North Korea launches missile over Japan

POLITICS - The United States and its allies are worried today after North Korea's defiant launch of a rocket that fizzled and crashed into the Pacific, holding an emergency UN meeting in response to fears the country was testing long-range missile technology.

American military sources said the launch was a failure, saying that the rocket's payload failed to enter into orbit and crashed into the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii.

Officials in Pyongyang North Korea claims the missile launched an experimental communications satellite into orbit and that it's transmitting data and patriotic songs.

United States President Barack Obama called for a global response and condemned North Korea for threatening the peace and stability of nations "near and far." Minutes after the North Korean missile's liftoff, Japan requested the emergency Security Council session in New York.

The North Korean government characterized the act as a successful, peaceful launch of a satellite into orbit and North Korea's news agency, KCNA, said that "scientists and technicians of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] have succeeded in putting satellite Kwangmyongsong-2, an experimental communications satellite, into orbit by means of carrier rocket Unha-2 under the state long-term plan for the development of outer space."

However the United States and South Korean officials say the entire rocket, including whatever payload it carried, ended up in the ocean north of Hawaii. Many world leaders fear the launch indicates the capacity for North Korea to fire a long-range missile capable of hitting Alaska, Canada or California.

"North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles," Obama said in Prague. "It creates instability in their region, around the world. This provocation underscores the need for action, not just this afternoon in the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

U.N. council members is seeking an unified response and did not expect to reach agreement on a new resolution, possibly with tighter or added sanctions, until later in the week.

North Korea is a rogue communist state that has repeatedly threatened a renewed war against the USA (the Korean War never officially ended and the USA and North Korea have been in a state of cold war ever since). So far North Korea has carried out an underground nuclear blast (see North Korea's Nuclear Test) and tested ballistic missiles in recent years, showing they are determined to fight the "imperialist American regime".

Unlike its previous events North Korea notified the international community that the launch was coming and the route the rocket would take, insisting all the while it was just a satellite launch. Using a loophole in sanctions imposed after the 2006 nuclear test that barred the North from ballistic missile activity, so North Korea claims it is just exercising its right to peaceful space development.

Recovery of the missile fuselage will determine whether North Korea was really just testing a missile for war, and whether they have violated United Nations sanctions against missile tests.

"Obviously today's action by North Korea constitutes a clear violation," said Susan Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations. "My government has called this a provocative act, and we have been in consultation today with our allies in the region and other partners on the Security Council ... to work toward agreement on a strong collective action."

In past years China and Russia has been selling missile technology and nuclear materials to North Korea and Iran.

Yukio Takasu, Japan's ambassador to the UN, called the launch "a clear crime" that violates UN Security Council demands and that the launch posed a grave threat to Japan's national security.

If a war broke out with North Korea, its believed North Korea's best strategy would be to launch nukes at military bases in South Korea, Japan, Hawaii and Alaska. In a worst case scenario, North Korea could get ships or submarines within range of launching nukes on the continental United States.

Protests in South Korea against the missile launch continue today.

See Also:
North Korea to launch missile satellite into orbit
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62 die in Pakistani shipping container

POLITICS - At least 62 people suffocated to death in a truck shipping container packed with illegal immigrants, and dozens were rescued unconscious today after Pakistani police acting on a tip opened the container near the Afghanistan border. Most of the victims were Afghans.

Rasool Bakhsh, a senior police official in the city of Quetta, said the shipping container the truck was carrying entered Pakistan from Afghanistan and was headed for Iran.

More than 100 people were packed inside the 12-metre-long metal container. Survivors were rushed to the hospital, many of them unconscious.

Television footage shot shortly after the white container was opened showed dozens of bodies, many of them stripped to the waist, lined up on the road next to the truck. The stench from the container suggested some might have been dead for days.

Pakistani officials said they were holding the truck's driver as part of their investigation.

Southwestern Pakistan lies on a well-trodden route for traffickers smuggling young men from poverty-afflicted countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, hoping to find work and prosperity in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

Tougher Emission standards and $9 billion for transit

CARS/ENVIRONMENT - In Canada the federal government is moving ahead with "tough" new emission standards for cars and light trucks meant to cut their output of greenhouse gas emissions. Its the first time since Brian Mulroney in the 1980s that a Conservative Party has pushed for tougher emission standards.

In a speech today, Environment Minister Jim Prentice conceded that the new regulations come at a difficult time for struggling automakers but warned the industry can't wait for good times to go green.

Plus, these new standards will allow Canadian automakers to compete in Asia and Europe, where many Canadian and American-built cars can't even be sold there because they don't meet the emission standards.

"The rest of the world won't wait. Someone else will move ahead to build the greener car," Prentice said in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada, saying that Canada needs to be at the forefront of environmental standards if they want to sell their products overseas.

The new standard will bring Canada in line with goals set by the new United States administration for an average of 30.2 miles per gallon for 2011 models, allowing Canadian cars to be sold in the USA, but it will still be far below the standards required to sell cars in China or Japan or some European countries.

The mandatory regulations, to take effect before the 2011 model year, are part of Ottawa's strategy to reduce greenhouse gases by 20 per cent by 2020, said Jim Prentice.

$9 Billion for Transit

More money for TTC, subway and street cars

In Ontario, four new public transit projects for the Greater Toronto Area, including a rapid transit line on Eglinton Avenue to Pearson Airport, are getting the green light from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty today.

It will be next year at the earliest before construction can begin, with the exception of the York Viva bus rapid transit line, which will get $1.4 billion in new construction starting in Autumn. A first segment will be built along Highway 7 from Markham Centre to Richmond Hill Centre with completion scheduled for 2011.

