Ubuntu Switches Cloud Software

By Joab Jackson, IDG News




Canonical has switched its cloud software stack to the open-source OpenStack, the company announced Tuesday. The current version of its Ubuntu Server, version 11.04, uses the Eucalyptus platform.

Ubuntu Server 11.10 will include the OpenStack stack as the core of the company's Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) package. The server release will also include a set of tools to help users move their cloud deployments from Eucalyptus to OpenStack.

Canonical still plans to support Eucalyptus as a standalone application in future versions of the server software. Users of the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support) edition will be supported until April 2015. The next LTS release, version 12.04 -- due in April 2012 -- will feature OpenStack.

Rackspace and NASA first launched OpenStack in 2010, as a fully open-source cloud platform. NASA developed the technology for its Nebula internal cloud.

Canonical did not offer a reason for the switch, which it announced at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, being held this week in Budapest.

The core components of Eucalyptus are open source, though the eponymous company behind the technology retains some advanced features only for commercial releases. Some observers have also expressed worry about Eucalyptus' reliance on the Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) APIs (application programming interfaces), which limits the number of public clouds that could be used to host a cloud instance.

Competitors such as VMware have pointed out that the EC2 API is proprietary, even if Amazon allows its reuse in projects like Eucalyptus. Marten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, however, has argued that the Amazon EC2 API is a de facto standard, one widely used across the industry.

Canonical noted that 53 commercial companies--including Dell, Intel and Cisco--have joined the OpenStack initiative. Eucalyptus recently touted that more than 25,000 clouds have been built with its software.

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Computer Hardware Higher - Technology Lower - DELL, NTAP, HPQ, STX

New York, May 11th (TradersHuddle.com) - Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), the 3rd largest personal computer maker in the world is trading at 16.57, which represents 0.98% versus its previous trading session close. Dell is the computer hardware index best performer today, it's helping the sector outperform overall technology shares, with the Technology Select Sector Spider (NYSE:XLK) trading -0.42% from its previous trading session close.

Technology shares trading flat with the S&P500, which is trading lower by -0.42%.

The Index best performer, Dell the 3rd largest personal computer maker in the world, is helping push the Computer Hardware Index (NYSE:^HWI) Higher by 0.03%. The index is having a mixed day with only 4 components trading higher.

Also among the top performers, NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP), the storage and data management solutions provider is trading at $54.67 representing 0.84% Versus the previous trading session. Shares of NetApp have defined support at $45.40 and resistance at $52.88.

Practically no Relative weakness in the index today, however today's worst performer is Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ), with the stock trading at $41.15 representing -1.01% versus the previous trading session. Shares of Hewlett Packard, the maker of printers and personal computers have defined support at $39.16 and resistance at $41.20.

The other worst performer is Seagate (NASDAQ:STX), which is trading at $17.66 representing -0.5% from its previous close. Seagate, the maker of hard drives and storage solutions has calculated support and resistance levels at $39.16 and $41.20 respectively.

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More than 2,000 jailed by Bangladesh mutiny courts

By (AFP) 

DHAKA — A special military court in Bangladesh has jailed 84 border guards, bringing the total incarcerated for their role in a bloody 2009 mutiny to more than 2,000, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

Scores of senior military officers were killed in the 33-hour uprising that began when soldiers at the Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka went on a killing spree, later dumping the bodies in sewers and shallow graves.

The mutiny swiftly spread to BDR posts outside Dhaka and across the country, with thousands of guards taking up arms against their commanding officers in the worst military rebellion in Bangladesh's history.

Dozens of special courts -- run by the military using a mix of martial and civil law -- were set up to prosecute mutineers, with the first verdict convicting 29 soldiers being handed down in April, 2010.

A Dhaka-based special court convicted 84 people on Tuesday.

"Of the 2,147 guards who have now been tried, 63 have been acquitted and 2,084 jailed," military spokesman Mohsin Reza told AFP

A further 3,899 guards are still awaiting trial, he added.

The special courts, which do not allow defendants to have lawyers, can hand down maximum sentences of seven years in jail. There is no right of appeal.

Soldiers accused of more serious offences -- including murder, looting and arson -- are being tried separately in Bangladesh's civilian courts, and can face the death penalty if convicted.

The BDR has since changed its name to the Bangladesh Border Guards in an effort to distance itself from the mutiny.

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Bangladesh rejects rights group's criticism

By JULHAS ALAM
The Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh has rejected an international human rights group's claim that the government's special anti-crime force is involved in torture of suspects and extrajudicial killings.

"The allegations are baseless. The special force acts only in self-defense. It does not kill anyone," Home Minister Sahara Khatun told reporters Wednesday responding to a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch.
In its report released in Dhaka on Tuesday, the rights group called for reform within six months of the Rapid Action Battalion, which it alleged has killed about 200 suspects since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took power 2009. It said the force should be disbanded within six months if not reformed.
The Rapid Action Battalion itself denounced the report as "baseless and one-sided."
"The force has been working under the laws of the land, and we are not above law," spokesman Wing Commander M. Sohail said.
Human Rights Watch said a total 732 suspects have been killed since the battalion was formed in 2004 under a previous government.
The special force usually describes such killings as the result of shootouts triggered by Islamist militant suspects who opened fire on battalion members.
The Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people has struggled with terrorism in recent years after the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group, which wants to establish strict Islamic law, bombed government offices and courts. The battalion captured the group's top leaders, who were later hanged.

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Bangladesh kicks off UN road safety decade

By Anbarasan Ethirajan BBC News, Dhaka


Bangladesh will join the first United Nations Decade of Action for Road safety, along 
with dozens of countries.

The programme will be marked by special events in Bangladesh, which has one of the most high-risk roads in the world.According to official statistics, every year about 10,000 people are killed in road accidents in the country.The campaign seeks to prevent millions of traffic deaths and injuries. It is estimated that road accidents will kill 1.9 million people annually by 2020.
Road crashes kill more people than Malaria and by the end of the decade it is projected they will become a bigger killer than HIV-Aids.So, the UN has launched a campaign to stabilise and then reduce road fatalities and injuries over the course of the decade.
The problem is acute in Bangladesh, which has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world.The highway from the capital, Dhaka, to the north-eastern city of Sylhet is considered to be one of the most dangerous roads for drivers.
With a rate of 0.6 deaths per km, the fatality rate on the N2 highway is 10 times higher than Britain's most persistently high risk roads.The UN supported programme wants to create awareness among people about road safety and also help developing countries to attract investment from multilateral institutions to improve their accident-prone highways.Priorities also include awareness programmes to influence the behaviour of road users and improving care and rehabilitation following accidents.

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Fifa and Interpol join forces in $20 million bid to fight match-fixing menace

Interpol secretary general Ron Noble will join Fifa president Sepp Blatter for the announcement in Zurich, at which Blatter will pledge to the funding package over the next 10 years to develop anti-corruption programmes specifically for football.

Senior investigators from Finland and Germany, where major match-fixing prosecutions involving hundreds of club and international matches are ongoing, will also be in Zurich to brief Blatter and secretary general Jerome Valcke on the threat corruption poses.

The Interpol agreement follows Telegraph Sport’s disclosure last week that Fifa investigators, working with Interpol, have begun a major inquiry into a global match-fixing ring it believes has been specifically targeting friendly internationals.

Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match-fixer who The Daily Telegraph revealed last week operated for at least seven months from a flat in the shadow of Wembley Stadium, is at the heart of the investigation. He is in custody in Finland on suspicion of bribing players to fix matches.

In Germany, meanwhile, police in Bochum have uncovered a massive fixing ring that they suspect of targeting more than 300 games. Ante Sapina, a Croatian convicted of match-fixing in 2005, is on trial with six other individuals charged with manipulating 47 specific matches.

Both the Finland and Bochum cases are understood to have raised numerous international leads that Fifa investigators, under head of security Chris Eaton, are pursuing in the largest inquiry yet undertaken by the governing body.

The Fifa funding will allow Interpol to develop preventative programmes for players, administrators and officials intended to raise awareness of the methods employed by fixers.

Educating young players is a priority, as is ensuring that administrators do adequate due diligence on third parties with whom they arrange matches. Educating and monitoring match officials is also crucial to preventing games being manipulated.

The ongoing investigation has revealed significant evidence that fixers have specifically targeted talented young players in 'grooming’ operations with a view to grooming them as potential future assets.

The focus on young players has prompted Fifa to step up prevention measures ahead of the under-17 and under-20 World Championships this summer in Mexico and Colombia.

“We have to be very careful to prevent them [match-fixers] having any impact on global competitions,” Eaton said. “We have the under-17 World Cup coming up in Mexico and we will be focusing on that with an education programme for national sides to alert them to the possibility that they might be approached by fixers.”

The funding will not be used for investigations, but it will strengthen ties with Interpol, which will in turn increase Fifa’s ability to target ongoing operations.

Anti-corruption investigations by Fifa and other sports bodies are constrained by a combination of factors. National law-enforcement agencies are restrained by jurisdiction and sport-related corruption is seldom a priority.

As a sports organisation Fifa also has limited powers to tackle figures who operate outside the game’s regulations.

