Story highlights U.S. begins aid drops to Iraqi town surrounded by ISIS, the Pentagon says

 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says ISIS has sold Yazidi girls and women

 About 300 have been abducted, the rights group says

 Syria monitors: ISIS sees them as "captives of the spoils of war with the infidels"

 The United States says it has carried out airstrikes and dropped humanitarian aid in the Iraqi town of Amerli to protect an ethnic minority that one official says faces the threat of an "imminent massacre."

 The town of Amerli, which has been besieged by ISIS fighters, is home to many of Iraq's Shiite Turkmen.

 To help the trapped people, the United States has carried out humanitarian airdrops, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said late Saturday.

 Australia, France and the UK also participated in the aid drop.

 The U.S. military conducted "coordinated airstrikes" against ISIS targets as part of an effort to support the humanitarian operation, Kirby said.

 Video released by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense was strikingly similar to the scenes of the dire situation faced by the Yazidis, who were trapped on the Sinjar Mountains by ISIS, earlier this month. Dozens of people crowded helicopters, hoping to be rescued. Scores more awaited the arrival life-saving supplies in the scorching summer sun.

 ISIS fighters have surrounded Amerli , 70 miles north of Baquba, since since mid-June. The town's fewer than 20,000 residents are without power.

 "Residents are enduring harsh living conditions with severe food and water shortages, and a complete absence of medical services -- and there are fears of a possible imminent massacre," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said last week.

 ISIS has called the Shiite Turkmen heretics and vowed to push them out.

 Turkmen are descendants of a Turkic-speaking, traditionally nomadic people, who share culture ties with Turkey. There are Sunni and Shiite Turkmen in Iraq, and they account for up to 3% of Iraq's population.

 Turkmen have been subjected to violence before at the hands of Sunni extremists.

 A truck bomb explosion in 2008 Amerli killed more than 100 people -- an attack that was considered one of the single deadliest attacks of the Iraq War at the time.

 Report: ISIS selling Yazidi women in Syria

 Hundreds of Yazidi women abducted by ISIS have either been sold or handed out to members of the Sunni extremist group, according to an organization that monitors the crisis.

 In the past few weeks, ISIS has "distributed" to its rank and file about 300 female members of the persecuted religious minority, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group aligned with the opposition in Syria.

 Those women were initially kidnapped in Iraq before being taken to Syria.

 In ISIS' eyes, the girls and women are "captives of the spoils of war with the infidels," the Syria monitors said, claiming that some had converted to Islam so ISIS fighters can marry them.

 SOHR says it could confirm at least 27 cases in which women were "sold and married" for about $1,000 each to ISIS militants in Aleppo and Raqqa suburbs and Al-Hassakah.

 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Instantly made homeless, tens of thousands of Yazidi families have sought shelter in Iraqi Kurdistan after being chased from their homes, often at gunpoint, by ISIS. Kurdish photographer Warzer Jaff spent a week documenting the exodus of the Yazidis from their ancient homeland. This portrait shows the family of former soldier Hajji Khalaf, 28, from Sinjar. With him is daughter Alisa, 3; son Ezel, 4; wife Thawra, 24; and daughter Alifa, 6. Hide Caption 1 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – "I am fascinated with the deep sadness in their eyes," Jaff says. "You don't see one single happy face." Hide Caption 2 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – A mother shows the identity card that belonged to her 20-year-old daughter Baran, who was killed by shrapnel while pulling a child to safety. Hide Caption 3 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – "I don't want to live with Arabs anymore. They take our land, they kidnap our woman. And they kill us, why should I live with them?" asked a 75-year-old Yazidi named Ali Khalid. Hide Caption 4 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Nova Sharif, a 19-year-old high school student from Sinjar, now living in the Nawroz refugee camp in Syria. Hide Caption 5 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – This 6-day-old girl was born on Sinjar Mountain. Her mother might name her "Hajar," meaning migrant or as the family interpreted it, "Exile." Hide Caption 6 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Baby Hafar with her mother, Nariman Barkath, 20; her husband, Khairi Khalaf, 22; and Khairi's little sister. Hide Caption 7 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – Dalia Jalal, 12, seen in the Nawroz refugee camp in Syria. Hide Caption 8 of 9 Photos: Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile Yazidi refugees braced for life in exile – A rare moment of childlike innocence: "I like the bright colors and the flowers," said this girl, after eyeing the long dress. Hide Caption 9 of 9

 JUST WATCHED Waves of refugees flee to northern Iraq Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Waves of refugees flee to northern Iraq 02:40

 JUST WATCHED Yazidi refugees desperate for help Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Yazidi refugees desperate for help 02:51

 JUST WATCHED ISIS massacre survivors speak out Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH ISIS massacre survivors speak out 03:18

 Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled to Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq as ISIS fighters made deadly advances on their villages. They became trapped on the mountain, leading to air drops of water, food and other supplies, and eventually airstrikes to dislodge ISIS from the area.

 Peshmerga forces managed to help most of the Yazidis escape into Iraqi Kurdistan.

 U.S. President Barack Obama declared an end to the ISIS siege at Mount Sinjar on August 15, citing the success of the airstrikes.

 Since early August, nearly 122,600 people in the Sinjar district -- mostly Yazidis -- have taken refuge in Kurdistan, according to USAID

 A U.N. report warned of increasing kidnappings by armed groups in Mosul and the area of Mount Sinjar.

 The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that some of the victims reportedly have been forced to convert to Islam and have been trafficked by the terrorist groups inside and outside of Iraq.

 A number of villages in Sinjar remain besieged by ISIS and other armed groups, the refugee agency reported.

 ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, was previously referred to as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

 Attacks across Iraq

 At least three Iraqi soldiers were killed Saturday in a suicide car bombing south of Iraq's capital, police said, dealing a blow to the military in that area for a second straight day as government forces fight ISIS militants across the country.

 Seven other soldiers were injured in the attack, which happened at an army checkpoint in Yousifiya, a predominantly Sunni Muslim area about 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Baghdad, police in Baghdad said.

 It wasn't immediately clear who conducted the bombing.

 The blast came a day after nine Iraqi soldiers and Shiite Muslim militiamen were killed in clashes with suspected ISIS militants in nearby Mahmoudiya, a Sunni Muslim community about 29 kilometers south of Baghdad.

 During the height of Iraq's insurgency last decade following a U.S.-led invasion, Yousifiya and Mahmoudiya, along with the town of Latifiya, made up the Sunni area known as the "Triangle of Death" because it was an al Qaeda stronghold and a lair for criminals.

 Iraqi forces under a Shiite-led regime, as well as ethnic Kurdish forces, have been battling ISIS, which this year took over large portions of northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria for what it calls its new caliphate.

 Well before ISIS made gains, Iraq was beset for years by sectarian violence, with Sunnis feeling politically marginalized under a Shiite-led government since the U.S.-led ouster of longtime leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

 More U.S. airstrikes

 U.S. forces conducted more airstrikes against ISIS targets near the Mosul on Saturday, according to the U.S. military, destroying a militant fighting position and armed vehicle.

 "The strikes were conducted under the authority to support Iraqi security force and Kurdish defense force operations, as well as to protect critical infrastructure, U.S. personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts," U.S. Central Command said in a press release.

 CENTCOM said it has carried 115 strikes across Iraq. ||||| Keith Alexander, the recently retired director of the National Security Agency, left many in Washington slack-jawed when it was reported that he might charge companies up to $1 million a month to help them protect their computer networks from hackers. What insights or expertise about cybersecurity could possibly justify such a sky-high fee, some wondered, even for a man as well-connected in the military-industrial complex as the former head of the nation's largest intelligence agency?

 The answer, Alexander said in an interview Monday, is a new technology, based on a patented and "unique" approach to detecting malicious hackers and cyber-intruders that the retired Army general said he has invented, along with his business partners at IronNet Cybersecurity Inc., the company he co-founded after leaving the government and retiring from military service in March. But the technology is also directly informed by the years of experience Alexander has had tracking hackers, and the insights he gained from classified operations as the director of the NSA, which give him a rare competitive advantage over the many firms competing for a share of the cybersecurity market.

 The fact that Alexander is building what he believes is a new kind of technology for countering hackers hasn't been previously reported. And it helps to explain why he feels confident in charging banks, trade associations, and large corporations millions of dollars a year to keep their networks safe. Alexander said he'll file at least nine patents, and possibly more, for a system to detect so-called advanced persistent threats, or hackers who clandestinely burrow into a computer network in order to steal secrets or damage the network itself. It was those kinds of hackers who Alexander, when he was running the NSA, said were responsible for "the greatest transfer of wealth in American history" because they were routinely stealing trade secrets and competitive information from U.S. companies and giving it to their competitors, often in China.

 Alexander is believed to be the first ex-director of the NSA to file patents on technology that's directly related to the job he had in government. He said that he had spoken to lawyers at the NSA, and privately, to ensure that his new patents were "ironclad" and didn't rely on any work that he'd done for the agency -- which still holds the intellectual property rights to other technology Alexander invented while he ran the agency.