Other segments of the line should be finished two years later, and will alleviate the crowded streets of the Greater Toronto Area.

Jobs are also an issue during the current recession. "Our investments in transit will create jobs, help stimulate the economy and improve the air we breathe," said Premier McGuinty.

In Scarborough, rehabilitation work and extending the rapid transit rail line to Malvern Town Centre or Markham Road is slated to be completed and in service for commuters by 2015. Construction is expected to begin in 2010 at a cost of $1.4 billion.

The 30-kilometre rapid transit line on Eglinton could be up and running by 2016. The estimated cost of the project, which includes a 10-kilometre tunnel from Keele to Leslie streets, is $4.6 billion.

Further north, the Finch light rapid transit line from Humber College on Hwy 427 to Don Mills subway station in the east will be finished by 2013 at a cost of $1.2 billion.

Today's announcement also includes financial support for a $3 million study of potential rapid transit lines through Hamilton – an east-west line on the King and Main street corridor and a north-south line along James and Upper James. The study will be completed by Spring 2010.

April Fools' Conficker Virus is a dud

TECHNOLOGY - Ironically, in a conscious bid to rid their computers of the dastardly April Fool's Day Conficker virus, some people may have unwittingly installed it.

The Conficker C Internet worm is a malicious computer virus that burrows into your hard drive--and was due to begin hatching its nefarious plans Tuesday night at midnight.

The virus was launched in October 2008, and has since infected an estimated 12 million Windows-based PCs via unreliable websites and downloads.

As the virus moves into its second phase today, it gives an outside user control of the hijacked machine, and there is fear your private information could be stolen.

Only six per cent of all infected computers are in North America, researchers at IBM's Internet Security Systems said Tuesday, while the majority, 45 per cent, exist in Asia. But with so much interest in Conficker in the western world, its creators have found a new viral marketing campaign to keep it alive.

Software security vendor Symantec, publishers of the popular Norton Antivirus, released a report Tuesday that says people were more susceptible to download a copy of the virus simply by searching for "Conficker" in Google. The search brings up 3.2 million mentions of the worm on the Internet, some of them hoax websites that actually host the virus and infect any users who surf those sites.

"Be careful with the links you follow," the company warned in a news release. "A sincere effort of keeping abreast with the latest security information might contain some unwelcome surprises."

The news doesn't come as a surprise to Stuart Crawford, vice-president of Calgary IT firm Bulletproof Infotech.

"The Internet is a minefield and you have to know where to step," he said. "We'd like to remind people to only rely on trusted sites."

The first real computer virus scare in years has also been attracting a cottage industry of online scam artists, dubious cyber criminals who are selling alleged removal tools for the virus that promise a lot and do nothing. Some even infect the PC with more malware.

"Bad guys will try to take advantage of any crisis, whether it's a natural catastropheor Conficker striking,"said John Aycock, an associate professor in the computer science department at the University of Calgary. "So in that respect, this isn't surprising."

The computers infected with Conficker are scheduled to move into a new phase today, April 1, when the worm will seek new instructions.

What those instructions are has been relatively unknown to leading computer experts. In a worst-case scenario, the worm could take over your machine and steal all your personal data. On the other hand, optimists say this could all be one of the most elaborate April Fool's Day hoaxes ever.

"We don't know what those instructions are, and in all likelihood, nothing is going to happen,"Aycock said.

The worm, one that's been difficult to identify and remove, has been one of the most sophisticated and potentially dangerous that many in the information security business have faced. It exploits weaknesses in the Windows operating system and conceals itself on a hard drive, laying dormant until midnight this morning, when it was expected to search out its originator and seek further instructions.

To hide its tracks and protect its creators, the virus generates a list of tens of thousands of URLs or domain names, any one of which could be its central command centre. Until it is dismantled, Conficker will generate 50,000 brand new URLs a day and will search for 500 of those names on a daily basis, according to security vendor Websense Inc.

Apple Macintosh and Linux users aren't affected, since Conficker only attacks PCs running Windows. Unfortunately, that means nine out of every 10 computers in the world could be a carrier.

"This was designed to hit as many people as it possibly could,"Crawford said.

The virus is most likely to strike the untold thousands, millions perhaps, that are running pirated versions of Windows on their machines.Because they acquired the software illicitly, they are unlikely to update it through Microsoft's official patches.

"If you don't have an official copy of Windows or you're unable to update, you're potentially at risk," Aycock said. "But if you're running antivirus software, it should be able to spot Conficker now."

Most commercial antivirus software firms have released updates to combat Conficker, and the U. S. Department of Homeland Security has made a free removal tool available on its website.

If you fear your computer is hosting theConficker C virus, Crawford suggested trying to navigate to popular antivirus sites such as Norton.com and McAfee. com. The newest versions of Conficker disable your ability to log onto these sites. If you're unable to visit these sites, you're ad-vised to take your computer to an IT expert as soon as possible.

Microsoft Corp is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of Conficker's creators, though the culprits behind these types of cybercrimes are rarely found.

"The grim reality is that catching the bad guys behind this, unless they make a massive slip-up, is next to zero," Aycock said. "They could be anywhere in the world."

It's also likely that Conficker's creators have been scared off by all the media attention they've garnered, the professor said, at least for now.

"It's entirely possible that the bad guys don't really know what to do with all this firepower they've amassed,"he said. "But these are people who have a high level of technical skill and a fair bit of motivation, so it may be likely that Conficker won't be the last we'll hear from them."

As for the Conficker worm itself, it likely isn't going anywhere. Aycock said given the history of computer viruses, it's more likely that Microsoft will have to learn to work around it rather than disable it altogether.

In Entertainment news, here's some old April Fools' jokes made by various TV stations: