Russian Hacker Sentenced to 27 Years in Credit Card Scheme

Igor Litvak (right) the attorney for Russian hacker Roman Seleznev, talks to reporters, April 21, 2017, in Seattle, following the federal court sentencing of Seleznev to 27 years in prison after he was convicted of hacking into U.S. businesses to steal credit card data.

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The son of a Russian lawmaker was sentenced Friday by a U.S. federal court to 27 years in prison after being convicted of a cyber assault on thousands of U.S. businesses, marking the longest hacking-related sentence in the United States.


Roman Seleznev, 32, was found guilty last year by a jury in Seattle of perpetrating a scheme that prosecutors said involved hacking into point-of-sale computers to steal credit card numbers and caused $169 million in losses to U.S. firms.

The Russian government has maintained that his arrest in 2014 in the Maldives was illegal. It issued a statement Friday criticizing the sentence and said it believed Seleznev’s lawyer planned to appeal.

“We continue to believe that the arrest of the Russian citizen Roman Seleznev, who de facto was kidnapped on the territory of a third country, is unlawful,” the Russian Embassy in Washington said in a post on its Facebook page.



FILE – Valery Seleznev, a prominent Russian lawmaker and the father of now-convicted hacker Roman Seleznev, speaks to reporters during a news conference in Moscow, July 11, 2014.

Seleznev is the son of Valery Seleznev, a member of the Russian parliament.

The sentence, imposed by Judge Richard A. Jones of the Western District of Washington, followed a decade-long investigation by the U.S. Secret Service.

In a handwritten statement provided by his lawyer, Seleznev said he believed the harsh sentence was a way for the United States government to send a message to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

“This message the United States sent today is not the right way to show Vladimir Putin, Russia or any other government in this world how justice works in a democracy,” Seleznev wrote in the statement.



A screenshot of a tutorial posted online by Russian hacker Roman Seleznev on how to steal credit card data is displayed for reporters, April 21, 2017, in Seattle, following the federal court sentencing of Seleznev to 27 years in prison after he was convicted of stealing credit card data.

Prosecutors said that from October 2009 to October 2013, Seleznev stole credit card numbers from more than 500 U.S. businesses, transferred the data to servers in Virginia, Russia and the Ukraine and eventually sold the information on criminal “carding” websites.

Seleznev faces separate charges pending in federal courts in Nevada and Georgia.

A federal grand jury in Connecticut returned an eight-count indictment charging a Russian national who was arrested earlier this month with operating the Kelihos botnet, a global network of tens of thousands of infected computers, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

VOA

Trump Tells Young Immigrants in US Illegally to ‘Rest Easy’

Associated Press



President Donald Trump walks along the West Wing Colonnade at the White House in Washington, April 21, 2017.


WASHINGTON — Young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and now here illegally can “rest easy,” President Donald Trump said Friday, telling the “dreamers” they will not be targets for deportation under his immigration policies.



Trump, in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, said his administration is “not after the dreamers, we are after the criminals.”

The president, who took a hard line on immigration as a candidate, vowed anew to fulfill his promise to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But he stopped short of demanding that funding for the project be included in a spending bill Congress must pass by the end of next week in order to keep the government running.

“I want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall,” Trump said in the Oval Office interview. Asked whether he would sign legislation that does not include money for the project, he said, “I just don’t know yet.” Throughout the campaign, he had firmly and repeatedly guaranteed that Mexico, not U.S. taxpayers, would pay for the wall.



Aerial picture taken with a drone of the urban fencing on the border between the U.S. and Mexico in Tecate, northwestern Mexico, Jan. 26, 2017.

Eager to start making progress on other campaign promises, Trump said he would unveil a tax overhaul package next week — “Wednesday or shortly thereafter” — that would include a “massive” tax cut for both individuals and corporations. He would not provide details of rate proposals or how he planned to pay for the package but asserted the cuts for Americans will be “bigger, I believe, than any tax cut ever.”

Congressional Republicans seemed caught off guard by Trump’s announcement and did not appear to have been briefed on the details of the White House’s forthcoming plan.

