Computer Expert Outsources Own Job To China

An American computer programmer has been caught outsourcing his own work to a company in China.

The scam came to light only when the man's employer became suspicious about repeated remote logins to its server from the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.

The story is related in a blog posted by Andrew Valentine, a computer forensic investigator at Verizon Business, a US-based communications firm.

He was brought in by the American firm who feared their network's security - and the credentials of one of their best employees in particular - had been compromised.  

But in reality the employee - referred to only as Bob - had "physically FedExed his RSA token to China so that the third-party contractor could log in under his credentials during the workday".

Bob is described as being in his 40s, "inoffensive and quiet" and "someone you wouldn't look at twice in an elevator".

And his apparent efficiency had not gone unnoticed by his manager.

"For the last several years in a row he received excellent remarks. His code was clean, well written, and submitted in a timely fashion," Mr Valentine noted.

"Quarter after quarter, his performance review noted him as the best developer in the building."

Bob was praised for his excellent computer code

But a forensic examination of Bob's office workstation revealed a more typical working day:

9.00 am - Get to work, surf Reddit, watch cat videos

11.30 am - Lunch

1.00 pm - eBay

2.00 pm or so - Facebook and LinkedIn

4.30 pm - Send end-of-day email update to management

5.00 pm - Go home

A check of the company's available records showed the scam had been going on for months - maybe even years.

During that time Bob had continued to draw his generous annual salary of around $250k (£155k), and then sent $50k (£31k) of it to his Chinese subcontractors.

However, his contract was terminated once Verizon's report landed on his manager's desk.

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Dreamliners: Boeing Reputation Is On The Line

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Timeline

Updated: 12:15pm UK, Thursday 17 January 2013

The turbulent history of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner:

Jan 17, 2013: The European Aviation Safety Agency, US Federal Aviation Administration and Qatar Airways ground their Dreamliners.

Jan 16, 2013: Japan Air Lines Co Ltd (JAL) follows suit and suspends Dreamliner flights from Japan over safety concerns

Jan 16, 2013: ANA grounds all 17 of its 787s after four of its aircraft suffer problems

Jan 16, 2013: ANA 787 Dreamliner makes emergency landing in Takamatsu, Japan, after smoke appears in cabin

Jan 11, 2013: The Federal Aviation Authority announces a review of the 787 design and systems

Jan 11, 2013: All Nippon Airways (ANA) discovers engine oil leak after a domestic flight lands at Miyazaki

Jan 11, 2013: A separate ANA flight to Matsuyama reported a crack appearing in the pilot's window

Jan 9, 2013: ANA cancels a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight due to a brake problem

Jan 8, 2013: Japan Air Lines (JAL) grounds a jet at Boston Logan International Airport after a 787 leaks 150 litres of fuel

Jan 7, 2013: A fire erupts in a battery pack in another JAL Dreamliner at Boston

Dec 13, 2012: Qatar Airways grounds one of its Dreamliners because of a faulty generator

Dec 5, 2012: The Federal Aviation Administration orders inspections of all 787 Dreamliners in service in the US

Dec 4, 2012: A United Airlines 787 is forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans after a generator fails

July 23, 2012: ANA grounds five Dreamliners due to an engine component issue

February 22, 2012: Boeing says around 55 Dreamliners may be affected by a flaw in the fuselage

October 26, 2011: The Dreamliner makes its maiden flight with paying passengers on board an ANA jet

September 26, 2011: Boeing delivers its first 787 Dreamliner to Japan's ANA, three years late

June 23, 2010: Boeing postpones the first flight of the Dreamliner because of a structural flaw

December 15, 2009: The passenger jet 787 Dreamliner takes off on its maiden test flight

April 9, 2008: Boeing says there will be a revised plan for the first 787 flight and initial deliveries

December 11, 2008: Boeing announces further delays due to strike action by machinists Sept-Nov

October 19, 2007: Boeing says there will be a six-month delay to deliveries due to assembly issues

