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Police: 12-year-old Virginia girl kidnapped; her mother's body found

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Police: 12-year-old Virginia girl kidnapped; her mother's body found

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- Police issued an Amber Alert for a 12-year-old girl who they suspect has been kidnapped after finding her mother dead inside a Salem, Virginia, home.

Brittany Mae Smith was last seen "several days ago," according to a Roanoke County statement issued Monday. Police launched a search for Jeffrey Scott Easley, 32, whom authorities describe as a friend of the dead mother.

"Police have said that the young lady is in extreme danger," said Teresa Hamilton Hall, public information director for Roanoke County.

Roanoke County police went to the Salem residence around 9:30 a.m. Monday after concerned co-workers of Tina Smith, the girl's mother, contacted them. Police found the 41-year-old woman's body inside, and authorities said they were investigating the death as a possible homicide.

Police soon got information that Brittany Smith's whereabouts were unknown, leading them to issue the statewide alert.

"We found out pretty quickly that (Brittany) had not shown up for school. Nobody seemed to know where she was. We're concerned that her disappearance is going to be, at least a good possibility, it has something to do with the homicide," Roanoke County police Lt. Chuck Mason said, according to CNN affiliate WSET-TV of Lynchburg, Virginia.

Virginia's Amber Alert website noted early Monday evening that Easley's car, a 2000 red Chevrolet sport utility vehicle, has been found. But authorities are still looking for Tina Smith's vehicle, a silver 2005 Dodge Neon four-door sedan with Virginia license plates.

Easley, a 265-pound white male, is 5 feet, 11 inches tall, has brown hair and hazel eyes, the Amber Alert says.

Brittany Smith is 5 feet tall, weighs 100 pounds, and has straight brown hair and brown eyes.

Hall said authorities don't yet have a specific search area as they are uncertain which direction Easley might be heading or how far he might have gotten. They have asked anyone with information to call 911 or Roanoke County police at 540-777-8641.

CNN's Greg Botelho and Alexis Weed contributed to this report.


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Death sentence given to an Iranian-born Canadian for allegedly designing an adult website

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Canada concern at Iran death penalty for web designer

Canada is "deeply concerned" over a reported death sentence given to an Iranian-born Canadian for allegedly designing an adult website, an official has said.

Saeed Malekpour
Mr Malekpour is said to have been detained in Iran since 2008

Saeed Malekpour was convicted in Iran of designing and moderating adult sites, according to a campaign run by the 35-year-old's supporters.


Canada's foreign ministry said the legal process was highly questionable.


Mr Malekpour, 35, has reportedly been detained in Iran since 2008.


"Canada remains deeply concerned by the continued flagrant disregard of the Iranian authorities for the rights of Iranians," said Alain Cacchione, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.


He added: "This appears to be another case in which someone in Iran is facing a death sentence after a highly questionable process."


'Insulting Islam'

Mr Malekpour was convicted of designing and moderating adult websites, "agitation against the regime" in Tehran and "insulting the sanctity of Islam", according to the Campaign for Release of Saeed Malekpour.


The campaign says the Iranian-born Canadian worked as a freelance website developer and created a software program that allowed designers to upload photos to their websites.


That software was then used, without Mr Malekpour's knowledge, for the creation of an adult website, the support site says.


Mr Malekpour moved to Canada in 2004 but was arrested in Iran in 2008 during a trip to visit his father.


He was sentenced to death on Saturday, according the campaign's website.








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Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi 'has price on her head'

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Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi 'has price on her head'

By Orla Guerin
BBC News, Punjab province
Ashif Masih, right, husband of Christian woman Asia Bibi who had been sentenced to death, and daughters Shahzadi (left) and Sidra (middle)
Asia Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, says his family have been receiving threatening phone calls

Ashiq Masih has the look of a hunted man - gaunt, anxious and exhausted.


Though he is guilty of nothing, this Pakistani labourer is on the run - with his five children.


His wife, Asia Bibi, has been sentenced to death for blaspheming against Islam. That is enough to make the entire family a target.


They stay hidden by day, so we met them after dark.


Mr Masih told us they move constantly, trying to stay one step ahead of the anonymous callers who have been menacing them.


"I ask who they are, but they refuse to tell me," he said.



Continue reading the main story

Start Quote


Asia Bibi at a prison near Lahore, Pakistan, 20 Nov. 20, 2010.

