শনিবার, ৩১ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

sluathletics: SOCCER: Cooper Repeats at All-Central Region Selection http://t.co/f1kp7n7E #NCAA #soccer

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SOCCER: Cooper Repeats at All-Central Region Selection dlvr.it/12Zc30 #NCAA #soccer sluathletics

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karachi_news: Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said Pakistan judicial commission will visit India in January 2012 . http://t.co/5edBmC4q

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Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said Pakistan judicial commission will visit India in January 2012 . tf.to/V5sB karachi_news

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৯ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

GSM phones vulnerable to hijack scams: expert

Flaws in a widely used wireless technology could allow hackers to gain remote control of phones and instruct them to send text messages or make calls, according to an expert on mobile phone security.

They could use the vulnerability in the GSM technology ? which is used by most telecom operators globally and by billions of people ? to make calls or send texts to expensive, premium phone and messaging services in scams, said Karsten Nohl, head of Berlin-based Security Research Labs.

Nohl is a well-regarded expert on mobile security who last year identified a bug in GSM technology that makes calls vulnerable to tapping. He says he is calling attention to these flaws to pressure the industry into beefing up the security of their products.

Mobile security is a hot issue because hackers are paying unprecedented attention to the devices as smartphone sales have outpaced sales of PCs.

Only a few flaws have been found in GSM technology ? which stands for Global System for Mobile Communications ? over its 20-year history. Industry lobby group GSMA said on Tuesday it did not expect the new findings to affect its views on the security of the technology.

"The GSMA and its mobile network operator members are confident in the security of existing 2G GSM networks and real attacks on real networks against real customers are most unlikely," it said in a statement, adding that newer technologies are safer and not impacted by the new research.

GSMA's statement "on anticipated GSM security announcements" did not make clear whether the industry group had actually seen Nohl's latest research.

Security experts have previously identified a small number of viruses designed to infect smartphones, allowing hackers to take control of the devices and force them to make calls or send text messages. But Nohl said he has discovered a way to leverage previously disclosed vulnerabilities in GSM technology that could potentially threaten hundreds of thousands of phones.

"We can do it to hundreds of thousands of phones in a short time frame," Nohl told Reuters ahead of a presentation on the topic at a hacking convention in Berlin on Tuesday.

Smartphone malware is popping up at an unprecedented rate as people put more and more valuable information on the devices, using them to hold corporate secrets, conduct banking and function as digital wallets.

GSM became the dominant mobile technology globally in the late 1990s and even though new, faster mobile networks have been rolled out across the world, operators have stuck to their GSM networks to support older phones and to offer service when new networks fail.

The Berlin convention takes place just days after U.S. security think tank Strategic Forecasting Inc (Stratfor) said its website had been hacked and that some names of corporate subscribers had been made public. Activist hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility.

Attacks on corporate landline phone systems are fairly common, often involving bogus premium-service phone lines that hackers set up in countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

Fraudsters make calls to the numbers from hacked business phone systems or mobile phones, then collect their cash and move on before the activity is identified.

The phone users typically do not realize the problem until after they receive their bills, and telecommunications carriers often end up footing at least some of the costs.

Even though Nohl will not present all details of possible attacks at the conference, he said hackers will usually replicate the code needed for attacks within a few weeks.

Mobile networks of Germany's T-Mobile and France's SFR offer their clients the best protection against online criminals wanting to intercept their calls or track their movements, according to a new ranking Nohl will unveil at his presentation.

The new ranking, at gsmmap.org, is conducted by security researchers, who hope this will heighten the awareness of operators and consumers on the vulnerability of their mobile communications.

Researchers reviewed 32 operators in 11 countries and rated their performance based on how easy it was for them to intercept the calls, impersonate someone's device or track the device.

"None of the networks protects users very well," Nohl said.

The sample is set to grow from 32 carriers dramatically next year as the tool enables anyone to participate in data gathering by downloading measuring software to their phones.

Nohl said mobile telecom operators could easily improve their clients' security, in many cases by just updating their software.