July 8, 2007: The first assembled 787 goes on display to media, employees and customers

July 18, 2006: Boeing says it is making "solid progress" on the 787 Dreamliner programme

January 28, 2005: Boeing gives its new commercial airplane an official model designation number - 787

January 29, 2003: Boeing announces the launch of a new aircraft called the 7E7

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Boeing Dreamliners Grounded Across The World

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Timeline

Updated: 12:15pm UK, Thursday 17 January 2013

The turbulent history of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner:

Jan 17, 2013: The European Aviation Safety Agency, US Federal Aviation Administration and Qatar Airways ground their Dreamliners.

Jan 16, 2013: Japan Air Lines Co Ltd (JAL) follows suit and suspends Dreamliner flights from Japan over safety concerns

Jan 16, 2013: ANA grounds all 17 of its 787s after four of its aircraft suffer problems

Jan 16, 2013: ANA 787 Dreamliner makes emergency landing in Takamatsu, Japan, after smoke appears in cabin

Jan 11, 2013: The Federal Aviation Authority announces a review of the 787 design and systems

Jan 11, 2013: All Nippon Airways (ANA) discovers engine oil leak after a domestic flight lands at Miyazaki

Jan 11, 2013: A separate ANA flight to Matsuyama reported a crack appearing in the pilot's window

Jan 9, 2013: ANA cancels a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight due to a brake problem

Jan 8, 2013: Japan Air Lines (JAL) grounds a jet at Boston Logan International Airport after a 787 leaks 150 litres of fuel

Jan 7, 2013: A fire erupts in a battery pack in another JAL Dreamliner at Boston

Dec 13, 2012: Qatar Airways grounds one of its Dreamliners because of a faulty generator

Dec 5, 2012: The Federal Aviation Administration orders inspections of all 787 Dreamliners in service in the US

Dec 4, 2012: A United Airlines 787 is forced to make an emergency landing in New Orleans after a generator fails

July 23, 2012: ANA grounds five Dreamliners due to an engine component issue

February 22, 2012: Boeing says around 55 Dreamliners may be affected by a flaw in the fuselage

October 26, 2011: The Dreamliner makes its maiden flight with paying passengers on board an ANA jet

September 26, 2011: Boeing delivers its first 787 Dreamliner to Japan's ANA, three years late

June 23, 2010: Boeing postpones the first flight of the Dreamliner because of a structural flaw

December 15, 2009: The passenger jet 787 Dreamliner takes off on its maiden test flight

April 9, 2008: Boeing says there will be a revised plan for the first 787 flight and initial deliveries

December 11, 2008: Boeing announces further delays due to strike action by machinists Sept-Nov

October 19, 2007: Boeing says there will be a six-month delay to deliveries due to assembly issues

July 8, 2007: The first assembled 787 goes on display to media, employees and customers

July 18, 2006: Boeing says it is making "solid progress" on the 787 Dreamliner programme

January 28, 2005: Boeing gives its new commercial airplane an official model designation number - 787

January 29, 2003: Boeing announces the launch of a new aircraft called the 7E7

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Indonesia: Judge Apologises Over Rape 'Joke'

A senior Indonesian judge who joked that rapists should evade capital punishment because victims enjoyed the act has apologised.

Muhammad Daming Sunusi - a High Court judge who is running for a Supreme Court position - made the remarks during a "fit-and-proper test", when parliament asked whether the country should introduce the death penalty for rapists.

"The one raped and the rapist both enjoy it, so (we would) need to think about the death sentence," he was quoted as saying.

Sunusi apologised for making the statement after his remark triggered outrage and calls for his dismissal, saying he was trying to lighten the mood of the tense interview.

"I've said something that no man should ever say, especially a Supreme Court candidate," he later said on national TV.

His comments caused uproar among politicians and human rights groups, who have called for Sunusi to be sacked.

