Manipur rebels supplying arms to Maoists, says NIA

NEW DELHI: Left wing extremists (LWE) had been procuring Chinese arms and communication equipment from banned Manipuri outfit, People's Liberation Army (PLA), via Myanmar and routing it to Kolkata through Guwahati between 2006 and 2011, a supplementary chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the CPI (Maoist)-PLA nexus case has revealed.

According to the chargesheet, all the communication equipment recovered from Maoists have made-in-China marks, while arms recovered from PLA members too belonged to Chinese brands. It is, however, yet to be established conclusively whether they came from China and were routed via Myanamar or were pilfered out of Myanmar or some other source.

The chargesheet has been filed against Maoist leaders Pallab Borborah, Indranil Chanda and PLA's external affairs chief Asem Ibotombi Singh alias Angou, who were all arrested this year from Assam, Kolkata and Odisha, respectively. The accused are alleged have played a significant role in training of Maoists by PLA in Jharkhand's Saranda forests apart from procurement of arms and communication equipment.

Earlier, NIA had filed a chargesheet against three top PLA leaders — N Dilip Singh alias Wangba, Senjam Dhiren Singha alias Raghu and Kh Arnold Singh alias Becon.

One of the main evidence against the accused in the chargesheet is the email that PLA members had exchanged among themselves, and their Myanmar-based bosses. The emails exposed the nexus, helping agencies to sniff them out. "Maoists use very little modern technology. They rely on human couriers. But PLA members regularly wrote e-mails to their bosses in Myanmar. This exposed them," said an official privy to the probe.

The emails also mentioned aliases of Borborah and Chanda whose real identity was later established following statements of former PLA and Maoist members and are part of the chargesheet.

The chargesheet says the nexus was initiated by then PLA external affairs chief Gypsy Sharma in 2006. Later, Becon was appointed as the liaison officer and sent to Kolkata to coordinate the operation, where he met Chanda. However, for the first two years no deal could be struck save for PLA gifting some arms and communication equipment to conduct tests.

In 2008, when Wangba replaced Gypsy Sharma in the PLA, he took one CPI (Maoist) central committee member to Myanmar, where Maoists and PLA signed a joint declaration against the Indian state and mooted the idea of forming a United Strategic Front.

The first payment to procure arms was made in 2009. A deal was struck to procure arms and communication equipment worth Rs 50 lakh. A total of Rs 33 lakh in three installments was paid before the accused were arrested.

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Pictures: "Beautiful" Geminid Meteor Showers Grace Skies









































































































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Can Cops Read Shooter's Sabotaged Computer?













Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza may have tried to sabotage his own computer before going on a murderous rampage that claimed the lives of 20 children, but experienced investigators said today that law enforcement forensic experts could still recover critical evidence from the damaged drives.


Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance revealed Monday that a computer crimes unit was working in conjunction with a forensics laboratory to "dissect" any evidence relevant to the case, but he declined to comment further on what type of evidence was involved and in what condition it was in. Later that day, law enforcement officials told ABC News that police recovered a badly damaged computer from Lanza's home that appeared to have been attacked by a hammer or screwdriver.


Sources said if they can still read the computer's hard drive, they hope to find critical clues that may help explain Lanza's motives in the killing.


Former FBI forensic experts told ABC News that in cases similar to this one, damage to the computer does not necessarily mean the computer files cannot be accessed.


"If he took a hammer to the outside, smashed the screen, dented the box, it's more than likely the hard drive is still intact," said Al Johnson, a retired FBI special agent who now works privately examining digital evidence and computer data. "And even if the hard drive itself is damaged, there are still steps that can be taken to recover everything."








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Brett Harrison, a former FBI computer forensics expert who now works with a D.C. consulting firm, said that authorities have a great deal of technology at their disposal to retrieve that data. How much is recovered, he said, will depend entirely on how much damage was done to the well-insulated "platters" -- discs lodged deep inside the machine -- where Lanza's every digital footstep was recorded.


It is likely, he said, that Lanza's computer has been moved to a "clean room" where, if the discs are intact, they could be removed and then carefully re-inserted in a fresh hard drive. If the calibrations are done correctly, investigators would still be able to unlock the clues on the discs.


If the discs aren't in perfect condition, Harrison said, "There is equipment they can use to read the data off a record even if a portion of it is damaged."