Researchers reviewed operators in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Morocco, Slovakia, Switzerland and Thailand.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45799681/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/

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বুধবার, ২৮ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

Pope denounces Nigeria church blast as 'absurd'

Pope Benedict XVI has denounced the bombing of a Nigerian Catholic church that killed 35 people on Christmas Day, saying only respect and reconciliation can bring peace - not violence.

Speaking at his post-Christmas blessing Monday, Benedict said he had learned with "profound sadness" of the "absurd" attack on the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, which was claimed by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

It was the second year in a row that the group has staged Christmas attacks.

Benedict invited everyone to pray for the victims and Nigeria's Christian community.

He said: "In this moment, I want to repeat once again with force: violence is a path that leads only to pain, destruction and death. Respect, reconciliation and love are the only path to peace."

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/26/2561979/pope-denounces-nigeria-church.html

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2011 Ford F-150 - Sarasota Ford - Sarasota, FL

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শনিবার, ২৪ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

clarocada: [TNW] MySpace plans Japan exit as Twitter, Facebook continue to grow there http://t.co/PGKet5Nl

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[TNW] MySpace plans Japan exit as Twitter, Facebook continue to grow there bit.ly/tpV7aG clarocada

David Petherick

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শুক্রবার, ২৩ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

PostmediaNews: Canadians expect eurozone debt crisis to impact Canada: poll http://t.co/t0G7qVpg

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Canadians expect eurozone debt crisis to impact Canada: poll dlvr.it/11cJH3 PostmediaNews

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Soldier echoes Arabian Nights with Iraq novel (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? On Benjamin Buchholz's second day in Iraq as a U.S. army officer, a young Iraqi girl was struck and killed by a military convoy while trying to catch a bottle of water thrown to children by the roadside as a gift.

The tragedy and its aftermath -- wailing women, townspeople up in arms, the girl's body on the road covered with a blanket -- haunted him, eventually becoming the seed of a novel that helped him fulfill an old dream of becoming a writer.

"The image of that girl on the roadway stuck with me for a long time and fused with some other things that happened," Buchholz said in a telephone interview from his home in New Jersey, where he is now studying for a graduate degree.

"This book is definitely not non-fiction, it's a fictionalized processing of this whole town and this whole experience, trying to make sense of it. The same way you wouldn't call 'Catch-22' or 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' non-fiction, or any of these other books about war."

Buchholz's debut novel, "One Hundred and One Nights," is narrated by its central character Abu Saheeh, a native Iraqi who has returned after 13 years in the United States, running a mobile phone shop and trying to rebuild his life.

As he stands watching U.S. military traffic outside his shop one evening, he meets Layla, a 14-year-old girl who loves Britney Spears, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and everything else American. Their friendship grows as Abu Saheeh is drawn deeply into the shifting alliances of his town and reminded of his painful past -- with ultimately cataclysmic results.

The book's echo of the great Middle Eastern epic, "The One Thousand and One Nights," is deliberate, working with traditions of oral storytelling programmed into mankind through generations.

"The idea I set out when I was writing it was that I was going to have this little girl appear every day and tell this man who's psychologically wounded little tales, and keep him going the way that Scheherazade would tell tales to keep herself alive," Buchholz said.

"We know Layla's going to come, and we know that the next night she's going to come and tell a story, and we know how these two characters will interact. Those are little warm-up things to get the crowd going and get them into the situation -- and I think it's a really nice literary device from the time when people would tell stories to each other," he added.

"Then the frame breaks down as he breaks down a little later."

Though Abu Saheeh is based slightly on a man Buchholz came to know during his year in the southern Iraqi town of Safwan, other bits of the enigmatic Iraqi's personality came from the men who taught him at the U.S. Defense Language Institute, where he was based while writing the book.

In the end, though, Abu Saheeh is fiction, and while Buchholz said writing from the point of view of an Iraqi man was a challenge that he enjoyed.

"If I were just to write what I know and write from my own perspective, I would have gotten bored. It just takes such a long time to produce a novel, and I don't think I could hear myself echo in my own head for that long," he said.

He figured that any Americanisms that crept in could be explained by Abu Saheeh's long sojourn in the United States.