Trump spoke with the AP ahead of his 100th day in office.

He panned that marker as “artificial.” Still, the White House is eager to tout progress on the litany of agenda items he promised to fulfill in his first 100 days, despite setbacks including court bans on his proposed immigration limits and a high-profile failure in repealing and replacing the current health care law.

The president said Friday he spent his first 100 days laying the “foundation” for progress later in his administration, including by building relationships with foreign leaders. He cited German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a leader he was surprised to have developed strong chemistry with, given that he has been critical of her handling of immigration policies.



President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shake hands at a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, March 17, 2017.

As a candidate, Trump strongly criticized President Barack Obama for “illegal executive amnesties,” including actions to spare from deportation young people who were brought to the country as children and now are here illegally. But after the election, Trump started speaking more favorably about these immigrants, popularly dubbed “dreamers.”

On Friday, he said that when it comes to them, “This is a case of heart.”

This week, attorneys for Juan Manuel Montes said the 23-year-old was recently deported to Mexico despite having qualified for deferred deportation. Trump said Montes’ case is “a little different than the dreamer case,” though he did not specify why.

Juan Manuel Montes, 23, who was granted protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, (DACA) is suing the U.S. government for failing to explain the legal basis for sending him back to Mexico.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was launched in 2012 as a stopgap to protect some young immigrants from deportation while the administration continued to push for a broader immigration overhaul in Congress.

Obama’s administrative program offered a reprieve from deportation to those immigrants in the country illegally who could prove they arrived before they were 16, had been in the United States for several years and had not committed a crime since being here. It mimicked versions of the so-called DREAM Act, which would have provided legal status for young immigrants but was never passed by Congress.

DACA also provides work permits for the immigrants and is renewable every two years. As of December, about 770,000 young immigrants had been approved for the program.

On foreign policy, Trump said it was “possible” the U.S. will withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran forged by Obama and five other world leaders. He said he believes Iran’s destabilizing actions “all over the Middle East and beyond” are violating the spirit of the accord, though the State Department this week certified that Tehran is complying with the tenets of the deal aimed at curbing its nuclear program.



FILE – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange makes a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, in central London, Britain.

The president also appeared to side with his advisers’ increasingly harder line on Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Assange’s arrest was a priority for the Justice Department as it steps up efforts to prosecute people who leak classified information to the media.

The president said that he was not involved in the decision-making process regarding charging Assange but that the move would be “OK with me.”

During the campaign, Trump and his allies publicly delighted in WikiLeaks’ release of stolen emails from a top adviser to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“I’m not nervous” – Feyisa Lilesa | “The crowds are crazy” – Kenenisa Bekele ahead of Virgin Money London Marathon

የእናት ሆድ ዥንጉርጉር፣
(ልያ ፋንታ)
ሁለቱም ኢትዮጵያውያን አትሌቶች በኦሮምያ ክልል ያደጉ ፣ በኢትዮጵያዊ ባህል እና ዎግ በኦሮሞ ህዝብ እቅፍ ያደጉ ናቼው።
ሆኖም አንዱ ከግል ሆዱ ዉጭ የህዝብ መታሰር ፣መደብደብ ፣መፈናቀል እና አጠቃላይ ስቃይ የማይሰማው በእግሩ ለሆዱ እንደሮጠ የሚሞት ሲሆን።

ሌላው ወንድሙ ደግሞ ፣ ስለ ወገኑ ሲል የሚወዳትን ሀገሩን ጥሎ በሰው ሀገር እየተንከራተተ፣ በመንፈስ ሀገር ቤት እየሄደ፣ በእስር ቤት ያለውን የወገኑን ስቃይ እና ብሶት ባገኜው አጋጣሚ ሁሉ የሚያስተጋባ የህዝብ አንደበት የሆነ ወጣት ነው።
አቤት የእናት ሆድ ዥጉርጉር። ለሆዳሞች ማስተዋል ያድልልን እግዚአብሔር።

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“The crowds are crazy” – Kenenisa Bekele ahead of Virgin Money London Marathon

Chris Rock opens up about his infidelity and divorce

Chris Rock gave a very revealing interview to Rolling Stone this month in which he admits to infidelity on multiple occasions during the course of his 19-year marriage.


