Gunman shoots US consular official in Mexico

January 8, 2017

Mexican prosecutors are searching for a gunman who opened fire on an official of the US consulate in the western city of Guadalajara.
The Attorney General’s Office said the official was wounded in the attack on Friday.
The city is the capital of Jalisco state, which is dominated by the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel. There was no immediate evidence of any cartel link to the attack.
The shooting appeared to be a direct attempt to kill the consular employee.
Surveillance video of the attack shows the gunman following the official in a parking garage.
The official, whose name was not released, was dressed in shorts.
The attacker does not appear to try to approach the official while he is walking, but instead waits for him to exit the parking garage in his vehicle and fires a round into the car’s windscreen.
The consulate said on its Facebook page that the FBI is offering a 20,000 US dollar (£16,000) reward for information on the attacker.
Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city and is not specifically singled out for any special precautions in the latest US travel warning updated on December 8.
The US embassy in Mexico City said that for privacy reasons no further information would be made available on the victim, including his condition.
« The safety and security of our employees overseas is among our highest priorities, » said an embassy spokeswoman.
« We are working closely with Mexican law enforcement in this matter. »
The Attorney General’s Office said the victim was in a « stable » condition and under protection, apparently at a local hospital.
The office said the case was being handled by federal detectives. An attack on diplomatic personnel would be considered a federal crime in Mexico.
US consular employees and other US agents have been attacked in Mexico in the past; the attackers have usually argued the attacks were cases of mistaken identity.
In 2014, a Mexican gang leader was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2010 killings in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, of a US consulate employee, her husband and the husband of another employee.
Prosecutors said Arturo Gallegos Castrellon was in charge of a team of assassins with the Barrio Azteca, a gang allied with the Juarez drug cartel, and had ordered the three killings.
The killings of US consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband, Arthur Redfels, and Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of another consulate employee, as they left a children’s birthday party were a mistake, former gang members said during the trial.
Mr Redfels was driving a white SUV that was very similar to a vehicle that Gallegos Castrellon had marked as a target for his team of assassins because they thought it belonged to members of the rival Sinaloa cartel.
In 2012, uniformed police pumped 152 bullets into a US embassy vehicle carrying two CIA officers and a Mexican navy captain.
The police officers, who wounded the Americans and face attempted murder charges, initially said the people they attacked were in uniform and marked cars, and that they had responded to fire from the SUV.
But details of the attorney general’s investigation said those attacked were in street clothes, riding in unmarked vehicles (including two of their personal cars) and under order at all times from their commanding officers.
A Mexican drug cartel lieutenant pleaded guilty in 2013 to murder and attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States in the February 15 2011 shootings of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The attackers acknowledged they were members of a Los Zetas Cartel hit squad and directly participated in the attack, which resulted in the death of ICE agent Jaime Zapata and the wounding of his colleague Victor Avila, both based in Texas.
According to court documents, a commander in Los Zetas Cartel tried to hijack the agents’ armoured government vehicle as it was driving on Highway 57 in San Luis Potosi.
After hit squads forced the vehicle off the road and surrounded it, the Zetas commander ordered the US agents to get out.
The agents refused and tried to identify themselves in Spanish as diplomats from the American embassy, but the hit squad members fired into the vehicle, striking both of them.
AP

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© Source: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/gunman-shoots-us-consular-official-in-mexico-35349792.html
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Unrest in Ivory Coast as soldiers demand pay

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January 8, 2017

Abidjan, Ivory Coast (CNN) Amid unrest in cities across the nation, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara announced Saturday the government reached an agreement with soldiers who have been demanding pay bonuses.
CNN’s Margot Haddad and journalist Eric Agnero reported from Abidjan, and CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.

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© Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/07/africa/ivory-coast-unrest/index.html
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Hackers successfully add games to the NES Classic Edition

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January 8, 2017

The greatest hope of retro gamers and the greatest fear of Nintendo have been met simultaneously: The immensely popular NES Classic Edition has been hacked and its 30-game library augmented with new and even homebrewed titles.
Hacking has been ongoing since the release of the device, but this is the most promising development yet, and it appears to work on the US version of the tiny console.
It must be said that this is not a simple process — not yet, at least. It involves booting the Linux-based NES into FEL mode, hacking the kernel, and injecting ROM files using a special tool. A GUI has already been created to make things easier and tutorials are being made , but we warn readers not to attempt this unless they know about things like MD5 hashes and config files. Bricking your device with a single wrong click is definitely a possibility.
So far a limited number of games have been checked with the device, and there’s no guarantee that any particular one will work — the emulator software built into the NES Classic Edition wouldn’t have been tested with, for instance, Blaster Master, since it wasn’t one of the games intended for inclusion. It might work, it might not.
Of course, there is also the question of where those games come from. NES ROMs aren’t legally available from Nintendo, but are widely available nevertheless. We don’t condone piracy, but if you bought a license for Mega Man 2 on Wii, you may feel ethically justified in exerting that IP claim in this plainly extralegal fashion.
That this thing would be hacked was always a matter of when rather than if — but unlike other consoles put out by Nintendo and others, this one isn’t going to get a patch fixing the exploit. It’s a bit ironic that the very decision Nintendo made that disallowed the device from getting new games legally will make it impossible to prevent new games from being added illegally.