 Alexander is on firm legal ground so long as he can demonstrate that his invention is original and sufficiently distinct from any other patented technologies. Government employees are allowed to retain the patents for technology they invent while working in public service, but only under certain conditions, patent lawyers said. If an NSA employee's job, for instance, is to research and develop new cybersecurity technologies or techniques, then the government would likely retain any patent, because the invention was directly related to the employee's job. However, if the employee invented the technology on his own time and separate from his core duties, he might have a stronger argument to retain the exclusive rights to the patent.

 "There is no easy black-and-white answer to this," said Scott Felder, a partner with the law firm Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, adding that it's not uncommon for government employees to be granted patents to their inventions.

 A source familiar with Alexander's situation, who asked not to be identified, said that the former director developed this new technology on his private time, and that he addressed any potential infractions before deciding to seek his patents.

 But Alexander started his company almost immediately after stepping down from the NSA. As for how much the highly classified knowledge in his head influenced his latest creation, only Alexander knows.

 In the interview, Alexander insisted that the cybersecurity technology he's inventing now is distinct enough from his work at the NSA that he can file for new patents -- and reap all the benefits that come with them. A patent prohibits any other individual, company, or government agency from using the underlying invention without a license from the patent holder.

 But even if Alexander's new technology is legally unique, it is shaped by the nearly nine years he spent running an intelligence colossus. He was the longest-serving director in the history of the NSA and the first commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, responsible for all cybersecurity personnel -- defensive and offensive -- in the military and the Defense Department. From those two perches, Alexander had access to the government's most highly classified intelligence about hackers trying to steal U.S. secrets and disable critical infrastructure, such as the electrical power grid. Indeed, he helped to invent new techniques for finding those hackers and filed seven patents on cybersecurity technologies while working for the NSA.

 Alexander used his influence to warn companies that they were blind to cyberthreats that only the NSA could see, and that unless they accepted his help, they risked devastating losses. Alexander wanted to install monitoring equipment on financial companies' websites, but he was rebuffed, according to financial executives who took part in the discussions. His attempts to make the NSA a cyber-watchdog on corporate networks were seen as a significant intrusion by government into private business.

 Few, if any, independent inventors have seen such detailed, classified information about the way hackers work and what classified means the government has developed to fight them, all of which gives Alexander a competitive advantage in his new life as a businessman. That insider knowledge has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) has publicly questioned whether Alexander is effectively selling classified information in exchange for his huge consulting fee. (Bloomberg reported that the figure dropped to $600,000 after the $1 million figure raised hackles in Washington and among computer-security experts.)

 Alexander said that his new approach is different than anything that's been done before because it uses "behavioral models" to help predict what a hacker is likely to do. Rather than relying on analysis of malicious software to try to catch a hacker in the act, Alexander aims to spot them early on in their plots. Only the market will tell whether his approach is as novel as he claims. (One former national security official with decades of experience in security technology, and who asked to remain anonymous, said the behavioral-model approach is highly speculative and has never been used successfully.)

 The former NSA chief said that IronNet has already signed contracts with three companies -- which he declined to name -- and that he hopes to finish testing the system by the end of September.

 "We've got a great solution. We've got to prove that it works," Alexander said. "It will be another way of looking at cybersecurity that gives us greater capabilities than we've had in the past."

 Asked why he didn't share this new approach with the federal government when he was in charge of protecting its most important computer systems, Alexander said the key insight about using behavior models came from one of his business partners, whom he also declined to name, and that it takes an approach that the government hadn't considered. It's these methods that Alexander said he will seek to patent.

 Alexander said that if he determines that he needs to use technology or methods that the NSA has patented, he will pay for a license, including for anything he helped to invent while he was in office and for which he doesn't own the rights. During his time at the NSA, Alexander said he filed seven patents, four of which are still pending, that relate to an "end-to-end cybersecurity solution." Alexander said his co-inventor on the patents was Patrick Dowd, the chief technical officer and chief architect of the NSA. Alexander said the patented solution, which he wouldn't describe in detail given the sensitive nature of the work, involved "a line of thought about how you'd systematically do cybersecurity in a network."

 That sounds hard to distinguish from Alexander's new venture. But, he insisted, the behavior modeling and other key characteristics represent a fundamentally new approach that will "jump" ahead of the technology that's now being used in government and in the private sector.

 Alexander said he was persuaded to start a security business and apply for patents after hearing from potential customers, including company executives, who said they were worried about hackers who could steal or even erase the proprietary data on their companies' computers. Alexander said they were particularly worried about threats like the Wiper virus, a malicious computer program that targeted the Iranian Oil Ministry in April 2012, erasing files and data.

 That will come as a supreme irony to many computer security experts, who say that Wiper is a cousin of the notorious Stuxnet virus, which was built by the NSA -- while Alexander was in charge -- in cooperation with Israeli intelligence. The program disabled centrifuges in a nuclear plant in Iran in a classified operation known as Olympic Games. The United States has never acknowledged its involvement.

 The United States isn't the only government capable of building data-erasing malware. Iran is building a formidable cyber-army, U.S. intelligence officials say, and is believed to be behind a 2012 attack on an oil company in Saudi Arabia that erased data from more than 30,000 computers. Iranian hackers also launched a series of cyberattacks on major U.S. bank websites the same year, intelligence officials say. The strike took Washington by surprise because it was so sophisticated and aggressive. The hackers hijacked data centers consisting of thousands of computers each and used them to flood the bank websites with digital traffic, causing them to crash.

 Brendan Smialowski / AFP ||||| RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that extremists could attack Europe and the U.S. if there is not a strong international response to terrorism after Islamist extremists seized a wide territory across Iraq and Syria.

 While not mentioning any terrorist groups by name, King Abdullah's statement appeared aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and its supporters in the region. Saudi Arabia openly backs rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, but is concerned that the breakaway al Qaeda group could also turn those very same weapons on the kingdom.

 "I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America," he said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday.

 Official Saudi media carried the king's comments early Saturday.

 "These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street," the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.

 CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman reports from Washington that President Obama didn't talk military planning Friday night when he met with Democratic donors, but he said that he understands that Americans are anxious about the growing threat of ISIS, and he acknowledged that it's a dangerous time in the Middle East.

 A day after the president said that he doesn't have a strategy yet for confronting ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, in Syria, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Mr. Obama is waiting for his defense secretary to present a plan.

 "There are some who probably would make the case that it's OK to not have a formulated, comprehensive strategy but, just as one pundit I know recently suggested, that we could just go drop some bombs and see what happens," Earnest told reporters Friday. "That is not what the president believes is a smart approach."

 Echoing that message, Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby said the Defense Department doesn't have binders full of plans at any given moment.

 "Planners down in Tampa and planners here in the Pentagon continually refine and change and update planning options for potential military activity," Kirby told reporters Friday. "It is an ongoing effort."

 The U.S. military campaign against ISIS is so far limited to targets in Iraq, but Mr. Obama is considering expanding the mission to also include Syria, where this week he ordered surveillance flights.

 ISIS has been fighting moderate rebels, other extremists and Assad's forces in Syria for nearly three years. Iraq has faced an onslaught by the Sunni extremists and their supporters since early this year, and the country continues to be roiled by instability.

 While providing arms and support to Sunni militants in Syria, Saudi Arabia has denied directly funding or backing ISIS.

 British officials raised the country's terror threat level Friday to "severe," its second-highest level, because of developments in Iraq and Syria, but there was no information to suggest an attack was imminent. The White House has said it does not expect the U.S. to bump up its terrorism threat warning level.

 Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing ISIS. Earlier this month, the country's top cleric described ISIS and al Qaeda as Islam's No. 1 enemy and said that Muslims have been their first victims. State-backed Saudi clerics who once openly called on citizens to fight in Syria can now face steep punishment and the kingdom has threatened to imprison its citizens who fight in Syria and Iraq.

 A decade ago, al Qaeda militants launched a string of attacks in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy. Saudi officials responded with a massive crackdown that saw many flee to neighboring Yemen. In the time since, the kingdom has not seen any massive attacks, though it has imprisoned suspected militants and sentenced others to death.

 Meanwhile Saturday, police in Iraq said a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into an army checkpoint in the town of Youssifiyah, killing 11 people, including four soldiers, and wounding at least 24 people. Youssifiyah is 12 miles south of Baghdad.

 Hours later, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol killed two soldiers and wounded five in Latifiyah, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad.

 Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to journalists. ||||| Photo

 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have beheaded a Lebanese soldier who was one of 19 captured when militants seized a Lebanese border town for a few days this month. A video of the beheading was posted on social media sites on Saturday.

 The soldier, recognizable as Ali al-Sayyed, a Sunni Muslim from northern Lebanon, was shown blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, writhing and kicking the dusty ground as a militant announced that he would be killed. Another militant then beheaded him.

 The Lebanese Army declined to comment, but security officials and members of ISIS confirmed the beheading.

 Hours later, the group posted a second video showing nine other soldiers begging for their lives — urging their families to stage street protests to demand that Lebanese officials release Islamist prisoners, so the soldiers would not be killed.

