Ridiculous Idol Excuses (Compiled)

If there is an entertainment trend ripe for satire, it is the begging-for-attention smut routines at nationally televised music awards shows. How low can these "artists" go? Sadly, there is always another frontier. "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert was the latest offender at the Nov. 22 American Music Awards on ABC, with a routine complete with S&M bondage slaves, deep male-on-male kissing and simulated fellatio on stage.

All in front of millions upon millions of impressionable youngsters. It was another in-your-face Janet Jackson moment.

There's only one thing that makes this funny. It's the idea that somehow none of this was planned, that it was just a spontaneous eruption. ABC was embarrassed enough by Lambert to cancel a planned performance on "Good Morning America." If they expected cheers for that, they're sadly mistaken. ABC clearly wanted to avoid making its news division question the entertainment division's horrendous decision-making.

Every piece of evidence we have suggests ABC and Lambert knew exactly what they were going to do. Lambert told MTV to expect something really sexy. "I was looking for a certain sensuality," he explained about choosing his dancers, and said the S&M wardrobe was "amazing." MTV reported it would feature the sensibility of his music video for the song he performed: "Adam Lambert is fully embracing the S&M lyrics featured in his single. Greased up dancers are dolled up in leather, dog collars, nipple clamps (zoinks!) and platform boots."

The rough-sex lyrics of the song ABC approved for national consumption are very clear: "I'ma hold ya down until you're amazed/Give it to ya till your screaming my name." And this: "Baby, I'm in control/Take the pain/Take the pleasure/I'm the master of both."

For their part, ABC repeatedly told viewers to stick around for Lambert's routine. They scheduled it at the very end of show so they could suggest it was irresponsible for parents if their children caught this porny show right before the late news.

It is clearly offensive to watch ABC and Dick Clark Productions now play dumb in their official statement: "Due to the live nature of the show we did not expect the impromptu moment in question," they jointly declared after the edited West Coast version. There was no "impromptu moment" that was in question. It was the entire disgusting performance, approved and promoted by ABC and Dick Clark Productions.

CBS News jumped in to promote Lambert where ABC left off. How dumb did Adam Lambert think America was? Let's survey his comical answers.

1. Did you have any idea your performance at the AMAs would ignite this firestorm? Lambert said: "No clue. No clue at all."

2. Did you plan those sexually charged moves in the rehearsal? Lambert: "Those kind of came from more of a impromptu place. No, those were not rehearsed."

3. This was the best question from CBS interviewer Maggie Rodriguez: Now that you have had time to think about the children, your child fans, do you feel that you need to apologize to them? Lambert's absolutely classic answer: "I think it's up to the parents to -- to discern what their child's watching on television."

4. Rodriguez followed up: "Well, but they had no idea they were about to see something like that on network TV." That's where Lambert started sounding like a lawyer: "Well, you know -- and you know, just to play devil's advocate with you, Lady Gaga smashing whiskey bottles. Janet Jackson grabbing a male dancer's crotch. Eminem talked about how Slim Shady has '17 rapes under his belt.' There's a lot of very adult material on the AMAs this year and I know I wasn't the only one. I'm not using that as an excuse and I don't have any -- I didn't take any offense with those performers' choices, I'm just saying I think it's up to a parent to watch the television. It was almost 11 at night. If they're concerned with certain material, maybe TiVo it and preview it before your small child is watching it."

Oh, shut up. Rodriguez summed up Lambert's lack of regret:

5. So you don't feel that it's your responsibility to issue an apology? Lambert unfurled what could be a motto for the entertainment world in general: "I'm not a baby sitter. I'm a performer."

So we can blame Lambert, we can blame ABC, and for starting this all, we can blame Fox and "American Idol." They took up Lambert and made him a gender-bending crusader for gay liberation in entertainment. Sexual politics trumped his screechy (and let's face it, lack of) talent. Lambert's honesty about his absolute, leather-bound mission to offend came out at the CBS interview's end. He was asked if he had to do it over again, what would he do differently? "I would sing it a little bit better."

Ridiculous Idol Excuses (Compiled)

Muslim world celebrates Eid al-Adha(Compiled)

Celebrated by Muslims throughout the world on the first day of Eid al-Adha amid mixed with joy, and not April tragedies experienced by their brethren in many countries, and praying to God Almighty to bring together the nation.
وأدى المسلمون بالفلبين صلاة العيد في أجواء من السرور والبهجة، وشارك النساء والأطفال بالصلاة بأحد ضواحي العاصمة مانيلا في تجمع مهيب طغت عليه الألوان فظهر كأنه مهرجان. The Philippine Muslim Eid prayer in an atmosphere of happiness and joy, and co women and children to pray in a suburb of the capital Manila, a grand gathering was overshadowed by the colors appeared like a festival.
وفي إندونيسيا -أكبر دولة إسلامية من حيث تعداد السكان- شارك الملايين في صلاة عيد الأضحى بأنحاء البلاد، وظهر ذلك التجمع جليا بالعاصمة جاكرتا. In Indonesia - the largest Muslim country in terms of population - participated in the prayers of millions across the country, Eid al-Adha, the back of that grouping evident in the capital Jakarta.
وشهدت العاصمة القديمة لكزاخستان آلماتا صلاة العيد أداها ملايين المسلمين وسط أجواء من الفرح، انطلقوا بعدها لذبح الأضاحي. And saw the old capital of Almaty, Kazakhstan Eid prayer is performed by millions of Muslims in an atmosphere of joy, then set off for the slaughter of sacrificial animals.
Also led the Muslim masses in most Arab countries, the Eid prayer, and praying to God to collect pieces of the nation and to relieve stress and restore them to their owners, the occupied territories in Palestine, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque and free from Israeli occupation.
وشاركت جموع المسلمين حجاج بيت الله الحرام في أداء صلاة العيد في المسجد الحرام بمكة المكرمة. Participated the Muslim masses of pilgrims in the Eid prayers at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. وتوافد الآلاف من المقدسيين والمواطنين الفلسطينيين القادمين من داخل الخط الأخضر إلى الحرم القدسي الشريف لأداء صلاة العيد، وسط انتشار لقوات الاحتلال على البوابات المؤدية إلى البلدة القديمة. The influx of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem and from inside the Green Line to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the Eid prayer, amid the spreading of the occupation forces at the gates leading to the old town.
وفي حي الشيخ جراح بالبلدة القديمة أقيمت الصلاة في خيمة الاعتصام التي نصبتها عائلتا غاوي وحنون بعد طردهما من منازلهما واستيلاء المستوطنين عليها، حيث خطب بالمصلين رئيس الحركة الإسلامية الشيخ رائد صلاح الذي تمنعه سلطات الاحتلال من دخول المسجد الأقصى. In the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood prayer was held in the Old City in the protest tent erected by families of Ghawi and affectionate Mnazlhma after the expulsion of the settlers and the capture of them, as worshipers speeches Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah, the occupation authorities prevented him from entering the Al Aqsa Mosque.
وفي قطاع غزة المحاصر أدى الأهالي صلاة العيد، ورغم المآسي وما يشهده القطاع لم تغب الفرحة عن أطفاله حيث يشعر مشردو القطاع جراء الحرب الإسرائيلية الأخيرة وتدمير منازلهم، بوطأة العيد أكثر من غيرهم. In the besieged Gaza Strip residents led the Eid prayer, and despite the tragedies witnessed by the sector have not lost the joy of the children can feel Mushardo sector due to the recent Israeli war and the destruction of homes, holiday pinch more than others.

وتأبى فرحة العيد إلا أن تزاحم مشاعر الخوف والحزن على وجوه سكان بعض الدول الإسلامية ومنها باكستان التي تقيد المخاوف الأمنية فرحة العيد عندهم وكذلك أفغانستان وفي الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة والعراق والصومال. And avoids the joy of the feast, to vie with the feelings of fear and sadness on the faces of residents in some Islamic countries, including Pakistan, which restrict the security concerns have the joy of Eid, as well as Afghanistan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Iraq and Somalia.

