//

Mobile dating app Happn can’t be used to stalk people, according to the company’s CEO, despite what some reports have suggested.

The Happn app allows single people to set up their own profile and choose what kind of person they’re looking for based on sex and age. The app shows users who they’ve “crossed paths” with and how many times. After two Happn users express an interest in one another — by tapping a red love heart on the other person’s profile — they are able write messages to one another.

When asked about whether the app can be used to stalk people, Happn cofounder and CEO Didier Rappaport claimed it isn’t nearly accurate enough.

“You can cross with people who are around you but it is not really precise because it’s in a circle of 250m, which in a big city is very large, so you cannot really stalk the people,” he said.

Those who use Happn for several months may start to notice that they’ve crossed paths with certain people close to 100 times, indicating that this person probably lives or works very close to them. It’s perfectly possible that Happn users may start to recognise the people they’ve matched with on Happn on the street.

Rappaport told Business Insider that Happn is planning to introduce a voice messaging feature so that users can talk to their “crushes” in a more realistic way. Like rival app Tinder, Happn will also be integrated with Instagram so users can see what photos their love interests are posting.

“For us the evolution of our product is really important,” Rappaport said. “We want to make a service that is more and more rich for our users to allow them to express themselves much more.”

Some have suggested that Happn’s proprietary algorithm could be used by the police to track people who have gone missing but Rappaport said the company’s technology wouldn’t be able to pinpoint an individual’s location any better than the technology that’s already built into smartphones, namely GPS.

“We like fostering magic and we want to keep our app in that mood,” said Rappaport.

Happn has 700,000 users in the UK, with 450,000 of those in London where a high population density allows Happn users to cross paths with more people. Globally, Happn is used by some 8 million people and 1.2 million people are joining the platform every month. Rappaport said he expects Happn to have 25 to 30 million users worldwide by the end of 2016 and just as many users as Tinder by 2017.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We flew to the airport like the 1% — on the ‘Uber of helicopters’

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1Xu7f3o

//

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s al-Qaida branch has freed a group of Lebanese soldiers held captive since August 2014 as part of a swap deal.

The group, known as Nusra Front, released the 16 soldiers on Tuesday near the border town of Arsal, where they were abducted last year.

Lebanese and other media broadcast the release. The soldiers were being transported by the militants to a location outside the border town, to be handed over to Lebanese authorities who were waiting in Red Cross vehicles.

The release is part of a Qatar-brokered deal that includes Lebanon releasing a number of prisoners wanted by the militant group.

Details on those prisoners were not immediately available.

The Nusra Front and the Islamic State group abducted about 25 soldiers and policemen in Arsal last year.

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1IyL4wU

//

NEW YORK (AP) — Bono says despite the deadly attacks in Paris last month he believes Paris will remain strong and he is hoping U2’s concert there this week moves the audience.

U2 was set to perform in Paris on Nov. 14 and was in a middle of rehearsing when 130 people were killed in suicide bombings and shootings the day before in what has become the worst attack on French soil in more than a half-century.

“Well, knowing our French audience and having a sense of them by now, I would say joy as an act of defiance,” he said of what concertgoers can expect when U2 performs at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris Dec. 6-7. “That’s what U2 does, that’s what French people want from us and that’s it.”

“They took a lot of lives we’re not going to get back, but they’re not going to change the character of the city of Paris,” he continued in an interview with The Associated Press.

Bono also praised the U.S. rock band Eagles of Death Metal, who were performing at the concert theater Bataclan in Paris where some were taken hostage and killed.

“We’re very, very of course moved by the fact that our fellow troubadours, the Eagles of Death Metal, had such a hard time; they’re an extraordinary talented band, they’ve been through the most ugly nightmare and they have been very graceful about it,” Bono said.

Of the audience, he said, “These are our people and they’re very familiar faces, the people in the audience, they’re our people.