 Earlier this month, Syrian militants, including members of ISIS and the Nusra Front, battled the Lebanese Army after a rebel commander, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, was arrested in Arsal, Lebanon, a town near the Syrian border. Mr. Jomaa was a commander in the Nusra Front who switched his affiliation to ISIS but remained popular among the Nusra fighters.

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 The militants seized Arsal for five days before withdrawing to a mountainous border region, taking 19 captured soldiers with them. They have demanded the release of Mr. Jomaa and several other Islamists jailed since a 2007 insurrection by a group inspired by Al Qaeda at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. |||||

Write a summary.

– The Islamic State has "distributed" about 300 Yazidi women to its jihadist fighters as spoils of war, CNN reports. The Islamic State, or ISIS, kidnapped the women when it attacked Yazidi villages and forced tens of thousands to flee earlier this month, according to a British group monitoring the crisis. The group says the Sunni extremists sold off at least 27 of the women to other ISIS members in Syria for $1,000 each. Some of the women converted to Islam for the marriages. In other ISIS news: John Kerry today called for a "world coalition" to defeat ISIS in a variety of ways: "To confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda," the coalition would have to use "political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force," he wrote in a New York Times op-ed. ISIS militants beheaded a soldier in Lebanon and posted the beheading on social media, the New York Times reports. The soldier, also a Sunni, was captured when ISIS temporarily took over a Lebanese border town. ISIS is threatening to kill more captives if Lebanon doesn't release jihadist prisoners. Saudi Arabia's king warns that Islamist extremists are close to attacking Europe and the US. King Abdullah didn't mention ISIS by name, but his words "appeared aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight" against the militant group, CBS News reports. Foreign Policy says it acquired an ISIS fighter's laptop that contains plans to create biological weapons, including one that spreads the bubonic plague. "The human casualties can be huge," said a 19-page instruction manual. But there was no evidence that ISIS already has such weapons. For more, read about an American woman being held by ISIS.


News article:

Google Glass: How It Will Look

 What would it be like to wear Google Glass? Google answered that very question this morning, posting a lot more information about Project Glass, including the user interface, through a series of photos and videos.

 You can see the UI and some of the features of Glass in the gallery, although they don't quite capture the exact experience. The headset doesn't actually have lenses in front of your eyes, just a small screen (viewable via a mirrored glass block) above and to the right of the wearer's right eye. As such, the point-of-view images that show a large action window in the center of the field of view are a little misleading.

 Still, the photos, posted on Google's Project Glass website, show more about how Glass works than any photo of the hardware could convey. The video (below) shows even more: Commanding the headset is as easy as uttering the words "OK, Glass," a clever use of real-world speech to engage the device's listening mode.

 SEE ALSO: How Google Glass Could Change Advertising

 Once engaged, Glass is capable of taking photos, recording videos, looking up answers on Google, showing reminders (such as for a flight) and sharing whatever you're looking at — either via messaging or through a Google+ Hangout. As Google co-founder Sergey Brin himself revealed previously, Glass will also have an automatic picture-taking mode, snapping pics at a preset intervals (such as every 5 seconds).

 Google also launched a contest with its own hashtag (#ifihadglass), challenging anyone to come up with creative uses for Google Glass that can be explained in 50 words or fewer. Winners will get the chance to buy their own, along with developers, when they become available. The price: $1,500, plus tax.

 Are you impressed with how Google Glass works? Let us know in the comments.

 Images courtesy of Google ||||| Photo

 Google is letting a larger segment of the public test its futuristic eyeglasses.

 On Wednesday, Google said it was accepting applications for people who wanted to try the glasses, which had previously been available only to software developers who signed up for them at Google’s developer’s conference last year.

 Google also released a few details about the glasses, which it calls Google Glass, some of which it had already publicized. They can take pictures or record video hands-free, show walking directions, search the Web and send messages by voice, offer translations and show alerts like a flight delay.

 People who want a pair of the glasses before they are publicly available must apply by Feb. 27 by writing a post on Google Plus or Twitter of 50 words or fewer with the hashtag #ifihadglass. Applicants can include photos or video and an explanation of what they might do with the glasses.

 “We’re looking for bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part of shaping the future of Glass,” the company posted on Google Plus.

 Those chosen by Google’s judges must pay $1,500 for the glasses and attend a pick-up event in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

 In a video released Wednesday, Google offered some of its own ideas about what to do with the glasses. A ballerina could stream live video behind the scenes and onstage, a tourist in Thailand could ask Google to translate “delicious” while eating noodles on a boat or a family could video chat with a long-distance relative on her birthday. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Google gave the public its first taste of how it would feel to strap on its much-anticipated digital glasses, releasing photos and a video showing off the system's capabilities and user interface. Users are shown taking video and photos, performing searches, and overlaying directions, weather, and flight info over their field of vision. The system is voice-controlled, activated with a cheerful, "OK Glass," Mashable reports. The device will consist of a single, small screen, positioned over the user's right eye and visible via a mirrored glass block. Google also started taking applications for civilian beta testers, the New York Times reports—until now only developers could get their hands on it—though it will cost $1,500 and be available only to a select few. To apply, would-be early adopters need to post a 50-words-or-less application on Google+ or Twitter with the hashtag #ifihadglass. Those selected will have to pick up their headset in person at events in New York, LA, or San Francisco.


Among America's car buyers, one brand in particular is on the outs.

 That honor belongs to Fiat, the car brand owned by Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, an independent national benchmark of consumer experiences of products and services sold to U.S. consumers.

 Fiat Chrysler, formed by the merger of the Italian car maker Fiat and the American automaker Chrysler, has several brands that win little respect from consumers, including Jeep and Dodge, the survey found. Overall, Americans are less in love with their cars than they were a year ago, with declines in satisfaction most likely tied to a record number of recalls and rising prices.

 "More defects point to quality issues, and customers perceive the quality isn't up to the standards that they had seen in past years," David VanAmburg, ACSI's director, said.

 The auto industry recalled nearly 64 million vehicles last year because of safety issues, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said earlier this year. Among the largest recalls were those from General Motors, which recalled about 27 million vehicles, followed by Honda (8.9 million vehicle recalls) and Fiat Chrysler (at 8.8 million recalls).

 "While we haven't seen the results of this year's ACSI survey, Fiat has done very well recently in similar studies that measure customer satisfaction and vehicle quality," Fiat Chrysler said in a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch. "Several FIAT models just earned top honors in the 2015 J.D. Power U.S. APEAL Study and Strategic Vision's 20th Annual Total Quality Index."

 Across the board, consumers rated their satisfaction with their cars at 79 points out of 100, or a decline of 3 percentage points from a year earlier. Among the brand names that saw declining consumer satisfaction were Honda, GM's Chevrolet, and Fiat Chrysler's Jeep.

 Why are consumers feeling pressure on car prices? VanAmburg points out that automakers heavily discounted vehicles or offered incentives in the recession and recovery years, as a way to get consumers through the showroom doors.

 "We're seeing a return to normalcy," he notes. "The economy has improved somewhat. Automakers don't have to show quite as much love on the price side."

 Interestingly, the cars that held up best among consumers' perceptions are the luxury brands, with Toyota's Lexus holding steady at 84 points and Honda's Acura rising to 83 points from 77 a year earlier, making those brands the first and second most-liked high-end cars with consumers.

 Fiat vehicles haven't scored very well with reviewers, either. The U.K.'s Car magazine said the Fiat 500 provides "little" for enthusiasts, adding that the "ride is nothing special." The rear row is best designed for toddlers, with even school age children likely to feel cramped, the reviewer added.

 The ACSI asks consumers about their experiences with cars that they bought about six months to three years prior to the survey, which means many of those car owners may be expressing the joys -- and dings -- of owning particular brands. Because of that, consumers who are considering buying a new car may want to add the survey's longer-term trends into their decision-making, VanAmburg said.

 "Look at the trends over time," VanAmburg said. "This is a phenomenon with Chrysler that goes back since we've been doing this really, showing that they've hovered near the bottom. That means something."

 Below is a list of the ACSI's 2015 ratings for car brands, ranked from top to bottom, with their parent company and customer-service scores.

 1. Lexus (Toyota) -- 84

 2. Acura (Honda) -- 83

 3. Lincoln (Ford) -- 83

 4. Mercedes-Benz -- 83

 5. BMW -- 82

 6. Subaru -- 82

 7. Toyota -- 82

 8. Hyundai -- 81

 9. Buick (GM) -- 80

 10. Cadillac (GM) -- 80

 11. Honda -- 80

 12. Mazda -- 80

 13. Volkswagen -- 80

 14. Chevrolet (GM) -- 79

 15. Ford -- 79

 16. Volvo -- 79

 17. Audi (Volkswagen) -- 78

 18. GMC (GM) -- 78

 19. KIA -- 78

 20. Infiniti (Nissan) -- 77

 21. Dodge (Fiat Chrysler) -- 76

 22. MINI (BMW) -- 76

 23. All other brands -- 75

 24. Jeep (Fiat Chrysler) -- 75

 25. Chrysler (Fiat Chrysler) -- 74

 26. Fiat (Fiat Chrysler) -- 73 ||||| Auto sales are booming. And yet, many buyers are less than pleased with their new vehicles, according to a national customer satisfaction survey published Tuesday.

