest of Iraq's most senior Sunni politician, Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi, on allegations that he was involved in a bomb plot for which members of his security detail have been detained. But Iraq's Sunni leadership sees the warrant as part of Maliki's authoritarian crackdown against his opponents, with senior Sunni leaders systematically targeted for arrest by the Shi'ite-led government in recent months.
Al-Hashimi dodged arrest by fleeing to Erbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish zone in northern Iraq, from where he denounced the arrest warrant as a political plot and accused Maliki of amassing power in his own hands and destroying prospects for inter-sectarian accord. He also offered to stand trial on the allegations, but only in Erbil -- the implication being that he didn't believe he'd get a fair trial in Baghdad. However, there was little sign of Maliki heeding Biden's call for restraint, or calls by Kurdish leaders for an urgent national conference to discuss the widening sectarian schism in Iraqi politics. The Iraqi Prime Minister declared on TV Wednesday: "I do not allow myself and others to bargain over Iraqi blood." He demanded that the Kurdish authorities hand over al-Hashimi. "If they will not hand him over or let him flee or escape, this will lead to problems," Maliki added ominously. (See the ten grim lessons from the Iraq war.)
The move against al-Hashimi coincides with the withdrawal from parliament of the predominantly Sunni Iraqiya bloc, prompting Maliki to urge the legislature to pass a vote of no confidence in deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, the Sunni faction's most senior figure in the legislature. And, Maliki warned, the boycott of parliament would result in Iraqiya cabinet ministers losing their positions, ending the inter-party accord that formed the basis of the agreement to seat his government. Iraqiya, whose future participation in what had been envisaged as a consensus government but has in practice been run almost entirely by Maliki's faction, now appears in doubt, accused Maliki of being "the main cause of the crisis," and urging his Shi'ite-dominated bloc to put forward an alternative candidate for prime minister.
Many of the Sunni leaders, including al-Hashimi, now support a bid by three Sunni provinces -- Anbar, Diyala and Salahuddin -- to band together into an autonomous zone on the lines that the Kurds have done. That's an outcome Maliki is determined to avoid, seeing it as strengthening a beachhead in Iraq of regional forces antagonistic to his rule. Indeed, a union of three provinces that had been the cradle of the Sunni insurgency, and which abut Syria, would strengthen the strategic challenge to Maliki in Baghdad -- even more so if President Bashar al-Assad were overthrown by Syria's Sunni majority. Sunni leaders in those provinces have spoken of Sunni insurgencies on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border amplifying one another.
The power struggle between Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish political factions has been waged in different forms since Saddam's fall, but it appears to have entered a new phase in recent years, once the clock began ticking down towards the U.S. withdrawal. Maliki has been widely accused of steadily amassing power, particularly through his control over the security forces, and demonstrating his intent to suppress domestic challenges to his increasingly authoritarian rule. (Read "Iraq After the War: Maliki's Attack on Sunni Leaders Suggests a Dark, Divided Future.")
The Prime Minister's attack on the Sunni political class signals a new round of political brinkmanship, with the danger of a relapse into civil war exacerbated by regional tensions, particularly between Iran -- the main outside patron of Maliki's government -- and Saudi Arabia, which has always backed the Sunnis. Those two are at loggerheads in political standoffs throughout the region, from Syria and Lebanon to Bahrain, but Turkey's growing regional influence has also antagonized Tehran. Ankara has taken a leading role in putting pressure on Iran's ally in Damascus, President Assad, over his brutal crackdown on a popular rebellion. And last year, Turkey also played a major role in creating and backing the Iraqiya bloc.