"As for whether it's presumptuous or not to write from somebody else's point of view, I think that's the big leap of faith you have to take as an author of fiction," he said.

"If you're not writing non-fiction you're taking a leap somewhere, and what comes out is good enough that the reader leaps along with you - or it's not."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/lf_nm_life/us_books_iraq_soldier

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বুধবার, ৭ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

UK auditors warn Olympic budget is on the edge

General view of London 2012 Olympic Stadium with the Orbit tower, left, in the Olympic Park in London, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

General view of London 2012 Olympic Stadium with the Orbit tower, left, in the Olympic Park in London, Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

(AP) ? U.K. Olympic organizers run a risk of exceeding their 9.3 billion-pound ($14.6 billion) budget for hosting the 2012 London games and have little room left for unforeseen costs, Britain's spending watchdog warned Tuesday.

The National Audit Office report concluded that while the venues are on time and largely complete, "not everything is rosy." The report came as British Olympic officials announced that they had doubled the funding for security operations at venues, raising overall security costs for the 2012 Games to more than 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).

"The government is confident that there is money available to meet known risks, but, in my view, the likelihood that the games can still be funded within the existing 9.3 billion-pound public sector funding package is so finely balanced that there is a real risk more money will be needed," said Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office.

If that's the case, Olympic officials would be heading back hat in hand to British taxpapers who are already embroiled in tough economic times. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects the U.K. economy to contract in this current quarter and in the first three months of 2012 and grow only 0.5 percent next year.

Britain's National Audit Office, an independent organization, examines public spending on behalf of Parliament.

Just hours before the report, Olympics minister Hugh Robertson told reporters at a news conference that the London Games remained financially on track ? and within budget contingency planning despite the increased security costs. But the new security costs will certainly become a sensitive political issue.

"We're confident we can do this and remain on budget," Robertson said.

But the auditors noted that only 500 million pounds ($785 million) remains unallocated for dealing with future costs ? a fact that will alarm ministers already trying to stem public anger over cuts in pensions, social services and national programs. Security and transport costs figured among the question marks in the future.

The increase comes after security reviews suggested the initial estimate of 10,000 security guards for the games would not be enough. Thousands of soldiers are now part of the planning, though officials have declined to reveal the exact number.

Robertson made clear that security was not a negotiable item and that the British government was obligated to make sure it took every precaution to make the July 27-Aug. 12 event safe.

The government said an additional 271 million pounds ($424 million) has been allocated to making venues and other sensitive sites, such as hotels, more secure. That means the total cost of securing the venues has climbed to over 553 million pounds ($862 million).

But the rise announced Monday only deals with security guards and other measures needed to protect the venues and related sites. That money is in addition to the cost of paying police and others services to provide overall security for the games. Although Britain's Home Office initially budgeted 600 million pounds ($940 million) for that, that number has been trimmed to 475 million pounds ($745 million).

Authorities say they could only come up with a figure after complex arrangements to actually stage the games were in place. Robertson said an evolving security picture also played a role, suggesting that planners could not have known about the Arab Spring, for example, when first making their plans. He insisted that the British riots last summer, however, did not play a role in the funding increase.

But Tony Travers, a government expert at the London School of Economics, said the riots will serve to spook politicians about planning for "the unknown unknown."

"Security and transport are clearly by a long way the remaining unknown elements in the Olympics being delivered," Travers said. "Security for cost reasons and transport for uncertainty of effectiveness reasons."

The biggest security worry for the Olympics is terrorism. Security has been an intricate part of the games since a terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. London has not been immune from terror attacks ? four suicide bombers targeted the city's transit network in 2005, killing 52 commuters.

The British government is planning for the national terror threat to be "severe" during the Olympics, meaning an attempted attack is highly likely. About 12,000 police officers will also be on duty on the busiest days of the games.

Another increase likely to spark discussion was an additional 41 million pounds ($63.9 million) devoted to the Olympic ceremonies. Robertson defended the increase, saying that a proper spectacle was needed to make sure Britain and its tourism industry benefit. Billions of people around the globe are expected to watch the televised opening ceremonies.

"We're just never going to get another moment like this," Robertson said.

