George Clooney vows to sue French magazine over twins’ photos

LOS ANGELES | George Clooney on Friday said he would take legal action against a French magazine that published the first photos of his newborn twins.

The “Ocean’s Eleven” actor said photographers from Voici magazine “scaled our fence, climbed our tree and illegally took pictures of our infants inside our home.”

Clooney said in a statement that the photographers and the magazine “will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The safety of our children demands it.”

Clooney and his humanitarian lawyer wife, Amal, announced the arrival of the twins – a boy and a girl called Alexander and Ella – in June but have given no details, photos or interviews about them.

Voici on Friday published grainy photos of Amal and George Clooney, dressed in swim wear, each carrying one of the babies in their arms. They appear to be walking in a garden in what the magazine said was the Clooneys’ villa near Lake Como in Italy.

Voici magazine did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The babies are their first children for the couple, who married in Venice, Italy in 2014 in a big celebrity ceremony but who have tried to keep their personal lives private since then.

source: interaksyon.com

North Korea hacking focused more on making money than espionage – South Korean study

SEOUL — North Korea is behind an increasingly orchestrated effort at hacking into computers of financial institutions in South Korea and around the world to steal cash for the impoverished country, a South Korean state-backed agency said in a report.

In the past, suspected hacking attempts by North Korea appeared intended to cause social disruption or steal classified military or government data, but the focus seems to have shifted in recent years to raising foreign currency, the South’s Financial Security Institute (FSI) said.

The isolated regime is suspected to be behind a hacking group called Lazarus, which global cybersecurity firms have linked to last year’s $81 million cyber heist at the Bangladesh central bank and the 2014 attack on Sony’s Hollywood studio.

The U.S. government has blamed North Korea for the Sony hack and some U.S. officials have said prosecutors are building a case against Pyongyang in the Bangladesh Bank theft.

In April, Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab also identified a hacking group called Bluenoroff, a spinoff of Lazarus, as focused on attacking mostly foreign financial institutions.


The new report, which analyzed suspected cyberattacks between 2015 and 2017 on South Korean government and commercial institutions, identified another Lazarus spinoff named Andariel.

“Bluenoroff and Andariel share their common root, but they have different targets and motives,” the report said. “Andariel focuses on attacking South Korean businesses and government agencies using methods tailored for the country.”

Pyongyang has been stepping up its online hacking capabilities as one way of earning hard currency under the chokehold of international sanctions imposed to stop the development of its nuclear weapons program.

Cyber security researchers have also said they have found technical evidence that could link North Korea with the global WannaCry “ransomware” cyberattack that infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries in May.

“We’ve seen an increasing trend of North Korea using its cyber espionage capabilities for financial gain. With the pressure from sanctions and the price growth in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum — these exchanges likely present an attractive target,” said Luke McNamara, senior analyst at FireEye, a cybersecurity company.

North Korea has routinely denied involvement in cyberattacks against other countries. The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment.

ATMs, online poker

The report said the North Korean hacking group Andariel has been spotted attempting to steal bank card information by hacking into automated teller machines, and then using it to withdraw cash or sell the bank information on the black market. It also created malware to hack into online poker and other gambling sites and steal cash.

“South Korea prefers to use local ATM vendors and these attackers managed to analyze and compromise SK ATMs from at least two vendors earlier this year,” said Vitaly Kamluk, director of the APAC research center at Kaspersky.

“We believe this subgroup (Andariel) has been active since at least May 2016.”

The latest report lined up eight different hacking instances spotted within the South in the last few years, which North Korea was suspected to be behind, by tracking down the same code patterns within the malware used for the attacks.

One case spotted last September was an attack on the personal computer of South Korea’s defense minister as well as the ministry’s intranet to extract military operations intelligence.

North Korean hackers used IP addresses in Shenyang, China to access the defense ministry’s server, the report said.

Established in 2015, the FSI was launched by the South Korean government in order to boost information management and protection in the country’s financial sector following attacks on major South Korean banks in previous years.

The report said some of the content has not been proven fully and is not an official view of the government.

source: interaksyon.com

Justin Bieber cancels rest of world tour including Philippine Arena concert

Justin Bieber is not returning to the Philippines, after all.

A statement posted on his official website announced the cancellation of his ongoing “Purpose World Tour” citing “unforeseen circumstances.”

