Augmented reality is slowly entering everyday life, and Swiss researchers say it can be used to study children’s behavior. A new app for tablet computers helps them study whether playing computer games can lead to something called augmented creativity. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Month: June 2017
A Glove Allows Stroke Patients to Touch and Feel
People who survive a stroke often struggle with a range of devastating consequences. It can take months of physical therapy for them to be able to use their limbs or start to feel sensations. That’s why a prototype of an artificial hand has been developed to help survivors experience sensations like cold or hot, and distinguish between different materials like glass or cardboard. As Faiza Elmasry tells us, this innovation was recently revealed at a technology show. VOA’s Faith Lapidus narrates.
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9/11 Tribute Museum Expands Space for Personal Stories
A museum that tells the stories of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks will reopen Tuesday in a new space, a little farther from the World Trade Center memorial but with triple the exhibition space of the temporary quarters it occupied for a decade.
The 9/11 Tribute Museum was originally founded in 2006 as a temporary shrine to the victims in the years that the larger, better known National September 11 Memorial and Museum was under construction and even after it opened in 2011.
The Tribute Museum offered daily guided tours of the rebuilt World Trade Center site led by people with close personal connections to the tragedy, including attack survivors, first responders, recovery workers and relatives of the dead.
More than 4 million people have visited the museum, originally called the Tribute Center and co-founded by CEO Jennifer Adams-Webb and the September 11th Families’ Association, causing it to outgrow its original home in a space formerly occupied by a delicatessen.
The new space, a few blocks away, is 36,000-square-feet, about half of which is exhibition space. It is located on the ground and second floors of a high-rise building.
“Originally, when we started, we weren’t sure where we were going,” said Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son, Jonathan, died in the attacks. “We realized, as the years went on, that we are making an impact.”
Artifacts on display at the museum include “missing persons” posters that were hung throughout the city in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, when families still held hope that their loved ones would be found alive. Other items on display include a death certificate, a boarding pass for someone who was on one of the flights, and a section of window from one of the hijacked planes.
On a tour of the space last week, Ielpi, a retired firefighter, stopped before one display that left him in tears: his son’s helmet and fire department jacket.
“It is crucial that we pass on the understanding of 9/11 to future generations and the tremendous spirit of resilience and service that arose after the attacks,” said Ielpi, who helped carry his son’s body from the rubble.
Ielpi had nothing but praise for the much larger National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which serves as the country’s principal institution that tells the 9/11 story through interactive technology, archives and filmed narratives. He said the institutions “complement each other,” with the Tribute Museum able to truly personalize the experience of the day through the volunteer guides.
The new space cost $8.7 million. Private and public funds for it include donations from American Express, Zurich North America and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the Trade Center site.
The museum also offers programs for visiting schoolchildren who were not even alive on Sept. 11, 2001.
Lee Skolnick, whose firm designed the exhibit layout, said the Tribute Museum’s power comes from the survivors, relatives and recovery workers who lead the tours and who have agreed to share their personal stories.
“The fact that survivors, responders and citizens discovered the `seeds of service’ growing out of unimaginable tragedy is a testament to the power of the human spirit and an amazing life lesson for us all,” said Skolnick. “What can you do for others, for the world?”
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Seeds of Change Offer Hope in Lebanon
In the farm fields of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the start of a harvest that not even war could stop offers hope for farmers facing a time of crisis.
Driven from their headquarters in Syria’s Aleppo province, the work continues of a group of scientists and farmers who store and grow crops with a view to helping feed nations.
The work of experts at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is global, but many harbor the personal hope their efforts will help rebuild the country they left behind.
Fond memories
In ICARDA’s Lebanon base, Ali Shehadeh fondly scrolls through pictures on his laptop of the old HQ, from the seed bank where samples of crops such as wheat, barley and chickpeas were preserved to the fields in which they were grown.
Spread out across 1,000 hectares, the site represented a vast archive of the country’s agricultural past and present, as well as a treasure trove for farmers worldwide.
This includes 150,000 seed samples stored and ready to be grown or distributed across the globe, with each sample potentially holding genetic traits that could help develop crops better suited to survival in an age of rapidly changing conditions.
“We try to figure out how to produce crops better adapted to climate change,” explained Shehadeh, originally from Idlib.
Before the war, their work had played a role in helping Syria reach the point of producing enough to feed itself, but the same war that destroyed that self-sufficiency also drove them out.
Shehadeh scrolls onto the most recent pictures they have — images of damaged buildings now inaccessible because of militias operating in the region.
The worsening of conditions — including the kidnapping of two staff members, who were released a few weeks later — lead to the ICARDA shifting its operations out of the country.
“It was sad, of course,” said Shehadeh. “We left behind a lot of memories and valuable resources.”
A global challenge
All, however, was not lost.
