A well-regarded Germany-based hacker group claims a German government-created Trojan horse program is capable of secretly spying on Web users without their consent.

The group says on its website that it obtained and analyzed a piece of software that is supposed to be a "lawful interception" program designed to listen in on Internet-based phone calls as part of a legal wiretap, but its capabilities go far beyond legal bounds.

The program is capable of logging keystrokes, activating Webcams, monitoring Web users' activities and sending mountains of data to government officials, the club said.

To cover its tracks, the data is routed through rented servers located in the United States, the club alleges.

High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF's Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers' tactics - quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate - vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

"These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there," said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. "But that's only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through."

Milford, New Hampshire - Mitt Romney, a former venture capitalist who is the Republican presidential front-runner, derided the Occupy Wall Street movement on Monday as seeking "scapegoats" and risking dividing the country.

Romney responded to a question about the influence of big banks on Washington policy at a town hall meeting in Milford, New Hampshire, by addressing the protests that have spread nationwide over the past month.

"All the streets are connected. Wall Street is connected to Main Street," Romney said, adding that protesters are seeking "scapegoats to attack."

"Don't attack a whole class of Americans, whether they're rich or poor, white or black. This isn't the time for divisiveness."


A day before Republican candidates debate their solutions to the weak U.S. economy at Dartmouth College, Romney continued to attack President Barack Obama's handling of it.

Romney, a grandfather of 16, drew on a popular children's book series to describe Obama's job creation record.

The Franco-Belgian bank Dexia has become the first casualty of the 2011 banking crisis, with its Belgian arm being bought by the government and Belgium, France and Luxembourg providing a €90bn (£78bn) guarantee for its financing.

The bank, which specialises in local government financing and provides backing for more than 40 private finance initiative projects in the UK, ran into difficulties after its €3.4bn of exposure to Greece sparked concerns about its ability to absorb losses on the positions.

Other banks no longer wanted to lend it enough money to keep operating and it is expected to be the first of many to need bailing out during the renewed crisis in the sector. Alastair Ryan, analyst at UBS, reckoned eurozone governments could end up owning 40% of the sector if €200bn is needed to prop up banks - as estimated by the International Monetary Fund. Austrian bank Erste yesterday warned it would make a loss because of the eurozone crisis.

The embattled board of Dexia, which in 2008 received €6bn of assistance from France and Belgium, met on Sunday before it was announced on Monday that Belgium would pay €4bn for the operations in its country. Dexia shares resumed trading after last week's suspension and fell almost 5%.

Between England and France lies a small British island called Jersey and one called Guernsey. They are the most southerly of the British Isles and are much closer to France than England. While they are British islands, they are not part of the United Kingdom, nor is the island nation really a colony. It is a dependency of the British Crown, kind of like Guam and the US Virgin Islands are protectorates of the United States. It has its own government but is under the ultimate control of the Queen of England, just like members of the British commonwealth such as Canada and Australia have the Queen of England as their Queen.

Measuring only 9 miles by 5 miles and with a population of about 90,000, the tiny Jersey Island has been the center of an investigation into child abuse, torture and murder which exposes the island's connection to a global conspiracy of satanic ritual abuse and coverup.

Since Napoleonic times Jersey has been one of the world's centers for dirty money. It has 55 banks, over 33,000 registered companies and more than $300 billion deposited in the Island at any one time. Much of the money comes from the world's ruling elite, mafias and intelligence agencies. They put their money in Jersey for the anonymity and low tax rate.

The abuse investigation started in 2006 and focused mostly on a 150 year old facility called Haut de la Garenne (Forest Heights). Locals call the facility "Colditz". From 1867 to 1986 it was a detention facility for homeless, delinquent and at-risk children except for a period when it was occupied by the Germans during WW II.

How many members of the Forbes 400 say they're willing to pay higher taxes?

10%?

20%?

Actually, you can count them on both hands -- and still have two fingers left over.

Salon's Peter Finocchiaro asked all 400 people on the list -- each with a net worth of at least $1 billion -- "Are you, like Warren Buffett, willing to pay higher taxes?"

Lo and behold, a grand total of eight of the richest 400 Americans said yes.

Writes Finocchiaro:

The results are in. Of 400 billionaires, only eight (including Buffet) say they are willing to pay more. Three others indicated opposition; one said maybe.

The eight?

Lisbon --A Portuguese court jailed six people for up to 18 years on Friday for abusing children from a state orphanage, in a six-year court case that has shocked the nation.

The defendants, including a well-known television presenter, a former diplomat and two doctors, received sentences of between just under six years and 18 years for their participation in abuse of children living at the Casa Pia state home. One defendant, who had been linked to a house where abuse took place, was acquitted.

The ruling was hailed as a victory by those fighting for children's rights in the country. "The stories that I heard were the most terrible of my life," said Catalina Pestana, who was put in charge of Casa Pia after the crimes were first reported in 2002. "I think Portugal, the country, all of us, won a lot from this process. Now, when a child accuses an adult, nobody will look with the same lack of attention that they did for many years."

Six Portuguese men have been jailed after they were found guilty of sexual abuse at a state-run children's home.

Carlos Silvino was given an 18-year sentence after confessing to 639 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others.

His co-defendants, including the former TV presenter Carlos Cruz, were jailed for between five and seven years.

The boys, now aged between 16 and 22, were all residents at the Casa Pia children's home in the capital, Lisbon.

The panel of three judges in the case spent most of the day reading the full verdict in each of the hundreds of sexual abuse accusations.

After ruling that the vast majority of the charges had been proven, they handed down guilty verdicts to six of the seven people on trial.

Governor Jerry Brown has signed AB499, which allows children age 12 and up to consent to the triple jab Gardasil from Merck for genital warts without parental consent. Children who can not bring a Pamprin to school for cramps, can now agree to a vaccination.

Gov. Brown also signed SB946 autism insurance law into effect under mental health.

Lisbon - A year-long investigation. A case file 13 000 pages long. Televised testimony by boys describing rapes by adults in dark cellars.

And, at last: 10 high-level indictments in an alleged paedophile-ring run from a state children's home - a scandal that has rocked Portugal's trust in its authorities.

Among those indicted were two popular television personalities, a lawmaker, and a retired ambassador.