Days after the deadline Pope Francis gave priests of Ahiara diocese, Mbaise in Nigeria's Imo state, to write and apologise for having refused to accept Bishop Peter Ebere Okpaleke, their bishop for the past five years, he has begun to respond to each of them.
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Friday, July 21, 2017
Billions of plastics danger to Earth: Scientists
Scientists in the United States have warned that plastic pollution risks "near-permanent contamination of the planet with a staggering 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics produced since the 1950s.
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Your anti-virus software is not enough
There was a time when anti-virus software was the height of computer security, especially if you were a Windows user. But the landscape of threats has changed, and we live in an era of sweeping, global campaigns, like the ransomware “WannaCry” infection and the more recent Ukraine-focused “NotPetya” attack. What role does anti-virus and antimalware software play in keeping your machine safe? We spoke with four security experts to hear what they had to say.
Across the board, each expert still recommends using software that protects your personal computer from attack. But modern anti-virus software is not the last word in defending your computer; rather, it’s part of a multi-faceted approach involving some common sense steps to keep your machine and personal information safe.
No connected machine is totally immune
Bob Gourley, cofounder of the security consultancy firm Cognitio and veteran of the intelligence community, says that his company recommends that people install protective software, as it will mitigate the risks people face.
“There’s a lot of security professionals who will point out that anti-virus software will not stop everything,” he says. “That’s true—it’s not the last line of defence. But it helps keep the noise down.”
His specific recommendation is that Mac users may want to use Sophos, which has a free antimalware program, and that Windows users should think about Symantec. (I tried the free version of Sophos on my Macbook Air, and it detected a virus hiding in a text document attached to an email that the Mail app had downloaded. I deleted it.)
One issue that Mac users should keep an eye out for, according to Gourley? Adware. This type of code is typically picked up when using a software as a service, like email or other things that require logging into an account. FCC rules state that adware has to identify itself to prevent classification as "spyware," but it's easy to pick up some adware, especially if you speed through those terms of service agreements.
Run a modern system, and keep it updated
Like Gourley, Kurt Baumgartner, a principal security researcher with security company Kaspersky Lab (which makes products that defend against malware and viruses), recommends that individuals use anti-malware software.
While that may not be surprising advice from someone who works at a security company that makes anti-malware software, he also emphasizes the importance of keeping your computer’s other software—especially the operating system—up-to-date in the fight against malicious code.
Take the WannaCry malware attack, also known as WannaCrypt, which struck machines running Windows in May. Microsoft had already provided a software update about two months before, in March, that protected customers running operating systems like Windows 7 or Windows Vista from WannaCry. Machines that hadn’t been updated or that were running older versions like Windows XP were left vulnerable. And Microsoft says that users who were running Windows 10, the most current version of the operating system, weren’t affected by that attack.
As for a recent attack last month, called “Petya” or “NotPetya,” Microsoft said in an article that most of those infections happened in computers running Windows 7.
Don’t forget to keep your anti-virus software, like Windows Defender, updated too. The software can't fight a threat it doesn't yet know about, and that information is typically found in regular updates.
Make yourself a smaller target
Tomer Weingarten, CEO and cofounder of security company SentinelOne, is lukewarm on the benefits of consumer anti-virus or anti-malware protection software. He recommends it as a better-than-nothing approach.
“Right now, attackers have evolved much beyond the current protections that all of us can install,” he says. “Even if we keep up-to-date with all the signatures, and whatever mechanisms that they offer us, it still becomes very problematic for them to deal with unknown attacks.”
As for the idea that the Macs and macOS is inherently more resistant to attacks, Weingarten is skeptical. “It’s really more about the fact that attackers are targeting the biggest bang for buck, and right now it’s the Windows system," he says. In short, Windows offers "more targets," according to Weingarten.
And while he emphasizes how crucial it is to keep your operating system updated, he also has another simple solution for people who may not be the most security proficient, and just want to do tasks like send emails: Use an iPad and a keyboard.
That’s because iOS, which powers iPhone and iPads, is “the one operating system that we can say is inherently more secure,” Weingarten says. The closed-down environment of iOS makes it impossible for someone to run foreign code on that device, unless, of course, it is through the highly-regulated official App Store. The only other way to run foreign software on the device would be if an attacker has a pricey and rare “zero day” exploit that could do so, meaning that a malevolent party has had found a way to exploit a vulnerability that has not yet been patched.
