– A minivan driving around San Francisco has fueled speculation that Apple may be creating its own "street view" for Apple Maps, the Guardian reports. Spotted by the Claycord News & Talk blog, the van had 12 cameras mounted along with a lidar sensor, which uses a spinning laser to survey the environment. "When asked about what they are doing, the person sitting in the vehicle would never give an answer," says the blog. What's more, CBS San Francisco reports that the vehicle is leased to Apple. Could they be mounting a rival to Google Maps' popular Street View? After all, Apple is planning to release iOS 9 for iPhones and iPads in the summer, and was rather embarrassed by Apple Maps' poor directions and subpar 3D imagery when it first came out. Yet Apple would need a fleet of vehicles to challenge Google's Street View, the Verge notes. Also, technology analyst Rob Enderle says the van has "too many cameras" for street-viewing and may in fact be a self-driving vehicle. The van also resembles one seen in a Brooklyn YouTube video that describes it as a "self-driving car." Apple isn't among companies with a permit to test self-driving cars, but the van may be used by an Apple partner who does: "You know, they have partnerships with a variety of the carmakers," says Enderle. "Just because they’re leasing the car doesn’t necessarily mean it’s their project." Apple has no comment on the high-tech van or vans—so "it looks like these curious vehicles will remain a mystery for now," says the Verge. (See why Uber may use "robo-cabs.")

Expand this summary.

Apple appears to be testing a pool of cars near San Francisco that are equipped with powerful camera rigs. A Claycord blog has published photos of a car that CBS affiliate KPIX 5 has confirmed is leased to Apple. The mysterious cars have been spotted a number of times over the past several months in and around San Francisco. A video, published on YouTube in September, also shows a complex camera rig mounted on the roof of a similar Dodge minivan in New York. Both of the cars near San Francisco and New York appear to be equipped with the same LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) camera system.

 LIDAR has been used extensively by Google, Nokia, and others to map out imagery for Street View services. The technology is also used in some adaptive cruise control implementations to monitor distances between vehicles and automatically apply the brakes on a car. It’s possible that Apple is using LIDAR to create its own Street View rival, or at least testing that scenario. Apple’s car also includes the same wheel sensor that Navteq used on its Bing cars previously to create street imagery for Microsoft’s mapping service.

 Could Apple be creating a Google Street View rival?

 Apple has been gradually improving its mapping service since it controversially dropped Google Maps as the default maps app for iOS more than two years ago. Inaccurate listings, poor 3D imagery, and bad driving directions plagued the service initially, but things have improved. Apple Maps still lacks a rival to Google’s Street View, but if Apple is planning its own then it faces a daunting task to match Google’s comprehensive coverage. A test in New York and San Francisco isn't enough to map all of the world’s streets.

 Google also uses LIDAR cameras to help power its self-driving cars. Google’s system is mounted on top of its fleet of cars, and the camera spins constantly to evaluate its surroundings. In the video published on YouTube, you can see a spinning camera system at the rear of the vehicle. While it’s possible Apple may be testing its own self-driving car, the company doesn’t have a permit to test them yet. As KPIX 5 points out, that doesn’t mean Apple couldn’t partner with an authorized car company to test them initially. With Apple refusing to comment on the cars, it looks like these curious vehicles will remain a mystery for now. ||||| Apple Apple camera car on San Francisco streets leads to 'street view' speculation Apple vehicles covered in cameras show company could be working on a Google Street View competitor for Apple Maps A specially equipped van with scanning equipment registered to Apple was spotted on the streets of New York and San Francisco. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

 A car leased to Apple and covered in cameras and scanning equipment has been spotted driving around San Francisco.

 The people carrier with system of 12 cameras and a lidar sensor, which scans the environment using a spinning laser, attached to its roof was spotted by a Bay Area local blog called Claycord news and talk.

 The unmarked vehicle was confirmed as having been leased to Apple via its number plate, and it could indicate that the company is preparing a large update to its maps app for the iPhone and iPad, similar to the street-level photography within Google Maps.

 Apple’s update to its operating system for the iPhone and iPad, iOS 9, is expected to debut in the summer and could introduce the new feature. That would require a significant investment from Apple and a fleet of cars to photograph and map roads.

 A similar car to the one spotted in San Francisco was also captured on video in New York last year.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mapping car in New York.

 Google’s Street View was introduced in 2006 across five major US cities before expanding to the rest of the UK and Europe in 2008. It marked the switch for Google from relying on other providers for maps to building its own.

 Apple has invested heavily in its maps app and made it the default mapping application on the company’s smartphones and tablets.

 Apple Maps was notoriously buggy with inaccurate data on its launch in 2012, prompting the chief executive Tim Cook to publicly apologise for user frustration stating that the company was “doing everything we can to make Maps better”.

 Apple maps: how Google lost when everyone thought it had won Read more

 Street View was a crucial step in improving the accuracy of Google Maps as part of the company’s “Ground Truth” project, adding context such as no access roads, traffic signs and the context not available from satellite or aerial photography.

 Tracking the cars route with GPS and other sensors not associated with photography verified routes and brought local knowledge to the standard map.

 A similar project from Apple could boost the accuracy of its map application and bring it up to par with competitors from Google and Nokia’s Here maps. ||||| UPDATE with PICS/VIDEO: The Mystery Van Driving Around Claycord

 We posted these pictures earlier today, and asked you if you knew what this mystery van was doing driving around Claycord.

 When asked about what they are doing, the person sitting in the vehicle would never give an answer.

 After several comments on the subject, a few people posted that it has the same type of appearance as the Google self-driving vehicle, and we even received a video of another similar looking van in Brooklyn, New York.

 Same type of equipment on the roof, same type of equipment on the tires, etc.

 Google’s self-driving vehicles are clearly marked, which means this appears to be coming from another company other than Google.

 Here is an image from Google’s self-driving vehicle, which was taken from a YouTube video.

 Thanks for all your comments, videos, etc. on the subject. Without you, this mystery couldn’t have been solved.

 What’s your opinion? After comparing the two pictures and seeing the video, do you think this is a self-driving vehicle that’s roaming the streets of Claycord?

 RELATED STORY: The Mystery Vans Around Claycord – What Are They Doing? ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented.

 This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. |||||


Here is a news article: Chris Brown & Drake Brawl Tony Parker Sues Club for $20 MILLION

 Tony Parker Sues Club Over Drake-Chris Brown Nightclub Fight

 Exclusive Details

 NBA superstar-- who was injured whenand's posses squared off -- is suing the NYC nightclub for $20 million, claiming it should never have let's exes in at the same time ... and Chris Brown as well as Drake could end up as defendants.Thestar filed the lawsuit Thursday in NY State Supreme Court ... against-- and in the suit he alleges the club's security was negligent for allowing the brawl to ever happen.Parker says he was hit by shards of glass and suffered lacerations to his cornea when bottles started flying in the fight last week.The lawsuit alleges club management, knowing there was "bad blood between Drake and Brown," was driven by the almighty buck and continued selling alcohol to the participants in the brawl, despite the fact that some were "visibly intoxicated."Parker's injury is a huge deal because it could affect his NBA career, and -- more immediately -- his performance in the Olympics with the French national basketball team.As for why he would sue for $20 MILLION? Parker is in the middle of a $50 million contract with the Spurs.As for whether Chris Brown or Drake will be added as defendants, Parker's lawyer,, tells TMZ ... he's waiting for the results of the police investigation. He also wants to review the surveillance tape before making his decision. ||||| This wasn’t the kind of bottle service NBA star Tony Parker had in mind.

 The San Antonio Spurs guard (pictured) — injured in the Chris Brown-Drake melee at a SoHo nightclub — filed a $20 million lawsuit against its owners yesterday, saying they should have known better than to let the Rihanna love rivals in at the same time.

 In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Parker holds W.i.P.’s owners responsible for the “corneal laceration of the left eye and other injuries” he suffered in the bottle-throwing brawl at the now-shuttered Vandam Street club.

 His lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, said the extent of Parker’s wounds aren’t yet known, but noted eye injuries “certainly don’t improve your outside shot.”

 The suit does not name Brown or Drake, who have both dated Rihanna, as defendants, but blames the club for creating the combustible combination.

 “She’s been known, like Helen of Troy, to cause trouble,” Jaroslawicz said.

 Sources said Drake, 25, sent Brown, 23, into a rage when his table sent over a note that read, “I am f–king the love of your life.”

 Brown had just bought the hip-hop star a pricey bottle of champagne, sources said. Drake’s camp maintains the fight was instigated by a member of Brown’s crew.

 Jaroslawicz said it’s the club’s fault. By selling both camps bottle service, “you’re throwing gasoline on the flames,” he said.

 The suit says Parker, 30, ex-hubby of actress Eva Longoria, wasn’t sitting with either camp. But he has said he was “with my friend Chris Brown” when the problems started. “They started throwing bottles everywhere,” he said.

 Parker, slated to play with the French team at the Summer Olympics, said he’ll be sidelined for a week as he heals with the aid of a “therapeutic” contact lens.

 “I’ll be missing the start of the French team because I can’t do anything for a week except keep the lens in and then take drops,” he said.