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© Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/P6PYVyovd14/
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CES 2017: Searching for the sounds of tech

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January 8, 2017

CES is a visual feast of lights, colour, people, costumes – and of course endless gadgets.
There are plenty of striking pictures from the show floor.
But are any of the exhibitors interested in delighting your ears?
Rather like the city of Las Vegas itself, it has its own distinctive beat.
There’s the hubbub of chatter. The hiss of vending cart coffee machines. The thumping bass and discord of various sound systems vying for attention. The amplified echo of a hundred demonstrations. The ringtones and message alerts from thousands of mobile phones.
And also – this being a tech fair – the whizzes and ticks and buzzes and bings of robots and drones.
In a nutshell: it’s extremely loud.
After hours of stalking the vast halls of CES besieged by visuals, I decided to try and find beguiling sounds instead.
Things did not get off to a good start.
The first robot I encountered – a service machine designed to guide people around museums – responded to my greeting by asking me whether I was « fickle after kissing ».
Its mortified owner told me it was confused. It wasn’t the only one.
Next, I asked one of the show guides where I could find some interesting noises, and was promptly escorted to a section of the show floor dedicated to in-car speakers.
I had to explain that as much as I admire Lady Gaga, the strains of her hit Bad Romance blasting out of the back of a Jeep rammed floor-to-ceiling with sub woofers wasn’t what I had in mind either.
It was in a start-up zone called Eureka Park that I struck audio gold.
I was drawn in by the sound of crickets – very incongruous in a giant exhibition hall with no natural light, let alone greenery. It was coming from an air purifier called Clair with a built-in Bluetooth speaker nestling at a tiny stand towards the back.
« When people sleep they need fresh air and also this kind of sound can help people sleep better, » said a spokesman who introduced himself as Bono from South Korea.
« So, we put them both together. »
Thank you, Bono.
It’s the sort of stuff that’s perfect for radio, in fact. After that, I captured the warm American male tones of a virtual assistant designed for cars and the staccato gunfire of a man who was evidently immersed in a VR game of mortal combat that only he could see.
Next came machine-like marching sounds from a team of forearm-sized Aelos robots playing miniature football, and a delegate attempting to play Let It Be by The Beatles on a Magic Instruments digital guitar. It’s supposed to be easy to learn. Perhaps he tried the wrong tune.
I bonded with natural-voiced Emys, a Kickstarter-funded desktop robot that looked like a cross between ET and a Ninja Turtle. It has been designed to teach young children foreign languages (did you know that castle in Spanish is castillo?).
I also hugged a gurgling Talkie – a cuddly little monster with wi-fi that you can use to exchange voice messages with your children.
Olly, a robot that claims to adapt to the personality of its owner, told me about feeling both happy and sad in a mournfully child-like voice.
« By the end of the day I’ll be dead, » complained an uncomfortable promotions girl, fidgeting in a pair of towering stilettos.
« And if I’m not – just kill me. »
Meanwhile, a little bat-shaped speaker chimed like a casino slot machine, as it tried to re-establish a connection with the smartphone it was supposed to be streaming music from.
What’s the sound of CES? It’s all of those things. All at the same time. All day long. And it’s music to my ears.
Listen to Zoe’s radio report on The World This Weekend, on Radio 4 at 13:00 GMT

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More Armed Officers Could Help Prevent Airport Shootings: Expert

