Target: Customers' encrypted PINs were stolen

Source: AP

Target said Friday that debit-card PINs were among the financial information stolen from millions of customers who shopped at the retailer earlier this month.

The company said the stolen personal identification numbers, which customers type into keypads to make secure transactions, were encrypted and that this strongly reduces risk to customers. In addition to the encrypted PINs, customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip on back of the cards were stolen from about 40 million credit and debit cards used at Target stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.

Security experts say it's the second-largest theft of card accounts in U.S. history, surpassed only by a scam that began in 2005 involving retailer TJX Cos.

"We remain confident that PIN numbers are safe and secure," spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in an emailed statement Friday. "The PIN information was fully encrypted at the keypad, remained encrypted within our system, and remained encrypted when it was removed from our systems."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/personal-finance/article/Target-Customers-encrypted-PINs-were-stolen-5096237.php

Do you like Japanese food. I recommend cooking with dog.

Francis is adorable. Here is a sample show, she has a ton of great recipes.

Was Norman Rockwell gay? Family aghast at biography

Norman Rockwell, icon of homespun, patriotic American illustration, was not attracted to men, irate relatives are saying.

On Sunday, a biography by Deborah Solomon, was reviewed in the Post-Dispatch. This is what reviewer Harry Levins said about the question of sex in "American Mirror":

"Many people close to Rockwell wondered whether he was a homosexual. Solomon found nothing to suggest that Rockwell had ever had sex with another man. But she writes, 'He demonstrated an intense need for emotional and physical closeness with men. From the viewpoint of twenty-first-century gender studies, a man who yearns for the company of men is considered homosexual, whether or not he has sex with other men.'”

Even though the book's biggest surprise may really be how admiring Solomon is of Rockwell's work, the family is taking issue with her interpretation of the artist's sexuality.

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/book-blog/was-norman-rockwell-gay-family-aghast-at-biography/article_2e608e9d-4224-5a20-b076-49bad1177a5d.html

Rockwell Biography Angers His Family
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/arts/design/rockwell-biography-angers-his-family.html

Wife: Saudi blogger recommended for apostasy trial

Source: CNN

A judge in Saudi Arabia has recommended that imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi go before a high court on a charge of apostasy, which would carry the death penalty upon conviction, according to Badawi's wife.

Ensaf Haidar initially told CNN on Wednesday that her husband had been sentenced to death. She later clarified to CNN that a judge has recommended he be tried for denouncing Islam, or apostasy. Apostasy carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.

In July, a Jeddah criminal court found Badawi, who has been in prison since June 2012, guilty of insulting Islam through his Free Saudi Liberals website and in television comments.

Badawi was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes. His lawyer appealed the decision.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/25/world/meast/saudi-blogger-death-sentence/

Happy Boxing Day to all!

70 Argentine people injured during terrifying piranha attack

A group of men, women and children were victims of a horrifying piranha attack on Christmas Day in the Parana River in Rosario, Argentina.

At least 70 people were injured, including children who were bathing in the river to cool down from the heat.

Director of lifeguards Federico Cornier said Thursday that thousands of bathers were cooling off from 100-degree temperatures in the Parana River in Rosario on Wednesday when bathers suddenly began complaining of bite marks on their hands and feet. He blamed the attack on palometas, “a type of piranha, big, voracious and with sharp teeth that can really bite.”

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/12/argentina-piranha-attack/

US sending missiles, drones to Iraq to battle al-Qaida

Source: Times of India

WASHINGTON: The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaida-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The move follows an appeal for help in battling the extremist group by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who met with President Obama in Washington last month.

But some military experts question whether the patchwork response will be sufficient to reverse the sharp downturn in security that already led to the deaths of more than 8,000 Iraqis this year, 952 of them Iraqi security force members, according to the United Nations, the highest level of violence since 2008.

Al-Qaida's regional affiliate, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has become a potent force in northern and western Iraq. Riding in armed convoys, the group has intimidated towns, assassinated local officials, and in an episode last week, used suicide bombers and hidden explosives to kill the commander of the Iraqi Army's Seventh Division and more than a dozen of his officers and soldiers as they raided a Qaida training camp near Rutbah.

Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-sending-missiles-drones-to-Iraq-to-battle-al-Qaida/articleshow/27986657.cms

Gaza rocket fired at southern Israel for second time in 24 hours

Source: Jerusalem Post

Code Red sirens sound in Asheklon region; no injuries, damage reported; Netanyahu blames Hamas for recent attacks on Israel emanating from Strip; "We will strike those who attack us along with those who sponsor them," PM warns.

Palestinians fired a rocket at southern Israel on Thursday evening activating Code Red sirens in the Hof Asheklon Regional Council for the second time in 24 hours.

The rocket landed in a field and there were no injuries or damages

Security forces were searching for remnants of a projectile.

Shortly after 12 a.m Thursday, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip triggered rocket alert sirens in the area.



Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Gaza-rocket-fired-at-southern-Israel-for-second-time-in-24-hours-336275

Alan Turing's Body

Killed Reuters Photographer Tried to Join Al Qaeda

Among the roughly 300 killed during intense fighting in Aleppo was Molhem Barakat, a Reuters photographer. Barakat's death last Friday, in the indiscriminate barrage on Aleppo that the White House criticized Monday, has raised serious questions about Reuters' hiring practice.

Hannah Lucinda Smith, a British freelance photojournalist and acquaintance of Barakat, writes that Barakat tried to join Al Qaeda.

According to Smith, Barakat wanted to join the terrorist organization for the 11,000 Syrian lira monthly salary. "It is a pitiful wage for a potential suicide bomber, but enough to tempt an eighteen-year-old stuck in a war zone with no job."

Barakat reportedly told Smith the terrorist group probably wouldn't accept him, saying "I'm too liberal. But maybe they’ll think I’ll be useful to them, because I can still go into regime areas so I could transport weapons there for them.”

Barakat was roughly 17 when he started working for Reuters in battle zones, according to an Honest Reporting article on Monday. His age was not included in the Reuters report of his death.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175589