“Justin loves his fans and hates to disappoint them. He thanks his fans for the incredible experience of the Purpose World Tour over the last 18 months. He is grateful and honored to have shared that experience with his cast and crew for over 150 successful shows across 6 continents during this run. However, after careful consideration he has decided he will not be performing any further dates. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase,” went the rest of the statement.

The said statement was re-posted on the social media pages of concert promoter MMI Live and its head, Rhiza Pascua. At the time of the tour’s cancellation, Bieber had 14 dates remaining covering cities in North America and Asia, including the Philippines where he was scheduled to perform at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan on September 30.

Given the large venue and its location outside Metro Manila, elaborate preparations had been made for the upcoming concert including ample parking for the 80-hectare space, the deployment of 1,000 traffic enforcers patrolling the grounds as well as the presence of Philippine National Police and local government units officers inside and outside the venue.

The Philippine Arena also offered 50 point-to-point (P2P) shuttle buses to transport concertgoers from and to Metro Manila as well as the availability of over 400 housing units for rent for those planning to have a “staycation” during the concert weekend.

As of posting time, Bieber had yet to personally explain the reason for the tour’s cancellation on his social media pages.

source: interaksyon.com

‘Miners’ back new bitcoin software upgrade, averts split

NEW YORK — Digital currency bitcoin on Friday averted a split into two currencies after its network supported an upgrade to its software that would enhance its ability to process an increasing number of transactions.

Bitcoin’s miners have signaled their support for the so-called Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91, avoiding a split of bitcoin into two blockchains. The miners represent a network of computer operators who secure the blockchain or a public ledger of all bitcoin transactions

BIP 91 is the first step toward a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin through a software called SegWit2x. On Friday, the support for BIP 91 reached nearly 100 percent, exceeding the required threshold of 80 percent, according to analysts and market participants.

Some investors have warmed to bitcoin, wooed by its explosive performance and potential to compete with gold and government-issued money as a means to store value. Demand for bitcoin has grown in eight years to a market capitalization of more than $40 billion.

But fears about the bitcoin split dampened demand for bitcoin in recent weeks. After hitting record high near $3,000, bitcoin dropped as low $1,830 BTC=BTSP on the Bitstamp platform. On Friday, it traded at $2,647.

The software upgrade attempts to address the bitcoin network’s limitations in processing millions of daily transactions. Bitcoin’s network has not kept pace with its growth and is unable to process all the transactions fast enough.

“BIP 91 unleashes the next wave of innovation because it has been a little bit stagnant of late for bitcoin,” said Rob Viglione, co-founder of ZenCash, a digital coin focused on privacy and security.

Before BIP 91’s endorsement, some bitcoin investors feared it could split into two independent currencies because core developers of the network and the miners each wanted different ways to increase bitcoin’s scale.

A compromise between the two groups has been reached through SegWit2x.

“Bitcoin now has a clear run to add features that allow for faster transactions with lower costs,” said Charles Hayter, chief executive officer of digital currency analytics firm Cryptocompare.

The upgrade to bitcoin’s network will not occur until autumn, said Viglione, because several things need to happen before the new software is activated.

Market participants have complained about the delay in transactions. Analysts say a single bitcoin transaction costs on average 83 U.S. cents to execute, which means micropayments are not feasible on the network.

The network is also limited to roughly seven transactions per second. In comparison, Visa on average handles 2,000 transactions per second.

source: interaksyon.com

New uniforms do away with home and away designations

Nike has unveiled new NBA uniforms for the 2017-2018 season that dispense with traditional ‘home’ and ‘away’ team designations.

The home team will instead pick from four primary uniforms to be worn at all home games and visiting teams will choose a contrasting uniform within their own assortment.

White ‘Association’ uniforms will replace the typical home jersey, while the ‘Icon’ version uses the team’s primary color and replaces the road uniforms.

Nike, which has replaced Adidas as the NBA’s uniform supplier, will reveal the two remaining uniforms in the coming months.

The world’s No. 1 footwear maker said on Tuesday that it employed 3D-body maps of players, including heat and sweat maps, to design cooler, lighter uniforms for players to wear during the NBA’s grueling 82-game season.

NBA players tested early versions of the uniforms and provided feedback that prompted Nike to evolve the designs in ways that included moving the armhole, neck and side seams to eliminate distractions for athletes, the company said.

“The mental advantage of a quality uniform is priceless,” Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving said in a press release.

“The fact that Nike listened to all of our feedback while developing the new NBA uniforms speaks volumes. I’m excited for the new fit and feel,” he said.

The most significant change comes to the back shoulder of the uniform where Nike designers altered the construction for an improved fit, the company said.

The uniform is comprised of a combination of Alpha Yarns and recycled polyester, with each athlete uniform representing approximately 20 recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.

“Not only does this yarn blend match Nike’s broad commitment to sustainability, it also removes moisture more quickly than previous NBA uniforms, wicking sweat 30-percent faster than current NBA uniforms,” Nike said in a release.

Nike will also unveil new tights and socks to complement the uniforms and provide a seamless look for the athletes, it said.

source: interaksyon.com

Adultery website Ashley Madison in $11.2 million settlement over data breach

The owner of the Ashley Madison adultery website said on Friday it will pay $11.2 million to settle U.S. litigation brought on behalf of roughly 37 million users whose personal details were exposed in a July 2015 data breach.

Ruby Corp, formerly known as Avid Life Media Inc, denied wrongdoing in agreeing to the preliminary class-action settlement, which requires approval by a federal judge in St. Louis.

Ashley Madison marketed itself as a means to help people, primarily men, cheat on their spouses, and was known for its slogan “Life is short. Have an affair.”

But the breach cost privately held Ruby more than a quarter of its revenue, and prompted the Toronto-based company to spend millions of dollars to improve security and user privacy.

Last December, Ruby agreed to pay $1.66 million to settle a probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and several states into lax data security and deceptive practices, also without admitting liability.


According to Friday’s settlement, users with valid claims can recoup up to $3,500 depending on how well they can document their losses attributable to the breach.

Layn Phillips, a former federal judge who mediated the settlement, said in a court filing that the accord offered “a valuable recovery for the class in the face of many obstacles,” including Ruby’s preference that victims arbitrate their claims.

Lawyers for Ashley Madison users may receive up to one-third of the $11.2 million payout to cover legal fees, court papers show.

The case is In re: Ashley Madison Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, No. 15-md-02669.

source: interaksyon.com

Oprah, Jimmy Fallon out of Emmy race, ‘Stranger Things’ star Barb in

LOS ANGELES | A mixed bag of new shows and old favorites on Thursday saw surprising Emmy exclusions for the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Jimmy Fallon and a surprise nod for short-lived character Barb Holland from Netflix’s “Stranger Things” in the race for television’s highest honors.

NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” were snubbed in the variety talk series category in favor of more politically scathing shows – “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee.”

While NBC’s breakout multi-generational family drama “This Is Us” earned 11 nominations, its lead actress, Mandy Moore, was left out of the best drama actress race.

USA Network’s cyber thriller series “Mr. Robot” was snubbed just a year after its star, Rami Malek, won the best drama actor accolade, and Lena Dunham’s final season of “Girls” found no love with Emmy voters this year.

Winfrey was overlooked for her well-received role in HBO’s TV movie “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” although the show itself earned one nomination.

The absence of HBO’s double Emmy-winning medieval fantasy series “Game of Thrones” this year – ineligible due to a summer season debut – left a gap in the drama race that unsurprisingly was filled by the network’s new sci-fi drama “Westworld,” which earned a leading 22 nominations.

“Saturday Night Live” also got an unusually high 22 nods after enjoying a six-year ratings high thanks to its scathing takedowns of U.S. President Donald Trump and his advisers.

Alec Baldwin’s Trump impersonation, Kate McKinnon’s portrayal of White House advisor Kellyanne Conway and Melissa McCarthy’s recurring guest spot as an enraged White House spokesman Sean Spicer all earned them Emmy nominations.

“Saturday Night Live” has won 50 Primetime Emmy awards in its 42 years on air.

Among the biggest surprises was a nomination in the guest drama actress category for nerdy teenager Barb Holland, played by newcomer Shannon Purser, on Netflix’s 1980s supernatural sci-fi “Stranger Things.”

Barb became a viral phenomenon after her sudden and gruesome death on the show, prompting online tributes and songs to the character and fans petitioning “Stranger Things” creators The Duffer Brothers with the hashtag #JusticeForBarb.

On Thursday, the Duffer Brothers celebrated the show’s 18 Emmy nominations and paid tribute to Barb, saying “Gone but never forgotten!”

source: interaksyon.com

Trump’s son met Kremlin-linked lawyer after promise of damaging info about Clinton – NYT

President Donald Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. agreed to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the 2016 campaign after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing three advisers to the White House.

Trump’s then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also attended the meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, two weeks after Trump won the Republican nomination, the Times reported.

The Times quoted a statement from Donald Trump Jr. in which he acknowledged meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

“After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,” the Times quoted Donald Trump Jr. as saying. Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

“Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

The Times said Veselnitskaya then turned the conversation to the adoption of Russian children and a U.S. law blackisting Russians linked to alleged human-rights abuses.

President Trump was “not aware of and did not attend” the meeting reported by the Times, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team, said in an emailed statement.

Trump Jr. was quoted saying he believed information on Clinton was only a pretext for the meeting. The Times said it was unclear whether Veselnitskaya produced the promised compromising information about Clinton.

Trump Jr. told the Times he did not tell Manafort and Kushner what the meeting was about when he asked them to attend.

Representatives for Manafort and Kushner did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Allegations of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia have cast a shadow over Donald Trump’s first five months in office, distracting from attempts by his fellow Republicans in Congress to overhaul the U.S. healthcare and tax systems.

The Kremlin has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Moscow tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, using such means as hacking into the emails of senior Democrats.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.

The allegations came up during Trump’s meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin but the two agreed to focus on better ties rather than litigating the past.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Trump accepted Putin’s assertions the allegations of Russian meddling were false.

Trump said on Sunday he and Putin had discussed forming a cyber security unit, an idea harshly criticized by Republicans who said Moscow could not be trusted after its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

source: interaksyon.com

All eyes on first Trump-Putin face-to-face at G20

HAMBURG — U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to size each other up in person for the first time on Friday in what promises to be the most highly anticipated meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

Trump has said he wants to find ways to work with Putin, a goal made more difficult by sharp differences over Russia’s actions in Syria and Ukraine, and allegations Moscow meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

That means every facial expression and physical gesture will be analyzed as much as any words the two leaders utter as the world tries to read how well Trump, a real estate magnate and former reality television star, gets along with Putin, a former spy.

The fear is that the Republican president, a political novice whose team is still developing its Russia policy, will be less prepared than Putin, who has dealt with the past two U.S. presidents and scores of other world leaders.

“There’s nothing … the Kremlin would like to see more than a (U.S.) president who will settle for a grip and a grin and walk away saying that he had this fabulous meeting with the Kremlin autocrat,” Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on MSNBC.

As investigations at home continue into whether there was any collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia the U.S. president has come under pressure to take a hard line against the Kremlin.

Moscow has denied any interference and Trump says his campaign did not collude with Russia.

On Thursday, Trump won praise from at least one Republican hawk in the U.S. Congress after his speech in Warsaw in which he urged Russia to stop its “destabilizing activities” and end its support for Syria and Iran.

“This is a great start to an important week of American foreign policy,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has often been critical of Trump on security issues.

But earlier in the day, Trump declined to say definitively whether he believed U.S. intelligence officials who have said that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

“I think it was Russia but I think it was probably other people and/or countries, and I see nothing wrong with that statement. Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure,” Trump said at a news conference, before slamming Democratic former President Barack Obama for not doing more to stop hacking.

Senators’ concerns

Ahead of Trump’s meeting with Putin, three U.S. senators wrote to Trump to express “deep concern” about reports that his administration planned to discuss the return to Russia of diplomatic compounds in Maryland and New York that were seized by the Obama administration last year in response to alleged Russian election meddling.

Republican Senators Johnny Isakson and Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said returning the facilities would “embolden” Putin and encourage further efforts by Russia to interfere in Western elections. All three are on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The White House declined to offer details on what Trump would request of Putin and what he might offer in exchange for cooperation.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump wanted to talk about how the two countries can work together to stabilize war-ravaged Syria.

“The United States is prepared to explore the possibility of establishing with Russia joint mechanisms for ensuring stability, including no-fly zones, on-the-ground ceasefire observers, and coordinated delivery of humanitarian assistance,” Tillerson said before leaving the United States to join Trump in Germany.

Trump was also grappling with a response to North Korea’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which analysts say had a long enough range to reach Alaska.

Curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions has been Trump’s most pressing foreign policy priority, and he met with leaders from Japan and South Korea on Thursday evening to discuss it. He is also slated to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20.