With troubles brewing in 2012, the ICARDA team was prompted to copy most of the samples and send them to Svalbard, an ultra-secure “doomsday” global seed vault dug into a snow-steeped mountain on Norway’s Arctic archipelago.
Then, in 2015, they withdrew seeds from Svalbard to help rebuild the collection — this time in Lebanon, as well as Morocco.
This is the fifth harvest collected at Terbol, a small town in the Bekaa Valley and new home for ICARDA.
With climate change beginning to be more keenly felt, the work of those like Mariana Yazbeck will be increasingly vital.
Yazbeck is seed bank manager at the new site, and highlighted the role of the region in the birth of farming.
“What we have here is the base for some of the most important crops responsible for feeding a large population in the heart of the fertile crescent, which is the cradle of agriculture,” Yazbeck said. “Now, 10,000 years later, we’ve many problems facing our agricultural practice, whether diseases or environmental challenges, and the need to feed an ever-growing population.”
The dream of returning
Though it may not be a direct result of climate change, the agricultural sector in Syria is in as dire need of assistance as any.
According to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization assessment last year on the impact of the war, damage to the sector totaled $16 billion.
Whether due to damage to infrastructure or displacement of farmers, there has been a “huge” decrease in production, said FAO representative Adam Yao.
“To rebuild the agricultural sector, there will need to be a major rethink of Syria’s whole agricultural policy,” he added, stating that ICARDA’s expertise could have a “key role” in this.
Though largely abandoned, the ICARDA center in Aleppo is not entirely out of action — it is thought the seed bank freezer continues to work unattended.
And for many at ICARDA’s Bekaa facilities, when peace comes and brings with it the opportunity for the organization to return to Syria, the desire to assist will not just be professional — it will be personal.
The farm of Muhammed Amer Jnedan’s family, located in a small village outside Aleppo, is currently occupied by a man from a local militia.
But in his work with ICARDA, Jnedan is determined that he will put his knowledge to use, starting with home.
“Maybe it is kind of dreaming,” he said, “but I am still thinking to get back to my village. I want to put [to use] this experience I gathered or I obtained in the last 10 years.”
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Falling Cocoa Prices Threaten Child Labor Spike in Ghana, Ivory Coast
A drop in global cocoa prices threatens to undermine efforts to stamp out child labor in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world’s two biggest growers, as falling incomes could force farmers to send their children to work, charities said on Monday.
More than two million children are estimated to work in the cocoa industry across the two West African nations, where they carry heavy loads, spray pesticides and fell trees using sharp tools, according to the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).
The countries’ governments, civil society groups and some of the world’s top chocolate producers have in recent years ramped up efforts to tackle child labor in supply chains, invest in cocoa growing communities, and get more children into school.
Yet the economies of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which together account for more than 60 percent of the world’s cocoa supply, have been hit hard by a sharp drop in world prices that have seen cocoa futures plummet by around a third since last summer.
“If these low prices translate into lower incomes for poor families, and household poverty gets worse, we are worried that the risk of child labor will increase,” Nick Weatherill, executive director of ICI, told Reuters.
Children could be taken out of school if their families can no longer pay the costs, and many may be made to work on cocoa farms if growers cannot afford to employ laborers, he added.
“The drop in prices does create greater vulnerability … [due to] further demand in an already strained landscape,” Ruth Dearnley, chief executive officer of Stop The Traffik, said as charities and activists marked World Day Against Child Labor.
Since reports of child labor on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast emerged in the late 1990s, the chocolate industry has been under pressure to prove its beans are not cultivated by children.
The ICI said its child labor monitoring and remediation system (CLMRS), which it has established in the supply chains of cocoa giants Cargill and Nestle, expanded last year to cover about 60,000 cocoa farming households in Ghana and Ivory Coast.
A report earlier this year by Stop the Traffik which analyzed the sustainability efforts of some of the world’s leading chocolate companies found that Nestle had the best CLMRS and was the most transparent at reporting cases of child labor.
“Whilst the drop in cocoa prices could potentially undermine civil society efforts to date … the reality is that these efforts are more critical than ever,” Dearnley added.
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Music Road Warriors James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt Team Up This Summer
James Taylor might just be the happiest road warrior touring today, so what makes him happier?
Bringing on old friend Bonnie Raitt this summer for concerts that include the ultimate in Americana, some of the country’s most storied baseball parks.
“I’ve loved her music and her for a long, long time,” Taylor told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I’ve interacted with Bonnie, and happily so, at numerous benefits for numerous causes — environmental, social, political causes — over the years. We’re very much in sync in that way. She’s an incredible giver.”
Among their stops will be Boston’s Fenway Park, where Taylor’s home-state team, the Red Sox, live and where Raitt last joined him on the road in 2015. And the first time? Well, that was back in 1970, when he invited the Harvard junior and budding blues singer, guitar player and songwriter onstage for a campus gig at Sanders Theatre after the two met through a mutual friend.