The cross-border nature of the suspected fixing operation thrown up by the investigation so far has convinced investigators that they need the assistance from Interpol.

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Match fixing: Police say organised crime fixers in scandal have resorted to murder Match-fixing operations have resulted in murders committed by organised crime gangs in Europe, a senior German police investigator said on Monday.

By Paul Kelso

Speaking at the launch of an anti-corruption initiative between Fifa and Interpol aimed at targeting match-fixing, Commissioner Friedhelm Althans, of the Bochum police department, said he believed there had been killings resulting from attempts to rig football matches.

“I can’t identify the people who have died, but certainly I believe it [has happened]. This is a special form of organised crime, a new phenomenon in Europe. In Asia we have seen this for many years but in Europe this problem was not so obvious.”

Althans is leading the largest investigation of its kind into the suspected manipulation of more than 300 matches in 20 European countries, including games in World Cup qualifying groups and the Champions and Europa Leagues.

Bribes worth £1.5 million have been paid to players, referees and officials but the sum is “just the tip of the iceberg,” said Althans. “We have indeed seen there is a worldwide network of people active in this field.”

Althans said that match-fixing was attractive to organised crime. “It is low-risk, high-profit. That is a system that works for them. Years ago they were working in international drug trafficking. That is difficult and dangerous, but here they have a very low risk and earn much more money

Althans was joined at Fifa House in Zurich by a senior police official from Finland who is leading the investigation into convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal.

The launch follows The Daily Telegraph’s disclosure last week that investigators from Fifa have been working with Interpol and national police units to pull together information on what they believe is an international match-fixing operation working on at least three continents.

Fifa is to give Interpol $20 million over the next 10 years to spend on education and prevention programmes intended to stop players, match officials and administrators being sucked in by fixing rings.

Interpol secretary general Ron Noble said that fixers were largely targeting lower-league football and games with a lower profile, but Fifa is increasingly concerned that international matches have been targeted.

Two recent games in Antalya, Turkey, are suspected of being part of “possible match-fixing activity” and six match officials have been suspended pending a Fifa investigation.

Investigators believe they foiled an attempted sting in Sharjah in March, and head of security Chris Eaton said on Monday that international friendlies were being targeted.

Noble said he was not surprised and that match-fixing offered the “perfect mixture” for organised crime.

“Unfortunately I am not surprised by the efforts of transnational organised crime to alter matches,” he said. “ With the internet and the ability to make bets on every possible outcome, the possibility to make huge amounts of money is very great, and the likelihood of getting caught is very low. It’s a perfect mixture for organised crime.

“Football is increasingly threatened by illegal betting and match-fixing. It poses a threat to safety because it is often controlled by trans-national criminal crime groups. It is Interpol’s duty to get involved.”

Fifa president Sepp Blatter admitted that Fifa’s rules governing friendly internationals were “not hard enough” and said they would be strengthened at the forthcoming Fifa Congress.

The changes will see Fifa overseeing the nomination of match officials and national federations having to declare who is arranging the game, rather than allowing third parties to stage games.

Blatter said ensuring football is clean was central to Fifa’s credibility. “If they cannot believe any longer (in) football because matches are fixed, then in such a case Fifa would lose all credibility,” he said. “It is crucial for us to go together with political authorities and police authorities to fight those that want to destroy our game,” the Fifa president said.

Noble added: “We needed to do something to make sure the public realises that this is a problem that’s long-term. It’s going to require law enforcement to train those groups most likely to be targeted.”

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Cricket boffins meet to review game's laws

A review of the umpiring decision review system, the format of one-day internationals and floodlight Tests will be key agenda items for the International Cricket Council committee, which will meet at Lord's in London today and tomorrow.

The committee includes players, coaches, match officials, the media, law-makers, and statisticians.
A wide range of other issues, including the use of artificial lights in Test matches, use of runners in international cricket and other potential changes to cricket's laws and playing conditions will also be discussed at the two-day meeting.
The committee is chaired by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd and is administered by former Proteas wicketkeeper David Richardson, general manager of the ICC. The committee's task is to discuss and consult on playing matters and to make recommendations to the ICC board for approval.
The next meetings of the committee are set for Hong Kong during the ICC's annual conference week, from June 26 to 30.
The committee will review the results of the umpiring review system so far and will discuss the continued application of the system, including its possible use on a permanent basis in ODIs.
The review system, introduced in October 2009 following successful trials in the series between Sri Lanka and India (August 2008), New Zealand and West Indies (December 2008), West Indies and England (February/March 2009) and South Africa and Australia (February/March 2009), has been used in 31 Tests.
It was also used in the Cricket World Cup this year and in seven ODIs between Australia and England, which were played after the Ashes series.
The committee will also consider whether to recommend the use of floodlights in Test matches. It will also consider the use of different colour balls in day/night matches.
Changes to the ODI format are also on the agenda. Split innings, power-play overs, possible use of two new balls per innings and allowing bowlers to bowl more overs than previously permitted will be some of the options that will be considered.
The committee will discuss laws governing the use of runners, bowlers attempting to run out the non-strikers and batsmen obstructing the field while running between the wickets.