However, relying on an iPad or iPhone still doesn’t protect someone from clicking on a malicious link that then takes them to a dummy site, prompting them to enter personal information. In other words, vigilance and common sense are still key.
Think about your email provider
In the movie Shrek, the film’s namesake famously compares ogres to onions. Why? Because they “have layers.”
Like an ogre (or onion), good security has layers, a point that Shalabh Mohan, vice president for products and marketing at Area 1 security, emphasises. Area 1 sells protection to companies against phishing attacks; phishing attempts happen when you get an email with a malicious link in it, or are asked to enter your username and password on a website that impersonates your bank’s, for example.
Mohan says that software that protects your personal computer (or endpoint, in the industry jargon) is just part of a “layered approach.” The first step, Mohan argues, is recognizing that phishing attacks are the most common way that attackers get into your system.
The next step is easy: being smart about what email service you use. Mohan points to both Google and Microsoft as good choices, because they help prevent phishing in their Gmail and Outlook.com email services.
“Folks like Google, Microsoft have inbuilt controls and security that go way above what an end user could do themselves,” he says, meaning that phishing emails may just get filtered out before they reach you. Anti-virus software like Sophos and other network security systems can also help protect against phishing attempts.
And for security-conscious people concerned about their entire home network, devices like a mesh-network Wi-Fi system from Eero, or the forthcoming Norton Core Router, bundle security protection together with a wireless network.
In short, perhaps the smartest approach to protecting your machine in the current climate is to install anti-malware software, but also to take other steps, too, like using a solid email provider like Gmail, keeping your operating system up-to-date, and being vigilant and using common sense against phishing attacks.
Finally, back up your data, so in a worse-case scenario in which a computer is infected by something like ransomware, a savvy user could wipe their computer, install the operating system from scratch, and then restore it from the backed-up version. That’s no fun, but it’s better than losing everything.
All good sunglasses have these five things
Almost any pair of sunglasses, even those cheap gas-station shades, can make you instantly look cooler. Decidedly uncool are the benefits that single-digit spectacles can’t afford—like cutting down on glare on sunny or snowy days, and preventing UV rays from slowly cooking your eyeballs. Luxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban and its iconic Wayfarers, has a very particular recipe for the sandwiched stack of materials that make up its Sun RX prescription lenses.
Layer 1: Scratch-Resistant Shell
Ray-Ban encases the entire lens in a layer of silicone resin to protect the surface from scratches and nicks. Applied via wet-bath for uniform coverage, the coating hardens under heat and UV light.
Layer 2: Colored Tint
Rather than tinting the lens itself—which could lead to uneven coloration as a result of the prescription-cutting process—Ray- Ban applies color as a separate polycarbonate layer. Dyes mix with the molten raw material prior to molding.
Layer 3: Polarizing Film Light reflecting off flat surfaces such as lakes and roads oscillates horizontally, creating glare in situations where sunglasses matter most. A thin layer of polyvinyl alcohol with a series of microscopic vertical slits stretches across the lens, canceling out (or polarizing) the harsh light.
Layer 4: Prescription Lens A computer-guided diamond cutter contours polycarbonate lenses to ‘script-perfect magnification. The impact-resistant material filters vision-impairing UV light and is roughly half the weight of hardened glass common in other shades.
Layer 5: Anti-Reflective Coating
A dark, shiny surface tends to act like a mirror, especially in bright sun. To combat this effect, invisible layers of silica oxide, titanium oxide, and zirconium oxide bounce light in a different directions, keeping reflections of your face out of sight.
Japan's zero-gravity space drone sends first pictures from ISS
EPA
Japan's space agency has released the first images taken by a drone it operates on the International Space Station (ISS).
The so-called Internal Ball Camera drone was sent to take pictures and video of the work of the astronauts.
The drone can float in a zero-gravity environment and is operated from earth.
Dubbed a little ball of cuteness floating about in space it has been offering a window into life on the ISS.
Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the drone was delivered to the ISS in early June. But only now have the first images and videos that it captured been released.
JAXA
According to the space agency, it can move "anywhere at any time via autonomous flight and record images from any angle".