"The comments were inelegant, inappropriate and unbecoming of a judge and a Supreme Court hopeful," politician Sarifuddin Suding said.

Commission for Child Protection chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said Sunusi's comments were "insolent" and reflected the view from various segments of society that sexual violence is a norm.

"It is disturbing that a judge, whose role is to protect the legal rights of women and children, could say something so audacious and consider it as a joke. He should be sacked," Sirait said.

Online petitions to parliament to reject his nomination for the Supreme Court have been circulating.

The Judicial Commission, which monitors judges' conduct and professionalism, said it has questioned Sunusi and will decide on sanctions later this month.

Options range from a warning about his behaviour to straightforward dismissal.

The National Commission on Violence Against Women recorded 4,845 rape cases between 1998 and 2010, but human rights activist Andy Yentriyani said many perpetrators were given light sentences or escaped punishment altogether.

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Multiple Murderer Finally Gets Execution Wish

A man who strangled two cellmates, and threatened to go on killing, has become the first to be executed in the US this year.

Robert Gleason died in Virginia's electric chair at 9:08pm on Wednesday at the Greensville Correctional Centre.

The 42-year-old was the first to choose to die by electrocution since 2010.

Before being lowered into the chair, Gleason winked into the witness booth.

"Can they hear me out there?" he asked before ending with an Irish expletive and "God bless".

A metal helmet was placed on his head and a clamp on his right calf.

His face was covered with a leather strap with a triangle cut out for his nose.

Then his body tensed as he was given two 90-second cycles of electric current.

In Virginia and nine other states, inmates can choose between the chair and lethal injection.

All 42 prisoners put to death in the US in 2012 died from a lethal injection.

Unusually Gleason had fought last-minute attempts by former attorneys to stop the execution, arguing he deserved to die for what he did.

Gleason was serving life in prison for a 2007 murder when he killed his cellmate 63-year-old Harvey Watson in 2009.

He remained in the cell with the lifeless body for more than 15 hours before officers found out.

"Someone needs to stop it. The only way to stop me is put me on death row," Gleason told the AP news agency.

"The death part don't bother me. This has been a long time coming. It's called karma," he added.

When the system was not moving fast enough, Gleason strangled 26-year-old Aaron Cooper through the wire fencing that separated their individual cages on the recreation yard in 2010.

He said the body count would rise if his warnings were not heeded.

Gleason also claimed he had killed many more but refused to provide details - except that they were all alleged criminals.

"I ain't saying I'm a better person for killing criminals, but I've never killed innocent people," Gleason said.

"I killed people that's in the same lifestyle as me, and they know, hey, these things can happen."

Lawyers who tried to intervene on Gleason's behalf argued he was severely disturbed.

They said his mental competency had deteriorated over the time he was held in isolation on death row. 

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New York 'Mafia' Raid: 30 Arrested By FBI

Thirty alleged New York mobsters have been arrested on suspicion of using the city's private waste disposal industry as a Mafia front.

The suspects, with nicknames including 'Big Bill' and 'Uncle Sonny', were held after early-morning FBI raids in the New York and New Jersey areas.

Those arrested, including Carmine 'Papa Smurf' Franco, are thought to have close ties with the Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families - three of New York's largest organised crime families.

They face charges including extortion, loanskarking, racketeering and fraud.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said: "As alleged, organised crime still wraps its tentacles around industries it has fed off for decades, but law enforcement continues to pry loose its grip."

She added: "Organised crime insinuated itself into the waste disposal industry throughout a vast swath of counties in New York and New Jersey, and the tactics they used to exert and maintain their control come right out of the Mafia playbook - extortion, intimidation, and threats of violence."

Charges brought against the suspects include fraud, loan-sharking and "conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise that asserted illegal and extortionate control over commercial waste-hauling companies," according to the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office.

Many - like Franco, who was banned from running waste management companies in 1998 after being convicted for fraud - are also accused of having a stake in a licenced waste disposal business while having a criminal record or ties to organised crime families.