“I was nervous to play because I hadn’t really broken my chops in for concerts that much,” Raitt said by phone from Toronto while on a swing through Canada. “But I was so excited. It was an honor to be both at my school and opening for him. He couldn’t have been warmer and more friendly. It was intimidating to meet one of my heroes but he was just so down to earth.”
Raitt got her first recording contract and dropped out of school around that time. Though she was based on the West Coast and Taylor on the East, the two stayed in touch over the decades.
“The affection between us is so clear and so palpable. Our two bands love each other. James and I are both social activists and we’re really proud that a dollar of every ticket will be donated to various causes,” Raitt said.
The two haven’t worked up their sets yet but Raitt just may include Taylor’s 1968 “Rainy Day Man,” from his debut album and one of her all-time Taylor favorites, written by him and Zach Wiesner. It’s old-school Taylor, desperate and lonely, focused on making a dope connection soon after he tried opiates for the first time in real life, setting him on a 20-year path of addiction.
Raitt covered the song in 1974 on her “Streetlights” album.
“What good is that happy lie/All you wanted from the start was to cry/It looks like another fall/Your good friends they don’t seem to help at all/When you’re feeling kind of cold and small/Just look up your rainy day man.”
“It’s so complex and deep as a point of view, especially for someone as young as James when he wrote it,” Raitt said. “He was so insightful and so deeply in touch with the inner workings and the darker side of the human soul and relationships, and so much of that point of view was so beautifully expressed in his music. That song just speaks to me and always has.”
The summer tour has the two working together for six weeks, kicking off July 6 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and winding up at Fenway, Taylor’s third turn there, on Aug. 11. Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Wrigley Field in Chicago and AT&T Park in San Francisco are among their other ballpark stops.
Taylor, 69, and Raitt, 67, will play hour sets, guesting for each other as well. Come fall, Taylor will come off the road, where he’s averaged about half of each year for the last three years, to begin work on a new studio album, this one a look back at his musical influences.
“I don’t have a release date. We haven’t started recording yet. Past experience has shown me that if you set a deadline you’re just setting yourself up for a fall. I’m not writing these songs. I’m looking at the songs that basically were the source for my musical education. The way I want to record them is just my guitar arrangements,” he said.
His last album of original material was in 2015, “Before This World,” some of which explored his road to recovery. The album didn’t come easy. He left the family, including twin teen boys, to hole up in Newport, Rhode Island, following a 13-year gap for release of new songs.
Raitt put out a studio album last year called “Dig in Deep” and generally works in five-year cycles for recording,
“It’s a lot more fun to be out here on the road playing than it is looking for ideas for a new record,” she said. “Some people enjoy writing and it’s always satisfying, but really the payoff for me is being able to travel around and make people happy every night, including me.”
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Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Case Goes to the Jury
The fate of comedian Bill Cosby is now in the hands of the jury after both sides wrapped up their cases Monday in his sexual assault trial near Philadelphia.
The 79-year-old Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former director of operations of the Temple University women’s basketball team.
He allegedly gave her pills that paralyzed her and left her unable to resist when he started touching her in his Philadelphia home.
Constand had gone to Cosby’s house for dinner and to get advice about her career.
Cosby’s lawyers used their closing arguments to say Constand lied on the witness stand about her relationship with the comic. They pointed out that she telephoned Cosby more than 50 times after the alleged attack, but told police she had no contact with him.
“It’s not a fib. It’s not a mistake, It’s a stone cold lie,” Brian McMonagle told the jury.
Constand said the calls were just business and that Cosby, as a Temple alumnus, could help the basketball team.
“This isn’t talking to a trustee. This is talking to a lover,” McMonagle said, accusing Constand of trying to use Cosby’s name for financial gain.
The prosecution relied heavily on parts of the deposition Cosby gave to police in a 2005 civil suit brought by Constand.
In it, Cosby admitted getting a prescription to a sedative called Quaaludes back in the 1970s and giving the drug to women he wanted to sleep with.
District Attorney Kevin Steele told the jury these words prove Cosby knew exactly what he was doing when he allegedly gave pills to Constand, telling her they were herbal relaxants.
“Drugging somebody and putting them in a position where you can do what you want with them is not romantic. It’s criminal.”
Steele said no amount of “fancy lawyering” will save Cosby from his own words.
“Ladies and gentlemen, he has told you what he has done,” Steele said to the jurors. “It is about as straightforward as you are ever going to see in a sex crimes case.”
If found guilty, Cosby could go to prison for the rest of his life.
More than 50 women claim Cosby sexually assaulted them in incidents dating back to the 1960s, when he emerged as a major comedy star. Most of the alleged incidents occurred too long ago to be prosecuted now.