 A representative for the club declined to comment. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The fallout from Chris Brown's throwdown with Drake's entourage continues: Now Tony Parker is suing the New York City nightclub where it happened for a cool $20 million. The NBA star says the club, WiP, should have known that allowing Brown and Drake—who've both been involved with Rihanna—in at the same time was a terrible idea. Thus, the lawsuit claims, the club owners are responsible for the injuries he suffered in the fight. Those injuries include a "corneal laceration of the left eye," the lawsuit claims, and Parker's lawyer notes that eye injuries "certainly don't improve your outside shot." The lawyer also, amusingly, says of Rihanna: "She’s been known, like Helen of Troy, to cause trouble." The brawl started after Drake sent the following classy note to Brown's table, sources tell the New York Post: "I am f***ing the love of your life." Neither Brown nor Drake are named in the suit. TMZ has photos of Parker at the club moments before the fight.


Here is a news article: Photo

 — The Norwegian man charged Saturday with a pair of attacks in Oslo that killed at least 92 people left behind a detailed manifesto outlining his preparations and calling for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination, according to Norwegian and American officials familiar with the investigation.

 As stunned Norwegians grappled with the deadliest attack in the country since World War II, a portrait began to emerge of the suspect, Anders Behring Breivik , 32. The police identified him as a right-wing fundamentalist Christian, while acquaintances described him as a gun-loving Norwegian obsessed with what he saw as the threats of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration .

 “We are not sure whether he was alone or had help,” a police official, Roger Andresen, said at a televised news conference. “What we know is that he is right wing and a Christian fundamentalist.”

 In the 1,500-page manifesto, posted on the Web hours before the attacks, Mr. Breivik recorded a day-by-day diary of months of planning for the attacks, and claimed to be part of a small group that intended to “seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda.”

 He predicted a conflagration that would kill or injure more than a million people, adding, “The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come.”

 The manifesto was signed Andrew Berwick, an Anglicized version of his name. A former American government official briefed on the case said investigators believed the manifesto was Mr. Breivik’s work.

 The manifesto, entitled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” equates liberalism and multiculturalism with “cultural Marxism,” which the document says is destroying European Christian civilization.

 The document also describes a secret meeting in London in April 2002 to reconstitute the Knights Templar, a Crusader military order. It says the meeting was attended by nine representatives of eight European countries, evidently including Mr. Breivik, with an additional three members unable to attend, including a “European-American.”

 The document does not name the attendees or say whether they were aware of Mr. Breivik’s planned attacks, though investigators presumably will now try to determine if the people exist and what their connection is to Mr. Breivik.

 Photo

 Thomas Hegghammer, a terrorism specialist at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, said the manifesto bears an eerie resemblance to those of Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders, though from a Christian rather than a Muslim point of view. Like Mr. Breivik’s manuscript, the major Qaeda declarations have detailed accounts of the Crusades, a pronounced sense of historical grievance and calls for apocalyptic warfare to defeat the religious and cultural enemy.

 “It seems to be an attempt to mirror Al Qaeda, exactly in reverse,” Mr. Hegghammer said.

 Mr. Breivik was also believed to have posted a video on Friday summarizing his arguments. In its closing moments, the video depicts Mr. Breivik in military uniform, holding assault weapons. Rarely has a mass murder suspect left so detailed an account of his activities. The manifesto describes in detail his purchase of chemicals, his sometimes ham-handed experiments making explosives and his first successful test detonation of a bomb in a remote location on June 13.

 He intersperses the account of bomb-making with details of his television-watching, including the Eurovision music contest and the American police drama “The Shield.”

 The manifesto ends with a chilling signoff: “I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Fri July 22nd, 12.51.”

 Indeed, the operation appeared to have been extremely well planned.

 According to the police, Mr. Breivik first drew security services to central Oslo when he exploded a car bomb outside a 17-story government office building, killing at least seven people.

 Then he took a public ferry to Utoya Island, where he carried out a remarkably meticulous attack on Norway ’s current and future political elite. Dressed as a police officer, he announced that he had come to check on the security of the young people who were attending a political summer camp there, many of them the children of members of the governing Labor Party .

 He gathered the campers together and for some 90 hellish minutes he coolly and methodically shot them, hunting down those who fled. At least 85 people, some as young as 16, were killed.

 The police said Saturday evening that they expected the death toll to climb. There were still bodies in the bombed government buildings in Oslo, and at least four people missing on Utoya.

 The police also said that unexploded munitions were still in some downtown Oslo buildings, and they had not ruled out the possibility that Mr. Breivik had accomplices.

 He was equipped, the police said, with an automatic rifle and a handgun; when the police finally got to the island — about 40 minutes after they were called, the police said — Mr. Breivik surrendered.

 Photo

 The police also said he had registered a farm in Rena, in eastern Norway, which allowed him to order a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, an ingredient that can be used to make explosives. The authorities were investigating whether the chemical had been used in the bombing.

 Besides the manifesto, Mr. Breivik left other hints of his motives.

 A Facebook page and Twitter account were set up under his name days before the rampage. The Facebook page cites philosophers like Machiavelli, Kant and John Stuart Mill.

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 His lone Twitter post, while not calling for violence, paraphrased Mill — “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests” — suggesting what he saw as his ability to act.

 Those postings, along with what was previously known about Mr. Breivik publicly, aligned with but hardly predicted the bloody rampage he would undertake on Friday.

 Before then, he had been a member of the right-wing Progress Party, which began as an antitax protest and has been stridently anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim.

 Joran Kallmyr, a member of the party who is now Oslo’s vice mayor for transportation, said he met Mr. Breivik several times in 2002 and 2003 at local party meetings. “He was very quiet, almost a little bit shy,” Mr. Kallmyr said. “But he was a normal person with good behavior. He never shared any extreme thoughts or speech with us. There was absolutely no reason to expect that he could do something like this. We’re very shocked.”

 Mr. Breivik quit the party in 2006, apparently disappointed by the party’s move toward the center.

 “He didn’t like our politics, I guess, and moved on,” Mr. Kallmyr said.

 His Internet posts also indicated contempt for the Conservative Party, which he accused of having given up the battle against multiculturalism.

 But on Friday he directed his firepower at the center-left Labor Party, which leads the coalition government.

 “Breivik feels that multiculturalism is destroying the society and that the enforcing authority is the prime minister and the Labor Party, the lead party of contemporary Norwegian politics,” said Anders Romarheim, a fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies.

 Photo

 But the attacks, along with what appear to have been years of preparation for them, raised questions about whether the Norwegian security authorities, concentrating on threats of Islamic terrorism, had overlooked the threat from the anti-Islamic right.

 “This is the Norwegian equivalent to Timothy McVeigh ,” the right-wing American who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, said Marcus Buck, a political scientist at the University of Tromso in northern Norway. “This is right-wing domestic terrorism, and the big question is to what extent Norwegian agencies have diverted their attention from what they knew decades ago was the biggest threat” to focus instead on Islamic militants.

 The unclassified versions of the last three Norwegian Police Security Service reports assessing national threats all played down any threat by right-wing and nationalist extremists. Instead, the reports emphasized the dangers posed by radical Islam, groups opposed to Norway’s military involvement in Afghanistan and Libya , and others.

 The 2011 report, released early this year, concluded that “the far-right and far-left extremist communities will not represent a serious threat to Norwegian society.”

 Even after the attacks, that appeared to be the official position.

 “Compared to other countries I wouldn’t say we have a big problem with right-wing extremists in Norway,” Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference on Saturday. “But we have had some groups, we have followed them before, and our police is aware that there are some right-wing groups.”

 Even if the authorities had focused on right-wing groups, it was unlikely that they would have noticed Mr. Breivik.

 Kari Helene Partapuoli, director of the Norwegian Center Against Racism, said Mr. Breivik did not belong to any violent neo-Nazi groups that she was aware of, and his Internet postings, before those of last week, did not espouse violence.

 “The distance between the words spoken and the acts that he carried out is gigantic, because what he did is in a different league of what the debates have to do about,” she said.

 Arild Groven, secretary general of the Norwegian Shooting Association, a sports group, confirmed that Mr. Breivik had belonged to Oslo Pistolklubb, one of the 520 clubs in the association.

 “We all read and watch the news about the shootings in the United States ,” Mr. Groven said. “But it doesn’t happen here.”

 Mr. Romarheim said in some ways the homegrown nature of the attack made it harder for Norwegians to accept. “With 9/11 in America, people could ask, ‘Who are they?’ and could pour their rage out on someone else,” he said. “But we can’t disavow this person, he’s one of us.” ||||| The man blamed for attacks on Norway's government headquarters and a youth retreat said he was motivated by a desire to bring about a revolution in Norwegian society, his lawyer said Sunday.