Auditors also expressed concern about the failure to finalize transport plans around the venues, pushed back from November to March.

"The experience of spectators, visitors and Londoners in general would be diminished and the reputation of the Games put at risk if these issues were not sorted out," Morse said of the transport and security issues.

Britain's total cost for the event remains at 9.3 billion pounds ($14.6 billion).

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-06-OLY-London-2012-Security/id-1064a0b6955e45d6b9d186e7190d67dd

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শনিবার, ৩ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

A Minute With: Michael Fassbender on sex and "Shame" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? He may not be a household name, yet, but actor Michael Fassbender is fast becoming one of the hottest young names in the film business.

The handsome actor earned his big break when Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks hired him for their "Band of Brothers" World War Two television mini-series. He also appeared in such hits as "X-Men: First Class," "300" and Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."

Fassbender, who was born in Germany and grew up in Ireland, is now starring in two very different films -- "Shame" and "A Dangerous Method." In the former, he plays a sex addict whose life spins out of control. In the latter, he transforms into psychiatrist Carl Jung.

Fassbender spoke to Reuters about both films.

Q: There's a lot of graphic sex in "Shame," which will surely get the media, but it seems more about loneliness.

A: "Right. I think it's about people trying to connect. Every character's trying to connect in some way or another. My character, Brandon, has his ways of doing it, and Sissy (Brandon's sister, played by Carey Mulligan) has her ways. And in today's world where so much information is coming at us all the time, what are we supposed to do with it? How do we process it? It can be very confusing and create a lot of anxiety."

Q: There's full-frontal nudity from you, too. Did you worry that it might come off as art house porn?

A: (Laughs) "No, not at all, as I knew the sex wasn't there for titillation or exploitation. It was there as a way for the audience to access this guy's head. I saw all the sexual encounters as being very revealing about what's actually going on inside Brandon."

Q: How did you prepare for all the sex scenes?

A: "With a hot flannel (laughs). I didn't want him to be in great shape. I wanted to keep that sense of an addict, so we never really see him eat, except Chinese while watching porn. He drinks Red Bull in the morning. Here's someone who just eats as fuel. There's not much pleasure there. A lot of the time I wanted to be repulsive in the sex scenes. I wanted to look ugly as opposed to looking good."

Q: Brandon's (his character in "Shame") is a pretty miserable, tortured guy who's obsessed with illicit sex. And then in "A Dangerous Method" you play a very respectable intellectual, Carl Jung. Did you relate to them both?

A: "Yes. In a sense you're doing a bit of psychoanalysis as an actor. The only thing I can really reference is myself, so I always spend a lot of time with a script, reading and re-reading, to try and understand the characters. So there's a bit of Brandon in me somewhere, and Jung -- I just have to find it. I think we're all capable of all human behavior. It's a bit like gardening for me. You root around and see what you can dig up. And then you add the joy of imagination. It's all these different ingredients."

Q: Is it different playing a historical figure like Jung?

A: "Yes, as you have all the information and research available. So I could draw from Jung's biography. With Brandon, I had to write my own. So playing Jung was easier in that way, but the script (for "A Dangerous Method") was a real challenge. (Playwright) Christopher Hampton wrote a very articulate, eloquent script, very dialogue-heavy -- which you don't get in films anymore."

Q: And next you're starring as an android in Ridley Scott's new sci-fi film, "Prometheus."

A: "Right, but it's not a prequel to 'Alien' like they're saying. It has threads relating to that, but it's a whole different world. It's a slow-burner of a thriller, and we all had a blast doing it. It was an absolute joy working with Ridley. I kept pinching myself on set. And it's great because if critics say, 'Fassbender is very wooden in it,' it won't matter as I'm a robot."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Patricia Reaney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/film_nm/us_fassbender

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শুক্রবার, ২ ডিসেম্বর, ২০১১

GDP growth at 6.9 pct in Q2, slowest in more than 2 years (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? India's economy grew at its weakest pace in more than two years in the quarter that ended in September, revealing the heavy toll that stubborn inflation, rising interest rates and crisis-hit global capital markets are having on Asia's third-biggest economy.

