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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2016)
Page 14 The Skanner October 5, 2016 News Report: Yahoo Gave US Agencies Email Access NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo reportedly scanned hundreds of millions of email accounts at the behest of U.S. intelli- gence or law enforcement. The scans, reported by Reuters, allegedly selected incoming messages that contained a string of unknown characters. Yahoo did not deny the report, saying only that it is a “law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the Unit- ed States.” According to the Tuesday report, Yahoo acceded to a 2015 government directive to give email access to the Na- tional Security Agency or the FBI. Reu- ters cited anonymous sources includ- ing two former employees and another person with knowledge of the events. Yahoo continues to face questions about a breach in 2014 that compro- mised at least 500 million accounts. The Department of Justice and the FBI did not immediately respond to re- quests for comment. Clinton Seeks Support from Philadelphia Women HAVERFORD, Pa. (AP) — Hillary Clinton appealed to voting mothers Tuesday at a town hall meeting in Phil- adelphia’s suburbs, outlining ways she hopes to curb gun violence as president and provide paid family leave and sick days for struggling working moms. “It should not be so hard to be a young parent. And it should not be so hard on the other end of the age spectrum to take care of your loved one,” Democrat Clinton said in a question-and-answer session with supporters, making the case to female voters who have period- ically backed Republicans in past pres- idential races. Donald Trump, meanwhile, sought to shore up support in Arizona ater ind- ing himself on the defensive with reve- lations that his massive inancial losses could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for years. He was also grappling with new alle- gations of boorish treatment of women and criticism of his comments about veterans’ health. Syrian Government Press in Aleppo Ofensive BEIRUT (AP) — Forces backing Syr- ian President Bashar Assad pressed their ofensive Tuesday on Aleppo’s rebel-held zone from the south, ater capturing areas on other fronts in re- cent days. As reinforcements arrived, including Shiite ighters from Iraq, the strategy appeared to be to retake rebel-held areas bit by bit, backed by massive Russian airpower, rather than risk a potentially costly all-out ground battle. Tuesday’s ofensive on the city’s be- sieged rebel-held eastern neighbor- hoods came a day ater Washington suspended direct U.S.-Russian talks on a Syria cease-ire — a move U.S. Secre- tary of State John Kerry blamed on Rus- sia’s rejection of diplomacy in favor of helping Assad’s government achieve a military victory over the rebels. The latest tactic of whittling away at rebel-held areas of Aleppo rather than launching an all-out ofensive has proved successful in the past: The government reasserted control of the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, and most of the central city of Homs using the strategy. “The Syrian army and its allies are in a sustained ofensive to recapture reb- el-held eastern Aleppo,” wrote Robert SYRIAN CENTRAL MILITARY MEDIA VIA AP World News Briefs In this still image taken from video provided by the Syrian government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, government troops patrol inside the Bustan Al-Basha neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Ford, a veteran diplomat and former ambassador to Syria. “Unless the balance on the ground drastically shits, the Assad regime will eventually retake from opposition ighters all of Aleppo and the outlying districts of Damascus,” wrote Ford, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “This may take months, but the balance is certainly in the Syr- ian government’s favor.” Google Gets Aggressive with New Gadgets SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is ratcheting up its rivalry with Apple and Amazon in unveiling new smart- phones and an internet-connected speaker sporting a digital assistant that the company hopes to make indis- pensable. The devices unveiled Tuesday are part of Google’s bold move to design and sell its own hardware, instead of just supplying Android and other sotware for other companies to make products. Google’s previous attempts at hardware have had limited distri- bution and included such high-proile lops as its internet-connected Glass headgear. This time around, Google is betting big that it has matured to the point that it can design sotware and hardware to work seamlessly with each other — an art that Apple mastered during the past 15 years as it mesmerized consumers with its iPods, iPhones, iPads and Macs. Borrowing another page from Ap- ple’s book, Google is backing its ex- panded product lineup with the biggest marketing campaign in its 18-year his- tory. The company isn’t disclosing how much it will spend, but made it clear the ads touting products “Made by Goo- gle” will be ubiquitous during the next few months. 3 Win Nobel for Unusual States of Matter How is a doughnut like a cofee cup? The answer helped three British-born scientists win the Nobel prize in phys- ics Tuesday. Their work could help lead to more powerful computers and improved ma- terials for electronics. David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, who are now ail- iated with universities in the United States, were honored for work in the 1970s and ‘80s that shed light on strange states of matter. “Their discoveries have brought about breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of matter’s mysteries and created new perspectives on the development of innovative materials,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Scienc- es said. Thouless, 82, is a professor emeri- tus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and currently a visiting lecturer at Aalto University in Helsin- ki.