Constand’s complaint is the only one that has come to trial. Cosby has denied all the charges.
Cosby won fame for stand-up comedy routines focusing on his Philadelphia childhood and growing up in a middle class black family.
He played a wise and genial doctor in his 1980s television comedy series, The Cosby Show. It was the country’s most popular TV show for much of its eight-year run.
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Study: Premature Babies Often Catch Up to Peers in School
A study following more than 1.3 million premature babies born in Florida found that two-thirds of those born at only 23 or 24 weeks were ready for kindergarten on time, and almost 2 percent of those infants later achieved gifted status in school.
Such very prematurely born babies did score lower on standardized tests than full-term infants, but as the length of pregnancy increased, the differences in test scores became negligible, according to the study, conducted by Northwestern University and published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics medical journal.
“What excites me about this study is that it changes the focus for the clinician and families at the bedside from just focusing on the medical outcomes of the child to what the future educational outcomes might be for a child born early,” Craig Garfield, the first author of the study and an associate professor of pediatrics and medial social sciences at Northwestern Medicine, said in a statement.
Researchers analyzed the school performance of 1.3 million infants born in Florida from 1992 to 2002 who had a fetal development term of 23 to 41 weeks and who later entered the state’s public schools between 1995 and 2012.
They found that babies born at between 23 and 24 weeks tended to have normal cognitive functions later in life, with 1.8 percent of them even achieving gifted status in school.
During the time period the study covered, 9.5 percent of children statewide were considered gifted.
Premature birth happens when a baby is born before at least 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A normal pregnancy term is around 40 weeks, and a preterm birth can lead to serious medical problems, underdevelopment in early childhood or death for the infant.
The study does not account for why these extremely premature infants later performed well in school, Garfield said in the statement, and did not look at whether their success could be related to extra support from family or schools, or the children’s biological make-up.
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Poland Concerned About Rising Protectionism in Europe After Macron Win
Poland warned on Monday against rising protectionism in Europe after a decisive victory for French President Emmanuel Macron’s party in the first round of parliamentary elections.
Macron has called for a “protection agenda” for the European Union that includes a “Buy European Act” and regulations to prevent strategic companies from falling into non-European hands.
Konrad Szymanski, Poland’s deputy foreign minister in charge of European affairs, told reporters in Berlin that other EU governments might adopt a more protectionist stance to support Macron.
“The future development of the EU’s single market is causing the biggest concerns for us,” Szymanski said in reference to Macron’s agenda.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last month she was open to Macron’s proposal to create a level playing field between EU countries and other international trade partners.
Szymanski pointed out that the completion of the internal market for services and for the digital economy was still a work in progress that had to be completed urgently.
“We do not want to pay for the Macron victory,” Szymanski said, referring to a debate in EU countries that governments should fight back against rising populism by making concessions on the openness of markets.
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Eurozone, IMF Eye Compromise to Unblock Loans for Greece
Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund are likely to strike a compromise on Greece on Thursday, paving the way for new loans for Athens while leaving the contentious debt relief issue for later, officials said on Monday.
IMF head Christine Lagarde suggested a plan last week under which the Fund would join the Greek bailout now, because Athens is delivering on agreed reforms, but would not disburse any IMF money until the eurozone clarifies what debt relief it can offer Greece.
Underlining the IMF’s willingness to strike a deal after months of wrangling between its European chief Poul Thomsen and the eurozone, Lagarde will attend the ministers’ meeting.
IMF participation in the bailout, even without immediate disbursements, would be enough for the German parliament to back new euro zone loans to Athens, thus ensuring Greece would get enough cash in July to repay maturing debt and avoid default.
“Everyone thinks there is a high probability we will end up with the solution Lagarde outlined,” an official involved in preparations for Thursday’s meeting in Luxembourg said.
Reforms approved Friday
A second official involved in the preparations also said he expected a deal involving IMF participation along the lines described by Lagarde.
“There would be an IMF disbursement as soon as there is more clarity on debt, but the timing of that is to be confirmed,” the second official said.
Greece’s parliament approved last Friday reforms demanded by the international lenders to conclude a long-stalled review of its bailout progress and qualify for more loans before July.
Eurozone officials said that if the expected compromise is reached, Greece could get between 7.4 and 8 billion euros from the eurozone bailout fund ESM to cover next month’s repayments.
IMF support on hold
The IMF has so far refused to join Greece’s bailout, its third since 2010, which it says must be the country’s last, meaning that in addition to Athens making reforms, the eurozone must offer relief to help make Greece’s debts sustainable.
But Berlin does not want to discuss any details of debt relief for Greece before German parliamentary elections in September. At the same time, the German parliament has asked for IMF participation if it is to agree to any new disbursements.