“They’re like my daughter, my son, they’re like (U2 members) Edge, they’re like Larry (Mullen, Jr.) … so we took it very badly,” Bono said. “But we’re going back, you bet. Nothing will stop us from going back.”

Bono made the comments when discussing a new campaign for his (RED) organization, which is launching Tuesday to coincide with World AIDS Day.

U2’s Dec. 7 show will broadcast on HBO. Bono said to those frightened by the Paris attacks and fearful of attending concerts: “Be vigilant, but be unafraid.”

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1IyL14g

//

Berlin (AFP) – The German cabinet on Tuesday approved a mandate offering military assistance to back the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group, sources said.

The package, which still requires parliamentary approval, covers Tornado reconnaissance jets, a naval frigate and up to 1,200 troops following a request from France in the wake of deadly jihadist attacks in Paris last month.

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1IyL28k

//

BALTIMORE (AP) — A second set of 75 prospective jurors was due to be questioned in a Baltimore court for the first trial of a city police officer stemming from Freddie Gray’s death.

Tuesday is the second day of jury selection for the trial of Officer William Porter, one of six officers charged in the case, which led to protests and rioting and added fuel to the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Monday, Judge Barry Williams questioned about 75 prospective jurors. A second group of 75 would be questioned Tuesday. On Wednesday, some of the potential jurors from each group will advance to a second round of questioning.

On Monday, Williams conducted initial questioning in the marble-walled courtroom, and then interviewed dozens of the prospective jurors in a private conference room. The large jury pool suggests how difficult the selection process could prove to be.

Gray was a 25-year-old black man who died April 19 of a severe spinal injury he received while in police custody.

Porter, who is also black, is accused of failing to get medical help for Gray during several stops made by the police van that carried Gray on a 45-minute trip. At the end, officers found Gray unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital and died a week later.

The officer is being tried first in part because prosecutors want to use him as a witness in the trials of several other officers. He is charged with manslaughter, assault, misconduct and reckless endangerment.

The judge asked potential jurors Monday if any of them had not heard about the case, the citywide curfew imposed after Gray’s death or the $6.4 million settlement the city paid to his family. No one responded.

Williams read aloud more than 200 names of possible witnesses, a list that included more than 100 Baltimore police officers, lawyers and prosecutors. The judge said he expects the trial to wrap up by Dec. 17.

A small group of protesters gathered outside the downtown courthouse. Their chants of “All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie Gray,” could be heard throughout the morning proceedings.

Another demonstration began Monday evening before the court wrapped up its work for the day. People rallied outside the courthouse and later marched to the Inner Harbor, then past Baltimore’s World Trade Center office tower and the National Aquarium and on to City Hall. One carried a sign that read, “Stop the War on Black America.” A woman led a chant of “If we don’t get it,” with people responding, “shut it down.”

One prospective juror was taken to a hospital after tripping on courthouse stairs. Court spokeswoman Terri Charles said the woman suffered a knee injury.

A verdict is likely to set the tone for the city. If Porter is acquitted, there could be protests and possibly more unrest. A conviction could send shock waves through the city’s troubled police department.

“Everything is at stake. The future of the city is at stake,” Police Commissioner Kevin Davis has said.

Two other officers are black and the three additional officers are white. They will be tried separately beginning in January. Their trials are expected to last until the spring.

Gray was initially handcuffed. Later during his van ride, his legs were shackled and he was not put in a seat belt, a violation of department policy, prosecutors have said.

Porter told police investigators that arresting Gray “was always a big scene,” according to a pretrial filing by defense attorneys. Porter indicated that he knew of a previous arrest in which Gray allegedly tried to kick out the windows of a police vehicle.

“You know, so he was always, always, like, banging around,” Porter said in the statement excerpted in the filing. “It was always a big scene whenever you attempted to arrest Freddie Gray.”

Defense attorneys say that helps explain Porter’s actions during Gray’s arrest.

___

Associated Press writer Juliet Linderman in Baltimore contributed to this report.

