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U.S. REPUBLICANS URGE INCENTIVES FOR CYBERSECURITY



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U.S. REPUBLICANS URGE INCENTIVES FOR CYBERSECURITY (Reuters) - A Republican task force in the U.S. House of Representatives said Congress should give companies incentives to boost their cyber defenses, but that tougher regulation may be warranted to protect critical facilities like power and water plants. Recommendations in the report, which was released on Wednesday, can "reasonably be acted upon during this Congress," which ends in January 2013, said the task force of 12 Republicans headed by Representative Mac Thornberry. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's office is overseeing the drafting of a comprehensive cybersecurity bill aimed at combating breaches and theft from company and government computer networks. But progress has been slow. The Thornberry report appeared to reject Reid's comprehensive approach, arguing for a more piecemeal strategy to avoid unintended consequences. "We think that it is very important that you get the details right," Thornberry told Reuters. The report also appeared to be skeptical of government regulation to strengthen cyber defenses with the exception of critical facilities like nuclear power, electricity, chemical and water treatment plants. "Congress should consider carefully targeted directives for limited regulation of particular critical infrastructures," the Thornberry report said. White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the Obama administration was still reviewing the House report but thought it "reflects a common belief" in the need to confront cyber threats to U.S. national security. "We remain committed to the passage of cybersecurity legislation and look forward to working ... on the swift accomplishment of this goal," she said. RIGHT TIME FOR A BILL U.S. lawmakers have considered several cybersecurity bills in recent years, but failed to pass any despite a growing sense of urgency following hacking attacks on Google Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier, Citigroup, the International Monetary Fund and others. Among the many obstacles to cyber legislation are overlapping jurisdictions in Congress and disagreement over how much a role government should play in regulating and protecting private networks. Congress, meanwhile, has spent much of the recent months in bitter battles over the budget and national debt. Paul Smocer of the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents banking, securities, investment and insurance firms, said a cyber bill "probably has a better chance now than it's ever had" in spite of Washington's rancor over debt and taxes. "Obviously Congress is dealing with a lot of key issues. But we are seeing some momentum behind the introduction of legislation and in its consideration, more so than we have seen in quite a while," he said. Cameron Kerry, the Commerce Department's general counsel, said on Tuesday there was "a good chance" that some significant cybersecurity legislation could win approval by March. "This is a difficult political environment to get things done but you've seen that there are times that you can get bipartisan agreement on legislation," he said. COSTING BUSINESS The Ponemon Institute said in an August report that cyber attacks cost U.S. and multinational organizations $1.5 million to $36.5 million per year for each of the 50 companies surveyed. The National Association of Manufacturers, which represents 11,000 companies, said Congress should avoid "imposing a prescriptive regulatory framework" and instead put forward incentives for firms to get fully up-to-speed on cyber security. But Howard Schmidt, the top White House cyber official, said putting into law "established good business processes" was needed to ensure that lights stay on, water is drinkable and phones work if tech-savvy criminals target the computer networks that make public utilities vulnerable to attack. The House report also urged legislation to improve information sharing between the government, Internet service providers, or ISPs, ISP customers and others in a position to know about malicious traffic on networks. The administration is beginning a similar effort by creating guidelines for ISPs to notify customers whose computers have been wrangled into a botnet, essentially a network of computers disseminating malicious software unbeknownst to their owners. Thornberry liked the idea. "I think that's a wonderful development," he said. "To what extent the government should be involved, that's not quite clear." (See full text of Recommendations of the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force)

