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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Computer scientists develop 'mathematical jigsaw puzzles' to encrypt software
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Computer science experts have designed a system to encrypt software so that it only allows someone to use a program as intended while preventing any deciphering of the code behind it. This is known in computer science as "software obfuscation," and it is the first time it has been accomplished.
Industrial production in Japan falls first time in five months
Industrial output fell 3.3 percent in June from May, against expectations for a decline of 1.8 percent.
Household spending for the month fell 2 percent month-on-month, lower than forecasts for a rise of 0.7 percent.
Employment data, however, was a bright spot, with the country's jobless rate falling to 3.9 percent, the lowest since October 2008.
In May, output climbed the most since December 2011. Production slid 4.8 percent in June from a year earlier.
A survey of manufacturers conducted by the ministry in May hinted a 2.4% decline in output in June.
The fall in factory output was primarily attributed to a decline in production of transport equipment, including autos, followed by electronics and machinery.
For July, the manufacturers expect a rapid gain of 6.5%, up from 3.3% projected in last month's survey, backed by exports and private consumption. The ministry also said that output would decline 0.9% in August.
While the monthly decline in factory output indicates challenging conditions in the economy, analysts were of the view that the fall is a temporary phenomenon and predicted that production would jump in the coming months, said IB Times.
Japan's household spending fell 0.4% from a year earlier, while analysts had expected growth of 1.0%.
The country has been trying to boost domestic consumption in an attempt to revive its stagnant economy.
The government led by Shinzo Abe and the Bank of Japan has unveiled a series of aggressive measures to boost domestic demand, which has suffered from years of deflation or falling prices.
Tuesday's report adds to the challenges facing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who must decide whether to proceed with the consumption tax increase even though it could slow down a rebound in the economy.
Weakening production would undermine his calls for higher wages to bolster his deflation efforts after temporary boosts from monetary and fiscal stimulus, says Bloomberg.
"The fall in production is likely temporary and will be offset by the expected July increase," said Masaaki Kanno, chief Japan economist at JPMorgan Chase Co. in Tokyo and a former Bank of Japan official. "I don't think there has been a change in the underlying trend for industrial output."
Abe's polices have weakened the yen about 12 percent against the dollar this year, bolstering exporter profits and pushing up stocks.
On Monday, the Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda confirmed that the country's planned increase in sales tax rate would not dent its economic recovery.
In the first step, Japan plans to raise sales tax rates to 8% from the current 5% in April 2014 in order to stabilize long-term yields of government bonds and repair public finances. Subsequently, the rate will be raised to 10% in 2015.
However, Abe is seriously rethinking the plan due to concerns that the move will rattle financial markets and affect investor confidence.
Source: http://www.austinnews.net/index.php/sid/216131436/scat/3a8a80d6f705f8cc
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Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Student left in DEA cell to get $4 million from US
SAN DIEGO (AP) ? An attorney for the man who was abandoned in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for four days without food or water says his client has agreed to settle claims for $4.1 million.
Daniel Chong's attorney, Eugene Iredale, said Tuesday that no one has yet been disciplined for the April 2012 incident and no criminal charges will be filed.
Iredale says the Justice Department's inspector general is investigating what caused Chong's near-death experience, but that he still has no answers.
Chong's attorneys say the DEA had no policy on the treatment of detainees at the time. It does now, and that policy includes cameras in cells and daily inspections.
Chong says he drank his own urine to stay alive and tried to write a farewell message to his mother with his own blood.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
The Justice Department will pay $4.1 million to a California college student left in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for four days without food or water last year, two people familiar with the case told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Daniel Chong, 23, was detained in an April 2012 drug raid in San Diego and left in the 5-by-10-foot windowless holding cell. He said he drank his own urine to stay alive and tried to write a farewell message to his mother with his own blood.
The people familiar with the case spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the settlement before it was announced Tuesday morning at a news conference.
Chong, who was an engineering student at University of California, San Diego, was at a friend's house in April 2012 when a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raid netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons. Chong and eight others were taken into custody.
Agents told Chong he would not be charged and had him wait in the cell at DEA offices in San Diego. The door did not reopen for four days, when agents found him severely dehydrated and covered in his own feces.
Chong said he began to hallucinate on the third day. He urinated on a metal bench to drink his urine. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on the bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off.
Chong said last year that he gave up and accepted death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them. He said he used a shard of glass to carve "Sorry Mom" onto his arm so he could leave something for her. He managed to finish an "S."
