Yahoo rejects Microsoft's $44.6B bid

Yahoo spurned Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid as inadequate Monday without explaining how its management will match the payoff that the slumping Internet icon's shareholders would have received had the unsolicited offer been accepted.

The rebuff had been widely anticipated after word of Yahoo's intention was leaked during the weekend.
In its formal response, Yahoo said its board had concluded Microsoft's unsolicited offer "substantially undervalues" the Sunnyvale-based company.
Yahoo's stock price had dropped by more than 40 percent in the three months leading to Microsoft's bid, which was valued at $31 per share when it was announced February 1. The offer represented was 62 percent above Yahoo's market value at the time.
By rejecting Microsoft, Yahoo's board appears to betting that it will be able to extract a higher offer from the world's largest software maker or its management team will finally be able to deliver on its repeated promises of a turnaround that has been in the works for the past 18 months.

Many analysts believe Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft will eventually raise its bid to $35 to $40 per share, sweetening the pot by $5 billion to $12 billion in an effort to negotiate an amicable sale.

Alternatively, Microsoft could take its original bid directly to Yahoo's shareholders. If it goes down that route, Microsoft might have to antagonize Yahoo by trying to oust the 10-member board the rejected the original offer.
Microsoft representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday morning.
Yahoo shares rose 62 cents, or 2 percent, to $29.82 in early trading Monday while Microsoft shares lost 24 cents to $28.32.

Firm: Ship's anchor cut Mideast Internet cable

A telecommunications company on Friday blamed a ship anchor for cutting one of three severed undersea cables that snarled Internet traffic throughout the Middle East last week.

FLAG Telecom's FALCON cable spanning Dubai and Oman was snapped February 1 by an abandoned six-ton ship anchor, the company said, and will be repaired by Sunday.
The cut cables linking the Mideast not only fouled up communications, but they also provided prime fodder for Web-based conspiracy theorists around the world.
"Fundamentally, if somebody wants to cut a cable, they can do so -- all you need to do is go trawling with an anchor," said Stephan Beckert an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues. He scoffed at conspiracy theories posted online by what he calls "the tin-foil hat crowd."

FLAG said Friday that its severed Europe-Asia Internet cable in the Mediterranean Sea that links Egypt and Italy also would be repaired by Sunday.

A third cut cable, called SeaMeWe-4, lies just a few hundred meters from FLAG's Europe-Asia line. It's co-owned by France Telecom and is expected to be back in working order soon, said Beckert.

"The question is, who would have incentive to cut underwater Internet cables?" That wild speculation, Beckert said, "just doesn't make a lot of sense."
Theories that the U.S. government was behind the cable cuts to create an information blackout for whatever reason are ridiculous, Beckert said.
"The U.S. military uses those cables," he said, "they would find it quite inconvenient," although Beckert added that the military also uses satellites to run communication traffic as a secondary route.
Another target of the Internet sabotage speculation is Islamic terrorists. "It was a six-ton anchor that took out that cable in the Persian Gulf. Unless al Qaeda has extremely strong frogmen or submarines, I'm not sure how they did it," laughed Beckert.
Scores of cut undersea cables are reported each year, Beckert said, acknowledging that three cables leading into the volatile Middle East would attract more attention.
A fourth cable, known as the Qatar-UAE Submarine Cable System, which links United Arab Emirates to Qatar went down last weekend, but that failure was blamed on a power outage, Beckert said. Like most cable outages, the incident went largely unnoticed by end users because Internet traffic can easily be re-routed through other cables, he said.

As the world's fleet of 28 multimillion-dollar cable repair ships works to maintain the crisscrossing communications spider web, Beckert said more capacity is needed in the Persian Gulf to satisfy increasing numbers of Internet users.
Some undersea Internet cables can cost $500 million to lay, Beckert said, although the expense is shrinking. It still takes a lot of time to stretch communication lines thousands of miles across entire oceans.
Following last week's outages, Internet Service Providers in India were alerting customers to service slowdowns of 50 percent to 60 percent, according to the Internet Services Providers Association of India. Service was back to normal by this week.

Although last week's problem created a "big pain" for many of carriers, Beckert said, it didn't compare to the several months of disruption in East Asia in 2006 after an earthquake damaged seven undersea cables near Taiwan.
TeleGeography analysts said a similar Internet problem could not happen in the United States because most traffic between the United States, Canada and Mexico is carried over land, and there is a plentiful supply of undersea cables carrying traffic under the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Spacewalkers work on new lab

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Two spacewalking astronauts floated out of a hatch on the international space station on Monday to help install a new European lab, while a crewmate who was supposed to participate in the outing helped from inside.

