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Verisign's approach on how a user should safely use the Internet is based upon well thought out processes and policies, yet its implementation is rarely understood by the average web surfer. The simple reason why it isn't deployed everywhere is the expense and maintenence of this kind of approach. Other tools will be u...
China's probe and attack has side benefits for its nation, besides information desired and use by its Intelligence community (MSS) and thus, the attack likely served multiple purposes. It is faced with a future problem that it simply cannot afford; copyright and download monitoring. The Green Dam is but one tool it use...
In the end, there are no magical cyber shields to solve the problem. One thing is for sure, a lot of money is going to be spent trying and sooner or later, everyone may have to pay with an Internet cop instant messaging you - "license and registration please"
2000-06-10 04:00:00 PDT STATE -- The fate of four Northern California men accused of running a nationwide crime syndicate that committed one of the largest microchip heists in U.S. history will go to a federal jury next week.
Closing arguments in the trial of Hoang Ai Le of San Francisco, Mady Chan of Sacramento and John That Luong and his cousin Huy Chi "Jimmy" Luong, both of Elk Grove (Sacramento County), were completed before U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel yesterday.
The four men are accused of creating a criminal organization that plundered high-tech businesses in California, Minnesota and Oregon during the mid-1990s. One of the alleged robberies was a $10 million heist at Centon Electronics in Irvine that is considered one of the largest high-crime thefts ever.
The four defendants are also charged with racketeering, conspiracy, armed robbery and using firearms. In addition, John Luong is accused of trafficking in heroin in California, Massachusetts and New York in order to raise money for the gang.
During a two-day summation that began Tuesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Lee and Richard Serafini, a trial attorney from the U.S. Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Branch, characterized the Luongs and Chan as the "founding fathers" of the gang known as "The Company" and Le as an "ope...
Lee called the gang "a powerful alliance of criminal associates (that engaged in) an unparalleled string of violent criminal activity.
"The Company knew no limits," she said. "The Company was designed to make money for its leaders -- and it did."
In defense of the four men, attorneys Richard Mazur, George Boisseau, Richard Dratman and Clyde Blackmon, pointed out inconsistencies in the statements of the government's informants and noted that key witnesses had lengthy criminal histories that made their testimony less than credible.
They also pointed out that some of the informant witnesses had been paid by the government for their cooperation, and all had agreed to testify in return for what they hope will be lighter criminal sentences.
These witnesses came with "warning labels," Dratman, the attorney for Mady Chan, told the jury. Although the witnesses have struck deals with the government, he said they have yet to be sentenced. "They weren't up there testifying for the truth," he said. "They were testifying for themselves. The government has this he...
Jimmy Luong's attorney, Blackmon acknowledged that his client may have been involved in robberies, but not the ones he has been charged with in this case. The government, he concluded, has failed to prove that his client took part in any criminal enterprise, conspiracy or racketeering scheme.
But in their final arguments, prosecutors Lee and Serafini recapped an intricate web of evidence introduced during the three-month trial, including extensive courtroom testimony from law enforcement officials and former gang members who had agreed to become informants in return for leniency.
They noted that members of the organization had given sworn testimony that they helped the gang identify potential robbery targets, planned and executed the heists and helped place the stolen merchandise on the black market.
One of them testified at length about doing three "sting" drug deals with the gang while wearing a concealed tape recorder and being monitored by FBI agents.
Lee and Serafini also pointed to more than 200 court-ordered wiretap intercepts that showed the defendants discussing and planning criminal activities, as well as a host of telephone records and other documents that clarified or corroborated evidence from the informants and the taped phone calls.
Mazur, representing John Luong, acknowledged that his client had engaged in heroin sales, but said the government's indictment of him was flawed because he sold drugs solely for personal profit.
He also admitted that Luong had participated in some of the microchip robberies, but not the ones he is accused of in the government's indictment.
Noting that the government had argued that members of the gang pooled resources and shared expenses, Mazur said no such pooling arrangement had ever really existed.
He noted that The Company's alleged leaders often cheated each other out of profits, free-lanced in crime on the side and bickered constantly about who would have to pay for legal assistance when gang members were arrested.
As for the drug trafficking, Mazur said no evidence had been introduced linking any of the other alleged leaders to the heroin sales.
"There is no doubt that the drug dealing engaged in by John That Luong was John That Luong's personal business," he said. "There is no telephone transcript that shows that John That Luong calls up the other leaders . . . and says, 'Hey, guys, I just got $70,000 from heroin sales. Come on down and get your share.' "
The Luongs, Le and Chan are the first of three groups of alleged members of the gang to stand trial. Trial dates have not been set for 15 other defendants.
The case results from a massive task force investigation called "Bytes Dust" that involved local police, sheriff's departments, state criminal investigators and the FBI.
In at least one case, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies acting on information the FBI had obtained from wiretaps were able to arrest members of the ring as they prepared to rob a microchip business in Torrance.
The FBI was also able to use information obtained from wiretaps to collar key members of the ring after a 1996 chip heist in San Diego.