Johnson said it is tedious work done in a clean environment because the tolerances of the discs is so precise – even a particle of dust could destroy crucial evidence.


"We're talking about a tolerance of less than a human hair," said Johnson, who now does computer forensics for a South Carolina-based investigative firm.


Police have not said exactly what they expect to find on the computer's hard drive, but the former FBI experts said typically there could be record of visits to violent web sites, or to online stores that sell ammunition, or to email that might reveal if Lanza shared any hints of his plans with others.


"I'm not big on speculation," Harrison said, "but you're talking about potentially finding all the normal things that people do with their computer – Facebook pages, internet activity, email, you name it."


For now, the FBI is keeping mum on what kind of computer forensic help it could be offering in the case.


"At this time, in deference to the ongoing investigation being conducted by the CSP, the FBI is not releasing information regarding operational or forensic assistance provided in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting," an FBI spokesperson said.


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Morgan Stanley fined over Facebook IPO






WASHINGTON: Morgan Stanley agreed Monday to pay a $5 million fine to settle charges that it improperly handled crucial information on Facebook's earnings ahead of the company's disastrous IPO.

The securities regulator of the state of Massachusetts had charged that Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for the $16 billion stock issue in May, coached Facebook on how to present lowered earnings estimates to company analysts.

At the same time, those estimate revisions, made just days before the initial public offering closed, were not shared with all investors as Morgan Stanley set a high issue price and increased the number of shares on sale.

Facebook shares collapsed after the first day of trade on May 18, eventually falling to half the $38 IPO price, as institutional investors dumped the shares worried about lowered earnings potential.

The share price fall angered many institutional and retail investors who said they had been misinformed about the company's earnings forecasts.

The Massachusetts state secretary William Galvin said Morgan Stanley had violated securities industry rules against unethical and dishonest conduct.

Morgan Stanley agreed to the civil penalty without either admitting or denying the charges.

- AFP/fa



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Shinde nails Pak lie on Hafiz Saeed's arrest in 26/11 case

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's claim that it had "arrested" 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks has turned to be incorrect as the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief was picked up for unrelated cases and Islamabad hoodwinked India by concealing these facts.

Indian officials belatedly realized that they were taken for a ride when they examined documents given to them on Saeed by the delegation led by Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik that was recently in India.

"We had been given to understand by the interior minister of Pakistan that Mr Hafiz Saeed had been arrested on the charges of being a part of the conspiracy for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks," home minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Parliament on Monday.

"From the papers given to us, it is clear that the detentions of Shri Hafiz Saeed in the aforesaid cases were for other reasons and not for his role as a conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Therefore, I can only say that Rehman Malik appears to have been misinformed in the matter," Shinde added.

The home minister, incidentally, referred to Saeed in Parliament using honorifics like 'Mr' and 'Shri' that prompted BJP leaders to object to the courtesies being shown to a terror accused.

The documents -- including FIRs against Saeed and Pakistani court orders exonerating him -- show the Lashkar chief was arrested once in 2002 and twice in 2009. Even the two FIRs against him registered post-26/11 do not mention anything in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks.

The two FIRs were registered in Faisalabad when the UN Security Council passed a resolution banning the Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa after categorizing it as a terror organization. The cases were dismissed by the Lahore High Court because the Punjab (Pakistan) assembly did not ratify the UN resolution. The court went by the Punjab assembly's stand.

The documents, shared for the first time with India, also show that the court took note of local media reports saying LeT did not exist in 2002 as evidence in dismissing the case against Saeed. The Pakistan government did not take a stand on any of the three cases and did not appeal the orders. The first time, Saeed was taken into preventive custody while there was no follow-up action on his second arrest. In the third arrest, he was let off by court which found faults in the FIR.

The portion nailing Pakistan's lie over Saeed was originally not part of Shinde's statement which was prepared on Sunday night. Rajya Sabha MPs got the additional page only after the home minister read it. Usually, papers comprising a written statement are distributed to MPs while the minister is either reading it or is about to read.

Officials in the home ministry said the Pakistani delegation handed over documents on Saeed to them only before it headed for Delhi airport for its return journey on Sunday evening. After examining the papers on Monday morning, officials realized how they had been misled by Islamabad.