Muslim world celebrates Eid al-Adha(Compiled)

Wall Street prepares to plunge (Compiled)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks were set to plunge Friday in tandem with worldwide markets, as Dubai World and its debt woes threatened Wall Street's confidence.

Dow Jones industrial average, Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures plummeted, by nearly 300 points on the pre-market Dow alone, hinting that stocks could take a dive during their abbreviated session on Black Friday.

Futures measure current index values against the perceived future performance, though they're not always an accurate forecast of stock activity after the bell.

The problems stem from Dubai World, the finance arm of Dubai, which is considering a postponement of payments on nearly $60 billion in debt. The debt was used to fuel a construction boom over the last few years, including its palm-tree shaped island projects, but the Middle East nation was hit hard by a real estate crunch.

"We had a market that was pretty strong, that in one sense was looking increasingly able to shrug off bad news," said Philip Isherwood, equities strategist at Evolution Securities in London. "Suddenly, we've had a shock to the confidence."

Isherwood said the global impact from Dubai World's financial difficulties "is not so huge" and "not worth 300 points of the Dow." But it serves as a nasty "wake-up call" to investor confidence.

"There isn't an absence of risk," he said. "There is always risk. We've just been reminded of that."

Wall Street ended Wednesday on a positive note, with the Dow Jones rising 31 points to hit a fresh 13-month high.

Stocks were boosted by tumbling jobless claims, which the Labor Department said hit a 14-month low last week, and a rise in new home sales.

Retail: Retailers -- including Toys R Us, which opened its doors at midnight on Thanksgiving -- were welcoming shoppers taking advantage of "doorbuster" deals to mark Black Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500), the world's biggest retailer, stayed open Thanksgiving Day, but offered its specials beginning at 5 a.m.

While economists are calling an end to the recession, a record high jobless rate at 10.2% and a tight lending environment were likely to cause consumers to curb spending.

Companies: AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) announced late Wednesday it agreed to settle a long-standing legal battle with the insurance giant's former chairman, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.

The parties agreed to release each other from all claims, including those filed by Greenberg against AIG for payments of future legal fees and other settlement costs.

They also agreed to submit past claims for AIG's payment of legal fees to a third party to determine how much AIG is legally obligated to pay up to $150 million.

World Markets: In Europe, London's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 all fell by less than 1% in morning trading after big selloffs on Thursday. In Asia, the decline was much more dramatic. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell nearly 5% and Tokyo's Nikkei dropped almost 4%.

Money, oil and gold: The dollar gained Friday versus all major international currencies except the yen, after sliding to a 15-month low Wednesday.

Gold slipped in electronic trading, by $29.30 to $1,157.70 an ounce, after having hit a record high of $1,187 Wednesday.

The price of oil took a dive. Oil dropped $3.90 a barrel to $74.06 in electronic trading.

Wall Street prepares to plunge (Compiled)

Iran rebuked over nuclear 'cover-up' by UN watchdog (Compiled)

The UN nuclear watchdog's governing body has passed a resolution condemning Iran for developing a uranium enrichment site in secret.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also demanded that Iran freeze the project immediately.

The resolution, the first against Iran in nearly four years, was passed by a 25-3 margin with six abstentions.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful energy purposes, but the US says it is seeking nuclear weapons.

In September, it emerged that as well as its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iran has a second such facility near the town of Qom. The revelation deepened Western fears about the country's nuclear ambitions.

The resolution was passed with rare Russian and Chinese backing, and the BBC's Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says it is a sign of Iran's growing isolation.

Tehran described the move as a "hasty and undue" step that could jeopardise talks on the issue.

Tehran has failed to agree to a US-backed plan under which its low-enriched uranium would be shipped overseas for processing into fuel.

This is seen as a way for Iran to get the fuel it wants, while giving guarantees to the West that it will not be used for nuclear weapons.

Iran rebuked over nuclear 'cover-up' by UN watchdog (Compiled)

Businesses in U.S. Brace for New Rules on Emissions (Compiled)

The nation’s corporations have long been bracing for the day when they would be required to carry out sharp cuts in the emissions that cause global warming. That day seemed to move a bit closer on Wednesday, when President Obama outlined a national target for such reductions.

Much of corporate America has already been thinking about how to comply. Many businesses concluded years ago that such limits were inevitable, and they have been calling on Congress to define the exact rules they will need to follow.

Already, many companies are recording their emissions and analyzing the results. Some have set voluntary targets for reductions and are claiming substantial progress in meeting them. Sustainability — a notion mostly heard in environmental circles only a decade ago — has become a mainstream idea to which some companies are committed and many are paying lip service.

Major corporations, including General Electric, the Ford Motor Company and PepsiCo, have teamed up with environmental groups to set up the United States Climate Action Partnership, a wide-ranging coalition trying to find ways to cut emissions throughout the economy.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s top retailer, has outlined strict goals to reduce energy consumption at its stores and has instructed hundreds of thousands of suppliers to report their energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions. In a speech at a summit meeting in China last year, H. Lee Scott Jr., Wal-Mart’s president and chief executive, said, “Sustainability can and should be a big part of the solution.”

In the energy sector, some corporations have also been vocal in demanding clarity on emissions. James E. Rogers, the chief executive of Duke Energy, a large power company and a major emitter of carbon dioxide, says that clear rules are needed to ensure that companies relying on coal-fired power plants can finance their transition to lower-carbon fuels, like natural gas or nuclear power. Coal accounts for half of the nation’s electric generation.

“A well-designed cap will provide a smooth transition to clean electricity,” Mr. Rogers said in an ad that ran over the summer.

Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said, “Industry needs certainty, and without a very strong role played by the administration, they are not likely to get it.” She added, “Real leadership from the White House is the only way to get a bill through the Senate, and a bill is how we will get certainty.”

Until now, the United States had been the only industrialized economy to shun hard targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The nation has been overtaken by China as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, but Americans are bigger carbon polluters per person than citizens of other countries.

The White House said on Wednesday that the president would present a provisional target at the Copenhagen summit meeting on climate next month to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will be “in the range” of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent below by 2050, the White House said.

That target reflects the goals specified by legislation that was passed in the House in June. A similar bill is bogged down in the Senate, which would set cuts of 20 percent by 2020.

Limiting the growth in greenhouse gas emissions, let alone cutting them, will require a radical transformation of the nation’s energy consumption and fuels that will most likely take decades. It is bound to hurt some energy-intensive businesses, like petroleum refiners and coal-fired power plants, and some manufacturers, while bolstering the development of alternative power industries like solar and wind.

To reduce emissions, Congress has been looking at a mechanism called cap and trade, in which legislators would set a limit on the nation’s emissions and it would decline each year. They would also assign pollution permits that companies could then buy and sell depending on their needs.

Much of the legislative horse-trading in recent months centered on which sectors of the economy would receive these carbon allowances free, as a subsidy to switch to low-carbon fuels or to invest in carbon-abating technologies, and which industries must pay for them.

Corporate America is by no means unanimous in embracing the idea of emission limits. Larger corporations, especially those operating in both the United States and Europe, have gone furthest in tackling their emissions. By contrast, many small businesses and domestic manufacturers have made little headway, and they are worried about the higher energy costs that an attack on global warming would require.

Oil producers have opposed the current climate legislation being debated in Congress. Refiners and producers claim the bill would result in higher gasoline bills, lower domestic output and an increase in fuel imports.

“In the midst of a severe recession with 10.2 percent national unemployment, our economy, the creation of jobs and consumer impact should take much greater precedence over attempts to impress international bureaucrats during an annual convention,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, wrote on a recent blog post, referring to the Copenhagen meeting.