If convicted of the racketeering charges alone, the four men could each be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
John That Luong and Hoang Ai Le are already serving federal prison sentences for their 1998 convictions in a massive illegal immigrant smuggling scheme.
The two Luongs also face federal trial on money laundering charges in Sacramento once the San Francisco case is concluded.
Noel Edmonds has revealed he suffered from prostate cancer which he claims was helped cured by a box that “tackles cancer”.
The Deal Or No Deal host was diagnosed on November 29 2013, after a routine health test picked up raised levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in his blood. He had no symptoms.
The 67-year-old alleged on This Morning that he had used the EMPpad, a machine which aims to stimulate “cellular resonance” in the body, as part of a regime to cure himself from cancer that he said was caused by stress.
He had come under controversy for suggesting a cancer sufferer’s ill-health was caused by “negative energy” when he promoted the benefits of the £2,315 device on his Twitter account on Monday.
When host Phillip Schofield called the question “insensitive”, Noel defended his claim.
Co-host Holly Willoughby asked if he would ask a child if their cancer was caused by negative energy.
He continued: “I was, I thought, very, very healthy. I know why I got my cancer: because I had gone through a very stressful, very negative period in my life.
He replied: “Yes, because the definition of stress is negative energy. It didn’t just decide to manifest itself, there was cause.
Phil repeated a statement from the makers of the EMPpad, which said they did “not agree with it (Noel’s statement) in any way, shape or form”.
Noel said his father Dudley, who died of prostate cancer in 1990, died of “ignorance” as he urged people to seek a second opinion and not accept “convention” on diagnosis.
He said: “We don’t understand energy, that’s why we have quantum physics and a bunch of people in CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) trying to understand it.
“The medical profession can’t even define the exact definition of health, but I’m encouraging people please don’t do what my father did and die of ignorance.
EMPpad Limited said it does not pay the TV presenter to advertise the product. The company director is Maria Robertson, who has previously worked as an assistant to Noel.
ITV’s Dr Ranj Singh said that “the vast majority of research (on electromagnetism) is poor quality and when it comes to cancer is even worse so I would be very careful taking things at first value when you go looking for that information”.
A Pennsylvania soldier who jumped on a grenade in Iraq to save the lives of his comrades at the cost of his own will get the Medal of Honor.
The nation's highest military award will go to 19-year-old Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pa., on June 2, the White House said.
McGinnis was in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee on Dec. 4, 2006, when a grenade sailed into it. He jumped on the grenade, which blew up and killed him, but his four comrades survived.
Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman, said McGinnis could have jumped out and saved himself, but instead saved his buddies.
UC Irvine senior guard Darren Moore was named second-team All-Big West Conference in men's basketball Monday.
Moore ranks second in the Big West in scoring (17.2) and steals (1.8), sixth in field-goal percentage (.505) and 10th in rebounding (5.8).
He has 13 games of 20 points or more this season, including 11 of the last 18. Moore scored a career-high 30 points and added 11 rebounds in a 90-82 win at San Diego Dec. 1.
He is 22 of 40 (.550) from the field in the last three games.
Junior forward Eric Wise and senior guard Patrick Rembert received honorable mention.
Wise, who has missed 12 games this season due to injuries, is averaging 15.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game (18.3 and 9.4 in Big West play). In the last three games, he has averaged 22.7 points and 11.7 boards.
He was named Big West Player of the Week a week ago after averaging 24 points and 13.5 rebounds in UCI's double-overtime wins over UC Davis and Pacific that clinched a Big West Tournament berth for the 'Eaters.
Wise was a second-team pick the last two seasons.
Rembert, averaging 12 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.4 rebounds, ranks No. 8 in UCI career annals with 297 assists.
The No. 8-seeded Anteaters (13-18) face top-seeded Long Beach State (20-10) Thursday at noon at Honda Center in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal.
Long Beach State junior point guard Caspar Ware is Player of the Year.
Isiah Umipig (Cal State Fullerton) won the sixth-man award. UC Davis's Joe Harden earned the hustle award.
Coaches named UC Irvine senior Jade Smith-Williams first-team All-Big West Conference in women's basketball on Monday.
The 5-foot-7 point guard leads the conference in assists (4.6 per game) and minutes played (36.5), is third in scoring (14.9) and free-throw percentage (.845), and seventh in steals (1.7) as well as three-point fiel- goal percentage (.376).
She has 263 career assists to rank No. 8 all-time at UCI. Her 134 assists this season rank No. 5 in single-season annals.
Smith-Williams received honorable mention as a junior.
She and the Anteaters travel to UC Davis for a Big West Tournament quarterfinal game tonight at 7.
Three players qualified Monday at Goose Creek Golf Club in Mira Loma to join the field for the Toshiba Classic, which begins Friday at the Newport Beach Country Club.
Robin Byrd of Austin, Texas, topped the field at six-under 65.