Gross domestic product growth fell to 6.9 percent in the second quarter of the financial year, slipping below 8 percent for the third straight quarter.

Weakness in the second quarter was broad-based. Manufacturing, accounting for 16 percent of GDP, grew at only 2.7 percent and mining contracted 2.9 percent.

Economists suspected the pace of economic growth may languish at seven percent in the coming quarters, and that even if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) isn't willing to cut interest rates, it might feel compelled to ease monetary conditions by other means.

The economy has been hit by a confluence of factors. Inflation has been persistently high all year, policy inertia has hurt investment and industrial output and, now, capital outflows have pushed the rupee to new lows.

While investors have called for economic reforms - such as making land acquisition for industry easier and opening up the retail market to foreign firms - there appear few short-term fixes.

There is little fiscal room for the government, which has already announced extra spending of around $11 billion and is struggling to meet its fiscal deficit target.

"It will be tough for the government to provide any fiscal stimulus to revive growth as their finances are already strained and they need to ensure the fiscal deficit doesn't get out of control," said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at Crisil in Mumbai.

"So they will have to do some tough balancing act."

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the global economic situation was depressing growth, and forecast GDP growth for full-year ending in March 2012 dropping to 7.3 percent from an initial prediction of around 9 percent.

The headline GDP figure was in line with the median forecast in a Reuters poll for an annual rise of 6.9 percent, and compares with 7.7 percent growth in the previous quarter.

India's benchmark 10-year federal bond yield eased briefly to 8.75 percent at 0525 GMT, down 8 basis points on the day, while stocks reversed early losses and were up 0.2 percent.

POLITICAL PRESSURE

The slowing economy will also add to pressure on the ruling Congress party-led coalition, hit by corruption scandals and policy limbo ahead of crucial state polls next year that will pave the way for a 2014 general election.

Thirteen interest rate increases have failed to arrest inflation, which is close to a double-digit rate, and high food prices have proved one of the biggest issues for voters.

The RBI has indicated the low possibility of another rate increase, and some economists said Wednesday's data would add to the pressure to hold back on any tightening.

"The GDP data increases chances of monetary easing as it is a sharp drop and the weakest growth since 2009," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong.

Some analysts said that while rates may not be cut, there could be some measures to raise liquidity and help private investment. The RBI could for instance reduce the proportion of their deposits banks have to place at the central bank.

"There is significant weakness in the economy, and that is what needs to be factored in," said Saugata Bhattacharya, economist at Axis Bank in Mumbai.

"There will probably be some easing action, I don't know if it will be a rate cut. I think it will come firstly in liquidity, and then a rate cut."

The Indian economy grew at 8.5 percent in 2010/11. GDP growth has been below 8 percent for the past three quarters. Indian corporates, particularly in the auto and real estate sector, have been hit by rising input costs and a slowdown in demand.

Farm output has gradually declined. It rose an annual 3.2 percent in the July-September quarter, down from the previous quarter's 3.9 percent growth .

Growth has been slowing across Asia owing to the slump in demand from stalling developed economies. China's economy slowed down to 9.1 percent in the third quarter, from 9.5 percent in the second quarter, while the OECD cut its forecasts for the global economy to 3.4 percent for 2012.

The global economic recovery is running out of steam, leaving the euro zone stuck in a mild recession and the United States at risk of following suit, the OECD said on Monday, sharply cutting its forecasts.

(Additional reporting by the Mumbai treasury team; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Vidya Ranganathan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/india_nm/india607973

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Democrats Say Secure Communities Needs More Safeguards Against Racial Profiling

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) took a moment on Wednesday to question a congressional witness about how he moved to the United States from Mexico, after the former police chief mentioned in his testimony that he is an immigrant. At the same hearing, Democrats on the House immigration subcommittee pushed for immigration officials to add safeguards against racial profiling in immigration enforcement.

"You said you're likely the only immigrant on the panel," King said to Arturo Venegas, who was testifying in front of the House immigration subcommittee. "I wonder if you could tell us how was it you were inspired to come to the United States."

Venegas, a former Sacramento police chief, responded by telling King that his U.S.-born mother brought him to the country after he was born in Mexico. "Can you just tell us what year and what visa, then, Mr. Venegas?" King asked.