Some of the nation’s biggest trade groups, including the powerful United States Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau Federation, have also been fighting the climate legislation through ads and a protracted lobbying battle on Capital Hill.

The National Association of Manufacturers said recently that a climate bill would result in job losses and slower economic growth. The Senate bill, it said, represents a “significant technological and economic challenge to manufacturers while resulting in little benefit to the environment.”

But the chamber’s attacks against climate policy have also led to a wave of well-publicized resignations from the trade group — by prominent companies like Apple and Nike, and the utilities Pacific Gas and Electric, Exelon and PNM Resources. All of them assailed the chamber’s climate policy as counterproductive.

“Nike believes that climate change is an urgent issue affecting the world today and that businesses and their representative associations need to take an active role to invest in sustainable business practices and innovative solutions to address the issue,” the company said after quitting the chamber in September.

Since coming into office, the Obama administration has encouraged the development of lower-carbon technologies and has sought to increase the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles. Venture capital firms have also been pouring billions of dollars into alternative energy projects, car companies are working on electric vehicles, and some power utilities have welcomed incentives to switch to low-carbon sources of energy.

Adam Sieminski, the chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank, said that setting a goal was a constructive step, but that much more work remains to map out ways the country can actually meet the president’s target. That includes increasing the use of natural gas to replace coal in the short term, in his view, and adding more nuclear power in the long run.

“We have a lot of ideas on the table,” he said. “But no one has actually agreed to the blueprint that would allow us to get to the goal that the president has outlined.”

Businesses in U.S. Brace for New Rules on Emissions (Compiled)

China Pulls Out Its Driver (compiled)

We're terribly sorry to report this, but there are some people on Earth who don't have the highest regard for golf. They say it's an elitist pastime for fancy people and garden-party intellectuals—more of a leisure pursuit than the sort of activity that cultivates one's muscles.

In China, where the sport hardly existed a quarter of a century ago, this stereotype has persisted. It was the nation's wealthiest classes that first adopted the game, building exclusive private courses like Shenzhen's sprawling Mission Hills Golf Club, which has 12 courses of 18 holes each, making it the world's largest golf club.
The popular ranks of the nation's athletes, however—the ones who are ambitious about leveraging their talent—don't pay the sport much attention. The government, which controls the sports scene here with its lavish spending on development programs, has anointed tennis, soccer, basketball and table tennis as the mandatory school sports. In the past four years alone, about 800,000 basketball courts have been built in China, pushing the estimated number of players to about 400 million.

But what the promise of a green jacket can't accomplish, a gold medal just might.

After last month's announcement by the International Olympic Committee that golf will be a medal sport starting in 2016, China's golf leaders are bursting with optimism. They have started pushing Beijing to begin building public driving ranges and courses in hopes of incubating talent.

Earlier this month, Mission Hills wrapped up its first-ever Asian Amateur Championship tournament—which was held in conjunction with Augusta National Golf Club and Scotland's Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Thanks to those relationships, the winner was given an automatic invitation to next year's Masters.

Mission Hills also announced plans to launch its own Chinese junior tour in January, with bi-weekly 18-hole tournaments and an affordable annual membership fee of 500 Chinese yuan, or about $73.

"These stepping stones are crucial to our mission of nurturing the next Tiger Woods," says Tenniel Chu, Mission Hills' executive director. After the Olympics announcement, Mr. Chu said, "golf is no longer an elitist sport—it's an official sport in the Chinese world."
Prior to the IOC's announcement, one of the most ambitious things the China Golf Association had said was that the country could have 20 million recreational golfers by 2020 (the U.S. has about 26 million).

But since the Olympic vote, the sport's backers in China seem to have raised their sights a bit. At the announcement of the Chinese junior tour, Xu Deli, chairman of the provincial-level Guangdong Golf Association, said, "We want to produce not just one Tiger Woods, but many Tiger Woods. In 2016, I hope that some of these golfers will be part of that competition."

For golf to prosper here, it will need more public facilities and a stronger amateur circuit to cultivate young talent. Mr. Chu says China still has less than 100 amateur tournaments a year, compared to the U.S.'s 600-plus tournaments each year. China will also need more and better golf instruction (Mission Hills has three golf academies) and, eventually, some domestic stars. "All we need is a local hero—a Yao Ming of golf would be tremendous for the sport," Mr. Chu says.

One of the great hopes so far in Chinese golf is a 21-year-old named Han Ren, who shot a few holes with Tiger Woods when the U.S. star visited in 2001. Without an ecosystem to thrive in back home, Mr. Han was sent overseas to take his game to the next level—first to Canada in 2003 and then to Indiana University, where he is a junior.

Last month, Mr. Han returned to Shenzhen for the Asian amateur tournament. After shooting a 65, he took a quick lead ahead of his South Korean and Australian rivals, only to cede his position on day two. In the end, the top Chinese finisher placed 11th in the tournament, with competitors from Australia, New Zealand and golf-crazy South Korea sweeping the top six spots

China Pulls Out Its Driver (compiled)

Obama speaks on Afghanistan Tuesday; goes to climate summit Dec. 9 (Copiled)

Two key scheduling matters:

President Obama will make his case for a new strategy in Afghanistan on Tuesday at 8 p.m., from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point .

Obama will attend the Copenhagen global warming summit on Dec. 9, a day before he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.

In his Afghanistan speech, Obama will lay out his plans for troop increases along with an exit strategy for the war now in its ninth year, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"We're not going to be there another eight or nine years," Gibbs said, adding that Obama had not told him how many additional troops he plans to deploy to the region.

Gibbs said the president will also discuss the financial costs of the war.

"It's very, very, very expensive," Gibbs said.

As for the big international climate summit in Copenhagen, White House environmental adivser Carol Browner said the president will offer to reduce U.S. greenhouse emissions to 17% below their 2005 levels over the next decade.

Obama speaks on Afghanistan Tuesday; goes to climate summit Dec. 9 (Copiled)

Philippines' key suspect surrenders (Compiled)

The lead suspect accused of masterminding the massacre of at least 57 people in the Philippines has turned himself in to police, officials have said.

Andal Ampatuan Jr is a local mayor and member of a powerful political clan in Maguindanao province on the southern island of Mindanao.

He has denied any responsibility for the killings.

Ampatuan Jr gave himself up to Jesus Dureza, a presidential adviser, in the provincial capital on Thursday and was expected to be flown to Manila for formal questioning, officials said.
"The family voluntarily surrendered him and they agreed that he will be investigated," military commander Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said.

Ampatuan Jr has been fingered as the lead suspect in what is believed to be the Philippines' worst ever politically-linked killings.

His father, Andal Ampatuan Sr, is the provincial governor who has been grooming his son to succeed him in elections due next year.

The family also has close political ties to the Philippine president, Gloria Arroyo, although on Thursday officials in Arroyo's party said Ampatuan Jr, his father and a brother had been expelled following an emergency meeting of the party leadership.
'Not guilty'
Following his surrender, Ampatuan Jr was taken into military custody and flown out of the provincial capital in an army helicopter.

Asked by reporters if he was involved in the killings, Ampatuan Jr, who tried to hide his face with a scarf, replied: "There is no truth to that. The reason I came out is to prove that I am not hiding and that I am not guilty."

Ronaldo Puno, the Philippines interior secretary, said he had warned the family they risked a military attack unless Ampatuan Jr gave himself up by midday on Thursday.
His surrender comes as a man who says he was a witness to Monday's killings told Al Jazeera that Ampatuan Jr had directly ordered the massacre, targeting a political rival for the provincial governorship.

The witness, who identified himself only as "Boy", said he was among more than 100 armed men who held up a convoy of political campaigners and journalists before taking them to a remote mountainous area.