In the village they tried to put a noose around my neck, so that they could kill me”


End Quote
Asia Bibi


"They say 'we'll deal with you if we get our hands on you'. Now everyone knows about us, so I am hiding my kids here and there. I don't allow them to go out. Anyone can harm them," he added.


Ashiq Masih says his daughters still cry for their mother and ask if she will be home in time for Christmas.


He insists that Asia Bibi is innocent and will be freed, but he worries about what will happen next.


"When she comes out, how she can live safely?" he asks.


"No one will let her live. The mullahs are saying they will kill her when she comes out."


Asia Bibi, an illiterate farm worker from rural Punjab, is the first woman sentenced to hang under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law.


'Old score'

As well as the death penalty hanging over her, Asia Bibi now has a price on her head.



Asia Bibi's village

Asia Bibi's was the only Christian household in her village

A radical cleric has promised 500,000 Pakistani rupees (£3,700; $5,800) to anyone prepared to "finish her". He suggested that the Taliban might be happy to do it.


Asia Bibi's troubles began in June 2009 in her village, Ittan Wali, a patchwork of lush fields and dusty streets.


Hers was the only Christian household.


She was picking berries alongside local Muslim women, when a row developed over sharing water.


Days later, the women claimed she had insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Soon, Asia Bibi was being pursued by a mob.


"In the village they tried to put a noose around my neck, so that they could kill me," she said in a brief appearance outside her jail cell.


Anarchy threat


Asia Bibi says she was falsely accused to settle an old score. That is often the case with the blasphemy law, critics say.



Continue reading the main story

Start Quote


Qari Mohammed Salim

If the law punishes someone for blasphemy, and that person is pardoned, then we will also take the law in our hands”


End Quote
Qari Mohammed Salim
Imam

At the village mosque, we found no mercy for her.


The imam, Qari Mohammed Salim, told us he cried with joy when sentence was passed on Asia Bibi.


He helped to bring the case against her and says she will be made to pay, one way or the other.


"If the law punishes someone for blasphemy, and that person is pardoned, then we will also take the law in our hands," he said.


Her case has provoked concern abroad, with Pope Benedict XVI joining the calls for her release.


In Pakistan, Islamic parties have been out on the streets, threatening anarchy if she is freed, or if there is any attempt to amend the blasphemy law.


Under Pakistan's penal code, anyone who "defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet" can be punished by death or life imprisonment. Death sentences have always been overturned on appeal.


Human right groups and Christian organisations want the law abolished.


"It was designed as an instrument of persecution," says Ali Hasan Dayan, of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan. "It's discriminatory and abusive."


'Hanging sword'

While most of those charged under the law are Muslims, campaigners say it is an easy tool for targeting minorities, in this overwhelmingly Muslim state.



Communion at the cathedral

Pakistan's Christian community has been praying for Asia Bibi

"It is a hanging sword on the neck of all minorities, especially Christians," says Shahzad Kamran, of the Sharing Life Ministry, which ministers to prisoners, including Asia Bibi.


"In our churches, homes and workplaces we feel fear," he says.


"It's very easy to make this accusation because of a grudge, or for revenge. Anyone can accuse you.


"Even our little children are afraid that if they say something wrong at school, they will be charged with blasphemy."


Asia Bibi's story has sparked a public debate in Pakistan about reforming the law, but it is a touchy - and risky - subject which many politicians would prefer to ignore.


Campaigners fear that the talk about reform of the blasphemy laws will amount to no more than that.


Beheading threat

When Pakistan's Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, raised the issue six months ago, he was threatened with death.



Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi is seen in an undated photo handed out by family members in Punjab province on November 13, 2010.

Asia Bibi is said to be one of dozens of innocent people accused of blasphemy every year

"I was told I could be beheaded if I proposed any change," he told us.


"But I am committed to the principle of justice for the people of Pakistan. I am ready to die for this cause, and I will not compromise".


Mr Bhatti, himself a Christian, hopes that Asia Bibi will win an appeal to the High Court, or be pardoned by Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari.


He says she is one of dozens of innocent people who are accused every year.


"I will go to every knock for justice on her behalf and I will take all steps for her protection".


But even behind bars Asia Bibi may not be safe.


Several people accused of blasphemy have been killed in jail.


Thirty-four people connected with blasphemy cases have been killed since the law was hardened in 1986, according to Pakistan's Justice and Peace Commission, a Catholic campaign group.


