Maxim Bange

Apple has confirmed that it will issue a software update "very soon" to patch the security flaw found in OS X that allows attackers to capture or modify data protected by the SSL/TLS protocols in Safari, reports Reuters. The vulnerability of OS X to the bug was detailed by security firm CrowdStrike and a Google engineer last Friday, and came right after Apple released iOS 7.0.6 to fix the SSL-related issues on iOS.

However, the security flaw, which has been termed "GoToFail" by security specialists due to the improperly used "goto" command that triggers it, may be affecting more than just Safari. Independent privacy researcher Ashkan Soltani has pointed out on his Twitter (via Forbes) that Apple's vulnerable SSL library is also used by apps including FaceTime, iMessage, Twitter, Calendar, Keynote, Mail, iBooks, Software Update, and more.

A list of apps deemed vulnerable to the SSL bug found in OS X and iOS by security researcher Ashkan Soltani
Soltani does point out that apps such as iMessage and FaceTime have addded security measures that weaken the effects of the security flaw, but also added that the initial iCloud login used to authenticate such apps may also be compromised. The researcher states that other parts of the protocol such as the handshake between a service and a device are vulnerable to an attack as well, and will need to be secured by Apple.

Currently, users can check whether or not their computers are affected by the vulnerability by visiting gotofail.com in Safari. As users wait for a fix to the flaw, CrowdStrike recommends avoiding untrusted and unsecured WiFi networks while traveling. The site also recommends that users update to iOS 7.0.6 if they have not yet installed it on their iOS devices.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Two security guards were killed and more than a dozen people wounded on Monday in a suicide bombing outside the Iranian consulate in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, police said.

The attack was in an area housing offices of foreign diplomatic missions and non-governmental organizations in the sprawling city on the Afghan border.

"It was a suicide blast. A man walked up to the checkpost outside the foreign mission after parking his car nearby. The man blew himself up when he was stopped by security men," a local police officer told Reuters.

The wounded were taken to hospital where the condition of five was serious.

A spokesman for Pakistani jihadist Mast Gul, once acclaimed in Pakistan for his role fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, claimed responsibility. The group is affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting to topple the government.

"We sent a suicide bomber to target the Iranian consulate and Iranians inside the building," the spokesman said.

"They unfortunately remained safe.

"We will continue to target Iranian installations and the Shi'a community everywhere," he added.

Iran is Pakistan's predominantly Shi'ite Muslim neighbor to the west. Radical Sunni militants frequently attacks Shi'ite targets and mosques in Pakistan, describing minority Shi'ites as infidels to be exterminated.

Shi'ite Pakistani pilgrims are often attacked as they travel across the country to visit holy Shi'ite sites in Iran.

The attack on the Iranian consulate came as the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tries to engage the Taliban in peace talks. Negotiations broke down this month after a string of attacks and counter-attacks by both sides.

(Reporting by Jibran Ahmed; Writing by Syed Raza Hassan; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Andrew Roche)

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By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million, according to documents seen by Reuters - a move that would break a U.N. embargo on weapons sales by Tehran.

The agreement was reached at the end of November, the documents showed, just weeks after Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki returned from Washington, where he lobbied the Obama administration for extra weapons to fight al Qaeda-linked militants.

Some in Washington are nervous about providing sensitive U.S. military equipment to a country they worry is becoming too close to Iran. Several Iraqi lawmakers said Maliki had made the deal because he was fed up with delays to U.S. arms deliveries.

A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister would not confirm or deny the sale, but said such a deal would be understandable given Iraq's current security troubles.

"We are launching a war against terrorism and we want to win this war. Nothing prevents us from buying arms and ammunition from any party and it's only ammunition helping us to fight terrorists," said the spokesman, Ali Mussawi.

The Iranian government denied any knowledge of a deal to sell arms to Iraq. It would be the first official arms deal between Shi'ite Iran and Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and highlight the growing bond between them in the two years since the departure of U.S. troops from Iraq.

One U.S. official, told of Reuters' findings, said such a deal could further complicate Washington's approach to negotiating with Iran on easing international sanctions over its nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at producing bombs. Iran says its aims are purely peaceful.

"If true, this would raise serious concerns," the U.S. official said. "Any transfer of arms from Iran to a third country is in direct violation of Iran's obligations under UNSCR 1747."

POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The official documents seen by Reuters showed that six of eight contracts were signed with Iran's Defense Industries Organization to supply Iraq with light and medium arms, mortar launchers, ammunition for tanks as well as artillery and mortars.

A final two contracts were agreed to with the state-owned Iran Electronic Industries for night vision goggles, communications equipment and mortar guiding devices.

One of the contracts includes equipment to protect against chemical agents. An Iraqi army major with knowledge of procurement issues said that would include items such as gas masks and gloves, as well as injections. Baghdad has expressed fear the militants will use such agents against its forces.

Officials from the Iraqi and Iranian defense ministries signed the agreements, according to the documents. They did not list a timetable for deliveries and it was not possible to confirm whether they had taken place.

Maliki is engaged in a nearly two-month-old battle in western Iraq against Sunni al Qaeda-inspired militants and rebellious tribesmen. The prime minister has blamed the unrest in Anbar on the conflict spilling over from neighboring Syria.

One Western security official said U.S. government experts believed an Iranian-Iraqi arms deal had been in the works for some time.

The growing friendship between the two countries is discomfiting for the United States, which has accused Iran of having shipped arms to the Syrian government through Iraq.

Iran already supplies Baghdad with electricity and gas and reiterated an offer of military assistance in January.

The weapons purchases amount to a drop in the ocean for Iraq, which receives most of its arms from the United States and has also bought weapons and helicopters from Russia and other countries.

But they are politically significant as Maliki purses a third term in office.

Iraqi politicians consider Iran's blessing as a necessity for seeking power. Maliki won his second term in 2010 only after the Iranians exerted pressure on recalcitrant Shi'ite parties on his behalf.