He said Ampatuan Jr had ordered the gunmen to kill all the members of a rival political clan, including women and children, and to make sure no evidence was left behind.

"Datu Andal himself said… anyone from the Mangudadatu clan - women or children - should be killed," he told Al Jazeera.

"We don't ask why, we just follow orders."

"Boy", who is now in hiding fearing his life is in danger, said all of the women in the group had been raped before being killed and their bodies dumped in mass graves that had already been dug out using an excavator.

Arrests

On Thursday security forces said they had arrested 20 people in connection with Monday's massacre.
The arrests come after police at the scene of the massacre discovered another 11 bodies buried in shallow graves, taking the death toll to at least 57.

The first funerals of some of the victims also took place on Thursday, more than three days after the massacre, although the bodies of several others have yet to be identified.

The killings occurred after about 100 suspected Ampatuan gunmen allegedly ambushed a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, as well as a group of accompanying journalists.

The victims were snatched as they were travelling to file election papers nominating Mangudadatu as a candidate for provincial governor in next year's poll.

According to investigators, the victims were shot at close range, some with their hands tied behind their backs, before being dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote hillside.

Death threats

Mangudadatu, the rival candidate for governor, was not himself in the convoy because he had received death threats and said he thought the women he sent in his place would be safe.
He has pressed senior Philippine government officials to immediately arrest and prosecute those behind the killings.

Mangudadatu said four witnesses in his protection had told him the convoy was stopped by armed men loyal to Ampatuan Jr, to prevent his family from filing election papers.

"It was really planned because they had already dug a huge hole [for the bodies]," he told reporters earlier this week, adding that there were reports from the area that the militia had been blocking the road for a few days.

Among those killed were at least 20 journalists accompanying the convoy, in what media monitoring groups have labelled as the worst-ever single attack on journalists anywhere in the world.

The massacre has put intense pressure on the government of Gloria Arroyo, the Philippine president, to take decisive action against the Ampatuan clan.

She has vowed an all-out effort to bring those responsible for the killings to justice, saying that no one would be seen to be above the law.

In the wake of the massacre Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and a neighbouring province, ordering hundreds of extra troops to the area.

Philippines' key suspect surrenders (Compiled)

Obama to announce Afghanistan troop strategy Tuesday (Compiled)

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama will announce the U.S. troop strategy for Afghanistan in a speech at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

In the speech, Obama will explain why the United States is in Afghanistan, its interests there and his decision-making process, Gibbs said, but "the president does not see this as an open-ended engagement.

"Our time there will be limited, and I think that's important for people to understand," he said.

"We are in year nine" in Afghanistan, Gibbs told reporters. "We're not going to be there another eight or nine years."

Obama will meet with members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday afternoon before the speech.
Video: More troops to Afghanistan
Video: More troops in Afghanistan?
Video: Debating Afghanistan strategy

Cost issues are among the topics the president will address, Gibbs said.

"It's a million dollars a troop for a year," he said. "Ten thousand troops is $10 billion. That's in addition to what we already spend in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That also does not include training, and it doesn't include the maintaining of a security force. It's very, very, very expensive."

But, Gibbs added, "I think the president, throughout this process, has talked about the cost in terms of American lives and in terms of the cost to our treasury, and I think he'll continue to talk about it."

The president ordered more than 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in March. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, reportedly has called for up to 40,000 more to wage a counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban, the Islamic militia originally ousted by U.S. military action in 2001.

Obama has weighed several options for bolstering the American contingent, ranging from sending a few thousand troops to the 40,000 McChrystal requested.

A defense official told CNN earlier this week the Pentagon is making detailed plans to send about 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan in anticipation of Obama's decision on the 8-year-old war.

There had been no final word on Obama's decision as of Tuesday, said the Defense Department official, who has direct knowledge of the process. But the official said planners have been tasked with preparing to send 34,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan with the expectation that Obama was leaning toward approving that many.

Obama to announce Afghanistan troop strategy Tuesday (Compiled)

President Barack Obama won NATO backing on Saturday for his new approach

STRASBOURG (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won NATO backing on Saturday for his new approach to Afghanistan but his European allies stopped short of offering long-term troop deployments for the war effort.

Leaders of the 28-nation military alliance pledged at a summit to send 3,000 more troops on short-term assignments to boost security for August 20 elections in Afghanistan, and some 2,000 more personnel to train Afghan security forces.

They also promised to send 300 paramilitary police trainers and provide $600 million to finance the Afghan army and civilian assistance, Obama said.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said allies were united in support for the strategy championed by Obama, who favors a regional approach to Afghanistan with a stepped-up civilian effort and training of Afghan security forces.

He said more than 10 countries announced new contributions.

"We will be supporting the elections; we will be improving training for the Afghan soldiers," he told a news conference. "Many allies have stepped up to the plate this morning and the concrete results of this summit are very, very good indeed."

Obama, who has sought to use his popularity in Europe to wring concessions from allies, said he was pleased by the pledges and that "a substantial step forward" had been taken.

But he added: "We will need more resources and a sustained effort to achieve our ultimate goals."

Source: uk.reuters.com

President Barack Obama won NATO backing on Saturday for his new approach

U.S. President Barack Obama Outlines Nuclear Disarmament Plan

PRAGUE -- Under a hazy spring sky, before a swelling Czech crowd, U.S. President Barack Obama called for an international effort to lock down nuclear weapons materials within four years, one of a host of steps he said would move the globe to nuclear disarmament.

Speaking just hours after North Korea launched a controversial multistage rocket, the U.S. president took to the stage in Castle Square here, testifying "clearly and with conviction" to an audience of at least 20,000 of "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."

"We have to insist, 'Yes, we can,'" he said, reprising a battle theme recognizable to a crowd a continent away from his campaign victory.

It was the first public, set-piece speech on the fifth day of his first major trip abroad, but the promise of renewed arms-control efforts may have been overshadowed by the reality of North Korea's launch. Mr. Obama said he would consult with Japan, South Korea and other Asian neighbors before seeking sanctions at the United Nations Security Council, which was to convene in New York Sunday afternoon for an emergency session.

"Rules must be minded. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something," the president told the crowd, calling the launch a provocative act that violated United Nations Security Council resolutions. "The world must stand together to stop the spread of these weapons."

Mr. Obama's European tour has become increasingly ambitious as he has proceeded eastward. He has vowed to help end the global recession and remake the world's financial architecture, ramp up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's war on Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and now secure nuclear material and work toward "a nuclear-free world."

A foreign-policy agenda that grows fuller by the day comes on top of an already jam-packed domestic agenda that includes a national health plan, financial restructuring and rescue, a new alternative-energy economy and an aggressive federal intervention in education.

Specifically, Mr. Obama called for an international convention to draft a treaty abolishing the production of fissile materials that can be used to create nuclear weapons. An international "nuclear fuel bank" -- stocked in part by scrapped nuclear warheads -- could be accessed by nations seeking to develop and sustain peaceful nuclear-energy programs. That way, they wouldn't have to develop their own nuclear-enrichment programs.

He also called for new steps to secure existing nuclear materials and warheads, especially in Russia, before it leaches onto a black market where terrorists could acquire it. He vowed to lock down such weapons and materials within four years, calling for a global summit in the U.S. within a year.

Lamenting "the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War," Mr. Obama said, "In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up."

He reiterated the pledge he made Wednesday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to conclude a new bilateral treaty reducing the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals below the 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads agreed on in 2002. The treaty is to be concluded by the end of the year, with progress assessed at a July summit in Moscow.

He will also "immediately and aggressively pursue" Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, concluded by President Bill Clinton in 1996, then abandoned by President George W. Bush after a Republican-controlled Senate voted it down.

North Korea's missile launch put new urgency into the arms control agenda, Mr. Obama said before a morning meeting with the Czech leadership.

