Iraqi security services on Sunday published the names of 60 people wanted on suspicion of belonging to Daesh, Al-Qaeda or the Baath Party of late dictator Saddam Hussein. The list, seen by AFP, includes the name of Saddam’s daughter Raghad, who lives in Jordan. It also features 28 suspected Daesh terrorists, 12 from Al-Qaeda and 20 Baathists, giving details of the roles they allegedly play in their organisations, crimes of which they are suspected and in most cases, photographs. All are Iraqis apart from Maan Bashour, a Lebanese man accused of recruiting fellow citizens to fight in Iraq. “It’s an old story that dates back to the American invasion of Iraq when we were partisans of the Iraqi resistance,” Bashour told AFP. “Yes, we carried out activities against the American occupation.” The name of elusive Daesh head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is absent from the list. A senior security official contacted by AFP declined to explain why. “These are the terrorists most wanted by the judicial authorities and the security services,” the official said. “This is the first time we publish these names which, until now were secret.” The Daesh fighters are accused of fighting in Iraq’s second city Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh, as well as in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Anbar. Daesh seized a third of Iraq’s territory during a lightning advance in 2014, before being beaten back by security forces backed by a United States-led coalition. Daesh fighters on the list seen by AFP on Sunday are accused of murders, bombings, attacks on security forces, and the financing and transport of weapons. The list includes senior members of the group, among them Fawaz Mohammad Mutlaq, a former officer in Saddam’s Fedayeen paramilitary organisation who later became a member of Daesh’s military council.
North American Psychic & Paranormal Network
unread,
Feb 9, 2018, 10:23:58 PM2/9/18
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Sign in to report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
Bitcoin extortion plot targeted Churchill Downs, but prosecutors and company kept it quiet
Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier JournalPublished 6:38 a.m. ET Feb. 9, 2018 | Updated 6:23 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2018
Here’s how much you could have lost. Time
(This story was updated to clarify U.S. Justice Department policies on notification of victims of data breach crimes.)
Fired by his employer, Ethan Fey had an ace up his sleeve.
Before he was canned, he copied the birthdates and social security numbers of thousands of customers. A year later, he sent an anonymous email to his former bosses threatening to sell the personal information on the black market unless he was paid 50 bitcoins – worth about $150,000 then; about $1.3 million now.
Confronted by the FBI, Fey, 37, of Louisville, confessed. Last week he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for extortion – attempting to extract money by “the wrongful use of fear.”
But you can't find the name of Fey's old company in the indictment or any other court papers. The corporate victim is not identified in legal papers, and it didn't make a public announcement about the breach.
Through Fey’s LinkedIn account and other sources, Courier Journal identified his employer as United Tote, a Louisville-based subsidiary of Churchill Downs Inc., which fired him as a senior operator in June 2016.
Stephanie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Louisville, said “corporations, like all victims under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, have a right to be treated with dignity and privacy” and her office asks corporate victims if they are willing to be identified.
John Asher, a Churchill Downs Inc. spokesman, confirmed Fey worked for United Tote. He said the company had promptly reported the extortion threat and worked closely with federal law enforcement officials.
“We can assure our customers that no personal information of any kind has been publicly disclosed or misused,” Asher said.
Collins said customers weren't notified because investigators determined that Fey had not distributed the information to unauthorized individuals and no one suffered a financial loss.
Albert Gidari, director of privacy at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society, said a company that has suffered a breach has a duty to notify affected customers even though no further compromise occurred, because “with a criminal like this, there is no way to be certain of that.”
The breach at United Tote, whose systems for pari-mutual wagering are used at racetracks worldwide and process more than $5 billion annually, is the third in six years at Churchill Downs' subsidiaries, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and news accounts.
In 2012, a hacker accessed the names, email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted social security numbers of customers of TwinSpires, the Churchill Downs global online wagering site.
The company announced that breach but said only that fewer than 20 percent of customers had information compromised, without disclosing the total number of customers. But a corporate lawyer told the attorney general of New Hampshire, which has strict breach reporting requirements, that 370 customers in that state were affected. If a proportionate number of players in other states were involved, about 90,000 people were affected.