 EDS NOTE: IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED BY THE ORIGINAL SOURCE TO REMOVE THE BACKGROUND - This image shows Anders Behring Breivik from a manifesto attributed to him that was discovered Saturday, July... (Associated Press)

 EDS NOTE: IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED BY THE ORIGINAL SOURCE TO REMOVE THE BACKGROUND - This image shows Anders Behring Breivik from a manifesto attributed to him that was discovered Saturday, July... (Associated Press)

 This is an undated image obtained from the Twitter page of Anders Behring Breivik, 32, who was arrested Friday July 22, 2011 in connection to the twin attacks on a youth camp and a government building... (Associated Press)

 Norway's Prince Haakon, center right, talks to teenagers attending a Labour Party youth wing summer camp on the Utoya island who survived a shooting spree outside the Sunvold Hotel, Sundvollen, Norway... (Associated Press)

 Teenagers who were attending a Labour Party youth wing summer camp on the Utoya island arrive at the Sunvold Hotel, Sundvollen, Norway Saturday July 23, 2011. A Norwegian gunman disguised as a police... (Associated Press)

 A man is taken away by police, who told members of the media as he was loaded into a police car, that he had been carrying a knife, shortly after Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg arrived at a... (Associated Press)

 In this image from TV, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, obscured behind tree at centre, bends down to comfort unidentified people outside a hotel where survivors are being reunited with family... (Associated Press)

 In this image from TV, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, centre, bends down to comfort an unidentified man outside a hotel where survivors are being reunited with family members in Sundvollen,... (Associated Press)

 Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, left, bends down to comfort survivors and their families outside a hotel where survivors are being reunited with family members in Sundvollen, Norway, Saturday,... (Associated Press)

 Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, right, speaks to the media in Sundvollen, Norway Saturday July 23, 2011. A Norwegian gunman disguised as a police officer beckoned his victims closer before... (Associated Press)

 Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, center, shakes hands with a survivor of the shooting at an island youth retreat, as he visited survivors and relatives at a hotel in Sundvolden, Norway, flanking... (Associated Press)

 EDS NOTE: IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED BY THE ORIGINAL SOURCE TO REMOVE THE BACKGROUND - This image shows Anders Behring Breivik from a manifesto attributed to him that was discovered Saturday, July... (Associated Press)

 Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, right, speaks to the media in Sundvollen, Norway Saturday July 23, 2011. A Norwegian gunman disguised as a police officer beckoned his victims closer before... (Associated Press)

 EDS NOTE: IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED BY THE ORIGINAL SOURCE TO REMOVE THE BACKGROUND - This image shows Anders Behring Breivik from a manifesto attributed to him that was discovered Saturday, July... (Associated Press)

 Norwegian police detain a young man, center, accused of carrying a knife outside a hotel where Norway's prime minister was meeting families of shooting victims in Sundvollen, Norway Saturday July 23,... (Associated Press)

 In this image from TV, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, centre, talks to the media after talking with various people outside a hotel where survivors are being reunited with family members in... (Associated Press)

 Norwegian police detain a young man, center, accused of carrying a knife outside a hotel where Norway's prime minister was meeting families of shooting victims in Sundvollen, Norway Saturday July 23,... (Associated Press)

 A manifesto published online _ which police are perusing and said was posted the day of the attack _ ranted that the European elite, "multiculturalists" and "enablers of Islamization" would be punished for their "treasonous acts." Police have not confirmed that their suspect, 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, wrote the document, but his lawyer referred to it and said Breivik had been working on it for years.

 Police and his lawyer have said that Breivik confessed to the twin attacks, but denied criminal responsibility for a day that shook peaceful Norway to its core and was the deadliest ever in peacetime. He has been charged with terrorism and will be arraigned on Monday.

 In all, 92 people were killed and 97 wounded. There are still people missing at both scenes, and divers searched the waters around the island Saturday for bodies. Body parts remain inside the Oslo building, which housed the prime minister's office.

 Norway's King Harald V and his wife Queen Sonja and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg joined mourners on Sunday at Oslo Cathedral, where the pews were packed, and the crowd spilled into the plaza outside the building. The area was strewn with flowers and candles, and people who could not fit in the grand church huddled under umbrellas in the rain.

 More was coming to light Sunday about the man who police say confessed to a car bomb at government headquarters in Oslo and then, hours later, opening fire on young people at an island political retreat. Both targets were linked to Norway's left-leaning Labor Party, and authorities have said Breivik held anti-Muslim views and posted on Christian fundamentalist websites.

 "He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution," Geir Lippestad, his lawyer, told public broadcaster NRK. "He wished to attack society and the structure of society."

 Lippestad said Breivik spent years writing the 1,500-page manifesto that police were examining. It was signed "Andrew Berwick" _ an apparent anglicization of his name.

 Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said there was no indication whether Breivik had selected his targets or fired randomly on the island. The manifesto vowed revenge on those who had betrayed Europe.

 "We, the free indigenous peoples of Europe, hereby declare a pre-emptive war on all cultural Marxist/multiculturalist elites of Western Europe. ... We know who you are, where you live and we are coming for you," the document said. "We are in the process of flagging every single multculturalist traitor in Western Europe. You will be punished for your treasonous acts against Europe and Europeans."

 Police spokesman John Fredriksen confirmed that the essay was posted the day of the attacks. The document signaled an attack was imminent: "In order to successfully penetrate the cultural Marxist/multiculturalist media censorship, we are forced to employ significantly more brutal and breath-taking operations, which will result in casualties."

 Witnesses at the island youth retreat described the way Breivik lured them close by saying he was a police officer before raising his weapons. People hid and fled into the water to escape the rampage; some played dead.

 While some on the island reported that there was a second assailant and police said they were looking into that, Lippestad, the lawyer, said his client claims to have acted alone.

 Police took 90 minutes from the first shot to reach the island _ delayed because they did not have quick access to a helicopter and struggled to find a boat once they reached the lake. Breivik surrendered when they reached him, but before 85 people died. Another seven were killed in the bombing.

 ___

 DiLorenzo reported from Stockholm. Associated Press writers Ian MacDougall in Oslo, and Louise Nordstrom and Karl Ritter in Stockholm contributed. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old right-wing nationalist suspected of killing at least 92 people in Norway on Friday, apparently left behind a 1,500-page manifesto and a 12-minute video detailing his bizarre beliefs, reports the New York Times. The document, titled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence” and posted to the Internet hours before the attacks, blasts "multiculturalism" and "Marxism" and provides a detailed daily diary of Breivik's preparations in the months leading up to the attacks. Both his lawyer and police say he has confessed to the attacks, the AP reports. The manifesto claims that a small group of like-minded militants would “seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda," and talks of a London meeting in 2002 to re-form the "Knights Templar" crusading order. “The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come," wrote Breivik, predicting a war that would kill or hurt more than 1 million people. Some analysts say the manifesto bears a striking resemblance to the writings of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. “It seems to be an attempt to mirror al-Qaeda," but from a Christian rather than Muslim viewpoint, says a Norwegian terrorism expert.


Police have found the 2-year-old who was reportedly taken, along with his mother — who later escaped — in a situation police described as complicated.

 UPDATE, 9:40 a.m.: Police say 2-year-old Ronnie Tran has been found safe in Renton, but they are still looking for the boy’s 65-year-old paternal grandmother.

 ORIGINAL POST:

 Des Moines police issued an Amber Alert on Wednesday for a 2-year-old boy who was reportedly taken by force, along with his mother, from a home on Tuesday.

 Sgt. Mike Graddon said at a news conference Wednesday morning that the alleged abduction is complicated and involves a lot of people. “We’re still trying to figure this all out,” Graddon said.

 Ronnie Tran and his 40-year-old mother were at a house in Des Moines when the mother was stunned with an electrical device, bound with plastic ties and taken, along with the boy, to a house in Fife, according to police.

 At the house, the mother was tied to a cupboard in the garage and the boy was taken inside, police said.

 Police said the two female assailants were known to the mother, but they did not further clarify the relationships.

 The mother managed to escape Tuesday afternoon, but was unable to get into the house to retrieve her child, police said in a statement Wednesday morning.

 The victim did not call police but called a family member to pick her up at around noon.

 Police were notified around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

 A Hyundai Sonata that was used in the alleged abduction was located, and one woman has been taken into custody, police said.

 Police said the boy’s father is talking with detectives.

 The boy’s paternal grandmother, Vien Nguyen, 65, also is missing. Police believe she may be with the boy, but also say that they believe the child is endangered because of the manner in which he and his mother were abducted. A previous version of this story said Nguyen was the child’s maternal grandmother, but the relationship was clarified by Graddon later Wednesday morning.

 Anyone who sees the child should call 911, police said. ||||| An alleged kidnapping was brought to a halt after a babysitter realized the child in his care was the subject of an Amber Alert, authorities said.

 The toddler had allegedly been kidnapped by the boy’s paternal grandmother and the girlfriend of the boy’s father, police in Washington state told ABC News. The girlfriend asked her brother John Truong to watch the 2-year old, and Truong was the one to call police once he realized who he had in his care.

 The girlfriend, identified by a Des Moines police spokesman as Alyssa Chang, allegedly brought the 2-year-old boy to her brother's house to have him babysit the child.

 On Tuesday night, Chang told her brother, John Truong, that the toddler was her boyfriend's son, police said. Truong said he didn't realize anything was awry until Wednesday morning when he saw an Amber Alert about the alleged kidnapping on social media.

 "I'm eating my breakfast, I'm checking my , all of a sudden I see this Amber Alert for this child and it looks like this child in my bed, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God! What's going on?'" John Truong told ABC affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle.