But it also threatened to overshadow the message. The White House received confirmation just after 4:30 a.m. Prague time. Shortly afterwards, staff woke the president up for consultations with Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Gates, National Security Adviser James Jones and his NSC staff.

The Prague speech was billed as a sober, serious policy address, but the White House disregarded the advice of some in the Czech government and opened it to the public on a large square behind the castle that overlooks what Mr. Obama called "this golden city, both ancient and youthful."

Rock music from the Obama campaign pulsated, while Czechs waved small American flags. A camera swept over the crowd on a boom that extended over the square, flanked by baroque government buildings. Mr. Obama ascended the stage with First Lady Michelle Obama to the symphonic strains of the Moldau, by Czech composer Bedric Smetna. Under a temperate April sky, he evoked the Prague Spring of 1968, when the city tried to rise up against communist oppression, and the Velvet Revolution of 1989, when the city finally and peacefully overcame communism.

A Jumbotron beaming his English speech in Czech was invisible to all but a few of the crowd, a fact that likely subdued the crowd.

The site was chosen carefully. Czechs have been deeply divided over the efforts by former President George W. Bush to deploy elements of an antimissile system in their country, a move Russia angrily opposes but which Washington insists is targeted as Teheran, not Moscow.

Applause rose up in only part of the crowd when Mr. Obama vowed to pursue the missile shield as long as Iran pursued its nuclear ambitions. Another part of the audience cheered when he suggested he could drop the effort if Iran is deemed no longer a threat.

White House aides said the Kremlin was one of the target audiences of the speech, but so were North Korea and Iran.

Ahead of a review conference next year of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Mr. Obama wants to take concrete steps to make good on the nuclear nations' side of the bargain in the treaty: In exchange for nonnuclear nations' promises to forgo nuclear weapons development, the nuclear club was supposed to work toward disarmament while aiding the spread of peaceful nuclear technology.

White House national security aides hope Mr. Obama's efforts will isolate Teheran and Pyongyang.

"We're trying to seize the moral high ground," said Gary Samore, White House coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, security and arms control.

Source:online.wsj.com

U.S. President Barack Obama Outlines Nuclear Disarmament Plan

North Korea's KCNA news agency on Sunday saying the communist state had successfully put a satellite into orbit:

SEOUL, April 5 (Reuters) - Following is a full text of the English-language report on North Korea's KCNA news agency on Sunday saying the communist state had successfully put a satellite into orbit:

"Scientists and technicians of the DPRK (North Korea) have succeeded in putting satellite Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, into orbit by means of carrier rocket Unha-2 under the state's long-term plan for the development of outer space.

"Unha-2, which was launched at the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground in Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province at 11:20 (0220 GMT) on April 5, accurately put Kwangmyongsong-2 into its orbit at 11:29:02, nine minutes and two seconds after its launch.

"The satellite is going round the earth along its elliptic orbit at the angle of inclination of 40.6 degrees at 490 km perigee and 1,426 km apogee. Its cycle is 104 minutes and 12 seconds.

"Mounted on the satellite are necessary measuring devices and communications apparatuses.

"The satellite is going round on its routine orbit.

"It is sending to the earth the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans 'Song of General Kim Il-sung' and 'Song of General Kim Jong-il' and measured information at 470 MHz. By the use of the satellite the relay communications is now underway by UHF frequency band.

"The satellite is of decisive significance in promoting the scientific researches into the peaceful use of outer space and solving scientific and technological problems for the launch of practical satellites in the future.

"Carrier rocket Unha-2 has three stages.

"The carrier rocket and the satellite developed by the indigenous wisdom and technology are the shining results gained in the efforts to develop the nation's space science and technology on a higher level.

"The successful satellite launch is symbolic of the leaping advance made in the nation's space science and technology was conducted against the background of the stirring period when a high-pitched drive for bringing about a fresh great revolutionary surge is under way throughout the country to open the gate to a great prosperous and powerful nation without fail by 2012, the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il-sung, under the far-reaching plan of leader Kim Jong-il.

"This is powerfully encouraging the Korean people all out in the general advance."

Source: reuters.com

North Korea's KCNA news agency on Sunday saying the communist state had successfully put a satellite into orbit:

A gunman barricaded the back door blocks NY center's door, kills 13

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – A gunman barricaded the back door of a community center with his car and then opened fire on a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class Friday, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide, officials said.

Investigators said they had yet to establish a motive for the massacre, which was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the U.S. in the past month alone.

The attack came just after 10 a.m. at the American Civic Association, an organization that helps immigrants settle in this country. Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said the gunman parked his car against the back door, "making sure nobody could escape," then stormed through the front, shooting two receptionists, apparently without a word.

The killer, believed to be a Vietnamese immigrant, then entered a room just off the reception area and fired on a citizenship class.

"The people were trying to better themselves, trying to become citizens," the police chief said.

One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called 911, he said.

Police said they arrived within two minutes.

The rest of those killed were shot in the classroom. Four people were critically wounded.

The man believed to have carried out the attack was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office, a satchel containing ammunition slung around his neck, authorities said. Police found two handguns — a 9 mm and a .45-caliber — and a hunting knife.

Thirty-seven people in all made it out of the building, including 26 who hid in the boiler room in the basement, cowering there for three hours while police methodically searched the building and tried to determine whether the gunman was still alive and whether he was holding any hostages, Zikuski said.

Those in the basement stayed in contact with police by cell phone, switching from one phone to another when their batteries ran out, Zikuski said. Others hid in closets and under desks.

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They then spent two hours searching the building.

They led a number of men out of the building in plastic handcuffs while they tried to sort out the victims from the killer or killers.

Most of the people brought out couldn't speak English, the chief said.

Alex Galkin, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, said he was taking English classes when he heard a shot and quickly went to the basement with about 20 other people.

"It was just panic," Galkin said.

Zhanar Tokhtabayeva, a 30-year-old from Kazakhstan, said she was in an English class when she heard a shot and her teacher screamed for everyone to go to the storage room.

"I heard the shots, every shot. I heard no screams, just silence, shooting," she said. "I heard shooting, very long time, and I was thinking, when will this stop? I was thinking that my life was finished."

Dr. Jeffrey King, speaking at a Catholic Charities office where counseling was being offered Friday night, said he was certain his mother, 72-year-old Roberta King, who taught English at the community center, was among the dead.

Authorities read a list of survivors and his mother's name wasn't on it, he said.

King, one of 10 children, described his mother as a woman brimming with interests ranging from the opera to the preservation society to collecting thousands of dolls. He recollected a recent conversation in which he told her to enjoy her retirement.

"I said, 'Mom you're in your 70s,'" King said. "She said, 'What? You don't think I enjoy working?'"

President Barack Obama, who was traveling in Europe, said he was shocked and saddened by the shooting, which he called an "act of senseless violence." He said he and his wife, Michelle Obama, were praying for the victims, their families and the people of Binghamton, about 140 miles northwest of New York City.

Gov. David Paterson said the massacre was probably "the worst tragedy and senseless crime in the history of this city." Noting mass killings in Alabama and Oakland, Calif., last month, he said: "When are we going to be able to curb the kind of violence that is so fraught and so rapid that we can't even keep track of the incidents?"

The community center was holding class "for those who want to become citizens of the United States of America, who wanted to be part of the American Dream, and so tragically may have had that hope thwarted today," the governor said. "But there still is an American dream, and all of us who are Americans will try to heal this very, very deep wound in the city of Binghamton."

Center officials issued a statement Friday night saying they were "stricken with grief about today's horrific assault and share this grief with the victims' families, our community and the entire nation."

The suspected gunman carried ID with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong, of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., but that was believed to be an alias, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A second law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two handguns were registered to Jiverly Wong, another name the man used. Both officials were not authorized to speak publicly.