Chong was hospitalized for five days for dehydration, kidney failure, cramps and a perforated esophagus. He lost 15 pounds.
The DEA issued a rare public apology at the time.
Chong's attorney, Eugene Iredale, said Monday that he would announce "an important development" Tuesday, little more than a year after filing a $20 million claim against the federal government.
A DEA spokesman, Rusty Payne, referred questions Monday to the Justice Department, which handled settlement negotiations. A call to the Justice Department's public affairs office was not returned.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/student-left-dea-cell-4-million-us-170408624.html
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Egypt's Morsi is in good health, says top EU diplomat after meeting
Mayhem in Cairo as tensions over former Mohammed Morsi supporters spill into the streets. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
By Ayman Mohyeldin, Correspondent, NBC News
CAIRO ? Egypt's Mohammed Morsi is in good health and sends his best wishes to the outside world, European Union diplomat Catherine Ashton said Tuesday after a two hour meeting with the deposed president.
The meeting, at an undisclosed location was Morsi's first known contact with foreign officials after his July 3 overthrow by the country's military.?
Islamist Morsi, who was elected by a narrow margin in June 2012 in the country?s first democratic vote, has been hidden from the public since he was removed in what his supporters - including the Prime Minister of Turkey - regard as a coup.?
?I've tried to make sure that his family know he is well,'' Ashton, who is trying to mediate a resolution to the impasse, told journalists following the meeting held Monday night.
Ashton said Morsi had access to television and newspapers when she visited him, and was aware of? developments in the country.?
She said she had a open and frank conversation with Morsi.
European Union via EPA
A handout photograph released by EU officials showing EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Baroness Catherine Ashton meeting with Egyptian army chief Abded Fattah Sissi on Monday.
An EU official said Ashton had no plans to intervene to end the political stalemate, but had reiterated her willingness to help.
The officials said Ashton was also allowed to see Morsi's chief of staff Rafaa el Tahtawy and was able to walk around the facility.
On Monday, she met Egypt's army chief and defense minister Abdel Fattah Sissi.
Egypt has been rocked by deadly clashes and protests between Morsi supporters and opponents since he was forced from power.?
On Friday, Mena news agency reported he would be detained for 15 days while a judge investigated allegations against him.?
On July 22, Morsi?s family accused the country?s military of ?kidnapping? him and said they would seek help from the International Criminal Court.
The army responsible for Morsi?s "safety and security," his daughter Shaimaa told a news conference in Cairo.
Reuters contributed to this report.?
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Source: www.appszoom.com --- Sunday, July 28, 2013
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Pot still boils in Rome while Francis is away
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Pot still boils in Rome while Francis is away
John L. Allen Jr. ("National Catholic Reporter," July 26, 2013)
Rio de Janeiro - I'm in Rio de Janeiro this week, watching Francis wow Brazil. The trip has brought a little bit of everything: crowds so pumped up for the pope they created security nightmares, protestors pushed back with tear gas (they were mad at the government, not so much the pope), Francis at his pastoral best at the Marian shrine of Aparecida, and a powerful message of solidarity with the poor in a Rio slum.
You can find my daily reports from Rio on the NCR website.
All that would be enough to make the outing memorable, and the big finish hasn't even happened. Francis will participate in the traditional Via Crucis procession for World Youth Day on Friday night, attend an evening vigil Saturday, and celebrate an open-air Mass for what's expected to be as many as 2 million people Sunday.
The mere fact Francis is out of town, however, doesn't mean his problems in Rome have taken a vacation.
In fact, while Francis is making his triumphant homecoming to Latin America, there are three fires burning back in Rome, one of which he learned of just before he left and two more that have erupted while he's been away.
Taken together, these three situations illustrate that Francis will have his work cut out for him when he gets back. If nothing else, his decision not to head out for the traditional summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo during August and to stay on the job instead is starting to look like a good call.
Msgr. Battista Ricca
I wrote last week about the explosive piece published by veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister concerning the pope's hand-picked choice to serve as his prelate, or papal delegate, for the Vatican bank, an Italian clergyman named Msgr. Battista Ricca.
Magister's story appeared July 19, three days before Francis left for Brazil.
In a nutshell, Magister charged that when Ricca was a Vatican diplomat in Uruguay from roughly 1999 to 2001, he had a live-in male lover; that he cruised gay bars, and once was beaten up; and that another time, he brought a young man back to the Vatican embassy in Montevideo and ended up trapped in an elevator with him overnight.
