Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Was Israel behind US laptop ban on Mideast airlines?

Questions swirl whether Tel Aviv was involved in peddling aviation-threat intelligence on ISIL – and motives behind it.

US news reports say Israel was the source of intelligence that President Donald Trump disclosed to the Russians during a White House meeting last week, igniting further controversy for the beleaguered administration.

According to a New York Times report on Tuesday, Israel shared with US spy agencies sensitive intelligence about an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) bomb plot targeting airliners using laptop computers.

National Security Advisor HR McMaster denied that Trump had disclosed any sources or methods to the Russians, saying the Washington Post report that first broke the story was “false”.

Trump confirmed later he shared information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Several US media organisations confirmed with their own sources the Times’ report that Israel was the source of the information.

In a statement, Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said Israel has “full confidence in our intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States”.

But he did not comment specifically on the veracity of the Times’ report.

The purported Israeli intelligence in question reportedly concerns ISIL’s newly acquired capability to hide sophisticated bombs inside laptop computers.

This information is said to have led the US government declaring the ban last March on all large electronic devices on board airlines coming to the US from eight Muslim-majority nations.

READ MORE: Trump disclosed secrets to Russia: Washington Post

The ban affects nine companies: Royal Jordanian Airlines, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Saudi Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad Airways.

All of these airlines have direct flights to the United States and pose strong competition to American aviation companies, especially during the busy summer season.

Former CIA case officer John Kiriakou expressed scepticism about Israel’s ability to obtain highly sensitive intelligence of this nature about ISIL.

“If it was the Jordanians or the Turkish intelligences services who have done that, it might make more sense because these organisations have a long history of dealing with groups like ISIL,” Kiriakou told Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

“I won’t be surprised if it turned out that Israel acted in its own interests to disrupt the Middle Eastern airlines business by throwing its own wrench into the whole thing,” he said.

CNN reported on Tuesday it withheld reporting on the intelligence that led to the laptop ban after US intelligence officials made urgent requests to hold off for a March 31 story, citing national security concerns.

“What US officials told CNN in late March was that publishing certain information – including a city where some of the intelligence was collected – could tip off adversaries about the sources and methods used to gather the intelligence,” the American network said.

Other pundits challenged the entire narrative of Trump’s discussions with the Russians.

Washington DC-based analyst Peter Roff blamed the media for hyping Trump’s sharing of intelligence with Lavrov and Kislyak in stories based solely on “anonymous sources”.

“There is nothing wrong with the president sharing intelligence with the Russians as a goodwill gesture, given that both nations are fighting ISIL,” Roff told Al Jazeera.

Source:Al Jazeera

May 17, 2017
Trump asked Comey to drop Flynn investigation: reports

Officials allege Comey memo shows US president pressed former FBI director to shut down probe into Russia ties.

US President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the agency’s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo written by Comey.

The explosive new development on Tuesday followed a week of tumult at the White House after Trump fired Comey and then discussed sensitive national security information about Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Comey memo, first reported by the New York Times, is likely to raise questions about whether Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation.

Comey wrote the memo after he met in the Oval Office with Trump, the day after the president fired Flynn on February 14 for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations last year with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

“I hope you can let this go,” Trump told Comey, according to a source familiar with the contents of the memo.

The White House denied the report. “The president has never asked Mr Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” it said in a statement.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington DC, noted the significance of the information being written down in a memorandum, which would be admissible in a court of law.

“This is a very serious matter indeed. Why this is so serious – if indeed it is proved to be true – is that this is a clearly illegal act – attempting to halt or obstruct an FBI investigation,” said Hanna.

“What we are going to see in the coming days from the House and the Senate is growing momentum for James Comey to clarify whether or not President Trump actively attempted to interfere with the investigation into Michael Flynn. This could have massive ramifications.”

The New York Times said during the Oval Office meeting, Trump condemned a series of government leaks to the news media and said the FBI director should consider prosecuting reporters for publishing classified information.

