California shooting, misinformation

Erdogan was in Qatar at the time of the shooting [Thibault Camus/AP

The killing of at least 14 people in a mass shooting in the US state of California has given way to speculation about the attackers' motives and false claims about their identities.

Police in San Bernardino said 28-year-old US citizen Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, 27, opened fire on a social services centre while it was hosting a Christmas celebration.

They were shot dead by police hours later after an intense manhunt.

In the aftermath of the killings, the identity of the slain suspects became an issue of debate on Twitter, with users pointing fingers at either right-wing or Muslim groups.

When information leaked out seemingly confirming the Muslim identity of the suspects, focus immediately turned to their possible motives, with an ISIL link being drawn by many users.

An early misidentification of one of the attackers said a Qatari national by the name of Tayyeep Bin Ardogan had taken part in the attacks.

The shooting San Bernardino left at least 14 people dead and many others injured [Mike Blake/Reuters]

Los Angeles Times reporter Rick Serrano, in a tweet, since deleted, attributed the claim to the police, as did broadcaster Fox News.

Serrano has since clarified that the identification appears to be a hoax but thousands of Twitter users continue to repeat the claim, seemingly unaware that the name sounds very similar to that of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or that Arabic, which is spoken in Qatar, does not have a letter with a "p" sound.

Murtaza Hussain, a Canadian investigative journalist, told Al Jazeera that the rush for news outlets to get information out had given greater credence to unsubstantiated sources.

"Sometimes this rush to be 'first' can have almost comical implications, as news organisations fail to make even the most simple fact checks in a race to get their privileged information out there before anyone else," he said.

"Tayeep Ardogan is just the latest example of this phenomenon and the potential for profound disinformation and hysteria to spread through the news media, and particularly through the 24-hour news cycle."

The mistake has left some people bemused but also questioning how the US media found it acceptable to publish the name without first clarifying whether it was correct.

While US police have refused to comment on a motive, many anti-Islamic users have pointed the finger at the apparent religious affiliation.

There have been at least 353 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to shootingtracker.com 

Google accused of collecting data on school kids

Google has been collecting information about schoolchildren's browsing habits despite signing a pledge saying it was committed to their privacy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a complaint filed Tuesday.

The digital rights group said Google's use of the data, collected through its Google for Education program, puts the company in breach of Section 5 of the Federal Communications Act and asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.“Despite publicly promising not to, Google mines students’ browsing data and other information, and uses it for the company’s own purposes," the EFF said.

Google and Microsoft both have extensive programs for educators. Google sells low-cost Chromebooks and tablets, and it offers free apps that teachers and students can use in the classroom.

The tools can be a boon to cash-strapped schools, which have signed up in big numbers. Last month, Google said more than 50 million students and teachers around the globe were using Google Apps for Education, along with 10 million Chromebooks. The Google-powered laptops are "the best-selling device in U.S. K-12 schools," according to Google.

But the EFF has some issues with the way Google delivers those services. It says the company records everything students do while they're logged into their Google accounts, regardless of the device or browser they're using, including their search history, the search results they click on and the videos they watch on YouTube.

Google aggregates and anonymizes the data collected through its education services, the EFF said, but not when the students are using other Google services. And it argues that truly anonymizing data is "difficult to the point of being impossible," especially when it's tied to identifiable accounts at the time of collection.

Google's practices "fly in the face of commitments made when it signed theStudent Privacy Pledge," the EFF said, referring to a document signed by 200 companies including Google, Microsoft and Apple.

In light of the pledge, the EFF says, Google's collection of student data amounts to an unfair or deceptive business practice. It wants the FTC to investigate, force Google to destroy the student data it's collected, and bar it from collecting any more.

Google declined to discuss the specifics of the EFF's allegations but provided a statement: “Our services enable students everywhere to learn and keep their information private and secure. While we appreciate EFF's focus on student privacy, we are confident that these tools comply with both the law and our promises, including the Student Privacy Pledge."