Initial reports suggested Voong had recently been let go from IBM. But a person at IBM said there was no record of a Jiverly Voong ever working there.

The police chief would not confirm the name of the dead man with the ammunition satchel, saying authorities were still trying to establish with certainty that he was the gunman.

"We have no idea what the motive is," Zikuski said.

He said the suspected gunman "was no stranger" to the community center and may have gone there to take a class.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Henry D. Voong said she was Jiverly Voong's sister but would not give her name. She said her brother had been in the country for 28 years and had citizenship.

"I think there's a misunderstanding over here because I want to know, too," she said.

Friday evening, police searched Voong's house and carried out three computer hard drives, a brown canvas rifle case, a briefcase, a small suitcase and several paper bags.

Police left the Voong home shortly before 8 p.m., soon after four people arrived by car and went into the house. It wasn't clear who they were, but they promptly turned out the lights.

Crime scene tape was stretched across the street about 20 yards from the house, and a steady rain fell as two state troopers stood guard to keep anyone but neighborhood residents from entering the dead-end street.

Waiting outside a Catholic Charities office where counselors were tending to relatives of victims, Omri Yigal said his wife, Delores, was taking English lessons when the gunman attacked. He had no word on what happened to her.

He finally left the center feeling sullen shortly before 8 p.m.

"They told me they don't have much hope for me," the Filipino immigrant said before going home to wait for a telephone call.

The American Civic Association helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with citizenship, resettlement and family reunification. The shootings took place in a neighborhood of homes and small businesses in downtown Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 residents.

The Binghamton area was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company and the birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands of workers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsized in recent years.

A string of attacks in the U.S. in the last month left 44 people dead in all.

A gunman killed 10 people and himself in Samson, Ala.; shootings that began with a traffic stop in Oakland, Calif., left four police officers and the gunman dead; an apparent murder-suicide in Santa Clara, Calif., left six dead; and a gunman went on a rampage at a nursing home Sunday, killing seven elderly residents and a nurse who cared for them.

A gunman barricaded the back door blocks NY center's door, kills 13

New Zealand family watches Khmer Rouge trial very closely with personal interest

ELEANOR HALL: One person watching the trial in Phnom Penh very closely is New Zealand Olympic rowing great Rob Hamill, whose brother was among those killed by the Khmer Rouge at Tuol Sleng prison.

Rob Hamill told our New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie that his brother Kerry was captured when he sailed close to Cambodia in the late 1970s.

ROB HAMILL: My brother was sailing his yacht, taking a charter from Singapore up to Bangkok and got blown off course and ended up in Cambodian waters, got captured by a Khmer Rouge gunboat.

One of the guys on the boat, there were three of them, one was killed at that time and my brother and another charter, a guy from England were taken back to Tuol Sleng.

KERRI RITCHIE: And what happened then. I mean, what do you know happened to your brother?

ROB HAMILL: Well, we didn't know for a long time what had happened. He was a regular letter writer to us when he was in his travels and his adventures and enjoying life and living it to its fullest and they just stopped.

We didn't know what happened for a long time. It was a good year wondering, hoping, wondering you know, before we found out what happened.

KERRI RITCHIE: How do you know that your brother was in that Khmer Rouge torture prison?

ROB HAMILL: We were contacted, we weren't contacted by anyone actually. We found out through the media - reading an article in a paper and it was on a radio station that particular day and information had been sourced through Interpol and that a confession; all the prisoners, there were about a dozen or so Westerners that were captured during that three-year period, and all were made to sign confessions that they were CIA agents and Interpol had some documents that were confirmed as my brother's handwriting.

KERRI RITCHIE: The trial is underway of the prison boss and he has asked for people to forgive him. When you heard that, how did that make you feel?

ROB HAMILL: It rings a little hollow. I mean I think Duch was a person who, I mean he must have been an ambitious man. He didn't get to be commandant of that prison by accident and from what I, my understanding in the research I have conducted suggests that he was ruthless and clinical and cruel.

I am going through a process where our family haven't grieved properly. Personally I want to be able to forgive but I can't do that.

KERRI RITCHIE: Is it hard being here in New Zealand and watching it from here? Do you wish that you were there in Cambodia to see this first-hand?

ROB HAMILL: I feel I should be there. Right at this minute I almost, just circumstances don't allow.

KERRI RITCHIE: But you are going to go to Cambodia to give a statement in coming months?

ROB HAMILL: I don't know when. It depends on the court process but certainly I hope to face Duch and make a statement on behalf of our family and the effect he had on our family in the hope that it aids in some way the sentencing process.

KERRI RITCHIE: How will you convey how much it ripped apart a Kiwi family?

ROB HAMILL: Mmm, well I am just going to tell the story and will describe the pain, the anxiety, the hope, the desperate hope. I think that was really, really hard on my parents in particular and they paid for it too with their health.

KERRI RITCHIE: What punishment is fit for this man? What would you like to see? What would bring you and your family comfort?

ROB HAMILL: I don't know. Look, I don't know what to expect from this. If I could bring myself to believing Duch's words, you know, that he can somehow see the error in his ways and I can believe him, there may spring a strange comfort, I don't know. I don't know ultimately but it is going to be, it needs to be done.

ELEANOR HALL: That was Rob Hamill whose brother was killed by the Khmer Rouge. He was speaking to our New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie.

News Source: abc.net.au

New Zealand family watches Khmer Rouge trial very closely with personal interest

Iran's representative to an international conference criticizes Obama troop plan

Iran's representative to an international conference here on Afghanistan criticized President Obama's plan to boost U.S. troops there but said Iran is "fully prepared" to participate in Afghan reconstruction projects and efforts to halt drug trafficking.
"The people of Afghanistan know their country better than anybody else does," Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh said, speaking in English Tuesday before a group of diplomats that included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country, and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective, too."

Clinton said his speech "set forth some very clear ideas that we will be pursuing together."

More than 70,000 U.S. and NATO troops are in Afghanistan battling the radical Islamic Taliban movement. Obama has ordered 17,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to discourage violence ahead of August elections and is sending an additional 4,000 troops to help train the Afghan army.

As to narcotics, Akhundzadeh said the "rising trend of poppy cultivation has overtaken that of combatting it." He called for "coordinated measures" and "strengthening regional cooperation" on border security to deal with the problem.

Clinton told a news conference that Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, had an unplanned but cordial exchange with Akhundzadeh at the Hague that they agreed to maintain contact.

She said the United States delivered a letter to Iran during the conference requesting humanitarian help for three Americans in Iran. Clinton identified them as Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared two years ago while visiting Iran's Kish Island; Roxana Saberi, an Iranian American freelance journalist who has been detained without charge since January; and Esha Momeni, an Iranian American graduate student and women's rights advocate who was arrested in Iran last year and has since been barred from leaving.

"Iran's remarks will be closely scrutinized by U.S. officials, who hope that the potential for cooperation on Afghanistan between Iran and the United States will begin to ease some of the long-standing tensions between the two countries. The conference was attended by more than 80 countries and international organizations.

Clinton pushed for the creation of the conference and for Iran's inclusion. In her address, she said:

"We must ... support efforts by the government of Afghanistan to separate the extremists of al Qaeda and the Taliban from those who have joined their ranks not out of conviction, but out of desperation."

But Clinton was critical of the Afghan government's tolerance of corruption. "Corruption is a cancer - as dangerous to our long-term success as the Taliban or al Qaeda," she said.

News Source: sfgate.com

Iran's representative to an international conference criticizes Obama troop plan

April Fools' may be no joke for world's computer users

(CNN) -- Computer experts waited early Wednesday to see what impact -- if any -- the worm known as Conficker.c will have on the world's computers.