Spacewalkers Rex Walheim and Stanley Love ventured outside as the space station passed over Asia.
"Welcome to spacewalking buddy," Walheim said as Love made his way through the hatch for his first spacewalk.
"It's awesome," Love replied.
German astronaut Hans Schlegel was supposed to be Walheim's spacewalking partner, but he was pulled from the job Saturday because of an undisclosed illness. Schlegel looked and sounded well Sunday and was expected to take part in the second spacewalk of the mission on Wednesday. On Monday, however, he was helping choreograph the outing from inside the station.
The main task for Walheim and Love will be attaching a handle to Columbus that will allow robotic arm operator Leland Melvin to grab hold of the module and delicately lift it from Atlantis' cargo bay.
Melvin will then install Columbus on the right side of the Harmony module, which Discovery's astronauts delivered in December.

The 10-ton Columbus laboratory is Europe's main contribution to the space station.
The original plan called for the module to be launched in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World. Since then, the $2 billion lab has endured space station redesigns and slowdowns, as well as a number of shuttle postponements and two shuttle accidents.
"It's getting more exciting here for us every day," a European flight controller said Monday. "... We're looking forward to a successful Columbus installation today."
"This will be a big day for us," replied French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts, who arrived at the station aboard Atlantis to spend a month setting up and activating the new lab.
With their flight now 12 days long because of the spacewalk delay, Atlantis astronauts conducted another survey of a thermal blanket that has a torn corner; the stitching came apart at the seams, and the corner pulled up.
Engineers were analyzing the problem to determine whether the blanket would stand up to the intense heat of re-entry at flight's end, or whether spacewalk repairs might be needed. The blanket is located on the right orbital maneuvering system pod, back near the shuttle's tail.

NASA is vigilant when it comes to the shuttle's thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed in 2003 following a foam strike to its wing during launch.
John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said the thermal covering on the wings, nose and belly of Atlantis have no areas of concern and have been cleared for re-entry in just over a week.

Georgia Man Dies After BASE Jump From Bridge

MACON, Ga. -- A Georgia man is dead following a risky jump from a bridge in Idaho.
Richard Heaton, III of Macon successfully parachuted off the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho but authorities believe the 27-year-old died of exposure trying to hike out of the Snake River Canyon.
Heaton's girlfriend reported him missing Friday morning, after not hearing from him on Thursday. Officials said they checked Heaton's hotel room and found all of his personal items but no parachute gear.
Searchers found his body Friday.
A BASE jumper who operates a Web site for enthusiasts, Tom Aiello, told the Times-News that it was only Heaton's third jump ever.
In a Web site posting, Heaton's girlfriend in Georgia, identified only as Jill, gave the following account:
"I spoke with Richard late Wednesday night from Perrine Bridge," Jill wrote on the BASEjumper.com site. "He was too excited to wait 'till Thursday during the day, and told me he would make the jump. He never called back ..." She also wrote, "His phone records indicate that he never made, or received, any calls after my conversation with him Wed night.
In another posting on the BASEjumper.com site, Aiello said, "Never having jumped this site, it is unlikely that Richard knew the trail to climb out."
BASE stands for bridge, antennae, span and earth. The Perrine Bridge is the only structure in the U.S. where BASE jumping is legal year-round. The Perrine Bridge is one of the world's most frequented BASE jump sites.

U.S. to seek death penalty for 6 Gitmo detainees

The United States will seek the death penalty against six Guantanamo Bay detainees who are suspects in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an Air Force general said Monday.

The government will submit criminal charges against the detainees, who include alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Brig Gen. Thomas Hartmann said during a Pentagon news conference. The government hopes to try the men together, he said.
All six have been charged with conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, terrorism and material support of terrorism, said the general who is serving as legal adviser to the military commissions trying the detainees.
The 169 charges allege a "long-term, highly sophisticated plan by al Qaeda to attack the United States of America," Hartmann said.

