Las Vegas terror: Shooter Stephen’s father was a bank robber

Agencies
October 3, 2017

Washington, Oct 3: Decades before authorities say Stephen Paddock opened fire Sunday evening from a high-rise hotel near the Las Vegas Strip, leading to the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history - his father was one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives.

Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, a convicted bank robber and con man described in a wanted poster as "psychopathic'' with suicidal tendencies, had escaped from prison in 1969, earning him a spot on the FBI's list of most-sought-after and dangerous criminals.

According to news accounts, he was not captured until 1978, when he was nabbed while running a bingo parlor in Oregon.

Officials said Benjamin Paddock is the father of Stephen Paddock, the gunman who started shooting Sunday evening from the window of a 32nd-floor hotel room overlooking a concert on the Las Vegas Strip, where 22,000 people had gathered for a three-day country music festival.

 At least 58 people were killed, including an off-duty police officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, authorities said.

More than 500 others, including two on-duty officers, were injured.

The gunman was found dead by Las Vegas SWAT officers in his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

His father had been convicted of bank robbery, auto theft and a confidence scam when he escaped from prison Feb. 3, 1969, in El Paso, Texas. At the time, his son Stephen would have been 15 years old.

At 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, Benjamin Paddock used a host of aliases, and was also known as "Chromedome" and "Old Baldy," according to his "Wanted" poster.

He remained on the FBI's Most Wanted list until 1977, when he was removed for reasons that aren't clear.

Stephen Paddock's brother, Eric, told reporters outside his Orlando, Florida, home Monday that their father was not around during their childhood.

"I was born on the run,'' he said.

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News Network
June 22,2020

Karachi, Jun 22: India-born renowned Pakistani Shia scholar and author Talib Jauhari passed away here after a prolonged illness. He was 80.

Jauhari, who was born on August 27, 1939 in Patna, is survived by his three sons, Dawn News reported on Monday.

He migrated to Pakistan along with his father in 1949, two years after the Partition.

After obtaining early education from his father, he went to Iraq where he studied religion for 10 years under the renowned Shia scholars of that time.

Jauhari, who was on a ventilator in the intensive care unit of a private hospital for the past 15 days, breathed his last on Sunday night.

His son Riaz Jauhari confirmed his death and said that the body has been shifted to Ancholi Imambargah for the funeral prayers, The Express Tribune newspaper quoted his son as saying.

Jauhari was respected among his sect as he was a class fellow of the widely revered scholar Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani.

He was also a poet, historian and philosopher and authored many books.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has condoled Jauhari's death.

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News Network
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: The government has decided to rename National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), Faridabad, as Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, an official statement said on Tuesday.

Set up in 1993 as a registered society under the Department of Expenditure, NIFM trains officers of Finance and Accounts Services recruited by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as also officers of Indian Cost Accounts Service. The Union Finance Minister is the President of the NIFM Society.

"Aligning the vision and aspiration of the Institute for the future with the vision and contribution of late Arun Jaitley, the Government has decided to rename National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) as the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management(AJNIFM)," the statement said.

NIFM has become a premier resource centre to meet the training needs of the central government for senior and middle level of management in the fields of public policy, financial management, public procurement and other governance issues for promoting highest standards of professional competence and practice.

Padma Vibhushan awardee Jaitley was the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs during May 26, 2014 to May 30, 2019.

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Agencies
July 18,2020

Days after Twitter accounts of several billionaires were hacked to engineer a crypto scam, Twitter on Saturday said it is embarrassed, disappointed and, more than anything, sorry for what happened with some of its high-profile users as attackers successfully manipulated its employees and used their credentials to access internal systems, including getting through the two-factor protections.

In the first detailed summary of the "social engineering attack" via a crypto scam that hit at least 130 users this week, Twitter said for 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account and send Tweets.

"We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account's information via "Your Twitter Data" tool.

This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity.

"We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true. None of the eight were verified accounts," said Twitter.

The company said the attackers were not able to view previous account passwords, as those are not stored in plain text or available through the tools used in the attack.

"Attackers were able to view personal information including email addresses and phone numbers, which are displayed to some users of our internal support tools," informed Twitter.

In cases where an account was taken over by the attacker, they may have been able to view additional information, Twitter added, saying its forensic investigation of these activities was still ongoing.

"We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted".

The company said it will soon restore access for all account owners who may still be locked out as a result of the remediation efforts.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Twitter crypto scam can be traced back to a group of hackers who congregate online at OGusers.com, a username-swapping community where people buy and sell coveted online handles.

The report said that the Twitter hack is not from Russian, Chinese or North Korean hackers but was done by a group of young people, "one of whom says he lives at home with his mother".

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