 Of the 27 auto brands tracked by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Automobile Report, 15 lost customer satisfaction from a year ago. Only two — Acura (up 8 percent) and BMW (up 3 percent) — gained any ground, with the remaining dozen unchanged.

 Overall owner satisfaction — 79 out of 100 points — was down 3.7 percent from last year. It was the third straight yearly decline, and the lowest score since 2004.

 One reason for the lower numbers is a record number of recalls — nearly 64 million last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 Related: Feds Probe Non-Inflation of Air Bags in Some Older Honda Accords

 “While it is true that all cars are now much better than they were 10 to 20 years ago, it is alarming that so many of them have quality problems,” said Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder in a statement.

 Jack Gillis, author of “The Car Book 2015,” isn’t surprised that owners are frustrated by the recalls, many of them to fix life-threatening defects.

 “While recall notices are a good thing, because they identify problems and offer solutions, the backlog in parts needed to fix the recalls is likely causing angst among the owners waiting to get their cars fixed,” he said.

 And then there’s the price

 The ACSI survey shows that sticker shock is another factor driving down buyer satisfaction.

 The average cost of a new vehicle in the U.S. is now $33,453, according to the latest estimate from Kelly Blue Book.

 You’re getting a lot more in terms of fuel economy, safety and technology,” noted Mike Quincy, senior editor at Consumer Reports Autos. “But it’s a tough pill to swallow when you go to the dealer for the first time in eight or ten years and realize how much new cars cost.”

 And as prices have gone up, so have customer expectations.

 Related: Hybrid Technology Finds a New Home in High-Performance Vehicles

 “We’ve come to expect close to perfection now,” said ACSI director David VanAmburg. “We really become unhappy when we find any defect or are told we have to take our car in to have some kind of recall taken care of, even if it doesn’t cost us anything.”

 Something else to consider: Customer satisfaction scores may have been artificially inflated from 2008 to 2012, the ACSI report noted. During the recession, various incentives were offered, including the Cash for Clunkers program, to stimulate car sales.

 “Now that the economy is recovering, automakers don’t have to give us so much love on the price as they were doing in past years, and so we’re a little less happy as we reflect back on that past purchase,” VanAmburg said.

 Winners and losers

 When it comes to customer satisfaction, Asian and European manufacturers still beat U.S. automakers. In fact, 77 percent of the vehicles with above-average ratings are imports.

 “The Japanese, Koreans and Europeans continue to make cars that customers perceive to be of significantly higher quality than the U.S. brands,” VanAmburg told NBC News.

 The domestic car industry hit a five-year low in the new ACSI survey, pulled down by Fiat Chrysler brands.

 Luxury vehicles typically have a higher level of satisfaction. We pay a lot more and we expect a higher level of quality and we typically get it. So it’s no surprise that luxury brands dominated the ratings.

 Lexus took the top spot from Mercedes-Benz this year. With a score of 84, Lexus was unchanged from 2014, but Mercedes dropped three percent to 83, putting it in a tie for second with Acura and Lincoln.

 BMW, Subaru and Toyota were just a point behind at 82. Hyundai (81) Buick, Cadillac, Honda, Mazda and Volkswagen (tied at 80) also scored above average.

 Three Fiat Chrysler nameplates anchored the bottom of the list: Jeep (75), Chrysler (74) and Fiat (73).

 The ACSI report is based on 4,294 customer surveys collected in the second quarter of 2015. Owners were asked to evaluate their recent vehicle purchase and experiences. You can read the full report and get complete ratings on the ACSI website.

 Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website. |||||

Write a summary.

– Americans' level of satisfaction with their new cars is at its lowest point in more than a decade, and experts are blaming a record number of recalls and rising prices. The results of a national survey of more than 4,000 car buyers released today show an overall satisfaction level of 79 out of 100, NBC News reports. That's a 3.7% decline from 2014 and the lowest score since 2004. Of the 27 auto brands tracked by the survey, 15 showed a decline in customer satisfaction. Only two—Acura and BMW—showed any increase in satisfaction. CBS News reports the worst-rated cars—Fiat, Chrysler, and Jeep—are all owned by Fiat Chrysler, which also owns the low-scoring Dodge. The 64 million autos recalled last year appear to have hurt customer satisfaction. The founder of the survey tells NBC it's "alarming that so many [cars] have quality problems." And the increasing cost of cars—the average price is now more than $33,000—is coming as a surprise to people buying their first automobile in a decade. "We really become unhappy when we find any defect or are told we have to take our car in to have some kind of recall taken care of, even if it doesn't cost us anything," the director of the survey tells NBC. Overall, customers tend to be more satisfied with Asian- and European-made cars than their American-made counterparts.


News article:

A man arrested fleeing from an Anchorage home wearing boxer shorts has been charged with beating an elderly couple to death and sexually assaulting their 2-year-old great-granddaughter _ a case that officials say has shaken investigators for its brutality

 Touch Chea, 71, and his wife, Sorn Sreap, 73, were found dead Saturday night from significant blunt force injuries. Police said Sreap and the toddler were raped.

 Officers arrested Jerry Andrew Active, 24, as he allegedly fled the east Anchorage homicide scene. He was later charged with first and second-degree murder, sexual assault and burglary.

 Investigators were affected by the brutality and the ages of the victims, police department spokeswoman Anita Shell said.

 "They said this was the worst thing they had ever seen in their lives, and these are seasoned detectives," Shell said.

 Police Sgt. Slawomir Markiewicz said Sunday that there are no indications that the victims were connected to the suspect.

 "It doesn't appear that he knew them," he said. "It looks like a totally random act."

 The victims were part of an extended family that lived in a ground-floor, east Anchorage apartment with their granddaughter and her husband, who are the parents of the toddler and her 4-year-old brother. The younger couple's 90-year-old great-grandmother also lives in the apartment and was at home during the incident.

 Police said the younger couple, who are in their 20s, went to a movie Saturday night with their son and left the 2-year-old in the care of Chea and Sreap.

 The parents of the child and their son returned shortly before 8 p.m. and found the door locked from the inside.

 They told police they forced their way in through a window and discovered the bodies of Chea and Sreap.

 A man in his 20s, they said, was naked in a bedroom with their daughter.

 The woman called 911and police dispatchers heard screaming over the phone. The woman reported a man had broken into her home and killed her grandmother, Sreap. The woman described the man as naked with several tattoos.

 The woman, who is pregnant, and her husband tried to keep the suspect from leaving and a struggle began, Markiewicz said. The suspect, by then wearing boxer shorts, was able to get away after a few minutes of fighting, Markiewicz said.

 Officers found Active about a block away.

 "He did offer some resistance but he was arrested," Markiewicz said.

 The suspect apparently entered the apartment through a window, Markiewicz said.

 Active refused to give his name and he was not identified until Sunday. He was arraigned at the Anchorage Jail.

 Markiewicz said the case is unusual.

 "It's certainly very rare to see this kind of violence _ a complete stranger, sexually assaulting and murdering someone," he said.

 The bodies of Sreap and Chea were taken to the state medical examiner's office for autopsies.

 Names of the toddler and her parents were withheld. ||||| Police say a registered sex offender entered a Mountain View apartment through an unlocked window, killed an elderly couple and sexually assaulted their 2-year-old great-granddaughter in an apparently random attack Saturday.

 The man, identified in court documents as 24-year-old Jerry Andrew Active, was taken into custody blocks away from the North Bragaw Street scene after a fight with the victims’ family members, who came home from taking their son to a movie to find their child assaulted and Touch Chea, 73, and Sorn Sreap, 71, dead .

 Active was arraigned on charges of murder, sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor and burglary at the Anchorage Jail courtroom Sunday.

 A judge set his bail at $1.5 million after prosecutors called his alleged crimes chilling “beyond words” in their violence and random nature.

 The father and grandson of the victims says he is left raw and reeling with anger.

 “He took the old, the innocent,” said Von Seng. “Come face me.”

 Seng and his wife had taken their 4-year-old son to see a movie at the Century 16 theater Saturday evening, he said Sunday.

 When the family returned to the ground-level apartment they shared with Seng’s grandparents and great-grandmother at the Labnongsang Apartments just before 8 p.m. the door chain was locked. It would only open a few inches, enough for Seng to see a glimpse of his grandfather Touch Chea, 73, and grandmother Sorn Sreap, 71, on the floor.

 For a moment he thought he was seeing some kind of a bad joke.

 “I wanted to have hope and faith,” he said.

 But Sreap was nude from the waist down, Seng said.

 He screamed at his wife to call police and broke the large window facing the alleyway to get inside.

 Accounts of what happened next are imprecise.

 Seng says he stormed through the house in a panic, finding his 2-year-old daughter and his 90-year-old great-grandmother, who has dementia.

 There was also a partially clothed man in the house. He was trying to run out the front door.