Its purpose is quite simply to take pictures and videos - which until now had been done by the astronauts themselves as they document their work and experiments.
According to JAXA this currently "amounts to about 10% of their working hours".
The images can be sent in real time back to earth and will allow "flight controllers and researchers on the ground to check the crew's work from the same viewpoint as the crew".
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Tim Farron: Lib Dems' pro-European strategy will be proved right
Tim Farron has insisted he does not regret putting Brexit at the heart of his election strategy because it was “the right thing to do”, despite signs the Liberal Democrats are being squeezed in the polls.
Farron said that history would vindicate the party’s pro-European message and said his conviction on the issue would be proved right in the long term, even if Brexit was slipping from people’s minds ahead of the 8 June poll.
“I think it will win seats by the way, and we have seen progress, but my motivation is to a degree whether I can look my kids in the eye and say I did everything I could,” he said. “I don’t want to sound overconfident, but we will be proved right within two years. Hopefully, by 9 June. But if we are proved right, at the latest by 2019, then things can change, can’t they?”
A second referendum on Europe, which would be a choice between accepting a negotiated deal on withdrawal at the end of the process or remaining in the EU, is the cornerstone of the Lib Dem’s campaign.
However, though the party’s hard remain stance has been a motivator in affluent, pro-European seats such as Richmond Park, which the party won in a byelection last year, its poll rating has slipped back below double figures in recent weeks.
Nick Clegg, the party’s former leader and deputy prime minister, admitted last week it was “politically tough” for a pro-remain party in a climate where the result of referendum appeared to be slipping down voters’ agendas.
However, the Conservatives are expected to refocus their campaign on the Brexit negotiations and leadership in the final two weeks of campaigning, after the party plummeted in the polls following its manifesto launch.
Though the Lib Dems are optimistic about recapturing some seats such as Cambridge, Twickenham in south-west London, and even Vauxhall, held by the Labour Brexiter Kate Hoey, some of its nine MPs are also potentially at risk from Ukip voters returning to the Tories.
Those include the health spokesman, Norman Lamb, in North Norfolk and the foreign affairs spokesman, Tom Brake, in Carshalton and Wallington. The Lib Dems’ traditional heartland in the south-west, where almost all of its historically safe seats were lost to the Tories in 2015, voted heavily for Brexit.
Farron insisted his message was not exclusively targeted at dissatisfied remainers, which recent YouGov polling has suggested make up only a quarter of voters with the rest having accepted that Brexit was inevitable. Even leavers, he said, could be convinced that a final deal should be put to a vote.
“Leavers and remainers are more nebulous terms. There’s been a churn in both directions,” Farron said. “We are saying, ‘however you voted, let’s not fear the other side but look at what’s ahead, a deal we don’t know anything about yet’,” he said.
“And what does it mean for closure and democracy if we just end up having something imposed on us, which will be inevitably a Brussels stitch-up because they will have just as much say as our government? Then leavers will be as angry as remainers.”
Party insiders have suggested the campaign was struggling in places like Cornwall – which voted 56% for leave – because Ukip is not putting up a candidate against the Conservatives in many places.
“I think we are beginning to see with the polls, if they mean anything at all, that to assume the Ukip vote goes directly to the Tories is simplistic,” Farron said, citing voters’ concerns about the Tory manifesto, cuts to schools and the highly damaging “dementia tax” row over social care.
“You might think, ‘yeah let’s get out of Europe tomorrow’, but the worst thing for you and your family is that manifesto of meanness,” he said. “The most impotent creature in the House of Commons is a backbencher of a government with a big majority. You want someone with vim and verve and independent spirit.”
Farron, who himself has been dogged by stories about his past opposition to abortion and his stance on homosexuality as a committed Christian, said he took his party’s poll rating with “a pinch of salt” and said he was cautious about ascribing too much meaning to national vote share.
Labour has slashed the Conservatives’ lead over the past month, with some polls showing just six points between the parties.
Farron said Labour MPs were “leakier than a leaky sieve” and his party had seen internal projections that put Labour 58 seats down. “It does look like Labour are stacking up votes in places where they don’t actually need them,” he said.
