“Gangnam Style” singer Psy apologizes for past anti-U.S. songs












LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The South Korean pop singer behind the viral smash hit “Gangnam Style” apologized on Friday for past concerts featuring anti-American lyrics, ahead of a holiday performance to be attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and his family.


Psy issued the apology after reports surfaced in the United States on Friday about his participation in two performances critical of the U.S. military in 2004.












Psy’s “Gangnam Style” Korean pop and dance video is now the most-watched video ever on YouTube, with more than 900 million views since it was first uploaded in July.


“While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self, I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted,” the rapper said in a statement.


“I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused by those words,” he added.


In one performance, which Psy said was from eight years ago, the rapper protested the deaths of two teenage South Korean girls who were run over by a U.S. tank stationed in the country.


In a separate performance, Psy was critical of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and its occupation, in which South Korean forces participated.


Psy is scheduled to perform at the annual “Christmas in Washington” television special that will also be attended by Obama and his family, the White House said on Friday. Broadcaster TNT said Psy would still perform as planned.


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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7.3 quake off Japan prompts tsunami warning









TOKYO—





A strong earthquake struck Friday off the coast of northeastern Japan in the same region that was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami last year. A city in the region reported that a small tsunami had hit, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 and struck in the Pacific Ocean off Miyagi prefecture at 5:18 p.m. (0818 GMT). The epicenter was 6.2 miles beneath the seabed.

After the quake, which caused buildings in Tokyo to sway for at least several minutes, authorities issued a warning that a tsunami potentially as high as 2.19 yards could hit. Ishinomaki, a city in Miyagi, reported that a tsunami of 1 yard hit at 6:02 p.m. (0902 GMT).

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no risk of a widespread tsunami.

Miyagi prefectural police said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries from the quake or tsunami, although traffic was being stopped in some places to check on roads.

Shortly before the earthquake struck, NHK television broke off regular programming to warn that a strong quake was due to hit. Afterward, the announcer repeatedly urged all near the coast to flee to higher ground.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that slammed into northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, killed or left missing some 19,000 people, devastating much of the coast. All but two of Japan's nuclear plants were shut down for checks after the earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Immediately following Friday's quake, there were no problems at any of the nuclear plants operated by Fukushima Dai-Ichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said a TEPCO spokesman, Takeo Iwamoto.

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Dec. 7











Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.


SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!


Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.


And now, without further ado, we give you…


TODAY’S PUZZLE:



Note: Ad-blocking software may prevent display of the puzzle widget.




Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He also wrote the NYT bestselling book "Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects for Dads and Kids to Share."

Read more by Ken Denmead

Follow @fitzwillie and @wiredgeekdad on Twitter.



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Baca shifts course on compliance with deportation program









Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has reversed his support for a controversial deportation program, announcing Wednesday that he will not comply with federal requests to detain suspected illegal immigrants arrested in low-level crimes.


The sheriff's dramatic turnaround came a day after California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris issued a legal directive advising that compliance with the requests is discretionary, not mandatory.


Until then, Baca had insisted that he would honor the requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold some defendants for up to 48 hours. He was an outspoken opponent of the Trust Act, which would have required California law enforcement officials to disregard the requests in many cases, declaring that he would defy the measure if it passed.








Baca has also been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for allegedly denying bail to immigration detainees.


Now, he appears ready to do more or less what was proposed in the Trust Act, which was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September.


The change of heart from Baca, a Republican in a heavily Democratic county, comes as GOP leaders are warming to immigration reform in an effort to counteract dismal support from Latino voters. Last month, Baca closed the 1,100-bed Mira Loma immigration detention center, which earned his agency up to $154 a day for each detainee, after contract negotiations with ICE broke down.


None of those considerations were at play, a Baca spokesman said. The sheriff's reversal was prompted solely by Harris' opinion, which contradicted advice from Los Angeles County attorneys that the requests were mandatory, said the spokesman, Steve Whitmore.


