Obama: ‘Absolutist’ view won’t solve encryption debate
Obama: ‘Absolutist’ view won’t solve encryption debate
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — President Barack Obama says the encryption versus national security debate won’t be settled by taking an “absolutist view” of the situation.
Obama says both values are important. But he asks how will government catch child pornographers or disrupt terrorist plots if devices are made so that law enforcement cannot access the data stored on them.
Obama says he’s “way on the civil liberties side” but adds that concessions must be made at times.
Obama commented Friday during a question-and-answer session at the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. He was asked for his views on the debate.
Apple and the federal government are embroiled in a legal fight over Apple’s refusal to help the FBI access an iPhone used in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.
Israeli forces shut Palestinian Islamic Jihad station
JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian attackers opened fire at Israeli troops in the West Bank and wounded two soldiers before fleeing Friday night, the Israeli military said. Soon afterward, Palestinian gunmen in Gaza fired several rockets at southern Israel, causing no injuries.
The attacks followed a morning raid by Israeli forces of a TV station run by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in the West Bank as part of a crackdown to curb months of violence that Israel says has been fueled by incitement in the Palestinian media.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the head of the Falestine al-Youm — or “Palestine Today” — was detained in the raid in Ramallah early Friday morning. She said Farouq Elayan, 34, had been incarcerated in the past for activities in the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group. The outlet, which also publishes material on social media sites, encouraged Palestinians to attack Israelis, she said.
In a statement, Falestine al-Youm said two other two staff members had also been arrested and that their equipment was confiscated. Islamic Jihad has carried out suicide bombings and shootings in the past.
Police hunt for 2 gunmen behind cookout ambush that killed 6
WILKINSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Police on Friday sought to identify the two men who ambushed a backyard cookout and methodically shot and killed six people, including a pregnant woman and her fetus.
The gunmen appeared to have targeted one or two of the victims in the Wednesday night attack, and drugs haven’t been ruled out as a motive, said District Attorney Stephen Zappala.
“The murders were planned. They were calculated, brutal,” Zappala said.
Neighbors brought balloons, stuffed animals and prayers to the home Friday at a growing makeshift memorial. A group from a local church joined hands with neighbors and others to pray in front of the house.
Police were seeking to identify the two men who seemingly worked as a team to shoot and kill the partygoers Wednesday night. Police have no suspects, and officials said Friday they have no new information to release.
Panel: Finding climate fingerprints in wild weather is valid
WASHINGTON (AP) — Climate science has progressed so much that experts can accurately detect global warming’s fingerprints on certain extreme weather events, such as a heat wave, according to a high-level scientific advisory panel.
For years scientists have given almost a rote response to the question of whether an instance of weird weather was from global warming, insisting that they can’t attribute any single event to climate change. But “the science has advanced to the point that this is no longer true as an unqualified blanket statement,” the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reported.
Starting in 2004, dozens of complex peer-reviewed studies found the odds of some extreme events — but by no means all — were goosed by man-made climate change. This new field of finding global warming fingerprints is scientifically valid, the academies said in a 163-page report released Friday. The private non-profit has advised the government on complex, science-oriented issues since the days of President Abraham Lincoln.
When it comes to heat waves, droughts, heavy rain and some other events, scientists who do rigorous research can say whether they was more likely or more severe because of man-made global warming, said academies report chairman David Titley, a Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor. And that matters.
“While we plan for climate, we live in weather,” Titley, a retired Navy admiral, said in an interview. “These extremes are making climate real when in fact they are attributable to climate change.”
German broadcaster: IS files refer to some Paris attackers
LONDON (AP) — A cache of leaked documents containing the names of recruits into the Islamic State group includes references to several of the men who carried out the November attacks in Paris, a German broadcaster reported Friday. Security officials and counterterrorism analysts said the cache could provide valuable clues into how the group lures followers and how vast its global recruiting networks are.
German broadcaster WDR says that it, along with the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and fellow broadcaster NDR, have obtained some 22,000 IS documents. On Friday, WDR reported that the files document the entry into IS territory in 2013 and 2014 of Paris attackers Samy Amimour, Foued Mohamed-Aggad and Ismael Omar Mostefai. In addition, the broadcaster said the files contain an apparent reference to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who has been identified as the architect of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed.
The IS files that surfaced in various outlets this week contain names of potential fighters, personal references, telephone numbers and other detailed information. The leak, which contains names of people from more than 50 countries, also stands to heighten suspicion among followers. Similar leaks within other terror affiliates have created fissures in Pakistan and elsewhere in the past.
Sticky lawsuit: $400M dispute lingers over Post-it inventor
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Alan Amron has invented a battery-powered squirt gun, a digital photo frame, even a laser system that may someday provide a visible first-down line for fans inside NFL stadiums. He holds 40 U.S. patents, but he’s most interested in an invention for which he gets no credit: the Post-it Note, that ubiquitous sticky-back product made into a worldwide success by the 3M Company.
Amron, 67, says he invented what he called the Press-on Memo in 1973, a full year before 3M scientists developed what later became known as the Post-it Note. Although Amron settled a previous lawsuit against 3M, he’s suing again in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. He says the company breached its previous agreement not to take credit. The settlement is confidential.
Now Amron wants $400 million in damages — and something he says is even more important to him.
“l just want them to admit that l am the inventor and that they will stop saying that they are the inventor,” Amron said in a recent interview. “Every single day that they keep claiming they invented it damages my reputation and defames me.”
3M, based in Maplewood, Minnesota, is one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange. The maker of Scotch tape, Ace bandages, sandpaper, films, office products, window insulation, paint remover and hundreds of other products earned more than $30 billion in revenue in 2015, according to the company’s website.