Page 10A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Friday, March 13, 2015
BRIEFLY
IS accepts Boko
Haram pledge
AP Photo/NASA, Ben Smegelsky
In this undated photo provided by NASA, Magneto-
spheric Multiscale (MMS) observatories are processed
for launch in a clean room at the Astrotech Space Op-
erations facility in Titusville, Fla.
NASA set to launch craft
to solve magnetic mystery
communications and power
on Earth. Data from this two-
CAPE CANAVERAL, year mission should help
Fla. — NASA is sending four scientists better understand
identical spacecraft on a bil- so-called space weather.
Each observatory resem-
lion-dollar mission to study
the explosive give-and-take bles a giant octagonal wheel,
of the Earth and sun’s mag- stretching more than 11 feet
across and 4 feet high, and
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Liftoff of the unmanned weighing 3,000 pounds
Atlas rocket — and NASA’s apiece. They’re numbered
Magnetospheric Multiscale and stacked like tires on top
spacecraft — was set for of the rocket, with No. 4 pop-
10:44 p.m. Thursday. Every- ping free more than an hour
thing was going well in the after liftoff, followed every
countdown as the sun set, and ¿YHPLQXWHVE\DQRWKHU
Principal investigator Jim
the chance of good weather
Burch from the Southwest
improved to 80 percent.
The quartet will be Research Institute in San An-
launched into an oblong orbit tonio said measurements will
stretching tens of thousands be made down to the electron
of miles into the magneto- VFDOH VLJQL¿FDQWO\ VPDOOHU
sphere — nearly halfway to than previous heliophysics
the moon at one point. They missions. In all, there are 100
ZLOO À\ LQ S\UDPLG IRUPD- science sensors.
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tion, between 6 miles and
250 miles apart, to provide $1.1 billion mission will be
3-D views of magnetic re- useful in understanding mag-
connection on the smallest of netic reconnection through-
out the universe. Closer to
scales.
Magnetic reconnection is home, space weather scien-
what happens when magnetic tists along with everyone on
¿HOGVOLNHWKRVHDURXQG(DUWK (DUWKKRSHIXOO\ZLOOEHQH¿W
“We’re not setting out
and the sun come together,
break apart, then come to- here to solve space weather,”
gether again, releasing vast Burch said. “We’re setting
out to learn the fundamen-
energy.
This repeated process tal features of magnetic re-
drives the aurora, as well as connection because that’s
solar storms that can disrupt what drives space weather.”
AP Aerospace Writer
Fake IRS agents target
thousands in tax scam
Tax scams often increase
GXULQJWD[¿OLQJVHDVRQDQG
with millions of Americans
WASHINGTON — Fake preparing their returns ahead
IRS agents have targeted of the April 15 deadline, the
more than 366,000 people IRS is seeing many cases
with harassing phone calls of identity theft and refund
demanding payments and fraud.
In recent years the IRS
threatening jail in the largest
scam of its kind in the history has stepped up efforts to
of the agency, a federal in- detect large numbers of tax
refunds going to the same
vestigator said Thursday.
More than 3,000 people address or bank account.
have fallen for the ruse since 8VLQJ FRPSXWHU ¿OWHUV WKH
2013, said Timothy Camus, DJHQF\ LGHQWL¿HG PRUH WKDQ
a Treasury deputy inspector 517,000 suspicious returns
general for tax administra- and blocked $3.1 billion in
tion. They were conned out fraudulent returns, as of Oc-
tober 2014, Camus said in his
of a total of $15.5 million.
The scam has claimed testimony.
In 2012, the IRS start-
victims in almost every state,
Camus said. One unidenti- ed working more closely
¿HG YLFWLP ORVW PRUH WKDQ ZLWK 86 DWWRUQH\V¶ RI¿FHV
around the country to combat
$500,000.
“The criminals do not tax refund fraud by people
discriminate. They are call- using stole identities, said
ing people everywhere, of Caroline Ciraolo, acting as-
all income levels and back- sistant attorney general for
grounds,” Camus told the the Justice Department’s tax
Senate Finance Committee division. Since then, the tax
at a hearing. “The callers of- division has opened near-
ten warned the victims that ly 1,000 investigations and
if they hung up, local police brought prosecutions against
would come to their homes more than 1,400 people, Ci-
raolo told the Senate Finance
to arrest them.”
The scam is so wide- Committee hearing.