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1HCfcwz

//

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s lineup of new cases is fit for an election year.

Affirmative action, abortion and another look at the Obama health care law all are before the court, and they could well be joined by immigration, giving the justices a run of cases that reads like a campaign platform.

Also coming; disputes involving public-sector labor unions, the death penalty and the way electoral districts are drawn.

Decisions in these high-profile cases almost certainly will split the court along ideological lines, mirroring the country’s stark partisan split. What’s more, the most contentious issues won’t be resolved until late June, barely four months before the 2016 presidential election.

What started as a somewhat sleepy term — especially following major decisions last June on health care and same-sex marriage — has become much more interesting, says University of Pennsylvania law dean Theodore Ruger.

“This is a court that remains very assertive in its role in declaring what the law is,” Ruger said.

The accumulation of wrenching social issues and pointed policy disputes at the Supreme Court at this moment is mostly a matter of chance. A legal fight over the regulation of abortion clinics in Texas has been underway for two and a half years. President Barack Obama’s plan to shield from deportation millions of immigrants who are living in the country illegally was rolled out a year ago and almost immediately challenged in court. Faith-based groups that say they are forced to be complicit in providing objectionable birth control to women covered under their health plans have been challenging the Obama administration for more than three years.

It is still is possible the immigration dispute will not be heard until next fall, if at all.

Now that the cases are at the marble courthouse atop Capitol Hill, the justices’ decisions could feed campaign rhetoric that already has been heated on abortion and immigration, to name just two issues.

In June 2012, Chief Justice John Roberts provided the decisive vote that saved Obama’s health care overhaul in the midst of the president’s campaign for re-election.

A short time later, Republican candidate Mitt Romney proclaimed that as president he would do what the high court failed to do that June — get rid of the health care law. Obama won re-election, and the law survived.

Ruger said the chief justice wrote a nuanced opinion that appeared to show some sensitivity to the looming election.

“I think Roberts recognized this was going to be an issue in front of the voters,” Ruger said. The electorate ultimately would decide the health care law’s fate, he said.

Court decisions close to an election, especially when they produce big changes in the law, also can increase attention paid to those issues.

This is part of what Texas A&M University political scientist Joseph Ura called the court’s agenda-setting effect. Ura pointed to Brown v. Board of Education’s outlawing of racial segregation in public schools and Lawrence v. Texas’ ban on state anti-sodomy laws as examples of past decisions that altered “the existing arrangement of material or symbolic benefits in our political system.” Researchers found that those decisions “led to a large, sustained increase in the media’s attention” to those issues, Ura said.

Last term’s big rulings on health care and same-sex marriage already have prompted criticism of the court, and of Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy in particular, from several Republican presidential candidates. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for example, has said that putting Roberts on the court was a mistake, even though Cruz endorsed his nomination in 2005.

The court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United that led to a flood of what critics call “dark money” in political campaigns remains controversial, and Democratic candidates have pledged to try to undo it.

The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that established a woman’s right to an abortion produced a backlash that eventually showed up in election returns, said Sara Benesh, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “A lot of scholars say (President Ronald) Reagan got elected because of Roe v. Wade. Pro-life forces really got him moving in his campaign,” Benesh said.

But there is little evidence that the court itself will become an issue in the campaign, except perhaps on the margins, she said.

The court and the justices are little known to the public. “It seems to me a long, drawn-out relationship between any decision the court might make and any decision an individual might make in the voting booth,” Benesh said.

Every four years, interest groups across the political spectrum try to make that connection for voters. Elections matter, they say, because the winner may get to choose justices who will serve for the next quarter century or longer.

Indeed, with four justices in their late 70s or early 80s, and the court so closely and fiercely divided, any appointment could dramatically change the court’s direction.

