Two Car Bombs Kill at Least 24 in Baghdad; France and Spain Team Up to Catch Terrorists; New Intel Processors Add Code-Disabling Technology; U.S. Cybersecurity Chief Calls It Quits

Two Car Bombs Kill at Least 24 in Baghdad

Three car bombs exploded across Iraq Monday morning, including two in Baghdad, leaving at least 24 dead. According to a New York Times report, two suicide car bombs went off within a hour of each other in Baghdad. The first rammed into a recruiting center for Iraqi security forces, on the western side of the city. The blast left at least 15 dead and 82 wonded. The second attack came near the Baghdad Hotel. At least four were killed and 20 injured, according to the Times. The third bomb exploded near a primary school in Mosul, killing at least five people, including two children. Meanwhile the American military continued its assault on insurgents, launching an aerial strike on the outskirts of Falluja at 1 a.m. Monday.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

France and Spain Team Up to Catch Terrorists

Two of Spain’s most wanted terrorist suspects were caught Sunday in southwestern France, according to French and Spanish officials. The New York Times reports that about 140 French and Spanish antiterror police officers were involved in the raids. The arrests nabbed Mikel Albizu Iriarte, 43, and Soledad Iparraguirre, 43, two memebers of the Basque separatist group ETA. At least 16 other people suspected of ETA ties were also arrested. Said Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso at a news conference in Madrid, “It is an extremely important operation, one that we cna certainly describe as historic.”

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

New Intel Processors Add Code-Disabling Technology

Intel announced that its Pentium 4 line of processors will now include execute disable bit (EDB) technology. The Register reports that this move had been expected as other chip makers (AMD, Transmeta and others) use a similar code-disabling technology. Windows XP SP 2 uses this technology to fight certain computer viruses.

For more details, read the full article in The Register.

U.S. Cybersecurity Chief Calls It Quits

Amit Yoran, the former Symantec Corp. executive who was tapped as the nation’s cybersecurity chief just one year ago, resigned Friday. Yoran told Computerworld (a sister company to CXO Media) that his commitment to the Department of Homeland Security was not intended to be a long one. “I’m not a long-term government kind of guy,” he said. “I have my sleeves rolled up in a very entrepreneurial mind-set. But I’m not leaving because of that.” A Computerworld source paints a different pictre, saying that Yoran was frustrated the DHS bureaucracy that pitted physical and cybersecurity against one another.

For more details, read the full article in Computerworld.