The death toll includes those accused, their relatives, and even a judge.


In a neglected graveyard by a railway track in the city of Faisalabad, we found two of the latest victims of the blasphemy law.


'Electric shock'

They are brothers, buried side by side, together in death, as they were in life.


Rashid Emmanuel was a pastor.



Relatives of Rashid and Sajid Emmanuel pray at their graves

Relatives of Rashid and Sajid Emmanuel pray at their graves

His brother, Sajid, was an MBA student. They were gunned down in July during their trial - inside a courthouse, in handcuffs and in police custody.


Relatives, who asked not to be identified, said the blasphemy charges were brought because of a land dispute.


After the killings, the extended family had to leave home and move to another city. They say they will be moving again soon.


"We don't feel safe," one relative told us.


"We are shocked, like an electric shock. We are going from one place to another to defend ourselves, and secure our family members."


Once a month they come to the cemetery to pray at the graves of their lost loved ones.


They are too frightened to visit more often.


They bow their heads and mourn for two men who they say were killed for nothing - except being Christian.

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Why WikiLeaks Is Good for America

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Why WikiLeaks Is Good for America

A truly free press — one unfettered by concerns of nationalism — is apparently a terrifying problem for elected governments and tyrannies alike.


It shouldn’t be.


In the past week, after publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables, secret-spilling site WikiLeaks has been hit with denial-of-service attacks on its servers by unknown parties; its backup hosting provider, Amazon, booted WikiLeaks off its hosting service; and PayPal has suspended its donation-collecting account, damaging WikiLeaks’ ability to raise funds. MasterCard announced Monday it was blocking credit card payments to WikiLeaks, saying the site was engaged in illegal activities, despite the fact it has never been charged with a crime.


Meanwhile, U.S. politicians have ramped up the rhetoric against the nonprofit, calling for the arrest and prosecution and even assassination of its most visible spokesman, Julian Assange. Questions about whether current laws are adequate to prosecute him have prompted lawmakers to propose amending the espionage statute to bring Assange to heel or even to declare WikiLeaks a terrorist organization.


WikiLeaks is not perfect, and we have highlighted many of its shortcomings on this web site. Nevertheless, it’s time to make a clear statement about the value of the site and take sides:


WikiLeaks stands to improve our democracy, not weaken it.


The greatest threat we face right now from Wikileaks is not the information it has spilled and may spill in the future, but the reactionary response to it that’s building in the United States that promises to repudiate the rule of law and our free speech traditions, if left unchecked.


Secrecy is routinely posited as a critical component for effective governance, a premise that’s so widely accepted that even some journalists, whose job is to reveal the secret workings of governments, have declared WikiLeaks’ efforts to be out of bounds.


We should embrace the site as an expression of the fundamental freedom that is at the core of our Bill of Rights.

Transparency, and its value, look very different inside the corridors of power than outside. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to roll back the secrecy apparatus that had been dramatically expanded under his predecessor, but his administration has largely abandoned those promises and instead doubled-down on secrecy.


One of the core complaints against WikiLeaks is a lack of accountability. It has set up shop in multiple countries with liberal press protections in an apparent bid to stand above the law. It owes allegiance to no one government, and its interests do not align neatly with authorities’. Compare this, for example, to what happened when the U.S. government pressured The New York Times in 2004 to drop its story about warrantless wiretapping on grounds that it would harm national security. The paper withheld the story for a year-and-a-half.


WikiLeaks’ role is not the same as the press’s, since it does not always endeavor to vet information prior to publication. But it operates within what one might call the media ecosystem, feeding publications with original documents that are found nowhere else and insulating them against pressures from governments seeking to suppress information.


Instead of encouraging online service providers to blacklist sites and writing new espionage laws that would further criminalize the publication of government secrets, we should regard WikiLeaks as subject to the same first amendment rights that protect The New York Times. And as a society, we should embrace the site as an expression of the fundamental freedom that is at the core of our Bill of Rights, not react like Chinese corporations that are happy to censor information on behalf of their government to curry favor.


WikiLeaks does not automatically bring radical transparency in its wake. Sites like WikiLeaks work because sources, more often than not pricked by conscience, come forward with information in the public interest. WikiLeaks is a distributor of this information, if an extraordinarily prolific one. It helps guarantee the information won’t be hidden by editors and publishers who are afraid of lawsuits or the government.