In 2015, Churchill Downs’ newly acquired Big Fish Games, a mobile and online gaming company, alerted customers that payment information was stolen by “an unknown criminal” using malware on its site, Insider Louisville reported.
Big Fish wouldn’t disclose how many customers were affected but said it alerted law enforcement and offered gamblers one year of free credit monitoring.
Support our journalism
Become a Louisville Courier subscriber today to support stories like this one. Get unlimited digital access for $19.99 for one year.
Churchill Downs Inc. warns investors in annual reports that it is subject to “online security risk” and that breaches could cause current or potential customers to believe “our systems are unreliable, leading them to switch to our competitors or to avoid our site, and could permanently harm our reputation and brand.”
In federal courts, prosecutors routinely identify crime victims by their initials, although it is rare for the names of corporate victims to be redacted.
For example, news releases about the most recent half-dozen embezzlement cases prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Kentucky identify victim companies. The office didn’t issue a news release on Fey’s prosecution, however.
The U.S. attorney’s manual says that in all public filings and proceedings, federal prosecutors “should remain sensitive to the privacy and reputational interests” of what it calls “uncharged third parties” and not identify them absent “significant justification.” The manual also says that victims may be companies or corporations.
Collins said the government does not always identify corporate data theft victims “to encourage business to report crimes that they may not be required by law to report.”
Former federal prosecutors differ on whether the identities of corporate crime victims should be shielded:
Brian Butler said if disclosure could harm their business, named companies would be “revictimized.”
Kent Wicker said companies may have a duty to disclose crimes committed against them to shareholders, customers or the public, but they – not prosecutors – are in the best position to decide.
But Scott C. Cox said that he believes the public has a right to know when public companies are the targets of crimes, and that their identities should be included in court records.
The Iraqi government has placed the name of late Saddam Hussein's daughter, Raghad, on the most wanted list, together with 59 other individuals.
The 60 people are wanted on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), al-Qaedaor the Baath Party.
The list, seen by AFP, includes the name of Saddam's daughter, Raghad, who lives in Jordan.
It also features 28 suspected ISIL fighters, 12 from Al-Qaeda and 20 from the Baath party, giving details of the roles they allegedly play in their organisations, the alleged crimes of which they are suspected, and, in most cases, photographs.
All are Iraqis, apart from Maan Bashour, a Lebanese man accused of recruiting fellow citizens to fight in Iraq.
The list includes senior members of the group, among them Fawaz Mohammad Mutlaq, a former officer in Saddam's Fedayeen paramilitary organisation who later became a member of the ISIL military council.
The name of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL, is absent from the list. A senior security official contacted by AFP declined to explain why.
"These are the terrorists most wanted by the judicial authorities and the security services," the official said. "This is the first time we publish these names which, until now, were secret."
The ISIL fighters the document lists are accused of fighting in Iraq's second city, Mosul, and the surrounding province of Nineveh, as well as in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and Anbar.
ISIL took a third of Iraq's territory during a lightning advance in 2014, before being beaten back by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition.
On Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 11:24:51 PM UTC-5, North American Psychic & Paranormal Network wrote:
North American Psychic & Paranormal Network
unread,
Feb 9, 2018, 10:43:41 PM2/9/18
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Sign in to report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to North American Psychic and Paranormal Network
TECHNOLOGY
Reality Shares CEO Talks Blockchain ETF And The Technology's 'Massive Innovation'
Reality Shares co-founder and CEO Eric Ervin discussed the blockchain-focused Reality Shares Nasdaq NextGen Economy ETFBLCN 1.26% and the direction of blockchain technology during Wednesday’s PreMarket Prep.
The ETF
In January, Reality Shares opened the Nasdaq NextGen Economy ETF, which invests in blockchain-related companies.
Reality uses a “Blockchain Score” system to evaluate companies that are utilizing the technology, rebalancing the portfolio every six months, Ervin said.
The SEC would not allow Reality to include “blockchain” in the ETF name due to the volatility that blockchain-related speculation has caused in recent months, Ervin said.
To quell concerns that the ETF was a speculative scam, Reality built a board of advisors with industry experts and examines the code that each company is using to ensure they are using the technology in a productive manner, he said.