 “I said, motherf---er, did you murder my motherf-----g family?” Seng said.

 The two men fought. Both threw punches. A neighbor who heard the screams arrived to help but the man escaped.

 Police arrested Active a block away moments later. He was wearing boxer shorts, said Anchorage Police Department detective Slawomir Markiewicz.

 Chea and Sreap were killed by “blunt force trauma,” and had injuries to their faces, police said, though an autopsy to formally determine a cause of death hasn’t been completed.

 Detectives say the 2-year-old girl and Sorn Sreap had both been sexually assaulted. The toddler was taken to an area hospital where she underwent surgery for her injuries.

 The 90-year-old great-grandmother in the apartment was apparently unharmed, Seng said.

 She hasn’t been able to communicate with police due to her dementia, said Markiewicz.

 It appears that Active entered the apartment through a window left unlocked, he said.

 On Sunday, Seng stood near the boarded-up window of the apartment.

 His knuckles were bloodied from the fight and he wore a parent visitor badge for the pediatric unit of a local hospital.

 His grandparents were loving people who happily put up with his “hard-head self” as a child and teenager, he said.

 Sreap and Chea, who are Cambodian, mostly raised him. They lived between Tacoma, Wash. and Anchorage.

 They loved to play bingo and often babysat their great-grandchildren, he said.

 The apartment on North Bragaw Street was home to not only his immediate family but members of the couple’s extended family.

 It felt safe, Seng said.

 “I know everyone around here,” he said. “Everyone knows me.”

 But Seng did not know Jerry Andrew Active.

 Active is a registered sex offender who listed his residence as the Anchorage Correctional Complex as recently as February.

 A 2009 Alaska State Trooper dispatch says Active was arrested on suspicion of entering a Togiak home and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl while the family slept, then assaulting all three members of the household.

 He served time in jail for attempted sexual abuse of a minor and trespassing in 2010 and 2011, court records show.

 Court records show Active was charged with violating his probation this spring but it’s not clear how recently he was incarcerated or what kind of correctional supervision he was on at the time of the alleged crime.

 Documents show that he was supposed to be on probation until at least 2014.

 On Sunday, Active appeared in court with a black eye. He tried to cover his face from news cameras with papers.

 Active had initially refused to give his name to police — he was first identified as “John Doe” — but prosecutors said they were now certain of his identity, which was revealed in charging documents.

 Active said he needed a lawyer and was assigned one from the state Public Defender Agency.

 Prosecutor Jenna Gruenstein said the charges against Active and his criminal history made him an “extraordinary danger to the community, to a degree that we rarely see in Anchorage or Alaska.”

 Most chilling, she said, was the fact that it appears that the suspect targeted his victims at random.

 Such crimes are unusual, said Markiewicz.

 “Between 80-90 percent of homicide victims know the suspects,” he said. “Random homicides are very rare.”

 Now detectives are focused on finding out more about the circumstances surrounding the killings.

 Some questions will be answerable in time, the detective said: where Active was in the hours and days before his alleged crime, and whether he was drunk or on any drugs at the time.

 Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Police in Anchorage, Alaska, have been shaken by a horrific and apparently random attack on an elderly couple and the great-granddaughter they were babysitting. Investigators say registered sex offender Jerry Active murdered Touch Chea, 73, and his wife, 71-year-old Sorn Sreap, and sexually assaulted the 2-year-old girl in their care, the AP reports. The elderly woman was also sexually assaulted. Says a police department rep, "They said this was the worst thing they had ever seen in their lives, and these are seasoned detectives." Active, 24, was arrested after family members came home and apparently found him in the house in his boxer shorts; the child's father reportedly ran after and punched Active, who was apprehended by police one block away, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Police say the couple were killed by "blunt force trauma" after the suspect broke into the apartment through a window. A 90-year-old woman who was also in the apartment was apparently unharmed, but has been unable to communicate with police due to her dementia. The toddler has had surgery. A judge, calling the crime chilling "beyond words," set bail for Active at $1.5 million.


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 Country/Territory Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua And Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Republic Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Lichtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The FYR of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Réunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe ||||| A massive survey by Transparency International found more than a quarter of people have paid a bribe in the last 12 months.

 The 2013 Global Corruption Barometer is the eighth edition of the survey, which collected responses from more than 114,000 people in 107 countries. This survey is different from the group’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index: It measures the views of everyday people, rather than experts weighing other surveys to determine the perception of graft.

 Transparency International found that 27% of respondents have paid a bribe over the past year. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, for example, more than 75% of respondents reported paying bribes over the past year. However, two-thirds of the overall survey respondents said they refused to pay a bribe when asked.

 “Bribe paying levels remain very high worldwide, but people believe they have the power to stop corruption and the number of those willing to combat the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery is significant,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, in a statement.

 The survey found police and the judiciary are the most prone to bribery: Overall, nearly one-third said their contacts with police included paying a bribe, and 24% said the same for the judicial system.

 The situation is even worse in countries where police and judicial corruption is a known problem. In the 36 countries that view police as the most corrupt, an average of 53% of people were asked to pay a bribe by police, the survey found. And in the 20 that countries view the judiciary as the most corrupt, an average of 30% of people were asked by people in the judicial system to pay a bribe, it found.

 More than half of those surveyed said corruption has increased over the past two years. When asked on a five-scale, where “corruption is a very serious problem” scores a five, the average score across all countries was 4.1, the survey found. People’s views on corruption are worst in Liberia and Mongolia, which each scored a 4.8.

 Respondents in more than 50 countries reported that political parties as the most corrupt institution. Moreover, people have less faith in their leaders to solve the problem than in recent years: In 2008, when the global financial crisis happened, 31% said their government’s efforts to fight corruption were effective; this year the number dropped to 22%.

 Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at Samuel.Rubenfeld@dowjones.com. Follow him on Twitter at @srubenfeld. |||||

– Roughly 27% of people worldwide have paid a bribe to a government agency in the last 12 months, according to the latest Global Corruption Barometer report from Transparency International. The survey covered more than 114,000 people across 107 countries, the Wall Street Journal reports, and on the bright side, two-thirds said they refused to pay up when asked for bribes. "Bribe-paying levels remain very high worldwide," the group's chair said. "But people believe they have the power to stop corruption." Of course, the numbers are skewed by the most corrupt nations; Sierra Leone took the cake with 84% of people paying up, while upright Japan, Australia, and Denmark each had only 1%. The US came in at 7%, but all is hardly hunky dory here, with 76% saying they believed the political parties were affected by corruption.


News article:

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Gordon Corera looks at why the Russian cyber plot sting was surprising

 Russian spies have been accused of involvement in a series of cyber-plots across the globe, leading the US to level charges against seven agents.

 The US justice department said targets included the global chemical weapons watchdog, anti-doping agencies and a US nuclear company.

 The allegations are part of an organised push-back against alleged Russian cyber-attacks around the world.

 Russia earlier dismissed the allegations as "Western spy mania".

 What is Russia accused of?

 The Netherlands has accused four Russians of plotting to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had been probing the chemical attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK

 The UK government accused the GRU of being behind four high-profile cyber-attacks, whose targets included firms in Russia and Ukraine; the US Democratic Party; and a small TV network in the UK

 The US said its anti-doping agency, football's governing body Fifa and the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse were targeted by Russian intelligence

 Canada said "with high confidence" that breaches at its centre for ethics in sports and at the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency were carried out by Russian intelligence

 Added to this, the Dutch authorities have said a laptop seized from the four suspects in April was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia.

 In Malaysia, the Netherlands said, it was used to target the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 over territory held by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.

 A series of astonishing revelations

 by James Landale, BBC diplomatic correspondent

 The revelations about how the British and Dutch security agencies disrupted the operations of the GRU are astonishing in their detail and their openness.

 This is not what secretive intelligence agencies normally do.

 But the willingness of both countries to be so candid illustrates how determined both they and some other Western governments are to try to push back against what they see as a concerted pattern of Russian aggression.

 "I imagine Mr Putin is shouting at one or two people right now," a cheerful British official told me.

 What has Russia said?

 Russia's foreign ministry - which had earlier dismissed the allegations from the UK and the Netherlands as "Western spy mania" - released an official statement late on Thursday, saying it was the victim of "yet another stage-managed propaganda campaign".

 "It's unclear who is supposed to believe these statements accusing Russian citizens of attempting to mount cyber-attacks against the OPCW and trying to obtain data related to the Malaysian flight MH17, as if it is necessary to be near the target of your attack," it said.

 "Any Russian citizen carrying a mobile device is seen as a spy," the statement added.

 What have the other countries said?

 John Demers, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, told a press conference in Washington that many of the attacks were aimed at delegitimizing sports bodies and "altering perceptions of the truth".

 He said the attacks were how Russia retaliated for bans on its athletes following evidence it was systematically using drugs to enhance their performance.

 As a result of the findings, the US has indicted seven people, four of whom were the men expelled from the Netherlands, while the other three were among those charged in July with hacking Democratic officials during the 2016 US elections.

 Image copyright FBI Image caption The FBI released this "wanted" poster, naming and picturing the seven men

 They were also charged with wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering.

