Mark Zuckerberg

“Police probe Facebook chief over ‘Draw Muhammad’ contest

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is being investigated by Pakistani police under a section of the penal code that makes blasphemy against Muhammad publishable by death.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/17/zuckerberg_faces_criminal_investigation_in_pakistan/

Sudbury, Massachusetts

Two men accused in a terror plot to kill Americans face new federal charges that they conspired to provide personnel, advice, assistance and other services to al-Qaida.

A grand jury on Thursday added charges of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization in a superseding indictment against 27-year-old Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Mass., and 28-year-old Ahmad Abousamra. Authorities say Abousamra, who used to live in Mansfield, Mass., is now in Syria.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/06/17/4525494-2-charged-in-mass-with-conspiring-to-aid-al-qaida

Ahmad Abousamra

Tarek Mehanna

“The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran’s president has made a rare public call for producing the “special weapons” that are a monopoly of a few nations — a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

The Associated Press on Monday obtained a copy of a book written by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi in which he wrote Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce these “special weapons.”

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/06/15/iran_cleric_wants_special_weapons_to_deter_enemy/

Another source of lithium lies beneath Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the world’s largest salt flat.

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html

“New evidence has emerged of strong political and financial links between the Taliban and Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service.

A report based on a series of face-to-face interviews with Afghan insurgents, published by the London School of Economics, alleges that the Pakistani government helps the Taliban in strategic decision-making and coordination of insurgency tactics.

The report says the ISI provides Taliban fighters with training, cash and sanctuary as they fight Western troops in Afghanistan.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/14/2926379.htm?section=world

A seven-year-old boy was murdered by the Taliban in an apparent act of retribution this week.

Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand: … “His grandfather is a tribal elder in the village and the village is under the control of the Taliban. His grandfather said some good things about the Government and he formed a small group of people to stand against the Taliban. That’s why the Taliban killed his grandson in revenge.”

Qari Yousef Ahmaid, Taleban spokesman:… “We never kill children. Everyone knows a seven-year-old can’t be a spy.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7147378.ece

On June 10, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will co-host a workshop to address emergency alerting.  This workshop – 21st Century Emergency Alerting – will bring together experts from Federal and state government agencies, the broadcast, cable, wireless and wireline industries, the disability community and others to discuss how we as a Nation can leverage multiple technologies to provide timely and accurate emergency alerts to the public.  The workshop will also present an opportunity for the public to learn about the progress that has been made to enhance the Emergency Alert System (EAS), develop and deploy the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) and develop and deploy the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

Audio/Video coverage of the meeting will be broadcast live with open captioning over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live. The FCC’s web cast is free to the public and does not require pre-registration.

You can read the full announcement of this event on the FCC’s blog at http://reboot.fcc.gov/blog?entryId=464914.

An Air Force crew in California demonstrates the intelligence technology. First Lt. Jamie Christopher is in the foreground. Max Whittaker for The New York Times

“As a teenager, Jamie Christopher would tap instant messages to make plans with friends, and later she became a Facebook regular.

Now a freckle-faced 25, a first lieutenant and an intelligence officer here, she is using her social networking skills to hunt insurgents and save American lives in Afghanistan”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/technology/08homefront.html?partner=rss&emc=rss