 A secret Pentagon unit had Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 ringleader, in its crosshairs 13 times before the 2001 attacks, a US congressman has claimed citing the unit's records.Curt Weldon, a Republican representative, said on Tuesday data produced by the US military intelligence unit code-named Able Danger showed Atta's name 13 times.The unit used data mining to investigate the al-Qaida network.Weldon said: "Thirteen times we have hits in the data that's still available, that we were told was destroyed."Weldon cited recent analyses of data gathered by Able Danger before the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington."They knew he was up to no good and that he was planning something."...
http://english.aljazeera.net
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Editor - 12:12:00 02-15-06
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 Tiny island that's ready to stop Europe in its tracks |
In the decade since they voted to join the European Union the islanders of the Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea have been outvoted and overruled by Brussels, time and again. Now Aland, a unique, autonomous region of Finland, is about to teach Brussels a lesson in democracy it may never forget. Thanks to a quirk of early 20th-century history, Aland's 26,000 people are essentially sovereign co-rulers of their home nation of Finland. As such, they can veto any international treaty that Finland wants to enter, including EU treaties. And the islanders are threatening to do just that when the European Commission attempts to revive the moribund EU constitution later this year. But last week the archipelago's head of EU affairs, Britt Lundberg, travelled to Brussels - a day-long trek - to deliver a warning that dismally low public opinion on Europe could mean Alanders prevent Finland from ratifying the constitution....
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/15/waland15.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/15/ixnewstop.html
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Editor - 11:55:00 02-15-06
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| China Says Web Controls Follow the West's Lead China is basically in compliance with the international norm, |
Chinese authorities are determined to stop "harmful information" from spreading through the Web, but the controls it places on Web sites and Internet service providers do not differ much from those employed by the US and European countries, a senior official responsible for managing China's Internet said Tuesday. The official, Liu Zhengrong, who supervises Internet affairs for the information office of China's State Council, or cabinet, did not directly dispute the contention of many critics that China operates a vast and technologically sophisticated firewall to protect the ruling Communist Party against what it views as Web-based threats to its authority. But he sought to put the country's Web-policing operation in the best possible light, emphasizing that China's Internet minders abided strictly by laws and regulations that in some cases have been modeled on American and European statutes. "If you study the main international practices in this regard you will find that China is ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/international/asia/15web.html?ex=1140670800&en=959550917ad43740&ei=5059&partner=AOL
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Editor - 11:48:00 02-15-06
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| Tech giants defend actions in China Lawmakers blast companies as 'disgrace,' 'enabling dictatorship' |
Members of Congress blasted four US tech giants Thur, accusing the companies of willingly helping China oppress internal dissent in return for access to a booming Internet market. Representatives from Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc. defended themselves at a House International Relations subcommittee hearing, but a Google official acknowledged that figuring out China’s Internet market “has been a difficult exercise.” But lawmakers were skeptical of what several saw as the companies’ efforts to explain their business practices in China only after a recent crush of negative media scrutiny and government attention. Rep. Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, told the company officials that they had amassed great wealth and influence “but apparently very little social responsibility.” “Your abhorrent actions in China are a disgrace,” the Californian said. “I simply don’t understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night”...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11347853/from/RSS/
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Editor - 11:30:00 02-15-06
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| UK holds Microsoft security talks |
UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files. Windows Vista is due to be rolled out later this year. Cambridge academic Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted. He urged the government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting around encryptions. The Home Office later told the BBC News website it is in talks with Microsoft. Professor Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, was giving evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee about time limits on holding terrorism suspects without charge. He said: "From later this year, the encryption landscape is going to change with the release of Microsoft Vista." ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4713018.stm
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Editor - 11:25:00 02-15-06
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| How babies do maths at 7 months |
Babies have a rudimentary grasp of maths long before they can walk or talk, according to new research. By the age of seven months infants have an abstract sense of numbers and are able to match the number of voices they hear with the number of faces they see. The research could be useful in devising methods for teaching basic maths skills to the very young, say researchers in the US. The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Adults can easily recognise the numerical equivalence between two objects they see and two sounds they hear. This is also the case for some animals, such as the monkey, but until now there has been conflicting evidence about the ability of very young babies to do this. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4713714.stm
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Editor - 11:22:00 02-15-06
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