Google flags torrent site Demonoid for spreading malware

According to TorrentFreak, Web and tech giant Google has flagged Demonoid, a popular torrent site, as one that's potentially dangerous to its users due to malware that was discovered on the site. This comes after a hiatus of nearly 20 months for Demonoid, with the site relaunching this past March.



If you search for and visit the Demonoid site, TorrentFreak reports that Google will present the visitor with an advisory notice that reads "Warning – visiting this web site may harm your computer!" Google allows the user to continue through to Demonoid if they wish, and also provides links on how to protect your computer from malware, as well as access to a detailed report regarding the issues they discovered with respect to Demonoid.



Google's findings concluded that after checking 59 pages on Demonoid's site in the past month and a half, seven of those pages contained "malicious software" that was "being downloaded and installed without user consent."



"We run content from a lot of ad networks in our ad banners, and a lot of banners from each," a statement from Demonoid says. "One of those banners started serving malware, so we disabled all ads until we are 100% sure of the culprit and get it removed. We are also taking the proper steps to get us out of all the blacklists."



It's worth noting that, when we opened Demonoid, we were shown no such notice warning notice from Google. This may mean that Demonoid's claims of malware being spread via ads on the site, leading Google to remove the warning flag once ads were removed.

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Google flags torrent site Demonoid for spreading malware

According to TorrentFreak, Web and tech giant Google has flagged Demonoid, a popular torrent site, as one that's potentially dangerous to its users due to malware that was discovered on the site. This comes after a hiatus of nearly 20 months for Demonoid, with the site relaunching this past March.

If you search for and visit the Demonoid site, TorrentFreak reports that Google will present the visitor with an advisory notice that reads "Warning – visiting this web site may harm your computer!" Google allows the user to continue through to Demonoid if they wish, and also provides links on how to protect your computer from malware, as well as access to a detailed report regarding the issues they discovered with respect to Demonoid.

Google's findings concluded that after checking 59 pages on Demonoid's site in the past month and a half, seven of those pages contained "malicious software" that was "being downloaded and installed without user consent."

"We run content from a lot of ad networks in our ad banners, and a lot of banners from each," a statement from Demonoid says. "One of those banners started serving malware, so we disabled all ads until we are 100% sure of the culprit and get it removed. We are also taking the proper steps to get us out of all the blacklists."

It's worth noting that, when we opened Demonoid, we were shown no such notice warning notice from Google. This may mean that Demonoid's claims of malware being spread via ads on the site, leading Google to remove the warning flag once ads were removed.
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Apple 'plans early August early launch for iPhone 6'

Taipei (AFP) - Apple plans to release its new iPhone in August, a month earlier than expected, after sales were hit by new big-screen models from its rivals, a major Taiwanese newspaper reported Friday, citing supply chain sources.

The Economic Daily News quoted unnamed sources as saying Apple had acquired parts from various Taiwanese suppliers such as wafer maker Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co and Largan Precision, a leading maker of lenses used in mobile phones, for the handset expected to be called iPhone 6.

Taiwanese electronics contract makers including Foxconn and Pegatron have also been notified by Apple to start their assembly lines for the new handsets likely around late June, said the mass-circulation national newspaper.

US-based Apple has decided to roll out the 4.7-inch screen version of the new model in August, a month early, as recent sales have been affected by the launch of bigger-screen phones from rivals such as South Korean giant Samsung and Taiwan's HTC, the report said.

A high-end variant of the iPhone 6 with a 5.5 or 5.6-inch screen will still be unveiled in September as previously planned, it said, adding that Apple expected total sales of 80 million units for both versions.

Japan's Nikkei business daily reported in March that Apple would release its next iPhone in September, its latest salvo in the smartphone wars where it has lost global market share to rivals such as Samsung.

Apple released its current iPhone 5 in September 2012 and newer versions in the series last year.

A number of top Taiwanese electronics companies have been behind the production of the iPhone series by supplying components or assembling the handsets.

The latest to come onboard is the world's biggest contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which reportedly started producing chips for the next iPhone in February.

That news fed rumours that Apple is reducing its reliance for parts on Samsung, its main competitor in the mobile phone market and a bitter rival with which it is contesting several copyright court battles globally.