For Magister, the fact that Ricca was able to return to Rome, take over as director of several residences, and eventually win the trust of the new pope -- without his history in Uruguay surfacing until now -- is proof positive that there's a "gay lobby" in the Vatican that takes care of its own.
There's nothing new to report, except that people who have seen the pope since the Magister piece appeared report he still has confidence in Ricca and that for now, at least, Ricca's keeping his job.
It may be that Francis knows more about Ricca's personal story and has reasons at that level for resisting a rush to judgment. Without any direct insight into the mind of the pope, I can think of one other motive he might have for shrinking from sending Ricca packing, at least anytime soon.
Francis might be concerned that if did so, he'd create the precedent that anyone who wants to stop his reform can do so by digging up dirt on the people he tasks with carrying it out. For the leader of any institution, especially one that claims moral leadership, that's an awfully dangerous red flag to wave.
Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui
Also July 19, Francis announced the creation of a new pontifical commission to study reform in the economic and administrative structures of the Vatican, appointing eight people to run it -- all but one laity, with most drawn from the worlds of banking, finance and law.
The early reaction was to see the move as another positive step toward reform, but Tuesday -- allegedly a day of rest for Francis here in Brazil -- a controversy broke out in the Italian press over one of his appointments, a laywoman named Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, the lone Italian in the group.
A 30-year-old devoted Catholic who's worked, among other places, at Ernst and Young, Chaouqui is the child of an Italian mother and an Egyptian father. She could also be a candidate for another distinction: The first papal nominee in history to lose a job because of use of social media.
Chaouqui, as it turns out, has a very active Twitter account. Enterprising journalists followed her digital paper trail, and here's what they found:
Back in February, she tweeted that Benedict XVI had leukemia, although the Vatican has repeatedly denied that any specific health concern led to his decision to resign the papacy.
Chaouqui has sent out several seemingly friendly tweets about journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who was the one who received stolen documents from the pope's butler and gave rise to the Vatican leaks affair. At one stage, Chaouqui told Nuzzi he was "bleeding right."
At another point, Chaouqui tweeted: "Syrian children are dying, and the church is fighting against the butler. How can a Catholic stay Christian like this?"
Chaouqui also doesn't seem well-disposed to the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. On Feb. 11, the day Benedict announced his resignation, she tweeted: "Bertone has won ... as a believer, I'm depressed."
Among other things, that last tweet suggests Chaouqui may have something to learn about the Vatican. If anything was clear about Benedict's resignation, it was that it also meant the imminent end of Bertone's run.
To round out the presentation, Chaouqui also sent a tweet the evening of March 13, when Francis was elected, saying "they tell me he's French." (Presumably, she got confused between "Francesco" and francese, the Italian word for "French.")
Granted, none of these tweets are really scandalous. If anything, they illustrate a bit of poor judgment and the lack of a good internal editor before hitting the "send" button. Nonetheless, they've caused some commentators to wonder if Chaouqui really belongs on a commission charged with drafting the blueprint of Francis' reform.
To the question of whether Francis will be inclined to dump her, at least any time soon, my answer is "probably not." As for why not, see the last point made above about Ricca.
Msgr. Nunzio Scarano
Finally, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano was back in the news Thursday. For those who don't recall, he's the former Vatican accountant who was recently arrested for involvement in a plot to smuggle $26 million in cash into Italy on a private plane. He also faces an investigation for allegedly using his Vatican bank accounts to launder funds.
Italian media outlets Thursday featured a leaked letter Scarano reportedly wrote to Pope Francis on July 20 protesting his innocence. If so, it had to be penned from Rome's Queen of Heaven (Regina Coeli) prison, where Scarano is currently behind bars.
According to the text presented in media reports, Scarano insisted he never acted for his own benefit, rather only "to help those who asked for my help."
In itself, the fact that someone facing criminal charges has reportedly claimed innocence probably isn't any shocker. Slightly juicer is what else Scarano allegedly told the pope about his situation at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, the Vatican's main financial department, known by its Italian acronym APSA.
According to the reports, Scarano told Francis he was the only priest in APSA and "I wasn't allowed to do very much." He says he waged a constant battle against "the abuses of my lay superiors," abuses he says were "cover up by some cardinals ... with skeletons in the closest, who were well blackmailed."
He does not name who he believes these "blackmailed cardinals" were.