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January 8, 2017

They have become a common sight at many U. S. mass transit hubs since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — armed officers, such as National Guard members in camouflage and with weapons visible.
Now in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting at a Fort Lauderdale airport that left five people dead and multiple others injured, a national security expert says a consistent, visible presence of armed officers is needed in public areas of the nation’s airports.
John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator at the U. S. Department of Homeland Security and an ABC News contributor, said the Transportation Security Administration , formed in the wake of 9/11, has been focused for the most part on preventing planes from getting hijacked and explosives from being taken onto flights.
These duties are critical, but the shooting in a baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and a shooting incident at Los Angeles International Airport in 2013 that left a TSA officer dead and others injured show the need for a broader approach, Cohen said.
« We need to finally think differently about aviation security, » Cohen said. In the U. S. and around the world, « we’re facing a growing number of mass casualty attacks from individuals who operate independently » of any organization, « and those people are difficult to detect and stop prior to an attack, » he said.
A consistent presence of specially trained, armed officers in public areas of airports such as baggage claim areas and ticket counters could help in two ways, Cohen said.
« It could serve not only as a deterrent but also speed up response times should a situation arise such as the one that occurred in Fort Lauderdale, » he said.
Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the Fort Lauderdale shooting was tied to terrorism. But they said Saturday that at this point it appears that suspected gunman Esteban Santiago was acting alone.
Cohen said there are challenges to changing security in the public areas of airports.
The TSA has primary responsibility for aviation security from a federal perspective, he said. But law enforcement and security in public areas of an airport — the areas open to people who are not ticketed passengers and who have not passed through TSA checkpoints — are traditionally the responsibility of the local airport authority and local police, Cohen said.
Federal transportation security officials have been hesitant to direct local authorities on how to operate the areas of airports not under the TSA’s purview, but local agencies and airport authorities could take the lead on this, he said.
« Local airport authorities should make it a priority to have uniformed law enforcement officers patrolling these nonsecured areas. These officers should be trained to recognize the behaviors of an individual who may be planning or preparing to carry out an attack and should also be trained to respond to a mass casualty attacker or active shooter, » he said.
« This is a normal thing for police departments to do, » and officers in most local police agencies are already receiving active-shooter training for responding to incidents such as school shootings, he said.
In the Fort Lauderdale shooting, the assailant stopped only after running out of bullets, according to a witness who spoke to « Good Morning America » today. Cohen said security needs to be in place at airports to stop active-shooter or other similar incidents.
Federal officials could also help by communicating or sharing their security standards with local airport authorities and considering making it mandatory that trained, armed officers patrol the areas of airports not overseen by the TSA, Cohen said.
« If the TSA is not already considering making its security standards mandatory for any public areas of an airport, it should do so, » Cohen said.

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© Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/armed-officers-prevent-airport-shootings-expert/story?id=44622266
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Brother of Airport Shooting Suspect Says US Gov't Failed Him

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January 8, 2017

The brother of a man accused of shooting five people at a Florida airport questioned Saturday why his brother was allowed to keep his gun after U. S. authorities knew he’d become increasingly paranoid and was hearing voices.
After serving in the National Guard in Iraq, 26-year-old Esteban Santiago had trouble controlling his anger and told his brother Bryan Santiago that he felt he was being chased and being controlled by the CIA through secret online messages. But when he told agents at an FBI field office his paranoid thoughts in November, he was evaluated for four days, then released without any follow-up medication or therapy.
« The FBI failed there. … We’re not talking about someone who emerged from anonymity to do something like this, » Bryan Santiago told The Associated Press, speaking in Spanish outside his family’s pale yellow house nestled in the lush mountains of the southern town of Penuelas. « The federal government already knew about this for months, they had been evaluating him for a while, but they didn’t do anything. »
In recent years, the 26-year-old Estaban Santiago — a new dad, family said — had been living in Anchorage, Alaska. But there were signs of trouble.
Esteban told FBI agents in Alaska that the government was controlling his mind and was forcing him to watch Islamic State group videos, a law enforcement official said Friday. The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The FBI office in Alaska, which declined to comment on Bryan Santiago’s comments ahead of a planned Saturday news conference, interviewed Esteban Santiago and then notified police, who took him in for a mental health evaluation.
Also, he was charged in a domestic violence case in January 2016, damaging a door when he forced his way into a bathroom at his girlfriend’s Anchorage home. The woman told officers he yelled at her to leave, choked her and smacked her on the side of the head, according to charging documents.
A month later, municipal prosecutors said he violated the conditions of his release when officers found him at her home during a routine check. He told police he had lived there since he was released from custody the previous month. His Anchorage attorney, Max Holmquist, declined to discuss his client.
Bryan Santiago said his brother had requested psychological help but barely received any.
« I told him to go to church or to seek professional help, » he said.
Family members have said Esteban Santiago changed after serving a yearlong tour in Iraq. He was born in New Jersey but moved to Puerto Rico when he was 2, his brother said. He grew up in Penuelas before joining the Guard in 2007.
He deployed in 2010 as part of the Puerto Rico National Guard, spending a year with an engineering battalion, according to Guard spokesman Maj. Paul Dahlen.
Esteban Santiago’s mother wiped tears from her eyes as she stood inside a screen door Saturday. The only thing she said was that Esteban Santiago had been tremendously affected by seeing a bomb explode next to two of his friends when he was around 18 years old while serving in Iraq.
Former neighbor Ursula Candelario in Penuelas recalled seeing Esteban Santiago grow up and said people used to salute him after he joined the Guard. « He was very peaceful, very educated, very serious, » she said. « We’re in shock. I couldn’t believe it. »
Since returning from Iraq, Santiago served in the Army Reserves and the Alaska National Guard in Anchorage, Olmstead told the AP. He was serving as a combat engineer in the Guard before his discharge for « unsatisfactory performance, » said Olmstead. His military rank upon discharge was E3, private 1st class, and he worked one weekend a month with an additional 15 days of training yearly, Olmstead said.
She would not elaborate on his discharge, but the Pentagon said he went AWOL several times and was demoted and discharged.
Still, he’d been awarded a number of other medals and commendations including the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
His uncle and aunt in New Jersey were trying to make sense of what they were hearing about Santiago. FBI agents arrived at their house to question them on Friday, and reporters swarmed around.
Maria Ruiz told The Record newspaper that her nephew had recently become a father to a son and was struggling.
« It was like he lost his mind, » she said in Spanish of his return from Iraq. « He said he saw things. »
Santiago was flying from Anchorage on a Delta flight and had checked only one piece of luggage, which contained the gun.
Sen.-elect Nelson Cruz, who knew the family and represents the town where they live in Puerto Rico, said he had been talking regularly with Bryan Santiago since the shooting.
« They’re very humble and very Christian people, » Cruz said of Esteban Santiago’s brother and mother. « They want to tell the families of the victims that they’re extremely saddened and extremely upset by what happened. «

