Australian Bomb Hoax: Father Holds Press Conference

(NEWCASTLE, Australia )-- William Pulver , the father of 18-year-old Madeleine who was at the center of a tense police operation in Sydney Wednesday, says his family is eager for their lives to return to normal.

Pulver held a press conference in Sydney where he thanked police and other emergency services and praised his daughter’s courage.  He also said his daughter Maddie wanted to personally thank the officers who sat in her immediate vicinity during the ordeal. 

Pulver said that Maddie woke up the next morning “tired and a little sore (after) holding this damn device in place for about 10 hours…and she is now eager as we are to get on with her life. “  

The teenage girl had reportedly been ambushed by a masked man in the family mansion, who placed what appeared to be an explosive device around her neck in an extortion plot. After police were alerted, neighbors were evacuated and streets blocked off. The Pulvers, said to be one of Sydney's wealthiest families

New South Wales Police say they were called to the house, and after lengthy examinations by officers from the Rescue and Bomb Disposal Squad, Madeleine Pulver was safely reunited with her parents around midnight. The device turned out to be a fake bomb.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

UN Security Council Finally Condemns Syrian Government

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- After months of silence, on Wednesday the United Nations Security Council officially condemned the Syrian government's violent crackdown of civilians who have been demanding an end to the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad.

While exact figures are difficult to verify because of a news blackout, the civilian death toll in Syria since March is estimated to be anywhere between 1,600 and 2,000, with as many 26,000 arrests.

The latest violence has occurred in the city of Hama, where at least 90 deaths have been reported in just a week.

As a result of this renewed assault, the UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement requiring the approval of all fifteen members who denounced the human rights violations committed by Assad's regime.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney stated that Assad was responsible for instability in Syria, adding, "We do not want to see him remain in Syria for stability's sake and, rather, we view him as the cause of instability in Syria...it's safe to say that Syria would be a better place without President Assad."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
 

No Explosives Found in Device Attached to Australian Teen

Agri Press/Thinkstock(SYDNEY) -- The suspicious device that appeared to threaten a trapped 18-year-old woman in Australia for more than 10 hours on Wednesday was not a bomb, police said.

New South Wales state Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch told Australia's 2GB radio station that, "In the end it turned out to be no explosive."

The object was either placed near the teen -- identified in media reports as Madeleine Pulver -- or attached to her body, but police have not yet made that information public.

The victim, Madeleine Pulver, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, is the daughter of wealthy businessman William Pulver. That has fueled speculation that the situation was an attempted extortion plot, but police will not comment on those reports.

Pulver is a student at the Wenona girls school in North Sydney, Australia, according to the paper.

Police called the object "very elaborate, very sophisticated." Police are looking for a person they believe planted the device. The girl lives in one of Sydney's wealthier neighborhoods.

Police would not comment on reports that the item was a collar bomb strapped around the teenager's neck or on reports that a man wearing a balaclava reportedly entered her house and attached a device to her body.

Police said the motive is a mystery.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Somalian Famine Relief Slowed By Gov't Offensive Against Insurgents

STUART PRICE/AFP/Getty Images(DADAAB, Kenya) -- The United Nations warns that famine in southern Somalia has spread to three more regions and that all of southern Somalia will be a famine zone within the next month if there is not an urgent intervention, potentially dooming tens of thousands to death by starvation.

But getting assistance to the neediest areas has been complicated by an offensive launched by African Union and Somali government troops in Mogadishu against the al Qaeda-affiliated group al Shabaab, U.N. officials said.

The AU Mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, told ABC News that it has been working to push back al Shabaab to make it easier for humanitarian groups to deliver assistance. In the last month at least 100,000 refugees have fled their drought-stricken homes to come to the war-torn capital. But two of the newly declared famine areas are both nearby and inside of the city itself.

Ej Hogendoorn, the Horn of Africa Director for the International Crisis Group, said that AMISOM has launched a pre-emptive strike against Shabaab after there were indications that the group planned to carry out a violent campaign during Ramadan. Al Shabaab launched a similar offensive last year that included a deadly suicide bombing at the Muna Hotel which killed 32 people, including government officials.

The fighting has severely hampered the ability of aid agencies to reach those who are starving.

"The ongoing offensive is negatively affecting the ability of UNHCR and other partners to deliver assistance to populations in distress at a time when their needs are most urgent," said Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, spokesperson for UNHCR in a statement.

The complication of violence is what makes Somalia's crisis so much worse than the already serious drought the rest of the Horn of Africa is facing. The famine conditions, say humanitarian groups, are the result of a deadly equation of both drought and violence. Aid agencies don't want to get involved in the politics, they say, and just want to help people.

Lejuene-Kaba tells ABC News that the increase in fighting between pro- and anti-government forces over the last three days has been particularly disruptive to the relief effort.

Hogendoorn said that AMISOM and the Somali government's military actions have been more about securing and capturing the city from Shabaab than about delivering aid.

"We want all parties to ensure that there is humanitarian access, that humanitarian space be preserved at all times," said Lejeune-Kaba. "Without that access it's the civilians who suffer."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

US Charges 72 Suspects in Massive Child Porn Online Network

File photo. BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday it has charged 72 suspects -- 52 of which have been arrested -- in connection with an international online child pornography ring.

Officials say the two-year investigation into the network uncovered a significant amount of sexually exploitative material involving children engaging in sex acts and enduring abuse.