"As long as you've patched or at least brought your antivirus software up to speed, you should be fine," said Chris Pirillo, a tech expert for CNN.com.

And there are plenty of anti-virus software packages available.

"I believe just about everybody out there," Pirillo said, "has a removal tool."

Still, the worm can wreak havoc, he said.

Unlike viruses, worms self propagate, spreading by networks. "Once it's out there, it's very difficult to stop," Pirillo said.

He predicted that "the worst possible outcome" would be that some computers would run "suboptimally," as network traffic becomes clogged.

And its ability to do that is cleverly designed: Conficker.c has a feature that disables the Windows update program in the Microsoft product, keeping Windows from becoming patched, Pirillo said. It also disables the auto-update capabilities of many anti-virus software programs.

Pirillo said it may be a week or more before the true impact of the worm is known, but he predicted it will have one.

"It's going to be very annoying to say the least," he said. "It's going to impact network traffic in a big way."
Lawrence Baldwin, the chief forensics officer with mynetwatchman.com, an Internet security site based in Atlanta, said the motivations of Conficker.c designers appear to be different from the motivations of those who designed previous worms, which infected millions of computers but had little impact.

"Three or four or five years ago, they were plainly trying to prove how smart they were," he said. Now, he said, the designers' motivation appears to be financial. "They can make serious amounts of cash with a variety of means."

Still, he predicted, any damage will be limited. "I don't suspect that we're going to have any kind of global meltdown as a result of this thing. I think what we'll see is that the purpose and intent of Conflicker is to deploy a whole plethora of secondary malware -- spam, Trojans, key loggers, distributed denial-of-service attacks, adware, etcetera, etcetera. Basically, all the things that the criminal can make money with."

Widespread media coverage of the threat may have motivated many individuals and corporations to act, possibly minimizing the potential impact.

The FBI said only that it was "aware of the potential threat posed by the Conficker worm" and was working with a range of partners "to fully identify and mitigate the threat."

But just what is that threat? Computer experts acknowledged they don't know for sure. "The biggest question is what is actually going to happen?" said Simit Shah, director of Web operations for CNN.com.

So far, the worm "kind of calls home and says, 'What should I do?'" he said. And so far, the response has been to do nothing, he said.

But on Wednesday, the worm is expected to expand its daily call list from a set list of 250 sites to 500 Web sites chosen at random from 50,000, "so it becomes harder to continue using some of the countermeasures that have worked so far," he said.

The worm "could end up connecting to one of these sites and say, 'Go do something,'" he said. That "something" could wind up being any of a number of different kinds of attacks on any of a number of Web sites, including government ones, he said.

He said the worm already controls more than 10 million computers by some estimates and is very sophisticated. "If someone says, 'I want to try to hack some system and try millions of combinations of Social Security numbers,' they could purchase this computing power to do that," Shah said.

Or, on the other side of the spectrum, "it could be all about ego," he said, noting that the worm authors have played a cat-and-mouse game with security experts since last November, when the first version of the Conficker worm was discovered.

Since then, as countermeasures have been devised and deployed, the worm has morphed into two other versions, each more sophisticated than the previous one.

In February, security experts' efforts to fight back got a boost when Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward to anyone who could catch the worm authors.

That resulted in the formation of Conficker Cabal, a group of security experts trying to combat the worm.

Despite the worm's potential for causing damage, its still-unknown authors have earned "a lot of respect" from the security experts, Shah said.

"These guys are doing stuff you don't normally see done," he said.

One of the first things it does is to disable a computer's automatic updates, he said. In October, Microsoft released a patch to fix this vulnerability, but many computer users have not updated yet. And, "once you get the worm, it disables your ability to update," Shah said.

IBM security expert Holly Stewart said in a telephone interview with CNN that the latest version of Conficker -- Conficker.c, which was discovered less than a month ago -- is different from prior versions in that it is not focused on propagating. Instead, it "is more focused on holding the fort and keeping the communication lines open to its peers."

She said an IBM computer specialist last week reverse-engineered the worm's communications mechanisms and found a way to detect it on the network.

"It's very well constructed," she said about the worm. "Conficker authors spent a lot of time making this chatty network very difficult for intrusion prevention and intrusion detection systems to detect."

The company's security update, deployed late last week to its customers, shows 45 percent of infections occurring in Asia, followed by Europe, with 31 percent, she said.

Still unclear is the impact. "That's the million-dollar question," she said. "To be honest, no one can give an accurate prediction."

But the motivation appears more clear. Someone has spent "a lot of money and resources" creating the worm, she said. "It would surprise me if they did not want to cash in on it in some way."

Shah said he too did not know what would happen, but that the worst-case scenario would be "you could get your computer wiped out and your computer could be part of some kind of criminal enterprise."

For the moment, the worm remains at rest, but, "at some point, it is going to get an instruction to do something."

Steve Santorelli, a former Scotland Yard detective who is now director of global outreach for the Chicago, Illinois-based security research company Team Cymru said the worm authors "have amassed what is the equivalent of a major weapon that could possibly be turned against the Internet. There is lots of speculation, and that speculation leads to fear of the unknown. The only people who really know what Confiker will be used for, if anything, are the criminals behind it. The rest of us are guessing."

News Source : cnn.com

April Fools' may be no joke for world's computer users

Experts See Early Activity From The Conficker software Worm

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Members of an informal global alliance of computer security specialists who have been trying to eradicate a malicious software program known as Conficker said Tuesday that they were seeing early attempts by the program to communicate with a control server. The researchers said they were uncertain if it had been successful.

The Conficker software, which has spread aggressively around the globe since October and is designed to lash together infected machines into a powerful computer known as a botnet, has touched off widespread concern.

Computer security researchers who have examined a recent version of the program, called Conficker C, have said it was set to try to download commands from a server at an unknown Internet location on Wednesday. There was no certainty about the intent of the program, which could be used to send e-mail spam, distribute malicious software or generate a potentially devastating “denial of service” attack on Web sites or networks.

The choice of April Fool’s Day by the program’s authors, who are unknown, has led to speculation that the program might be a hoax. But a variety of computer security executives and law enforcement officials have pointed out that the program, which has spread to at least 12 million computers, could inflict genuine harm. Consensus among security specialists on Tuesday was that it was likely to take several days before the program’s intent could be determined.

A group of computer security specialists has tried to make it impossible for Conficker’s authors to download instructions to infected computers. While they were doing so, the authors began distributing the C version of the program. It was intended to begin contacting 50,000 Internet domains on Wednesday.

In response, the researchers have created a system that will allow them to trap all of the attempted botnet communications. That has involved a global effort, including monitoring the domains of 110 countries.

A spokeswoman for the Conficker Cabal, a security working group organized by Microsoft and other computer security companies, said on Tuesday that the group had no new information to report about the activity of the malicious program.

“All we are saying is ‘patch and clean, patch and clean,’ ” said Nicole Miller, a Microsoft spokeswoman, referring to the process of disinfecting and protecting machines infected by the software, which targets Windows-based computers.

Separately, I.B.M. said that Mark Yason, a company researcher, had decoded Conficker’s internal communication protocol. The company said that will make it easier for security teams to detect and interrupt the program’s activities.

Earlier this year Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Conficker’s author or authors.

News Source: nytimes.com

Experts See Early Activity From The Conficker software Worm

The two candidates in a New York congressional race, President Obama's economic policies

Congressional race in N.Y. is too close to call
Democrat Scott Murphy leads Republican Jim Tedisco by 65 votes in a contest focused on Obama's economic policies. Absentee ballots will decide the outcome.


Albany, N.Y. -- The two candidates in a New York congressional race that focused on President Obama's economic policies are separated by only 65 votes with all the precincts reporting and more than 150,000 votes counted.

Democrat Scott Murphy, 38, holds the slim lead over Republican Jim Tedisco, 58. The race will come down to roughly 10,000 absentee ballots, none of which were to be counted on election night, officials said.