The fudge is not surprising as Saeed is feted by Pakistan's military establishment and the government is not inclined to act against him.

Shinde also said, "During my talks with him (Malik), he stated that if we desire, he will give us the FIRs and the judgments pertaining to the three occasions when Hafiz Saeed was arrested and let off by the courts. When we pursued this matter, they have given us papers pertaining to the detentions of Saeed in 2002 and 2009."

Officials believe misrepresenting facts on earlier occasions might have been done by Pakistan deliberately as it does not want to appear to be taking action against Saeed who is a key figure in the country's ISI-LeT nexus for waging proxy war against India.

They said Malik gave "lame excuses" for not acting against Saeed and the Indian side believes the LeT boss will continue to roam free in Pakistan and indulge in anti-India rhetoric. The visiting delegation had also contended that there was a court ruling on a petition by Saeed's wife Memoona who had submitted that he had left LeT in 2001.

"Pakistan's intention is clear. They do not want to take action against Saeed. This is the impression that we got during talks," an official said.

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Gunman's Computer Damaged, Drive Possibly Ruined













A computer at the Connecticut home where Newtown, Conn., school shooter Adam Lanza lived with his mother was badly damaged, perhaps smashed with a hammer, said police who hope the machine might still yield clues to the gunman's motive.


The computer's hard drive appeared to have been badly damaged with a hammer or screw driver, law enforcement authorities told ABC News, complicating efforts to exploit it for evidence.


Officials have "seized significant evidence at [Lanza's] residence," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Paul Vance, adding that the process of sifting through that much forensic evidence would be a lengthy and "painstaking process."


Authorities also told ABC News that the weapons used in Friday's rampage at Sandyhook Elementary School, which left dead 20 children and seven adults including Lanza's mother Nancy, were purchased by his mother between 2010 and 2012.


According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, Lanza visited shooting ranges several times in recent years, and went at least one time with his mother.


The first funeral for a child killed in the massacre was held today in Fairfield, Conn., where mourners gathered to remember the too-short life of first-grader Noah Pozner.


Authorities also revealed this morning that two adult women shot during the rampage survived and their accounts will likely be integral to the investigation.


"Investigators will, in fact, speak with them when it's medically appropriate and they will shed a great deal of light on the facts and circumstances of this tragic investigation," Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said at a news conference today.


Both survivors are women and are now home from the hospital after being shot, police said. Officials had previously mentioned just one adult survivor. The women have not been identified and police did not give details on their injuries.


READ MORE: School nurse hid from gunman.


Both adults, Vance said, were wounded in the "lower extremities," but did not indicate where in the building they were when they were injured.


Moving trucks were seen outside Sandy Hook Elementary School this morning, as school officials prepare to move furniture and supplies to a vacant school in neighboring Monroe.


Sandy Hook itself will remain a secure crime scene "indefinitely," said Vance.








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CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.


Police say Adam Lanza, 20, forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, spraying bullets on students and faculty. Lanza killed 20 children and six adults before turning the gun on himself.


Lanza also killed his mother Nancy Lanza at the home they shared before going to school.


"There are many, many witnesses that need to be interviewed," Vance said. "We will not stop until we have interviewed every last one of them."


Vance said the investigation could take weeks or months to complete. "It's not something done in 60 minutes like you see on T.V."


Some of the other key witnesses will be children who survived the shooting spree by playing dead, hiding in closets and bathrooms and being rescued by dedicated teachers.


"Any interviews with any children will be done with professionals...as appropriate," Vance said. "We'll handle that extremely delicately when the time arises."


CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.


The first funerals for victims of the shooting are today, beginning with 6-year-olds Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto.


Officials said today that the Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the shooting took place, will be closed "indefinitely."


Both the school and the home where shootings took place are being held by police as crime scenes and Vance predicted authorities would spend "months" investigating the elementary school.


All Newtown schools are closed today to give residents more time to cope. Every school except for Sandy Hook is expected to re-open Tuesday.


The town of Monroe has offered to open to Sandy Hook students the Chalk Hill School, a former middle school that currently houses the town's EMS and recreational departments.


Officials in Monroe, less than 10 miles from Newtown, say the building could be ready for students by the end of the week, but have not yet set a date to resume classes.


Nearly 100 volunteers are working to ensure the building complies with fire and security regulations and are working to retorfit the school with bathroom facilities for young children.