SECRET WHITE HOUSE PANEL CAN PUT U.S. CITIZENS ON "KILL LIST' (Reuters) - American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior U.S. government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to U.S. officials. There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate. The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki, a U.S.-born militant preacher with alleged al Qaeda connections, to the target list. He was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen late last month. The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a U.S. citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process. Current and former U.S. officials said that to the best of their knowledge, Awlaki, who the White House said was a key figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, had been the only American put on a U.S. government list targeting people for capture or death due to their alleged involvement with militants. OBAMA THE EXECUTIONER The White House is portraying the killing of Awlaki as a demonstration of President Barack Obama's toughness toward militants who threaten the United States. But the process that led to Awlaki's killing has drawn fierce criticism from both the political left and right. In an ironic turn, Obama, who ran for president denouncing predecessor George W. Bush's expansive use of executive power in his "war on terrorism," is being attacked in some quarters for using similar tactics. They include secret legal justifications and undisclosed intelligence assessments. Liberals criticized the drone attack on an American citizen as extra-judicial murder. Conservatives criticized Obama for refusing to release a Justice Department legal opinion that reportedly justified killing Awlaki. They accuse Obama of hypocrisy, noting his administration insisted on publishing Bush-era administration legal memos justifying the use of interrogation techniques many equate with torture, but refused to make public its rationale for killing a U.S. citizen without due process. Some details about how the administration went about targeting Awlaki emerged on Tuesday when the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, was asked by reporters about the killing. The process involves "going through the National Security Council, then it eventually goes to the president, but the National Security Council does the investigation, they have lawyers, they review, they look at the situation, you have input from the military, and also, we make sure that we follow international law," Ruppersberger said.

EU PASSENGERS' DATA CAN SAVE LIVES, CLAIMS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION (AFP) - Les données sur les passagers du transport aérien ont permis d'éviter des attentats, a assuré mercredi une responsable américaine à l'intention des Européens, qui hésitent à ratifier un accord transatlantique d'échange de ces informations. Le parlement européen, qui a bloqué un précédent accord signé en 2007 au nom de la protection de la vie privée, s'alarme particulièrement d'une disposition autorisant Washington à conserver pendant 15 ans les données des passagers. Mais Mary Ellen Callahan, responsable des questions de protection des données privées au département de la Sécurité intérieure, a assuré au Congrès que trois audits effectués aux Etats-Unis avaient permis d'établir qu'aucune information n'avait été utilisée de façon abusive. Elle a rejeté l'idée de limiter la collecte d'informations aux personnes suspectes. "Nous ne connaissons pas tous les criminels. Il y a des terroristes inconnus dans la nature", a déclaré Mme Callahan. Thomas Bush, fonctionnaire des douanes et de la protection aux frontières (CBP), a indiqué que les données sur les passagers rassemblées aux Etats-Unis avaient permis d'appréhender Najibullah Zazi, un jeune Afghan qui admis l'an dernier avoir projeté des attentats dans le métro de New York. Le dispositif a également permis d'identifier des passagers qui avaient voyagé avec lui et s'étaient entraîné dans les mêmes camps au Pakistan, selon M. Bush. Ces données ont permis en outre d'identifier David Headley, un Pakistano-Américain qui a reconnu son implication dans les attentats de Bombay de novembre 2008, a-t-il indiqué. "A partir d'un nom très courant comme David, un itinéraire partiel et des éléments temporels très vagues, le CBP a pu interroger d'autres banques de données et fournir en moins de 24 heures au FBI le nom, l'adresse et le numéro de passeport" du suspect, a rapporté M. Bush. (Watch webcast of hearing)

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HOPES TO BREAK RECORD OF NUMBER OF EXPULSIONS OF IMMIGRANTS (AFP) - Les Etats-Unis vont enregistrer un nouveau record d'expulsions de sans-papiers avec des antécédents judiciaires cette année, a estimé mercredi la secrétaire américaine à la Sécurité intérieure Janet Napolitano. L'année dernière, les Etats-Unis ont expulsé le nombre record de 195.000 immigrés clandestins avec des antécédents judiciaires, parmi les plus de 390.000 sans-papiers renvoyés dans leur pays. Cette année-là, "pour la première fois depuis des décennies, 50% des étrangers expulsés par l'ICE (l'administration américaine des douanes et de l'immigration) étaient des criminels qui ont été condamnés", a dit Mme Napolitano lors d'un discours devant l'American University de Washington. "En 2011, l'ICE expulsera de nouveau du pays un nombre record de criminels condamnés", a-t-elle assuré. La semaine dernière, l'ICE avait annoncé l'arrestation de quelque 2.900 sans-papiers avec des antécédents judiciaires, dans ce qui constituait le plus vaste coup de filet jamais réalisé dans le pays. Près d'un million d'immigrés clandestins ont des antécédentes judiciaires aux Etats-Unis, selon le directeur de l'ICE John Morton. Depuis l'arrivée au pouvoir du président Barack Obama, le gouvernement s'est concentré sur l'arrestation de sans-papiers avec des antécédents judiciaires, estimant qu'ils constituaient un danger pour la société. Quelque 11 millions de clandestins vivent aux Etats-Unis, parmi lesquels une majorité sont d'origine hispanique, selon les chiffres officiels.