Thompson, from Huntsville, Texas, and P.H. Horgan III from Newport, R.I. prevailed in a five-way playoff for the final two berths.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced harsh blowback from social media users after posting a video to his Facebook page commemorating Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday.
“To all the teachers out in Chicago, I know it’s been a difficult year but your work is tremendously rewarding and Chicago’s been better off, and continues to be better off, because you’re giving our children a chance at a better and brighter future,” Emanuel said in the video.
Facebook users responded, posting mostly negative responses in the video’s comments section. By Wednesday afternoon, the video had more than 22,000 views.
Nevertheless, some users had a more positive perspective on the video.
“Wow hopefully a sign of turning over a new leaf,” one user wrote.
The Chicago Teachers Union has been locked in an ongoing contract battle with Chicago Public Schools and the city. Teachers will meet Wednesday to discuss a possible strike date.
CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey confirmed to NBC Chicago Monday that a strike is unlikely to happen this month, but he's not ruling out the possibility of a strike in September.
Enrollment in a new sports business major at the University of Iowa is taking off. Dan Matheson — who used to work in the New York Yankees business office– now teaches as part of the U-I’s new recreation and sports business major.
“The program formed in fall 2011, and here we are a little over two years later and we’re at a little over 400 students who have declared rec and sport business as their degree program,” Matheson says.
He says the University of Iowa is a good example. “We’ve got an $85 million athletics budget. That’s not something you can just hand an eighty-five million dollar budget over to a former coach who doesn’t have some more specific business training,” Matheson says.
The university’s website says the major covers everything from club and recreation sports to high school and college sports programs.
Treatment options for solid, cancerous tumors include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but all three involve lengthy recovery times and damage healthy tissue and the immune system. Over the past five years, Associate ProfessorTyrone Porter (ME, BME) has advanced a technique that combines nanotechnology and focused ...
Developed in collaboration with Nathan McDannold, research director of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School Focused Ultrasound Laboratory, the technique is to inject nontoxic liquid perfluorocarbon nanodroplets into the bloodstream where they accumulate in solid tumors over time. High intensity focu...
Using tissue-mimicking hydrogels as a model for solid tumors in an article published recently in Journal of Therapeutic Ultrasound, Porter has shown that microbubble-enhanced HIFU can destroy solid tumors using 70 percent less acoustic power while reducing the ultrasound exposure time by at least 50 percent when compar...
“This results in less risk of skin burns because you’re using much less energy, dramatically cuts down the time for treating larger tumors, and makes it possible to treat tumors in organs protected by bone such as the ribcage or skull,” said Porter.
Building on these results and funded by a new four-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Porter and McDannold are now investigating whether their technique can be used to destroy tumors in the kidneys, which are partially protected by the ribcage and therefore more difficult to treat with ult...
Because bone would absorb some of the ultrasound, treatment time would increase. In addition, connective tissue at the bone surface could be damaged by heat from the ultrasound. By sharply reducing the power and time needed to destroy cancer tumors in the kidney and other organs protected by bone, the researchers aim t...
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) -- A Jeep Cherokee trailing a cascade of flames rammed into Glasgow's airport terminal on Saturday, shattering glass doors just yards from passengers at the check-in counters. Police said they believed the attack was linked to two car bombs found in London the day before.
Britain raised its terror alert to "critical" -- the highest possible level -- and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security at airports and on mass transit.
One of the men in the car was in critical condition at a hospital with severe burns, while the other was in police custody, said Scottish Police Chief Constable Willie Rae. Five bystanders in Glasgow were wounded, although none seriously, police said.
Rae said a "suspect device" was found on the man at the hospital and it was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated. He would not say whether the device was a suicide belt, but British security officials said evidence pointed to the attack being a suicide mission.
Police later arrested two more suspects in the London and Glasgow plots in Cheshire county in northern England, Scotland Yard said early Sunday.
"I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London yesterday," Rae said at a news conference. "There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident."
Police foiled the earlier plot Friday after two cars were found in central London packed with explosives -- one outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus and another parked nearby.
A British government security official said the methods used in the airport attack and Friday's thwarted plots were similar, with all three vehicles carrying large quantities of flammable materials. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Police and MI5 had no specific intelligence warning of a plan to attack Scotland, but they have monitored a host of suspected terrorists and plots there, he said. It was not yet clear whether there was an international element to the planning or funding of the attacks, the official said.
The new terror threat presents Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot who took office on Wednesday, with an enormous challenge and comes at a time of already heightened vigilance one week before the anniversary of the July 7 London transit attacks, which killed 52 people.
"I know that the British people will stand together, united, resolute and strong," Brown said Saturday in a televised statement.
President Bush was being kept informed of the situation, the White House said. "We're in contact with British authorities on the matter," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, in Washington.
The green Jeep barreled toward Glasgow's main airport terminal shortly after 3 p.m. Witness Scott Leeson said bollards -- security posts outside the entrance -- stopped the driver from driving into the bustling terminal, but the nose of the vehicle smashed the glass doors.
"If he'd got through, he'd have killed hundreds, obviously," he said.

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