Scarano claims in the letter to have sought help in bringing these abuses to light from Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Cracow, the former secretary of John Paul II, and Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.
"My banking operations at the Vatican bank were always done under the counsel and direction of the superiors, and I never abused the courtesy," Scarano reportedly wrote the pope.
He is supposed to have added: "Your Holiness, I've always served the church, with a true and priestly spirit. I hope to be able to send you secretly my envelope of documents so they might strongly reinforce your great and courageous effort to finally bring order to the sad administrative, economic and financial realities of the Holy See, and all the abuses annexed and connected to them."
There are at least two layers of doubt about all this that have to be attached.
First, the letter has been reported as genuine, but so far, no one's officially confirmed it. Second, even if it is, one has to take the protestations of an accused criminal with a grain of salt, even if the principle of innocent until proven guilty still applies.
That said, the situation is a reminder of how much work Francis still has to do on the financial front, beginning with the Vatican bank -- both to foster transparency and, perhaps just as importantly, the perception of transparency.
Related Sections | Catholic
Source: http://wwrn.org/articles/40328/
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Monday, July 29, 2013
Brandt Snedeker wins Canadian Open
OAKVILLE, Ontario (AP) ? Zoe Olivia Mahan can expect something special from Brandt Snedeker.
Snedeker won the Canadian Open on Sunday, a day after Hunter Mahan withdrew with the lead before the third round when his wife went into labor. Kandi Mahan gave birth to daughter Zoe Olivia early Sunday in Texas.
"Zoe will be getting a very nice baby gift from me," Snedeker said. "I can't thank Kandi enough for going into labor early. I don't know if I'd be sitting here if she hadn't. But that is a way more important thing than a golf tournament. I missed a golf tournament when my first was born, and it was the best decision I ever made. I'm sure Hunter would say the same thing."
Snedeker closed with 2-under 70 for a three-stroke victory.
"Just ecstatic right now," Snedeker said. "This is a tournament I said early on in my career I wanted to win just because my caddie (Scott Vail) is actually from Canada and it's his national open. It meant a lot to him, meant a lot to me. Third-oldest tournament on tour and it's got some great history to it, and now to put my name on that trophy it means a lot."
Snedeker finished at 16-under 272. The six-time PGA Tour winner also won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February.
"It feels great to get a win," Snedeker said. "To validate all the hard work I've put in over the past three months where I haven't played my best and know that I'm working on the right stuff and able to hold up under some pretty serious pressure this afternoon. To win a tournament like this with those pivotal holes coming down the stretch means a lot."
Snedeker had two birdies and a bogey on the front nine. He birdied the par-4 10th to move to 16 under, but gave the shot back on the par-3 12th. He birdied the par-5 16th and parred the final two holes.
"I hung in there really well and made the key putts I needed to and I was able to survive," Snedeker said. "That's what today is all about."
Dustin Johnson, William McGirt, Matt Kuchar and Jason Bohn tied for second.
Johnson was tied for the lead after a birdie on No. 16, then drove out of bounds and hit the lip of a fairway bunker en route to a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 17th. He finished with a 70.
"I was playing really well," Johnson said. "Really confident, swinging the driver really good. So you know, it's a driver hole for me, and I just blocked it a little bit. Made a poor swing. ... Not too happy, but I felt really good with my golf game. ... It's nothing, nothing to worry about. I'll go get them next weekend."
McGirt had a 68, and Kuchar and Bohn shot 71.
David Hearn was the top Canadian, shooting a 73 to tie for 44th at 4 under.
"It wasn't the finish that I was really looking for. I had a nice chance today," said Hearn, a playoff loser in the John Deere Classic. "I'll take away some positives from the week. I appreciate the support from everyone here this week and it always feels good to play at home."
Mike Weir tied for 49th at 3 under after a 72.
"I'm playing fine. Just missing too many short putts," Weir said. "I missed a number the last couple days inside 6, 7 feet, just missing way too many of those. You need those to keep your round going sometimes and I just didn't capitalize when I had opportunities."
Pat Fletcher, born in England, was the last Canadian winner, taking the 1954 event at Point Grey in Vancouver. Carl Keffer is the only Canadian-born champion, winning in 1909 and 1914. Albert Murray, a Canadian also born in England, won in 1908 and 1913.
The 2014 tournament will be played at Royal Montreal.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brandt-snedeker-wins-canadian-open-220424233.html
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