"There will be no secret trials," Hartmann said. "We will make every effort to make everything open."
The exception will be when classified information is presented that could compromise national security, he said.
All six suspects are accused of helping plan the September 11 attacks in which hijackers flew two jets into the World Trade Center in New York and another jet into the Pentagon in Washington. Another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, 2,974 people were killed in the attacks, not including the 19 hijackers.
Also charged are: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, accused of being an intermediary between the hijackers and al Qaeda leaders; Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, who has been identified as Mohammed's lieutenant; al-Baluchi's alleged assistant, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi; and Walid bin Attash, who is accused of selecting and training some hijackers.
Four of the detainees -- Mohammed, bin Attash, al-Shibh, and Ali -- will be additionally charged with the offense of hijacking or hazarding an aircraft.
Military prosecutors will submit the charges along with a request to seek the death penalty in the cases, and Judge Susan Crawford will have to approve charges and the request, defense officials told CNN.
A military commission would thereafter be held at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. If a judge approves the charges, it will mark the first time that Guantanamo detainees have been charged in the

Within 30 days of the judge's approval, the detainees will hear the charges against them and enter pleas, Hartman said. Within another 90 days, the military panel will be assembled and motions and discovery will ensue, he said.
"We are going to give them rights that are virtually identical to our military members," Hartmann said.
About 380 foreign nationals are being held at Guantanamo. The detainees' lawyers have repeatedly complained that their clients are being denied due process.
The U.S. Supreme Court also has twice expressed reservations about how the government handles detainees at the U.S. naval base.
In 2006, the high court struck down the Bush administration's use of military tribunals to try terror suspects, saying the process was unconstitutional because the system did not allow prisoners to challenge their detention.
Congress last year passed the Military Commissions Act, which provided terror suspects with a limited right to appeal any conviction. It also reduced the jurisdiction of federal courts.
The commissions were specifically established to try crimes related to the war on terror. The exact charges that the six detainees face are unclear.
Not much is known about the commissions system. The detainees will have lawyers, and they will be allowed to see at least some of the evidence against them.
However, several legal and political challenges remain, and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said it could be five years before any of the detainees go to trial.
"One thing's clear about Guantanamo is that the next president is going to have to resolve this," Toobin said.
Bob Hughes, whose 30-year-old son died in the World Trade Center, said he was disappointed with the slow legal process, but he applauded the government's efforts to impose the death penalty on any conspirators.
"Anyone involved that helped these people get to America to do what they did, they definitely deserve the death penalty," he said.
One legal issue expected to stall the process is whether prosecutors will be able to use confessions or other information gleaned using controversial interrogation techniques.
Hartmann said Monday that a military judge will determine whether information obtained during interrogations is admissible.

On Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden for the first time publicly confirmed Mohammed and two other terror suspects were subjected to a technique called waterboarding, which is intended to simulate drowning.
The technique was used on top al Qaeda detainees in the aftermath of the attacks to "help us prevent catastrophic loss of life of Americans or their allies," Hayden said.

Turn a Router into an Access Point

Adding wireless access point functionality to the Cisco integrated services router's capabilities helps simplify configuration, deployment, and management of wireless LANs (WLANs) at enterprise branch offices or small and medium-sized businesses.

The Cisco WLAN high-speed WAN interface cards (HWICs) add access point functionality to the integrated Layer 3 routing, Layer 2 switching, and network security functions of the modular Cisco 1800 Series, and fixed-configuration Cisco 2800 Series and Cisco 3800 Series integrated services routers.

WAN Interface Cards Boost Connectivity

The 3G Wireless WAN High-Speed WAN Interface Cards (HWICs) offer a compelling alternative to traditional wireline backup solutions on Cisco 1841, 1861, 2800 Series, and 3800 Series integrated services routers. Powered by the widely deployed high-speed cellular networks, the cards offer cost-effective primary connectivity for rapid deployments, kiosks, ATMs, and telemetry applications.

The 3G Wireless WAN HWICs provide a, true multipath WAN backup solution that delivers higher performance than dialup/ISDN solutions at a fraction of the cost. The cards deliver WAN connectivity in a fraction of the time required to install a traditional wireline WAN connection.

The 3G Wireless WAN HWICs support the following 3G and 2.5G technologies:

HWIC-3G-CDMA supports 1xEV-DO Rev A, 1x EV-DO Rev 0, and 1xRTT

HWIC-3G-GSM supports HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE, and GPRS

The cards automatically select the best available service based on wireless network availability in the service area.

Applications:

• WAN backup: Independent of the wireline infrastructure, enhances business resilience and disaster recovery preparedness
  


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• Rapid deployments or temporary sites: Offers agility to businesses that require instant setup and frequent relocation
  


• Retail and telemetry: Ideal for low data volumes and high-security applications, such as bank ATMs, kiosks, gas stations, and telemetry sites