Rebel-imposed peace-plan ultimatum looms
DAMASCUS, Syria, June 1 (UPI) -- A peace-plan deadline for Syria's Bashar Assad regime loomed Friday while Human rights organizations alleged government forces killed 25 people near Homs.
The deadline was imposed by the Free Syrian Army, which warned the regime to abide by the six-point peace plan of U.S.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan or the armed opposition group, largely composed of defected Syrian army personnel, would "no longer be tied by any commitment to the Annan plan ... and our duty will be ... to defend civilians."
The United States told Moscow its support for Assad's regime could fuel civil war.
At least 13 people were killed in Homs in a heavy bombardment involving tanks, and government forces overtook a busload of workers, unloaded the vehicle and then executed 12 passengers, the Syrian Network for Human Rights and the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said Thursday.
The accounts cannot be independently verified because of the government's restrictions on foreign journalists' access in Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday Russia's refusal to take decisive action against Assad threatened to cause the very civil war Russian diplomats say they wanted to avoid.
The U.N. Human Rights Council began an emergency session to discuss the violence in Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, based in London, said. The council was expected to blame pro-government forces for last week's massacre in Houla, in which 108 people died, including 49 children, the rights group said.
Clinton to stump in Wis. to defeat Walker
MILWAUKEE, June 1 (UPI) -- Recalling Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker will help the middle class, a top Democrat said in announcing Bill Clinton would join the fight Friday.
The former president, a Democrat, "is a true public servant who has dedicated his career to helping middle-class Americans and those trying to reach the middle class achieve the American Dream," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
"Having just been in Wisconsin this week, I know how important the recall election is and how dedicated Democrats and Wisconsin's middle-class families are to this effort," she said.
"I'm proud that President Clinton is adding his voice to this important fight," Wasserman Schultz said.
Clinton was to campaign with Walker challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, at a downtown Milwaukee public park around 10 a.m. CDT (11 a.m. EDT), four days before Tuesday's recall election, Barrett's Web site said.
Barrett is either neck-and-neck with Walker or losing by 7 percentage points, depending on which poll one looks at.
A poll released by the Barrett campaign Thursday indicated Walker led 50 percent to 48 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. A poll released by the non-partisan Marquette University Law School Wednesday indicated Barrett was down 52 percent to 45 percent, with a 4.1 percentage point error margin.
Flame malware origins investigated
WASHINGTON, June 1 (UPI) -- The Flame malware attacking computers in Iran and other areas in the Middle East appears to be a collection of existing techniques, a cybersecurity expert said.
Kapersky Labs, the Internet security company that discovered W32.Flame, said the worm is a highly sophisticated cyberweapon, although James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said it is really a collection of existing cyberespionage tools, Voice of America reported Friday.
It is much larger, however, than the 2010 Stuxnet virus, which is believed to have shut down uranium enrichment facilities in Iran.
Kapersky said Flame appears to be designed to steal information from infected machines by recording keystrokes, capturing screenshots and recording audio conversations.
The malware was discovered by Kapersky during an investigation prompted by the International Telecommunication Union. Preliminary findings suggest the malware has been out for more than two years.
"The risk of cyberwarfare has been one of the most serious topics in the field of information security for several years now," Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of the Moscow-based firm said in a statement earlier this week. "The Flame malware looks to be another phase in this war, and it's important to understand that such cyberweapons can easily be used against any country."
Flame appears to consist of multiple modules and is made up of several megabytes of executable code in total -- making it around 20 times larger than Stuxnet, the Internet security firm said.
ECB's Draghi: Myopia killing the euro
BRUSSELS, June 1 (UPI) -- European governments must surrender more budget and regulatory power to a central authority for the euro to survive, the European Central Bank president said.
The central bank for the 17 European Union eurozone countries is reaching the limits of its powers, Mario Draghi told members of the European Parliament.
"Can the ECB fill the vacuum left by the lack of euro area governance?" he asked. "The answer is no."
Just as the economic crisis has shattered illusions about the sustainability of government debt, he told lawmakers Thursday, so too should it be changing illusions about the underlying structure of the euro currency.
"That configuration we had for 10 years, which was basically considered sustainable -- I should add in perhaps a myopic way -- is being shown now to be unsustainable unless further steps are undertaken," said Draghi, an Italian banker and economist who took over the job Nov. 1.
Half-measures and delays have made the eurozone crisis worse, he said.
"Dispel this fog," Draghi said.
Leaders must expand their vision and thought beyond their current understanding of "national interest" and realize that for their own interests and the sake of the economic and monetary union, they must surrender far more budget and regulatory power to a central authority, he said.
