At least 2 Americans killed in Kabul, Aghanistan restaurant attack that left 21 dead

A suicide bomber and two gunmen stormed a popular eatery in Afghanistan where foreign diplomats and wealthy Afghans congregate. The U.S. Embassy confirmed two American citizens were killed.

 

La Taverna du Liban, a popular Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, was targeted by a suicide bomber and two gunmen — killing two Americans and at least 19 others.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The death toll from a Taliban attack on a Kabul restaurant popular with foreigners and affluent Afghans has risen to 21 people, officials said Saturday, in the deadliest violence against foreign civilians in the country since the start of the war nearly 13 years ago.
Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Zahir Zahir said the victims included 13 foreigners and eight Afghans and said the majority were civilians. The U.S. Embassy said that at least two private U.S. citizens were among the victims but provided no other details.
The dead at the La Taverna du Liban restaurant included the head of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, three United Nations staff and a member of the European Police Mission in Afghanistan. The UN had initially reported four dead, but had counted the IMF representative.
Zahir and international officials said the dead included two Britons, two Canadians, a Dane, a Russian, two Lebanese, a Somali-American and a Pakistani. At least four people were wounded and about eight Afghans, mostly the kitchen staff, survived.

Reuters

Afghan policemen help an injured man at the site of a restaurant attack in Kabul.

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Five women, four foreign and one Afghan, were also among the dead, Zahir said.
The three attackers, including a suicide bomber and two gunmen, were also killed during Friday night’s assault on the Lebanese restaurant.
The dead included the head of the IMF in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah, a 60-year-old Lebanese national; a Danish European Policewoman and her British bodyguard, while the U.N. in Kabul said its three staff members included a Pakistani, a Russian and a Somali-American. The restaurant’s Lebanese owner, Kamal Hamade, was also killed.

Rahmat Gul/AP

Afghan security forces investigate the aftermath of Friday's suicide attack and shooting in Kabul around dinnertime Friday.

The attack was condemned by the U.N. Security Council, NATO and the European Union.

“I strongly condemn this attack on random civilians and my thoughts and deepest sympathy goes to the next of kin,” Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said in a statement.
The Danish Foreign Ministry declined to release details about the victim as customary but Denmark’s TV2 said she was a 34-year-old woman.

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan police arrive at the scene of a suicide bomber and gun attack in Kabul on Friday. At least 16 people were killed at a Lebanese eatery frequented by foreigners and Afghans.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling and unjustifiable violence. The perpetrators must be brought to justice,” EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s office has not yet condemned the attack.
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The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in reprisal for an Afghan military operation earlier in the week against insurgents in eastern Parwan province, which the insurgents claimed killed many civilians. The Taliban frequently provide exaggerated casualty figures.

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

Afghan police keep back traffic near a restaurant popular with Afghans and foreign diplomats that was attacked by gunmen and a suicide bomber on Friday night. At least 16 people died.

“The target of the attack was a restaurant frequented by high ranking foreigners,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an emailed statement. He said the attack targeted a place “where the invaders used to dine with booze and liquor in the plenty.”
He described the “revenge attack” as having delivered a “heavy admonitory blow to the enemy which they shall never forget.”
During the operation last Wednesday in eastern Parwan province, Afghan officials said that Taliban fighters opened fire on an Afghan commando unit trying to capture an insurgent leader in his home. After opening fire on the Afghan soldiers, killing one of their American advisers, the team called the U.S.-led coalition for air support.
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The governor of Parwan, Abdul Basir Salangi, said a Taliban leader, three of his family members and five civilians in a neighboring home, from which insurgents were also firing on the Afghan commandos, died in the ensuing combat. He added that seven Taliban fighters were also killed.
Insurgents have frequently targeted foreign interests around the country and in Kabul.
The deadliest previous attack against foreign civilians was in Sept. 8, 2012, when nine civilian employees of a private aviation company were killed in a suicide attack happened near Kabul airport. They included eight South Africans and a Kyrgyz.
The Taliban have stepped up a campaign of violence in recent months after foreign forces handed over control of security for the country to the Afghan army and police ahead of their full withdrawal by the end of 2014.

Six more U.S. retailers hit by Target-like hacks

Security firm IntelCrawler also identified a 17-year-old Russian it says wrote the BlackPOS malware, a version of which was used against Target

 

IDG News Service - Cybercriminals have stolen payment card data from six more U.S. retailers using similar point-of-sale malware that compromised Target, a computer crime intelligence company said Friday.