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© Source: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/US-Airport-Shooting-Florida-Suspect/2017/01/07/id/767310
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Florida airport shooting: Shouts of 'run, run'

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January 8, 2017

Travellers have been stranded at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida after a gunman opened fire earlier on Friday, killing five people.
The suspect has been identified by police as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, an Iraq war veteran.
Some airport passengers described what they saw and heard.

Similarity rank: 14

Sentiment rank: -5.2

Portugals Ex-Präsident Soares gestorben

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January 8, 2017

Der frühere portugiesische Präsident Mario Soares ist tot. Soares starb nach Angaben eines Krankenhaussprechers am Samstag im Alter von 92 Jahren. Der frühere Staatschef war Mitte Dezember in die Klinik in Lissabon eingeliefert worden, nachdem sich sein Allgemeinzustand extrem verschlechtert hatte.
Mit dem Tod von Mario Soares hat Portugal einen der schillerndsten und wichtigsten Politiker der Nachkriegszeit verloren. In den schwierigen Jahren nach der «Nelkenrevolution» von 1974 ging der Sozialist mit dem volksnahen Auftreten und den weichen Gesichtszügen als «Vater der Demokratie» in die Geschichte seines Landes ein. Der gelernte Jurist, der am Samstag in einem Krankenhaus in Lissabon im Alter von 92 Jahren starb, war zweimal Ministerpräsident (1976-78, 1983-85) und danach von 1986 bis 1996 in zwei Amtsperioden auch Staatsoberhaupt von Portugal.
Während seiner Präsidentschaft bekam Soares, der eine charismatische Ausstrahlung hatte, von seinen Landsleuten ironisch-liebevoll den Beinamen «O Rei» (König) verpasst. Bei den zuletzt immer selteneren öffentlichen Auftritten wurde Soares immer mit lautem Applaus begrüßt. Auch bei politischen Rivalen genoss er viel Respekt. Der frühere Staatspräsident und Ex-General António Ramalho Eanes, der ihn 1978 im Zuge einer Regierungskrise des Amtes enthob, sagte erst in diesem Sommer: «Soares war für Portugal nicht nur nach 1974, sondern auch schon vor der «Nelkenrevolution» immens wichtig.»
Soares wurde am 7. Dezember 1924 als Sohn eines sozial und politisch engagierten katholischen Priesters geboren. Seinen Kampf gegen die Diktatur von António Salazar nahm er schon 1942 als 18-jähriger Student auf. Als Anwalt verteidigte er später Regimegegner vor Gericht. Unzählige Male wurde er selber ins Gefängnis geworfen. Seine Frau Maria, die 2015 mit 90 starb, hatte er 1949 in Aljube hinter Gittern geheiratet. 1968 wurde der «Störenfried» vom Regime auf die afrikanische Insel São Tomé – damals noch eine portugiesische Kolonie – verbannt, 1970 ging Soares dann ins Exil nach Paris.
Aber auch Deutschland spielte im Leben des Mario Soares eine wichtige Rolle. In der französischen Hauptstadt lernte er neben verschiedenen linksgerichteten Politikern wie den Schweden Olof Palme oder den Österreicher Bruno Kreisky auch Willy Brandt kennen. «Eine außergewöhnliche politische Lehrzeit», erinnerte sich Soares Jahre später. In der Heimvolksschule Bad Münstereifel der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung gründete der Portugiese am 19. April 1973 mit mehreren Mitstreitern die Sozialistische Partei Portugals (PS).