"We're working to make the school safe and secure for students," said Monroe Police Department spokesman Lt. Brian H. McCauley.


The neighboring community's school is expected to be ready to accommodate students in the next few days, though an exact schedule has not yet been published.


While the families grieve, federal and state authorities are working around the clock to answer the question on so many minds: "Why?"


ABC News has learned that investigators have seized computers belonging to Adam Lanza from the home he shared with his mother. Three weapons were found at the school scene and a fourth was recovered from Lanza's car. Lanza had hundreds of rounds and used multiple high-capacity magazines when he went on the rampage, according to Connecticut State Police.


Vance said that every single electronic device, weapon and round will be thoroughly examined and investigated as well as every aspect of Lanza's life going "back to the date of birth."


ABC News has learned that both the shooter and his mother spent time at an area gun range; however it was not yet known whether they had shot there.






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Crayfish Harbor Fungus That’s Wiping Out Amphibians


Scientists have found a new culprit in spreading the disease that's been driving the world's frogs to the brink of extinction: crayfish.

In the last few decades, the disease caused by the chytrid fungus has been a disaster for frogs and other amphibians. More than 300 species are nearly extinct because of it. Many probably have gone extinct, but it can be difficult to know for sure when a tiny, rare species disappears from the face of the Earth. (Related photos: "Ten Most Wanted 'Extinct' Amphibians.")

"This pathogen is bad news. It's worse news than any other pathogen in the history of life on Earth as far as we know it," says Vance Vredenburg, a conservation biologist at San Francisco State University who studies frogs but did not work on the new study.

The chytrid fungus was only discovered in the late 1990s. Since then, scientists have been scrambling to figure out how it spreads and how it works.

One of the biggest mysteries is how chytrid can persist in a frogless pond. Researchers saw it happen many times and were perplexed: If all of a pond's amphibians were wiped out, and a few frogs or salamanders came back and recolonized the pond, they would also die—even though there were no amphibians in the pond to harbor the disease. (Learn about vanishing amphibians.)

One possible reason is that chytrid infects other animals. For a study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Taegan McMahon, a graduate student in ecology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, looked at some possible suspects and focused on crayfish, those lobsterlike crustaceans living in freshwater. They seemed like a good possibility because they're widespread and because their bodies have a lot of keratin, a protein the fungus attacks.

In the lab, McMahon exposed crayfish to the disease and they got sick. More than a third died within seven weeks, and most of the survivors were carrying the fungus. She also put infected crayfish in the water with tadpoles—separated by mesh, so the crustaceans wouldn't eat the baby frogs—and the tadpoles got infected. When McMahon and her colleagues checked out wetlands in Louisiana and Colorado, they also found infected crayfish.

That means crayfish can probably act as a reservoir for the disease. The fungus seems to be able to dine on crayfish then leap back to amphibians when it gets a chance. No one knows for sure where the fungus originally came from or why it's been such a problem in recent decades, but this research suggests one way that it could have been spread. Crayfish are sometimes moved from pond to pond as fish bait and are sold around the world as food and aquarium pets. (Related photos: "New Giant 'Bearded' Crayfish Species.")

The study doesn't answer every last question about the disease. For one thing, crayfish are common, but they aren't everywhere; there are no crayfish in some of the places where frogs have been hardest hit, Vredenburg says. But, he says, the new research shows that "we need to start looking a little more broadly at other potential hosts."


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Police: Shooter carried ‘numerous’ high-capacity magazines for weapons used in Connecticut massacre



In all, 20 year-0ld Adam Lanza had hundreds of bullets with him when he shot out a pane of glass and entered Sandy Hook elementary school at 9:30 a.m. Friday. Police said that Lanza had used one gun--a “Bushmaster” brand rifle, whose design can be traced the M-16 weapon developed for U.S. troops in Vietnam--to kill 20 children and six adults inside.

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Football: Real Madrid held by Espanyol, pressure builds on Mourinho






MADRID: A late goal from substitute Juan Albin gave Espanyol a 2-2 draw against stuttering Real Madrid who will be 13 points off La Liga leaders Barcelona if they beat second-placed Atletico Madrid later Sunday.

The pressure is now firmly on coach Jose Mourinho with the reigning champions unable to beat relegation-threatened Espanyol.

