Close Suu Kyi confidant elected Myanmar's president

Htin Kyaw, a confidant of Myanmar's Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was chosen on Tuesday by parliament to be the country's new president.

Htin Kyaw, 70, was nominated by the lower house as the opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD) takes power.

Because Suu Kyi was married to a foreign national, she is constitutionally unable to become president, though she has stated she will be in charge of the government.

Another Super-Popular App Is Joining the Encryption Battle

The New York Times reports that government officials are debating how to gain access to encrypted WhatsApp messages that have been approved for monitoring by a federal judge in a criminal investigation. Paralleling the ongoing fight between the FBI and Apple, some investigators believe that a judge should force WhatsApp to decrypt the relevant information.

That may or may not even be possible. WhatsApp has already faced similar pressure in Brazil, where an executive of parent company Facebook was jailed after a Brazilian court demanded that WhatsApp decrypt messages wanted in a drug-trafficking investigation. As Fortune reported in that instance, WhatsApp’s recent implementation of end-to-end encryption likely makes it impossible for the company to provide any information to law enforcement using existing resources.

With close to a billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is a prime target for investigators looking to expand their monitoring capabilities. But as the Timespoints out, it is also a company with firm anti-surveillance values, in part thanks to founder Jan Koum’s roots in Soviet-controlled Ukraine. An anti-encryption suit against the company could further solidify tech companies’ already strong stance against providing governments or law enforcement any “back door” access to users’ encrypted communications and data.

The nature of the specific case involving WhatsApp messages isn’t clear, though it reportedly is not terrorism-related. Observers have alleged that the FBI chose to pressure Apple to open the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorist attackers because they believed public sentiment around the specific case would break in their favor. That support, though, has proven less than universal, and a less clear-cut case could deepen public skepticism.

Authorities, however, may see little choice but to widen their efforts to get around encryption. As the Times puts it, electronic monitoring has long been a vital tool for law enforcement, and with unbreakable encryption, “the future of wiretapping is in doubt.”

Parents Of Meningitis Victim To Address MPs

The parents of a toddler who died from meningitis B, sparking support for every British child to be vaccinated against the infection, will give evidence to MPs today.

Jenny and Neil Burdett's daughter, Faye, lost her life after an 11-day battle - and a distressing image of the two-year-old when she was seriously ill prompted hundreds of thousands of people to sign a petition calling for all youngsters to be protected.

They will be joined by the former England rugby captain Matt Dawson, whose son survived meningitis C, as he believes the lack of a universal scheme is causing "needless heartache".

Lee Booth, who instigated the campaign after learning one of his young daughters was too old to receive the vaccine on the NHS, will also attend the hearing.

His petition was the most signed in parliamentary history, and closed on Tuesday after attracting 823,341 signatures. A date for debate by MPs is yet to be set.

Earlier in March, the Department of Health responded to the petition - and said it would not be cost-effective for the NHS to offer meningitis B vaccines to all children under 11.

The current system immunises babies when they are two months old, and the Government said it "would not represent a good use of NHS resources" to expand it to older age groups.

But on Monday, Mr Booth said a price should not be put on a child's life - and argued the NHS would get better value for money vaccinating all children compared to the cost of treating meningitis survivors for the rest of their lives.

In February, the Burdetts said they were "campaigning for change in Faye's memory" - as they are suffering "a pain you cannot describe".

Parents who want to vaccinate children not covered by the Government's immunisation scheme currently need to pay for a private procedure.

However, some private clinics have had to turn away families because there has been a global shortage of the Bexsero vaccine.

The pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has said UK supplies may not increase until the summer - but the NHS programme for babies is unaffected.

Afghan refugees in dilemma over European offer

Kabul - More than 200,000 Afghans have left their country in pursuit of a better life. But upon arriving in Europe, many of them are left disappointed.

Faced with a cold welcome and the hardships of living in a foreign land, some are accepting cash incentives to return to Afghanistan.

Ismail Usofzi, who spent five months and more than $7,500 getting to Germany, is one of them.

"They gave me a document and it was written in red that I could be subjected to deportation and there were no guarantees of a bright future for me," Usofzi told Al Jazeera.

He said he paid $7,500 to the smugglers and went to Germany for the future of his family.

"It said it could take years for me to be accepted into society," Usofzi said.

He said he could not find work and could not get permission for his wife and three children to join him.

In the end, he accepted a payment of $2,000 from the German government to leave and return home.

However, of the 200,000 who fled Afghanistan, fewer than 1,000 have taken the cash deal to return.

South Korea and US forces storm mock North Korea beach

US and South Korean troops have staged a large amphibious landing exercise, storming simulated North Korean beach defences amid heightened tension and threats by the North to annihilate its enemies.

The landing and assault drills on South Korea's east coast were part of eight weeks of joint exercises between the allies which the South has said are the largest ever.

The North has denounced the exercises as "nuclear war moves" and threatened to respond with an all-out offensive.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been high since the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a long-range rocket launch last month, triggering new UN sanctions.

About 55 US marine aircraft and 30 US and South Korean ships, including the USS Bonhomme Richard and USS Boxer, which carry AV-8B Harrier attack jets and V-22 Osprey aircraft, took part in the assault on beaches near Pohang city, the US navy said.

Adele Fulfills Dream of 12-Year-Old Girl with Autism by Inviting Her Onstage

When Emily Tammam came to a recent Adele show at Manchester Arena, she had one goal — to perform onstage with her favorite artist. Armed with a sign that read, “It’s my dream to sing with Adele,” the 12-year-old British girl stood in the crowd and waited for her moment. With just a few songs left in the show, the 25 artist finally spotted Tammam’s sign and invited her up to sing. She proceeded to belt out an impressive rendition of “Someone Like You” as the audience erupted in cheers.

Tammam’s father told the Manchester Evening News that the moment was particularly special for his daughter because she suffers from autism, ADHD and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type three, a condition that causes chronic pain and limb weakness. “Adele was very nice to do that, she clearly didn’t have to do it,” he said. “Emily said she wants to show people that have disabilities or mental issues they can still do mainstream things like singing. They should not be stopped from doing them.”

Amazon Files Patent For Paying With A Selfie

Amazon has filed a patent application to allow users to pay for items by taking a selfie.

The firm argues the move would improve people's security as they carry out more and more tasks online.

"While many conventional approaches rely on password entry for user authentication, these passwords can be stolen or discovered by other persons who can impersonate the user for any of a variety of tasks," the application states.

"Further, the entry of these passwords on portable devices is not user friendly in many cases, as the small touchscreen or keyboard elements can be difficult to accurately select using a relatively large human finger, and can require the user to turn away from friends or co-workers when entering a password, which can be awkward or embarrassing in many situations."

Amazon said the "selfie pay" option would also be safer than using facial recognition software, because this "can often be spoofed by holding a picture of the user in front of the camera, as the resulting two-dimensional image can look substantially the same whether taken of the user or a picture of the user".

In order for users to pay for items using this method, they would need to take a selfie to confirm their identity, and then take another photo that confirms "the person contained in the first image corresponds to a physical being in proximity of the computing device".

This could include people smiling, blinking, or tilting their head, the application said.

The application was filed last October, but was only published recently.

MasterCard has already trialled a new technology that would allow customers to pay online by taking a selfie rather than entering a password.

The pilot was limited to 500 customers who were asked to snap a photograph of their face instead of typing in their own personal code when paying using their smartphone.