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Sri Lanka Cricket set for overhaul

Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket's interim committee DS de Silva (R) has a lot to answer for. AFP PHOTO / Lakruwan WANNIARACHCHI.

May 9, 2011 (Island Cricket): After a fundamental rights petition on behalf of local cricket clubs by the United Southern Sports Club, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered elections at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
The sports ministry was ordered to ensure that the current interim committee, including the controversial chairman Somachandra de Silva and secretary Nishantha Ranatunga be replaced by July 6.
The current chairman and secretary have come into heavy criticism over their professional conduct, with allegations of corruption, financial mismanagement and nepotism made against them.
Furthermore, colossal financial losses under their watch has also prompted an investigation by the parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE).
“We have asked the SLC to appear before COPE and answer allegations of discrepancies in its accounts, misappropriation of funds and other irregularities,” COPE chairman minister D.E.W. Gunasekara told the local media today.
“The Auditor General has been asked to make available to COPE all documents pertaining to SLC transactions and payments.
Nishantha Ranatunga (2R) and Somachandra de Silva (1R) were appointed secretary and chairman respectively in 2009 by the then sports minister Gamini Lokuge. AFP PHOTO/Lakruwan WANNIARACHCHI.
“This is the first time COPE has summoned the SLC for an inquiry. The impression in the past was that COPE had no power to probe SLC activities but our legal advisors have said COPE has constitutional power to investigate the SLC,” he added.
Elected by the sports minister, at the behest of the ruling party, SLC has been governed by government appointed officials with no oversight and have been blamed for much of the problems facing Sri Lankan cricket and its governing body today.
“Good teams like Australia usually have got strong or good management backing the team up. That's an area we can improve here,” outgoing coach of the Sri Lankan side Trevor Bayliss told AFP in an interview recently, highlighting the current SLC administration as a hindrance to the Sri Lankan side’s progress on the field.
In recent days, SLC has been embroiled in a dispute with its Indian counterparts, which many say was instigated by the sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage after he claimed that he was mistreated during the World Cup final in India, causing tensions between SLC and its own players to soar.
In addition, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that it is planning on amending its constitution to ensure members and their respective bodies carry out elections and to eliminate government and political interference in member nations.

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Game takes aim at bin Laden

In a computer game likely to stir controversy, Americans who wished they could have pulled the avenging trigger on arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden can now virtually storm the infamous walled-off Pakistani compound themselves in a new online video game.
While violent reality-based video games often raise eyebrows — such as “Dog Wars,” a dog-fighting game, and “JFK Reloaded” — one military expert said he believes “Kuma Wars Episode 107: Osama 2011” could help recruit the nation’s next generation of special forces heroes eager to rid the world of mass-murdering megalomaniacs.
“In forty minutes and a rain of hot lead, a decades-long, worldwide manhunt for Osama bin Laden will be ended... by you,” reads the Web site of New York-based Kuma Games, which released online the first-person shooter over the weekend.
The company claims it realistically recreated the compound, weapons and mission objectives from bin Laden’s real-life take-down May 1, based on news reports.
One screen shot on the game’s Web site creates an image that the Obama administration has refused to reveal — bin Laden’s corpse with a head wound.
“I think it might actually draw interest for young men and women to serve in the military,” said Neil Livingstone, CEO of the corporate security firm ExecutiveAction. He noted, “The Army had its own video game at one point to draw young men and women into the service.”
One local game developer, whose controversial cell phone app that let users sneak illegal aliens over a border was rejected from Apple’s App Store last month, said he thinks the trend of creating video games based on current events will continue to grow.
“If someone chooses to play it, that’s within their right to do so, and I don’t believe such games should be actively censored,” said Alex Schwartz of Owlchemy Labs. His game, renamed from “Smuggle Truck” to “Snuggle Truck” for iPad and iPhone, now involves teddy bears.
A spokesman for Kuma Games could not be reached yesterday. The free online game is the latest in a series of what the company calls “ripped from the headlines” battle scenarios. The company digitized Sen. John Kerry’s 1969 Vietnam Swift boat experience; the capture of Saddam Hussein; and the failed 1980 attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran.

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