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1IyKXRX

//

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest release of Hillary Clinton’s private emails show her, as secretary of state, dealing with the complicated politics of the Arab Spring, fending off questions about her role in the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks and attempting to navigate an intensifying conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

But they also give a glimpse into the private side of one of the world’s most public people. Clinton’s notes show her searching for videos on how to do a “fishtail bun” hairstyle and struggling to locate Showtime on her television. (She wanted to watch the CIA-centered drama “Homeland.”) She schedules — and reschedules — flights, meals and hairstyling appointments. And as she flies around the globe — logging 956,733 miles over her tenure — she tries to keep track of the time zone.

The roughly 7,800 pages of emails released Monday were part of a court-ordered disclosure of correspondence sent from the private server Clinton used while she was secretary of state.

Clinton, now the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, has faced questions about whether her unusual email setup was sufficient to ensure the security of government information and retention of records. Included in the most recent batch was an email that Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick deemed classified in July.

At least two Senate committees are still investigating Clinton’s email arrangement and seeking the release of correspondence from her top aides. The FBI is also investigating the security of Clinton’s private email setup.

Two-thirds of Clinton’s 30,000 work-related emails are now at least partially in the public eye — minus numerous redactions by the State Department.

Here’s a closer look at some of the messages that churned through Clinton’s very busy in-box in the batch released Monday:

__

HEALTH POLITICS

Get-well-soon notes poured in from across the globe after a stomach virus that Clinton picked up in 2012 became a serious condition that kept her out of the office — and off the congressional witness stand. After a dehydrated Clinton fainted and sustained a concussion — a condition she frequently called her “cracked head” in messages — she was forced to postpone her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the deadly Benghazi attacks.

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein emailed her aide, Capricia Marshall, offering to send Clinton copies of any movies she wanted to watch while recuperating. Dorothea Hurley, the wife of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, checked in with Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, to say that they were “sending you all a big hug.” Chelsea forwarded the message to her mother.

Her health quickly became a political issue, with Republicans questioning her fitness should she ever run for president. Her staff moved quickly to tamp down the speculation. Top aide Philippe Reines told Clinton he’d reached out to former Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, a heart transplant surgeon, and the NFL commissioner to enlist their support pushing back on right-wing commentators. “Just not letting these comments stand, no matter who says them,” Reines said.

Frist was happy to help, according to the documents. “I love her and respect her and I can help. Not sure how exactly but I know I can help. I will Keep all Confidential,” he wrote.

___

2012 ELECTIONS

Although Clinton wasn’t on the ticket in 2012, she and her supporters followed the race closely — and had plenty to say. In a January 2012 note, during the heat of the Florida GOP primary, Clinton refers to Mitt Romney as “Mittens” and Newt Gingrich as “Grinch.”

“If Mittens can’t beat Grinch in Florida, there will be pressure on state Republican parties to reopen or liberalize ballot access,” she writes to confidant Sid Blumenthal.

___

BENGHAZI

At least a few of the messages have come back to haunt Clinton during her presidential bid. Shortly before 9 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, Clinton sent an email asking her daughter to call her at her office about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The email was addressed to an account under the name “Diane Reynolds,” an alias Chelsea Clinton used for personal messages.

“Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an al-Qaida-like group: The Ambassador, whom I handpicked, and a young communications officer on temporary duty w(ith) a wife and two young children,” Hillary Clinton later wrote to her daughter. “Very hard day and I fear more of the same tomorrow.”

In October, that email was trumpeted by Republicans on the House Benghazi committee as evidence that Clinton knew very quickly the attack on the consulate was the work of Islamic terrorists, not a spontaneous street protest triggered by the release of a video considered an insult to the Prophet Mohammed. In a later television interview, then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice suggested the video, which did spark anti-American protests that day in several Muslim countries, was the primary motivation for the attack. Republicans have suggested the Obama administration downplayed the terror threat to avoid stoking public safety concerns in the weeks leading up to the 2012 presidential election.