This is something prohibited by New York state law.

FBI assistant director-in-charge George Venizelos said the charges "show the on-going threat posed by mob families and their criminal associates. In addition to the violence that often accompanies their schemes, the economic impact amounts to a mob tax on goods and services".

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Armstrong Loses Olympic Medal Ahead Of Oprah

Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his Olympic medal, ahead of the airing of a confessional TV interview that critics say was less than candid.

The disgraced cyclist has said viewers will soon be able judge the Oprah Winfrey interview for themselves.

"I left it all on the table with her and when it airs the people can decide," he said in a text message to the AP news agency.

Winfrey had said she was "satisfied" with Monday's recording, during which the 41-year-old appears to have acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

However even she concluded: "I would rather people make their own decisions about whether he was contrite or not.

"I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I expected."

The IOC is not waiting to see the interview before removing Armstrong's bronze, won in the time trial in Sydney in 2000. 

Officials said a letter was sent to Armstrong on Wednesday night asking him to return the Olympic medal.

Armstrong was stripped of all seven Tour de France titles

Armstrong had already been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year and banned for life after a scathing US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report.

Chief executive Travis Tygart labelled the doping regime, allegedly carried out by the US Postal Service team that Armstrong once led, as "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen".

The airing of the interview at 9pm ET on Thursday (2am GMT on Friday), with the second part to follow 24 hours later, will in no way be the end of the saga.

He is named as a defendant in at least two pending lawsuits involving SCA Promotions and The Sunday Times, and possibly a third.

The US Justice Department is expected also to reveal on Thursday that it is joining a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping.

That suit alleges Armstrong defrauded the US government by repeatedly denying he used PEDs.

He could be required to return substantial sponsorship fees from the US Postal Service and pay a hefty fine.

The interview will air first on Oprah Winfrey's television network

Armstrong may have been motivated to give the interview to Winfrey to help his bid to compete in elite international triathlon events.

But even that could prove to be a long road back.

World Anti-Doping Agency general director David Howman has said nothing short of a confession under oath could prompt a reconsideration of his lifetime ban.

Armstrong - who always demanded fierce loyalty from his racing teams - would be under pressure also to start naming those who aided or helped cover up the long-term abuse of PEDs.

:: The interview will also be broadcast on Discovery Channel UK at 2am and 8pm (GMT) on Friday December 18.  

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'Many Dead' In Strike On Algeria Gas Plant

A number of foreign hostages at a besieged Algerian gas plant have reportedly been freed in the wake of a military strike which news agencies say has killed several people.

Mauritania's ANI news agency reported the deaths citing one of the kidnappers who had earlier taken 41 people captive at the compound near the border with Libya.

A large explosion has been heard away from the accommodation block at the remote desert complex, Sky sources said.

The official Algerian APS news agency said a number of foreign hostages were free. The Irish foreign ministry says 36-year-old Stephen McFaul, who was among them, is understood to be safe.

APS also said as many as 600 Algerian workers at the site managed to flee the plant, and an American military official said at least one US unarmed drone was flying over the complex.

News agency Reuters spoke to a local resident who said many people were killed in the military operation, which the Algerian government confirmed it was carrying out.

The Algerian government said it had to act "immediately" to intervene in the hostage crisis, according to Downing Street.

David Cameron's spokesman said Britain was not given prior notice of the operation, adding it was ongoing and the situation was "very grave and serious".

Mr Cameron was informed the operation was under way when he telephoned the Algerian prime minister at 11am today, the spokesman added.

And the British PM made clear he would have preferred to be informed in advance of the military action, the spokesman went on.

There have been conflicting reports as to the number of casualties, with Reuters citing a local source as saying six foreign hostages and eight rebels were killed.

The source said some hostages were still being held.

ANI said the attackers' spokesman had claimed that Algerian forces opened fire as the militants tried to leave the energy complex with hostages.

The facility is run jointly by BP, the Norwegian energy firm Staoil and the Algerian state oil company.