Many Iraqis accuse Iran of funding Iraqi Shi'ite militias who have seen a resurgence in the last two years as Iraq's security has deteriorated.

Images of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei now decorate posters seen around Baghdad of Iraqi Shiite fighters slain fighting in Syria.

"We have here a political and not a military deal," said Amman-based Iraq analyst Yahya al-Kubaisay from the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank filled with political opponents of the Shiite-led Iraqi government. "On one hand it is aimed at financing Iran, which is desperately in need of dollars, and on the other it is clearly aimed at winning Tehran's support for Maliki's third term."

MALIKI'S MESSAGE

Three Iraqi lawmakers, who said they had knowledge of the deals, argued they were due to Maliki's unhappiness with Washington's response to his request to supply Iraq with arms and ammunition to fight militant groups during his visit late last year. Iraq has long complained the timetable for US weapons and aircraft delivery was too slow.

"The Americans were obviously dragging their feet from implementing the arms deals signed with Baghdad and under different pretexts, and that was a reason to get urgent shipments from Tehran," said one of the lawmakers, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject.

The US government in recent months has delivered Hellfire missiles and surveillance drones to Iraq as part of its long-standing relationship with Baghdad, which it invaded in 2003. It has also supplied Iraq with M1 Abrams tanks and is in process of delivering F-16 fighter jets.

Since fighting broke out in western Anbar in January, Washington has pushed to move ahead with the sale of 24 Apache attack helicopters to Iraq, which had been held up for months due to the concerns of U.S. lawmakers about how Maliki, who is increasingly at odds with minority Sunnis, would use them.

A Shi'ite lawmaker close to Maliki said the deal with Iran sent a message to Washington that threatening to withhold or delay arms purchases would no longer work.

"If you went to a shop to buy a toy and they refused to sell it to you, then as long as you have the cash, you can get it from the shop next door. It's as simple as that," said the official, who also asked to remain unnamed due to the sensitivity of the issue.

A senior Iraq army officer said Iran was the best source for quick shipments as some of the arms used by the Iraqi army are similar to those manufactured by Tehran, including assault weapons, mortars, artillery and tank ammunition. Iran even produces ammunition for US-made M-12 assault rifles, used by the Iraqi military.

Maliki defended Iraq's counterterrorism strategy last week in an editorial published on the website of U.S. journal for international affairs Foreign Policy: "Thanks to our rapidly growing economy, we are able and willing to pay for all the military equipment we need," he wrote.

Mohammad Marandi, a professor at University of Tehran, told Reuters he had no knowledge of an arms deal with Iraq, but that Iran would not be troubled by the idea: "Iranians don't accept the legitimacy of sanctions. Plus, Iran sells military equipment to many countries."

The eight contracts signed with Iran are as follows:

* Ammunition for light and medium weapons: $75 million

* Ammunition for tanks artillery and mortars: $57.178 million

* Light and medium weapons and mortar launchers: $25.436 million

* Artillery ammunition type 155 mm: $16.375 million

* Day and night vision goggles and mortar guiding devices: $7.320 million

* Protective equipment against chemical agents: $6.676 million

* Communications equipment: $3.795 million

* M12 USA ammunition 20 X 102 mm: $3 million

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington and Michelle Mariam Moghtader in Dubai; editing by Isabel Coles, Ned Parker and Philippa Fletcher)

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We may be at a mobile show this week, but Microsoft is making some announcements on the Windows side. VP Joe Belfiore, at an event this afternoon, has announced that an update is coming to Windows 8.1 this Spring, which will offer more hardware options, benefits for non-touch users and some changes to the user interface. It brings support to devices at lower price points that have as little as 1GB of RAM and 16GB storage, enables app launching and switching via the taskbar and a new mouse user interface with new options for closing apps and right-clicking to get to the Start screen.

Despite the update’s attention on users of non-touch devices, Belfiore exclaimed: “we love touch, but we do want to make things better for people who don’t have touchscreens.” We’ll update the post as we hear more about this new update.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Microsoft

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Firm also outs Windows Phone 8.1 with support for entry-level chips, dual SIM devices

Jeffrey Grossman, on Twitter:

I have confirmed that the SSL vulnerability was introduced in iOS 6.0. It is not present in 5.1.1 and is in 6.0.

iOS 6.0 shipped on 24 September 2012.

According to slide 6 in the leaked PowerPoint deck on NSA’s PRISM program, Apple was “added” in October 2012.

These three facts prove nothing; it’s purely circumstantial. But the shoe fits.

Sure would be interesting to know who added that spurious line of code to the file. Conspiratorially, one could suppose the NSA planted the bug, through an employee mole, perhaps. Innocuously, the Occam’s Razor explanation would be that this was an inadvertent error on the part of an Apple engineer. It looks like the sort of bug that could result from a merge gone bad, duplicating the goto fail; line.

Once the bug was in place, the NSA wouldn’t even have needed to find it by manually reading the source code. All they would need are automated tests using spoofed certificates that they run against each new release of every OS. Apple releases iOS, the NSA’s automated spoofed certificate testing finds the vulnerability, and boom, Apple gets “added” to PRISM. (Wasn’t even necessarily a fast turnaround — the NSA could have discovered the vulnerability over the summer, while iOS 6 was in developer program beta testing.)

Or, maybe nothing, and this is all a coincidence.

I see five levels of paranoia:

1. Nothing. The NSA was not aware of this vulnerability.
2. The NSA knew about it, but never exploited it.
3. The NSA knew about it, and exploited it.
4. NSA itself planted it surreptitiously.
5. Apple, complicit with the NSA, added it.

Me, I’ll go as far as #3.¹ In fact, I think that’s actually the optimistic scenario — because we know from the PRISM slides that the NSA claims some ability to do what this vulnerability would allow. So if this bug, now closed,² is not what the NSA was exploiting, it means there might exist some other vulnerability that remains open.

