Mentally disabled women used as suicide attackers in Baghdad; Google facing lawsuit for censorship in China...

2 February :: Wash. Post reports "Two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives — and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers — brought carnage to the two pet bazaars, in attacks Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said sought to 'turn Baghdad back to the pre-surge period'"; at least 99 people were killed in the two blasts... FT reports "A Chinese scholar who challenged the Communist government by setting up a democratic opposition party has vowed to sue the US internet company Google for excising his name from its local search results"; Google and other internet giants have been criticized by rights activists, Congress, public for aiding Chinese Communist party gov't in censoring internet available to its people; Google, whose company motto is "don't be evil", had promised it would alert users any time information is censored with a message about "local laws", but reportedly did not do so in at least this case... Effort to create wi-fi cooperative at Cambridge Univ., England, could mean new standard for providing inexpensive or even free wireless internet across cities; obstacles persist, but cities, academics, internet users continue to search for viable method for expanding access without reducing security...

3rd undersea internet cable cut in recent days; US economy loses 17,000 jobs, signaling slowdown; eye-tracking tech moves into video-gaming...

1 February :: After two undersea internet cables were cut by unknown means in recent days, in the Mediterranean, a third has been cut in the Persian Gulf, off the emirate of Dubai; two of the cables belong to FLAG Telecom, and the cuts interrupted phone and web traffic from Europe to India... Bloomberg reporting "The U.S. unexpectedly lost jobs for the first time in more than four years, increasing the odds the economy will fall into a recession and making it likely the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates another half point next month [...] Payrolls fell by 17,000 in January after an 82,000 gain in December that was larger than initially reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. None of the 80 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted a decline"... Advances in eye-tracking and "attention awareness" software-driven mechanisms heighten challenge of video game, or performance of pilots, depending on application; researchers say eye-tracking technology could be an important way to improve the effectiveness of certain tools or services... Violent "mob" of estimated 3,000 in Kenya's Rift Valley reportedly killed a policeman with machetes; gov't security forces have vowed a severe crackdown, to try to end spreading violence; opposition movement says security forces have used brutal tactics against protesters demonstrating against Pres. Mwai Kibaki's gov't o alleging electoral fraud in December vote... Microsoft has offered $44.6 billion in effort to take over internet search giant Yahoo!, whose stocks have struggled as it gives ground to Google in market dominance...