Some of the messages show that Clinton worried about how her own remarks after the attacks would later be perceived. In a September 2012 message, aide Jake Sullivan compiled all her statements and assured Clinton that she was “careful” and “never said ‘spontaneous’ or characterized the motives.”

“The way you treated the video in the Libya context was to say that some sought to (asterisk)justify(asterisk) the attack on that basis,” he wrote.

___

KEEPING THE TEAM TOGETHER

Clinton maintained her ties with the Democratic Party donors who supported her past campaigns and could help her in the future. In November 2012, Samuel Kaplan, a Minneapolis lawyer and major Democratic donor who was appointed U.S. ambassador to Morocco, secured a private meeting with Clinton to discuss how he and his wife “might hope to be allied” with her in the future.

Former Clinton aide Lauren Jiloty wrote to Clinton in 2012 to say she had met investor Warren Buffett, who asked her whom she had previously worked for. “When I told him it was YOU, he said, ‘She’s my heroine!'”

“We all feel that way,” Jiloty wrote. The billionaire investor will join Clinton on the campaign trail later this month.

She also kept up with some of the political strategists who worked in her husband’s administration and would go on to run her 2016 campaign, replying to birthday wishes from her future campaign chairman, John Podesta, and requests for career advice from campaign chief financial officer Gary Gensler.

___

KISSING UP

Clinton’s aides and supporters showered her with gushing praise, complimenting everything from her appearance to her policies, and the volume and emotion of those messages only grew as her tenure in the Cabinet came to an end.

Aides forwarded Clinton congratulatory messages even as she was still on the stand testifying before Congress in January 2013. “I’m being flooded with emails about how you rocked,” deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin wrote. “And you looked fabulous.” One supporter wrote a message with the subject line: “twitterverse abuzz with Hillary-kvelling,” using the Yiddish word for gushing praise.

Later, after several congratulatory emails were exchanged among Clinton’s staff, political consultant Mark Penn sent an email to Clinton gently suggesting that perhaps it wasn’t wise to lose her temper in the hearing. Penn suggested Republicans could use that moment as evidence that they had rattled her.

Aide Philippe Reines leaped to Clinton’s defense, writing:

“Give

Me

A

Break

You did not look rattled. You looked real. There’s a difference. A big one.”

Top aide Jake Sullivan weighed in, saying Penn delivered the same advice during her losing presidential campaign in 2008 — that it’s bad for a candidate to be herself. Clinton replies, “BINGO!”

___

Follow Lisa Lerer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/llerer

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Catherine Lucey, Jack Gillum, Ted Bridis, Deb Riechmann, Matthew Lee, Stephen Braun, Wendy Benjaminson, Tami Abdollah, Michael Biesecker, Eileen Sullivan, Eric Tucker, Jim Drinkard, Ken Dilanian, Scott Bauer, Jeff Horwitz, Matthew Daly and Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1IyKX4q

//

WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposed law meant to encourage companies to share information about cyberthreats with the U.S. government includes measures that could significantly limit what details, if any, the public can review about the program through federal and state public records laws.

The legislation — already passed in both houses of Congress but not yet finalized — would keep secret any information a company hands over to the Obama administration under a new cybersecurity agreement, including specifics the firms decide themselves shouldn’t be disclosed. It’s not clear whether that secrecy would extend to learning whether particular companies are even participating.

The cyberagreement passed with bipartisan support, despite privacy concerns over Senate language from some lawmakers and technology companies, including Apple Inc. and Dropbox Inc. It’s the culmination of a roughly six-year effort made possible by recent additions of antitrust and consumer-liability protections for the companies’ participation.

Transparency advocates said the new law would provide excessive cover to tech companies through new restrictions to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, which also supersedes state and tribal open-records laws. That could shield all sorts of information about what the government is — or isn’t — doing to protect Americans who are increasingly victimized by cybercriminals.

“There should be an element of public debate,” said Rick Blum, director of the Washington-based Sunshine in Government Initiative. “Oftentimes, public disclosure and accountability motivates people to be doing more and to be making the right choices.”