Some absentee ballots are from voters overseas, which will be counted as long as they arrive by April 13. New York's deadline had been April 7, but the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state for not giving overseas absentee voters enough time to return ballots.

The victor will replace Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton when she became secretary of State.

Murphy, a businessman and political newcomer, and national Democrats staked his campaign on the strength of Obama and his economic policies, specifically, his $787-billion stimulus plan.

Tedisco, an assemblyman for 27 years, attacked Murphy for supporting the stimulus plan, which he said allowed massive bonuses at the bailed-out insurer AIG.

Each campaign raised more than $1 million and got major support from national committees and political groups.

Murphy is a venture capitalist multimillionaire who has lived in New York for more than a decade.

Tedisco is the minority leader in the state Assembly. He doesn't live in the district, an issue cited by Democrats during the campaign.

Polling places and local election boards reported light turnout, not unusual in a special election in which there are no statewide offices or big names on the ballot.

Republicans hoped a win would knock Obama off balance, considering the race as one of the party's top priorities.

Democrats hoped for a win in a traditionally Republican district less than 100 days after Obama took office.

News Source: latimes.com

The two candidates in a New York congressional race, President Obama's economic policies

Edward Kennedy pushes Kathleen Sebelius nomination

WASHINGTON - Senator Edward M. Kennedy, citing his own battle with brain cancer, came out forcefully yesterday for Kathleen Sebelius's nomination as health and human services secretary.

"Few debates in Congress touch our lives as profoundly and personally as healthcare. Over the past 10 months, I've seen our healthcare system up close," Kennedy said, his hands shaking slightly.

"I've benefited from the best of medicine," he said, presiding at a hearing for Sebelius, who he said had the "vision, the skill, and the knowledge" to shepherd the healthcare overhaul. "But we have too many uninsured Americans. We have sickness care and not healthcare. . . . Costs are out of control. But today we have an opportunity like never before to reform our healthcare."

Toward the end of the hearing, Kennedy asked Sebelius to affirm support for cancer research. She did.

Sebelius, the Kansas governor and early supporter of President Obama, said she backs his call for giving Americans the option of government-run health insurance as an alternative to private coverage.

The proposal for a public plan that would compete with private insurers has emerged as the most divisive issue as Obama seeks to overhaul the health system to reduce costs and shrink the ranks of 48 million uninsured. Republicans fear that the competing plan would drive some private insurers out of business.

"If the question is, 'Do I support a public option side by side with private insurers?' " Sebelius said, "Yes, I do."

The exchange with Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, was perhaps the most heated in a low-key hearing. Sebelius pledged that if confirmed, "health reform would be my mission."

"Inaction is not an option. The status quo is unacceptable, and unsustainable," said Sebelius, citing high healthcare costs that she said were hurting families and crippling the economy.

Saying she would be a tough enforcer, Sebelius also called for a crackdown on medical fraud as part of any healthcare overhaul. "Having a few strike operations may be the most effective way to send the signal that there's a new sheriff in town, and I intend to take this very, very seriously," she told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

While Obama has pushed for healthcare overhaul, lawmakers have questioned how the administration would pay for the plan. Sebelius didn't offer a specific solution, but said the approach must be comprehensive.

Sebelius did cite Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts, where a pioneering 2006 law requires nearly everyone to carry insurance or face fines. Policy makers there decided to extend coverage first, and deal with costs later. Now costs are ballooning. The lesson, Sebelius said, is costs and coverage must be dealt with in concert.

Sebelius is Obama's second pick to head the department. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew from consideration while apologizing for failing to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.

Sebelius alerted senators in a letter yesterday that she has corrected three years worth of tax returns after finding "unintentional errors" involving charitable contributions, the sale of a home, and business expenses.



In the letter obtained by the Associated Press, she says she and her husband paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest for 2005 to 2007.

Obama also wanted Daschle to head the White House Office for Health Reform, but when he dropped out, a separate White House health czar was named.

Sebelius's background on healthcare includes blocking an insurance company merger in Kansas while insurance commissioner in 2001. She has faced opposition from conservatives over her support for abortion rights, but senators didn't raise that issue yesterday.

The health committee won't actually vote on sending Sebelius's nomination to the full Senate. That job falls to the Senate Finance Committee, which will hold her confirmation hearing tomorrow.

News Source: latimes.com

Edward Kennedy pushes Kathleen Sebelius nomination

President Obama went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday,Obama touts $3.6 trillion spending outline

President Obama went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to rally support among skeptical Senate Democrats for his $3.6 trillion spending plan, focusing attention on the core initiatives that unite the party while downplaying the issues that divide it.



Centrist Democrats who have complained that Obama's spending plan would drive the annual budget deficit to unacceptable levels held their tongues during the 45-minute lunchtime meeting. They asked no questions about deficits or about the administration's controversial push to force its signature investments in health care and education through the Senate without Republican votes.

Despite the meeting's friendly tone, tensions over those issues continued to simmer as budget leaders in both chambers worked on competing blueprints that would trim Obama's spending request and sharply curtail his plans for tax cuts - all in an effort to lower deficits over the next five years.

While acknowledging the adjustments to Obama's budget request, Democrats cheered the fact that budget leaders in both chambers would permit Obama's most ambitious and costly initiatives on health care, education and climate change to move forward as long as they do not interfere with deficit reduction.

Welcome unity

"There has to be some realism here," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "We're all unified on four main goals ... and that is not easy to do."

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag also claimed victory on the most significant aspects of the president's agenda.

"We are very pleased that the House and Senate budget committees are taking up resolutions that are fully in line with the president's key priorities," Orszag said. The blueprints under consideration "may not be identical twins to what the president submitted, but they are certainly brothers that look an awful lot alike."

In the House, Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., unveiled a spending plan that would slice more than $150 billion from Obama's proposal for the fiscal year that begins in October, reducing next year's deficit to $1.22 trillion, compared with $1.38 trillion under Obama's request. The House blueprint would cut the deficit to just under $600 billion by 2014, forcing the government to borrow $3.9 trillion over the next five years - about $500 billion less than Obama's proposal.

Much of the savings for next year would come by jettisoning Obama's plan to spend more on the Treasury Department's financial-sector bailout, a move that would reduce the deficit but would not prevent the president from seeking the cash.

Other trims

Spratt also rejected Obama's proposal to extend a tax break for businesses that lose money. And he trimmed $7 billion from a funding request for other government agencies, with the bulk of the reduction targeting international programs.

The House proposal would make bigger changes in future years, slicing another $60 billion from Obama's request for nondefense programs and rejecting the president's proposal to permanently exempt millions of middle-class families from the expensive alternative minimum tax.

Like the Senate, the House also scrapped Obama's plan to extend an $800 tax cut for working families that was temporarily enacted in the economic stimulus package.

The House and Senate budget committees expect to vote on their budget plans today and send them to their respective chambers for approval next week. Differences between the two chambers would then have to be resolved in a conference committee after the Easter break.

Obama would not have to sign the resulting resolution, which would not have the force of law. But it would set guidelines for lawmakers as they craft spending bills and draft legislation to implement Obama's policies.

Also Wednesday, Obama endorsed a fellow Democrat in a competitive special congressional election and was the main draw at two Democratic National Committee fundraisers.

"Sign up and pitch in to elect Scott Murphy to Congress," the president implored in an early morning e-mail to at least 50,000 people in New York's 20th Congressional District. Tying his agenda to the election's outcome, he added that electing Murphy would "make a big impact on my efforts to bring about a lasting economic recovery."

By evening, Obama headlined two fundraisers in Washington expected to bring in an estimated $3 million.



News Source : sfgate.com

President Obama went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday,Obama touts $3.6 trillion spending outline