Baca joins Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who announced a similar policy in October. San Francisco and Santa Clara counties also decline to honor some types of ICE holds.


The change may not take effect until early next year. Baca's staff must first flesh out the details of the new policy, which would apply only to those arrested in misdemeanors who do not have significant criminal records. The department would still honor federal detention requests for those accused of serious or violent crimes.


Under the federal Secure Communities program, all arrestees' fingerprints are sent to immigration officials, who flag suspected illegal immigrants and request that they be held for up to 48 hours until transfer to federal custody.


Secure Communities has come under fire for ensnaring minor offenders when its stated purpose is to deport dangerous criminals and repeat immigration violators. According to federal statistics, fewer than half of those deported in Los Angeles County since the program's inception in 2008 have committed felonies or multiple misdemeanors. Critics say immigrants have become fearful of cooperating with police.


"The last thing we want is victims to be frightened to come forward," Whitmore said.


ICE officials said Baca's new policy is in line with federal priorities and will affect only a "very small number" of cases.


"The identification and removal of criminal offenders and other public safety threats is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's highest enforcement priority," the agency said in a statement.


Immigrant rights advocates called Baca's announcement a long overdue breakthrough.


"This will send a very strong message nationwide that in ... the most multicultural city in the nation, the sheriff is there to protect and to serve, not to deport," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.


Supporters of the Trust Act, which was reintroduced in modified form by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) earlier this week, said it is still necessary because detention policies should not vary by jurisdiction.


"It's imperative that California have a uniform statewide policy. It's essential that people not receive different treatment under the law as they're driving up and down the 5," said Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.


Baca has not taken a position on the new Trust Act, which is likely to evolve during the legislative process, Whitmore said.


cindy.chang@latimes.com



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John McAfee Detained by Guatemala Police











John McAfee was taken into police custody in Guatemala on Wednesday for being in the country illegally, police there have confirmed.


The McAfee Security founder had fled to Guatemala to avoid authorities in neighboring Belize, where he is wanted for questioning in the gunshot murder of his neighbor Greg Faull. McAfee has repeatedly claimed to be innocent. He was first reported detained by Robert King, a Vice photographer he was traveling with, who, oddly, likely contributed to McAfee’s capture.



On Monday, Vice published a story titled “We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers” and inadvertently revealed McAfee’s whereabouts in Guatemala via location data embedded in the photo. McAfee and Vice photographer King both claimed the photo had been manipulated to conceal his true location.


McAfee later admitted that was a lie, and King’s Facebook status update claiming the photo was doctored disappeared. Wired emailed Vice’s Alex Detrick to ask if the publication stood by King’s statement, but Vice did not respond. However, on Tuesday, Vice published a new video of McAfee in Guatemala and claimed that he had “just hired the best lawyer in the country.” McAfee announced a press conference, and promised his new attorney the entire world media would show up. He was subsequently taken into custody by the Guatemala National Civil Police and Interpol.



On Wednesday, King reported Mcafee had been detained, which authorities in Guatemala subsequently confirmed. McAfee previously told Wired’s Joshua Davis he had dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard, and mustache black to avoid detection. This seemed like obvious subterfuge, but appears to be the case based on his appearances on Vice, and in a photo published by the Guatemala National Civil Police following McAfee’s detention.


If you’re worried that McAfee might drop out of public sight now that he’s been captured, don’t be. He’s already jailblogging and plans to go ahead with the press conference.




Mat Honan is a senior writer for Wired's Gadget Lab and the co-founder of the Knight-Batten award-winning Longshot magazine.

Read more by Mat Honan

Follow @mat on Twitter.



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Male artists lead 2013 Grammy nominations












NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) – Male artists led the nominations announced on Wednesday for the 2013 Grammys, as fun., Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys landed six nods each for music’s biggest awards.


The nominations for New York-based indie-pop band fun. – made up of Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff – included the four main categories for record, song and album of the year, and best new artist.












fun., which also performed at the Grammy nominations concert with Janelle Monae, said it felt good to be recognized and “took pride” in its live performances.


“Tonight, all I wanted to do was get up and really give it our all … receiving the nomination is amazing and a culmination of hard work the three of us have put into this band,” lead singer Ruess told reporters backstage.


The group scored a huge hit with its first single, “We Are Young,” and then followed that up with its successful album “Some Nights” and single of the same name.


Joining it in the album, record of the year and best new artist categories was hip hop artist Ocean.


The 25-year-old rapper-singer made waves earlier this year after revealing his first love was a man, a groundbreaking move in the hip hop industry, which has faced criticism in the past for being hostile toward gays.


His debut album, “Channel Orange” was a critical and commercial success, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart in July.


Ocean and fun. will be competing with blues-rock group Alabama Shakes, country singer Hunter Hayes and folk-rockers The Lumineers for the coveted best new artist title.


While young male artists made up a large portion of nominees in key categories, noticeably absent was 18-year-old Canadian singer Justin Bieber, one of 2012′s biggest pop music stars with chart-topping album “Believe” and singles such as “Boyfriend.”


The winners will be announced at the televised awards show in Los Angeles on February 10.


AFTER ADELE, MALE ARTISTS LEAD


After British singer Adele dominated the previous Grammy Awards with her juggernaut album “21,” male artists took the lead in the album of the year category, where Ocean and fun. are competing with The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons and Jack White.


British folk band Mumford & Sons, which scored six nominations both in 2011 and 2012 for its debut album, “Sigh No More,” landed six more nominations on Wednesday for its chart-topping sophomore album, “Babel,” which is the second biggest-selling album in the United States this year.


Ohio rock duo The Black Keys, formed by frontman Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney, landed five nominations, while Auerbach also notched a non-classical producer of the year nomination for his work on four albums.


Blues-rocker Jack White, the former frontman of The White Stripes, picked up three nods for his chart-topping debut solo album “Blunderbuss.”


Rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West continued to pick up nods for their 2011 album, “Watch The Throne,” including best rap performance for “N****s in Paris.” Jay-Z also landed nods for collaborating on songs with Young Jeezy and Rihanna, while West scored multiple nominations for his song “Mercy.”


Kelly Clarkson was one of the few leading female nominees, picking up three nominations, including record of the year and best pop vocal album.


R&B singer Rihanna also landed three nods, including best solo pop performance for “Where Have You Been.”


Record of the year nominees saw an assortment of rock, pop and hip hop nominees, with Clarkson’s “Stronger” competing with The Black Keys‘ “Lonely Boy,” fun.’s “We Are Young,” Australian artist Gotye’s heartbreak hit “Somebody That I Used To Know,” Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You,” and Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”


To be eligible for nominations this year, artists had to release their music between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2012.


Adele, who swept the awards in February with six accolades including the top three, landed only one nomination this year for best pop solo performance, as she did not release any music in the eligibility time frame.


The nominations for the top awards and main categories were announced during an hour-long televised concert in Nashville for the first time, co-hosted by country-pop artist Swift and veteran Grammy host, rapper-actor LL Cool J.


Adding a twist to the announcements, Hayes sang the nominees for best pop album, a tight contest between Maroon 5, Clarkson, Pink, fun. and Florence and the Machine. Hayes picked up two nods for best new artist and best country vocal performance.


British rock legends The Who will receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in February.


(Writing by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Peter Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)


Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Recipes for Health: Winter Squash and Walnut Spread — Recipes for Health


Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times





2 pounds pumpkin or winter squash, such as kabocha or butternut, seeds and membranes scraped away, cut into large pieces (if using butternut, cut in half crosswise, just above the bulbous bottom part, then cut these halves into lengthwise quarters and scrape away the seeds and membranes)


3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil


1/2 medium onion, finely chopped


2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint


1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg


1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces/35 g) lightly toasted walnuts, finely chopped


1 ounce Parmesan, grated (about 1/3 cup)


Salt and freshly ground pepper


1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and oil the foil. Place the squash on the baking sheet and rub or toss with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Place in the oven and bake until tender, 40 to 60 minutes depending on the type of squash and the size of the pieces. Every 15 minutes use tongs to turn the pieces over so different surfaces become browned on the foil. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then peel and place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse several times, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then purée until smooth.