King never followed up with a reason for his questions, which came after Venegas testified about his experiences as Sacramento, Calif., police chief and his service on a task force to reform Secure Communities, a key immigration enforcement program.

Venegas was the only member of the four-person panel to criticize the program, saying it could damage community policing efforts by making immigrants fearful of the police.

House Democrats echoed that charge, demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement take steps to improve the program by targeting only dangerous criminals. One Democrat said she is concerned about racial profiling, and demanded that the agency take additional steps to prevent law enforcement agents from factoring race into their decisions about arrests.

"Do you go and pick out brown people and others who look like they shouldn't be here?" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Gary Mead at the hearing.

"Absolutely not," Mead said.

The meeting was the first congressional hearing on Secure Communities, which has been in place for three years. The program has support from an unlikely alliance between the Obama administration and Republicans, both of whom say it helps the government find and deport criminals.

Democrats in Congress remain skeptical of Secure Communities, saying it has too many flaws. Among them, they said, is a possibility for racial profiling, because the program bases its detection of undocumented immigrants on fingerprints taken during arrests.

In theory, the program should prevent racial profiling. Anyone booked by police after an arrest has his or her fingerprints taken and submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Under Secure Communities, these fingerprints are then handed over to immigration enforcement, which screens to detect unauthorized immigrants.

But critics say that in practice, law enforcement officers could take different actions for people they suspect are undocumented, such as arresting an individual for a traffic violation instead of just issuing a ticket.

Although not necessarily due to racial profiling, research has shown that Latinos are disproportionately arrested under Secure Communities. Latinos made up 93 percent of Secure Communities arrests, according to a report from University of California, Berkeley Law School analyzing data from Oct. 2008 to Dec. 2010, even though they make up an estimated 77 percent of the undocumented population.

Some of those arrested in Secure Communities say it is because they were racially profiled. U.S. citizen Antonio Montejano, a 40-year-old father of four, spoke before the hearing about his Nov. 5 arrest and subsequent immigration hold under the program. Despite repeatedly telling officers he is a native-born citizen, Montejano said he was held in Los Angeles County jail until Nov. 9.

"I felt completely powerless," he said at a press conference. "I told every officer that I was an American citizen and nobody listened. I felt that the only reason they ignored me was because of the color of my skin, because I looked like I was from another country."

Mead said later that the agency has policies in place to detect potential racial profiling, including a program with the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to look through data for irregularities on race. He said complaints about potential abuse of the program by law enforcement officers are taken very seriously.

"Where we get an indication that there may be problems with how they're applying the program, investigations ensue," Mead said.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/30/democrats-secure-communites_n_1121971.html

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Kids returned to dad in TV-show disappearance case





>>> the nearly two-week old disappearance of a florida mother , we'll talk to the suspect's attorneys in a moment. first janet shamlian in florida.

>> reporter: there are new developments in the case involving the children of michelle parker, the 3-year-old twins were reportedly questioned by police and sometime after that questioning late yesterday they were removed from the home of their father, dale smith , who had been caring for them and who has been identified as the only suspect in this case. there is an emergency temporary custody hearing set for later today for two children who have been asking for their mother now for almost two weeks.

>> is that a train?

>> reporter: michelle parker's 3-year-old twins nor longer with their father, dale smith , her ex-fiance and the man police say is the only suspect in michelle 's disappearance. the little boy and girl were taken away from smith by the state tuesday and spent the night with their grandmother, michelle 's mother . a hearing today will determine who will care for them, as the search for their mom continues.

>> i want dale to do the right thing, i want him to take a polygraph test . i want him to tell us where she is, if he knows where she is.

>> reporter: the 33-year-old parker, a popular bartender was last seen dropping off the twins at smith's home november 17th , the same day the couple appeared fighting over an engagement ring on a taped episode of "the people's court." smith's newly hired lawyers faced reporters tuesday, defending his client's refusal to take a polygraph.

>> it's a damned if you do and daned if you don't scenario taking the polygraph. we have no witnesses, we have no dna, we have no suggestion of anything except somebody with a history that people don't like.

>> reporter: a long history. smith was dishonorably discharged from the marines in 2003 , after he was court-martials and convicted of drug possession and domestic violence . according to police reports the victim of that domestic violence was smith's second wife, shannon, who died just a few months later in what was ruled an accidental drug overdose . in the '90s, smith was charged with a number of crimes including burglary, trespassing, and aggravated battery , but was only convicted of battery, serving ten days in jail. with michelle , the relationship was described as rocky.

>> i felt somebody grab me, and yank me around.

>> reporter: in 2009 she sought a restraining order against smith when the twins were just infants. it was never granted, citing a lack of evidence. now two years later, parker is missing, and her twins, too young to even understand, are missing their mother . and those children are with their grandmother, michelle 's mother , this morning. she says she intends to seek temporary custody of those kids while this investigation continues, and in terms of their investigation, matt, authorities say in the past few days, not much is new. back to you.

>> janet shamlian , thank you very much. mark know jaime and rajan joshi are the attorneys representing dale smith . good morning to both of you.

>> good morning.

>> child protective services comes in last night and take the dwinz away, 3 years old, a boy and a girl. what was the reason they gave your client or you for taking those children out of his custody?

>> well, we still haven't received that. we had a suspicion they were going to do this in the middle of the night , the night before, and actually went, i actually went to the house at about 2:00 in the morning and they were down the street, so we thought something was up, didn't like the way it smelled. shooed them away, and they had these subpoenas on 3 1/2-year-old children who would be under contempt of court if they didn't appear, so the 3 1/2-year-olds to give a statement, although they had already given statements previously. so it smelled fishy, we thought something was up.

>> clearly this is connection with the fact your client, dale smith , has been named the primary suspect in the disappearance of his ex-fiance. have police told you exactly why they have made that distinction?

>> no, they haven't given any specifics and to our knowledge there is no evidence other than conjecture and speculation. you know, you have the basic reason, because he refuses to take a polygraph, which most people should not take polygraphs. they're not even reliable and not one court in the country accepts them as reliable.

>> let me argue it from a court of public opinion perspective here, mark, and if my wife, the mother of my children, were missing and i knew i had absolutely nothing to do with it, i might take a polygraph just to clear my name, so police could move in the right direction to find the mother of my children. how would you argue that?

>> well, very simple. they're not reliable. they're not scientifically reliable. if they were, one court in the entire country would accept it. we watched so much trash tv thinking that polygraphs are the end all and be all of whether somebody is telling the truth or not.

>> is your client cooperating with police right now? is he still talking to investigators?

>> not right now but he was very cooperative in the beginning. he actually talked to them three times, went there voluntarily, and it seems like his cooperation actually you know is working against him.

>> your client has a troubling resume, let me go through a little of this, dishonorably discharged from the military, convictions for drug possession , arrest for burglary, trespassing and aggravated battery and michelle tried to get a restraining order taken out against him, unsuccessfully i should mention. what is it about dale smith i don't know that would help me understand him better?

>> the one thing about dale smith he's changed his life around, he's working, a productive member of society, he's taking care of his children, paying child support . ever since the mother has been gone he's been a wonderful father to the children, and very caring and actually has been wanting to have people come in and look for her.

>> he was, according to most reports that i've read, the last person to see his ex-fiance, michelle . what does he think happened to her?

>> he's not the last person to see her. whoever abducted her or whoever did something with her was the last person. they left, we know from a timed video, from a neighbor, that she pulled in to his place at 3:18 that afternoon. at 4:30, he was at his father's place. if you run a time line on this, it's physically impossible for him to have done what is being suggested. they lived clear across town, there were two vehicles involved, and in an hour and 12 minutes, he was supposed to, with the children present, to have met her, killed her, disposed of the body, gone clear across town, dropped off one vehicle, scraped off all the lettering on the vehicle, then brought the vehicle back and then ended up at his parents at 4:30, an hour and 12 minutes later.

>> we'll await further development nbs ts in the case. mark nejame and rajan joshi thank you very much.

>> thank you.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45490296/ns/today-today_people/

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