The EFF apparently won at least one concession from Google. It had an issue with the way the Chrome Sync feature in the Chrome browser is turned on by default in Chromebooks and shares student data across different Google services. Google told the EFF it would soon disable that setting in Chromebooks sold to schools.

"While that is a small step in the right direction, it doesn’t go nearly far enough to correct the violations of the Student Privacy Pledge currently inherent in Chromebooks being distributed to schools," the EFF said.

California Massacre Suspects Dropped Off Baby

Video: Shooting Suspect Family's Shock

Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, told Farook's mother they were going to a doctor's appointment after leaving their child on Wednesday.

Hours later they were shot dead following a police chase.

Farook, who was born in the US, worked as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County, inspecting restaurants for health violations and public pools at apartment and housing complexes.

On Wednesday, he attended the annual holiday gathering for employees of his department, but left after an apparent dispute, returning later with Malik dressed in assault clothing and armed with legally purchased long rifles.

San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said that the shooting spree had been clearly planned in advance and that the suspects left several explosive devices, apparently pipe bombs, at the scene of the shootings.

Officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who have been in touch with the family, said the couple were married two years ago and have a six-month-old baby girl.

They left the baby with Farook's mother in nearby Redlands on Wednesday.

At a CAIR news conference, Farook's brother-in-law Farhan Kahn said he was "shocked" by the news.

He said: "I'm very sad that people lost their life and there are victims out there. I am in shock that something like this could happen.

"I spoke to him about a week ago. I have no idea why would he do that, why would he do something like this."

Mr Burguan said officers went to a house in Redlands and saw the couple leave in a black SUV. Police then pursued that vehicle to San Bernardino, where they were fatally injured in a gun battle.

Farook's family was originally from South Asia, while Malik was believed to be from Pakistan and to have lived in Saudi Arabia before coming to the US, according to CAIR Los Angeles chapter executive director Hussam Ayloush.

He said that Farook had an older brother, who had served in the US military.

David Bowdich, an assistant regional FBI director, said on Wednesday that authorities had not ruled out terrorism.

He said: "It is a possibility, but we don't know that. It's possible it goes down that road. It's possible it does not."

Obama calls for gun reforms in wake of San Bernardino shooting

President Barack Obama reiterated his call for more gun control reforms to make mass shootings in the U.S. "rare as opposed to normal" in the wake of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

Speaking to CBS News moments after news broke of the shooting, Obama called for "common sense gun safety laws" and urged lawmakers to pass a law to prevent individuals on the "No Fly List" who are barred from boarding commercial flights from legally purchasing firearms.

"We don't yet know what the motives of the shooters are but what we do know is that there are steps we can take to make Americans safer," Obama said in the interview. "We should never think that this is just something that just happens in the ordinary course of events because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries."

Obama said the pattern of U.S. mass shootings "has no parallel anywhere else in the world."

Four men arrested in Luton on suspicion of terrorism offences

Detectives have arrested four men on suspicion that they may have committed offences under terrorism laws. 

The arrests were made in Luton, Bedfordshire, and come at a time of heightened alert in Britain over fears of jihadi activity, such as attack planning and recruitment.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: “Four men have been arrested in Luton this morning (Wednesday 2 December) on suspicion of committing offences under the Terrorism Act.

“The arrests were carried out in a joint operation by the Met’s counter terrorism command (SO15) and the eastern counter terrorism and intelligence unit (ECTIU).

“The men – who are all in their 30s – have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism. They have been taken into custody at a London police station.”

The operation that led to the arrests followed a “proactive” investigation by police and assistance from the security services. The arrests were pre-planned.

The raids followed a joint meeting between police and MI5, the domestic security service, at an executive liaison group. The decision to detain suspects can be made when counter-terrorism investigators believe they have enough material to stage arrests.