To complicate matters further, the IMF and the eurozone differ substantially on forecasts for Greek growth for decades ahead and on Athens’ ability to achieve high primary surpluses to help it service its debt.
Debt relief plan
The IMF is much more conservative than the euro zone, saying Greece has a track record of underperforming targets set in its bailouts. It says that to expect the country to keep a high primary surplus for decades is unrealistic.
But some eurozone scenarios show that with sufficiently high economic growth and fiscal discipline — a primary surplus above 3 percent of GDP for 20 years — Greece would not need any extra debt relief.
To bridge the gap, France is proposing to link debt relief to Greece’s GDP growth with an automatic formula. Officials said experts would explore that option further, but its chances of success are seen as rather low because of lack of experience, problems with incentives and the Greek constitution.
Sweet Sizzlin’ Beans! Fancy Names May Boost Healthy Dining
Researchers tried a big serving of food psychology and a dollop of trickery to get diners to eat their vegetables. And it worked.
Veggies given names like “zesty ginger-turmeric sweet potatoes” and “twisted citrus-glazed carrots” were more popular than those prepared exactly the same way but with plainer, more healthful-sounding labels. Diners more often said “no thanks” when the food had labels like “low-fat,” “reduced-sodium” or “sugar-free.”
More diners chose the fancy-named items, and selected larger portions of them, too, in the experiment last fall at a Stanford University cafeteria.
“While it may seem like a good idea to emphasize the healthiness of vegetables, doing so may actually backfire,” said lead author Bradley Turnwald, a graduate student in psychology.
Other research has shown that people tend to think of healthful sounding food as less tasty, so the aim was to make it sound as good as more indulgent, fattening fare.
Researchers from Stanford’s psychology department tested the idea as a way to improve eating habits and make a dent in the growing obesity epidemic.
“This novel, low-cost intervention could easily be implemented in cafeterias, restaurants, and consumer products to increase selection of healthier options,” they said.
Study’s details
The results were published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The study was done over 46 days last fall. Lunchtime vegetable offerings were given different labels on different days. For example, on one day diners could choose “dynamite chili and tangy lime-seasoned beets.” On other days, the same item was labeled “lighter-choice beets with no added sugar,” “high antioxidant beets,” or simply “beets.”
Almost one-third of the nearly 28,000 diners chose a vegetable offering during the study. The tasty-sounding offering was the most popular, selected by about 220 diners on average on days it was offered, compared with about 175 diners who chose the simple-label vegetable. The healthy-sounding labels were the least popular.
Diners also served themselves bigger portions of the tasty-sounding vegetables than of the other choices.
Turnwald emphasized that “there was no deception” — all labels accurately described the vegetables, although diners weren’t told that the different-sounding choices were the exact same item.
The results illustrate “the interesting advantage to indulgent labeling,” he said.
Dr. Stephen Cook, a University of Rochester childhood obesity researcher, called the study encouraging and said some high school cafeterias have also tried different labels to influence healthy eating.
“It shouldn’t be a surprise to us because marketing people have been doing this for years,” Cook said.
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Cybersecurity Firms Warn of Malware That Could Cause Power Outages
Two cybersecurity firms said they have uncovered malicious software that they believe caused a December 2016 Ukraine power outage, warning that the malware could be easily modified to harm critical infrastructure operations
around the globe.
ESET, a Slovakian anti-virus software maker, and Dragos Inc, a U.S. critical-infrastructure security firm, on Monday released detailed analyses of the malware, known as Industroyer or Crash Override. They said they had also issued private alerts to governments and infrastructure operators in a bid to help them defend against the threat.
They said they did not know who was behind the December Ukraine cyberattack. Ukraine has blamed Russia, though officials in Moscow have repeatedly denied blame.
Still, the security firms warned there could be more attacks using the same approach, either by the group that built the malware or copycats who modify the malicious software.
“The malware is really easy to re-purpose and use against other targets. That is definitely alarming,” said ESET malware researcher Robert Lipovsky. “This could cause wide-scale damage to infrastructure systems that are vital.”
Dragos founder Robert M. Lee said the malware is capable of attacking power systems across Europe and could be leveraged against the United States “with small modifications.”
It is capable of causing outages of up to a few days in portions of a nation’s grid, but is not potent enough to bring down a country’s entire grid, Lee said.
With modifications, the malware could attack other types of infrastructure including local transportation providers, water and gas providers, Lipovsky said.
Industroyer is only the second piece of malware uncovered to date that is capable of disrupting industrial processes without the need for hackers to manually intervene after gaining remote access to the infected system.
The first, Stuxnet, was discovered in 2010 and is widely believed by security researchers to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear program.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s state cyber police said it was not clear whether the malware was used in the December 2016 attack because the security firms had not provided authorities with the samples they had analyzed.