 "It was my sister who had asked me as a favor to watch her boyfriend's son. And that's how he came and was dropped off.”

 The suspected kidnapping was only part of the alleged crime that police were trying to solve at the time, because both the boy and his mother had allegedly been abducted by Chang and the boy's paternal grandmother, identified by police as Vien Nguyen.

 Police say the incident unfolded early Tuesday afternoon in Des Moines when the child’s grandmother Nguyen, 65, and Chang, 46, arrived at a home and allegedly abducted both the child and his mother, whose name has not been released.

 In order to subdue the child's mother, police say, either Nguyen or Chang allegedly struck her with a stun gun before trying her up and driving her and the toddler to another home in a town 20 miles away in the town of Fife, Des Moines police Sgt. Mike Graddon told ABC News.

 KOMO

 Once they arrived at the home in Fife, the women allegedly retied the child’s mother in the garage and took the child into the house. Police say the child’s mother was able to get out of the ties but not into the house, so she ran to a neighbor’s home.

 Rather than immediately call police, however, investigators say she called a relative. It was not until about 9:00 p.m. when police were notified and they sent out an Amber alert.

 When the child’s mother spoke to investigators, she was able to identify both of the suspects, authorities say, but the case is still under investigation.

 "There’s a lot of family dynamics involved," Sgt. Graddon told ABC News. "As far as why, we can only speculate."

 Police were only able to locate the child the next morning, however, when Chang’s brother called after seeing the Amber Alert online.

 After Truong contacted police, they were able to secure the boy, who was unharmed. From there, they were able to locate Chang and the car used in the alleged abduction at the Fife home that the child’s mother had directed police to during her initial 911 call.

 The boy’s father, Kang Tran, met with police Wednesday morning before the boy was found, police said. After hours of interviews, he was not charged in connection to the incident, police say.

 The boy was reunited with his mother and his father Wednesday afternoon.

 Chang was taken into police custody and Nguyen turned herself in later Wednesday. Police say both face three felony charges: kidnapping, felony assault, and unlawful imprisonment.

 Police Sgt. Graddon told ABC News Chang is still in police custody but Nguyen was fingerprinted and released for medical reasons.

 "We’re still trying to make sense of this whole thing," he said.

 ABC News has been unable to reach the suspects. Police don’t know whether they have lawyers and a court appearance has not been scheduled. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Another strange kidnapping story is in the news, but the good part is that the 2-year-old at the center of it is safe and sound. Beyond that, things get weird—a man babysitting the boy called 911 to report his whereabouts after seeing an Amber Alert. The key developments: The kidnapping: On Tuesday, police say that Alyssa Chang, 46, and Vien Nguyen, 65, kidnapped toddler Ronnie Tran and his mother from their home in Des Moines, Wash. Chang is the girlfriend of the boy's father, and Nguyen is his paternal grandmother, reports ABC News. The babysitter: After the boy's mother was tasered and tied up in a garage (she would eventually escape on her own, the Seattle Times reports), police say Chang brought the boy to her brother's home in Renton and innocently asked him to babysit. The brother, John Truong, tells KOMO-TV that he didn't know anything was amiss until the next morning when he saw the Amber Alert. The surprise: "I'm eating my breakfast, I'm checking my Facebook, all of a sudden I see this Amber Alert for this child," he says. "And it looks like this child in my bed, and I'm like, 'Oh my God! What's going on?'" He called police, who soon tracked down his sister and Nguyen. Both face felony charges. The bottom line: "There’s a lot of family dynamics involved," says a police official. "As far as why, we can only speculate." (A girl missing 11 years returned to the US Wednesday.)


The Roman Empire has fallen.

 The NFL will announce on Wednesday that Super Bowl 50 will be graphically represented using numbers instead of Roman numerals, which the league has been using since Super Bowl V in 1971.

 It's a one-year break, said Jaime Weston, the league's vice president of brand and creative, done simply because the "L" isn't as pleasing to the eye.

 "When we developed the Super Bowl XL logo, that was the first time we looked at the letter 'L,'" Weston said. "Up until that point, we had only worked with X's, V's and I's. And, at that moment, that's when we started to wonder what will happen when we get to 50?"

 Weston said her team has been working on the Super Bowl 50 logo since April 2013, having gone through 73 versions. At some point along the way, it was concluded that having the "L" stand alone didn't work.

 The league has made two logos for the game, which will take place on Feb. 7, 2016 at Levi's Stadium, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers. Both the national and regional logo feature the "50" in gold, serving to call attention to the game's golden anniversary as well as the game's location in the "Golden State."

 The logos also feature the Lombardi Trophy, which has been part of the Super Bowl logo since 2010, when the league went to a more generic, standardized look. The regional logo includes Levi's Stadium as well as notable San Francisco landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid.

 "We think what we have makes a very powerful statement for the NFL brand," Weston said.

 As part of the final testing of the logos, including how the gold would play, the league looked at them on Wilson game footballs and even painted a logo on the playing surface at Candlestick Park last week.

 Following the conclusion of Super Bowl XLIX, which will be played at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona on Feb. 1, 2015, the league will embark on a campaign to play up the 50th anniversary. The NFL will go back to using roman numerals for Super Bowl LI in Houston in 2017.

 The league started using the word "Super Bowl" for the third game in 1969. The league filed to trademark the term two months later. ||||| For the first time since the fourth Super Bowl, no Roman numerals will be affixed to the 50th Super Bowl.

 The NFL has released the logo for Super Bowl 50, which will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016, and the logo uses the Arabic numeral 50, rather than the Roman numeral L. Roman numerals have been used since Super Bowl V.

 Representatives from the host committee had been lobbying the NFL to allow them to ditch the ‘L’ and it appears that they have succeeded. Perhaps some promotional materials for the game will use Super Bowl L, but most will use the official logo with its great big 50.

 The NFL says Roman numerals are not disappearing for good, and the 2017 game will be Super Bowl LI. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Quick, how many Super Bowls have there been? If you don't know, it's probably because this year's game was promoted as Super Bowl XLVIII—and you'd be forgiven if your Roman numeral skills are rusty. Well, good news, my ancient-number-system-challenged friends: In 2016, the NFL is ditching the letters, ABC News reports. The game's logo will simply say "Super Bowl 50." This is a one-time thing, however. "When we developed the Super Bowl XL logo, that was the first time we looked at the letter 'L,'" explains the NFL's VP of branding. "And, at that moment, that's when we started to wonder what will happen when we get to 50?" After much consideration, the brand team decided that "Super Bowl L" would look dumb, and so decided to give us a brief Roman numeral reprieve. It will be the first Super Bowl without Roman numerals since 1970's Super Bowl 4. But 2017's game will be Super Bowl LI, notes NBC Sports.


– There's no end in sight to the horrific tit-for-tat Mexican drug cartel murders. In the latest atrocity, some 18 decapitated and dismembered corpses were found dumped in two cars near a lake in Guadalajara popular with tourists and retired Americans, reports ABC. The bodies, which were so badly mutilated that investigators have not been able to determine the gender of all the victims, appeared to have been refrigerated after death. Police believe the slaughter was the work of the Zetas cartel, which is waging a bloody turf war against the Sinaloa cartel in the area. The killings have been linked to the attempted kidnap of 12 people in the area earlier in the week, AP reports. A woman arrested after the victims escaped told investigators the kidnappings where "a repercussion of what happened in Tamaulipas" state, where the corpses of nine men and women were found hanging from a Nuevo Laredo bridge last Friday and the heads of another 14 people were dumped in front of city hall.

Expand this summary.

Police found 18 dismembered and beheaded bodies inside two vans in an area frequented by tourists near the city of Guadalajara in western Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.

 Jalisco state Prosecutor Tomas Coronado said earlier police found 15 severed human heads in the vans a few miles from Lake Chapala and his office confirmed later in a statement that three more heads had been found along with the other body parts.

 "The bodies are dismembered," Coronado said in an interview transcript provided by his office. He said authorities received a phone call alerting them to the presence of two minivans on a dirt access road near Lake Chapala, which is popular with tourists and American retirees.

 The vehicles were towed to government offices to unload the bodies.

 The area has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Jalisco New Generation gang, allied with the Sinaloa cartel, and the Zetas drug cartel.

 Mexican drug cartels frequently dismember the bodies of their victims or leave them stuffed into vehicles. The gangs also frequently leave hand-written messages alongside their victims' bodies, and Coronado said that such messages were found in the vans.

 "They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," Coronado said.

 Coronado also said the killings may have been linked to the abduction of 12 people who later escaped in the same area on Tuesday. A woman who was allegedly watching the captives was detained. She told investigators that the kidnappings were "a repercussion of what happened in Tamaulipas."

 That was an apparent reference to the slayings of 23 people whose bodies were found Friday in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, in northern Tamaulipas state. The bodies were found hanging from a bridge or decapitated and dumped near city hall Friday in Nuevo Laredo, where drug cartels are fighting an escalating turf war.