Regardless of any Labour surge, Farron has said he will not take the Lib Dems into a coalition. “No deals, no pacts with anyone. It’s important to have that clarity,” he said. “We think people should know when they vote Lib Dem that they are not doing it as a proxy for anybody else.”
Farron said he would not consider a deal, even if he was to be offered the second referendum his party craves. “You can find ways that are powerful and effective in opposition to extract significant change,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t use your position in parliament in order to get what you want in a parliament where there’s no clear majority.”
Clegg has suggested Farron’s hardline stance on coalition or deals between progressive parties may need to be revised after the election, particularly under a new Labour leader. “I am self-evidently a pluralist – why else would I go into coalition?” he told the New Statesman last week.
“I’ll always be happy to play my part in doing what I think is right, which is that we need a proper anti-Conservative force or forces in British politics.”
Farron said it was “important to work across party boundaries,” though he added that he did not expect the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to resign after the next election: “I’d put money on him if he wants to stay on.”
However, he said, there were Labour politicians – perhaps future leaders – whom he admired. “I’ve got a lot of time for Sadiq Khan, I like Yvette Cooper, I like Andy Burnham. I like [the Green party leader] Caroline Lucas as well, and some people who are sensible in the Tory party, too,” he said.
“I’m happy to work with all of them, but this election reminds you the best thing for progressive politics in this country is for the Lib Dems to be resurgent. There’s only one flank where Theresa May is vulnerable, that’s the Lib Dems. So from a progressive point of view, the most useful thing I can do is to make sure I build the strength of the Lib Dems.”
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
North Korea: UN concerned at rising tensions
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday expressed concerns on the rising tensions over North Korea in recent weeks.
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Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Men To Get $100 Fine For Masturbation
Texas lawmaker has proposed a bill that would fine a man $100 each time he masturbates. The bill also imposes a 24-hour waiting period if a guy wants a colonoscopy or a vasectomy, or if he’s in the market for some Viagra. Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Democrat, knows her bill isn’t going to get very …
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Taliban Chops Off Thief’s Hand, Foot
Taliban militants punished a man accused of stealing by hacking off one foot and one hand, an official in the western Afghan province of Herat said Tuesday. “Locals were invited to watch,” said Ghulam Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial government. The man is in stable condition at hospital in Herat city, he said, adding …
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Ex Taiwan President Indicted In High-Level Investigation
Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou was indicted on Tuesday for alleged abetment in the disclosure of information in connection with an ongoing high-level investigation. According to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, the leaked information should have been kept secret under the Communication Security and Surveillance Act. “Ma was indicted because the president is obligated to …
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Australian Astronomers Discover Star
Astronomers at Curtin University in Western Australia and the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research have discovered a star with the closest orbit to a black hole ever seen in our galaxy. The Co-author from Curtin University, Vlad Tudor said on Tuesday that it was located in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, 14,800 light years …
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Monday, March 13, 2017
Sri Lanka To Become Ideal Location For Indian Films
Sri Lanka Tourism says plans are ongoing to promote the island country among top Indian film producers in order to become the next film location for Indian movies. “As a compact destination with various natural and large diversities, Sri Lanka can be shown as a destination which can be an ideal location for the perfect …
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Malaysian Police Arrest 5 Filipinos
The Malaysian police on Monday confirmed the arrest of seven suspects, including five Filipinos and one Malaysian immigration officer, in connection with the Islamic State (IS). Inspector-General of the police Khalid Abu-Bakar said that the first Filipino suspect, who has permanent residence in Malaysia, was found to have provided funds for Malaysian fugitives “Dr. Mahmud …
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Sunday, March 12, 2017
German Parliament Pledges Support To Nigeria
Ms Malu Dreyer, Head of Bundesrat, the Upper Chamber of the German Parliament, has pledged Germany’s support to Nigeria in its economic recovery effort. Dreyer, who spoke at the weekend while receiving a delegation of the Nigeria Senate led by its President, Dr Bukola Saraki, in Berlin said that Nigeria deserved the support of Germany …
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Damascus Bombing: Death Toll Rise To 74
The death toll from a double bomb attack targeting Shiites visiting a pilgrimage site in Damascus has climbed to 74, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday. Most of the dead in Saturday’s attack were Iraqi Shiites going to visit a cemetery near the Old City of Damascus. There has been no claim …
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