The conclusion comes from a study of members-only forums where cybercriminals buy and sell data and malicious software tools, said Dan Clements, president of IntelCrawler, which conducted the analysis.
The retailers have not been publicly named, but IntelCrawler is providing technical information related to the breaches to law enforcement, Clements said in a telephone interview Friday.
IntelCrawler has also identified a 17-year-old Russian who it says created the BlackPOS malware, which intercepts unencrypted payment card data after a card is swiped. Security experts believe malware based on BlackPOS was used against Target.
The teenager, who goes by the online nickname "ree4," sold more than 40 copies of BlackPOS to cybercriminals in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, according to forum postings IntelCrawler analyzed.
Clements said IntelCrawler is "90 percent" sure of its finding, based on the forum postings and sources it communicated with.
The forum posts indicate the teenager sold the malware for US$2,000 or for a share of the profits that came from monetizing stolen payment card details, Clements said.
BlackPOS was also sold to "carding" websites such as .rescator, Track2.name and Privateservices.biz that trade in stolen card details, according to IntelCrawler.
BlackPOS was originally called Kaptoxa, which is Russian slang for potato. Clements said the Russian teenager eventually renamed the malware BlackPOS during a fresh marketing push.
Dallas-based security company iSight Partners wrote in a report earlier this week on the Target hack, which it called the "Kaptoxa operation." It says the hackers used a high level of skill to gain stealthy access to the retailer's network.
Since early 2013, IntelCrawler has seen a brisk trade in login credentials for POS terminals on underground forums, suggesting cybercriminals are still finding gaps in industry security recommendations for how payment card data is handled.
Cybercriminals were selling "remote desktop protocol" credentials for POS terminals, which would allow them access to the machines, Clements said.
In many cases, default passwords had not been changed on the terminals, which were located in the U.S., Australia and Canada, he said. In other cases, cybercriminals were successfully trying many combinations of usernames and passwords to find the right one, known as a brute-force attack.

 

 

Surprise baby! The Big C actress Laura Linney, 49, has given birth to her first child after keeping her pregnancy a secret

She hadn't even revealed the news that she was pregnant.
But today, representatives for Laura Linney confirmed the actress she gave birth to a baby boy on Wednesday.
It is the first child for the 49-year-old actress and her husband, real estate agent Marc Schauer.

Surprise baby: Laura Linney gave birth to her first child on January 7 after keeping her pregnancy a secret. The star hasn't been photographed in public since the Women In Film Crystal + Lucy Awards in Los Angeles in June

Laura has named her son Bennett Armistead Schauer, her representatives confirmed.
'Mother and baby are happy and healthy,' the rep told People.
The actress and her husband married in May 2009, after a three-year engagement.
The beautiful blonde has been lying low since her appearance at Women in Film's 2013 Crystal + Lucy Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in June, when she was only a few weeks into her pregnancy.

New parents: The 49-year-old and her husband Marc Schauer, pictured at the Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles in 2009, managed to hide Laura's baby bump throughout her term

On that evening she hid her figure in a loose black pinafore dress over a puff-sleeved white blouse.
The actress didn't even turn up to receive her fourth Emmy for best actress for Showtime's The Big C at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles in September, when her baby bump would have been showing.
Presenter Matt Damon accepted the award on Laura's behalf, joking: 'She's such a great actress that she didn't even need to show up.'

Golden girl: Laura looked slender in a shimmering frock at the Hyde Park On Hudson Film premiere in New York in October 2012

Meanwhile, she gave an interview to Moviefone days before the October 19 release of her film, The Fifth Estate, presumably over the phone since there was no mention of Laura's delicate state.
But the actress did say she was 'taking a little time off,' which allowed her to binge-watch TV shows.
She added: 'I've watched "House of Cards" in, like, two days. I did all of "Breaking Bad" in the past few months. I watched "Top of the Lake" in one sitting. It's fantastic. It's really fun.'

A-ward winner: The Big C star did not turn up to receive her Emmy for actress for her role in the Showtime series in September, when she would have been 12 weeks away from giving birth

Laura innocently said she had no idea what she was going to do in the upcoming months.
The cagey star said: 'I'm not making plans. I'm trying to clear the slate and give myself a little time to breathe and then we'll see. And then it's the life of an actor -- you never know. So far, so good.'
Twelve weeks later she and Marc welcomed their baby boy.
As for Bennett's name, Laura has starred in several TV miniseries based on Armistead Maupin's Tales Of The City and is said to be a fan of the author.