"Operation Delego represents the largest prosecution in history of individuals who participated in an online child exploitation enterprise conceived and operated for the sole purpose of promoting child sexual abuse, disseminating child pornography, and evading law enforcement," said Attorney General Eric Holder.

Holder says a vast majority of the children were "very, very young", and included graphic images and videos involving children. The investigation, launched in December of 2009, targetted a private online website called "Dreamboard", which required its membership to provide child porn in exchange for entry into the network. Holder says the membership criteria included levels of varying degree, and rewarded its members with greater access depending on how graphic or violent their videos or images were.

According to Holder, 13 suspects have already pleaded guilty and four individuals have received sentences of 20-30 years in prison. Forty-three of the 52 suspects arrested are from the U.S., Holder said.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Lax Chinese Copyright Laws Boost Copycat Brands

PRNewsFoto/Apple(BEIJING) -- Last week Apple stores across China made headlines when many were discovered to be unauthorized replicas. These replicas, which often came complete with such Apple standards as the Apple logo, spiral staircase, and genius bars, had no connection to Apple whatsoever and sold off-brand products.

China's massive population and recent economic deregulation has made it one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world. However, this growth may come at a price to American companies like Apple, which spend millions of dollars on branding each year, only to be exploited by businessmen who can take advantage of China's lax copyright laws to open up stores without permission. Some of the most frequently copied American brands include McDonald's, Nike, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks.

In 2006 Starbucks notably won a lawsuit against Xingbake, a Chinese coffeehouse company. Starbucks alleged that both the name Xingbake (which translates roughly to Starbucks) and the green and white logo (which featured a coffee cup instead of a mermaid) violated copyright laws by being too similar to Starbucks. The courts agreed and Xingbake was ordered to change its name.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

UN Security Council Will Condemn Syria

Members of a pro-Islamic human rights group hold up a sign which reads "We remember Hama", during a demonstration to protest Syrian president Bashar al Assad and his regime, outside the Syrian Embassy in Ankara, on August 1, 2011. ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A United Nations Security Council diplomat has told ABC News the council has agreed to condemn Syria for widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians in its crackdown on protesters seeking President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.

The condemnation will come Wednesday afternoon in the form of a presidential statement, read out loud by the Indian permanent representative to the UN who holds the councils’ rotating presidency. Such a presidential statement is considered weaker than a full resolution, but is significant in this case because it has won the support of Russia, which blocked such action earlier this year.

According to the diplomat, the council will express grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Syria and express profound regret at the death of hundreds of people.

They’ll also call for an immediate end to the violence on both sides and say those responsible for the violence must be held accountable. The council will also note the lack of progress on implementing promised reform.

There was some discussion about whether to call for an investigation into the killings, but that is not expected to be a part of this action.

The British delegation re-introduced their draft measure on Monday, a day after dozens were reported killed by Syrian security forces in the restive city of Hama. Diplomats then met Tuesday to haggle over the text and Brazil offered some wording changes. Delegates met again Wednesday morning to approve the text that will ultimately be adopted.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

UK Authorities Seize 1.2 Tons of Cocaine

File photo. Joe Raedle/Getty Images(LONDON) -- Authorities in the United Kingdom have seized 1.2 tons of cocaine valued at roughly $500 million off of a yacht, according to published reports.

The drugs were found aboard a 65-foot yacht docked in Southampton in June. The U.K. Border Agency kept the news from the public while it collaborated with Dutch authorities in tracking down gang members.

Six suspects were arrested on Tuesday.

The seizure is the largest in U.K. history.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Security Firm Uncovers International Cyber Siege

Hemera Technologies/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Major companies and organizations have been under a sustained international cyber attack for several years, according to a report released Wednesday by McAfee.

Investigators for the security firm say the intruders have been in operation for five years and targeted sensitive data from U.S. military, corporate, and other systems.

The cyber spying investigation dubbed "Operation Shady Rat" uncovered a number of groups under siege from the hacking effort, including the United Nations, natural gas companies, a Florida real estate company, the government of Taiwan, and International Olympic Committee.

McAfee officials say 49 of the 72 organizations affected by the cyber attack were based in the U.S.

“We’re facing a massive transfer of wealth in the form of intellectual property that is unprecedented in history,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s vice president of threat research. “Even we were surprised by the enormous diversity of the victim organizations and were taken aback by the audacity of the perpetrators.”

Alperovitch also stirred speculation as to who might be responsible for the attack in saying McAfee believes one "state actor" was behind the intrusion because, "there is likely no commercial benefit to be earned from such hacks." Vanity Fair, which broke a story on the cyber siege, reports security experts the magazine consulted all pointed fingers at China.

McAfee says it became aware of the breach of security in March and released the 14-page report after working with the targeted organizations.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Australian Bomb Collar Victim Saved, Reunited with Parents

Agri Press/Thinkstock(LONDON) -- The 18-year-old daughter of an Australian millionaire was the victim of a “bomb collar” early Wednesday morning.

Police sources said the bomb was attached to the neck of Madeleine Pulver, 18, with a note demanding money from her father William Pulver, the CEO of an international software company.

Nearby homes were evacuated and surrounding streets closed off while bomb squad experts helped extricate the young woman. Earlier, Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Murdoch had described the situation as a "very serious and sensitive matter".

It has been confirmed that Madeleine has been reunited with her parents and a press conference is expected.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio