US law permits pre-emptive cyber strikes

A SECRET legal review has concluded the US president has the power to order pre-emptive cyber strikes if the US discovers credible evidence of a major digital attack against it is in the offing.

The New York Times reported on Monday that the policy will govern how the intelligence agencies can carry out searches of overseas computer networks for signs of potential attacks. If the president approves, it can attack adversaries with a destructive code - even if there is no declared war.

The review came as the US approved a five-fold expansion of its cybersecurity force over the coming years in a bid to increase its ability to defend critical computer networks.

The Washington Post reported that the department's Cyber Command, which currently has a staff of about 900, will expand to about 4,900 troops and civilians.

Last November, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta conceded that US cybersecurity needed more financial support and human capital.

The seriousness of the threat has been underscored by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company.

According to The Times, John Brennan, who has been nominated to run the Central Intelligence Agency, played a central role in developing the administration's policies regarding cyberwarfare.

President Barack Obama is known to have approved the use of cyberweapons only once, when he ordered an escalating series of cyberattacks against Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, The Times said.

One senior American official said that the reviewers had quickly determined that the cyberweapons were so powerful that - like nuclear weapons - they should be unleashed only on the direct orders of the commander in chief, The Times noted.

International law allows any nation to defend itself from threats, and the United States has applied that concept to conduct pre-emptive attacks, the paper noted.

Under the new guidelines, the Pentagon would not be involved in defending against ordinary cyberattacks on American companies or individuals, The Times said. That responsibility falls to the Department of Homeland Security.

But the military would become involved in cases of a major cyberattack within the United States, the paper noted.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran says Israel will regret Syria attack

A TOP Iranian official visiting Damascus says Israel will regret its "latest aggression" on Syria.

Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran's National Security Council, says the Islamic world will not allow any attack against Syria.

Israeli warplanes struck a site near the Syrian capital, Damascus, last week, targeting what US officials said were ground-to-air missiles apparently heading for Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.

Syria has vowed retaliation but has so far refrained from any response. Iran is Syria's closest regional ally.

Jalili, who is on a three-day visit to Syria, did not explain in his comments on Tuesday how Israel would regret the strike.

He only said Israel "will be defeated" as it apparently was during the 2006 month-long war with Hezbollah and recently by Gaza's Hamas rulers.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Man killed in Brisbane traffic crash

A MAN has been killed in a collision between two vehicles east of Brisbane on Monday afternoon.

Police said in a statement that the fatal smash occurred near the intersection of Rickertt and St James roads at Thornside, about 2.30pm.

They said one of the drivers was taken to hospital, but later died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.

The driver of the other vehicle was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Scientists confirm King Richard III find

Scientists will reveal the result of tests to determine if a skeleton belongs to King Richard III. Source: AAP

SCIENTISTS have confirmed that 500-year-old remains found under a car park in the city of Leicester are those of England's King Richard III.

University of Leicester researchers say tests on a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that it is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries.

"Richard III, the last Plantaganet King of England, has been found," said the university's deputy registrar, Richard Taylor.

Osteologist Jo Appleby said on Monday that the study of the bones provided "a highly convincing case for identification of Richard III".

And DNA from the skeleton matches a sample taken from a distant living relative of Richard's sister.

The last English monarch to die in battle, Richard was depicted in a play by William Shakespeare as a hunchbacked usurper who left a trail of bodies - including those of his two princely nephews, murdered in the Tower of London - on his way to the throne.

Many historians say that image is unfair, and argue Richard's reputation was smeared by his Tudor successors.

That's an argument taken up by the Richard III Society, set up to re-evaluate the reputation of a reviled monarch.

"It will be a whole new era for Richard III," society spokeswoman Lynda Pidgeon said.

"It's certainly going to spark a lot more interest. Hopefully people will have a more open mind toward Richard."

Richard III ruled England between 1483 and 1485, during the decades-long tussle over the throne known as the Wars of the Roses.

His brief reign saw liberal reforms, including introduction of the right to bail and the lifting of restrictions on books and printing presses.

His rule was challenged, and he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field by the army of Henry Tudor, who took the throne as King Henry VII.

For centuries, the location of Richard's body has been unknown.

Records say he was buried by the Franciscan monks of Grey Friars at their church in Leicester, 160km north of London. The church was closed and dismantled after King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, and its location eventually was forgotten.

Then, last September, archaeologists searching for Richard dug up the skeleton of an adult male who appeared to have died in battle.

There were signs of trauma to the skull, perhaps from a bladed instrument, and a barbed metal arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the upper back.

The remains also displayed signs of scoliosis, which is a form of spinal curvature, consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance, though not with Shakespeare's description of him as "deform'd, unfinished" hunchback.

Researchers conducted a battery of scientific tests, including radiocarbon dating to determine the skeleton's age. They also compared its DNA with samples taken from a London cabinet-maker identified as a 17th great-grand-nephew of the king's older sister.

The mayor of Leicester, Peter Soulsby, said the monarch would be interred in the city's cathedral.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Armed bandits threaten 80yo NSW shopkeeper

AN 80-year-old takeaway store owner and his daughter have been threatened with an axe and a machete during an armed robbery in northern NSW.

Police said the elderly man and his 56-year-old daughter were woken up around 1.45am (AEDT) on Sunday by loud noises at their home on Queen Elizabeth Drive at Coraki.

When they went to investigate the sounds in their adjoining takeaway food shop they were confronted by two masked men.

One of the men was armed with an axe, while the other was wielding a machete, police said.

The bandits threatened the man and woman before demanding cash and cigarettes.

They then forced the pair into the woman's Nissan Tiida car, drove them about three kilometres out of Coraki, and ordered them out of the vehicle.

Police pursued the car a short time later at Casino but the robbers managed to dump the vehicle and escape on foot.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

French bomb Mali extremists

French President Francois Hollande has received a rapturous welcome in war-torn Mali. Source: AAP

FRENCH warplanes bombed training and logistics centres run by Islamist extremists in northeastern Mali on Sunday, just hours after President Francois Hollande visited the country, the military said.

The "major" air strikes were carried out overnight in the Tessalit area north of Kidal, the last bastion of radicals who occupied the desert north for months before France's intervention, military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said.

Earlier, President Francois Hollande called on Africans to take over the fight against extremism as he received a rapturous welcome in Mali, where a French-led offensive has driven back Islamist rebels from the north.

The French leader's whirlwind tour came as troops worked to secure Kidal, the last bastion of radicals who seized control of Mali's desert north last year after a coup, raising fears that an area larger than France could become a safe haven for al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

In the fabled city of Timbuktu, thousands gathered in the central square, dancing to the beat of drums - a forbidden activity during the extremists' 10-month occupation - to welcome the French leader with shouts of "Vive la France! Long live Hollande!"

Hollande, whose surprise decision to intervene in Mali three weeks ago made him a hero in the former French colony, told the crowd France's mission was not finished, but that African countries would soon have to take over.

"It's not over yet. It's going to take several weeks, but our goal is to pass the baton," he said on Saturday.

"Our African friends will be able to do the job we've been doing until now."

Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore, who joined hands with Hollande and raised them in a victory salute, thanked his counterpart for the French troops' "efficiency", which he said had allowed the north to be freed from "barbarity and obscurantism".

Hollande was offered a young camel as a gift of thanks as he toured the city.

"The women of Timbuktu will thank Francois Hollande forever," said 53-year-old Fanta Diarra Toure.

"We must tell him that he has cut down the tree, but still has to tear up its roots."

Hollande and Traore visited Timbuktu's 700-year-old mud mosque of Djingareyber and the Ahmed Baba library for ancient manuscripts, both targeted by destructive Islamist militants.

"There's a real desire to annihilate. There's nothing left," Hollande told the mosque's imam as they visited two ancient saints' tombs that the extremists attacked with pickaxes in July, considering them idolatrous.

"We're going to rebuild them, Mr President," said Irina Bokova, the head of UNESCO, which is trying to assess the scale of the damage to Mali's ancient heritage, particularly in Timbuktu, a caravan town at the edge of the Sahara that rose to fame in the 14th century as a gold and salt trading hub.

Hollande later travelled to the capital, Bamako, where he addressed a large crowd gathered at a monument commemorating Mali's independence from France.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

787 grounded, but batteries fly

AT the time the US government certified Boeing's 787 Dreamliners as safe, federal rules barred the type of batteries used to power the airliner's electrical systems from being carried as cargo on passenger planes because of the fire risk.

Now the situation is reversed.

Dreamliners worldwide were grounded nearly three weeks ago after lithium ion batteries that are part of the planes led to a fire in one plane and smoke in a second. But new rules exempt aircraft batteries from the ban on large lithium ion batteries as cargo on flights by passenger planes.

In effect, that means the Dreamliner's batteries are now allowed to fly only if they're not attached to a Dreamliner.

The regulations were published on January 7, the same day as a battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport that took firefighters nearly 40 minutes to put out.

Pilots and safety advocates say the situation doesn't make sense.