WikiLeaks has beaten back the attacks against it with the help of hundreds of mirror sites that will keep its content available, despite the best efforts of opponents. Blocking WikiLeaks, even if it were possible, could never be effective.


A government’s best and only defense against damaging spills is to act justly and fairly. By seeking to quell WikiLeaks, its U.S. political opponents are only priming the pump for more embarrassing revelations down the road.


Evan Hansen is Editor-in-Chief of Wired.com.

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Supreme Court Takes Climate Pollution Case

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Supreme Court Takes Climate Pollution Case

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a landmark case on greenhouse gases, potentially affirming or denying the public’s right to limit corporate pollution.


At issue is American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, a case filed by environmental groups and eight states against midwestern utility companies. Connecticut, New York, California, Iowa, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin claimed the power companies’ contributions to climate change made them a public nuisance, and asked courts to cap their emissions.


The case was filed before the Environmental Protection Agency’s right to regulate greenhouse gases was established, and represents an attempt by citizens to control greenhouse gases in the absence of federal mandates. As described in a previous Climate Desk story on American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, the case is grounded in a century-long tradition of communities holding big polluters responsible for damaging public health.


Further lawsuits have been inspired by the case, including one by Gulf Coast residents against oil refineries they say contributed to Hurricane Katrina, and another by residents of an Alaskan island village about to be swamped by rising seas.


A New York court ruled against the states in 2005, saying the suit raised a “political question” beyond judicial scope. An appeals court reversed that decision last year, noting that the link between greenhouse gas pollution and climate change is not a political question. As justification, they even cited Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co., an obscure Supreme Court decision in which the high court supported Georgia’s right to sue two copper companies responsible for crop-destroying pollution.


It’s this appeal that the Supreme Court will review.



Somewhat surprisingly, the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court not to take the case, arguing that greenhouse gas controls should be decided executively or legislatively, not by states or judges. Though climate change legislation has been a failure, the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA could regulate greenhouse gases, a process scheduled to begin early next year.


More predictably, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a variety of energy industry groups filed petitions in favor of the companies. They say that court-ordered caps could raise energy costs. According to the energy companies, “the potential compensation for climate change impacts would make the tobacco payouts look like peanuts.”


The case will be heard in the early spring and decided by July.


Image: eutrophication&hypoxia/Flickr.


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WikiLeaked Cable Says 2009 Brazilian Blackout Wasn’t Hackers, Either

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WikiLeaked Cable Says 2009 Brazilian Blackout Wasn’t Hackers, Either

SAO PAULO — Despite widespread speculation at the time, a massive power outage that left 18 out of the 26 Brazilian states in the dark for up to six hours last year was not the result of a cyberattack, according to a classified diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks last week.


The Nov. 10, 2009, blackout came just two days after the CBS News magazine 60 Minutes reported that an earlier outage in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo in 2007 was the work of hackers. And it came just one day after Threat Level reported that, no, it wasn’t.


The suspicious timing of the outage triggered widespread speculation that hackers — even if they weren’t responsible for the 2007 blackout — may have caused the newer one. With Rio set to host the 2016 summer Olympics, the incident prompted U.S. diplomats to meet with top officials at ONS, Brazil’s power authority, to find out what had happened.


The leaked cable, dated Dec. 1, 2009 and classified Secret, describes the “strikingly open” conversations that followed.


[ONS president Plinio de] Oliveira and [ONS statistical director Wilkens] Geraldes further ruled out the possibility of hackers because, following some acknowledged interferences in past years, GOB has closed the system to only a small group of authorized operators, separated the transmission control system from other systems, and installed filters. [Energy ministry chief of staff José] Coimbra confirmed that the ONS system is a CLAN network using its own wires carried above the electricity wires. Oliveira pointed out that even if someone had managed to gain access to the system, a voice command is required to disrupt transmission.


Coimbra said that while sabotage could have caused the outages, this type of disruption would have been deadly, and investigators would have found physical evidence, including the body of the perpetrator. He also noted that any internal attempts by system employees to disrupt the system would have been easily traceable, a fact known to anyone with access to the system.


The blackout was caused by short circuits on high-voltage lines leading from the Itaburi substation near Sao Paulo, and was exacerbated by a number of factors, according to the cable, which appears to confirm the public reports of the blackout.


But what of the “acknowledged interferences in past years”?