 All seven men are thought to be in Russia, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.

 A joint statement from British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte said the alleged plot against the OPCW demonstrated "the GRU's disregard for global values and rules that keep us all safe".

 Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the UK was discussing further sanctions against Russia with its allies.

 The EU has also denounced the alleged cyber-plots.

 What were the suspects doing in the Netherlands?

 The four suspects identified by Dutch officials had diplomatic passports - which meant the Netherlands could not arrest them as diplomats are in theory immune from prosecution in their host country - and included two IT experts and two support agents, officials said.

 The four hired a car and parked it in the car park of the Marriot hotel in The Hague, which is next to the OPCW office, to hack into the OPCW's wifi network, Major General Onno Eichelsheim from the Dutch MIVD intelligence service said.

 Image copyright Dutch Government Image caption The suspects were allegedly found to have specialist hacking equipment

 Equipment in the car boot was pointed at the OPCW and was being used to intercept login details, he said, adding that the antenna for the operation lay under a jacket on the car's rear shelf.

 Image copyright Ministrie van Defensie

 When the men were intercepted they tried to destroy one of the mobile phones they were carrying, Maj Gen Eichelsheim said.

 Image copyright Ministrie van Defensie

 He said one of their mobile phones was found to have been activated near the GRU building in Moscow, while another carried a receipt for a taxi journey from a street near the GRU to the airport.

 Maj Gen Eichelsheim said the group were planning to travel to Switzerland, to a laboratory in Spiez where the OPCW analysed samples.

 They never made it. Instead, the four were immediately escorted out of the country, he added.

 Who are the suspects?

 They were named by the MIVD as hackers Alexei Morenets and Yevgeny Serebriakov, and support agents Oleg Sotnikov and Alexei Minin.

 Image copyright Dutch Government Image caption Four suspects travelled to the Netherlands on diplomatic passports earlier this year

 Officials said they were from the GRU's Unit 26165, which has also been known as APT 28. The UK's ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, said the unit had "sent officers around the world to conduct brazen close access cyber-operations" - which involve hacking into wifi networks.

 He said the hackers were planning to travel on to the OPCW-certified laboratory in Spiez near Berne in Switzerland, where the Novichok nerve agent used in March's attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the British city of Salisbury was identified.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What do we know about the Russian intelligence organisation, the GRU?

 At the time the Russian operation was disrupted, the OPCW was investigating the Skripal case as well as an alleged chemical attack in April on the Syrian town of Douma near Damascus by Russian-backed government forces, the MIVD said.

 "With its aggressive cyber-campaigns, we see the GRU trying to clean up Russia's own mess - be it the doping uncovered by Wada [the World Anti-Doping Agency] or the nerve agent identified by the OPCW," Mr Wilson said.

 What was on their computer?

 A laptop seized from the suspects was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia, the Dutch officials said.

 The cyber-operation in Malaysia targeted the attorney general's office and Malaysian police as well as the investigation into MH17's shooting down, Ambassador Wilson said.

 Earlier this year Dutch-led international investigators concluded that a missile that brought down MH17 belonged to a Russian brigade. Russia has denied any involvement in the plane's destruction, which led to the deaths of many Dutch citizens.

 Data from the laptop showed it was also present in the Swiss city of Lausanne where it was linked to the hacking of a laptop belonging to Wada, which has exposed doping by Russian athletes. ||||| A Russian cyber-attack on the headquarters of the international chemical weapons watchdog was disrupted by Dutch military intelligence just weeks after the Salisbury novichok attack, it emerged on Thursday, amid fresh revelations of spying that escalated the diplomatic war between the west and Vladimir Putin.

 The incident, which was thwarted with the help of British intelligence officials, came after the Sandworm cybercrime unit of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU had attempted unsuccessfully to hack the UK Foreign Office in March and the Porton Down chemical weapons facility in April.

 Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said on Thursday that Moscow could face further sanctions as a result of an astonishingly detailed evidence trail laid out in the Netherlands, the UK and the US.

 Defence secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia was now a “pariah state”, while the Russian foreign ministry dismissed the allegations on Thursday night and claimed the west was gripped by “spy mania”.

 Four Russian intelligence officers, believed to have been part of a GRU “cleanup” unit for earlier failed operations, travelled to The Hague on diplomatic passports in April after unsuccessfully launching a remote attack.

 At the time, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was investigating the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the UK, as well as a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria.

 The British ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Wilson, said: “With its aggressive cyber campaigns, we see the GRU trying to clean up Russia’s own mess – be it the doping uncovered by Wada [the World Anti-Doping Agency] or the nerve agent identified by the OPCW.”

 The US government announced criminal charges against the intelligence officers for targeting the watchdog, including computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering to promote Russian interests by nefarious means.

 They were also charged, along with three more of their colleagues, with being part of the Fancy Bears group that hacked anti-doping authorities and leaked records of sports stars including Sir Bradley Wiggins and Sir Mo Farah at a time when Russia was facing allegations of state-sponsored cheating.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The passports of the four men apprehended by Dutch authorities. Photograph: Netherlands police

 The Russian spies were named by the Dutch authorities as cyber experts Evgenii Serebriakov, 37, and Aleksei Morenets, 41, as well as Oleg Sotnikov, and Alexey Minin, both 46, who provided human intelligence.

 They appeared to have made little attempt to hide their presence in the country, arriving together with Russian diplomatic passports at Schiphol airport, where they were captured on CCTV being met by a Russian embassy official. Once through customs and immigration controls, they hired a car and headed for The Hague.

 Senior British security officials said they were caught “in flagrante” by Dutch intelligence three days later, on 13 April, sitting in their hire car which was parked close to the OPCW building. They tried – and failed – to destroy their equipment and were immediately put on a plane back to Moscow.

 In the back of the vehicle, investigators found a laptop connected to a 4G mobile and a wifi panel antenna, partially hidden under a coat, as well as other specialist hacking equipment. They also recovered €20,000 and US$20,000 in cash, as well as taxi receipts from a GRU facility in Moscow and reconnaissance maps.

 Train tickets to Basel were also found, along with evidence of online searches for the Spiez lab, Switzerland’s institute for nuclear, biological and chemical protection which had confirmed the British claim that the Skripals had been exposed to the military-grade nerve agent novichok.

 The manager of the Marriott hotel next door to the OPCW headquarters where the four alleged Russian spies were staying said they were seized without force and with “no James Bond involved”. Vincent Pahlplatz told Associated Press the quartet were arrested by Dutch officers in broad daylight as they walked out of a lift.

 Senior British security officials said the same GRU “close access” unit had previously travelled to Malaysia to attempt to hack the investigation into Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which investigators have said was shot down by a Russian military missile, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.

 They said the unit, known in the Russian military as 26165, had also travelled to Switzerland during a Wada conference, at which officials from the International Olympic Committee and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport were the victims of a cyber-attack, as well as to Brazil.

 It emerged last month that the Dutch government had expelled Russian spies in April after they were accused of planning to hack into the Spiez laboratory.

 In a joint statement on Thursday, the British prime minister, Theresa May, and her Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, said: “This attempt to access the secure systems of an international organisation working to rid the world of chemical weapons demonstrates the GRU’s disregard for the global values and rules than keep us all safe.

 “Our action today reinforces the clear message from the international community: we will uphold the rules-based international system, and defend international institutions from those that seek to do them harm.”

 Last month, May pledged to step up action against Russian intelligence following the Salisbury attack.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The boot of a vehicle found outside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. Photograph: Netherlands defence ministry

 In a further blow to the GRU, Bellingcat, the investigative website, revealed that Russia appeared to have inadvertently identified the names and phone numbers of nearly 305 of its agents in its cyber-warfare department.

 The names appear on a list of individuals that have access to cars registered to the headquarters of the GRU’s cyber division. Bellingcat said it may constitute “one of the largest mass breaches” of personal data in recent intelligence service history.

 Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, dismissed the hacking accusations as “big fantasies”. A senior British security official said: “For the GRU to get caught in this way would be considered a pretty bad day.”

 The Dutch defence minister, Ank Bijleveld, said Russian diplomats had been summoned to the foreign ministry. She told reporters the decision to publicise the failed attack was a “far-reaching and unusual measure” designed to “send a very strong signal” to the Kremlin that such behaviour would not be tolerated.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mobile phones, cameras and tablets found in the hire car. Photograph: Netherlands defence ministry

 The head of Dutch counter-intelligence said analysis of the men’s laptops showed they had links to operations in Switzerland and Malaysia.

 A senior British security official, commenting on the possible link to the Skripal investigation, said: “It’s hard to know their full intention as their operation failed. But judging from past form elsewhere, discrediting the investigation could well have been their motivation.”

 One of the alleged agents, Serebriakov, was listed on a Moscow amateur football league website as a defender. “Our team is known as the ‘security services’ team. Almost everyone works for an intelligence agency,” a teammate told the Moscow Times. “I personally don’t.”