There are, of course, a number of domestic factors that might restrain Maliki from pushing the Sunnis over the edge. The Kurdish leadership is again trying to assume a mediating role whose spinoff is to strengthen the autonomy and boundaries of their de facto statelet in northern Iraq. Another key player could be Grand Ayatullah Ali Sistani, the most influential Shi'ite leader in Iraq, who has played a quiet but sometimes decisive role in shaping Iraq's post-Saddam political transition. Although Sistani comes from the "quietist" tradition that opposes Iran's system of clerical rule, he has been known to intervene in politics. Sistani forced the U.S. occupation authority to allow Iraqis to elect their own government in January of 2005, and then made sure the various Shi'ite factions didn't dilute their power by using his influence to corral them into a single political bloc. More recently, Sistani has been strongly critical of corruption and abuse of power in Maliki's government -- so much so that Maliki is reportedly colluding in efforts to install a top Iranian cleric in the Iraqi seminary city of Najaf as a counterweight to Sistani. Sistani remains the single most important leader among Iraqi Shi'ites, and he's unlikely to countenance a sectarian confrontation with the Sunnis.
The key variable, however, remains Iran. Tehran has been the biggest strategic beneficiary of the U.S. invasion, and it has been the most influential foreign power in Baghdad since the moment the U.S. allowed the Iraqis to choose their own government. (They've returned Iran-friendly Shi'ite governments at each election.) While he may be a Shi'ite partisan with an authoritarian streak, but -- contra the Saudi view -- Maliki is no puppet of Tehran. Still, he's unable to rule without Tehran's support; it was Iran's intervention that persuaded Sadr to throw his considerable parliamentary vote behind Maliki to give him the numbers necessary to keep Iraqiya out of power, after the Sunni-dominated bloc finished with more votes than any other list in the last election. (Read "U.S. Iraq Withdrawal a Gift to Iran? No, the U.S. Iraq Invasion Was the Gift to Iran.")
The question that may determine whether or not Iraq descends into sectarian confrontation, then, may be this: What does Iran want right now?
There may be an argument that stoking instability in Iraq suits Iran at a moment when Tehran is facing growing economic pressure and implied military threats over its nuclear program -- a tactic of starting fires in order to demonstrate its ability to cause problems for its adversaries. Yet, there may also be reason to believe that Iran could, in fact, decide to restrain Maliki should his actions appear to be raising the danger of renewed civil warfare. The reason is simple: The status quo put in place in Iraq by the U.S. invasion is a huge strategic gain for Tehran, which saw its most dangerous enemy -- Saddam Hussein -- replaced by an elected government dominated by its allies. The collapse of that political order in a new round of sectarian bloodshed puts Iran's post-Saddam gains at risk, also inviting its key regional opponent, Saudi Arabia, to intervene more aggressively to turn Iraq into a proxy battlefield.
Either way, Iran is unlikely to accept matters of such great strategic consequence to the Islamic Republic as a confrontation that could potentially draw in Iraq's major neighbors can be decided simply by the whims and narrow agenda of Prime Minister Maliki. At a moment when the fate of Iraq's key Arab partner, Syria's Assad, hangs in the balance, it would take a stupendous recklessness to roll the dice on its influence in Iraq, also, by encouraging Maliki to overplay his hand.
Indeed, in recent weeks, it has appeared as if Iran has been trying to ease tensions with the Saudis, sending its intelligence minister to Riyadh for talks over the alleged Washington embassy bombing plot, and backing down from opposing the Saudis' position on OPEC oil output quotas. Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Wednesday indicated a willingness to negotiate with Iran to improve recently frayed relations but also warned Iran, via a statement from the Gulf Cooperation Council, against "instigating sectarian strife" in the region.
Unless Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei is a more reckless gambler than most analysts know, Prime Minister Maliki may yet find the message he received from Biden discreetly but firmly reiterated by Tehran.
A former NYU professor is claiming he was fired for giving James Franco a ?D? and this is not the only allegations he is making regarding the actor. TMZ is reporting that Jos? Angel Santana has filed a lawsuit against New York University citing that he was given his pink slip because he gave Franco a bad grade that he deserved. That is some crazy shiz if you know what I mean and that is not the only allegations he is making against not only James but the University as well. According to Santana here is what happened. He gave James a ?D? in the class he taught which was a Directing the Actor class. His reason for giving Franco the low grade was because he missed 12 out of the 14 classes, honestly I don?t how the actor didn?t get an ?F? if that is true. Because he dared to give James a bad grade he suffered all sorts of humiliation from not only the 127 Days star but the University and it ultimately resulted in Jos? getting the axe. All that plus the professor is claiming that Franco got special treatment from faculty because he is A-list star. [...]