Under the federal records law, requesters can obtain government information unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or certain confidential decision-making. Critical-infrastructure information is also excluded, but the new law explicitly allows additional exemptions for “cyberthreat indicators” and “defensive measures” shared by companies. Those terms aren’t well defined, so there is more leeway to interpret what could be kept secret.

Federal agencies are encouraged to apply discretion in balancing some protections against what can be revealed, but no such discretion would be allowed under the proposed bills. Requesters may have to file a lawsuit in federal court to resolve disputes.

Congress has yet to work out differences between the House and Senate bills before any legislation would ultimately go to President Barack Obama, who early in his administration pledged greater transparency. The White House supports the new exemptions.

The Senate bill passed last month was co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the panel.

___

Follow Tami Abdollah on Twitter at https://twitter.com/latams

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1OsE1fF

//

Olongapo City (Philippines) (AFP) – A Philippine court on Tuesday convicted a US Marine of killing a Filipina transgender woman, in a case that attracted national attention as the Philippines seeks closer defence ties with its longtime ally.

Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of homicide for the killing of Filipina transgender woman Jennifer Laude in a cheap motel in October 2014.

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1OsE2Aj

//

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon each year, taking in the sweeping views from developed areas along the rim, grabbing a bite to eat and hopping on a shuttle bus to other outlooks. Far fewer people venture into the 1.1 million acres that make up the backcountry.

Park officials are trying to get a better handle on how many people head into the canyon and to the most primitive areas with recent proposals to manage the backcountry. They say the trails are becoming too congested and hikers complain of the noise, trash dumped along the routes and long lines for toilets.

The park also wants to monitor relatively new activities like rim-to-rim excursions, canyoneering, climbing and short rafting trips on the Colorado River to get backpackers to the other side.

The proposals aim to reduce conflicts among outdoor groups seeking the solitude of the backcountry and to ensure the park’s resources are protected. Between 30,000 and 35,000 people a year spend the night in the backcountry, according to park officials.

Here’s a look at some of the details of the management proposal:

WHAT IS THE BACKCOUNTRY?

Anything below the rim of the Grand Canyon is considered the backcountry. Much of it has been managed as a wilderness area since 1980, which means motorized travel, power drilling to place bolts into rocks and helicopters largely are prohibited. The backcountry is divided into four zones that range from having developed campsites and lodging, water faucets and well-maintained trails to absolutely no amenities and only natural water sources. Overnight stays in the inner canyon require a backcountry permit.

CANYONEERING AND CLIMBING

The 1988 plan didn’t take into account activities like rock climbing or canyoneering, which can be multi-day expeditions into slot canyons, caves and other rugged terrain. The park has no policy for anchoring ropes, and the activities aren’t listed on backcountry permits. The park wants the ability to require single day permits that identify the routes and restrict the number of groups if needed. The proposals outline a way to monitor the activities.

FEE FOR DAY HIKES

Hikers can walk down the three most popular trails — Bright Angel and South Kaibab from the South Rim, and North Kaibab from the North Rim — as far as they’d like, although the National Park Service discourages trips to the Colorado River and back in a single day. Each of the three proposals for revising the backcountry management plan would institute a day-use permit for hiking more than 5 miles on those trails and at least a $5 fee. Park officials say it’s meant to cut down on overcrowding farther below and improve the experience for hikers. The park would reserve the right to limit group sizes and set daily caps.

TELL THE PARK WHAT YOU THINK

The three options for backcountry management took years to develop. Each has a different focus from balancing recreation with resource protection, to solitude to expanding recreation activities. Another option would leave things as is. The public has 90 days to comment on the proposals. Public meetings are planned Wednesday at the Grand Canyon and Monday in Flagstaff. The park says it will be a year or more before a final decision is made. For more information, go to http://ift.tt/1OsDFpg .

Join the conversation about this story »

from Business Insider http://ift.tt/1ThwEXC