Representatives with Ukraine’s state-run Computer Emergency Response Team, which advises businesses on defending against cyberattacks, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Kremlin and Russia’s Federal Security Service did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Crash Override can be detected if a utility specifically monitors its network for abnormal traffic, including signs that the malware is searching for the location of substations or sending messages to switch breakers, according to Lee, a former U.S. Air Force cyber warfare operations officer.
Malware has been used in other disruptive attacks on industrial targets, including the 2015 Ukraine power outage, but in those cases human intervention was required to interfere with operations.
ESET said it had been analyzing the malware for several months and had held off on going public to preserve the integrity of investigations into the power system hack.
It said it last week shared samples with Dragos, which said it was able to independently verify that it was used in the Ukraine grid attack.
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Researchers Say Power-grid-wrecking Software Discovered
Researchers say they’ve discovered a worrying breed of power grid-wrecking software, saying the program was likely responsible for a brief blackout that hit Kyiv, Ukraine, late last year.
Slovakia-based computer security company ESET and Maryland-based Dragos, Inc. said in a report published Monday that the malicious software has the ability to control the switches and circuit breakers – a nightmare scenario for those charged with keeping the lights on.
Policymakers have long ranked malware that can remotely sabotage industrial computers among some of the world’s most dangerous threats because of its potential to deal immense damage across the internet.
The researchers stopped just short of blaming the malware for the Ukrainian power outage on December 17, 2016.
Ukrainian officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on the report.
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US Top Court Rules for Microsoft in Xbox Class Action Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of Microsoft Corp in its bid to
fend off class action claims by Xbox 360 owners who said the popular video game console gouges discs because of a design defect.
The court, in a 8-0 ruling, overturned a 2015 decision by the San Francisco- based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed console owners to appeal the dismissal of their class action lawsuit by a federal judge in Seattle in 2012.
Typically parties cannot appeal a class certification ruling until the entire case has reached a conclusion. But the 9th Circuit allowed the console owners to voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit so they could immediately appeal the denial of a class certification.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing on behalf of the court, said such a move was not permitted because a voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit is not a final decision and thus cannot be appealed.
The Xbox console owners filed a proposed class action against Microsoft in federal court in 2011, saying the design of the console was defective and that its optical disc drive could not withstand even small vibrations.
The company said class certification was improper because just 0.4 percent of Xbox owners reported disc scratches, and that misuse was the cause.
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Bangladesh Trains Girls to Fight Online Predators
Bangladesh has begun training thousands of school girls to protect them from being blackmailed or harassed online following an alarming rise in cybercrimes.
The Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Division of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Post, Telecommunication & Information Technology recently finished conducting a pilot project in which female students from urban areas were taught how to keep themselves safe if they faced online threats.
“Most of the victims of cybercrime in our country are young girls. So, we decided to spread awareness among the girls first. In this pilot project, over 10,000 girls from 40 schools and colleges took part in our workshops and we got a massive response. Now we have our target to take this campaign across the whole country involving 40 million students in 170,000 schools and colleges,” Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for ICT told VOA.
Internet growth
Bangladesh has experienced a double-digit growth in Internet use every year in the past 15 years and almost half of the social media users in the country are women and teenage girls, but authorities say they make up about 70 percent of cybercrime victims.
Mishuk Chakma, a cybersecurity expert of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said the boyfriends of the Facebook-using girls often trick them into posing for intimate photographs or videos.
“Later, when their relationships are on the rocks, their former boyfriends post the photos and videos in the social media to emotionally blackmail the girls. Such photos and videos often trigger troubles in the lives of the girls after they get into new relationships or get married,” Chakma told VOA. “In such a situation many marital relationships are getting into troubles and even in a few cases the girls are taking extreme steps like attempting suicide.”
Sahana, a 15-year-old who took part in an ICT-organized workshop, said she feels she has benefitted from the training.
“I shall verify one’s identity in many ways before I accept his or her Facebook ‘friend request’ now. Now I have also learned that I should not disclose much of my personal information on Facebook,” she said. “Also, I am quite confident now that none can harass or blackmail me on Facebook.”
Raising awareness
Sometimes the criminals are superimposing faces of the girls, who are known to them, onto the bodies of nude models or adult film stars to blackmail and defame the girls, Chakma said.
“Cyber harassment of girls and women can be effectively curbed if the spread of awareness among the social media users increases,” he said.
The Office of the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) of the ICT Division hired cybersecurity consulting agency Four D Communications to conduct the recent training of the 10,000 girls.
Abdullah Al Imran, managing director of Four D Communications, said apart from learning how to defend themselves online, the girls also learned how to bring cyber criminals to justice.
“Very surprisingly we found that as much as 93 percent of the girls who participated in the training did not know that Bangladesh already has an ICT Act to help cyber harassment victims. We also taught them where and how they would seek help in case they were harassed or blackmailed online,” Imran told VOA. “Girls mostly from urban areas took part in our pilot project. I am sure, in smaller towns and rural areas the Internet literacy level among girls is even lower and they are more vulnerable there.”