Als dann ein Jahr später die älteste Diktatur Westeuropas von einem nahezu unblutigen Militärputsch («Nelkenrevolution») hinweggefegt wurde und jubelnde Portugiesen am 25. April 1974 den linksgerichteten Soldaten der Revolution Nelken in die Gewehrläufe steckten, verfolgte der gute Freund von Brandt und Günter Grass die Ereignisse in Bonn im Fernsehen und Radio – bevor er sich kurzerhand gen Heimat aufmachte. Drei Tage später traf er mit dem Nachtzug in Lissabon ein.
Soares’ Rückkehr in die Heimat war ein Glücksfall für Portugal: Als nämlich Strömungen von links und rechts in den Monaten nach der Revolution die frischgewonnenen Freiheiten bedrohten, sorgte Soares unter anderem mit großen Demonstrationen auf der Avenida da Liberdade («Avenue der Freiheit») in Lissabon, aber auch mit viel Verhandlungsgeschick dafür, dass der Einfluss der Radikalen bei den Militärs immer geringer wurde.
Nach der turbulenten Zeit des Übergangs, bei dem er unter anderem als Außenminister und Regierungschef tätig war, wurde der überzeugte Europäer 1986 als erster portugiesischer Zivilist zum Staatsoberhaupt gewählt. Während seiner zehnjährigen Amtszeit als Staatschef fand er Zeit, 1991 die Mario-Soares-Stiftung zu gründen, die vor allem Wissenschaftler finanziell unterstützt.
Von der Politik konnte sich der Ehrenpräsident der Sozialistischen Internationale derweil auch an seinem langen Lebensabend – sei es als Amtsträger oder als Kommentator – nicht trennen. Nachdem er sich zunächst 1999 als Abgeordneter ins Europa-Parlament hatte wählen lassen und 2006 mit einer erneuten Präsidentschaftskandidatur gescheitert war, veröffentlichte der Vater zweier Kinder und mehrfache Großvater 2011 eine «politische Autobiographie».

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Digitale Fahrkarten bald für alle Städte

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January 8, 2017

Das sieht ein Aktionsplan des Bundesverkehrsministeriums vor, der den Zeitungen der Funke Mediengruppe vorliegt. Die Initiative zielt dem Bericht zufolge darauf, dass Fahrgäste mit einem elektronischen Ticket im Scheckkartenformat oder mit einer Handy-App Bus und Bahn fahren können – ohne dass sie einen neuen Fahrschein kaufen müssen. Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel sollen dadurch attraktiver werden.
Ziel von Verkehrsminister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) ist es demnach, dass Kunden von rund 370 Verkehrsunternehmen von der Initiative profitieren. Das wären etwa 75 Prozent der Bevölkerung. «Wir brauchen deutschlandweite Mobilitätsplattformen, die überregional Fahrgastinformationen verknüpfen und die Buchung von eTickets ermöglichen», sagte Dobrindt den Funke-Zeitungen und fügte hinzu: «Wir müssen die Digitalisierung und die Vernetzung in diesem Bereich voranbringen.»

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Glatteis in vielen Teilen Deutschlands – zahlreiche Unfälle

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January 8, 2017

Berlin (dpa) – Eisregen hat die Straßen in vielen Teilen Deutschlands in spiegelglatte Rutschbahnen verwandelt. Besonders in Nordrhein-Westfalen kam es zu zahlreichen Unfällen. Bei einer Karambolage von fünf Autos auf der A46 bei Iserlohn wurden sechs Menschen verletzt. Auch für Niedersachsen rief der Deutsche Wetterdienst die höchste Unwetter-Warnstufe aus. In Hannover wurde der Busverkehr eingestellt. In Hamburg waren bereits am Mittag zahlreiche Fußgänger ausgerutscht und gestürzt. Die Feuerwehr der Hansestadt zählte zwischen 10 und 21 Uhr 392 wetterbedingte Einsätze.