If the 787's battery system is too risky to allow the planes to fly, then it's too risky to ship the same batteries as cargo on airliners, they said.

"These incidents have raised the whole issue of lithium batteries and their use in aviation," said Jim Hall, a former National Transportation Safety Board chairman. "Any transport of lithium batteries on commercial aircraft for any purpose should be suspended until (an) NTSB investigation is complete and we know more about this entire issue."

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a former US Airways pilot famed for his precision flying that enabled passengers and crew to survive an emergency landing on the Hudson River in New York, said in an interview that he wouldn't be comfortable flying an airliner that carried lithium ion aircraft batteries in its cargo hold.

The battery rules were changed in order to conform US shipping requirements with international standards as required by Congress, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a statement.

The NTSB is investigating the cause of the 787 battery fire in Boston. Japanese authorities are investigating a battery failure that led to an emergency landing by an All Nippon Airways 787 on January 16.

All Dreamliners, which are operated by eight airlines in seven countries, have since been grounded.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Israel's Barak tips Syrian president to go

ISRAEL'S defence minister made his country's first public comments on Sunday over an airstrike in Syria, suggesting that Israel had been behind the attack.

US officials have said the attack hit a convoy of anti-aircraft weapons inside Syria bound for the militant Lebanese Hezbollah group but Israel hasn't publicly acknowledged the airstrike.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak said "Hezbollah from Lebanon and the Iranians are the only allies that Assad has left."

He said in his view Assad's fall "is coming imminently" and when it happens, "this will be a major blow to the Iranians and Hezbollah."

"I think that they will pay the price," he said.

In the days ahead of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials repeatedly warned of the dangers of Syrian weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah and other hostile elements in the region.

Barak brought the issue up at a gathering of the world's top diplomats and defence officials in Germany, initially saying: "I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago."

But, addressing the audience in English, he then added: "I keep telling frankly that we said - and that's proof when we said something we mean it- we say that we don't think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon."

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed fears that if Syria were to disintegrate, President Bashar Assad could lose control of his chemical weapons and other arms.

The Syrian military said the target of Israeli jets was a scientific research centre. The facility is in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus.

Purported images of the targeted site, aired by Syrian state television on Saturday, show destroyed cars, trucks and military vehicles. A building has broken widows and damaged interiors, but no major structural damage.

On Saturday night, Netanyahu, who is in the process of forming a new ruling coalition, said his new government would have to deal with weapons "being stockpiled near us and threatening our cities and civilians" - an apparent reference to the deteriorating situation in Syria.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Red Cross chief demands access in Syria

The head of the Red Cross has asked for international help in gaining broader access to Syria. Source: AAP

THE head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has called on all sides of the Syrian conflict to help his organisation access more of the war-ravaged country with desperately needed aid.

Peter Maurer told AFP in an interview that his organisation had distributed food and other urgent aid items to more than 1.5 million people last year, and had helped 17 million Syrians access safe water.

Yet, "this is insufficient compared to the negative impact of this conflict on the civilian population. We would like to do much more," he said, lamenting that there were a number of places in Syria out of reach to most aid workers.

According to United Nations figures, more than 60,000 people have been killed since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began in March 2011, while some 730,000 Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries.

"Nowhere else in the world is there an armed conflict that is as unpredictable within such large boundaries and affecting as many people," said Maurer, who visited Damascus in September last year, just months after he took over the helm of the ICRC.

"Our ambition is to continue to expand the surface we cover in Syria, and I really hope we can do more tomorrow and the day after," Maurer said, calling on all parties in the conflict to help the ICRC and other aid workers "reach the people we have to reach."

The most important thing for his organisation, he said, was "that all parties of the conflict respect the role of the ICRC (and) respect the special protection of medical facilities, of ambulances and doctors and nurses".

Since his three-day visit to Syria and meetings with Assad in September, Maurer said the Syrian president had kept some of his promises of increased access and the ICRC had noticed some improvements.

Yet other promises had not been kept, he said, without specifying which ones.

He stressed that he did "not want to go to Syria before we have some assurances that progress will be made" or before the regime gave him the green light to travel beyond Damascus.

"In light of the current situation, I cannot go to Syria if I am not able to travel to other regions of Syria," he said.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Woman's body washes up on beach

Police have established a crime scene after the body of a woman washed up on a south Sydney beach. Source: AAP

A WOMAN'S body has washed up on a Sydney beach.

Police were called to Green Hills beach at Cronulla, in the city's south, about 5.15pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

The body is that of a woman believed to be in her 40s. Police have establish a crime scene.

The incident is being considered an unexplained death.

18.59 | 0 komentar | Read More