On Wednesday a Briton and an Algerian were killed when around 20 gunmen from an al Qaeda-backed group stormed the In Amenas facility.

Among the UK nationals taken hostage by the group were Scottish nationals, Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond confirmed earlier.

Al Qaeda-linked militant group Katibat Moulathamine - The Masked Ones - claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group said it was retaliating for French military intervention against al Qaeda-backed rebels in neighbouring Mali, where France now has 1,400 troops on the ground.

Foreign Secretary William Hague earlier said he was sceptical the attack was a retaliation over the offensive against Islamist fighters in Mali because it would take longer to plan.

BP said it was evacuating a group of workers from Algeria after Islamist gunmen took dozens of foreigners hostage at the In Amenas plant.

More follows...

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QE2 To Be Transformed Into Five-Star Hotel

The owner of the QE2 has outlined plans to turn the liner into a luxury hotel moored in an Asian harbour.

Shipyard operator Drydocks World, which belongs to the Dubai government, says the MS Queen Elizabeth 2 will be transformed into a five-star hotel with 500 rooms.

Oceanic Group, part of the consortium that will renovate the ship, said it will include 100,000 square feet of retail space, three Michelin-starred restaurants, an on-board maritime museum and ballroom.

"The vision for the QE2 is for her to become a landmark cultural and tourist attraction-a beacon of luxury, glamour, quality and tradition - in the heart of a leading Asian city that shares her rich maritime heritage and is prepared to give this very special ship the prominent waterfront home she so richly deserves," Drydocks World said in a statement.

"The consortium will lavish many millions of dollars on this magnificent ship to restore her to the splendour of her glory days as an icon of the very best the world has to offer."

It said a number of Asian cities have expressed an interest in the ship, although its final destination is being kept a closely-guarded secret.

Oceanic Group added: "The QE2 is an awe-inspiring ship with a rich history and the onboard experience will bring visitors back to her grand old days as the queen of the seas.

"Whether guests stay, dine or host events aboard the QE2, they will be guaranteed an utterly unique experience and memories to last a lifetime."

The announcement ends intense speculation about the future of the vessel since its retirement.

It was bought in 2007 for around £50m at the height of the economic boom in the United Arab Emirates, but has sat idle in a Dubai port for more than four years.

Tickets for its voyage to Dubai in 2008 sold out almost instantly, with some berths going for more than £28,000.

The iconic vessel, which was launched by the Queen in 1967, carried a total of 2.5 million passengers across the Atlantic Ocean between Southampton and New York while in operation.

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Gold Find: Novice Prospector Earns Big Bucks

An amateur gold prospector has made the find of a lifetime in southern Australia, unearthing a nugget worth almost £200,000.

The Y-shaped nugget, which weighed five kilograms or 117 ounces (11 lbs), was discovered by an unidentified man armed only with a hand-held metal detector just outside the 'gold rush' town of Ballarat 65 miles from Melbourne.

The find, made on Wednesday, was confirmed by Cordell Kent, owner of the town's Mining Exchange Gold Shop.

 "A lot of people think Victoria's goldfields are dead and that there's none left, but he (the prospector) has worked in an area where a lot of people have worked in the past but he persisted and he's been rewarded."

The nugget has been put up for sale by the prospector

Mr Kent confirmed he was looking for a buyer for the nugget, which he said was among the biggest he had seen in 20 years in the gold business.

"We have 800 prospectors on our books and only a couple of those have ever found a nugget over 100 ounces," he said, adding that the sum total of his own finds was little more than 100 ounces.

Analysts say that while the finder, who wished to remain anonymous, would expect to fetch a market price of £197,000, that could well be a low estimate given the rare nature of the find.

Ballarat and its surroundings were a key site in Australia's gold rush in the mid-1800s, which brought a flood of migrants and transformed the economy.

Locals are expecting renewed interest in the area despite the remote chance that such a discovery will be repeated.

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