The comedian and Malaak Compton-Rock separated in 2014 and divorced in 2016. He told the mag that he cheated on his wife with three different women, and he even thought he was allowed to have out-of-wedlock romances because he was famous and making obscene amounts of money.

"That actually goes the other way. My faults are magnified," he said. "Your significant other, if they really love you, has a high opinion of you. And you let them down."

© VEM/FAMEFLYNET PICTURES Chris Rock spends a day at the beach in Miami on March 30, 2017.

Chris is currently on his "Total Blackout Tour", which he jokingly calls the "alimony tour." There was a time during his comedy shows where he was bashing his ex and blamed the split on her. Now, though, he's realized that doing that, too, isn't exactly kosher.

"It's not fair," he told the magazine of his contentious split. "I have a mic, she doesn't. God forbid people are bugging her in the supermarket. That's not cool. I'm going to have to see her at weddings and graduations."

© Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock Chris Rock performs at Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, Florida on March 29, 2017.

The funny man acknowledged that he was once angry at his ex, but then, "I asked myself, 'Do I want to be angry for a year?' It's not a cool place to be. It's not healthy."

These days, Chris is off the market and is now dating actress Megalyn Echikunwoke.

"I'm dating a girl now," he said. "She's got her own dough, it's amazing."

Still, even though his focus continues to be on his two daughters, Zahra and Lola Rock, not everything isn't totally on the up and up with his family life.

"My own daughter has blocked me on Instagram," he told Rolling Stone. "They grow up so quick."

© Mark Seliger for Rolling Stone Chris Rock on the cover of Rolling Stone for June 2017

He even said he cried during his custody battle over this daughters with his ex.

"We live in a world where men are assumed to not have feelings," he said. "All my friends assume I moved into the city after my divorce, away from my girls. When I say I bought a house around the corner, it blows their minds."

The rulers of Ethiopia Tigrian elites hate for Amharas and Oromos is real

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Calling your attention regarding Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is one of the finalists for the assignment of WHO

Director General. Dr. Ghebreyesus is an individual suspected of a crime against Humanity in his home country.

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Amhara Professionals Union (APU) presents you objective facts about Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus proving that he is unfit to be one of the finalists for the appointment of WHO Director General, let alone to win and assume the role in few months.
Amharas are one of the most populous ethnic groups in Ethiopia comprising over one third of population. The Amhara Professionals Union (APU), which is a non-profit advocacy group for the causes related with the Amhara, is a Washington D.C. based Civic organization comprised of Medical Doctors, Scientists, Lawyers and other Professionals of Amhara descent all over the world organized to defend the rights and interests of the Amhara people against the heinous crimes the current TPLF/EPRDF led regime has been committing for over twenty five years. APU believes that not only is Dr. Ghebreyesus a very poor choice for the job, he is also an embarrassment to the core values of WHO.
One of the core principles in the constitution of WHO reads: “Informed opinion and active co-operation on the part of the public are of the utmost importance in the improvement of the health of the people”. We at the APU share the following statement about Dr. Ghebreyesus’s candidacy and have attached a paper that exhibits the candidate’s overall record at the helm of the Ministry of Health and Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia in more than a decade.
If we were to consider only our Ethiopian or African background, we, members of the Amhara Professionals Union (APU), could have simply supported the candidacy of Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for WHO’s Director General position. However, we believe that WHO, as an International organization with extended reach throughout the world, should be led by someone who has a proven record of accomplishment of serving human beings without prejudice and shows respect to all human kind irrespective of their ethnic background or religion. As APU, we evaluate individuals based on their competence and past track records regardless of their ethnic, religious or regional background. Dr. Ghebreyesus should be judged based on his role as Minister of Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Minister of Foreign Affairs and as a politburo member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political party that is the most powerful within the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) led government of Ethiopia.
Human Rights Watch and many other National and International Organizations have widely criticized TPLF/ EPRDF led government for crimes against Humanity and atrocities towards the Ethiopian people. The attached document provides objective evidences why APU believes Dr. Ghebreyesus lacks the competence, impartiality, accountability and transparency that we feel are required for a position of this magnitude. The document highlights the following:
• The candidate has failed to be transparent by forcing the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to not report and cover up a Cholera epidemic throughout his tenure by simply renaming a deadly epidemic as an Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) even after the diagnosis of Vibrio Cholerae was confirmed. His priority in deciding so was to conceal the impact a public admission of Cholera epidemic might have on Tourism and image of his Party rather than protecting the international community and attempting to reach out to the affected areas. Such a sad error due to lack of judgment resulted in a nationwide epidemic.