The companies named in the Economic Daily News report declined to comment.

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Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan says believes kidnapped girls still in the country

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said on Friday he believed 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants last month in an attack that has stirred global outrage are still in his country and have not been moved to neighboring Cameroon.

As condemnation of the abductions spread, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, the top religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, said Boko Haram rebels who conducted the abductions had "set up to smear the image of Islam".

Jonathan's government has been criticized for its slow response to the hostage crisis, and Friday is the first time he has said where he thinks the girls are being held.

"There are stories that they have moved them outside of the country. But if they move that number of girls to Cameroon, people will see, so I believe they are still in Nigeria," Jonathan told journalists.

"We are also working with the experts that will use remote sensors to see them (insurgents) wherever they are. So that basically says they are within the Sambisa area," Jonathan said, referring to a forest that is a known Boko Haram hideout near the school from where the girls were abducted.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Nigerian capital. The event showcased investment opportunities in Africa's biggest economy, but was partially overshadowed by the kidnapping and a broader militant threat.

Boko Haram's struggle for an Islamic state has killed thousands since it erupted in mid-2009 and has destabilized swathes of the northeast of Africa's top oil producer, as well as neighbors Cameroon and Niger.

Militants stormed a secondary school in the village of Chibok, near the Cameroon border, on April 14, and kidnapped the girls, who were taking exams at the time. Fifty have since escaped, but more than 200 remain with the insurgents.

Nigeria's military has struggled to maintain security in the turbulent northeast as Boko Haram grows bolder.

AMNESTY REPORT

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement, citing multiple interviews with sources, that the security forces had been warned more than four hours in advance about the school attack but did not do enough to stop it.

"The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram's impending raid but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime," said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty's Africa director of research and advocacy.

Nigeria's Defence Headquarters spokesman Chris Olukolade dismissed Amnesty's report as baseless and said it was aimed at tarring the reputation of the country's authorities.

"The report is just a collation of the rumors, views and allegations of their fellow detractors and local operatives," he said.

Saudi Arabia's grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said Boko Haram had been "misguided" and should be "shown their wrong path and be made to reject it."

His remarks came as religious leaders in the Muslim world, who often do not comment on militant violence, joined in denouncing Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau for saying Allah had told him to sell off the kidnapped girls as forced brides.

Jonathan on Thursday thanked countries including the United States, Britain, France and China for their support in trying to rescue the girls. All have offered assistance. International police agency Interpol on Friday also offered its help.

British experts including diplomats, aid workers and Ministry of Defence officials arrived in Nigeria on Friday to advise the government on the search.

The Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa Affairs said it will hold a hearing next Thursday on U.S. offers of assistance to Nigeria after the abductions.

The revolt has displaced more than 250,000 people in Nigeria and 60,000 have fled the country, U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said in Geneva on Friday. UNHCR is "alarmed at the recent wave of attacks on civilians", he said.

A militant attack on the market town of Gamburu early on Monday killed at least 125 people, police said.


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PHOTO OF THE WEEK "Curious squirrels make for hilarious photos"

Photographer Max Ellis has become an internet star - after posting wacky photos of squirrels in hilarious situations, from being sent flying through the air in fear by a Buckaroo to lifting weights. Max places his self-made creations in his garden in Teddington, London, and then painstakingly waits hours - and sometimes days - for his subjects to get into the exact position to capture his shot. In another scene an inquisitive squirrel is sent backwards in surprise as a bottle of champagne pops its cork and in others a squirrel appears to saw his friend in half just like the famous magic trick. (CATERS) Find more news related pictures in our photo galleries and follow us on Tumblr!

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The Former Time Warner chief named interim CEO of Los Angeles Clippers

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons was named on Friday to serve as interim chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Clippers while the National Basketball Association prepares for an unprecedented bid to force out the team's owner, Donald Sterling.

Parson's appointment came three days after Sterling's top lieutenant, Andy Roeser, was placed on indefinite leave as team president and more than a week after the NBA banned Sterling over racist comments that sparked outrage from players, fans and commercial sponsors.

Sterling, 80, who has owned the Clippers for 33 years, now faces an attempt by the league to force a sale of his franchise in a scandal that has unfolded at the end of the team's best season on record.