The White House added it was “not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the President and Mr Comey”.

Source:Al Jazeera

May 17, 2017
Bailed Stella Nyanzi doubles down on presidential insults

A prominent Ugandan academic charged with cyber harassment for calling President Yoweri Museveni a “pair of buttocks” is back on social media with more colourful criticism of the country’s leader.

Less than a week after being freed on bail feminist academic Stella Nyanzi was back on Facebook comparing Museveni’s government to an infestation of “pubic lice” and promising to continue “poking the leopards’ anuses”, a reference to a warning Museveni himself had issued to opponents in the run-up to the last elections.

“I am now a fugitive in my own country,” Nyanzi told her 150,000 Facebook followers in a post on Sunday. She said she cannot return home because, “the dictatorial regime’s security goons still await for me there.”

Nyanzi attacked Museveni, his wife and son — long touted as a possible heir to the presidency — rejecting the “illegitimate leadership of the despotic leopard, its foolish leopardess and the future reign of the promiscuous leopard-cub.”

Museveni — who has ruled the East African nation for 31 years — referred to himself as a leopard in 2015 when he told the opposition they were asking for trouble if they were to touch “the anus of a leopard”, an unusual turn of phrase even for a president known for his use of folksy metaphor and vivid idiom.

MURUNGA: Academic freedom matters now more than it did in the past one-party era
“I refuse to stop poking the leopards’ anuses,” Nyanzi wrote in the post that has received over 4,000 reactions and 500 shares.

“I am going to continue poke-poking all the leopards’ anuses until either Uganda is free from the leopards or my death. This fugitive is not shutting up!”

On Tuesday Nyanzi wrote again on Facebook, comparing the government to parasitic pubic lice that “are sucking me dry!”

Freeing Nyanzi on bail last week after a month in custody, the judge refused a prosecution request that the academic be blocked from “making any adverse cyber attacks or any derogatory statements against the person of the victim (President Museveni) or his close members of his household.”

Nyanzi’s posts have attracted both scorn and applause in Uganda, a traditionally conservative country but one where many are fed up with Museveni’s long rule.

Nyanzi is due in court again on 25 May.

Source:AFP

May 17, 2017
Ransomware hits 14 servers in Kenya

Since Friday last week, a wave of unprecedented cyberattacks has swept across the globe, with over 350 companies and hundreds of thousands of computers in 152 countries affected by Wednesday morning.

The attack by a computer worm or ransomware called WannaCry’ (Wanna Decryptor) targets the Microsoft Windows operating system, encrypts files and demands that the user pay ransom before being allowed to continue using the computer.

Multinationals

On Tuesday, computer forensics and data recovery company East Africa Data Handlers said it had received 14 cases of servers that had been affected by the ransomware.

Among these clients are two multinationals, which had the entire 15-year data manipulated and lost.

Managing Director George Njoroge said the company has been able to fix and restore the servers for five of the companies but admitted that it was unable to fix those from two other firms.

“The malware has different variations and sometimes the companies come with the complaint when it has already been manipulated even more,” Mr Njoroge said.

The data recovery, he said, is costly and takes time, and that may interfere with the smooth running of businesses.

Phishing

The existence of the malware in the country has been confirmed by the country’s cybersecurity response agency, the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre, or KE-CIRT-CC.

Mr Njoroge warned that many companies in the country are at risk of being attacked by the ransomware.

“The biggest problem is that companies and individuals don’t upgrade their security infrastructure, mostly because of the current economic challenges,” he said, adding that the best solution is to keep pace with the dynamic changes in technology.

He tipped companies to completely switch off and isolate affected computer(s) from the network immediately after they discover they have been attacked by the malware and call in experts to remove the programme.

“Computer users should also avoid opening links whose sources they do not know as the main carrier of the malware is phishing,” he said.

Phishing scams are sent through emails appearing to be from genuine and famous companies with the aim of acquiring information and installing malicious software.

