Human bone smuggling racket uncovered....

By Bappa Majumdar

Tue June 19, 2007. KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian police have discovered a stash of hundreds of human skulls and thigh bones and arrested a gang for allegedly smuggling them to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan for use in Buddhist monasteries.

"During interrogation they confessed that the hollow human thigh bones were in great demand in monasteries and were used as blow-horns, and the skulls as vessels to drink from at religious ceremonies," investigating officer Ravinder Nalwa said Tuesday.

It was the second cache of bones found in eastern India since April and police now believe the region could be the center of a much broader trade in human bones. They suspect some bones may even have ended up as far away as Thailand and Japan.

Officers found the latest collection in Jaigaon, a town in eastern India on the border with Bhutan, and arrested four people who said they were smuggling them across the border, Nalwa told Reuters by telephone from the northeastern town of Siliguri.

In April, police discovered what they called a "human bones factory" in the state, and arrested six people for illegally trading in skeletons. The bones were apparently being sold to medical students and for use in traditional medicine.

Both caches of bones appear to have originated in Varanasi, a Hindu holy city in northern India where millions of people are cremated every year on the banks of the Ganges.

"The skeletons seized in Jaigaon had all come from Varanasi's cremation centers and all these years we thought they were just going secretly to medical students," Nalwa said. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Hackers hit 10,000 sites, launch 'phenomenal' attack...

19 June, 2007. The large-scale attack is based on the multiexploit hacker kit dubbed 'Mpack' By: Gregg Keizer (Computerworld)

PC Security
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Attackers armed with an exploit toolkit have launched massive attacks in Europe from a network of at least 10,000 hacked Web sites, with infections spreading worldwide, several security companies warned Monday.

As early as last Friday, analysts reported the opening salvos of a large-scale attack based on the multi-exploit hacker kit dubbed "Mpack." The mechanics of the attacks are involved, but essentially attackers taint each compromised site with code that then redirects visitors to a server hosting the Mpack kit -- a professional, Russian-made collection of exploits that comes complete with a management console to detail which exploits are working, and against what countries' domains.

Infected computers are fed a diet of malicious code, largely keyloggers that spy out usernames and passwords for valuable accounts, such as online banking sites.

"The gang behind the attack has successfully compromised the homepages of hundreds of legitimate Italian Web sites," said Symantec researcher Elia Florio in a posting to the vendor's security response blog on Friday. "The list of compromised sites is huge and from Mpack statistics this attack is working efficiently."

Florio said Symantec is uncertain how the sites were originally hacked, but suspected a common vulnerability or configuration problem at the hosting level. Paul Ferguson, a network architect with Trend Micro Inc., would only guess at how sites were hijacked, but said that the 'how' is mostly moot. What's important: "The hackers seem to be able to find a lot of sites to compromise no matter where they look."

By Friday night, Symantec had pegged the number of compromised sites feeding Mpack exploits at 6,000; by today, Websense Inc., a San Diego-based Web security company, said it had tracked more than 10,000. "That's a phenomenal number," argued Ferguson, who said that previous compromised-site attacks using hacker kits could be counted as "several hundred here, a couple hundred there."

Screenshots of the Mpack management console posted by Websense on Monday and Symantec on Friday illustrate the large numbers of computers that have surfed to the compromised sites, and the high success rate of the Mpack-delivered exploits. Although the bulk of the victim PCs use Italian IP addresses, U.S.-based machines are not immune.

"The lion's share of the sites we're seeing are in Italy still," said Ferguson, "but we're seeing sites all over the world as well." For instance, Trend Micro has identified hacker-controlled sites hosted in California and Illinois. The California site is hosted by a company Ferguson called "notorious," but he wouldn't divulge the hosting vendor's name.

"The usual advice we give, 'avoid the bad neighborhoods of the Web,' just doesn't hold water anymore" when legitimate sites have been hacked and are serving up exploits left and right, Ferguson said. "Everywhere could be a bad neighborhood now."

More about Web Security, Websense, Trend Micro, Symantec

Taiwan's HTC to launch iPhone rival...

Technology Reuters.com By Sheena Lee

<--- A HTC Touch phone is seen in an undated publicity photo. Taiwan smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. REUTERS/Handout

Tue Jun 12, 2007 TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) (2498.TW: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Tuesday it will launch one of its own-brand touch-screen phones in the United States by the end of the year, as it seeks to compete with Apple's iPhone.