Pad & Quill, maker of bookbindery-style covers for everything from the iPad thru the iPhone 4S to the Kindle Fire, has launched itself an app. As you might have guessed, it is a note-taking App for the iPad and iPhone, and it looks every bit as good as the cases themselves. The app uses the metaphor [...]
If you've still got the 3DS price drop blues, perhaps a fresh (and final) infusion of free games will help. Early adopters that signed into the Nintendo eShop before August 11th will find ten GameBoy Advance games tacked on to their handheld's purchase history, retrievable via the same clunky redownload system that delivered the 3DS Ambassador program's NES titles. Thankfully, the unintuitive process is relatively simple -- just hop into the eShop's menu, scroll down to "Settings / Other", and select "Your Downloads," to claim your (potentially-exclusive) games. Short of having a 3DS guide us through the Louvre, we can't think of a better use for Nintendo's fledgling handheld.
The Big G has detailed a few changes that are en route in forthcoming updates to both the Google+ desktop interface, the Android app and -- with an undisclosed lag -- the iOS app. You and your inner circle will soon be able to attach Hangout invitations to specific posts, so you can "upgrade the conversation from long-form to live" with a single click. The Hangouts On Air self-broadcasting feature is still in development and only available to selected celebs, but Google is about to roll it out to "hundreds more" public figures and users with large followings, while also adding features that will eventually appeal to normal people's vanity too: including the ability to upload full-length and private recordings of your supposedly charismatic rants to your YouTube account. See the source link for more.
TOKYO ? Olympus Corp. submitted revised earnings reports Wednesday, meeting a deadline to avoid being removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It still risks getting delisted later on because of an accounting scandal.
The piles of documents for the reports dating back five years were accepted by financial regulators three hours before the deadline expired.
The Tokyo bourse has the final say in deciding whether to boot out the once prestigious Japanese camera and medical equipment maker, and is still investigating the company's dubious accounting.
The deception at Olympus, dating back to the 1990s, to hide 117.7 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in investment losses came to light when former President and Chief Executive Michael Woodford blew the whistle, questioning expensive acquisitions and exorbitant fees for financial advice.
Woodford, a 51-year-old Briton and a rare foreigner to lead a major Japanese company, was fired in October after confronting Olympus directors.
He returned to Japan this week to meet with investors and lawmakers and to try to lead a turnaround at Olympus. Last month, he visited to meet police and other investigators.
Woodford has said he wants to fix Olympus and has expressed hopes shareholders will back him. Woodford has also repeatedly said that he hopes Olympus will not be delisted.
Olympus did not have an immediate comment. President Shuichi Takayama has scheduled a news conference Thursday to go over the earnings filings. Olympus has said the cover-up losses were recouped over the years.
The company reported in its corrected documentation a loss of 32.3 billion yen ($414 million) for the first half of the fiscal year, through September, a reversal from a 3.8 billion yen profit the same period a year earlier.
Takayama, who took helm after the scandal broke, has said Woodford lacks the right teamwork style to lead the company, although now acknowledges the positive side of Woodford's whistleblowing. Olympus initially denied any wrongdoing and lambasted Woodford.
It is still unclear if Woodford will manage a comeback. Some people, such as former board member Koji Miyata, see him as a hero and have begun an online campaign to bring back Woodford. A date has not yet been set for a general shareholders meeting.
The scandal has prompted soul-searching in Japan Inc. on living up to global standards in governance.
Some experts say laws need to be updated, corporate boards needs more outside members and transparency needs to be strengthened. Ruling and opposition legislators met with Woodford to hear his ideas about better corporate practices.
No one has been charged in the scandal. But Olympus management has said several top company men were involved in the scheme and has promised to investigate 70 officials, including former and current executives and auditors, to pursue possible criminal charges.
A third-party panel set up by Olympus, including a former Japanese Supreme Court judge, released the findings of an investigation earlier this month, which said top executives who were "rotten to the core" had orchestrated the accounting cover-up spanning three decades.
The fees for financial advice and overvalued acquisitions were part of an elaborate deception utilizing overseas banks and several funds to keep the massive losses off the company's books, according to Olympus.
Japanese magazine Facta was first to report the dubious money.
Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who was behind Woodford's appointment as chief executive and later his firing, has since resigned as chairman. He is among several executives suspected of knowing about the scheme.
Last month, Olympus dismissed Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori, saying he was involved in the cover-up along with Kikukawa. A company auditor also resigned.
Olympus stock plunged after the scandal broke but has since recouped some of those losses. It slipped 4.1 percent to 1,314 yen in Tokyo on Wednesday.
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to a 3-1/2-year low last week and factory activity in parts of the Northeast gained speed in December, suggesting a further strengthening of the economic recovery.
While other data on Thursday showed industrial output shrank for the first time in seven months in November, much of the decline came from auto production, which analysts said was held back by temporary supply disruptions.
"It looks like we have just hit a clear patch on the road to recovery, where things are going to speed up a little bit," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The fairly upbeat data helped investors on Wall Street to put their aside their worries about the European debt crisis and buy stocks. Prices for U.S. Treasury debt fell, while the dollar weakened broadly.
Although growth is quickening from the third quarter's 2 percent annual rate, analysts caution that troubles in debt-stricken Europe pose a major risk to the U.S. economy. The fourth quarter growth pace is expected to top 3 percent.
Much of the rest of the global economy is already weakening, with the euro zone expected to slip into recession.
The U.S. economy also faces a risk that lawmakers will fail to extend a payroll tax cut and emergency jobless benefits that expired at year end, which would dent the expansion in 2012.
For now, however, it continues to show resilience.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to 366,000, the lowest since May 2008, the Labor Department said. That follows on the heels of a report earlier this month that showed the jobless rate hit a 2-1/2-year low of 8.6 percent in November.
REGIONAL FACTORY ACTIVITY PICKS UP
The economy's firming tone was also emphasized by data showing an acceleration in factory activity in New York state and the Mid-Atlantic region this month.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its index of business conditions rose to its highest since March as new orders surged. A separate report showed business activity in New York state at its highest since May, with a strong rebound in new orders and an improvement in hiring.
But the Fed's industrial production report took off some of the shine from the two regional factory surveys. Output at the nation's mines, factories and refineries dropped 0.2 percent in November after rising 0.7 percent in October.
The decline was led by a 0.4 percent drop in factory output, which reflected a 3.4 percent slump in motor vehicle production.
Economists, however, blamed a scarcity of auto parts from flood-ravaged Thailand for the weakness. They said it also likely weighed on production of high-technology goods, which were down sharply for a third month running.
"We are not worried about the health of the manufacturing sector," said Michelle Girard, a senior economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.
"Inventories are lean and firms will likely need to restock after a decent holiday season. Automakers also plan healthy production increases in the first quarter."
FedEx Corp on Thursday provided a further signal the economy was gaining momentum, saying demand for residential delivery services was rising with "healthy growth" in online shopping.
Honeywell International, the maker of products ranging from cockpit electronics to control systems for large buildings, also struck an upbeat note on the economy and forecast strong sales growth next year.
Another report from the Labor Department showed wholesale prices rose 0.3 percent last month, reversing October's 0.3 percent fall, as food prices climbed 1 percent.
Excluding food and energy, producer prices were up a mild 0.1 percent last month after being flat in October, suggesting little buildup in broad inflationary pressure.
