U.S. intelligence program secretly probes Internet servers

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper confirmed that the secret program exists but said media reports contained ¿numerous inaccuracies.

(Source) Government agencies search the central servers of nine leading Internet companies for emails and other data potentially linked to terrorism or espionage cases, the U.S. intelligence chief says.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. director of national intelligence late Thursday confirmed the existence of a secret program in which the government has tapped into the central servers of nine leading Internet companies to search for data potentially linked to terrorism, espionage or nuclear proliferation, but he called two newspapers' disclosure of it "reprehensible."

Under the 6-year-old program, code-named PRISM, the FBI and National Security Agency have searched for emails, videos, photographs and other documents. The effort involves Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Paltalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple, the Washington Post and Britain's Guardian reported, quoting from classified documents. Among major Internet companies, only Twitter has so far been a holdout, the Post said.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper confirmed the program but said the Post and Guardian articles contained "numerous inaccuracies."

Apple, Google, Facebook and Yahoo all denied participating. The others did not respond to requests for comment Thursday night.

Clapper said the program was intended to target foreigners and "cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person or anyone located within the United States." Court-approved procedures "minimize the acquisition" of information about U.S. persons, he said in a statement.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the executive branch and Congress oversee the program, which "was recently reauthorized by Congress after extensive hearings and debate," he said.

"Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats," Clapper said.

The latest disclosures, coming as officials separately confirmed a long-running NSA program to secretly collect records on nearly all domestic and international phone calls made by Americans, underscores how U.S. intelligence and law enforcement now secretly glean vast amounts of information from communications technology.

Legally, much of the data is considered property of the companies, not of individual users. That limits users' ability to challenge the government's data-mining operations in court.

The Post said it had obtained information about PRISM from a career intelligence officer who provided PowerPoint slides "to expose what he believes to be a gross intrusion on privacy."

According to the Post, a presentation for senior NSA analysts described PRISM "as the most prolific contributor to the president's daily brief, which cited PRISM data in 1,477 articles last year." The daily brief contains the nation's most valuable intelligence secrets and goes only to the president and a few top aides each morning.

According to the briefing slides, "NSA reporting increasingly relies on PRISM" as its leading source of raw material, accounting for nearly 1 in 7 intelligence reports, the Post reported.

PRISM analysts can use search terms to delve into computer systems to pull out selected information. The terms are designed to look for data that is foreign in origin, but, according to the briefing materials, the NSA concedes that it inevitably picks up considerable data on Americans.

In most cases, Internet companies have voluntarily cooperated with PRISM in return for immunity from lawsuits, the Post said.

But in 2008, Congress gave the Justice Department the authority to seek a secret court order to force a reluctant company to comply. The Post said that Microsoft became the first corporate partner in PRISM in 2007 and that Apple held out until 2012.

Apple disputed that it had signed on to any such program.

"We have never heard of PRISM," Apple said in a statement Thursday night. "We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order."

Yahoo issued a similar denial.

"Yahoo! takes users' privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network," the company said in a statement.

Google said it "does not have a 'back door' for the government to access private user data."

And Joe Sullivan, chief security officer at Facebook, said protecting users' privacy and data is a top priority.

"We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers," he said. "When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law."

Clapper, the intelligence director, declassified a few details about the separate program that collects telephone records, also disclosed by the Guardian. Clapper said he wanted to reassure Americans that "the intelligence community is committed to respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all American citizens."

He noted that the special court reviews the program every three months. He confirmed that the government is barred from searching telephone records "indiscriminately" and can only search the data for specific information after proving to a court that it has reasonable suspicion of association with a foreign terrorist organization.

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AEG executive accuses Jordan Jackson's mother, kids connected with extortion.

(source) Los Angeles (CNN) -- Claims of extortion and laughter-inducing testimony stemming from legal advice on e-mails highlighted Tuesday's proceedings in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial.
Randy Phillips, the chief executive officer of AEG Live, disclosed that his lawyers advised company executives not to review old e-mails before testifying.

Jordan Jackson's mother,

That strategy could explain the high number of "I don't recall" answers by Paul Gongaware, the concert promoter's co-CEO, during his deposition and six days of testimony that have just concluded.
Phillips, who followed Gongaware on the witness stand Tuesday afternoon, said he believed Jackson's mother and three children were trying to extort money from his company, which he insisted bears no liability in the pop icon's death in 2009.
The Jacksons' lawsuit accuses the company of negligently hiring, retaining or supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's drug overdose death.
AEG lawyers contend Jackson chose, paid and controlled Murray, who infused him with the surgical anesthetic propofol almost every night for a month to help the singer rest as he prepared for his comeback "This Is It" concerts.
AEG exec: I didn't know Michael Jackson abused drugs
Jackson lawyer Brian Panish, who has been previously told by the judge not to argue with witnesses, quickly tangled with Phillips.
"Please don't argue with me because then I will argue back and get in trouble," Panish told Phillips at one point.
"Then that's an incentive for me," Phillips joked.
The feisty chemistry between lawyer and witness promises to keep jurors, who often chuckle at Panish's courtroom behavior, on the edge of their seats for the next day or so.
Gongaware's testimony was punctuated with so many "I don't recall" responses that jurors began laughing at one point. He frequently said he couldn't recall sending or reading key e-mails in the case, although his e-mail address was on them.
Panish asked Gongaware whether he thought it would have been better for him if he had reviewed documents and e-mails before testifying.
"I relied on the advice of my attorney," he said.
With his testimony concluded, Gongaware will resume his responsibilities as tour manager for the Rolling Stones.
"All this legal stuff, I don't understand it," he said.
Phillips, a law school dropout, seemed ready to rumble when he entered court after Gongaware. But he acknowledged that until two weeks ago, he had not looked at any of his old e-mails to refresh his memory.
"They felt it would be better if I went in without preparation," he said, referring to his lawyers.
AEG Live lawyer Marvin Putman said outside of court that the volume of documents they would have needed to review was massive, making it impossible for them to prepare.
E-mails that AEG Live executives sent and received in the months before Jackson's death include one in which Phillips assures show director Kenny Ortega that the company has "checked out" Murray and found him to be very successful.
AEG Live executives later acknowledged they did not do a background check on Murray, who a police detective testified was in debt for more than $1 million dollars and faced foreclosure on his home.
"I wrote it in the e-mail that I thought at the time he had been checked out," Phillips testified Tuesday. He wrote that Murray was successful "because that's what I was told," he said.
"In retrospect, it's not 100% true," Phillips said. "There's what I thought at the time versus what I learned afterwards."
Phillips, Gongaware and other AEG Live executives ignored red flags that should have alerted them that Jackson's life was in danger, the Jackson lawsuit contends.
Murray signed and faxed his $150,000-a-month contract back to AEG Live, but with Jackson's death the next day on June 25, 2009, Phillips didn't sign it. AEG lawyers argue that means it was not a fully executed agreement and Murray was never hired by them.

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Khan ‘married before losing looks’

Fighter Amir Khan has revealed he wanted to marry before he lost his looks as he swapped the boxing ring for a wedding ring.

The 26-year-old tied the knot with US student Faryal Makhdoom in a lengthy ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York at the weekend.

khan married

And in an interview with Hello! magazine – which has also published the official photographs – he said he is a “changed man”.

The Bolton-born champion married the 21-year-old political science student in a week-long, elaborate Islamic ceremony.

He joked: “I had to get in there and tie the knot quickly, before I got beaten up in too many fights and lose my looks.”

Khan, who beat rival Julio Diaz in the ring just weeks ago, went on: “I’ve lived the young life, I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do. Now is the right time to settle down and start my own family.

“I’ve got to look after Faryal, so I won’t be going out as much partying with my friends. I don’t want that any more – I want to do the family thing.”

The boxer – pictured with his new bride wearing elaborately stitched red and gold robes – told the magazine: “I think I’ll change as a person when I’m married and it’ll be a big plus for me, I’ll be able to be more focused on my job too.”