But some past high-profile terror arrests have been based on intelligence that turned out to be inaccurate, and have led to accusations that police and MI5 have ramped up the nature of possible plots.

After Wednesday’s arrest, police were carrying out searches at seven separate addresses in Luton. They said that a number of vehicles were also being searched. It is expected that computers and other devices such as phones will also be examined.

Police added: “Today’s activity is part of an ongoing proactive investigation concerning individuals in the Luton area. It is not connected to the recent attacks in Paris.”

The four men were due to be questioned at a London police station.

The fear of a terrorist attack being carried out by people with connections to Islamic State or inspired by Isis ideology led the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) to recommend raising the terrorist threat level in August 2014 to severe, its second highest level.

The attacks in Paris last month which left 130 dead have increased anxiety among UK officials of an attack on British soil.

New Google Vision Program Can Teach Your Robot to Recognize Your Mood

Michael Gottschalk—Photothek via Getty Images

Imagine a Roomba robot that not only recognizes you as you but can tell from the scowl on your face that now may not be the best time to vacuum around your feet.

That’s the scenario enabled by a new Google tool that will let developers train robots, toys, and appliances to know who you are and even figure out from your expression what mood you’re in—and react accordingly.

Google detailed the technology in a blog post on Wednesday. A test version of the Vision Application Programming Interface is now available to developers.

At its most basic, this API will let developers build software that can interact with Google cloud-based smarts in near-real-time. In theory, that Roomba-of-the-future may see you in the room, send your image to Google computers to get information about it. Or it could be trained over time by reviewing many images to know that you are you and that a smile means you’re in a good mood and that a grimace means trouble. It would also know that the big fur ball over there is a cat and not a fuzzy slipper.

With the API, developers can apply tons of machine learning smarts to home or work applications. Machine learning, once known as artificial intelligence, is when computers learn over time from data they view to recognize people, things, words—just about anything.

All of that grunt work is enabled by the massive compute power of Google or Microsoft or Amazon public clouds, which harness a huge number of shared computers around the world. With all that firepower, the data can be crunched, parsed and served up as needed. To tell your vacuum cleaner who you are and that you may be in a crappy mood, for example.

Last month Google released TensorFlow, an artificial intelligence engine that can process images and sounds so it can recognize them later. Days later, Microsoft talked upnew Project Oxford computer vision capabilities that will let computers gauge a person’s emotional state—anger, contempt, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise —from her facial expressions. (An earlier iteration could estimate a person’s age from her image.)

This technology could also be used by parents or businesses to quickly flag objectionable or inappropriate images before kids see them or to identify corporate logos to better hone searches for shoppers.

The good news is this could mean a new generation of smarter, more capable products and services. The bad news is that some of us may be creeped out by all of that stuff.

British jets carry out air raids on ISIL

Warplanes were to begin striking ISIL just hours after parliament approved Cameron's motion [File:EPA]

British fighter planes have struck suspected ISIL targets in Syria, just hours after MPs approved a motion authorising the use of military force against the group. 

A British Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed to Al Jazeera that Tornado jets had returned to base after conducting combat missions against the group on Thursday.

Earlier, the Reuters news agency reported that four warplanes landed at RAF Akrotiri, the base used for British air strikes on fighters belonging to ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, in Iraq.

The strikes come just hours after UK Prime Minister David Cameron successfully passed a motion authorising strikes in Syria, with 397 MPs voting in favour, and 223 voting against. 

Cameron was backed by dozens of Labour MPs who broke ranks with leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is opposed to the military intervention.

Addressing parliament on Wednesday, Cameron said high-precision, laser-guided Brimstone missiles attached to the Tornado GR4 bombers would help to make a real difference by hitting the ISIL capital of Raqqa and its oil-trading business.

France and the US are already bombing the fighters in Syria, while Russia has bombed mainly other armed groups battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Cyprus, which lies about 100km away from Syria, is the closest European Union member state to turmoil in the Middle East.