• The candidate has treated his own citizens differently based on their ethnicity contrary to WHO’s goal of building a better, healthier future for all people throughout the world. While WHO strives to better the lives of underserved and marginalized communities, Dr. Ghebreyesus who descends from Tigre ethnic group disfavored the “Amhara Regional State” through poor health care. For instance, disproportionately high mortality coupled with selective application of contraceptives use has led to a selective reduction of the growth rate of the Amhara people. Such disparities were created and gaps increased across all measures of health in his leadership tenure. Of particular importance is the unexplained 2.5 million decrease in the Amhara population under his healthcare leadership. The Amharas were victimized and punished due to their ethnic background.

We understand that accountability, integrity, transparency and honesty are among WHO’s core ethical principles. Sadly, Dr. Ghebreyesus has failed to meet all these standards while he assumed his role in the aforementioned posts. Therefore, we at the APU, believe that it would be a travesty of justice if WHO awards its highest position to a person who violated WHO’s core principles and whose deliberate actions and inactions have claimed the lives of millions of Amhara people as well as other Ethiopians.

We urge WHO members to look at the attached review of the data that have been published by the Ethiopian FMOH, and learn how Dr. Ghebreyesus and his associates systematically discriminated against the Amhara people in Ethiopia while preferentially treating others with a high level of open partiality. We at the APU thank you in advance for the attention you give to the attached document entitled “International Organizations Leadership Recruitment Policies: the Failed Experiment of Dr. Tedros A. Ghebreyesus Candidacy for WHO Director General position”.

If you have any questions or need further explanations, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

Sincerely,

Amhara Professionals Union (APU)
Washington D.C., USA
Attachments area

Teen accidentally shoots himself on Instagram Live: family

© Handout malachi-stephens.jpg FOREST PARK, Ga. — A middle school student in Georgia was showing off a gun on social media when he accidentally shot himself in the head and died on Monday, his family said.



Family members say 13-year-old Malachi Stephens traded his iPhone for a handgun just four days before the shooting, CBS affiliate WGCL-TV reports.

“That is my godson, Malachi. He was 13 years old and he was in his bedroom playing with a gun on Instagram Live,” Shantiera Bankston told WGCL while holding a portrait of the teen. “He was full of life, he was a good kid, very active, loved dancing.”

Family members consider the shooting an accident and believe the fatal incident would have been prevented if someone had spoken up.

“He did not kill himself,” said Bankston. “He loved life, he was just playing with a gun and the gun went off… If somebody would have said something, maybe he’d be still here.”

The boy’s father, Ernest Stephens, said Malachi’s mother kicked down his locked bedroom door in Forest Park and found her son lying on the ground.

“When the accident happened inside that room, he was fighting from the time it happened, before the ambulance got here, he was still fighting,” he said.

Malachi later died at an Atlanta hospital. His friends and family members gathered together to light candles in his memory.

Forest Park police are investigating the incident and trying to determine how the teen obtained the weapon.

Blockchain? What’s Blockchain?

“I don’t even know what blockchain is,” someone recently told Techtonics. So to demystify the latest buzzword in technology, blockchain is a secure, distributed digital ledger shared among all participants. For example, parties to a transaction agree to make blockchain the official source of record, say for a land deed. So they encode the deed on a digital “block.” Once it’s there, any updates can be entered by adding new blocks to the “chain.” The record cannot be altered.

Blockchain powers digital currency Bitcoin, but the two should not be confused. And it’s creating quite a stir in the health and financial sectors, to name just a couple of its potential applications. But a lot of people know little about blockchain or how it works. Hopefully, this infographic will shed some light on this promising technology.

(T. Benson for VOA/Techtonics)

Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA’s English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.
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Exercising and not losing weight? You are doing these 5 mistakes

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Exercising and not losing weight? You are doing these 5 mistakes

Desperate woman sets up crowd-funding website to pay for her to 'get drunk' and eat fast food

'I'm unemployed, please pay for my Maccas and vodka': Desperate woman sets up crowd-funding page to pay for her to 'get drunk' and eat fast food

A woman from Toowoomba has launched a unique crowdfunding campaign
Tyler Jane Laurie is after $100 so that she can buy McDonald's and vodka
She said she's 'really desperate' and 'in need of a made feed and getting drunk'
She's been slammed by some but others say 'she is taking the mickey'

An unemployed woman has taken to a crowdfunding website in a bid to raise funds to purchase fast-food and alcohol.

Tyler Jane Laurie, from Toowoomba, Queensland, launched the GoFundMe campaign 'Need some Maccas and vodka' in March.

She was after $100 to fulfill her wish but do date no donations have been forthcoming, although some people have speculated Ms Laurie is simply 'taking the mickey'.

+4



Tyler Jane Laurie (pictured) has launched a crowdfunding campaign so she can purchase McDonald's and vodka

'My dream has always [sic] to have a mad a** feed from Maccas then get smashed off some vodka,' Ms Laurie wrote.

'I'm really desperate. I'm jobless and know that this is a selfless act as I really am in need of a mad feed and then getting drunk.

Please be a kind-hearted person and support me as I am in great need.'

Reaction on social media to the crowdfunding effort has been varied with a number of commentators slamming her for the initiative and flat-out saying 'no' and some saying Ms Laurie was 'taking the mickey'.









'No... we all work for our money,' one person said.

Another wrote: 'She is taking the mickey out of all those spongers who use "GoFundMe" and crowd sourcing to pay for their bills. Good on her. I agree totally with the point she is making'.

Readmore:
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Laurie for comment. 

Jesus’ Tomb Is Unveiled After Year-Long Renovation

Just in time for Easter, one of Christianity's holiest sites has been restored to its former glory.

The tomb that Christians believe was where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected — officially known as the Holy Edicule — has undergone a year-long renovation.

Gone is the cage-like structure that was put in place to prop up the walls 70 years ago.

And the black soot that had accumulated on the stone structure from years of visitors' candles has been scrubbed clean. Now the warm red marble welcomes worshippers.

The holy site sits inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem — one of the world's oldest churches.

Three different Christian denominations — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox — share custody over the Holy Sepulchre and in the past there have been turf wars and brawls over the management of the site. But they agreed to set aside their differences to save what they all believe is Christ's tomb.

Read more:

The same Greek team that restored the Acropolis in Athens was chosen to restore it.

A year ago, Professor Antonia Moropoulou and her team of 50 scientists from the National Technical University of Athens arrived in Jerusalem to start the project.

Is THIS why women live longer? Comical photos around the world

Is THIS why women live longer? Comical photos from around the world capture men in very risky situations
MailOnline Travel presents a catalogue of male catastrophes waiting to happen
One sees a group of men in a pool with electrical cables leading directly into it
Others capture the highly precarious use of ladders, mopeds and power tools

Wherever they live in the world, women live longer than men.

Perhaps it's because the male of the species is prone to taking more risks, as these toe-curling photos reveal.

One sees a worker acting as a human table while his colleague takes a power saw to the plank of wood balancing on his back.

Another captures a group of young men in an inflatable pool with a makeshift arrangement of power cables leading into it.

Several snaps rounded up by MailOnline Travel involve the precarious use of ladders, while others display examples of very dangerous driving.

Read on for scenarios that will have you chuckling and cringing in equal measure.

Don't look down: For this moped rider, there was clearly only one way to cross this river, and he's going for it

Read more: see more photos