Reports out of Ukraine suggest that president Viktor Yanukovych has left the capital of Kiev in the past day, heading for the eastern part of the country that has been a stronghold of support since he opted to strengthen relations with Russia rather than pursuing close ties with the European Union last year. The move prompted protests that have accelerated considerably in recent weeks, turning deadly as protestors battled government forces in the city. Over 70 people have been killed so far.

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KIEV (Reuters) - Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko will soon be released in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where she is being treated in hospital, her daughter signaled on Saturday.

Yevgenia Tymoshenko said she was going to Kharkiv to meet her mother, who was jailed in 2011 for seven years for abuse of office linked to a gas deal and is a bitter rival of President Viktor Yanukovich.

"According to Ukrainian law my mum is already a free person," Yevgenia Tymoshenko told reporters following a vote in parliament to speed up procedures for her release.

A spokeswoman for the former prime minister, 53, said that although the moves in parliament already made her a free woman, Tymoshenko had not yet been released or left the hospital where she is receiving treatment for a back problem.

(Reporting by Sergei Karazy and Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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Following a 2010 attempt by Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN to force local ISP Ziggo to block The Pirate Bay, rival ISP XS4ALL joined in the fight against the Hollywood-funded group. Initially a court decided that the ISPs wouldn’t have to block the site, but BREIN took the case to a full trial – and won.

On appeal the verdict swung in favor of the ISPs after they successfully argued that the blockade was ineffective and denied subscribers’ free access to information. January 28, 2014, marked a big day in the Netherlands for both The Pirate Bay and its millions of fans, despite neither party’s involvement in the just-completed legal proceedings.

BREIN, on the other hand, went away licking its wounds and contemplating its 326,000 euro ($445,000) legal bill. Neither ISP wasted time unblocking The Pirate Bay.

With the verdict handed down and The Pirate Bay unblocked, the next step in the battle, should there even be one, lay in BREIN’s hands.

Now, three weeks later, the anti-piracy group has signaled its intention to fight on, criticizing The Court of The Hague’s ruling that site blocking should be dismissed if it’s ineffective.

“That statement is at odds with the opinion of judges in other European countries on blocking and preempts the judgment of the highest European court which is expected shortly. BREIN’s claim is that service providers blocking access to illegal websites has already been assigned by the court,” the group said in a statement.

BREIN adds that it has already established a number of grounds for appeal and will take its case to the Supreme Court.

“Depending on the type of appeal it can take a year to eighteen months before a decision,” BREIN chief Tim Kuik told Tweakers. “Moreover, there are still questions for the European Court of Justice so it might take even longer.”

In the wake of the Ziggo and XS4ALL victory, UPC, the Netherlands’ second largest ISP, said that it had reached an agreement with BREIN over its blocking of The Pirate Bay. The company said it would suspend the block, pending the outcome of its own case with the anti-piracy group.

Commenting on that development Friday, Kuik said that only the Supreme Court can provide the final answers. Taking further legal action now makes no sense, he said, as it only “makes the lawyers richer.”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and VPN services.

Spot quiz: What is Apple's fastest-growing product by total dollar sales?

If you thought iPhones or iPads, you'd be wrong. Growth of both those is in decline.

It's actually e-commerce — via iTunes, iBooks and the app stores. Sales of extra, non-Apple "stuff" via Apple's products were up 19% to $4.4 billion in Q1 2014.

This business is one of Apple's smaller lines, of course. But it's still impressive: If there was a standalone tech startup that was doing greater than $16 billion a year in digital e-commerce sales, and growing at nearly 20% a year, everyone would be talking about it.

It would be the hottest company on the planet. It certainly dwarfs Zappos, an e-commerce company who last reported annual revenues were just over $2 billion.

'A big opportunity on the platform.'

While the tech press is obsessed with Apple's plans for an iWatch and a new Apple TV device, it's instructive to pay closer attention to the business CEO Tim Cook is actually already building. Because it looks an awful lot like Apple's future growth might come from online and mobile retail, not from creating new product categories with new, yet-to-be-invented products.

On his last earnings call, Cook talked about this specifically:

In general, we’re seeing that people love being able to buy content, whether it’s music or movies or books, from their iPhone, using Touch ID. It’s incredibly simple and easy and elegant, and it’s clear that there’s a lot of opportunity there.

The mobile payments area in general is one that we’ve been intrigued with, and that was one of the thoughts behind Touch ID. But we’re not limiting ourselves just to that. So I don’t have anything specific to announce today, but you can tell by looking at the demographics of our customers and the amount of commerce that goes through iOS devices versus the competition that it’s a big opportunity on the platform.

If Cook had made exactly the same statements about watches or TVs, everyone would have freaked out. Apple fanboys would be jumping for joy.

But because he's talking about the dull-but-lucrative business of retail, everyone is ignoring it.

Touch ID is not what you think it's for.

In fact, one of Apple's most important recent technological advances has been retail-oriented.

Most people think that Touch ID is about security — no one can use or steal your iPhone 5S because you cannot unlock it without the owner's fingerprint. But as Business Insider has noted before, Touch ID has a much more important application as a business. Because it makes your phone almost completely secure, the iPhone suddenly become an almost perfect mobile payments device.

That's why Eddy Cue, Apple's e-commerce chief, is focused on building a mobile payments business for Apple right now, according to the Wall Street Journal. He and vp/online stores Jennifer Bailey have met with PayPal, Google, Square, Stripe, Braintree and Venmo in their efforts to put this together.

By amazing coincidence — or perhaps not — Apple is simultaneously building a mobile retail marketing infrastructure across the U.S. It's called iBeacon.

Apple is building a national shopping infrastructure.

Stores are already installing these low-powered Bluetooth transmitters so that when you walk past a shelf they can ping your iPhone with an ad or an offer. Soon — if you keep your iBeacon functionality switched on — Apple and its iBeacon partners will know where you're shopping, all the time, down to a location of just a few feet.

And if it becomes possible to pay with your phone instead of your wallet, then Apple will have successfully "closed the loop" on mobile retailing.

For years, the El Dorado of mobile marketing has been to figure out a way to encourage a phone user to go to a store and buy something at the checkout, and then to be able to immediately attribute that specific sale to a specific phone or owner. This is what marketers mean by "closing the loop." Some companies have tried, but it is trickier than it sounds — you can check in on Foursquare or Facebook at The Gap all you want, but if the store clerk can't link your checkin to the sale, then the action is nearly useless.

Having an iPhone user accept an offer inside a store via iBeacon and then pay using their phone, in theory, solves that problem.

And if Cook really has got this figured out, it's likely to become a lot bigger business than wristwatches ever will be.

SEE ALSO: The Fingerprint Scanner On The New iPhone Is About Money, Not Security

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This generation’s version of the console war may come down to resolution and framerate, at least if you listen to the endless bickering of fans on either side of the aisle.

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By Jonathan Saul and Parisa Hafezi

LONDON/ANKARA (Reuters) - As Syria's war nears the start of its fourth year, Iran has stepped up support on the ground for President Bashar al-Assad, providing elite teams to gather intelligence and train troops, sources with knowledge of military movements say.

This further backing from Tehran, along with deliveries of munitions and equipment from Moscow, is helping to keep Assad in power at a time when neither his own forces nor opposition fighters have a decisive edge on the battlefield.

Assad's forces have failed to capitalize fully on advances they made last summer with the help of Iran, his major backer in the region, and the Hezbollah fighters that Tehran backs and which have provided important battlefield support for Assad.

But the Syrian leader has drawn comfort from the withdrawal of the threat of U.S. bombing raids following a deal under which he has agreed to give up his chemical weapons.

Shi'ite Iran has already spent billions of dollars propping up Assad in what has turned into a sectarian proxy war with Sunni Arab states. And while the presence of Iranian military personnel in Syria is not new, military experts believe Tehran has in recent months sent in more specialists to enable Assad to outlast his enemies at home and abroad.

Analysts believe this renewed support means Assad felt no need to make concessions at currently deadlocked peace talks in Geneva.

MILITARY SPECIALISTS

Assad is now benefiting from the deployment by Tehran of hundreds more military specialists to Syria, according to Iranian sources familiar with deployments of military personnel, Syrian opposition sources, and security experts.

These include senior commanders from the elite Quds Force, the external and secretive arm of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as IRGC members.

Their function is not to fight, but to direct and train Syrian forces and to assist in the gathering of intelligence, according to sources in Iran and outside.

An Iranian foreign ministry official said: "We always have said that we support our Syrian brothers and respect their will ... Iran has never got involved in Syria by providing arms or financially or by sending troops."

But a former senior Iranian official with close IRGC links said Iranian forces were active in Syria.

He said the Quds force was gathering intelligence in Syria, which Iran regarded as a top priority. He said a few hundred commanders from the Quds Force and the IRGC were in Syria, but they did not get involved directly in the fighting.

A recently retired senior IRGC commander said Iranian forces on the ground included some Arabic speakers. He said top Quds force commanders numbered 60 to 70 at any given time.

These men were tasked with advising and training Assad's military and his commanders, he said. Revolutionary Guards directed the fighting on the instructions of the Quds Force commanders, he added.

The former IRGC commander said these personnel were also backed up by thousands of Iranian paramilitary Basij volunteer fighters as well as Arabic speakers including Shi'ites from Iraq. The former Iranian official and a Syrian opposition source also put auxiliary forces in the thousands.

The figures could not be independently verified from Syria, but the deaths of at least two IRGC commanders in Syria have been publicly reported.

European and U.S. security officials said hundreds of Iranians were active in Syria, advising, training and in some cases commanding Syrian government forces.

"Iran's presence in Syria has been and remains a concern, given the resources Tehran has at its disposal and its unwavering support for the Assad regime," a U.S. official said.

A report by Western intelligence agency obtained by Reuters said that while Assad forces had an advantage in the balance of fighting on the ground, at present they were "unable to translate this advantage into a decisive victory". The report said Assad's dependence on Hezbollah and Iran was increasing.

"Behind the regime's improved combat capabilities stands significant support from Hezbollah, Iran and Russia, while at the same time the rebels' weaknesses are becoming more pronounced," the report said.

"Syria is especially important to Iran and Hezbollah in geo-strategic terms - and its ability to act as a conduit to help strengthen the radical (i.e. pro-Iran and pro-Hezbollah) bloc."

Scott Lucas, of EA WorldView, a specialist website on Iran and Syria, said the evidence indicated hundreds of Iranian advisers and trainers were inside Syria at any one time.

"They are trying to work with the Syrians in ramping up the number of (Syrian) troops they can put in the field and making sure those guys can hold the line as well as carry out certain offensive operations," he said.

ACROSS BORDERS

Iranian and Syrian opposition sources said personnel could enter Syria through the border with Turkey since Iranians did not need visas to enter Turkey. Others come in across the Iraqi border, and more senior commanders fly in to Damascus.

A Turkish official said the number of Iranians crossing into Syria had increased in the last few months. Most had non-Iranian passports.

A Syrian opposition source said in recent months that Iranian- led forces had begun operating in coastal areas including Tartous and Latakia. They have local ID cards, wear Syrian military fatigues and work with the elite Syrian air force intelligence unit.

The presence of units in coastal areas could not be independently corroborated. The Iranian sources declined to give details of where the forces were located.

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Middle East case officer with the CIA, said Iran sought to avoid getting embroiled in direct fighting.

"It would be difficult to integrate Iranians into Arab combat operations, and they would essentially have to run their own combat operations, since they would be loath to put themselves under the Alawite control," said Gerecht, who is now with U.S. think-tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, of risk consultancy Maplecroft, said Iran's role in training and coordinating "constitutes a lifeline for the regime".

"The involvement of Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel and Shiite militias such as Hezbollah remains crucial to the Syrian regime's war effort," Soltvedt said.

WEAPONS LIFELINE

In recent weeks Syria has continued to receive arms and military equipment from Russia and via proxies, according to several sources. Those supplies included unmanned spy drones, guided bombs and spare parts for combat craft.

Moscow says it violates no international laws with its military supplies to Syria, which do not include offensive weapons.

Nic Jenzen-Jones, a military arms specialist and director of Armament Research Services, said Iranian-made Falaq-1 and Falaq-2 rocket launchers had been sent from Iran to Syria.

"While they have been around for a while, we have seen an increase in use of late," he said

Jenzen-Jones added that relatively new Iranian small arms ammunition - produced in the last three to four years - had reached Syria recently.

A rebel fighter operating in Homs province with Islamist group Liwa al-Haq said opposition forces knew of Iranian planes flying into Hama airport in central Syria to deliver weapons.

A source in the international arms industry with knowledge of Middle Eastern weapons movements said Syria had received millions of rounds of ammunition for light weapons of late, much of it former eastern bloc material coming in by sea and air from the Black Sea area.

The Syrian opposition source said Latakia airport and port as well as the port in Tartous were used to bring in equipment.

Other supplies included machine guns and ammunition for artillery and tanks, the arms industry source said.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Beirut and Louis Charbonneau in Vienna, Editing by Giles Elgood and Will Waterman)

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Apple is the new Microsoft, says Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes. 

He downgraded the stock from "overweight" to "equalweight" (which is like going from buy to hold). He sticks with his $570 price target. 

He believes the stock will be stuck in a tight trading range for the next year or so. 

"Frankly, we just couldn’t quite bring ourselves to use smart watches or TVs as reasons to raise numbers – nor were we fully convinced that these products could move the needle like new categories did in the old days," says Reitzes. "As a result, we believe it is time to step aside, given a maturing smart phone market."

He says he's excited as a consumer for what Apple has in store, but as an investor, he doesn't see it doing much.

"We believe Apple’s story is all about iPhones and 'new categories' seem to be designed to make the iPhone more useful – but don’t necessarily re-accelerate growth in the iPhone category to sustainable double-digit levels."

His delivers a final dagger, saying, "We look at a valuation analogy vs. Microsoft from 2000 to about 2010 and see no precedent that large-size tech companies simply start to broadly outperform again after a tough year or two if the law of large numbers is catching up to them and margins have peaked."

Oof! Microsoft has famously been flat for over a decade. Reitzes sees the same thing happening all over again, this time with Apple. 

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Yesterday, Facebook confirmed it bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion. The app is used by 450 million people who talk with anyone all over the world free of charge. Once you download the app, it's free to use for one year before you have to pay $0.99 for each additional year.

This map from App Annie, a marketing and analytics platform for apps, was part of a report explaining 2013's biggest app trends. It compiled data based on revenue from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and showed the top five messaging apps used in each country.

One of the big reason's behind Facebook's huge investment in WhatsApp is that it wants to gain a foothold in other countries where Facebook messaging isn't very popular, especially in South America, Europe, and Africa.

However, Asia is a bit of an issue for WhatsApp: apps like LINE, WeChat, and KakaoTalk are already immensely popular there and provide many of the same services Facebook does.

While Facebook wants to obtain global domination over messaging, WhatsApp still faces a big threat from Skype. Microsoft's voice communication platform is used by 300 million people, is very popular in the U.S. and Europe but the recent infusion of cash from Facebook could propel the app to the top.

SEE ALSO: How To Use WhatsApp, The Messaging App That Facebook Just Bought For $19 Billion

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Use Office Web Apps much? Us neither, which is probably why Microsoft’s answer to Google Docs felt it needed a makeover. Following SkyDrive’s recent rebrand to OneDrive, Office Web Apps has received similar treatment, and now asks you to call it Office Online. Microsoft hopes this new title more accurately reflects what Web Apps was/is: an online version of Word, Powerpoint, Excel and others, free to SkyDrive OneDrive users. Furthermore, Office Online is now located at the convenient URL of Office.com, which should prompt a few more people to stumble across it and add it to their bookmarks. Otherwise, it’s the same Office-in-a-browser experience with real-time co-editing features, just with a heap of new document templates and a dropdown toolbar for selecting different apps on the fly. Now, go get your spreadsheet on — we need those TPS reports by lunch.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft

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Source: Microsoft (Office Blog), Office.com

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Facebook shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street alike in February 2014 when it announced it would acquire WhatsApp, a global mobile messaging app, for a staggering $16 billion, plus another $3 billion in options. But with a firm commitment not to advertise and to maintain its own stand alone product, WhatsApp has a murky path ahead as it begins its journey into the bowels of the Facebook empire. Follow all the latest news from one of the biggest deals in tech history so far.

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After the bloodiest day in Ukraine in 23 years, a standoff has developed between Russian-backed riot police loyal to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and pro-EU protesters who want to oust Yanukovych.

We asked Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and author of "Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World," for some insights on what has become an uncertain and volatile situation.

Business Insider: Will you describe in simple terms what's at stake here?

Ian Bremmer: The international stakes center on the (lack of) credibility of Western engagement in a strategically important international hotspot. Russia’s President Putin is determined to keep Ukraine in Russia’s economic orbit, and he’s not concerned about international criticism of his direct involvement in propping up Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s embattled government. Meanwhile, the Europeans and Americans are no more interested in taking on risks and complications here than they were in Syria, and the Russians know it.

The Europeans will move toward some form of sanctions, because they can’t stand by and do nothing while Ukrainian protesters are killed on television. But there will be little follow through beyond that because, frankly, Ukraine is far too weak, economically and institutionally, to join the EU for the foreseeable future. The US will say the expected things and express the expected concerns, but this is far from the top of anyone’s agenda in Washington, however sympathetic administration officials may be with the protesters.

The Ukrainian people are the latest victim of an international system that lacks crucial leadership.

BI: Is Putin nervous yet? What are his options at this point?