“I’d like to see the president figure out how to engage Russia on North Korea,” said Representative Francis Rooney, a Republican from Florida who is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“What I suggested to the president here a while back was that since we have all these conflicting issues about Russia right now and we’re still reeling from the fact that they took Crimea, maybe this is an opportunity to reset the Russia relationship in a positive manner,” Rooney said in an interview.

source: interaksyon.com

ON TRACK | Samsung to take Intel’s chip crown

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to report its best-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter, with soaring memory chip sales pushing it passed Intel Corp as the biggest semiconductor maker by revenue for the first time.

The world’s largest memory chip maker is the among the biggest beneficiaries of soaring demand for processing firepower on smartphones and servers, which has fueled an industry super-cycle amid limited supply growth.

Underscoring its dominant position, Samsung said on Tuesday it plans to invest some $18.6 billion in South Korea as it seeks to extend its lead in memory chips and next-generation displays for smartphones.

The South Korean tech giant, Asia’s third-largest company by market capitalization, is now poised to knock Intel off the top of the global semiconductor market-share rankings for the first time since 1991.

“From the second quarter, Samsung will become No. 1 in market share due to the recent increase in data centers and demand for solid-state drives,” NH Investment & Securities analyst Peter Lee wrote in a note to clients.

Samsung’s April-June operating profit is expected to leap 67 percent from a year earlier to 13.1 trillion won ($11.4 billion), a new high, according to the average forecast from a Thomson Reuters survey of 18 analysts.

The same survey expects July-September profit to be even higher at 13.8 trillion won.

Solid sales of the Galaxy S8 smartphone launched in April likely provided an additional boost, keeping the firm ahead of rival Apple Inc (AAPL.O) as the world’s top smartphone maker.

The S8’s performance has reassured investors whose nerves were shaken last year by the costly withdrawal of Samsung’s premium Galaxy Note 7 due to fire-prone batteries.

Samsung shares are trading at a near-record high of 2.35 million won each as of Tuesday. They have gained 30 percent so far this year on top of a 43 percent surge in 2016.

In the pipeline

“The Galaxy S8 series has been out for more than 2 months now and we see similar traction as the Galaxy S7 series,” Counterpoint analyst Tom Kang said.

Samsung would sell about 49 million S8s by the end of its first full-year release, in line with first-year sales of the Galaxy S7, he said.

Samsung is also preparing to unveil the Galaxy Note 8 in August, a source told Reuters, restoring the company’s schedule of market-moving gadget releases after the interruption of the Note 7 debacle.

The company will issue earnings guidance early on Friday but will not disclose details on its performance until late July.

Nomura has predicted DRAM chip prices will continue to rise in the second half of 2017 due to limited supply and strong demand driven by servers.

Demand for solid-state drives (SSD) and smartphones would maintain profits for producers of NAND semiconductors, despite an easing of a production bottleneck, it said.

source: interaksyon.com

Cuba diversifies ‘options for love’ via state-run motels

Cuba is reviving a network of state-run “love motels” in Havana where couples can rent rooms by the hour as the communist government seeks to “diversify options for love,” the official trade union weekly Trabajadores said on Monday.

Havana, the capital of the Caribbean island, boasted dozens of such “posadas” until the 1990s, when the remaining few were given to Cubans left homeless by hurricanes.

Privacy has became all the more elusive for lovers, given a housing shortage that forces many families to live in the same apartment and couples to live together long after their divorce.

Private establishments have filled in the gap for some, the trade union weekly wrote, but many cannot afford to pay around $5, or a sixth of the average monthly state wage, for three hours of bliss.

The less fortunate must resort to “parks, dark staircases, the beach and even the Malecon (seafront),” Trabajadores wrote. But now the state wants to make lovemaking easier again.

“We want to revive this service that is in high demand, has a big social impact and without a doubt is very profitable,” Alfonso Muñoz Chang of the Provincial Housing Company of Havana was cited as saying. “We will start with what we call Hotel Vento, a two-storey building with 16 rooms with bathrooms.”

“The city needs this,” Hotel Vento administrator Maria Sterling was cited as saying, noting that employees would be “very enthusiastic” as wages would likely rise with the extra work.

Next, authorities will restore some once-famous love motels like La Monumental to their former glory and convert another hotel, Muñoz Chang said.

“To think about how to diversify options for love is not farfetched,” Trabajadores wrote. “It is a reality that concerns everyone, and cannot become a luxury.”

source: interaksyon.com