Raphael Mandarino Jr., Brazil’s director of Homeland Security Information and Communication, says it refers to a cyber-extortion attack launched by Eastern European hackers around 2005 or 2006. The attackers penetrated an administrative machine at a government agency after the system administrator left the computer with a default password.


The intruders, Mandarino says, downloaded and deleted files on the machine, and then left a message demanding ransom money for the data’s return. The person responsible for the system’s maintenance arrived to work at 8:00 a.m., and initially thought the ransom note was a joke. It took one hour to take the threat seriously.


No money was paid, says Mandarino, and most of the destroyed files were recovered from a backup.


“That was the first serious attack, which resulted in the issue being discussed in all the public administration”, he said.


Among the measures suggested to avoid a repeat occurrence was the creation of stronger passwords — the one they created right after the incident was cracked in a penetration test after just one week — and the recommendation that no outsourced workers have access to the passwords. Those measures were distributed to all the government’s branches and affiliates, including energy suppliers.


ONS’ Wilkens Geraldes, mentioned in the cable, referred inquiries to the agency’s PR team, which responded by saying that ONS has always had two different networks: The corporate network has suffered attacks, they say. But the utility operation network is isolated, and has yet to be breached from the outside.


In a broadcast Nov. 8, 2009, 60 Minutes cited unnamed sources in making the claim that a massive 2007 blackout that affected 3 million people was triggered by hackers targeting a utility company’s control systems.


In truth, a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high-voltage insulators on two transmission lines is what caused the outage, according to government regulators and others who investigated the incident for more than a year.


“I looked at the case as the top systems officer within the government, and I found nothing”, Mandarino reiterated this week, adding that he gave a taped interview to 60 Minutes rebutting the anonymous cyberwar claims, but CBS didn’t air it.


“There are indeed attacks against the energy websites. There was a defacement attack in 2008. There have been attempts at denial of service. Nothing that affected public utilities,” he says. “It’s still very difficult, because the system is not online. We have some [facilities] like thermoelectric plants that are remotely controlled, but they’ve suffered no attacks.”


Top image: Sao Paolo endures a power outage in 1999.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

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WikiLeaks Releases Secret List of Critical Infrastructure Sites

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WikiLeaks Releases Secret List of Critical Infrastructure Sites

WikiLeaks published a secret memo listing critical infrastructure facilities around the world on Sunday, prompting criticism that the document could serve as a target list for terrorists.


The cable, written in February 2009 and classified Secret, lists more than a hundred facilities that the United States considers critical infrastructures or key resources.


They include an Israeli weapons manufacturer in Haifa, undersea cables in China and elsewhere, hydroelectric plants, metal and chemical mines and manufacturers, and pharmaceutical facilities and labs in Denmark and France where critical formulas are manufactured — such as insulin and vaccines for smallpox, influenza, foot-and-mouth disease and other ailments. Also, notably: the Straits of Hormuz, a choke point through which much of the Middle East’s crude oil passes.


The list is compiled annually as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan to track locations outside U.S. borders whose loss could “critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States,” according to the cable. Key resources are defined as “publicly or privately controlled resources essential to the minimal operations of the economy and government.”


Although the facilities listed are not secret — and the locations for most of them can be found through a simple Google search — British and U.S. authorities denounced WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange for releasing the list.


“There are strong and valid reasons information is classified, including critical infrastructure and key resources that are vital to the national and economic security of any country,” Philip Crowley, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, told the Financial Times. “Julian Assange may be directing his efforts at the United States, but he is placing the interests of many countries and regions at risk. This is irresponsible.”


Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, said that while it might interest potential attackers to know what facilities the United States deems sensitive and critical, a motivated attacker is capable of selecting his own targets without government aid.


“My own opinion is that there’s no shortage of potential targets that hostile actors might find interesting, and they don’t need a State Department list to assist them,” he told Threat Level, noting that the list, produced in a run-on format, makes it difficult to decipher.


“The good news is it’s hard to read,” he said. “Talk about security through obscurity … this is one boring memo. You have to be really committed to get through this.”


He noted, however, that what’s not on the list could be deemed just as important to an attacker.


“By implication it also says that facilities not listed here may not be deemed as important by the government or may not have been recognized by the government as sensitive and may therefore be receiving less protection,” he said.


Photo: CTBTO Preparatory Commission/flickr

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