UNITED STATES
Obama blamed again
On the road to a national energy policy, US President Barack Obama just can’t catch a break. First, worries over coal-burning plants’ role in global warming prompted Obama and other Democrats to look more favorably on offshore oil and gas exploration. Last year’s massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ended that abruptly. Then, nuclear power was gaining acceptance as part of a possible broad political agreement, including expanded energy production and increased efficiency in vehicles and buildings. Now the crisis in Japan is throwing a shadow over nuclear energy worldwide. Making matters worse for Obama, a spike in US gasoline prices is angering Americans just as his re-election campaign cranks up. And Republicans are quick to criticize Obama for the high prices.
UNITED STATES
Security firm hacked
EMC corp says its RSA security division has been hacked. The intruders compromised a widely used technology for preventing computer break-ins. The breach is an embarrassment for one of the world’s premier security vendors and potentially threatens highly sensitive computer systems. Based in Massachusetts, EMC’s statement is a rare public acknowledgment by a security company that its internal anti-hacking technologies have been hacked. It is especially troubling because RSA’s technology plays an important role in making sure unauthorized people aren’t allowed to log in to heavily guarded networks. The scope of the attack wasn’t immediately known, but the potential fallout could be widespread. RSA’s customers include big military contractors, governments, various banks and medical facilities and health insurance outfits.
BRAZIL
Rousseff touts her country
This weekend’s visit to by US President Barack Obama shows the country can be a “really important partner” to the US, President Dilma Rousseff said in an interview on Thursday. “Brazil is a country which has taken an international role and which can, due to its historic links with the United States and its place in this region, be a really important partner,” Rousseff said in the interview with Valor daily. “Which other country in the world has the oil reserves we have, is not at war, has no ethnic conflict, respects contracts, has extremely clear democratic principles and a world vision which is so favorable to peace?” the president said. Rousseff said her country strongly defended human rights, from Iran to the US. “If I don’t agree with the stoning of women, nor can I agree with the fact that people stay in prison their whole life without trial,” Rousseff said, alluding to Iran and the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where terror suspects are held.
CUBA
Another dissident freed
The government on Thursday released dissident Librado Linares, one of three political prisoners remaining from a group Havana pledged to free in a deal last year with the Catholic church. Linares, a 50-year-old engineer, told AFP of his release by telephone from his home in Camajuani, near the central city of Santa Clara. “Three state security agents brought me home and I am very happy to be able to be reunited with my family,” he said. Linares was part of a group of 75 dissidents who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms after a vast crackdown on political opponents in 2003 known as the “black spring.” Of the 75 originally detained, 23 were freed between 2003 and last year, largely for medical reasons.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the