2. Heat another tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy skillet and add the onion. Add a generous pinch of salt, turn the heat to medium low and cook, stirring often, until very tender, sweet and lightly caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to the squash. Add the mint, nutmeg, walnuts, Parmesan, and 1 tablespoon olive oil and pulse together. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on croutons.


Yield: 2 cups


Advance preparation: This will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator and freezes well. It benefits from being made a day ahead.


Variation: Omit the Parmesan for a vegan version. If desired, blend in 1 to 2 teaspoons of light miso.


Nutritional information per tablespoon: 35 calories; 2 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 1 milligram cholesterol; 4 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 15 milligrams sodium (does not include salt to taste); 1 gram protein


Martha Rose Shulman is the author of “The Very Best of Recipes for Health.”


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NASA plans new rover mission on Mars









NASA officials announced plans to build a new rover that would follow Curiosity and Opportunity on the Red Planet's surface in 2020, potentially to collect soil or rock samples that could later be sent back to Earth.


The objectives are not yet set, nor are the tools the rover would wield, said John Grunsfeld, head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. But Grunsfeld's remarks Tuesday raised the hopes of planetary scientists that NASA would be focusing its efforts on the complex and costly task of retrieving a piece of Mars.


"Collecting a cache of samples is difficult — it requires a very capable vehicle," said Steve Squyres, lead scientist for the Mars exploration rover mission, which put Opportunity on the planet in 2004. "The vehicle that John Grunsfeld just described for launch in 2020 is fully capable of doing that job."





The announcement electrified many of the roughly 18,000 researchers attending the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting this week in San Francisco.


Before Curiosity landed on Mars this summer, NASA was unsure of its future direction in exploring the solar system. Big-budget missions to Mars seemed politically unpalatable after Curiosity's $2.5-billion price tag, and no other major missions had been scheduled, even as the next launch window in 2018 approached.


But the rover's dramatic landing and early scientific exploits have rejuvenated enthusiasm for Martian exploration.


That has given a boost to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, home of the Mars exploration program and the expected lead on the new rover program.


The new rover, estimated to cost $1.5 billion, promises to provide a "shot in the arm" for the local economy, said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), whose district includes JPL in La Canada Flintridge.


Mars missions make up a significant share of JPL's projects. Over the last decade, Curiosity alone employed about 3,000 staffers and brought in 4,000 others from outside the lab.


Rather than reinventing the rover all over again, Grunsfeld said NASA would base designs for the new machine on Curiosity's tried-and-true architecture.


The mission would use the same landing method as the spacecraft carrying Curiosity did, a complex sequence involving a heat shield, a parachute and a hovering platform that lowered the rover to the surface by cable before hurling itself away.


It would even use spare parts collecting dust in Curiosity's proverbial closet.


There are advantages to building a rover along the lines of the Mars Science Laboratory, as the Curiosity mission is officially known, said David Paige, a UCLA planetary scientist working on the Messenger mission to Mercury.


Engineers have worked out the kinks from that mission. They've proved that the landing system — which inspired NASA's popular online video, "Seven Minutes of Terror" — can work without a hitch.


They can also tap the same scientists and engineers that made the previous landing mission a success, said Fuk Li, head of the Mars Exploration Directorate at JPL.


"They're capitalizing on the investment that's already been made," Paige said.


It's unclear what the rover would do on the Martian surface, Grunsfeld said. One idea is for the rover to collect and store soil and rock samples. That would only be the first step; a far more complex mission would be to bring them back to Earth.


The Planetary Science Decadal Survey, which publishes long-term goals for exploring the solar system, touted a sample-storing mission as a top priority over the next decade. But this would involve a major technological leap: NASA would have to find a way to protect the samples, launch them from the Martian surface and safely carry them home.