The new Mrs Khan also spoke of her joy, and about her forthcoming move to Bolton in the feature, spread across 16 pages.

“I’m so happy to be with the man I love and to spend the rest of my life with him – it’s a new chapter in my life,” she said.

Boxer Amir Khan has got married in New York

Akhan married photos

khan girls friend photos in twitter

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Above 65 places indication Forearms Buy and sell Treaty

(source) More than 65 countries have signed the landmark treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade and the United States announced it will sign soon, giving a strong kickoff to the first major international campaign to stem the illicit trade in weapons that fuel conflicts and extremists.

The announcement on Monday by US Secretary of State John Kerry that the US - the world's largest arms dealer - will sign is critical, but the treaty's ultimate strength rests on support by all major arms exporters and importers.

 Forearms Buy and sell Treaty

While the treaty was overwhelmingly approved on April 2 by the UN General Assembly, key arms exporters including Russia and China and major importers including India, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Egypt abstained and have given no indication yet that they will sign it. Signatures are the first step to ratification, and the treaty will only take effect after 50 countries ratify it.

Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, a key treaty backer, predicted that there will be 50 ratifications "within slightly more than a year - but the real test is, of course, getting those who still have doubts or who have not made up their minds, to sign on and ratify."

The treaty will require countries that ratify it to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and components and to regulate arms brokers, but it will not control the domestic use of weapons in any country.

It prohibits the transfer of conventional weapons if they violate arms embargoes or if they promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, and if they could be used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.

What impact the treaty will have in curbing the global arms trade - estimated at between $60 billion and $85 billion - remains to be seen. A lot will depend on which countries ratify it, and how stringently it is implemented once it comes into force.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a special event marking the signings that the treaty shows that "the world has finally put an end to the 'free-for-all' nature of international weapons transfers."

"The treaty ... will make it harder for weapons to be diverted into the illicit market, to reach warlords, pirates, terrorists and criminals or to be used to commit grave human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law," Ban said.

He urged all countries - especially major arms-trading countries - to sign and ratify the treaty saying "the eyes of the world are watching arms traders, manufacturers and governments, as never before."

At the Monday morning session, 62 countries signed the treaty, and in the afternoon five more signed, bringing the total to 67, about one-third of the UN's 193 member states which UN disarmament chief Angela Kane called "impressive."

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The apple company loses US industry screen lording it over inside Samsung dispute

Apple has lost a ruling by a US trade panel in a patent dispute with its rival Samsung.

The International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Apple infringed on a Samsung patent, which could mean some older models of the iPad and iPhone are banned from sale in the US.

The patent relates to 3G wireless technology and the ability to transmit multiple services correctly and at the same time.

Apple said it plans to appeal.

The ruling could also be reversed by a US presidential order within 60 days.

The ruling overturned an earlier decision by ITC Judge James Gildea, who said in September that Apple did not violate the patents at issue in the case, which was filed nearly three years ago.

"We believe the ITC's final determination has confirmed Apple's history of free-riding on Samsung's technological innovations," a Samsung statement said.

However, the victory may be largely symbolic, because the ban covers models that are made in China and no longer actively sold in the US market.

These include the AT&T iPhone 4 and iPhone 3 and 3GS, and the iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G, also sold by AT&T.

"Today's decision has no impact on the availability of Apple products in the United States," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement.

Android battles
The case is the latest amid a flurry of litigation between the two electronics giants, who are locked in legal battles in no less than 10 countries.

Analysts say Apple is seeking to limit the growth of Google's Android system.

As a result, smartphone makers that use the Android system, like Samsung and HTC, have been embroiled in various legal battles.

In a separate patent fight in US federal court last year, Samsung was ordered to pay more than $1bn for patent infringement, an award that was later slashed to $598.9m.

Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones. Analysts estimate it outsold Apple by nearly two to one in the first three months of the year.

However, Apple's smartphone business is more profitable.

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