Bremmer: Not so nervous to avoid this during the Sochi Olympics. Putin is watching this closely along with everyone else and trying to decide how to intervene most effectively. The tool of choice still appears to be a Russian pledge to buy $2 billion in Ukrainian-issued Eurobonds to buttress Yanukovych’s government. But Russian aid remains on the sidelines while things get murkier on the streets of Kiev and other Ukrainian cities.

We should be clear that civil war or the introduction of Russian troops is not on the horizon, at least not yet. But there is a sizable minority population of ethnic Russians living in eastern and southern Ukraine, and Putin will not back off as long as he believes he has viable options to intervene in Ukraine’s politics.

BI: There are reports of areas declaring independence from Yanukovych's government and the army on standby. What is the worst-case scenario?

Bremmer: The absolute worst-case is the breakup of the country some have feared since the fall of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is not Syria. There are both ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Russians who are proud of their young country, who want peace, stability, and good relations with both Russia and Europe. There are also military figures and powerful, politically connected businessmen who can abandon the government and push things toward negotiations that might oust Yanukovych and create some viable compromise, at least for the near term. But for the moment, Yanukovych appears to be on offense, and things will get bloodier before they get better.

BI: What, if any, leverage does the EU and the U.S. have?

Bremmer: They have the power to condemn what’s happening. There can be some limited European sanctions, though there is plenty of resistance to that among European governments. The time to help the Ukrainians was before the violence started—and Europeans missed the chance to draw a line that they were prepared to defend with cash and pressure.

The IMF may eventually become directly involved again, but it would take time to negotiate a meaningful agreement, and Yanukovych’s government is fully occupied with trying to impose its will on the streets rather than to look West for financial aid.

In short, Europeans and Americans have far less leverage than the Russians do—and even the Russians lack the power to ensure the longer-term outcome they really want.

BI: What do you expect to happen in the next couple of days?

Bremmer: You’ll hear a lot of strong-sounding statements from Europe, but Ukraine’s violence has taken on a life of its own. Ukraine’s most powerful businessmen can abandon support for Yanukovych if they choose. They’ll be watching to see if protesters from western Ukraine are able to flood central Kiev and push Yanukovych’s back to the wall. They’ll be watching to see if Yanukovych’s decision to replace the army chief can ensure the army’s loyalty. And they’ll be watching to see if ethnic Russians living in the Yanukovych-friendly eastern regions begin to turn on their president in the name of ending the violence.

These are the things we should be watching too. For now, things are only likely to become more grim.

Follow Ian Bremmer on Twitter.

SEE ALSO: BEFORE AND AFTER: Kiev's Independence Square

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GENÈVE - De verbetering van het zakelijke klimaat in de tweede helft van 2013 heeft geleid tot een sterkere vraag naar business en first class tickets. Over het hele jaar gerekend lag de groei wel lager dan in 2012, blijkt uit maandag gepubliceerde cijfers van branchevereniging IATA. De voorzuitzichten voor dit jaar zijn volgens IATA positief.

FRANKFURT - De Star Alliance Navigator App is nu ook beschikbaar voor gebruikers van Android-telefoon. Met deze app is het onder meer mogelijk om vluchten te zoeken, de vluchtstatus te controleren en informatie over lounges en luchthavens te vinden. Ook is informatie beschikbaar over de luchtvaartmaatschappijen die lid zijn van Star Alliance en hun respectievelijke frequent flyer-programma's.

In the thick of the Cold War, the Soviet Union built a revolutionary transport vessel that was bigger than any plane and faster than any ship. It was also capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Classified as a ground effect vehicle, the 300-foot-long Lun-class Ekranoplane flew just four meters or so off the surface of water through the ground effect generated by its large wings.

It theoretically represented a new threat against the West, though the ship did not enter wide production and it never saw action.

The only model ever produced, the MD-160, was retired in the late 1990s and now sits rusting at a naval station in Kaspiysk. Aviation blogger Igor113 captured some awesome pictures of the Ekranoplane and shared them here.

At the pinnacle of the Cold War, when the Soviets were realizing they had few options left in defeating the West, the Lun-class Ekranoplane likely held high hopes for many Kremlin officials.

Larger than a football field, the Lun was a technological innovation the likes of which the world had never seen.

Eight powerful turbofans producing 28,600 pounds of thrust apiece, as much as the new F-35 engines, are mounted at the nose of the craft.

Source: BGA Aeroweb

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Successful New York restaurant owner Jeffrey Zurofsky thinks that too many of today's college graduates want a quick path to making money — and don't want to get their hands dirty.

That's why the co-founder and CEO of growing restaurant chain 'wichcraft only hires people who are as comfortable talking numbers as they are taking out the trash.

Zurofsky tells Business Insider he makes it very clear to young, ambitious professionals that they're going to have to get their hands dirty if they want to one day manage his restaurant.

If someone wants to work for him, "the first thing I tell them is: 'Great. This is a hands-on business,'" he says. "'You're going to learn how to be the porter, be the delivery guy, be the cashier, be the cook. If you want to run this place...I have no problem with that ambition, I just think that you need to learn everything.'"

Zurofsky first started working in restaurants because he needed a way to pay for college. He was going to go to law school and eventually become a politician. Instead, his time spent as a lowly line cook inspired him to start his own restaurant in 2003, with business partners Sisha Ortuzar and celebrity chef Tom Colicchio.

Their gourmet sandwich shop, 'wichcraft, grew to 15 locations in New York, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The three partners later opened the restaurant Riverpark and its accompanying urban farm. Zurofsky serves as CEO of each business.

To him, a successful restaurant manager is someone who understands the business from the lowest position to the highest through first-hand experience. Zurfofsky thinks that in this sense, the restaurant business is analogous to the startup business.

A true entrepreneur, he says, is a builder, not just a manager. "The sign of a successful entrepreneur is someone who's set up the systems, the organization, and the processes for the business in such a way that he can effectively be removed from it, and it can still operate and run. That is success."