Ransom

Mr Njoroge urged companies to back up their data and block certain untrusted websites from their servers.

Simon Kipruto, the head of the cybercrime unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said no company or individual had reported a cyberattack, adding that most companies choose to solve such problems without reporting them to the police.

Globally, companies that had been affected by the attack told the media that the attackers demanded that they pay ransom in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

The ransomware works by encrypting files and making them inaccessible and unreadable, before asking the user to pay a specific amount of money in order to access their own data.

The frozen-screen warnings are much the same as those that started in Britain and spread across the world, reports Charlie D’Agata, a correspondent for America’s CBS TV network.

The “WannaCry,” malware programme that has held the globe in the grip of fear was first uncovered in documents stolen from the US National Security Agency, exposing a vulnerability in Microsoft’s operating systems.

Backup

So far, the attack has affected big users such as Britain’s National Health Service, FedEx, transport company Deusche Bahn and airline company Latam.

On Sunday, Kenya’s Communications Authority (CA) warned about the attack, which is spread through e-mail phishing, and asked users to take caution.

The authority also urged Kenyans to keep an offline backup of their documents and files so that they can restore them in case they are attacked.

CA Director-General Francis Wangusi, while discouraging people from paying ransom as there is no guarantee the files would be restored, said once the attack hits one computer, it tries to spread to all computers in the network.

He urged organisations and individuals to ensure that they have good and updated anti-virus programmes installed in their computers to safeguard their data from the malicious software.

Source:Daily Nation

May 17, 2017
7 wedding traditions and their meaning

Ever wondered why a man gets down on one knee to propose to a woman or why the bride stands to the left of the groom?

Here are 7 wedding traditions and their meaning

1. Why men get down on one knee to propose

A man getting down on one knee to propose is deemed a sign of respect and surrender. The act signifies humility before the woman he wishes to marry while also acknowledging he’s surrendering his single life behind.

2. Why does the groom have best man?

This is a tradition that springs from Anglo-Saxon England. According to history, the groom takes along his most trusted and strongest friend (best man) to ensure his bride is protected during the ceremony.

3. Why does the bride have bridesmaids?

In modern times, the bridesmaids help with the planning of the wedding but the tradition of having bridesmaids started in Roman times. Bridesmaids were believed to act as decoys to evil spirits trying to harm the bride.

4. Why does the bride stand to the left of the groom?

It was common during ancient times to have the bride kidnapped so the bride stood to the left of the groom so the groom could hold her with his left hand and draw his sword with his right hand, should other suitors try to kidnap her.

5. Why does the bride throw the bouquet?

This stems from a French 14th century tradition. During ancient times, it used to be considered good luck to get a piece of the bride’s wedding dress. To avoid a ruined dress and being physically grabbed as the bride and groom were trying to run off on their honeymoon, brides began throwing bouquets to distract the guests. Guests were happy grabbing the bouquet as flowers were believed to bring romantic luck for the future.

6. Why do brides wear a veil?

It is believed Roman brides wore bright veils for their wedding to ward off evil spirits.

7. Why throw confetti during wedding ?

Confetti is an Italian word used for a type of sugar almond tossed into the air during special occasions. In ancient Britain, throwing grains of rice at newlyweds was seen as a symbol of fertility.

Source:Elcrema

May 17, 2017
Popular weight-loss surgery puts patients at high risk for alcohol problems

One in five patients who undergo one of the most popular weight-loss surgical procedures is likely to develop problems with alcohol, with symptoms sometimes not appearing until years after their surgery, according to one of the largest, longest-running studies of adults who got weight-loss surgery.

The finding — reported online today in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, the journal of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery — indicates that bariatric surgery patients should receive long-term clinical follow-up to monitor for and treat alcohol use disorder, which includes alcohol abuse and dependence.