 Messages were found in Nuevo Laredo threatening the Gulf cartel, which has joined Sinaloa to battle the Zetas. The killings could be part of a wide-ranging, tit-for-tat battle between Sinaloa and the Zetas, in which both sides have been known to massacre dozens of people accused of supporting the rival gang. ||||| Police found 18 mutilated, headless bodies near a lake popular with tourists and American retirees just outside Guadalajara, Mexico, a massacre that authorities blamed on the Zetas drug cartel.

 A phone call alerted police to two vans on a dirt road near Lake Chapala early Wednesday morning. When police opened the van, they found 18 headless and dismembered bodies inside. Some were so badly mutilated that police have still not determined their gender. The bodies appear to have been refrigerated after death.

 Handwritten messages were found in the van. "They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," said Tomas Coronado, prosecutor for the state of Jalisco. Officials said the notes were signed by the Zetas.

 PHOTOS of Mexican drug cartel violence.

 Los Zetas have been battling the Jalisco New Generation gang, a minor cartel allied with the Sinaloa cartel, which is the Zetas chief rival for dominance of the Mexican drug trade. The Zetas cartel, which was founded by ex-members of the Mexican military, controls most of eastern Mexico and much of the north.

 A woman detained yesterday in connection with the separate kidnapping of 12 people in the same area told police that the abductions were connected to events in Tamaulipas state. Two dozen men and women were found decapitated or hanging from bridges in Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Texas, on Friday, where the Zetas are battling the Gulf cartel, another Sinaloa cartel ally.

 Click Here for the Blotter Homepage. |||||


It will be the first top level meeting of the diplomatic Quartet in six months.

 Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend the meeting at UN headquarters in New York.

 EU foreign affairs representative Baroness Ashton will take part by videoconference, diplomats said.

 Mrs Clinton, Mr Lavrov and Mr Ban will then join a UN Security Council debate on the Arab Spring.

 A wounded Palestinian boy is wheeled into a hospital in Gaza City after an Israeli air strike (REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot)

 Israel's air force pounded Gaza overnight with a series of raids which killed three people, raising the death toll to 21 in a wave of tit-for-tat violence that began with Israel's killing of a senior militant on Friday.

 The fresh attacks prompted China calling on Israel toh alt its raids.

 "China is concerned about the escalation of the situation in Gaza," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

 "We call upon the Israeli side to stop air raids against Gaza. We hope parties concerned can stop firing immediately in order to avoid casualties of innocent civilians."

 Wounded Palestinian children receive medical atttention at a hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli air raid (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

 Israel said Palestinian militants had fired a total of 180 rockets from the impoverished territory since the violence erupted, leaving four Israelis wounded.

 On Sunday, Israel called on the UN Security Council to take action over the rocket assault.

 It criticised the low-key international response to attacks from Gaza and warned in a letter signed by Israeli deputy UN Ambassador Haim Waxman that it would take "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.

 Meanwhile, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the Security Council must "act with urgency to address this crisis" accusing Israel of staging an "escalation of deadly violence and terror".

 He said women and children were among "dozens" of wounded and the dead also included a farmer killed while working in his field.

 Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since September 2010 and the decades-old conflict has become overshadowed by the uprising in neighbouring Syria. Quartet efforts to revive the talks have come to nothing.

 Angered by Israel's settlement construction in the occupied territories, the Palestinian leadership has stepped up efforts to bring the international spotlight back on their demands for an independent state.

 At the UN General Assembly last September, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, made a high profile application for full Palestinian membership of the global body. But the United States has threatened to veto any recommendation for membership made by the UN Security Council.

 The United States and Israel say only direct talks can produce an accord that will set up a new state.

 The same day as Abbas made his bid at the UN, the Quartet launched a new initiative to press the two sides back into talks, setting a timetable for Palestinians and Israelis to make proposals on the borders and security for a new Palestinian state.

 Preliminary contacts in Jordan in January failed to get agreement on new direct talks however.

 The Palestinians last year won membership of UNESCO and say they could seek seats with other international agencies. But other measures to increase international recognition and draw attention to the conflict have failed.

 Using its powers as a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States last year vetoed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements which the UN and all major powers consider illegal.

 The Palestinians last month invited the Security Council to visit the Palestinian territories. The United States has led resistance to that idea. Many observers say there is no prospect for a breakthrough until after the US presidential election in November.

 The Quartet held its last top-level meeting at the UN General Assembly in September.

 Source: AFP ||||| Photo: YAAKOV LAPPIN

 A Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in the Gedera area on Monday, marking the northern-most point hit by terrorists in the current round of escalation that began Friday and has included the launching of some 200 rockets by terrorists targeting southern Israel. A subsequent blast hit a residential area of Ashdod causing extensive damage to homes and lightly injuring two people.

 The Grad, which struck in the Gedera area, was one of 31 rockets fired into Israel on Monday. Some damage was caused to a structure in the attack.

 At least eight of the 31 rockets fired on Monday were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system, including several fired toward Ashdod.

 However, one Grad rocket not intercepted by the Iron Dome hit a residential area of Ashdod on Monday afternoon, causing damage to homes. One of the injured, an elderly woman, was evacuated to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot after being struck by flying glass shards. One other person was injured from glass and eight people were treated for shock following the attack.

 Another large southern city, Beersheba, was also victimized by rocket fire on Monday. Two rockets landed in an open area outside of the city and a third rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome.

 One of seven rockets fired at the Eshkol Regional Council area overnight fell near a kindergarten, causing damage to a building.

 The Home Front Command, along with the heads of a number of local authorities in southern Israel, decided Sunday night to cancel school in all towns and cities located between 7 km to 40 km from the Gaza Strip for the second straight day. The decision applied to the cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Gadera, Rahat, Yavneh, Lakiyeh, and the Gan Yavneh Regional Council.

 The IDF continued to respond to the attacks with at least nine airstrikes launched against terror targets in Gaza overnight Sunday and on Monday.

 Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that two armed terrorists belonging to the organization were killed in IAF strikes, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since hostilities began Friday to 20.

 Palestinians later reported that three Palestinian civilians had been killed in IAF strikes. Gaza hospital sources added that 25 civilians were hurt when an Israeli rocket hit a house in northern Gaza. The IDF did not confirm the Palestinian reports.

 The IAF strikes carried out early Monday morning targeted a weapons-storage site and four rocket-launch sites in the northern Gaza Strip and one rocket-launch site in the southern Gaza strip. The IDF confirmed hits on its targets, and stated that the strikes were in response to rocket fire.

 The latest round of violence flared on Friday when an air strike killed two Palestinian terror leaders in Gaza accused by Israel of planning a cross-border attack via Egypt. A salvo of rockets followed, leaving six people wounded in Israel.

 Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights The agreement was reached with the help of Egyptian mediators, the official says

 An Israeli government spokesman did not immedaitely comment on the report

 Seven people were killed Monday in Gaza, officials say

 The U.N. secretary-general says he is "gravely concerned" by the violence

 After days of pounding violence, Palestinian and Israeli authorities have agreed to a truce and to stop all military operations, an Egyptian intelligence official told CNN early Tuesday.

 The agreement was reached with the help of Egyptian mediators, the official said.

 Israeli government spokesman David Baker did not immediately comment on the reported cease-fire.

 Seven people were killed Monday in Gaza, and more than three dozen rockets fell into Israel, the latest events in days of fighting that marked the worst escalation of violence in the coastal territory in months, officials said.

 Israel said its airstrikes have targeted militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory in response to more than 200 rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel since Friday. More than 36 rockets were fired into Israel on Monday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said

 In Gaza, at least 25 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 80 people have been wounded.

 "When I was sleeping, all of a sudden I found the entire house falling on top of us," Gaza resident Samer Sukar said from a hospital bed. "What can I say? There was no rocket fire from near our house."

 Sukar said he was injured in a blast Monday while he was at home with his wife and six children.

 Meanwhile, in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, residents took cover.

 JUST WATCHED Israeli airstrikes target Gaza Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Israeli airstrikes target Gaza 01:53

 "It's a very difficult time for us," said Eti Ifrah, 23. "It's impossible to live like this -- every time we want a shower or anything we're worried a bomb will fall."

 Nearly 1 million people in Israel have sought the safety of shelters during the violence, authorities said.

 The fighting is the worst outbreak of violence in Gaza this year and comes as Israel and the world's attention has been largely focused on Iran and Syria.

 "I am gravely concerned at the latest escalation between Gaza and Israel, and once again civilians are paying a terrible price," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Monday. "Rocket attacks out of Gaza against Israeli civilian areas are unacceptable and must stop immediately. I reiterate my call on Israel to exercise maximum restraint."

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers Monday that the military "is ready to expand its operations and continue them as necessary."

 "The (Israeli military) is continuing to -- strongly and decisively -- attack the terrorists in the Gaza Strip," he said. "Whoever intends to harm our citizens -- we will strike at him."

 A spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad warned Israeli citizens Monday to stay in their bunkers, vowing the group would fire more rockets into southern Israel.

 Speaking at a press conference Monday in Gaza City, Abu Ahmad boasted his group had fired dozens of longer-range Grad rockets into Israel and a larger number of smaller short-range rockets.

 He spoke later to the Islamic Jihad radio station, warning Israel "not to test our patience."

 Twelve Israeli military tanks have moved some 200 meters inside the Gaza border area, according to Palestinian security forces in Gaza.