TOUGH ANTI-IMMIGRATION LAWS IN U.S. STATES APPEAR TO BACKFIRE (AP) - Alabama's strict new immigration law may be backfiring. Intended to force illegal workers out of jobs, it is also driving away many legal immigrant workers who work in construction and on farms doing backbreaking jobs that Americans generally won't. The vacancies have created a void that will surely deal a blow to the state's economy and could slow the rebuilding of Tuscaloosa and other tornado-damaged cities. Employers believe they can carry on because of the dismal economy, but when things do turn around, they worry there won't be anyone around to hire. Many legal Hispanic workers are fleeing the state because their family and friends don't have the proper papers and they fear they will be jailed. Rick Pate, the owner of a commercial landscaping company in Montgomery, lost two of his most experienced workers, who were in the country legally. He spent thousands of dollars training them to install irrigation systems at places like the Hyundai plant. "They just feel like there is a negative atmosphere for them here. They don't feel welcome. I don't begrudge them. I'd feel nervous, too," Pate said. While it's not clear how many of an estimated 185,000 Hispanic people in the state have fled, one estimate figured as much one-fourth of the commercial building work force had left since the law was upheld last week, said Bill Caton, president of Associated General Contractors of Alabama. Commercial construction is a more than $7 billion-a-year industry in Alabama. The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. Those elements make it perhaps the toughest law in America. The law targets employers by forbidding drivers from stopping along a road to hire temporary workers. It also bars businesses from taking tax deductions for wages paid to illegal workers and makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work. A federal judge has temporarily blocked those sections of the law so she can study them more. Legislators said the law would help legal residents suffering from nearly 10 percent unemployment. One of the bill's authors, Republican Sen. Scott Beason, said he expected short-term problems, but he has received "thank you" calls from two people who replaced illegal immigrants who fled their jobs. Beason predicts that trickle will become a rush. "We have the best law in the country and I stand by what we've done," Beason said. Some farmers disagreed. On Chandler Mountain in north Alabama, tomato farmer Lana Boatwright said only eight of the 48 Hispanic workers she needed for harvest showed up after the law took effect. Those who did were frightened. "My husband and I take them to the grocery store at night and shop for them because they are afraid they will be arrested," she said. Farmer Chad Smith said his family farm stands to lose up to $150,000 because there are not enough workers to pick tomatoes spoiling in the fields. "We will be lucky to be in business next year," he said. The financial toll will vary by area, and experts said it's too early to make predictions. Cristian Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is a stay-at-home mother of four who lives in a mobile home in suburban Birmingham with her husband. They sneaked across the border in 2009 and planned to save money and eventually return to their home country. "We're afraid to go to Walmart. I'm afraid to walk the kids up there to get the bus. I am afraid to drive," Gonzalez said. Her husband worked as a brick mason and cook, but was recently unemployed. Now they have decided they probably will return to Mexico. "We're just trying to be here one more year, but with this law ..." she said, her voice trailing off as she shook her head.

U.S., U.K. UNIVERSITIES TOP U.K. WORLD RANKING (AFP) - Les universités américaines et britanniques raflent les premières places du classement 2011 de Times Higher Education, une publication spécialisée britannique. Sept universités américains figurent parmi les dix premières et 75 parmi les 200 premières de ce classement publié jeudi. Pour la première fois, Harvard est détrônée par le California Institute of Technology (Caltech), qui a bénéficié d'une hausse de 16% de ses investissements en recherche. Harvard se classe désormais au second rang ex-aequo avec Stanford, et devant Oxford, Princeton et Cambridge. La première université non anglo-saxonne est ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich) au 15ème rang. En dehors des Etats-Unis et du Royaume-Uni, les Pays-Bas et l'Allemagne placent le plus d'établissements parmi les 200 meilleures universités (12 chacun) suivis du Canada (9 universités) et de l'Australie (7 établissements). La France est au 10ème rang des pays comptant le plus d'universités au classement, devant Hong Kong, mais derrière le Canada (5ème), la Suisse, l'Australie, le Japon et la Suède. Le premier établissement français au classement est l'Ecole Normale Supérieure (59ème), suivie de Polytechnique (63ème), de l'Université Pierre et Marie Curie (84), de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (141) et de l'Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (169ème rang). Le première université asiatique au classement est l'Université de Tokyo (30ème). L'Université de Pékin vient au 49ème rang. L'université de Sao Paulo (Brésil) entre au classement à la 178ème place. Le Times Higher Education, une publication distincte du quotidien The Times, croise une série d'indicateurs traités par Thomson Reuters comprenant notamment la recherche, les financements privés aux universités, l'enseignement, l'activité internationale et les citations dans les revues. Le palmarès intègre les "humanités", arts, littérature, histoire et les sciences humaines au même titre que les sciences. La vogue des classements est née avec le classement de l'université Jiao-Tong de Shanghai né en 2003, critiqué notamment en Europe car ses critères retiennent essentiellement les performances en matière de recherche, au détriment de la formation: le nombre de prix Nobel, de médailles Fields (l'équivalent du Nobel en mathématiques) et d'articles publiés dans des revues anglo-saxonnes. La Commission européenne a annoncé son propre classement pour 2013.