An NBA committee of 10 fellow owners or their representatives initiated the process of terminating Sterling's ownership by voting unanimously last week to proceed "as expeditiously as possible."

Parsons, a senior consultant at the investment firm Providence Equity Partners and one-time member of President Barack Obama's economic advisory team, is one of a relatively few African-Americans to have headed major U.S. corporations.

He joined Time Warner in 1995 as president of the media conglomerate and was chairman and CEO there from 2002 until 2008. He later served as chairman of Citigroup until stepping down from that post in 2012.

"I believe the hiring of Dick Parsons will bring extraordinary leadership and immediate stability to the Clippers organization," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.

Sterling, who bought the Clippers in 1981 for about $13 million, came under fire on April 25 when the website TMZ.com posted an audio recording with a voice said to be his criticizing a female friend for associating with black people.

Four days later, the NBA fined Sterling $2.5 million, the league's maximum monetary penalty, and banned him from pro basketball for life, saying Sterling had acknowledged to the NBA that the recording was authentic and had not offered an apology.

Silver also has called on the league's 29 other owners who sit on the NBA's governing board to take the unprecedented step of forcing Sterling to relinquish ownership of the Clippers. Such a move requires a three-fourths majority of the board under the NBA's bylaws and constitution.

Sterling has not said whether he would give up his team, now valued by some experts at up to $1 billion, without a fight.

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South Sudan's rebel leader agrees new ceasefire with president

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel commander Riek Machar signed a ceasefire deal on Friday after coming under growing international pressure to end ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide.

Friday's deal was made at a meeting in Ethiopia that was the first time the two men had met face-to-face since violence erupted in December following a long power struggle. Kiir and Machar, both Christians, shook hands and prayed together.

The men agreed that a transitional government offered the "best chance" to take the country towards elections next year, though there was no immediate decision on who would be part of an interim administration.

"Now that we have come to our senses ... dialogue is the only answer to whatever problem we had," Kiir said after a signing ceremony in Addis Ababa's presidential palace. "We will continue to move in the right direction."

The truce will take effect within 24 hours and both sides agreed to disengage their forces and refrain from any provocative actions, said Seyoum Mesfin, lead mediator from the regional IGAD grouping.

A previous ceasefire accord struck in January swiftly fell apart, with each side blaming the other for fighting that has exacerbated deep-rooted tensions between Kiir's ethnic Dink community and Machar's Nuer group.

Western powers had demanded a new deal. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had both visited the Texas-sized country in the past week, part of a diplomatic push by regional and world leaders still haunted by Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

The United States has already slapped sanctions on two commanders on opposing sides of the conflict, a sign of its growing frustration with the leaders of Africa's youngest country that Washington helped win its independence.

Cranking up the pressure ahead of the Friday's meeting, the European Union also threatened sanctions against anyone blocking the peace effort.

INTERIM GOVERNMENT

Fighting erupted in South Sudan's capital Juba in mid-December between soldiers loyal to Kiir and those backing Machar and quickly spread across the country.

Kiir's government at the time accused Machar of treason - a charge again denied by the rebel leader, who on Friday swapped his military fatigues for a dapper suit.

Thousands of people have been killed and more than a million forced from their homes. Troops on both sides have committed murder, rape and other sexual abuses, a U.N. report said.

The unrest has caused oil output to be cut by a third to 160,000 barrels per day.

"I had no reason to bring South Sudan to war," Machar told Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and envoys.

Kiir and Machar have been locked in a long-running power struggle that intensified after the president sacked Machar as his deputy in July.

Negotiators from the two sides will now hammer out the terms of an interim government that will guide the country of 10 million people to elections in 2015, the agreement said.

Those discussions may be hard fought. Machar told Reuters in January that Kiir had lost the people's trust and should resign - a demand some in his camp were still making earlier on Friday.

But Kiir's ministers say the president would not quit.

One Western diplomat said there was a push for the peace process to include former political prisoners, the church and local civil society groups.

"You can't leave it to warring guys because then it's basically about who gets what part of the cake," said the Juba-based Western diplomat. "These (talks) are a fundamental review of where the country is going and on what basis."


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