SEE ALSO: The Morning Rituals Of 15 Highly Successful Small Business Owners

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You hear it all the time. You'll be out with a friend and the conversation turns to topic of some billionaire and technology company founder who struck it insanely rich building a product that's changed the world.

Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Larry Page. Kevin Systrom. 

And someone will say, "I want to build a company like that. All I need is a really good idea."

But that's not exactly right.

Not according to several prominent venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.

Their view is that actually, you need an idea that sounds really bad. Awful.

The trick is: it's not actually so bad. It's brilliant. It's just that most people can't see. Most everyone, that is, except you.

This is Chris Dixon. He's a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm that invests in startups. Dixon also sold a company to eBay for $80 million a few years ago.

Dixon's theory is that best startups are good ideas that look like bad ideas.

You might think good ideas that look like good ideas are a better bet. You're wrong. Big companies are already working on those, and they have a lot more money and workers. For example: A smartphones with a better battery is a great idea that looks like one, and Apple and Samsung are on it.

Entrepreneurs and startup investors are in the business of left-overs, says Dixon. They have to pursue the good ideas that, for some reason, others won't.

Dixon says one classic example is Google. When Google was created, big companies like Yahoo thought of Web search was a loss-leader. They thought of it as a service that annoyingly sent users away from their site.

A more recent example is Airbnb. It's turned out to be a good idea, but it looked like a bad idea because everyone thought of couch-surfing as a weird thing hipsters did.

Dixon said he's noticed three characteristics of good ideas that look like bad ideas.

One is that powerful people will dismiss good ideas that look bad as "toys." 

For example, telegraph company Western Union could have purchased telephone technology, but it decided not to because it thought phones weren't as good for business as telegraphs.

Another reason people will dismiss a good startup idea as a bad one is that the startup provides a single service that is ordinarily provided as part of a suit of services by an existing, large company.

For example, The New York Times probably thought it was a bad idea to *just* bring their classifieds listings online, and not all their content. But Craigslist provides *just* that service, and it's proven to be a very good idea.

Sometimes, says Dixon, good ideas look like bad ideas because only hobbyists are working on them — not big companies with big R&D divisions. That's how Apple started — with the Homebrew PC club.

Good ideas will also look like bad ideas because they go against social norms.

For example, it used to be that when you uploaded a photo to a photo-sharing site, the default was for that photo to be viewable online only to you. The default on Flickr was public, and it got huge. Likewise, people were alarmed by the Facebook News Feed, which they viewed as a stalking tool.

To wrap it up, Dixon said the best way to come up with a good idea that looks like a bad one is NOT to follow industry trends and read reports. That's all built on consensus. It's better to come up with ideas by encountering problems and opportunities through direct experience. 

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Hi,

you might find this interesting: we’ve recently released a project about the limited accessibility of public transport (subway + commuter trains) in New York, London and Hamburg. The results are maps with an interactive slider that let you explore how thinned out the transportation network get’s when you’re handicapped e.g.

here’s a mapgif-preview:

and here all the information about the project http://mappable.info/blog/2014/2/8/accessibility

—-

Transit Maps says:

The depiction of physical accessibility on transit maps of is something I’ve touched on before – see this great 2007 map of the London Underground with all the inaccessible stations removed (Nov. 2011, 5 stars) – but this is a fantastic and intuitive way to show the difference between all stations and only the accessible ones.

You should definitely click through to the full blog entry about this project and see the full interactive maps that have been created for New York, Hamburg and London. If you’ve been inspired, they also give ideas and instructions on how to create a similar map for the transit in your city.

The Zeus Trojan, malware long known to steal banking credentials to siphon off victims' funds, has been spotted being put to yet another devious use: swiping business data from Salesforce.com.

The Netherlands has won 19 medals in nine speed skating events at the Sochi Olympics, including podium sweeps in four different races.

This level of dominance, and the sheer volume of medals in a single sport, is unprecedented in the 90-year history of the Winter Olympics.

The Dutch were always the world's most dominant speed skating nation, but what they're doing this year is different.

Olympic historic Bill Mallon broke down the most dominant performances by a country in a single sport at an Olympics

Among sports that give out more than three total medals, here are the three the most dominant performance at the Winter Olympics:

1. East Germany in luge, 1972: 88.9% (8 of 9 medals)
2. Norway in cross-country skiing, 1924: 83.3% (5 of 6 medals)
3. Netherlands in speed skating, 2014: 70.4% (19 of 27 medals)*

There are three more speed skating events at the 2014 Olympics. Since two of those events are team relays, the Netherlands can only win five of the last nine medals.

Still, no country has won more than 66.7% of total medals in one sport at one Olympics since 1984.

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Microsoft is rolling out a set of updates to its Windows Phone Bing apps today to allow them to sync with their Windows 8 equivalents. Bing News, Finance, Weather, and Sports are all being updated, and Microsoft is also introducing new Food & Drink, Travel, and Health & Fitness apps. Each app includes a new option to sign-in with a Microsoft account and sync information and data between the Windows Phone and Windows 8 versions.

Seven Bing apps now work across Windows and Windows Phone

In the News app, sources of news can be customized and synced across Windows 8 and Windows Phone, while the Sports app will sync favorite teams across Windows devices. Some of Microsoft’s Bing apps have been available since August, but today’s sync...

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The anti-government protests have reached fever pitch as at least 14 people have died since the government attempted to break up the protests by force on Tuesday.

The Russian-backed government forces are trying to enter Independence Square, aka Maidan, where activists have been camping out and protesting en masse since early December. They have encountered fierce resistance.

The Interpreter reports that the footage above is filmed from the ground, right behind police lines, and shows "the initial police assault on the Maidan protests." Fierce clashes follow.

Earlier the Ukrainian Berkut, the feared security apparatus of the state, gave protesters until 18:00 [11:00 EST] to end the demonstrations or face "tough measures."