“We knew there was an increase in the number of people experiencing problems with alcohol within the first two years of surgery, but we didn’t expect the number of affected patients to continue to grow throughout seven years of follow-up,” said lead author Wendy C. King, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. She and her team discovered that 20.8 percent of participants developed symptoms of alcohol use disorder within five years of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB). In contrast, only 11.3 percent of patients who underwent gastric banding reported problem alcohol use.

Starting in 2006, King and her colleagues followed more than 2,000 patients participating in the National Institutes of Health-funded Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery-2 (LABS-2), a prospective observational study of patients undergoing weight-loss surgery at one of 10 hospitals across the United States.

RYGB, a surgical procedure that significantly reduces the size of the stomach and changes connections with the small intestine, was the most popular procedure, with 1,481 participants receiving it. The majority of the remaining participants, 522 people, had a less invasive procedure — laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding — where the surgeon inserts an adjustable band around the patient’s stomach, lessening the amount of food the stomach can hold. That procedure has become less popular in recent years because it doesn’t result in as much weight loss as RYGB.

Both groups of patients increased their alcohol consumption over the seven years of the study; however, there was only an increase in the prevalence of alcohol use disorder symptoms, as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, following RYGB. Among patients without alcohol problems in the year prior to surgery, RYGB patients had more than double the risk of developing alcohol problems over seven years compared to those who had gastric banding.

“Because alcohol problems may not appear for several years, it is important that doctors routinely ask patients with a history of bariatric surgery about their alcohol consumption and whether they are experiencing symptoms of alcohol use disorder, and are prepared to refer them to treatment,” said King.

The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery currently recommends that patients be screened for alcohol use disorder before surgery and be made aware of the risk of developing the disorder after surgery. Additionally, the society recommends that high-risk groups be advised to eliminate alcohol consumption following RYGB. However, given the data, King suggests that those who undergo RYGB are a high-risk group, due to the surgery alone.

The LABS-2 study was not designed to determine the reason for the difference in risk of alcohol use disorder between surgical procedures, but previous studies indicate that, compared with banding, RYGB is associated with higher and quicker elevation of alcohol in the blood. Additionally, some animal studies suggest that RYGB may increases alcohol reward sensitivity via changes in genetic expression and the hormone system affecting the areas of the brain associated with reward.

In addition to RYGB, the LABS-2 study identified several personal characteristics that put patients at increased risk for developing problems with alcohol, including being male and younger, and having less of a social support system. Getting divorced, a worsening in mental health post-surgery and increasing alcohol consumption to at least twice a week also were associated with a higher risk of alcohol use disorder symptoms.

King and her team found that although RYGB patients were nearly four times as likely to report having received substance use disorder treatment compared with banding patients, relatively few study participants reported such treatment. Overall, 3.5 percent of RYGB patients reported getting substance use disorder treatment, far less than the 21 percent of patients reporting alcohol problems.

“This indicates that treatment programs are underutilized by bariatric surgery patients with alcohol problems,” said King. “That’s particularly troubling given the availability of effective treatments.”

Source:Science Daily

May 17, 2017
How hard did it rain on Mars?

New study reveals how changes in Martian rainfall shaped the planet

Heavy rain on Mars reshaped the planet’s impact craters and carved out river-like channels in its surface billions of years ago, according to a new study published in Icarus. In the paper, researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory show that changes in the atmosphere on Mars made it rain harder and harder, which had a similar effect on the planet’s surface as we see on Earth.

The fourth planet from the sun, Mars has geological features like the Earth and moon, such as craters and valleys, many of which were formed through rainfall. Although there is a growing body of evidence that there was once water on Mars, it does not rain there today.

But in their new study, geologists Dr. Robert Craddock and Dr. Ralph Lorenz show that there was rainfall in the past — and that it was heavy enough to change the planet’s surface. To work this out, they used methods tried and tested here on Earth, where the erosive effect of the rain on the Earth’s surface has important impacts on agriculture and the economy.

Valley networks on Mars show evidence for surface runoff driven by rainfall. “Many people have analyzed the nature of rainfall on the Earth, but no one had thought to apply the physics to understanding the early Martian atmosphere,” said Dr. Craddock of the Smithsonian Institution.

To understand how rainfall on Mars has changed over time, the researchers had to consider how the Martian atmosphere has changed. When Mars first formed 4.5 billion years ago, it had a much more substantial atmosphere with a higher pressure than it does now. This pressure influences the size of the raindrops and how hard they fall.

Early on in the planet’s existence, water droplets would have been very small, producing something like fog rather than rain; this would not have been capable of carving out the planet we know today. As the atmospheric pressure decreased over millions of years, raindrops got bigger and rainfall became heavy enough to cut into the soil and start to alter the craters. The water could then be channeled and able to cut through the planet’s surface, creating valleys.

“By using basic physical principles to understand the relationship between the atmosphere, raindrop size and rainfall intensity, we have shown that Mars would have seen some pretty big raindrops that would have been able to make more drastic changes to the surface than the earlier fog-like droplets,” commented Dr. Lorenz of John Hopkins University, who has also studied liquid methane rainfall on Saturn’s moon Titan, the only other world in the solar system apart from Earth where rain falls onto the surface at the present day.

They showed that very early on, the atmospheric pressure on Mars would have been about 4 bars (the Earth’s surface today is 1 bar) and the raindrops at this pressure could not have been bigger than 3mm across, which would not have penetrated the soil. But as the atmospheric pressure fell to 1.5 bars, the droplets could grow and fall harder, cutting into the soil. In Martian conditions at that time, had the pressure been the same as we have on Earth, raindrops would have been about 7.3mm — a millimeter bigger than on Earth.

“There will always be some unknowns, of course, such as how high a storm cloud may have risen into the Martian atmosphere, but we made efforts to apply the range of published variables for rainfall on Earth,” added Dr. Craddock. “It’s unlikely that rainfall on early Mars would have been dramatically different than what’s described in our paper. Our findings provide new, more definitive, constraints about the history of water and the climate on Mars.”

Source:Science Daily

May 17, 2017
Why did hunter-gatherers first begin farming?

The beginnings of agriculture changed human history and has fascinated scientists for centuries.

Researchers from the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield have shed light on how hunter-gatherers first began farming and how crops were domesticated to depend on humans.

Domesticated crops have been transformed almost beyond recognition in comparison with their wild relatives — a change that happened during the early stages of farming in the Stone Age.

For grain crops like cereals, the hallmark of domestication is the loss of natural seed dispersal — seeds no longer fall off plants but have become dependent on humans or machines to spread them.

Professor Colin Osborne, from the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield, said: “We know very little about how agriculture began, because it happened 10,000 years ago — that’s why a number of mysteries are unresolved. For example why hunter-gatherers first began farming, and how were crops domesticated to depend on people.

“One controversy in this area is about the extent to which ancient peoples knew they were domesticating crops. Did they know they were breeding domestication characteristics into crops, or did these characteristics just evolve as the first farmers sowed wild plants into cultivated soil, and tended and harvested them?”

The new research, published in the journal Evolution Letters, shows the impact of domestication on vegetable seed size.

Any selective breeding of vegetables by early farmers would have acted on the leaves, stems or roots that were eaten as food, but should not have directly affected seed size.

Instead, any changes in vegetable seed size must have arisen from natural selection acting on these crops in cultivated fields, or from genetic links to changes in another characteristic like plant or organ size. In the last instance, people might have bred crops to become bigger, and larger seeds would have come along unintentionally.

The University of Sheffield researchers gathered seed size data from a range of crops and found strong evidence for a general enlargement of seeds due to domestication.

They discovered domesticated maize seeds are 15 times bigger than the wild form, soybean seeds are seven times bigger. Wheat, barley and other grain crops had more modest increases in size (60 per cent for barley and 15 per cent for emmer wheat) but these changes are important if they translate into yield.

“We found strong evidence for a general enlargement of seeds due to domestication across seven vegetable species,” said Professor Osborne.