The company's second-half U.S. launch for its newly released HTC Touch phone follows a recent release for the model in Britain, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

The model, a so-called smartphone with cellphone and personal digital assistant (PDA) capabilities, will use touch-screen technology similar to that of the iPhone, set for release in the United States later this month.

"We've finally walked out of our different twists and turns," Chou said, a reference to his company's recent shift from making phones for other firms, known as original design manufacturing (ODM), to making phones under its own HTC brand name.

Chou said non-ODM phones now account for more than 70 percent of the company's sales.

He said HTC should post third-quarter revenue higher than the current quarter, and that unit phone shipments for all of 2007 should grow from 2006.

The company is expected to post third-quarter revenue of T$30.1 billion ($912 million), up from a forecast of T$27.3 billion for the current quarter, according to analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.(US$1=T$33.0)

HTC, which sells mobile phones under its own name and makes smartphones for the likes of Dell (DELL.O: Quote, Profile , Research) and NTT DoCoMo (9437.T: Quote, NEWS , Research), is the world's biggest maker of devices that combine functions on personal digital assistants (PDAs) with mobile communications

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Dead baby left on rubbish pile...

The Daily Telegraph By AAP

June 12, 2007 12:00 A PATHOLOGIST has been called in to examine the body of a baby found dumped at rubbish recycling centre in Perth.

Police said they could not give any information until the pathologist and crime scene investigators had examined the scene in north suburban Malaga.

"Police received a call to come to Atlas Recycling because they had located a baby, sadly," said Sergeant Graham Clifford of WA police.

"We're waiting for a crime scene unit to attend and also a pathologist.
"It's early stages, but we are waiting for them to attend so they can give us some more information."

Major crime detectives and others from Mirrabooka police were also at the scene.
The centre recycles domestic rubbish for the City of Stirling, a council area incorporating many of Perth's northern suburbs.

Rechter herroept celstraf wegens orale seks...

Live radio & info

11 juni 2007 ATLANTA (ANP) - Een rechter in de Amerikaanse staat Georgia heeft in een beroepszaak de vrijlating gelast van een 21-jarige man die eerder tot tien jaar cel was geoordeeld wegens orale seks met een minderjarig meisje.

Zijn veroordeling veroorzaakte indertijd veel opschudding. Prominente Amerikanen, onder wie president Jimmy Carter, oordeelden dat Wilson buitengewoon zwaar was gestraft. Zie ANP Photo

De man komt echter niet direct vrij, omdat de aanklager in Georgia in beroep is gegaan tegen de uitspraak, aldus de Amerikaanse zender ABC. Genarlow Wilson was 17 toen hij orale seks had met een 15-jarig meisje. Zijn veroordeling veroorzaakte indertijd veel opschudding. Prominente Amerikanen, onder wie president Jimmy Carter, oordeelden dat Wilson buitengewoon zwaar was gestraft.

Wilson zit inmiddels twee jaar in de gevangenis. De rechter oordeelde maandag dat Wilson veel te zwaar was gestraft en dat een jaar cel de juiste strafmaat was. Ook stelde de rechter dat Wilson onterecht was geregistreerd als een persoon die een seksueel delict heeft begaan.

Hello toilet, goodbye WC for Beijing Games

Reuters.com

Wed Jun 6, 2007. By the end of the year, all public conveniences in the city will be called "toilets" instead of the venerable, Victorian-era sounding abbreviation for "water closet", state media reported on Wednesday.

"In many Western countries they don't use the term W.C. at all," the Beijing Morning Post said.

"Because in English, it's equivalent to what we would call in China an outhouse, and is a rather crude slang term," it added, without explaining how it had got this impression.

Also on the list are road signs. Use of the romanized form of Chinese, known as "pinyin", will be replaced by the actual English word, except for proper names, the newspaper added. Out will go Dong Changan Jie and in will come East Changan Avenue.

But a rather more vexing question has been what to do about menus to help the hundreds of thousands of tourists, athletes and reporters expected to flood the city, many of whom will not speak a word of Chinese, let alone understand Chinese characters.

An initial list had been formulated and sent to experts for approval, the Beijing News said.

All restaurants and hotels rated three star and above will have to use the standard names once they come out, it added.

Linguists are struggling about the best way to translate popular dishes like "ants climbing the tree" -- spicy fried vermicelli with finely chopped pork -- into English accurately yet preserving the original meaning, officials have said.

