Rick Ross Calls Kanye West Sessions 'The Chronic All Over'

Kanye West is working with a bevy of talent to complete his next project, the still-untitled follow-up to 808s & Heartbreak. Racking up studio time with him are producers RZA, NoID, Pete Rock and DJ Toomp and artists like Clipse's Pusha T, Nicki Minaj, Consequence and Kid Cudi. And according to Rick Ross, who holed up in the lab with 'Ye for his Teflon Don track "Live Fast, Die Young," the experience was what he imagined it must have been like to watch another famous producer cook up a classic, namely, Dr. Dre.

"It's like everybody is a student: You walk into a session and it's all about the subject at hand," Ross told MTV News during his appearance on the first episode of "RapFix Live."

"I was just like, Wow. I listened to [Kanye's] beats, and we working on what I'm doing, but then he's in another room cooking up something ... and just the intensity that you have to have to create albums that are gonna stand the test of time for years. He's such a great producer himself, and to have a Pete Rock over your shoulder just working on a particular sound and DJ Toomp, No ID, and Nicki Minaj, I see what's going on. It's The Chronic all over. That's exactly what I said when I walked into the room: This is The Chronic, this is how it had to be."

Earlier this year, 'Ye teased his fans with the first offering from his forthcoming album, the energetic "Power." Since then, he's yet to release any of his own material but he appeared alongside Ross on "Life Fast," which he also produced. And the Chicago MC recently shot a video for "Power" in New York, but at press time, there was no word on plans for its premiere or his album's potential release date.

Are you as eager as Ricky Rozay is to hear a new album from Kanye? Tell us in the comments section!
This report is from MTV News.

Justin Bieber Likes Naked Fans!

Lagos, Nigeria - JUSTIN Bieber insists he doesn’t mind when his female fans strip in front of him.

The 16-year-old Baby hitmaker says the best thing about being famous is the women.

“My mom has me on a tight leash and she’s being real protective so I gotta watch what I do,” he said.

“The girls show up wearing nothing sometimes or flash. I can’t lie, I’m 16, I don’t hate it.”

Bieber recently opened up about the fact he’s going thorough puberty — and insisted he can still hit the high notes.

“Everyone’s voice changes, puberty is a natural thing,” he said.

“I have the best vocal coach in the world and we’re working on my voice and doing what I need to do.

“It’s not like as soon as you hit puberty you stop singing.”

Justin Bieber will star on 'CSI' next season

Had enough Justin Bieber? Too bad, because now the teen popster is adding to his credentials by starring in an episode of CSI. That's just in case he wasn't overexposed enough as it is.

E! reports that the 16-year-old will star as "a troubled teen who is faced with a terrible decision regarding his only brother — a decision that leads him into an explosive confrontation with the CSIs," CBS says in a press release. The eyeball network then threatens to bring his character, Jason McCann, back later in the season to resolve things. Ugh.

"Every 20 years, a phenomenon like Justin Bieber graces our world," CSI creators Carol Mendelsohn, Don McGill and Anthony Zuiker said in a statement. " We'd like to believe that the phenomenon of CSI has had the same impact on popular culture." Those are pretty big words in a popular culture where you're washed up and in rehab or jail at 24. We're looking at you, Lindsay Lohan.

Nigeria's President Jonathan signs 'bad' bank bill

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has signed into law a new agency that will take over bad debts from the banking system.

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (Amcon) will attempt to draw the poison out of the country's banks, after a $4bn (£2.6bn) rescue of the nine biggest banks last year.

The banks will be able to replace dud loans with government-guaranteed bonds.

A leader and key staff for Amcon have yet to be appointed.

"The establishment of Amcon is a reflection of the government's commitment to safeguard the interests of depositors, creditors and other stakeholders in the Nigerian financial system, and in doing so rejuvenate the domestic economy," said the president.

The Nigerian government is treading a well worn path, with many governments having set up similar government-backed "bad" banks to help clean up their banking systems.

It is hoped that, with toxic debts off their balance sheets, the Nigerian bank will be able to attract new investors in the private market, and will be better placed to recommence fresh lending to support the economy.

Markets will be keen to discover who will run the agency, as well as the total size of bad debts it will go on to buy from the banks, and what valuation it puts on those debts.

Ship lost for more than 150 years is recovered

TORONTO – Canadian archeologists have found a ship abandoned more than 150 years ago in the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage and which was lost in the search for the doomed expedition of Sir John Franklin, the head of the team said Wednesday.

Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada's head of underwater archaeology, said the HMS Investigator, abandoned in the ice in 1853, was found in shallow water in Mercy Bay along the northern coast of Banks Island in Canada's western Arctic.

"The ship is standing upright in very good condition. It's standing in about 11 meters (36 feet) of water," he said. "This is definitely of the utmost importance. This is the ship that sailed the last leg of the Northwest Passage."

The Investigator was one of many American and British ships sent out to search for the HMS Erebus and the Terror, vessels commanded by Franklin in his ill-fated search for the Northwest Passage in 1845.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the British government has been notified that one of their naval shipwrecks has been discovered, as well as the bodies of three sailors.

Captained by Robert McClure, the Investigator sailed in 1850. That year, McClure sailed the Investigator into the strait that now bears his name and realized that he was in the final leg of the Northwest Passage, the sea route across North America.

Click image to see more photos on anthropology and archeaology

AFP

But before he could sail into the Beaufort Sea, the ship was blocked by pack ice and forced to winter-over in Prince of Wales Strait along the east coast of Banks Island.

The following summer, McClure tried again to sail to the end of the Passage, but was again blocked by ice. He steered the ship and crew into a large bay on the island's north coast he called the Bay of Mercy.

There they were to remain until 1853, when they were rescued by the crew of the HMS Resolute. The Investigator was abandoned.

"This is actually a human history," said Bernier. "Not only a history of the Passage, but the history of a crew of 60 men who had to overwinter three times in the Arctic not knowing if they were going to survive."

The Parks Canada team arrived at Mercy Bay on July 22. Three days later, the ice on the bay cleared enough that researchers were able to deploy side-scanning sonar from a small inflatable boat over the site where they believed the wooden ship had eventually sunk. Within 15 minutes, the Investigator was found.

"The ship had not moved too much from where it was abandoned," said Bernier.

The masts and rigging have long been sheared off by ice and weather. But the icy waters of the McClure Strait has preserved the vessel in remarkably good condition.

"It's incredible," said Prentice from Mercy Bay. "You're actually able to peer down into the water and see not only the outline of the ship but actually the individual timbers.

Archaeologists have also uncovered artifacts on land left behind by the stranded sailors, who unloaded everything before abandoning the Investigator.

The graves of three sailors thought to have died of scurvy have been marked off and will be left undisturbed, said Bernier.

Bernier said the next step will be to send down a remote controlled video camera to get actual pictures of the wreck. There are no plans to bring it to the surface and all legal steps will be taken to ensure the site remains protected.

Bernier also said the team will use similar technology to find the Erebus and Terror.

Copyright: Yahoo News

FBI director defends bureau over test cheating

WASHINGTON – FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Wednesday that he doesn't know how many of his agents cheated on an important test about the limitations of the bureau's powers to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed.

The Justice Department inspector general is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on the test — a brewing scandal that could be further embarrassment for the FBI as it continues cleaning up after years of collecting phone records without court approval.

Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., about an Associated Press report on the cheating, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn't know the exact number of agents involved.

"I've got a general idea, but I do not know how many," Mueller testified. "And I am not certain the IG knows how many either. He has pointed out instances orally to me where there maybe persons in a particular office where it was widespread and maybe attributable to a lack of understanding and confusion about the procedures."

In some instances, agents took the open-book test together, violating rules that they take it alone. Others finished the lengthy exam unusually quickly, current and former officials said.

In Columbia, S.C., agents printed the test in advance to use as a study guide, according to a letter to the inspector general from the FBI Agents Association that summarized the investigation. The inspector general investigation also was confirmed by current and former officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

"There are similar stories for practically every office, demonstrating the pervasive confusion and miscommunication that existed," Konrad Motyka, the association's president, wrote May 13 in the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, agents could be disciplined or even fired.

The inquiry threatens to be another black eye for the FBI as it tightens controls after years of collecting phone records and e-mails without court approval. The brewing scandal has already upended management at one of the nation's largest field offices.

The FBI had no comment on the investigation late Tuesday.

Motyka's letter urges the inspector general to focus instead on what he called the "systemic failure" of administering the test without consistent rules.

FBI agents should not be punished "because of a failure to effectively communicate the rules," he wrote.

Such testing is unusual. FBI agents are required to take online training courses to stay current on bureau policies, but pass-fail tests are rare. In 2008, however, when the FBI received more leeway than ever in conducting surveillance and opening investigations, it assured Congress that it would train and test its agents to make sure they knew the rules.

Agents were required to take 16 hours of training, which cut down paperwork errors by 80 percent, Mueller said.

"I do believe that our work force absolutely understands what can be investigated, how it must be investigated, what predication is necessary for a particular investigation in this day and age," Mueller said.

The test had 51 questions. The last question asked if anyone assisted the test-taker.

The Domestic Investigations and Operation Guidelines allowed the FBI, for the first time, to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without evidence of a crime. Agents were also allowed to consider race when opening early inquiries. For instance, the FBI could look into whether the terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba had taken hold in a city if it had a large Pakistani-American presence.

The new rules gave agents more flexibility to identify and prevent terrorist attacks. They also raised concerns that the FBI would use its new powers to monitor religious organizations or single out certain races.

The FBI has a checkered past when it comes to conducting surveillance. From the late 1950s though the early 1970s, the bureau opened hundreds of thousands of files on Americans and domestic groups, including anti-war organizations, civil rights groups and women's movements. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the bureau collected U.S. phone and computer records without court orders.

Lawmakers and civil liberties groups were concerned that the new rules would allow racial profiling and other abuses. The FBI assured them they would not.

"We share the concern and have devoted considerable time and effort to educating our employees regarding how race and ethnicity can — and cannot — be used," FBI counsel Valerie Caproni told Congress in December 2008.

But problems with the training and testing programs surfaced quickly. Last year, Assistant Director Joseph Persichini, the head of the FBI's Washington field office that investigates congressional wrongdoing and other crime in the nation's capital, retired amid a review of test-taking in his office.

Persichini took the test alongside two of his most senior managers and one of the bureau attorneys in charge of making sure the exam was administered properly, current and former officials said. The two agents who took the test with him have been moved to headquarters while the investigation continues.

At the time, the inquiry appeared limited to the Washington field office. But investigators have broadened their inquiry to cover the entire FBI. Among other things, they are focusing on agents who took the test particularly quickly, officials said.

Source: Yahoo!

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Online:

Letter to the DOJ inspector general: http://wid.ap.org/documents/fbiaa_letter.pdf

FBI says mastermind of botnet nabbed

(Sod-a-Blog) - International authorities have arrested a computer hacker believed responsible for creating the malicious computer code that infected as many as 12 million computers, invading major banks and corporations around the world, FBI officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

A 23-year-old Slovenian known as Iserdo was picked up in Maribor, Slovenia, after a lengthy investigation by Slovenian Criminal Police there along with FBI and Spanish authorities.

His arrest comes about five months after Spanish police broke up the massive cyber scam, arresting three of the alleged ringleaders who operated the so-called Mariposa botnet, stealing credit cards and online banking credentials. The botnet _ a network of infected computers _ appeared in December 2008 and infected more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and at least 40 major banks.

Botnets are networks of infected PCs that have been hijacked from their owners, often without their knowledge, and put into the control of criminals.

Jeffrey Troy, the FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyber division, said Tuesday that Iserdo's arrest is a major break in the investigation. He said it will take the alleged cyber mastermind off the street and prevent him from updating the malicious software code or somehow regaining control of computers that are still infected.

Officials declined to release Iserdo's real name and the exact charges filed against him, but said the arrest took place about 10 days ago and the man has been released on bond.

"To use an analogy here," said Troy, "as opposed to arresting the guy who broke into your home, we've arrested the guy that gave him the crowbar, the map and the best houses in the neighborhood. And that is a huge break in the investigation of cyber crimes."

Troy said more arrests are expected and are likely to extend beyond Spain and Slovenia and include additional operators who allegedly bought the malware from Iserdo. Authorities would not say how much Iserdo supposedly charged, but said hackers could buy the software package for a certain amount, or pay more to have it customized or get additional features. Internet reports suggest the fees ranged from as much as $500 for basic packages to more than $1,300 for more advanced versions.

Cyber masterminds behind the biggest botnets aren't often taken down largely because it is easy for experienced hackers to hide their identities by disguising the source of their Internet traffic. Usually the computer resources they use are stolen. And the investigations are complex and technical, often spanning dozens of countries with conflicting or even non-existing cyber crime laws.

For instance, there have been no arrests yet in the spread of the Conficker worm, which infected 3 million to 12 million PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and caused widespread fear that it could be used as a kind of Internet super weapon.

The Conficker botnet is still active, but is closely watched by security researchers. The infected computers have so far been used to make money in ordinary ways, pumping out spam and spreading fake antivirus software.

The Mariposa botnet, which has been dismantled, was easily one of the world's biggest botnets. It spread to more than 190 countries, according to researchers. It also appears to be far more sophisticated than the botnet that was used to hack into Google Inc. and other companies in the attack that led Google to threaten to pull out of China.

The researchers that helped take down Mariposa _ which is from the Spanish word for "butterfly" _ first started looking at it in the spring of 2009.

Hackers spread the botnet by using instant-messaging malicious links to contacts on infected computers. They also used removable thumb drives and peer-to-peer networks to spread the botnet.

The investigation has included federal and international law enforcement as well as a team of more than 100 people, including FBI agents, members of a specialized botnet investigative team and the so-called Mariposa working group, which includes researchers and private industry experts.