“Given the sophistication
spread that investigators be-
lieve there is more than one of this criminal activity and
group of perpetrators, includ- the fact that a lot of it comes
from overseas, this looks to
ing some overseas.
Camus said even he re- me like an emerging type of
ceived a call from one of the organized crime,” said Sen.
scammers at his home on a Ron Wyden of Oregon, the
Saturday. He said he had a top Democrat on the Finance
stern message for the caller: Committee.
The inspector general’s
“Your day will come.”
Sen. Johnny Isakson, RI¿FHVWDUWHGUHFHLYLQJFRP-
R-Ga., said he got a similar plaints about the telephone
call, but realized it wasn’t a scam in 2013. Immigrants
were the primary target early
real IRS agent.
“It was a very convincing, RQ WKH ,*¶V RI¿FH VDLG %XW
convincing phone call,” Isak- the scam has since become
more widespread.
son said.
As part of the telephone
So far, two people in
Florida have been arrested, scam, fake IRS agents call
Camus said. They were ac- taxpayers, claim they owe
cused of being part of a scam taxes, and demand payment
that involved people in call using a prepaid debit card or
centers in India contacting a wire transfer. Those who
U.S. taxpayers and pretend- refuse are threatened with
arrest, deportation or loss of
ing to be IRS agents.
“These criminal acts are a business or driver’s license,
perpetrated by thieves hiding Camus said.
The callers can manip-
behind telephone lines and
computers, preying on hon- ulate caller ID to make it
est taxpayers and robbing the look like they are calling
Treasury of tens of billions of from an IRS phone number.
dollars every year,” said Sen. They might even know the
Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chair- last four digits of the taxpay-
man of the Senate Finance er’s Social Security number,
Camus said.
Committee.
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) —
Islamic State militants
have accepted a pledge
of allegiance by the
Nigerian-grown Boko
Haram extremist group, a
spokesman for the Islamic
State movement said
Thursday.
The development comes
as both movements, which
are among the most ruthless
in the world, are under
increasing military pressure.
Islamic State seized
much of northern and
western Iraq last summer
giving it control of about a
third of both Iraq and Syria.
But it is now struggling
against Iraqi forces seeking
to recapture Saddam
Hussein’s hometown of
Tikrit, while coming under
¿UHIURP86OHGFRDOLWLRQ
air strikes in other parts of
the country and in Syria.
Boko Haram, meanwhile,
has been weakened by a
multinational force that has
dislodged it from a score
of northeastern Nigerian
towns. But its new Twitter
account, increasingly slick
and more frequent video
messages and a new media
arm all were considered
signs that the group is
now being helped by IS
propagandists.
Then on Saturday, Boko
Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau posted an audio
recording online that
pledged allegiance to IS.
On Thursday, the Islamic
State group’s media arm
Al-Furqan, in an audio
recording by spokesman
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani,
said that Boko Haram’s
pledge of allegiance has
been accepted, claiming the
caliphate has now expanded
to West Africa.
Al-Adnani had urged
IRUHLJQ¿JKWHUVIURPDURXQG
the world to migrate and
join Boko Haram.
More children at
risk of measles in
wake of Ebola
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Ebola’s toll
moved beyond 10,000
deaths Thursday even as
researchers warned of yet
another threat to hard-hit
West Africa: On the heels
of the unprecedented
devastation, large outbreaks
of measles and other
vaccine-preventable
diseases could move into
the region.
Ebola derailed child
immunizations in the three
countries hardest hit by
Ebola — Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea, leaving
hundreds of thousands more
children vulnerable to the
more routine infections,
researchers said Thursday.
Already, worrisome clusters
of measles cases are
cropping up.
The new study warns
that it’s crucial to restart
the shots quickly, citing
math models that estimate
thousands could die if
a large enough measles
outbreak were to strike
before the battered health
care system has a chance to
recover.
Measles epidemics
often follow humanitarian
crises because “measles is
so incredibly contagious,”
explained Johns Hopkins
University epidemiologist
Justin Lessler, who led
the study published in the
journal Science.
The Ebola death
milestone announced by the
World Health Organization
on Thursday had been
expected for weeks,
even though overall the
epidemic is waning. Liberia
has begun the 42-day
countdown toward being
declared Ebola-free if no
new cases arise. Guinea
and Sierra Leone still are
struggling to end infections.
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