Al Qaeda moves in: Could North Africa explode?

On the Radar

While John Kerry is making Syria the focus of his first international trip, the newly-minted secretary of state has likely already discovered that Syria is only one among many volatile situations around the world. From the ?genocidal type? war in Syria to the growing presence of al Qaeda affiliates in Northern Africa, former Gen. James Cartwright tells On the Radar he?s concerned about the growing number of potentially volatile regions around the world.

?They're spreading rather than consolidating,? the retired general says of the dangerous areas around the world, known as hotspots. ?Africa is probably the biggest one that we are?are seeing in the media right now with the Mali challenge, but that's not limited to Mali.?

The growing threat of Africa can be traced in large part to the expansion of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups such as al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM)?the group behind the recent hostage situation at a natural gas facility in Algeria. Cartwright says the threat posed by offspring al Qaeda groups in Africa shouldn?t be underestimated.

?It's got the same potential to be as violent, certainly, as what we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, with even less governance than what they had in Afghanistan and Iraq,? says Cartwright of North Africa.

As for the Middle East, Gen. Cartwright warns that the continued civil war in Syria, which he describes as ?genocidal type activity,? poses a long-term strategic threat to the security of the region.

?The longer this goes on, the less likely, or the longer it's going to take to recover from it. And that's probably more worrisome than anything else,? says Cartwright. ?You're going to have a Syria which sits in a very strategic position basically in a condition of disruption for tens of years.?

To hear more about the greatest threats Gen. Cartwright identifies to international security, including how soon he thinks Iran could have a nuclear weapon, check out this week?s On the Radar.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/most-dangerous-places-world-121444548.html

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The Ego! Smartmouse Combines Hardware Authentication With A Mouse That Doubles As A Motion Controller

A new Kickstarter project called the Ego! Smartmouse blends together some recent trends in computing, including hardware identity authentication and 3D motion control to come up with a unique input device that wears many hats. The Ego! is a mouse in the traditional sense, allowing you to control your desktop or laptop computer, and it also has on-board file storage, can work as an authentication device for various services, and features built-in acceleration and motion detection to work like a Wiimote for controlling games.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dn6ngiAAszA/

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Obama warns spending cuts could idle shipbuilder

President Barack Obama addresses the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama addresses the National Governors Association in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by fellow members of the House GOP leadership, responds to President Barack Obama's remarks to the nation's governors earlier today about how to fend off the impending automatic budget cuts, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is arguing that looming government-wide spending cuts could idle military resources like naval aircraft carriers, while Republicans are criticizing the president for taking his arguments outside Washington instead of staying to work out a plan before Friday's deadline.

The president planned to appear Tuesday at Virginia's largest industrial employer, Newport News Shipbuilding, which would be affected by cuts to naval spending. Obama warned Monday that if the so-called sequester goes into effect later this week, the company's "workers will sit idle when they should be repairing ships, and a carrier sits idle when it should be deploying to the Persian Gulf."

Obama urged Congress to compromise to avoid the cuts, but there has been no indication the White House and congressional Republicans are actively negotiating a deal. The last known conversation between Obama and GOP leaders was last week, and there have been no in-person meetings between the parties this year.

Obama wants the replace the sequester with a package of targeted cuts and tax increases, while Republican leaders insist the savings should come from reduced spending alone.

Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican Conference, criticized Obama for traveling to southern Virginia rather than up the street to Capitol Hill to come up with a solution.

"We need the president to stop campaigning for higher taxes, come back here to Washington, D.C., and lead," McMorris Rodgers said during a press conference Monday with GOP leaders.

The sequester was designed as an unpalatable fallback, meant to take effect only if a congressional super-committee failed to come up with at least $1 trillion in savings from benefit programs.

The White House has warned the $85 billion in cuts could affect everything from commercial flights to classrooms to meat inspections. The cuts would slash domestic and defense spending, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers.

The cuts also would impact Newport News Shipbuilding, which builds and maintains the nation's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers as well as other warships. The Navy has already delayed a long-planned overhaul of the USS Abraham Lincoln at the shipyard as a result of the budget uncertainty, and other plans call for delaying the construction of other ships.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered a potential way out of the stalemate Monday by indicating he was open to raising tax revenue if Obama offered to overhaul big-ticket entitlement programs. Many Republicans say they are done raising revenue after letting taxes on top earners increase in December.

"I'll raise revenue. Will you reform entitlements?" Graham said in a challenge to the president on CNN. "And both together, we'll set aside sequestration in a way that won't disrupt the economy and hurt the Defense Department."

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Brock Vergakis in Norfolk, Va., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-26-Budget%20Battle/id-8a8bba3c264d4aba92afbeabf5e77a0c

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Remains of the Day: Zendesk Hacked; Some Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest Users Affected

Zendesk gets hacked, Chrome gets an update, and iOS developers get more tools for Google Maps integration.

• We've Been Hacked Zendesk, a company that provides software for outsourcing customer service functions, announced today that it had been hacked. Three companies that use Zendesk's services?Wired reports that they are Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr?have had the email addresses and subject lines of messages sent to their customer support services exposed. While this isn't the most sensitive information, all three companies have reached out to users who may have been affected, urging them to review any correspondence sent to customer support. Zendesk has stated that they have since identified and patched the vulnerability. [Zendesk]
• Bringing Voice Recognition to the Web Google released the latest Chrome Stable build today, which includes will allow developers to include speech recognition in their web apps. Today's release also disables silent extension installs for Windows Chrome users, ensuring that users authorize every extension that's installed. [Google Chrome Blog]
• Google Maps SDK for iOS 1.1 Gains Support for Ground Overlays, Keys Now Open to All Developers The Google Maps Source Development Kit for iOS was updated today, adding more controls for gestures and overlays that developers can use. Hopefully, this means we'll see more Google Maps integration in iOS 6 apps. [The Next Web]

Photo by photastic (Shutterstock), a2bb5s (Shutterstock), and Feng Yu (Shutterstock).

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/excerpts/~3/Lf6e8A_2wRM/remains-of-the-day-zendesk-hacked-some-twitter-tumblr-and-pinterest-users-affected

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"Twitter" Has Changed a Lot Since the 1700s

Nowadays, we use words like "twitter" all the time to talk about our everyday social meda-ing. In the 1800s, they said "twitter" too, but it meant something a little different. So did "pin." The times, they have a-changed. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NrM1-v2Ef3I/twitter-has-changed-a-lot-since-the-1700s

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Pistorius Steroids Defense? Lawyers May Pursue 'Roid Rage' Based Insanity Defense

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Ever since 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius's girlfriend was shot dead in his Pretoria home last week, South African papers have printed lurid details of the killing which, if true, pose major challenges to the Paralympic star's defence team, experts say.

Initial reports of the shooting in the early hours of Thursday suggested Pistorius, 26, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, may have mistaken law graduate and model Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder.

A statement released by his family dismissed the charge of murder laid on Friday in "the strongest terms". His bail hearing resumes in a Pretoria magistrate's court on Tuesday.

Within hours of the shooting, police confirmed that Steenkamp had been killed by more than one gunshot, that Pistorius was the only suspect, that neighbours had heard earlier disturbances, that there were no signs of a break-in and that a 9mm pistol had been recovered from the two-storey home.

Since then, police have released no more details.

The same cannot be said of the South African media, part of a global publicity machine that built up Pistorius into the ultimate sporting tale of triumph over adversity - a man who rose to the pinnacle of world athletics, racing at the Olympics despite having no lower legs.

Some of the most widely reported local media allegations are that Steenkamp was in the bathroom when she was shot, was hit by four rounds - in the head, hand, hip and chest - and that shots were fired through the bathroom door.

In addition, leading Sunday newspaper City Press said investigators had found a blood-stained cricket bat in Pistorius' bedroom. The paper said police had not yet worked out whose blood it was, but said Steenkamp's head was "crushed".

The newspaper also alleged that Steenkamp, who will be buried on Tuesday, had slept in the same bed as Pistorius that night - Valentine's Day eve - and that her iPad was on the bedroom floor along with an overnight bag.

The ENCA television channel said CCTV footage from the gated community showed Steenkamp arriving at the complex shortly after 6 p.m. on the previous evening.

Police have declined to comment on any of the reports, saying official details will only emerge in court.

However, the allegations - if true - undermine the legal argument of self-defence, as well as the suggestion that Pistorius was taken by surprise by a would-be stranger in his house in the middle of the night.

"If what the media says is in fact the truth, I cannot see that any defence based on self-defence can, by any stretch of the imagination, succeed," said Eddie Classen, a partner at BDK Attorneys, one of South Africa's biggest criminal defence firms.

"ROID RAGE"?

Under the white-minority rule that ended in 1994, South Africa had relatively lax curbs on the use of lethal force, not only in self-defence but also in making arrests. Put bluntly, if the only way to stop a fleeing robber was to shoot him, you could.

However, the laws were tightened up after the end of apartheid when the "right to life" became enshrined in the new constitution of Nelson Mandela's "Rainbow Nation", making it permissible to use lethal force only when your life is directly threatened.

Furthermore, when the immediate threat is gone - a shot intruder, say, goes down with a bullet in the leg - the self-defence argument ends.

"The law says that you have to stop the moment that you have repelled an attack, so normally one shot will suffice," said Steven Tuson, a professor of criminal law at Johannesburg's Wits University.

If Pistorius's lawyers choose to avoid the self-defence avenue, another option may be to argue temporary insanity based on chemical stimulants, a defence irreverently referred to in sports-mad South Africa as "roid rage", short for 'steroid'.

This is why Pistorius was taken for blood tests immediately after the shooting, Tuson said, "to exclude that defence". Classen also said the "roid rage" defence could only succeed in "extraordinary circumstances".

One other possible avenue is for Pistorius to argue "putative self-defence" - that he thought he was being attacked even if he wasn't. Even then, Classen said the content of the media reports, if true, curtailed his chances of success.

"The facts of the matter - and I caution again because I am only reading them from the media - suggest something totally different," he said. (Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/18/pistorius-steroids-defense-roid-rage-insanity_n_2712883.html

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See how Sony revolutionized portable gaming with the PSP and the PS Vita

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