But Lawyer Tureen Afroz, an advocate in Dhaka’s Supreme Court, said to deal with the growing cybercrime the government should amend further the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006 or ICT Act to make it up to date.
“Indeed it’s a good initiative that the government is trying to educate the girls and raise awareness among them about the growing trend of cybercrimes. But, the government also needs to revamp the judiciary to achieve higher rate of success in fight against such crimes,” she said. “We are still unable to make the best use of smarter electronic evidences to pin down the cyber criminals in the court of law.”
Expansion
Senior officials say the government is keen to spread cyber safety awareness across the whole country.
Abul Mansur Mohammad Sharf Uddin, who heads the government’s cyber safety awareness campaign, said his department is busy on a blueprint to expand the campaign.
“For the students, the contents on Internet literacy, which will be included to the national curriculum, will be ready soon. We want to introduce the course not just in schools and colleges, but also in over 100 universities of the country. We will also raise teachers across academic institutions of the country who will conduct cyber safety training classes for students locally,” Sharf Uuddin said.
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Will Cosby Testify at Sex Assault Trial? Lawyers Remain Quiet
Actor Bill Cosby could charm jurors at his sexual assault trial if he testifies this week, but experts say the risk would be considerable.
Accuser Andrea Constand has told her side of the story. The jury also heard Cosby’s version in the form of his police statement and his lurid deposition in her 2005 lawsuit. But will they hear from the 79-year-old actor himself when the defense starts Monday?
Cosby’s spokesman says maybe, but his lawyers remain mum.
“He could be a fantastic witness. … He’s an actor and he’s a very good actor,” said Duquesne University School of Law professor Wes Oliver. “(But) he is potentially opening the door to a whole lot of cross-examination that they fought really hard to keep out.”
Prosecutors wanted 13 other accusers to testify at the trial, but the judge allowed just one, an assistant to his agent at the William Morris Agency. That meant the prosecution rested its case on Friday, just five days after the trial began.
If Cosby testifies, and denies drugging and molesting Constand or anyone else, the judge might allow more accusers to testify as rebuttal witnesses.
“It would be very bad for him for the jury to even begin to think about the other women,” Oliver said.
The defense’s main goal this past week has been to attack the credibility of Constand and the William Morris assistant, Kelly Johnson. Johnson had corroborating evidence in the form of her 1996 worker’s compensation claim. A lawyer on the case recalled her startling account of being drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby, but his notes revealed a glaring discrepancy in the account. He said the encounter occurred in 1990, while Johnson insists it was 1996, the year she left her job.
The defense had more trouble trying to discredit Constand. They hammered home the point that she doesn’t know just when it happened, and they questioned why she had regular phone contact with Cosby later that spring. Constand said she had to return calls from the Temple University trustee because he was an important booster and she worked for the women’s basketball team.
She filed a police complaint in January 2005 after moving back home to the Toronto area, and then sued Cosby in March 2005 when the local prosecutor decided not to charge him.
Cosby’s testimony in her civil case shows just how hard a witness he would be to control. His answers, like his comedy routines, meander from point to point and veer toward stream of consciousness.
And he uses jarring language to describe his sexual encounters with various young women. He talks in the deposition of “the penile entrance” and “digital penetration,” and he told Constand’s mother, when she called to confront him, that her daughter had had an orgasm. And he can display hints of arrogance.
“One of the greatest storytellers in the world and I’m failing,” Cosby said when asked to repeat an answer in the deposition.
The defense could call other witnesses to try to bolster their argument that Cosby had a consensual relationship with Constand, 35 years his junior.
The trial would move to closing arguments on Monday if they decide not to put anyone on the stand.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand and Johnson have done.
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Katy Perry Opens Up on Livestream About Suicidal Thoughts
Katy Perry opened up about having suicidal thoughts during a marathon weekend livestream event.
“I feel ashamed that I would have those thoughts, feel that low, and that depressed,” she said Saturday on YouTube during a tearful session with Siri Singh from the Viceland series “The Therapist.”
The pop star has been livestreaming herself since Friday, filming her life for anyone with an internet connection to see. She’s been doing yoga, hosting dinner parties, sleeping, applying makeup and singing, of course.
By Sunday, the most revealing 60 minutes of the four-day “Katy Perry – Witness World Wide” event was her time with Singh.
Perry told Singh she struggles with her public persona. In the past, she said, she has had suicidal thoughts. She talked about the challenge of being her authentic self while promoting her public image as she lives “under this crazy microscope.”
“I so badly want to be Katheryn Hudson (her birth name) that I don’t even want to look like Katy Perry anymore sometimes – and, like, that is a little bit of why I cut my hair, because I really want to be my authentic self,” she said.