SEE ALSO: THE POLICE ATTACK KIEV PROTESTERS — AND THE IMAGES ARE INSANE

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Fourth-in-line to the British crown, Prince Harry, 29, has grown up with his personal tragedies as well as his blunders as the subject of intense media scrutiny. Though it all he has maintained a happy-go-lucky attitude that makes him the royal we would want to get a beer with.

Here is what makes Prince Harry so cool:

1. He defied the queen's demands that he shave his beard.

There's no doubt that beards are cool. They're also a source of pride on the operational side of the military.

However, the Queen despises beards and forbids her staff much less her grandson from sporting them, US Weekly reports. Harry ignored the Queen's order and sported his beard at Christmas morning service. He shaved his beard a good month later — it had to go anyway, since he is in the armed  services.

2. He fought the Taliban from the ground ...

Prince Harry, known as Captain Wales in the army, began his military career at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in May 2005.

Harry was first certified as a tank commander and assigned to a cavalry regiment. Later, he deployed to Helmand Afghanistan as a forward observer with British ground units where he engaged in combat operations against the Taliban.

3. ... And also from the air.

Not satisfied, upon his return he went into helicopter pilot training.

In 2009 he began a two-and-a-half year training course to become a fully operational, full-time Army Air Corps helicopter pilot. He completed a 20-week deployment in Afghanistan as a co-pilot gunner on an Apache attack helicopter and since then has flown missions in the U.K. 

Having deployed twice and seen combat both times, Harry has taken a new role as a staff officer at HQ London District.

4. He is a hardcore polar adventurer.

Prince Harry spent 4 weeks on an expedition to the North Pole in 2011 to raise awareness for wounded servicemen and women.

He covered 200 miles of the frozen Arctic Ocean by foot in minus 60 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. He then conquered a trek to the South Pole two years later.

5. He parties like Frank Sinatra and hangs out with the most unexpected folks.

After a series of pot smoking and underage drinking episodes, Prince Harry's mischievous streak landed him in a London rehabilitation center for a day.

Another royal uproar occurred when leaked nude photos of Prince Harry were published by British tabloid The Sun. The photos were taken during a Las Vegas vacation in 2012. He was media-shamed and sent off to war so quick, leading people to assume that he was punished with a deployment to Afghanistan.

Before wrapping up his military tour, Captain Wales shared his thoughts about the Las Vegas incident in a candid interview. "I let myself down, I let my family down, I let a lot of people down. But at the end of the day I was in a private area and there should be a certain amount of privacy one should expect," he said.

6. He can't help but be involved in charities around the world.

Prince Harry founded his first charity, Sentebale, with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho when he was 21 years old.

The organization is named Sentebale, which means "forget me not" in the language of Lesotho and focuses on social development, education, and health of Lesotho's orphans. Prince Harry spent eight weeks living among the impoverished in Lesotho. He made a documentary titled “The Forgotten Kingdom” using footage from his personal hand-held video camera. The film raised $2 million for the British Red Cross Lesotho Fund.

Fourth in line to the British crown, Harry now sponsors 19 different charities.

7. He is a pretty good cowboy.

Harry spent three months working as a jackeroo for £100 a week in Australia.

His normal working day begins at around 7:30 AM and runs through 6:00 PM with a two-hour lunch break in the outback heat.

"I have had a great time working out here, meeting people and learning a bit about how to be a jackeroo and, of course, the rugby was absolutely fantastic," Prince Harry said, reports the BBC.

As a kid, Harry spent time with Prince William and Princess Diana on E Bar L Ranch in Montana.

8. He's obsessed with sports.

Harry is an avid fan of rugby and even coached at schools around the U.K. to encourage young people to learn the sport. Prince Harry plays polo regularly, both to raise money for charities and in competitive matches.

He also played for the army while he was training at the Royal Military Academy. He and the Queen are both loyal supporters of Arsenal soccer. 

On a trip to Jamaica in 2012 he challenged sprinter Usain Bolt, widely regarded as the world's fastest person, to a race. Even though Bolt let Harry win, Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte took his race with the prince seriously saying, "the pool is my domain."

9. Despite being British, he can throw a good football

On his first tour of the U.S., Prince Harry visited the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs last summer. Before kneeling down at the bottom of a pyramid of cheerleaders, Harry impressively threw a few passes of a football. 

During his six day trip, Harry went to the White House, Walter Reed Military Medical Center, and Arlington National Cemetery before heading west to help kick off the Warrior Games with wounded athletes and veterans. Harry is determined to launch a U.K. version of the Warrior Games.

SEE ALSO: 20 Iconic Photos Of Kate Middleton & Prince William's Royal Life

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Apple is preparing an update to fix an issue that causes 11 and 13-inch 2013 MacBook Airs to crash when they are wakened from sleep, according to information from an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

According to multiple lengthy threads on the Apple Support Communities, 2013 MacBook Air users have been experiencing sleep/wake issues for several months. Crashes, freezes, and blank black screens are common after waking a MacBook Air from sleep, and fixing the problem requires a hard restart.

It appears that the problem is related to OS X Mavericks and requires a combination of the computer going to sleep and a press on the keyboard or touchpad to initiate. One user has been able to successfully re-create the problem by pressing the power button to put the MacBook Air to sleep and then immediately clicking on the touchpad, which causes the machine to freeze.

The service provider that notified MacRumors about the update has said that it appears to be a bug in the sensor that detects when the lid is being opened, which has led to multiple machine returns and replacements as it was previously unclear whether it was a hardware issue or a software issue.

An Apple Support representative has also confirmed that a fix is in the works and should be bundled with the next OS X Mavericks update, which likely points to 10.9.2. A user on Apple’s support forums has noted that 10.9.2 beta 4 appears to fix part of the problem by altering the function of the power button, preventing the machine from going to sleep when the power button is mis-tapped.

Ahead of the update, customers who are experiencing sleep/wake crashes with their MacBook Airs appear to be able to repair the problem with a restart.

The post Apple Preparing Fix for Sleep/Wake Crashes in 2013 MacBook Airs appeared first on AIVAnet.