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest A picture believed to show one of the men at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Photograph: Netherlands defence ministry

 British officials refused to say whether the Russian agents would have been detained if they had been caught undertaking the same activity in the UK, stressing operational decisions were for Dutch authorities.

 Asked if the UK undertook the same surveillance methods as Moscow, they added: “British intelligence cannot be put in the same moral and ethical bucket as the Russian security service. They do not have oversight.”

 Play Video 0:51 Novichok attackers were Russian military intelligence, says May – video

 On Thursday Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The evidence is clearly against Russia on both the Salisbury attack and of course on the latest cyber-attacks so there has to be a confrontation, a diplomatic confrontation, with Russia on this.”

 The revelations came hours after the British government directly accused Russian military intelligence of being behind a spate of “reckless and indiscriminate cyber-attacks” carried out on the orders of the Kremlin, including the hacking in 2016 of the US Democratic National Committee headquarters.

 A joint statement by Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, the presidents of the European council and European commission respectively, along with the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said: “We deplore such actions, which undermine international law and international institutions.

 “The EU will continue to strengthen the resilience of its institutions and those of its member states, and international partners and organisations in the digital domain.” ||||| The Dutch government said Thursday that it blocked a cyberattack by Russian intelligence agents in April targeting the global chemical weapons watchdog agency. The head of the Netherland's military intelligence agency identified four Russians behind the alleged operation, which targeted the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) headquarters in The Hague.

 Dutch officials showed images of a rental vehicle they said was discovered at the time with computer equipment and transformers used in the alleged plot. He said the Russians were expelled from the Netherlands immediately after the plot was foiled on April 13.

 Later Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against seven Russian agents for cyber crimes linked to the Dutch investigation. The indictment accused the seven members of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, of hacking into the world anti-doping agency, the OPCW, and of cyberattacks aimed at a U.S. nuclear energy facility.

 An image released on Oct. 4, 2018 by the Netherlands Defense Ministry shows a vehicle seized near the OPCW headquarters in The Hague, containing equipment allegedly used by Russian GRU military intelligence agents in a plot to hack the chemical weapons watchdog agency in April 2018. HANDOUT

 "The conspiracy conducted persistent and sophisticated computer intrusions affecting U.S. persons, corporate entities, international organizations, and their respective employees located around the world, based on their strategic interest to the Russian government," the Department of Justice said in a statement.

 The revelation of the plot in the Netherlands came just hours after Britain's Defense Minister Gavin Williamson, at a NATO summit with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and other allies, called Russia's cyberattacks of recent years the "actions of a pariah state," and vowed that NATO would "be exposing" Moscow's nefarious acts.

 NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia, not long after the announcement by the Netherlands, to halt its "reckless" behavior. "Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour, including the use of force against its neighbours, attempted interference in election processes, and widespread disinformation campaigns," he said in Brussels.

 "Basically the Russians got caught with their equipment, people who were doing it, and they have got to pay the piper, they are going to have be held to account," Mattis said later Thursday at the NATO summit. "How we respond to something like this is a political decision by the nations involved, and we will be standing by them. But it does not necessarily equate to some kind of tit for tat on cyber. We have a wide variety among our nations of responses available to us."

 Mattis lambasted Russia for the alleged attack on the OPCW, calling it, "the latest of a world-wide pattern of reckless and irresponsible behavior from Moscow."

 #NATO stands in solidarity with the Dutch & UK governments in calling out #Russia on its cyber attacks against @OPCW & others. Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour to undermine international law & institutions. NATO Allies work together to bolster our cyber defences pic.twitter.com/8dPHcRBdYy — Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) October 4, 2018

 In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued what has now become a familiar denial of all allegations. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the latest charges against Russia "big fantasies." And at United Nations headquarters in New York, Russia's deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy ridiculed Britain over the allegations, calling them "Russiaphobic." His tweet did not address the specific allegations against Russia's military intelligence agency.

 A new episode of #UK Pathetic “highly likely” Russophobic Series, this time staged in #Netherlands - on news wires every 4th day of the month! Next to come: Russia hacked Mrs May’s brain and stole #Brexit plan or rather hacked the referendum itself! #opcw https://t.co/tg1HwXXbK0 — Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) October 4, 2018

 British Ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Wilson said the plot against the OPCW showed "complete disregard" by Russia for the agency's mission to investigate illegal chemical weapons attacks around the world. He noted that the plot was disrupted in April as the OPCW worked to confirm Britain's allegations that GRU agents attempted to murder Russian ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in England, and to confirm an alleged chemical attack by Syria's Russian-backed military in Douma, Syria.

 "The disruption of this attempted attack on the OPCW was down to the expertise and the professionalism of the Dutch security services in partnership with the United Kingdom," Wilson said. "The OPCW is a respected international organization which is working to rid the world of chemical weapons. Hostile action against it demonstrates complete disregard for this vital mission."

 Inside Douma, the site of apparent Syrian chemical attack

 Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten said the Russian intelligence officers had also targeted the Netherlands-based investigation into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine.

 "We have been aware of the interest of Russian intelligence services in this investigation and have taken appropriate measures." she said. "We remain very alert about this."

 Bijleveld-Schouten said the Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands was summoned on Thursday to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be reprimanded for Moscow's "unacceptable" behavior.

 Ambassador Wilson said the plot in The Hague was not an isolated incident, accusing the same Russian military intelligence unit behind the thwarted plot of sending operatives around the world to carryout other, "brazen, close-access cyber operations."

 How hackers could target a city's critical infrastructure on Election Day

 Britain and the Netherlands would be "stepping up our combined activity against" the GRU, Wilson said. "We will shine a light on their activities. We will expose their methods, and we will share this with our allies."

 He said increased sanctions against Russia would be sought in retaliation for Moscow's "malign activity."

 British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte released a joint statement vowing to "defend international institutions from those that seek do to them harm," and condemning the Russian military for its "disregard for the global values and rules that keep us all safe."

 In London, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the Russian military's plot against the OPCW "part of a sustained pattern of hostile cyberspace activity," and vowed that Moscow would face "consequences." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A stunning allegation out of the Netherlands: The defense minister said Thursday the country had previously kicked out four Russians, believed to be GRU military intelligence officers, who were planning a cyber attack on the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague. The global chemical weapons watchdog has been testing the nerve agent used to poison the Skripals in the UK. CBS News reports the four suspects, which included an IT expert, were caught "in flagrante" on April 13 and immediately removed from the country. The men were allegedly trying to hack into the OPCW via its WiFi network, reports the Guardian, supposedly after a spear-phishing attack launched from Russia failed. The trunk of their rental car, which was parked outside the OPCW's HQ, reportedly contained computer equipment designed to intercept log-ins. One of the men allegedly tried to trash his cell phone upon being confronted by authorities, reports the BBC, but officials say plenty of damning evidence was recovered, including an antenna concealed under a coat and a taxi receipt for a trip from a street near the GRU's Moscow location to the airport. British ambassador to the Netherlands Peter Wilson, who was present for the announcement, said a seized laptop's history indicated it was part of previous hacks: in Malaysia in association with the investigation into the downing of flight MH-17 over the Ukraine in 2014, and in Lausanne, Switzerland, in connection with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has investigated doping by Russian athletes. Wilson's take: that the GRU was trying to "clean up Russia's own mess." Russia's take, per a foreign ministry rep quoted by the Guardian: "big fantasies."


News article:

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 More than 200 women in 40 states have joined a class action lawsuit against Wen by Chaz Dean and its infomercial owner Guthy-Renker because they allege that Wen's cleanser is making them go bald, The Daily Beast reports. In addition to the alleged hair loss and scalp injuries, court papers claim that Guthy-Renker blocked comments about hair loss from Wen's Facebook page and removed negative online reviews about the products.

 In nightmare-fueling fashion, BuzzFeed compiled images from women showing their bald spots and toupee-size hair clumps in the drain, allegedly from using celebrity stylist Chaz Dean's sulfate-free cleanser.

 If you haven't heard of Wen, you must've somehow missed Dean's ubiquitous infomercials and marketing promising that his cleanser can replace ordinary shampoo and conditioner. The complaint alleges that "the WEN products at issue contain a caustic ingredient that causes a chemical reaction and damages hair and follicles." Guthy-Renker denies that Wen is any way defective or responsible for hair loss.

 I can't leave my house I'm depressed wen hair products is responsible for my hair loss I have been shampooing and... Posted by Tracie Hashton on Monday, December 7, 2015

 The images are shocking, but The Daily Beast notes that it could be tough for the plaintiffs to prove that Wen is responsible for their hair loss, which could stem from many factors. The first four ingredients in many Wen cleansers are water, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, and cetearyl alcohol, which are commonly used in hair products. Wen does contain a chemical banned in the EU, hydroxycitronella.

 Amy Davis, the Dallas-based attorney and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said that her firm hired chemists to test Wen. "What we understand about the product and how it causes hair loss is it contains virtually no cleanser," she told told a local CBS station. "It’s like using lotion to wash your hair, so instead of removing the product, when you rinse it off, it just becomes impacted in your hair follicle."