Perry is sporting a new short, blond hairstyle.
The YouTube event is a promotion for her new album “Witness.” The livestream will culminate in a free concert Monday in Los Angeles for 1,000 fans.
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Uber Discussing Leave for CEO, Reports Say
The board of Uber was meeting Sunday to consider placing the CEO of the ride-hailing company on leave, according The New York Times and other news outlets.
The Times reported that three people with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that Uber’s board was meeting to consider recommendations from a law firm hired to review Uber’s corporate culture and that the board may decide to put CEO Travis Kalanick on temporary leave.
The newspaper said its sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for Uber.
Uber Technologies Inc. has been rocked by accusations that its management has fostered a workplace environment where harassment, discrimination and bullying are left unchecked.
Uber spokesman Matt Kallman said that he wasn’t sure the company would make a statement after the meeting.
Reuters and the tech blog Recode reported the board meeting earlier. The Wall Street Journal also was citing unnamed sources about the meeting.
Uber has hired the law firm of former Attorney General Eric Holder to review policies and recommend changes. A report by his firm, Covington & Burling, was expected to be made public soon.
Uber announced last week that it fired 20 employees for harassment problems.
Under CEO Kalanick, Uber has shaken up the taxi industry in hundreds of cities and turned the San Francisco-based company into the world’s most valuable startup. Uber’s valuation has climbed to nearly $70 billion.
Management style at issue
But Kalanick has acknowledged his management style needs improvement. The 40-year-old CEO said earlier this year that he needed to “fundamentally change and grow up.”
In February, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote on a blog that she had been propositioned by her boss in a series of messages on her first day of work and that superiors ignored her complaints. Uber set up a hotline for complaints after that and hired the law firm of Perkins Coie to investigate.
That firm checked into 215 complaints, with 57 still under investigation.
Uber has been plagued by more than sexual harassment complaints in recent months. It has been threatened by boycotts, sued and subject to a federal investigation that it used a fake version of its app to thwart authorities looking into whether it is breaking local laws.
Kalanick lost his temper earlier this year in an argument with an Uber driver who was complaining about pay, and Kalanick’s profanity-laced comments were caught on video.
In a March conference call with reporters after that incident, board member Arianna Huffington expressed confidence that Kalanick would evolve into a better leader. But Huffington, a founder of Huffington Post, suggested time might be running out.
He’s a “scrappy entrepreneur,” she said during the call, but one who needed to bring “changes in himself and in the way he leads.”
The board meeting comes fresh on personal tragedy in Kalanick’s life. His mother was killed in late May after the boat she and her husband were riding in hit a rock. Kalanick’s father suffered moderate injuries.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Chief Business Officer Emil Michael is planning to resign as soon as Monday.
The company has faced high turnover in its top ranks. In March, Uber’s president, Jeff Jones, resigned after less than a year on the job. He said his “beliefs and approach to leadership” were “inconsistent” with those of the company.
In addition to firing 20 employees, Uber said Tuesday that it was hiring an Apple marketing executive, Bozoma Saint John, to help improve its tarnished brand. Saint John most recently was head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music and iTunes.
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Judy Garland Returns to Hollywood, Laid to Rest in Mausoleum
Judy Garland has been laid to rest in a mausoleum named for her at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
A spokeswoman for Garland’s estate says her family and friends held a private memorial service for the actress Saturday, which would have been Garland’s 95th birthday. She was buried in the Judy Garland Pavilion.
Garland’s children, Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joe Luft, wanted to bring their mother’s remains “home to Hollywood” from her original burial site at New York’s Ferncliff Cemetery, publicist Victoria Varela said. They attended the service, along with Garland’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In a statement released to The Associated Press, they offered gratitude to their mother’s “millions of fans around the world for their constant love and support.”
Garland’s children announced earlier this year that they had relocated their mother’s remains to Los Angeles. Garland’s third husband, Mickey Deans, buried her in New York, but her children said she wished to be interred with her family in Hollywood, Varela said.
The Judy Garland Pavilion is intended as a final resting spot for Minnelli, Luft and other family members, cemetery spokeswoman Noelle Berman said in January.
Garland, star of classic films including The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis, died in 1969 at age 47 in London.
Jayne Mansfield, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B. DeMille are among the entertainment luminaries buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Rocker Chris Cornell was laid to rest there last month.
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Natural, Manmade Wonders in the Land of Enchantment
Natural caves where desert natives once made their homes … places where massive boulders appear to rise up from the desert … ancient rocks inscribed with symbolic carvings … a once-active volcano where visitors can walk down into its center. These are just a few of the timeless wonders that national parks traveler Mikah Meyer recently visited during his journey through the southwestern state of New Mexico. He shared highlights with VOA’s JulieTaboh.
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