The Value Is In Blockchain Technology
Ervin stressed that the ETF is not investing in cryptocurrency, but the underlying technology that makes cryptocurrency transactions possible: “Blockchain is not bitcoin.”
Blockchain technology has cutting-edge applications outside of the cryptocurrency market.
Walmart IncWMT 0.65% has teamed with IBM IBM 1.3% and others to launch a blockchain food safety alliance in order to enhance traceability and transparency across the food supply chain.
This could have a major impact on companies with tight margins like Walmart, said Ervin.
The Future Of Blockchain
Blockchain technology is a "massive innovation," Ervin said, adding that bitcoin is the start, but the capabilities of the technology are far-reaching.
With Overstock.com, Inc.OSTK 8.62%, Ervin predicts that the company’s blockchain-based exchange will overtake the business.
“[This segment] is gonna be bigger than the Overstock business entirely. Now they're thinking about selling Overstock," Ervin said on PreMarket Prep.
PreMarket Prep is a daily trading ideas show hosted by former floor trader Joel Elconin and prop trader Dennis Dick. You can listen to the show live and participate in our chatroom every day from 8-9 a.m. ET here. The show is also available on YouTube Live. The podcast is available on iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.
On Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 11:24:51 PM UTC-5, North American Psychic & Paranormal Network wrote:
North American Psychic & Paranormal Network
unread,
Feb 16, 2018, 10:39:23 PM2/16/18
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Sign in to report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to North American Psychic and Paranormal Network
EARTHQUAKE IN WESTCHESTER
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Small earthquake rattles parts of Putnam and Westchester
USGS map showing epicenter of quake
PALISADES – A 2.2 magnitude earthquake five kilometers north-northwest of Lake Mohegan was felt around 6:15 Wednesday morning, the US Geological Survey Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reported.
Hundreds of people reported to the USGS website that they felt some seismic activity.
The quake was felt by residents on both sides of the Hudson River with some reporting an explosion and rumbling that caused some houses to shake.
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney lives in Cold Spring and while he is in Washington, his family felt the rumble at home.
“They thought maybe the boiler blew up or something,” Maloney said. “There was loud noise and they felt the whole house shake.”
There were no reports of injuries or damage from the quake.
On Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 11:24:51 PM UTC-5, North American Psychic & Paranormal Network wrote:
North American Psychic & Paranormal Network
unread,
Feb 25, 2018, 6:55:44 PM2/25/18
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Sign in to report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to North American Psychic and Paranormal Network
Economic driving force pushes technology market shares to record highs
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Gains in industrial and technology shares helped U.S. stocks rebound from a two-day fall on Thursday as investors shrugged off the prospects of more interest rate hikes this year.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting showed on Wednesday that the policymakers were more confident in the need to keep raising rates, with most believing inflation would perk up. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N1QB1OU
However, comments from St Louis Fed President James Bullard earlier in the day appeared to have eased some of those concerns and the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR retreated from the more than four-year highs they hit on Wednesday.
Bullard told CNBC on Thursday that central bankers need to be careful not to increase interest rates too quickly this year because that could slow the economy too much.
Wall Street's fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility index .VIX , was at 18.56. The index had jumped above 21 points after the release of minutes.
"Yesterday was overdone. Clearly we have a major market reversal and today investors are more comfortable with the likelihood of three rate hikes and not four," said John Lynch, chief investment strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Despite Fed's hawkish views, bets on the U.S. short-term interest rate futures continued to reflect expectations of three rate hikes this year, based on a Reuters analysis. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS0N1NQ00J
Although analysts expect tightening of monetary policy to unsettle markets in the short term, they remain confident about the health of the U.S. economy and corporate earnings, especially after the new tax law.
"In spite of what we experienced with a return to volatility a couple of weeks ago, we can still see firming economic and profit growth and that is something investors will need to maintain their focus on," Lynch said.
By 12:33 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 1.12 percent at 25,076.04, powered by gains in United Technologies UTX.N .
Shares of the industrial conglomerate jumped 3.7 percent after its chief executive said the company was exploring a breakup of its business. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1QB5E2
The S&P 500 .SPX was up 0.85 percent at 2,724.32 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 0.57 percent to 7,259.08. Gains in these indexes were driven by AppleAAPL.O , MicrosoftMSFT.O and Amazon.