MICROSOFT CONSIDERS BIDDING FOR YAHOO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is considering a bid for Yahoo Inc, resurfacing as a potential buyer after a bitter and unsuccessful fight to take over the Internet company in 2008, sources close to the situation said on Wednesday. Microsoft joins a host of other companies looking at Yahoo, which has a market value of about $18 billion and is readying financial pitch books for potential buyers, they said. Those companies include buyout shops Providence Equity Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Silver Lake Partners, as well as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Russian technology investment firm DST Global, the sources said. Yahoo shares jumped 10.1 percent on the news to close at $15.92 on Nasdaq. Microsoft shares ended 2.2 percent higher at $25.89 after rising about 3 percent earlier. Microsoft may seek a partner to go after Yahoo, one of the sources said, without identifying any parties. No decision has been made and a bid may not materialize as there are internal divisions at the software company on whether it should pursue Yahoo again, a high-ranking Microsoft executive said. One camp inside Microsoft is hot for the deal, believing that it would obliterate AOL Inc as a competitor and create a strong Web portal that can offer better products to audiences, advertisers and end users, the executive said. However, another camp is against the deal, feeling that if Microsoft is going to invest billions of dollars in an acquisition it should be one that has more growth potential. Microsoft last tried buying Yahoo in 2008, offering to pay as much as $47.5 billion or $33 a share. "Yahoo's value hasn't grown in years, and some executives feel we should buy something that is more forward-looking," said the executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. SUPREME COURT HAS CHANCE TO END UNJUST, OBSOLETE COPYRIGHT ON WORKS OF ART (AFP) - La Cour suprême des Etats-Unis a examiné mercredi un recours de musiciens, professeurs et distributeurs de films contre une loi américaine qui a élargi les droits de propriété intellectuelle (copyright) aux oeuvres étrangères tombées dans le domaine public. Dans une clause d'une loi de 1994, le Congrès américain avait restauré la protection copyright à des millions d'oeuvres étrangères qui étaient tombées dans le domaine public. Parmi ces oeuvres, "Guernica" de Pablo Picasso, "Pierre et le Loup" de Prokofiev ou encore "Metropolis" de Fritz Lang. Or les plaignants, des musiciens, professeurs, distributeurs de films, estiment que cette clause viole le premier amendement de la Constitution sur la liberté d'expression. Parmi eux, un chef d'orchestre de l'université de Denver (Colorado, Ouest), Lawrence Golan, qui a soutenu dans la plainte portant son nom que son "orchestre étudiant ne peut plus jouer +Pierre et le Loup+ de Prokofiev" faute de moyens pour payer les royalties ou obtenir l'autorisation de copier ou d'utiliser la partition. Cette clause, dénommée "section 514", "a retiré des millions d'oeuvres du domaine public, où elles demeuraient depuis des décennies la propriété commune de tous les Américains", a protesté Anthony Falzone, avocat des plaignants. "Cette loi fait peser un poids considérable sur (la liberté) d'expression", a-t-il dit à l'audience. Pour l'avocat du ministère de la Justice, Donald Verrilli, les Etats-Unis s'inscrivent "dans une transition vers une pleine participation au système international", qui requiert "un ajustement de nos lois" et "est d'une importance vitale pour protéger la propriété intellectuelle, un marché parmi les plus florissants économiquement". Les plaignants ont reçu le soutien de Google et de la puissante Union américaine pour la défense des droits civils (ACLU). Ils ont saisi la Cour suprême dans un recours contre le ministre de la Justice Eric Holder, après que leur plainte déposée en 2001 a été rejetée en première instance puis en appel. La décision de la Cour suprême est attendue avant la fin de la session, en juin 2012.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES U.S. SATELLITE (AFP) - La Russie a lancé avec succès dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi une fusée porteuse Zenit avec un satellite de télécommunications américain Intelsat 18 depuis le cosmodrome de Baïkonour au Kazakhstan, a annoncé un responsable de l'Agence spatiale russe (Roskosmos). "Le lancement de la fusée Zenit 3SLB avec un satellite Intelsat a eu lieu au cosmodrome (russe) de Baïkonour", dans les steppes du Kazakhstan, vers 21hOO GMT mercredi, a précisé ce responsable, cité par l'agence de presse Interfax. "Le bloc d'accélération DM-SLB avec le satellite a atteint une trajectoire suborbitale" quelques minutes après le décollage, comme prévu, a-t-il ajouté. Le satellite devait se séparer du bloc d'accélération à 03h34 GMT, soit environ six heures et demie après le décollage, et atteindre alors l'orbite géostationnaire, selon la même source. Conçu par le groupe américain Orbital Sciences, Intelsat 18 appartient à l'opérateur américain Intelsat. Il fournira des services de télécommunications aux clients en Asie de l'Est, dans la région du Pacifique et sur la côte ouest des Etats-Unis. Intelsat diffusera aussi des services de télévision en Polynésie française, aux Etats-Unis et dans l'est de l'Australie. Le satellite a une durée de vie de 15 ans. Ce lancement intervient après une récente série d'échecs qui a contraint la Russie à suspendre temporairement le décollage de fusées Proton et Soyouz. En août, tous les lancements de fusées Proton-M équipées d'un étage supérieur "Briz-M" avaient été suspendus après la perte d'un satellite de télécommunications le 18 août. Six jours plus tard, un vaisseau cargo Progress transportant plusieurs tonnes de matériel et de nourriture pour approvisionner la Station spatiale internationale (ISS) s'était écrasé 325 secondes après son décollage du cosmodrome de Baïkonour, à la suite d'une défaillance de moteurs. En conséquence, plusieurs lancements de fusées Soyouz ont été reportés, le prochain vol habité ayant été fixé au 14 novembre. Soyouz est le seul vecteur de vols habités vers l'ISS depuis la retraite des navettes américaines cet été. Lundi, la Russie a lancé avec succès depuis le cosmodrome de Plessetsk (800 km au nord de Moscou) un Soyouz avec un satellite de navigation Glonass, système conçu par les Russes pour rivaliser avec le système de navigation américain GPS et le futur système européen Galileo.