President Obama has set a goal of sending astronauts to Mars orbit sometime in the 2030s. Grunsfeld said a robotic sample-return mission would help provide a road map for a manned mission.


Another option would be to forget the sample cache, and instead outfit the rover with the most advanced tools possible and send it to another tantalizing spot on the Martian surface.


There already are some well-researched options: Curiosity's scientists agonized over which of several tempting landing spots to choose.


Some scientists, however, pointed out that there were other interplanetary spots — Saturn's moon Titan, or the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa — that could harbor the ingredients for life but have been neglected in recent years.


"What about the rest of the solar system?" said UCLA astronomer David Jewitt. "Sure, Mars is one place in the solar system, but there are many other really exciting places we ought to be going as well."


If the project goes ahead — it is contingent upon Congress agreeing to fund NASA at the level the Obama administration has requested for the next five years — it would be the seventh NASA mission either being operated or planned.


Curiosity and Opportunity currently roam the surface of the Red Planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey satellites circle above them. The MAVEN orbiter, set to launch in 2013, will study the planet's upper atmosphere, and the 2016 InSight mission will probe the planet's insides.


The European Space Agency also has spacecraft orbiting Mars and plans to send a rover to the Red Planet in 2018.


amina.khan@latimes.com





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U.S. Commandos' New Landlord in Afghanistan: Blackwater



U.S. Special Operations Forces have a brand new home in Afghanistan. It’s owned and operated by the security company formerly known as Blackwater, thanks to a no-bid deal worth $22 million.


You might think that Blackwater, now called Academi, was banished into some bureaucratic exile after its operatives in Afghanistan stole guns from U.S. weapons depots and killed Afghan civilians. Wrong. Academi’s private 10-acre compound outside Kabul, called Camp Integrity, is the new headquarters for perhaps the most important special operations unit in Afghanistan.


That would be the Special Operations Joint Task Force–Afghanistan, created on July 1 to unite and oversee the various spec-ops “tribes” throughout Afghanistan. It’s run by Army Maj. Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, a former deputy commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, and is already tasked with reforming how those elite forces train Afghan villagers to fight the Taliban. And its role is only going to grow in Afghanistan, as regular U.S. forces withdraw by 2014 and the commandos take over the residual task of fighting al-Qaida and its allies. Perhaps that’s why Academi’s no-bid contract runs through May 2015.


Academi spokeswoman Kelley Gannon declined to comment for this story. But it’s highly unusual for U.S. military forces to take up official residence on a privately owned facility. Sources familiar with the arrangement, who wouldn’t speak for the record, say that Thomas’ team is already looking to move. But Camp Integrity is already shaping up to be a crucial location for an Afghanistan war that’s rapidly changing.



Peter Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who’s closely studied the private security industry, finds the spec ops’ private HQ unsurprising. “We’ve seen these kind of close, intertwined relationships in the field between the public and private forces before,” he says. “The U.S. military and the CIA, reportedly, have hired these companies to do everything from building bases, running the facilities and logistics, to serving as the guard forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. You get to a certain point where you wonder where the U.S. military and private military roles begin and end. But to me, the interesting question is what have we actually learned from these past experiences?” (Full disclosure: Danger Room editor Noah Shachtman works with Singer at Brookings’ 21 Century Defense Initiative.)


The uber-special ops command’s birth at Camp Integrity apparently occurred for a simple, mundane reason: overcrowding.


In March, the U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees all commando units around the world, instructed a local unit in Afghanistan to prep for the creation of a new force that would encompass all American special operations forces there. The problem was, there wasn’t sufficient space at existing facilities to house the 217 additional personnel that made up the initial complement of the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan. So it turned to Academi.


Through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had an existing contract with Academi for operations at Camp Integrity, the commandos awarded Academi a no-bid deal worth $6.6 million in its first year. They jointly determined that “no other vendor” could have accommodated Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan by its July 1 deadline for the command’s establishment, particularly as it needed secure office space. A deal was reached with Academi for use of Camp Integrity on May 15.


“Meeting the deadline of May 15, 2012 was vital for U.S. national security interests and organic Afghan capabilities of local security and governance,” according to an announcement of the basing deal quietly released this week — over six months after Academi began moving the command into its privately-owned home. Without explanation, the contract further states that failing to set up the new special-ops command on time could have jeopardized the U.S. troop drawdown, thereby imposing “insurmountable costs” for keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan longer.


Academi’s contract for providing the “life support services” to the task force is worth $22.3 million. If all options on the contract are exercised, it will last until May 2015 — an indication that the special operators’ counterterrorism mission in Afghanistan will continue after most U.S. forces come home after 2014. Last month, Gen. Joseph Dunford, President Obama’s nominee to take over command of the war, said “counterterrorism” would be among the missions of a post-2014 force.


U.S. and Afghan negotiators recently began discussions over the scope of that residual presence, and a big factor in that debate will concern which Afghan bases will host American troops. But it’s less clear what authority U.S. diplomats and Afghan bureaucrats have over a privately-owned base like Camp Integrity, although Academi’s operations are already certified by Afghan authorities.


Academi won’t talk much about Camp Integrity. A spokesman, John Procter, told Danger Room in March that it contains a “24/7 operations center, fueling stations, vehicle maintenance facility, lodging, office and conference space and a fortified armory.” His colleague Gannon declined to elaborate for this story. According to its contract, Academi will provide everything from food to tech support to “armed security services” for the mega-spec ops command at Camp Integrity.


But the commandos won’t be the only U.S. military tenants at Camp Integrity. A Pentagon agency called the Counter-Narcoterrorism Program Office also uses Camp Integrity as a base of operations to aid in its war on Afghanistan’s drug lords. Academi provides the office’s small Kabul cell with, among other things, “a secure armory and weapons maintenance service.”


Academi’s old incarnation, Blackwater, had deep ties to the secretive U.S. special operations community. Founder Erik Prince was a Navy SEAL, and the firm aided the Joint Special Operations Command with counterterrorism targeting and “snatch and grab” operations in Pakistan. But while the new ownership of the rebranded Academi has previously emphasized its differences with the old Blackwater regime, some continuities are on display — like how the military’s newly expanded spy service will rely on Academi for self-defense training.


An informed source inside the special operations community says there’s already a plan in the works to move Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan out of Camp Integrity, but the source declined to elaborate. For the time being, the heart of the enduring commando mission in the U.S.’ longest war can be found at the headquarters of its most infamous private security company.


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Ex-”Malcolm in the Middle” star Muniz, 26, suffers mini-stroke












LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Former “Malcolm in the Middle” child star Frankie Muniz said on Tuesday he had suffered a mini-stroke, at the age of 26.


“I was in the hospital last Friday. I suffered a ‘Mini Stroke‘, which was not fun at all. Have to start taking care of my body! Getting old!,” Muniz said on Twitter.












Muniz put his acting career on hold six years ago to race cars for a living, and earlier this year he joined a rock band.


According to celebrity website TMZ.com, Muniz was taken ill in Arizona last Friday when friends noticed he was having trouble speaking and understanding.


Mini-strokes usually affect those over the age of 55. They are temporary interruptions of blood flow to part of the brain but do not kill brain tissue, according to the Mayo Clinic.


Muniz’s agent did not return calls for comment.


Muniz played the title role in the hit TV comedy “Malcolm in the Middle” for six years, and appeared in teen movies “Big Fat Liar” and “Agent Cody Banks.”


When the TV show ended its run in 2006, Muniz said he was stepping away from acting to pursue a full-time career as a race-car driver. Earlier his year he joined Pennsylvania-based indie band Kingsfoil as a drummer.


Muniz is due to turn 27 on Wednesday.


(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Matthew Lewis)


TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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