(Additional reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in Washington and Leah Schnurr in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Work sheds new light on medicinal benefits of plantsPublic release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Carl Nathe carl.nathe@uky.edu 859-257-3200 University of Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 15, 2011) Scientists from institutions around the nation and the world have collaborated to develop new resources poised to unlock yet another door in the hidden garden of medicinally important compounds found in plants.
The resources were developed by the Medicinal Plant Consortium (MPC) led by Joe Chappell, professor of plant biochemistry at the University of Kentucky, Dean DellaPenna, professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University and Sarah O'Connor, professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England. They grew out of a $6 million initiative from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how plants produce the rich diversity of chemical compounds, some of which are medicinally important.
"Our major goal in this project has been to capture the genetic blueprints of medicinal plants for the advancement of drug discovery and development," said Chappell, project coordinator for the MPC.
"Most people are familiar with the natural products we derive from plants," Chappell added. "These include the delightful fragrances that go into perfumes, soaps, household cleaning products and more. Just as the sensory properties of plants interact with and trigger your sense of smell, plants' natural compounds can target and cause a reaction within your body. This gives them tremendous pharmaceutical potential."
The MPC project includes participants from Michigan State, Iowa State University, the University of Mississippi, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, MIT, and the John Innes Centre, in addition to UK. The associated researchers represent a broad spectrum of expertise from plant biology and systematics to analytical chemistry, genetics and molecular biology, and drug development from natural products.
DellaPenna, MPC co-project coordinator, said, "Thanks to the funding received for these projects, the talents and skills of experts from all of these institutions have been brought together with the goal of forging a new model in drug discovery."
Some well-known medicines have come from plants. For instance, the foxglove plant gives us the cardiac muscle stimulant digoxin, and the periwinkle plant offers a source for the widely used chemotherapy drugs vincristine and vinblastine. These and many other medicinal plants, often commonly found in household gardens and flower boxes, represent cornucopias of compounds ripe for discovering and developing diverse medicinal applications.
"The current understanding of the molecules and genes involved in the formation of plant-derived medicinal compounds is very incomplete. However, the ability to conduct genome-wide studies of model plant species has resulted in an explosive increase in our knowledge of and capacity to understand the biological processes," added O'Connor, also an MPC co-project coordinator.
During this two-year project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), researchers from two consortia set out to develop a collection of data that would aid in understanding how plants make chemicals, a process called biosynthesis. This knowledge ultimately could make it possible to engineer plants to produce larger quantities of medicinally useful compounds as well as different versions with other therapeutic potential.
To develop the resources, the researchers studied the genes and chemical composition of 14 plants known for their medicinal properties or compounds with biological activity. These included plants such as foxglove, ginseng, and periwinkle. Altogether, these efforts are now providing a rich toolbox for researchers to discover the means for how nature's chemical diversity is created, thus empowering efforts to uncover new drug candidates and increase the efficacy of existing ones.
The work of the MPC included obtaining materials for all the medicinal plants used in this study. The MPC then determined the plants' chemical profiles and obtained their genetic blueprints to study how genes control the various chemical compositions.
"This work offers a valuable data resource for understanding the genes, enzymes and complex processes responsible for the biosynthesis of important plant-derived drugs," said Warren Jones, who manages this and other research grants in biotechnology at NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, through which the ARRA funds were provided. "The collaborative effort should greatly contribute to our ability to understand and exploit the rich biochemistry found in plants."
###
More information about the MPC and the resources provided are available at the following websites: http://medicinalplantgenomics.msu.edu; http://metnetdb.org/mpmr_public/.
The second consortium, the Medicinal Plants/Human Health Consortium (MP/HHC) led by Norman Lewis, Regents Professor and Director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University, was funded under the same program at the NIH to apply similar technology to other medicinal plants. More information about the MP/HHC can be found at http://uic.edu/pharmacy/MedPlTranscriptome/.
MEDIA CONTACT: Carl Nathe, (859) 257-3200; carl.nathe@uky.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Work sheds new light on medicinal benefits of plantsPublic release date: 15-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Carl Nathe carl.nathe@uky.edu 859-257-3200 University of Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 15, 2011) Scientists from institutions around the nation and the world have collaborated to develop new resources poised to unlock yet another door in the hidden garden of medicinally important compounds found in plants.
The resources were developed by the Medicinal Plant Consortium (MPC) led by Joe Chappell, professor of plant biochemistry at the University of Kentucky, Dean DellaPenna, professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University and Sarah O'Connor, professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, England. They grew out of a $6 million initiative from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how plants produce the rich diversity of chemical compounds, some of which are medicinally important.
"Our major goal in this project has been to capture the genetic blueprints of medicinal plants for the advancement of drug discovery and development," said Chappell, project coordinator for the MPC.
"Most people are familiar with the natural products we derive from plants," Chappell added. "These include the delightful fragrances that go into perfumes, soaps, household cleaning products and more. Just as the sensory properties of plants interact with and trigger your sense of smell, plants' natural compounds can target and cause a reaction within your body. This gives them tremendous pharmaceutical potential."
The MPC project includes participants from Michigan State, Iowa State University, the University of Mississippi, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, MIT, and the John Innes Centre, in addition to UK. The associated researchers represent a broad spectrum of expertise from plant biology and systematics to analytical chemistry, genetics and molecular biology, and drug development from natural products.
DellaPenna, MPC co-project coordinator, said, "Thanks to the funding received for these projects, the talents and skills of experts from all of these institutions have been brought together with the goal of forging a new model in drug discovery."
Some well-known medicines have come from plants. For instance, the foxglove plant gives us the cardiac muscle stimulant digoxin, and the periwinkle plant offers a source for the widely used chemotherapy drugs vincristine and vinblastine. These and many other medicinal plants, often commonly found in household gardens and flower boxes, represent cornucopias of compounds ripe for discovering and developing diverse medicinal applications.
"The current understanding of the molecules and genes involved in the formation of plant-derived medicinal compounds is very incomplete. However, the ability to conduct genome-wide studies of model plant species has resulted in an explosive increase in our knowledge of and capacity to understand the biological processes," added O'Connor, also an MPC co-project coordinator.
During this two-year project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), researchers from two consortia set out to develop a collection of data that would aid in understanding how plants make chemicals, a process called biosynthesis. This knowledge ultimately could make it possible to engineer plants to produce larger quantities of medicinally useful compounds as well as different versions with other therapeutic potential.
To develop the resources, the researchers studied the genes and chemical composition of 14 plants known for their medicinal properties or compounds with biological activity. These included plants such as foxglove, ginseng, and periwinkle. Altogether, these efforts are now providing a rich toolbox for researchers to discover the means for how nature's chemical diversity is created, thus empowering efforts to uncover new drug candidates and increase the efficacy of existing ones.
The work of the MPC included obtaining materials for all the medicinal plants used in this study. The MPC then determined the plants' chemical profiles and obtained their genetic blueprints to study how genes control the various chemical compositions.
"This work offers a valuable data resource for understanding the genes, enzymes and complex processes responsible for the biosynthesis of important plant-derived drugs," said Warren Jones, who manages this and other research grants in biotechnology at NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, through which the ARRA funds were provided. "The collaborative effort should greatly contribute to our ability to understand and exploit the rich biochemistry found in plants."
###
More information about the MPC and the resources provided are available at the following websites: http://medicinalplantgenomics.msu.edu; http://metnetdb.org/mpmr_public/.
The second consortium, the Medicinal Plants/Human Health Consortium (MP/HHC) led by Norman Lewis, Regents Professor and Director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University, was funded under the same program at the NIH to apply similar technology to other medicinal plants. More information about the MP/HHC can be found at http://uic.edu/pharmacy/MedPlTranscriptome/.
MEDIA CONTACT: Carl Nathe, (859) 257-3200; carl.nathe@uky.edu.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 15-Dec-2011
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