US student hacks ICSE website, exposes anomalies in results

For Debarghya Das, it started as a simple request from two of his anxious friends who wanted to know their board results a day before they were made public. What came of it may not only create a problem for Das, a budding software engineer, but has probably exposed the poor web security system of the country.

This computer science student from the US' Cornell University claims to have broken into the system of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and accessed the results for the entire country.

This led to loads of data crunching and statistical analysis to deduce that the "marks had been tampered with".

When Mail Today reached CISCE, it was holding a meeting over the hacking. However, till late at night, no official was available for comment.

"There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that the CICSE board is fraudulent and guilty of marks tampering. Whether they changed some results by plus or minus 1 or plus or minus 5 is irrelevant. Fact is, they changed some results," wrote Das in his blog that was posted on http://deedy.quora.com.

"The Indian School Certificate (ISC) determines college admissions to a wide array of Indian colleges that impose strict cut-offs for admission. One mark can change your fate. In such an abhorrent system, even the simplest case of making a 93 a 92 could change a future. Adulteration of these marks is absolutely unacceptable," the article further states.

Das told Mail Today that he does not fear any legal action.

"I have only accessed data available in public domain. What I can definitely conclude is that regardless of whether marks were tampered with or arise out of a special policy decision, something is definitely wrong," he told Mail Today late on Tuesday.


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/icse-isc-icse-hacking-debarghya-das-cornell-university-cisce/1/278719.html

Watch as this burning railway bridge comes crashing down

Remember that wild scene in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter when that wooden bridge was set ablaze? Well, as you'll see in this unbelievable video, sometimes reality can match the best that special effects has to offer.

This railroad bridge used to run across the Colorado River between San Saba and Lometa in the U.S. state of Texas. Firefighters spent 15 hours in a futile attempt to extinguish the fire, but they eventually gave up, deciding that it should just burn out.

Either that or they really, really wanted to see the whole thing collapse.

Intel officials: Pakistan Taliban No. 2 is buried

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban's deputy leader was buried hours after he was killed in a U.S. drone strike, Pakistani intelligence officials and militants said Thursday.

The death of Waliur Rehman has not been confirmed by the White House or the official Pakistani Taliban spokesman, but if true, it would be a major blow to the militant group whose bombings and other attacks have killed thousands.

Rehman's killing in a U.S. drone strike on Wednesday could also rattle the incoming Pakistani ruling party's goal of negotiating with the Taliban. Rehman had previously been considered more amenable to peace talks than his superior, Hakeemullah Mehsud, who remains at large.

Rehman and four other people were killed on Wednesday morning by the drone-fired missiles that slammed into a house on the outskirts of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Two intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that informants on the ground told them Rehman was buried on Wednesday night. Also, two militants told the AP they attended the burial at a graveyard outside Miran Shah. All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Journalists have little access to North Waziristan or other tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, making independent confirmation of the claims difficult. The missile attack was the first since Pakistan's May 11 elections, which ushered in a new ruling party that has promised to push the U.S. to end such strikes. It also followed President Barack Obama's speech last Thursday during which he pledged more restrictive rules on the use of drones.

White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to confirm Wednesday if Rehman was dead. He said if it's true, Rehman's death would deprive the militant group of its chief military strategist, a man the U.S. says was involved in an attack that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan.

In 2010, Washington offered $5 million for information leading to Rehman. The U.S. drone program is deeply unpopular in Pakistan, even though the number of strikes has dropped significantly since 2010. The strikes usually target al-Qaida-linked insurgents or other militants who fight in Afghanistan, but some have killed militants at war with Pakistan's government.

The Pakistani Taliban has been battling government forces for years in a bid to push them from the tribal regions, cut Pakistan's ties with the U.S. and eventually establish their brand of hardline Islam across Pakistan.

Pakistan's incoming prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has said he is against the use of American drones on Pakistani soil, and that he is open to negotiating with the Pakistani Taliban. But Rehman's death could complicate that by depriving the process of a potential key player.

Rehman was believed to be about 42 or 43 years old and was from South Waziristan, said Mansur Mahsud, director of administration and research at the Islamabad-based FATA Research Center. He had already been fighting American troops in Afghanistan when the Pakistani Taliban was created in late 2007 and he turned his focus more onto Pakistani targets.

"He was a very cool-minded person, a very intelligent person and he was someone that the government could talk to," Mahsud said. The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the drone strike Wednesday but did not mention Rehman. Senior Pakistani civilian and military officials are known to have supported some of the drone strikes in the past, but many say that is no longer the case.

2013 Iraqi officials say 13 dead in wave of bomb blasts

BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of morning bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country, officials said.

Iraq is facing its most relentless wave of violence since the 2011 U.S. military withdrawal, deepening fears that the country is heading back toward the widespread sectarian fighting that pushed it to the brink of civil war in the years after the invasion.

More than 500 people have been killed in May. April was Iraq's deadliest month since June 2008, according to a United Nations tally that put last month's death toll at more than 700. The extent of the bloodshed is increasingly reminiscent of the widespread sectarian fighting that peaked in 2006 and 2007 and threatened to tear the country apart.

Most of Thursday's blasts went off in Baghdad. Car bombs killed four in the northeastern Shiite neighborhood of Binouq, and three died in a bombing at a market selling spare car parts in central Baghdad, according to police.

Police officials also said that a roadside bomb exploded on a police patrol in the largely Shiite central commercial district of Karradah, killing three people there. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties.

In the northern city of Mosul, two police officers said a suicide bomber killed three when he blew himself up on a federal police checkpoint. Mosul is a former insurgent stronghold, located about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but blame is likely to fall on al-Qaida's Iraq arm, which frequently carries out bombing attacks against civilians and security forces in an effort to undermine faith in the Shiite-led government.

Other militant groups have also grown more active in recent months, including the Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order, which has ties to members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath party. The attacks came hours after bomb blasts tore through two Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday evening. At least 30 people were killed, including several members of a wedding party in the mixed Sunni-Shiite Jihad neighborhood.

The southwestern neighborhood was one of the earliest flashpoints in Baghdad's descent into sectarian bloodshed in the years following the 2003 U.S. led invasion. It housed mainly Sunni civil servants and security officials under Saddam Hussein's regime, though many Shiites now live there too.

Many of Jihad's Sunni residents earlier this year received threatening leaflets from a Shiite militant group, the Mukhtar Army, warning them to leave.

81-year old climber quits Everest attempt

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An 81-year-old Nepalese man has abandoned his attempt to climb Mount Everest, leaving a Japanese mountaineer with the record as the oldest person to scale the world's highest mountain.

Team member Dame said Wednesday that Min Bahadur Sherchan returned from Everest because weather conditions were worsening late in the spring climbing season for the Himalayas. Sherchan was having financial difficulties and a government grant for his climb only came last week.

Sherchan had held the record until last week when 80-year-old Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura scaled the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) mountain.