U.S. TRADE PACTS CLEAR FIRST HURDLE ON WAY TO APPROVAL (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional committee on Wednesday strongly backed deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, setting them on course for expected final approval and ending a lengthy trade policy paralysis. The three pacts are expected to boost U.S. exports by about $13 billion, which President Barack Obama's administration estimates will help create tens of thousands of jobs. But congressional action follows years of delay during which the European Union, Canada and the three potential new U.S. free trade partners themselves have moved aggressively to strike new market-opening pacts. The panel's chairman, Representative Dave Camp, said approval of the deals could not come at a better time. "With zero jobs created last month and the unemployment rate hovering above nine percent, we must look at all opportunities to create American jobs. These agreements do just that," Camp said. The three pacts must be approved by the full House and the Senate to become law. The panel backed the pacts on the following bipartisan votes: Colombia, 24-12; Panama, 32-3; and South Korea, 31-5. Camp said he expected the full House to approve the trade deals as early as next week. Congressional leaders are still discussing the timing of Senate Finance Committee and full Senate action on the trade deals, he said. The debate is taking place against concern in Congress about competition from China, which is propelling legislation in the Senate to crack down on Beijing's currency practices. The deal with South Korea is the largest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement went into force in 1994 and is expected to account for most of gains. Obama submitted the pacts to Congress on Monday, after a final assurance from House Republicans that a separate income and retraining income assistance program for displaced workers would be put for a vote alongside the trade pacts.


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