U.S. crude CLc1 rose to a two-week high of $63.03 per barrel, boosted by data showing a surprise draw in U.S. crude inventories and also due to a drop in the dollar. O/R
That lifted the S&P energy index .SPNY by more than 2 percent.
Chesapeake Energy'sCHK.N shares jumped 23 percent and were on track to post their biggest percentage gain since April 2016 after the company reported upbeat quarterly profit. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1QC3F2
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,167 to 667. On the Nasdaq, 1,782 issues rose and 1,045 fell.
St. Louis landmark officially gets new name: ‘Gateway Arch National Park’
POSTED 11:44 AM, FEBRUARY 23, 2018, BY JOE MILLITZER, UPDATED AT 11:49AM, FEBRUARY 23, 2018
ST. LOUIS, MO — The park with the Gateway Arch has a new official name. It is no longer called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Now it will be known as Gateway Arch National Park. Supporters say renaming the national park makes it more recognizable to visitors.
“The name ‘Jefferson National Expansion Memorial’ was established long before the Gateway Arch was envisioned, and has simply never been adopted by our millions of visitors,” writes Superintendent at the Gateway Arch National Park Mike Ward. “We hope this new name will best reflect the magnificent renovations and visitor experience we will unveil in a few months.”
President Trump signed the bill into law Thursday. Legislation to change the park’s name was introduced in the U.S. Senate last summer.Both Missouri senators and St. Louis area representatives sponsored the bill. It was passed by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 21, 2017, and by the U.S. House of Representatives on February 7, 2018.
On Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 11:24:51 PM UTC-5, North American Psychic & Paranormal Network wrote:
North American Psychic & Paranormal Network
unread,
Feb 25, 2018, 7:11:39 PM2/25/18
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Sign in to report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to North American Psychic and Paranormal Network
hollywood offers new award tradition and annual gala
PETA Hands Out Awards to 'Star Wars,' 'Jumanji' for Being Animal-Friendly
8:50 AM PST 2/22/2018 by Etan Vlessing
Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm
The organization's honors, the "Oscats Awards," have recognized the best movies and actors this year for positive storylines and CGI characters.
From Star Wars: The Last Jedi to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Thursday revealed the Hollywood actors and movies it recognizes for animal-friendly achievements this year with its first-ever Oscats Awards.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi nabbed the prizes for best live-action movie and best original screenplay for positive storylines, like Finn and Rose liberating fathiers used for racing and Chewbacca choosing not to eat a porg.
A fur-free Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle won for best computer-generated imagery for creating an entirely digital jungle of realistic elephants and hippos, while Ferdinand nabbed the best animated film award for its titular character, a big-hearted bull who doesn't belong in the ring.
In the acting categories, Andy Serkis, who played Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes, shared the best actor prize with Doug Jones for The Shape of Water, which PETA said "captured the despair felt by those who are abused and kept chained."
Frances McDormand picked up the best actress honor for rescuing a bug who was stuck on his back in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
"Hollywood was kinder than ever in 2017," said PETA senior vp Lisa Lange in a statement as she cited the inclusion of animal-rights messages in sci-fi blockbusters and motion-capture performances that kept live animals away from film sets.
Other PETA winners: Guillermo del Toro won for best director, Ryan Gosling's coat for best costume and What the Health for best documentary.
On Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 11:24:51 PM UTC-5, North American Psychic & Paranormal Network wrote:
![Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with his aid Ezzat al-Douri [File photo/Reuters]](https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/TAeUTFBccdplbnjakNaa5fxttufiFieP_6H_32TQsWk15zPoHAUEN4bQkdhFeilijk52ByLck_zl7NFHROlohkHOHnj6KwPxaNTmMzG9KfKnMubrHfZ9dAcAgl0beMGh6JrKPSFK3aInGBAM1H_Wd1PQBzOE5mYd5Ed-UfGmtR81uCJDB5SuMpY=s0-d-e1-ft#http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/2/4/c1d9a21cb0244a2bb8e2b2dd6b88e3bf_18.jpg "Saddam's eldest daughter Raghad on most wanted list")
Shutterstock photo