They are hoping to avoid confusing visitors with the mish-mash of translations now on offer. One well-known Beijing restaurant chain has dishes called "It is small to fry the chicken miscellaneous" and "mixed elbow with garlic mud".

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Australian airman’s daughter sees the rest of her father’s story...

goDutch.com By Vanderheide Publishing Co. Ltd. © Copyright 1996-2003

Wednesday, 23 may, 2007. HOLLANDSCHEVELD, the Netherlands – Australian-born Beverly Deveson never really knew her father Edward. Lancaster bomber crew member Edward Deveson and six others died over sixty years ago in March 1944 when their bomber crashed in the former peatbog colony. Beverly recently learned more about him when she attended the May 4 war remembrance ceremonies at the small rural community of Hollandscheveld near Hoogeveen.

Joined by her husband Brian Anderson, the Australian woman visited the Netherlands and the Drenthe village for the first time to take part in commemorative ceremonies. She wore all of her father’s medals, including those awarded posthumously, on the traditional Silent Walk to the graveyard where the Lancaster crew is buried. She also carried a replica of the crew’s mascot Joey, made by the widow of one the crew members. The original was buried with the crew.

Beverly, who was three when her father volunteered for the air force, vaguely remembers the day her grandfather visited her mother to tell her something important. She never forgot that at that time her mother and her grandfather both cried. Four years later, she received a second father with whom she was very happy.

The urge to learn more about her natural father grew stronger after her mother passed away. The questions eventually set Beverly on the trail of the Hollandscheveld May 4 Committee of which local area historian Albert Metselaar is a member. They as well as her own family have helped her put her father’s story together.

One more mission

The doomed flight to Germany was a sortie beyond the call of duty for Edward Deveson. He had completed his required number of bombing missions and could have returned home to Australia. Instead, he volunteered to go along for one last mission before he would say farewell to his crew mates. Like so many flight crews** during the war, he and the crew never made it back.

The Lancaster crew has been for years one of the focal points of the May 4 remembrances, right along with the fallen of the local resistance groups and other victims of WWII. The fiercely independent residents of Hollandscheveld hid many people on the run from the Nazis and many paid a high price for their resistance.

For 27 years Beverly had been weighing whether she ought to face up to the challenge of visiting the grave of her father. She finally did, returning home to Australia with memories of an overwhelming and unforgettable pilgrimage.

Over 12,000 British Bomber Command aircraft were shot down during WWII and 55,500 aircrew were killed. It had the highest attrition rate of any British unit. With many thousands of planes having crashed in The Netherlands, the country is a giant burial site of Allied aircraft. Dutch groups are still busy unearthing the wrecks. Among the British casualty rate are numerous service men from the Commonwealth countries.

Vanderheide Publishing Co. Ltd. © Copyright 1996-2003

Radio station fined for bra removal contest...

Reuters.com

Tue Jun 5, 2007. SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore radio station was fined for organizing a contest in which women were asked to remove their bra as quickly as possible from under their clothes.

Singapore's Media Development Authority said state-owned MediaCorp Radio would be fined S$15,000 ($9,800) for broadcasting "exploitative and inappropriate content" in its program "No Bra Days with the Muttons" in March.

"The two DJs had made sexually suggestive comments on how fast the bras were removed, as well as the color, design and cup size of the bras, and the size of the girls' breasts," the regulator said in a statement late on Monday.

The Media Development Authority said the women were also asked to pose with their bras for videos that the radio station posted on its Web site and on the video-sharing YouTube Web site.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Eating live frogs, rats "cures tummy upsets" ...

Reuters.com

Tue Jun 5, 2007 BEIJING (Reuters) - A man in southeast China says 40 years of swallowing tree frogs and rats live has helped him avoid intestinal complaints and made him strong.

Jiang Musheng, a 66-year-old resident of Jiangxi province, suffered from frequent abdominal pains and coughing from the age of 26, until an old man called Yang Dingcai suggested tree frogs as a remedy, the Beijing News said on Tuesday.

"At first, Jiang Musheng did not dare to eat a live, wriggling frog, but after seeing Yang Dingcai swallow one, he ate ... two without a thought," the paper said.

"After a month of eating live frogs, his stomach pains and coughing were completely gone."

Over the years Jiang had added live mice, baby rats and green frogs to his diet, and had once eaten 20 mice in a single day, the paper said.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.