Cristiano Ronaldo equalised for Madrid on the stroke of half-time after Sergio Garcia had put joint-bottom Espanyol ahead on the half hour mark.

Two minutes after the restart, Fabio Coentrao put Real ahead but it was not enough as Albin slotted home from close range two minutes from the end.

Mourinho had already criticised his players for a lacklustre performance in a midweek Spanish Cup game where they lost to Celta Vigo.

He will be even more frustrated after his side failed to wrap up Sunday's game.

Barcelona have won 14 of their first 15 games in a record start in La Liga and a win against Atletico would be a significant blow in the title race.

Jose Callejon was given the job of leading the Real line with Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema both injured.

Angel Di Maria, who is widely believed to be one of the players that Mourinho was referring to for not giving their all against Celta, started on the bench.

Madrid pressed forward from the start with Ronaldo firing past the post from 25 yards and then moments later poking a pass to Luka Modric who should have at least hit the target with a shot inside the area.

New Espanyol coach Javier Aguirre has worked hard on making the defence more solid but he was without captain and first choice keeper Cristian Alvarez and so put his faith in the inexperienced Francisco Casilla to cope with the intimidating Bernabeu.

Casilla first parried a Ronaldo shot and then Pepe wasted an excellent opening when he headed a Mesut Ozil cross straight at him.

There were warning signs at the other end when Simao struck a weak effort when well placed on the left of the area and then Garcia failed to connect with a long ball from playmaker Joan Verdu which would have put him clear on goal.

Modric hit the post for Madrid with a long distance drive midway through the first half while Wakaso Mubarak was pulled off by the Espanyol coach after some wild challenges having already been booked.

Garcia put the visitors ahead with a clinical finish from a Verdu pass that split the Madrid defence and silenced the crowd.

Ronaldo was denied again by Casilla before he did finally put the ball in the back of the net as he knocked in a cross from Sami Khedira.

After the break Madrid had more of a cutting edge and Coentrao, bursting forward from full-back, latched onto a Ronaldo pass and slotted the ball past Casilla.

The Espanyol shot-stopper was in inspired form though as he prevented Madrid from killing off the game by denying Callejon and substitute Di Maria before also tipping a powerful strike from the latter onto the crossbar.

Madrid were made to rue their missed chances as Albin knocked the ball in after a goalmouth melee as the home side desperately sought to clear the ball.

Earlier, Valencia suffered their first defeat under coach Ernesto Valverde as they fell 1-0 at home to Rayo Vallecano.

Chori Dominguez scored from the penalty spot after Tino Costa upended Roberto Trashorras.

A first-half strike from Ruben Garcia gave Levante a 1-0 win away to Zaragoza.

- AFP/fa



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Law will take its course on Wal-Mart: Tewari

NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday said it will act against Wal-Mart if any violation by the global retail giant to gain entry into the Indian market is established.

"If at all any investigation does conclusively establish that there has been a violation of Indian laws... law will take its own course," information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said in a TV interview.

The minister also said the time had come for India to have a law modeled on the lines of the US Lobbying Disclosures Act, arguing that such regulation would make it compulsory for political lobbyists to be registered and make periodic disclosures of amount spent.

Tewari, however, clarified that he was making the suggestion in an "individual capacity".

"Time has come. We need to put in place a statutory architecture which makes these declarations essential, even legislators, MPs and people in the executive, if they have in the past or continue to represent a particular company or a group of company, that interest must be declared even before they participate in a debate," Tewari said.

At the same time, the minister sought to make a difference between lobbying and illegal gratification.

"How can you be certain that lobbying automatically translates into illegal gratification? There is nothing to suggest either in jurisprudence or otherwise that the term lobbying is synonymous with illegal gratification. It could, it equally couldn't be. Therefore, an inquiry will bring out the facts and government has agreed to an inquiry," he said.

Tewari also said it was not proper to make any judgment one way or the other before the probe was complete as the government had already announced an investigation by a former judge into the allegations of Walmart spending money on lobbying to get entry into the Indian market.

The minister also hit out at BJP, saying the opposition party has "reversed criminal jurisprudence on its head".

Tewari exuded optimism that Parliament would be able to pass crucial bills on banking, pension and insurance reforms despite the political contradictions as "the real fault line in this country is communalism versus pluralism".

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