 Gaza officials cautioned Monday that any further escalation of hostilities would tax the fragile health care system.

 "If we face a new war on Gaza, I am sure the health system will collapse," said Bassem Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas-controlled government.

 Three civilians and four militants were reported killed in Gaza on Monday, but Israeli and Palestinian officials offered different accounts of the violence.

 Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike killed a civilian man and woman and injured three others Monday afternoon in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Beit Lahia.

 The Israeli military said its strike hit a residential area from which militants fired a rocket.

 "This incident is a blatant example of how terror organizations use human shields to carry out terror attacks from the heart of urban areas and, as occurred in this incident, lead to the apparent injury of uninvolved persons," the military said.

 Israeli and Palestinian officials also offered conflicting accounts of another blast Monday that killed a 15-year-old boy in Gaza.

 Palestinian medical and security sources said an Israeli airstrike killed the teen, but the Israeli military said it did not attack the area where the death was reported.

 "We did not attack during those hours of the morning in the northern Gaza Strip," Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich told CNN, saying that Israeli military activity during the time was focused on southern Gaza.

 "One of the possibilities is that one of the terrorist organizations in Gaza fired a rocket that landed inside Gaza," Leibovich said, noting that some two dozen rockets fired by Palestinians militants in the last four days have landed inside Gaza.

 Two militants also were killed in overnight airstrikes in southern Gaza, Palestinian officials said, and 40 people were injured. Later, Palestinian officials said two more Islamic Jihad militants were killed and a third was injured in an airstrike "east of Gaza." An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was looking into the report.

 The deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed since Friday afternoon to 25, with more than 80 injured, according to Palestinian medical officials.

 Netanyahu suggested Sunday that the new cycle of attacks and counterattacks resulted from a successful Israeli strike on "an arch-terrorist who organized many attacks against the state of Israel."

 "Naturally, this led to another round with the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad and other groups," Netanyahu said, naming Palestinian militant groups. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– With 23 Palestinians now dead in the latest Gaza conflict, the Middle East Quartet is meeting for the first time in six months in New York. Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and EU diplomat Baroness Ashton will discuss the growing violence after Israeli air raids killed five more people, including three civilians and a pair of militants. Israel yesterday sought UN Security Council action over rocket attacks from Gaza. China has also weighed in on the situation, calling on Israel to halt its air raids, the Telegraph notes. Iran has labeled the raids "war crimes," urging international condemnation against the "abhorrent violation of human rights." Among the reported dead today was a 15-year-old boy, CNN reports, though Israel said it did not bomb the area where he was killed. For its part, Israel says its attacks "destroyed launching pits" for Iranian-built rockets. Some 31 more rockets were launched from Gaza today, bringing the total to more than 200, according to the Jerusalem Post.


If you were to get high and make a list of people who, hypothetically, you would not want to text with a request for weed, "probation officer" would probably be near the top. Right up there with Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks and former president George H.W. Bush.

 But knowing you shouldn't hit up your P.O. when you're trying to buy drugs is only half the battle. You also have to not accidentally type "You have some weed?" in a message to that person, and then hit "send."

 This was too much for Albany, Ga., man Alvin Cross, Jr, whose unfortunate misdirected text resulted in a raid on his house, where he was rearrested and charged with possession of a bag of cocaine. He pleaded guilty Monday and will serve one year in prison.

 Should have blamed it on ducking autocorrect.

 [Photo: WALB, h/t: The Root] ||||| Dopey: Alvin Cross texted the wrong person and ended up in jail

 We’ve all had that heart-stopping moment after realising we sent a text to the wrong person but few of us would expect to end up in jail for it.

 Hapless Alvin Cross Jr was not so lucky after the dopey criminal sent a text message to probation officer asking if they had any drugs.

 Dopey Cross was on probation for an unknown offence when he accidentally sent his appointed officer a text message asking: “you have some weed?”

 According to US news channel WALB, upon getting the message, the probation officer contacted police who then raided the criminal’s home and discovered a bag of cocaine.

 Cross reportedly pleaded guilty on Monday to cocaine possession and was given one year in jail and another year for violating his probation. ||||| Share this article with Google Plus

 Alvin Cross Junior probably regretted sending this text (Picture: Dougherty County Police Dept)

 Sometimes people become so desperate that they don’t know where to turn.

 When prospects look dire and family and friends neglect them, some folks resort to dialing the dealer.

 However, one man decided to avoid this route, opting to contact a far more unusual confidant instead.

 According to WALB, Alvin Cross Jr, of Albany, Georgia, texted ‘you have some weed?’ to his probation officer.

 That’s right, Alvin asked the man supervising his probationary period following a stint in prison if he had any drugs to sell.

 After the text was received, drug agents raided Cross’ home and found a bag of cocaine.

 Unsurprisingly, he will now be returning to prison. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| You don't have to be stupid to go to prison, but it helps.

 A few news articles I read today prove that maxim.

 In Albany, Georgia, a man who texted "You have some weed?" to his probation officer will soon be a lot closer to drug dealers.

 Alvin Cross, Jr., will spend another year in prison for violating terms of his probation and another year for having a "bag" of cocaine in his house when the probation officer he texted came knocking with drug agents and a search warrant, writes WALB.com.

 The WALB article doesn't tell us why Cross was on probation, how much cocaine he had, or why a man with cocaine can't trade it for marijuana without a text message to his probation officer.

 Recommended for you Recommended for you Recommended for you Most read

 The second case of stupid comes out of Alabama.

 Inmate Anthony Warren claimed to have been beaten by police when they arrested him after he rolled his vehicle during a high-speed chase.

 The city of Birmingham has agreed to settle the civil lawsuit for $460,000, but Warren will only get $1,000. His attorneys will be paid $359,000 in fees and $100,000 in expenses, says AL.com.

 Warren, who endangered many lives when he fled from a narcotics officer in 2008, hit a school bus, police car and police officer during the 20-minute high-speed chase. While placing him under arrest, police hit Warren for 10 seconds, according to video .

 Warren won't have much opportunity to spend his $1,000. He's serving a 20-year attempted murder sentence for hitting the police officer with his car.

 Meanwhile, on the "good guy" side of the law, a prison guard who gave drugs to female inmates before sexually assaulting them was sentenced to probation.

 More news you may find worthy: ||||| This could happen to any of us.

 Well, if any of us was serving probation.

 This was the case with Alvin Cross Jr. of Albany, Ga. Cross Jr. seems to have gotten his wires crossed — or, more accurately, his fingers — when he reportedly texted who he thought was his drug dealer.

 The accitext? “You have some weed?” The recipient? His parole officer.

 As WALB-TV reports, Cross’s parole officer may or may not have been cross, but the authorities were informed. His home was raided. Cocaine was found.

 Cross reportedly pleaded guilty on Monday to cocaine possession. He was given one year in jail and another year for violating his probation. (It’s not clear what he was on probation for.)

 You may or may not have sympathy with Cross Jr. or with America’s drug laws. But the immediacy offered by cellphones, and the automatic way in which we use them, has surely caused many relationships and even careers to falter.

 It’s always worth taking those extra two seconds before you press Send. Those two seconds could save you two years.

 MORE TECHNICALLY INCORRECT |||||

Write a summary.

– A guy in Albany, Ga., texted his probation officer by mistake asking, "You have any weed?" The probation officer then showed up at the errant texter's house with drug agents who found a bag of cocaine, reports WALB. And that's why Alvin Cross is not only going back to prison for violating his parole, he's serving an extra year. The story seems to have hit a sweet spot of dumb criminal/tech gaffe, because Cross is the butt of a lot of jokes out there: Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "You don’t have to be stupid to go to prison, but it helps." Gawker: "If you were to get high and make a list of people who, hypothetically, you would not want to text with a request for weed, 'probation officer' would probably be near the top." Death and Taxes: "Here’s a little pro-tip: If you find yourself on probation from jail, under no circumstances should you text your probation officer the message, 'You have some weed?'" CNET: "This could happen to any of us. Well, if any of us was serving probation." Metro: This UK (!) outlet takes a more narrative approach: "When prospects look dire and family and friends neglect them, some folks resort to dialing the dealer. However, one man decided to avoid this route, opting to contact a far more unusual confidant instead." And on and on. (The guy who butt-dialed 911 during a drug deal seemed to get better treatment.)


– It hasn't been a good week for the man who calls himself the "eGovernor." First former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush accepted the resignation of PAC CTO Ethan Czahor after a series of offensive tweets by Czahor were uncovered. Now he's under fire for revealing personal info—names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers—of at least 12,000 Floridians, the AP reports. On Tuesday, Bush posted online between 275,000 (the number Bush's spokeswoman provided) and 330,000 (the number an independent audit found) emails he received during the eight years he was governor in what he says was "the spirit of transparency." "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration," he writes on the site. "But they're all here so you can read them and make up your own mind." But a portion of those emails contained the unredacted personal info—as well as intensely personal anecdotes and even requests not to publish the correspondence. Gizmodo notes an email (which contained the sender's full name and email) that said, "Please do not make this email public to anybody. I do not want my privacy violated, especially by the media"; another citizen whose email was posted tells the Daily Dot she was "embarrassed" about an email she had sent about "illegal immigrants." Here's where Florida freedom-of-information laws get tricky: According to the Verge, Bush noted in his emails that "Florida has a very broad public records law" and "your email communications may therefore be subject to public disclosure." But a Florida attorney tells the Verge that SS numbers are "both confidential and exempt" from public disclosure. A spokeswoman for Bush, meanwhile, said in a statement that "this set of emails on our website is an exact replica of the public records on file with the Florida Department of State and are available at anyone's request under Chapter 119 sunshine laws," as per the Washington Post; she also tells BuzzFeed that they're filtering through the emails and redacting personal info.

Expand this summary.

Florida governor Jeb Bush bills himself as a tech-savvy politician, but he just made a major email etiquette mistake: Bush has published over 250,000 emails people sent to him as governor, easily searchable by date— and he hasn't redacted email addresses or the content of messages, meaning anyone who reached out to the governor now has their messages completely out in the open.

 It takes seconds to find emails complaining about the Florida voting system following the fraught 2000 presidential election results to New Year's greetings from 2005.

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 "In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here. Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration. But they're all here so you can read them and make up your own mind," Bush's site reads.

 Not mentioned: Whether Bush considered how the people who wrote to him felt about using their correspondences in a bid to appear transparent.

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 In many of the messages, people left their full names and personal information, and their email addresses are plainly available.

 While some of these emails are from other political players, many are from ordinary Floridians who wrote to the governor with the intention of communicating with their elected official through email, not through a published public correspondence.

 One of the emails, which contains the full name and email address of a person who wrote in to Bush fourteen years ago, explicitly asks the then-governor not to publish his long, personal email:

 And please do not make this email public to anybody. I do not want my privacy violated, especially by the media.

 Awkward!

 The Daily Dot talked to one woman whose AOL address is revealed in the emails. She said she'd never been asked for permission to publish the emails, and is embarrassed by how she comes across:

 "I am fine with it on the emails concerning homeowners insurance," the woman added. Ones about "illegal immigrants," however, embarrassed her. "My feelings have changed on that subject and I wold hate to unduly upset anyone," she said.

 Bush clearly does not get the internet like he says he does. This decision highlights a lack of understanding about reasonable expectations of privacy online. Yes, these people were emailing a public figure. By law, he can share what they wrote.

 But they did not expect these emails to be released in such a public way. And while there's no law forbidding politicians from publishing their emails, it would've been easy to redact email addresses and full names and still keep the intention behind the project intact. This is a tone-deaf move.

 But it's too late for take-backs: Even if Bush recognizes that this is a breach in trust, the emails are available to download in their original Outlook format, so he won't be able to take back all of the personal information he just released about his constituents.

 Update: The Verge discovered that some of these emails contain social security numbers of the people who sent them. While it is true that the people who sent Jeb Bush their SSNs should have exercised caution and learned about Florida's stance on the emails of public figures before sharing their personal information, it is still a striking judgment lapse to publish this personal information voluntarily, in a high-profile forum.

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 Transparency is in short supply in politics. This publication could've been a refreshing instance of a politician proactively sharing information with the public. But while the governor is a public figure, most of his constituents are not. Media organizations, including the New York Times, already had access to these emails thanks to public records requests. But they didn't go ahead and publish the identifying info of people who sent the emails, with good reason: That's a dick move. [Daily Dot]

 [Image via AP Images] ||||| Jeb Bush, a rumored 2016 Republican presidential candidate, just decided to publish hundreds of thousands of emails sent to him during his time as governor of Florida. On its face it seems like a great idea in the name of transparency, but there's one huge problem: neither Bush nor those who facilitated the publication of the records, including the state government, decided to redact potentially sensitive personal information from them.

 "In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here," a note on Bush's website says. "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration." Some also contain the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of Florida residents. The emails are available in Outlook format, and can be searched on the web at Bush's website.

 The Verge did not receive a response from Mr. Bush or his Political Action Committee's office at the time of publication.

 "In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship."

 We reviewed many of the emails released by Bush, and found a wide variety of communications — everything from religious parables, to praise of the governor's support of creationism, to routine bureaucratic correspondence. But some of the emails appear to be highly sensitive or personal. Many, like the one excerpted below, share tales of personal struggle or sorrow.

 This is just a sharing...today..i feel beaten down... ... want to help many and hope I can get there some day....through my empowerment it will be a testament to my message and the ability to share my future resources...its a lonely road...so many seem actively against you...your back is to the wall...you have many another two months of business survival... P.S. this is just sharing with a friend... please no action or follow-up or any communications or assistance sought of nay kind...its my struggle to work through and find a way...just feeling "beaten" today...at 37 I feel like 60 today :).....and tomorrow will be better. Confidential communications intended for indicated recipient only

 Other emails include potentially sensitive details about government operations. One email reviewed by The Verge discussed termination of a Florida Lottery employee; the email revealed the reasons for his termination, including "conduct unbecoming a public employee, insubordination, and neglect of duty." The employee had emailed then-governor Bush to appeal for reinstatement. Bush followed up with a lottery official to see if his request could be granted.

 Some include personal appeals from citizens with medical or employment issues. And a subset of these messages contain sensitive data like social security numbers, as in the email shown below. (The redactions are our own.)

 Another email, sent on behalf of a healthcare representative and shown below, contains information about a child with a life-threatening medical condition. The email exposes the child and mother's name, the mother's home state and phone number, her social security number, and her healthcare identification number.

 Florida's freedom of information laws are very broad. As Bush notes in the signature of many of his emails, "Florida has a very broad public records law," and "your email communications may therefore be subject to public disclosure." However, social security numbers in particular are protected. As Florida private attorney Richard A. Harrison tells The Verge, social security numbers are "both confidential and exempt" from public disclosure under state law. "They can be released only for the limited purposes specified in that section, of which this is not one," Harrison says. "It doesn't matter how an agency or official obtained the information; once obtained it is a public record and the SSNs are confidential and exempt under the law." But that doesn't mean the former governor is legally responsible for the data leak. Harrison says the state's legal custodian of records is charged with ensuring no confidential or exempt information is released.

 Under Florida law, that custodian might get off with just a scratch. Violation of the public records statute in this circumstance is considered a "noncriminal infraction" that's punishable by a fine "not exceeding $500." Someone who knowingly or willfully violates the privacy law is subject to harsher penalties — but it might be pretty easy to avoid those given the immense size of the records.

 Jeb Bush's camp was quick to shift blame to the state. Kristy Campbell, a spokesperson for Bush, told BuzzFeed News that the release is "an exact replica of the public records on file with the Florida Department of State and are available at anyone's request under Chapter 119 sunshine laws." Of course, that statement isn't entirely true, since social security numbers are definitely exempt (and confidential) under that same chapter of the law.

 Social Security Numbers are both confidential and exempt from disclosure under Florida law

 Many of the same emails Bush released today may have already been available online as of December, 2014, thanks to a request made by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. Some publications, including The Washington Post and The Hill, combed the email records for policy insight, but did not appear to stumble upon sensitive personal information.

 Obviously one of the lessons here is that you shouldn't email information to public officials that you want to keep private, at least not in Florida. But even if most of these emails are broadly subject to disclosure under the state's sunshine law, it's concerning that such a huge, indiscriminate data dump could include so much personal information. "Emails that bear on public decisions should be made public, but certainly emails with social security numbers or private medical information are not relevant to that," Bruce Jacob, a constitutional and criminal law professor at Florida's Stetson University told The Verge. "It's hard to imagine a court finding a persona guilty of a crime if it was a mistake, but certainly this is not a good thing for private information of that kind to be released."

 At minimum, the data dump shows a serious ignorance of the volume of sensitive information in the records and a carelessness about their disclosure. And while a Florida bureaucrat may ultimately be to blame, it's not a good look for Jeb Bush — someone who called himself the first "eGovernor," and a man who may want to sit in the White House.

 Update, 3:10 PM: This story has been updated to include additional emails from the archive, as well as prior reports on the archive from December, 2014.

 Update, 3:22 PM: Updated with a statement by a spokesperson for Jeb Bush.

 Update, 3:53 PM: Time reporter Zeke Miller, reporting from a Q&A with Jeb Bush, reported on Twitter that Bush is now aware of the personal information in the email dump, and that it will be removed. Miller reports that Bush's PAC posted only what is already in the public record, echoing the statement given by Bush's spokesperson to BuzzFeed News. We're not sure how long that will take, or if Bush's PAC will take down the emails temporarily in the meantime (it will presumably take a while to scan through hundreds of thousands of emails), but we'll keep you updated.

 Jeb on private info in emails: "we’re going to take it off" — Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 10, 2015

 Jeb says his PAC only posted what was in the public record but says they’ll remove the personal info — Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) February 10, 2015

 Update, 5:35 PM: Researchers are now poring over the email dump for personal information. It appears Bush's team, and perhaps Florida state government, will have lots of work to do if they want to purge the data from the records — and some explaining about how this happened. It's more than a few bits of personal information.

 Ran a few tools over the Jeb Bush emails. And...yeah. Pages of SSNs, DOBs, CCNs in the output. pic.twitter.com/7CxpWlHDUM — kamwoods (@kamwoods) February 10, 2015

 Update, 11:00PM: The raw .pst files have now been removed from Jeb Bush's site. "We were informed that some personal information was available in the raw data so we removed these files," reads an error message. "You may still read these emails on the email calendar link, where we have redacted personal information we have been able to locate." ||||| Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush hasn’t even yet formally declared his desire to run for president in 2016, but he’s already started what appears to be a major privacy blunder.

 His new project, the Jeb Emails, a massive, open database of correspondence to and from his jeb@jeb.org email address, publishes the names, messages, and email addresses of his constituents who emailed him during his eight years in office.

 JebEmails.com

 “I emailed Governor Bush when the state was going through the initial insurance crisis,” one woman, whose AOL email address was among those in the database, told the Daily Dot. “I have never [given authorization] to publish the emails, but then [they] never said they were confidential or proprietary property of the Governor's office. They were just emails.”

 "I am fine with it on the emails concerning homeowners insurance," the woman added. Ones about "illegal immigrants," however, embarrassed her. "My feelings have changed on that subject and I wold hate to unduly upset anyone," she said.

 It’s difficult to estimate how many different personal email addresses are in the database, and many come from Floridians’ work accounts. But the number is easily in the thousands and more likely in the tens of thousands. The governor’s office didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry about what information, if any, they did choose to redact, though it appears as though phone numbers have been obscured.

 JebEmails.com

 In his own introduction to the project, Bush touts his technical prowess, referring to himself as “The eGovernor” for how easy it was to email with him when he was in office.

 This is the second Internet-related snafu in as many days from his campaign. In a tiff goof that now seems tame by comparison, on Monday, his office admitted that they had asked their new Chief Technology Officer to delete jokes he’d tweeted about “sluts.”

 Update 2:15pm ET, Feb. 10: It gets worse. The Verge has uncovered emails that contain Social Security numbers, home addresses, and other personal information from Floridians.

 Photo via World Affairs Council/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| On Tuesday, former Florida governor Jeb Bush published Volume 1 of an e-book detailing all of his official correspondence while in gubernatorial office. Although the e-book is edited and e-mail addresses have been redacted, the Governor's Office also published six Outlook files full of all of Bush's unredacted correspondence—creating a trove of full names connected with personal e-mail addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and even social security numbers, as The Verge first reported.

 "This year I am releasing an e-book that uses my emails with Floridians as a guide to my eight years as governor. Here's a sneak peek at Chapter 1,” the former governor and possible presidential hopeful explains on his website jebbushemails.com. In the corresponding e-book, he continues, “Millions of emails came in through our website, but it was when I made my personal email—jeb@jeb.org—public that I earned the nickname 'The eGovernor.'”

 Unfortunately, releasing the personal e-mails of his correspondents probably won't lead to the same jokey familiarity for them, and it could result in dangerous exposure to identity thieves and social engineering hackers.

 The scope of the e-mails is vast and includes everything from automated messages to brief summaries of the state of Cuban refugees who arrived on Florida's shores to oddly personal e-mails from constituents. Some e-mails include correspondence that had not been addressed to Bush originally but showed up when part of an e-mail was forwarded to him. Other e-mails include personal information about people who aren't involved in the e-mail thread at all. “Did you get this? Eric's wife is being induced tomorrow a.m. so we'll be out of town for a while. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!” one cheerily reads.

 Other e-mails contain impassioned rants about Terri Schiavo, a woman who had been in a persistent vegetative state in Florida in 2005 whose guardians became embroiled in a legal struggle over whether Schiavo's feeding tube could be removed. Still others are messages of support from people who write as if they're on a first-name basis. Others are written as a last resort, hoping to sway the Governor in support of their everyday battles, as this e-mail, which contains full names in the original:

 Dear Governor Bush, My name is [name redacted by Ars]. I am the mother of [name redacted by Ars], actually it is now [married name redacted by Ars]. She got married the Saturday after Thanksgiving. She and her Husband are expecting a daughter in March. She is a very sweet loving young woman who made a terrible mistake. She got a DUI. She has paid all of her fines, but, she is one month behind in her paperwork. She and our family tried to talk to her probation officer for an exstention, all that the officer said was were we trying to cause her to lose her job? I swear that was never implied. My daughter, with, permission, moved to Michigan, where she is still living. The officer said she would have to violate her. The clerk of courts office said that that could mean an arrest warrant. My daughters pregnancy has been a difficult one. She wanted to be here for Christmas. Her Dad and I couldn't be at her wedding, too much to fly there. He couldn't walk her down the aisle, I felt so bad for her. my daughter did an extremely STUPID thing. She is soooo sorry. She understands that she must follow the rules she just got behind. Please, can you help us. Please, don't let them send my child and grandchild to jail. I don't think she could make it in there. Honest to God, we really are descent people, but descent people mess up and of course should pay like everyone else. I understand that, I truly do. I am at a loss. Her probation officer is [name redacted by Ars]. She works in [Florida city redacted by Ars]. The judge she had was [name redacted by Ars]. Please tell me what to do. i haven't told you the whole story. It would take too much of your time. I'm sorry to have bothered you with this. Thank you. Sincerely, [Name and phone number redacted by Ars]

 On a federal level, e-mails sent to a public official can be requested by anyone—US citizen or not—through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). On a state level, Florida's Sunshine Law provides a similar level of access to correspondence with a state official. The FOIA and state open government laws theoretically provide some checks on what information can be freely accessible through an application process. And if you request FOIA information about an individual, the requester must generally provide identification "in order to protect your privacy and to ensure that private information about you is not disclosed to someone else," the FOIA website explains. In addition, it may not be immediately clear to many people who all e-mails sent to a public official may be reproduced publicly.

 Although what Jeb Bush did may not be illegal, it shows a flagrant disrespect for the people who may have sent him information thinking it was in confidence.

 Ars has contacted Jeb Bush (through the jeb@jeb.org e-mail address, no less) as well as Mr. Bush's Political Action Committee for comment, and we have not yet received a response. Bush's spokesperson did give a comment to CNBC, however, stating "This is an exact replica of the public records on file with the Florida Department of State and are available at anyone's request under Chapter 119 sunshine laws." ||||| DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — By posting online all of his personal email from his eight years as Florida's governor, Jeb Bush sought to show himself as a tech-savvy executive, in touch with constituents and an active administrator.

 But tucked away in a small percentage of those hundreds of thousands of messages were the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers — the three pieces of information key to identity theft — of more than 12,000 people, according to an independent firm.

 Bush's attempt to demonstrate transparency comes as he prepares for a likely presidential run in 2016. His political action committee, Right to Rise, wasn't involved in the email-posting effort, a Bush spokeswoman said.

 "This was obviously very innocent," said Todd Feinman, the chief executive of data security firm Identity Finder who audited the Bush email database and provided the results to The Associated Press. "But now we have more than 12,000 individuals who are exposed to the risks of identity fraud."

 Using the website jebemails.com, Bush posted the emails online Tuesday. While Bush's spokeswoman said the emails numbered about 275,000, Feinman said his audit showed about 333,000 messages.

 By Thursday, the private information from all but a few hundred of the emails had been removed, Feinman said.

 Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell wouldn't confirm Identify Finder's report that more than 12,000 people had their private information in the emails but said that "we have redacted every account that we have found."

 Florida's public records law is among the nation's strongest, and the state's archive kept copies of every email sent to and from Bush's personal email address while he served as governor from 1999 to 2007.

 Bush had taken some steps to keep some of the sensitive information in the emails out of the public's view. His team asked the Florida Department of State for the emails in order to set up the website. When doing so last May, his attorney specified "Social Security numbers of Florida citizens who contacted Gov. Bush for assistance" should be redacted.

 A spokesman for the Florida Department of State did not reply Thursday to phone and email messages from The Associated Press.

 Social Security numbers are confidential under Florida law, except under certain circumstances, including allowing such information to be shared between agencies. The vast majority of those included in Bush's emails were part of a spreadsheet tracking the number of people on a state family service waiting list, which was included in a PowerPoint presentation sent to Bush ahead of a 2003 meeting.

 "This is the wake-up call to organizations, because they forget that hidden data is still there for the stealing," Feinman said.

 The Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service and Federal Trade Commission, among other federal agencies, all warn consumers not to share such information, which in combination can allow thieves to open bank accounts, apply for tax returns and even apply for jobs.

 It's a message that's been well received by the public. According to a November survey by the Pew Research Center, 90 percent of Americans consider Social Security numbers "very sensitive" — nearly twice the number of those who characterize their health care information that way.

 While Bush was scrubbing what had been posted, there were still other ways to access the emails online as late as Thursday afternoon. Weeks before Bush posted the emails, others had also obtained them from the Florida state archive and made them available on the Internet.

 One such group was the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge, which posted the emails to its website in December. Spokesman Ben Ray said Thursday that the group was in the process of removing the data.

 "We want to be responsive to the privacy concerns," Ray said.

 American Bridge took the page down late Thursday and was no longer linking to the files publicly, but the files could still be reached online via cached versions of the webpages.

 ____

 Associated Press writer Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report. |||||