“This is especially stunning in a crop like a sweet potato, where people don’t even plant seeds, let alone harvest them. The size of this domestication effect falls completely within the range seen in cereals and pulse grains like lentils and beans, raising the possibility that at least part of the seed enlargement in these crops also evolved during domestication without deliberate foresight from early farmers.”

Professor Osborne added: “Our findings have important implications for understanding how crops evolved, because they mean that major changes in our staple crops could have arisen without deliberate foresight by early farmers.

“This means that unconscious selection was probably more important in the genesis of our food plants than previously realised. Early increases in the yields of crops might well have evolved in farmers’ fields rather than being bred artificially.”

Source:Science Daily

May 17, 2017
22 things you should stop doing to yourself

I’ve come to understand that life is valuable, and it’s even more valuable when you understand that each second spent, is a time that can never be replaced — so each second spent is either being invested or wasted.

Unfortunately, many people spend their time doing terrible things to themselves, to their minds and to their bodies.

This article will focus on the terrible things you should stop doing to your mind.

Your mind will always believe and act on what you feed it with; feed it with the right things and it’ll produce the right results, feed it with the wrong things and it’ll produce the wrong results.

These are 22 things you stop doing to yourself:

1. Stop trying to be someone else; it’s a waste of who you are.

2. Stop lying to yourself; deceiving yourself is the height of foolishness that will take you nowhere.

3. Stop spending time with people who won’t add value to your life. If you have one life to live, why waste it on people who don’t have purpose, or people whose vision are only shortsighted when you have a vision that’s way bigger than theirs.

4. Stop wasting time and resources on things that won’t add any value to your life.

5. Stop running away from your problems. Running won’t take that problem away; face that problem and tackle it head on.

6. Stop waiting for happiness to come to you; it wouldn’t. Be alive and be happy every single day, that’s how you find happiness.

7. Stop being idle and start being productive. Do something productive every day.

8. Stop believing that you aren’t good enough; remember that you are what you believe.

9. Stop entering the wrong relationships; your feelings, emotions and your life should only be shared with someone who’s worth it.

10. Stop being weak, lazy and unprepared. If you must be the best representation of yourself then you must be focused and give your all.

11. Stop competing with people; life isn’t a competition.

12. Stop complaining, stop wishing and stop regretting.

13. Stop being afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes only show that you are putting efforts. You should be worried when you aren’t making any mistake at all.

14. Stop judging others, stop envying and stop being jealous.

15. Stop holding grudges against people; you’d suffer it the most. Let your heart be free.

16. Stop wasting your life trying to please others.

17. Stop making the same mistakes. Learn from each experience.

18. Stop blaming others for your failures; you are absolutely responsible for every choice and decision you make.

19. Don’t forget to enjoy certain moments with friends, family and people that matter to you.

20. Stop holding on to the past and stop living in regrets. Forgive yourself of your past mistakes and move on.

21. Stop trying to make things perfect, stop overthinking, stop worrying and stop trying to control things that are above your reach.

22. Stop being ungrateful and start enjoying the gift called life.

Source:Elcrema

May 17, 2017
3 key things you should do when preparing for an interview

How you prepare for an interview can determine the outcome of your interview. If you prepare well, you’ll get the benefits and if you don’t, you’re most likely to fail.

This is how to prepare for an interview.

1. Ask questions

Ask questions about the firm that wants to employ you; do your research and try to know the basic things about that firm. Also, familiarising yourself with the firm will make you feel part and parcel of them, and it would even boost your confidence for the interview.

2. Do your own work

Try to understand the possible interview questions you’ll be asked and know how to answer them before your interview. Practise your speech, your body language, your mannerisms and everything that’ll represent you in that interview. You ought to be the best representation of yourself.

3. Be positive

Think positively, act positively and be positive. See yourself doing well in the interview and feel confident about it. Create a mental picture of your success, because success first of all starts in the mind.

Source:Elcrema

May 17, 2017