Online Info Can Cross Privacy Lines; Shots Fired at Two More Vehicles in Ohio; Bird Flu Strain Discovered in Delaware Chicken Flock; Port Looted as Haiti Unrest Spreads

Online Info Can Cross Privacy Lines

The Washington Post reports that cybersecurity experts say an increasing number of private or putatively secret documents are online in out-of-the-way corners of computers all over the globe, leaving the government, individuals, and companies vulnerable to security breaches. According to the story, for a variety of reasons—improperly configured servers, holes in security systems, human error—a wide assortment of material not intended to be viewed by the public is, in fact, publicly available. Shots Fired at Two More Vehicles in OhioThe Toledo Blade, no one was injured. Both vehicles were struck on the hoods near the drivers side, and the shootings were only minutes apart. Authorities investigating a series of 21 shootings since May, 2003, said today they will likely add yesterdays shootings as the 22nd and 23rd related to the serial gunman or gunmen. Investigators may have caught a break, the Blade reports, as victims said yesterday they saw a white man about 30 to 40 years old and a dark vehicle on two separate overpasses in Fayette County where the shots were fired. At least one victim told authorities that a handgun was used.

In two daylight attacks yesterday, Ohios “highway sniper” struck a van and a car heading north on I-71 in a rural county about 40 miles southwest of Columbus. According to a story in

Bird Flu Strain Discovered in Delaware Chicken FlockThe New York Times today. Michael Scuse, Delaware’s agriculture secretary, said that the strain found in Delaware was fatal to poultry but did not transmit to humans.

A flock of 12,000 chickens in Delaware was destroyed Saturday in a bid to prevent the spread of avian flu, and agriculture officials hastened to say the virus differs from the one that has killed people in Asia, according to a Reuters report in

Port Looted as Haiti Unrest SpreadsThe Toronto Star, armed rebels seeking to oust Haitis President Jean-Bertrand Aristide spread their rampage to a second port city yesterday, while the mainstream opposition appeared to pull back from association with four days of violence that has killed 18 people, mostly policemen. Rioting broke out early yesterday in Saint Marc, and hundreds of frenzied looters stripped sea containers of televisions, radios and corn flour, and set the empty containers ablaze. Widely applauded by Haiti’s impoverished masses when he returned from U.S. exile, Aristide and his Lavalas Party have since presided over a profound deterioration of Haiti, far the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the story says. Unrest has been deepening since Aristide’s party swept parliamentary elections in 2000 deemed by international observers to be flawed. According to The Miami Herald, Aristide opponents in Port-au-Prince canceled a demonstration on Sunday, citing security concerns and respect for the fallen police officers. A day earlier, Aristide backers had marched through the capital, some defiantly carrying rifles. The Herald carries other detailed coverage of the events.

According to coverage in