 In between complaints about customer service, auto shipments and inaccurate charges, Facebook comments on Wen's page have been posted by loyal customers and outraged users alike. There's love for Wen — "i use the pomegranate cleansing conditioner. and kid u not, every time i use it and go to the salon for haircut, they tell me that my hair is so healthy," one Facebook commenter wrote — to outright warnings to other consumers — "Went from very thick long hair that would break a pony tail holder to extremely thin brittle hair! #Scam I Used it for 1 year with nothing else but their products! Pleeeeease Don't buy this Product if u love your hair like I did!!!"

 The Daily Beast reports that both sides are heading to mediation. "The parties are attempting to settle their differences outside of court and we have agreed to refrain from any extrajudicial statements about the case in the meantime," Davis told The Daily Beast.

 Here's the statement gave BuzzFeed: ||||| DOWN THE DRAIN

 Chaz Dean’s sulfate-free hair-care products have a cult following. But a new lawsuit alleges they also caused hair loss, scalp damage, and more.

 Anyone who has channel-surfed at 3 a.m. and watched celebrity hair stylist Chaz Dean work his magic on the manes of Brooke Shields and Alyssa Milano will be familiar with the WEN hair care range.

 Billed as a sulfate-free alternative to shampoo, WEN promises to “take the place of your shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, detangler, and leave-in conditioner.”

 But the cult favorite products have also attracted controversy. Over the years, horror stories from customers have circulated online—on WEN product forums and sites including Pissed Consumer and Amazon—about WEN’s 5-in-1 Cleansing Conditioners causing hair to come out in handfuls, as well as clogged drains and bald spots.

 Now, more than 200 women in 40 states have joined a class action lawsuit against WEN by Chaz Dean and infomercial giant Guthy-Renker in California Federal Court. They claim that the WEN products can cause severe and possibly permanent damage to hair, including significant hair loss to the point of visible bald spots, hair breakage, scalp irritation, and rash.

 According to court papers, nurse practitioner Amy Friedman bought the WEN Sweet Almond Mint basic kit in January of 2014 for $29.95, and within two weeks “began losing substantial and abnormal amounts of hair.” The shedding continued, she said, for approximately three weeks after she stopped using WEN, and eventually resulted in her losing “one quarter to one third” of the hair on her head. In an attempt to regrow her hair, she claims that she was forced to spend a substantial amount money on vitamins and extensions to mask the loss.

 The suit alleges that Friedman’s complaint is only the tip of the iceberg—and states that the number of potential plaintiffs in the class suit could number “in the thousands or tens of thousands.”

 Indeed, a Google search brings up hundreds of negative reviews. “I was a professional model with beautiful long natural hair. After using this product my scalp and face broke out in boils and my hair fell out in chunks,” one woman wrote. “This shampoo destroyed my life.”

 Another user said that she loved the product at first—but after five months “I noticed a bald spot the size of a half dollar at the crown of my head.”

 Yet just as many five-star WEN fans claim that the products have been the best thing that has ever happened to their hair—and five-star reviews have led to the products repeatedly ranking #1 under hair care on Amazon.

 WEN has been a huge cash cow for Guthy-Renker, reportedly raking $100 million in only its second year, and has made Chaz Dean as famous as many of his celebrity clients. The suit has been shocking for many customers due to the holistic lifestyle and organic philosophy that Dean espouses in his salon, infomercials, and on Instagram.

 According to the bio on his website, Dean started out as a hairdresser in Los Angeles and created the formula that became WEN by mixing the ingredients in his sink. His celebrity-to-the-stars status was cemented after he used Sweet Almond Mint cleansing conditioner on Alanis Morrissette for her Grammy appearance in 1999.

 Dean has remained down-to-earth and likable in spite of his fame, and is a regular on reality shows including Flipping Out and Celebrity Apprentice, has purchased properties including a Greenwich Village townhouse for $10 million, and flies his four rescue Labradors on a private jet in between their WEN grooming sessions and twice-daily hikes.

 According to court papers, the company’s website makes statements such as “WEN® is gentle enough to use every day,” and “WEN® isn’t like an ordinary shampoo so you want to use more of it, not less,” and “You can never use too much! The more you use, the better the results.”

 Not only did the company fail to warn customers of the dangers, the suit alleges, but Guthy-Renker also apparently removed negative online reviews about the products, and blocked or erased comments about hair loss from the WEN Facebook page.

 Despite this, many are still available: “Not only did it not clean my hair, it made it look like I combed it out with a pork chop,” one woman wrote on the WEN product forum. Another said that she was distressed at having to explain that her hair loss was “not from chemo.”

 Exactly which ingredients may be causing hair loss remains a mystery. The complaint alleges that “the WEN products at issue contain a caustic ingredient that causes a chemical reaction and damages hair and follicles,” as well as “numerous harsh chemicals and known human allergens.”

 But the first four ingredients on many of the cleansing conditioners are listed as “water, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, and cetearyl alcohol.” Alcohol can be drying, but it is widely used in hair care products. Another ingredient, hydroxycitronella, is banned in the EU because it is known to be a human immune system toxin.

 In the complaint, Guthy-Renker categorically denies that its products are in any way defective or responsible for hair loss. But over the years, many stylists have swapped their own theories over the shampoo bowl. “WEN seems to be good for certain hair types, especially those that are coarse or frizzy,” says Kelsey Smart, a stylist at Fox & Jane salon in New York. “But for women with fine hair, it becomes more important for the scalp to stay really clean—otherwise, product can build up and lead to breakage.” Ironically, women who need a squeaky-clean scalp may be in most need of the sulfates that Dean has tried so diligently to avoid.

 Get The Beast In Your Inbox! Daily Digest Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast. Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't). By clicking "Subscribe," you agree to have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Subscribe Thank You! You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason

 Dallas-based attorney Amy Davis, lead counsel for the victims, says that the firm has hired chemists to perform tests. “What we understand about the product and how it causes hair loss is it contains virtually no cleanser,” Davis told CBS 11 in Dallas. “It’s like using lotion to wash your hair, so instead of removing the product, when you rinse it off, it just becomes impacted in your hair follicle.”

 And the plaintiffs could have a tough road ahead, since experts say that determining the cause of hair loss in women can be extremely complicated. According to the American Dermatological Society, it can be caused by a number of factors from genetics, hair dryer and flat iron use, to hormonal changes from pregnancy. Dermatologists often have to turn detective and perform a series of tests in order to determine the cause.

 Narrowing down the offending ingredient(s) becomes even more complicated due to the fact that WEN is sold all over the world, so there are multiple formulas available—as well as various knock-offs. “Official” WEN products are sold through www.chazdean.com, Guthy-Renker, Sephora, and QVC.

 Tara Bell, who describes herself as a 52-year-old former hairdresser, wrote on the WEN message board that she loved the Lavender Cleansing Conditioner that she bought from QVC but had an extreme reaction to a bottle that was ordered from Amazon. (Amazon is meant for international buyers, but many U.S. customers buy from the site in order to avoid the monthly billing of buying direct from WEN.)

 “After I rinsed it I noticed some of the bleached hair in the front was ‘sticky’ like glue and actually breaking off. I am in shock,” she wrote. “I have now been super paranoid about the hair I find in the drain and have been researching and seeing all the horror stories about lawsuits. There are different formulas depending on who you buy it from,” she added.

 Jillian, a WEN customer service representative who posted on the company’s website, confirms that Guthy-Renker’s version of WEN is slightly different than the one sold via www.chazdean.com and QVC.

 “Because of regulations on products sold internationally, the ingredients through Guthy-Renker have had to be changed slightly. Chaz worked very hard to make sure that the quality and philosophy behind WEN is still upheld, and that product performance would be identical,” she wrote.

 For now, the parties are heading to mediation—so the reasons for hair loss may remain a mystery.

 “The parties are attempting to settle their differences outside of court and we have agreed to refrain from any extrajudicial statements about the case in the meantime,” Davis told The Daily Beast. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Wen by Chaz Dean hair-care products are touted as a natural alternative to shampoo and other products, but some angry customers say the downside is hair loss—and lots of it. More than 200 women across the US have joined a class-action lawsuit claiming that the sulfate-free hair products contain an ingredient that "causes a chemical reaction and damages hair and follicles," the Daily Beast reports. Dean is a celebrity stylist who has promoted the products through what Racked describes as "ubiquitous infomercials and marketing promising that his cleanser can replace ordinary shampoo and conditioner." The plaintiffs complain that infomercial giant Guthy-Renker blocked negative reviews online. The plaintiffs say they suffered "hair and scalp damage, hair loss, rashes, scalp irritation, hair breakage," and other woes, reports BuzzFeed, which has some alarming pictures of the damage users say the product has done to their hair and scalps. A lawyer for the plaintiffs says the issue is heading to mediation. "The parties are attempting to settle their differences outside of court and we have agreed to refrain from any extrajudicial statements about the case in the meantime," she tells the Beast, which notes that since the causes of hair loss in women can be very complicated, it could be tough to prove in court that Wen products are responsible for plaintiffs' bald patches. (A man who hasn't showered in 12 years has his own line of shampoo.)