Google making app that would identify people's faces

By Mark Milian, CNN

Google's Hartmut Neven, pictured here, says the company is working on a facial-recognition app.

Santa Monica, California (CNN) -- Google is working on a mobile application that would allow users to snap pictures of people's faces in order to access their personal information, a director for the project said this week.

In order to be identified by the software, people would have to check a box agreeing to give Google permission to access their pictures and profile information, said Hartmut Neven, the Google engineering director for image-recognition development.

Google's Profiles product includes a user's name, phone number and e-mail address. Google has not said what personal data might be displayed once a person is identified by its facial-recognition system.

"We recognize that Google has to be extra careful when it comes to these [privacy] issues," Neven told CNN in an exclusive interview. "Face recognition we will bring out once we have acceptable privacy models in place."

While Google has begun to establish how the privacy features would work, Neven did not say when the company intends to release the product, and a Google spokesman said there is not a release timeline.

The technology wouldn't necessarily be rolled out in a separate app, a Google spokesman said. Instead, facial recognition could be issued as an update to an existing Google tool, such as its image search engine.

Google has had the technical capabilities to implement this type of search engine for years.

Just as Google has crawled trillions of Web pages to deliver results for traditional search queries, the system could be programmed to associate pictures publicly available on Facebook, Flickr and other photo-sharing sites with a person's name, Neven said. "That we could do today," he said.

But those efforts had frequently stalled internally because of concerns within Google about how privacy advocates might receive the product, he said.

"People are asking for it all the time, but as an established company like Google, you have to be way more conservative than a little startup that has nothing to lose," said Neven, whose company Neven Vision was acquired by Google in 2006. "Technically, we can pretty much do all of these things."

Neven Vision specialized in object and facial recognition development. The object-related programs are reflected in an image search engine, called Goggles. The face-recognition technology was incorporated into Picasa, Google's photo-sharing service, helping the software recognize friends and family members in your computer's photo library.

In 2009, Google acquired a company called Like.com, which specialized in searching product images but also did work in interpreting pictures of people. Google has also filed for patents in the area of facial recognition.

Privacy concerns

As Google's size and clout grow, so does the chorus of critics who say the company frequently encroaches on people's privacy. Over the years, Google has made various missteps.

The company agreed to pay $8.5 million last year in a legal settlement over grievances that its Buzz social-networking service published the names of people with whom Gmail users regularly communicated. Google quickly fixed the problem, but its repercussions are still being felt: On Wednesday, Google announced it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to receive an independent review of privacy procedures once every two years.

Google also faces numerous inquiries from governments regarding information collected by its Street View vans. Developers who report to Neven work on aspects of that street-level photography initiative -- mainly privacy-minded features such as the automatic blurring of faces and license plates, he said.

Google also is concerned about the legal implications of facial recognition. Even during trials among its own employees, Google has taken steps to ensure testers have explicitly agreed on record to try out the service.

The novelty of this sort of product may help attract early adopters. But policies would need to be uncomplicated and straightforward to keep users from abandoning it over privacy concerns, experts said.

"Online, people don't think about the privacy concerns; they think about the fun activities they're doing," said Karen North, director of a University of Southern California program that studies online privacy. "They're going to have to figure out a way where people who like the ease and fun of some of these technologies ... online don't feel burned at any given point. Because once they feel burned, they'll opt out."

North said she believes Google has a tendency to push boundaries in order to outdo competitors. The service could push too far by, say, aggregating every photo of a user it finds on the internet without giving that user an easy way to erase certain images, she said.

"Google, in all the best ways, has put itself in a very difficult position -- that no matter what they do, they have to do it biggest and best," North said. "They have trouble starting small and building up because they're Google."

A 'cautious route'

Google acknowledges the nefarious ways someone could leverage facial-recognition technology.

Many people "are rightfully scared of it," Neven said. "In particular, women say, 'Oh my God. Imagine this guy takes a picture of me in a bar, and then he knows my address just because somewhere on the Web there is an association of my address with my photo.' That's a scary thought. So I think there is merit in finding a good route that makes the power of this technology available in a good way."

Neven and a Google spokesman described the facial-recognition app concept as "conservative" in relation to privacy.

"I think we are taking a sort of cautious route with this," the spokesman said. "It's a sensitive area, and it's kind of a subjective call on how you would do it."

While the opt-in requirement limits the app's utility, Neven foresees many circumstances where people would agree to be found.

"If you're an actor in L.A., you want to have everyone recognizing you," he said, sitting outside in the sun at Google's beachside office some 12 miles from Hollywood.

A facial-recognition app could tie in to social-networking initiatives Google is said to be working on. For example, people looking to connect online could use their phones to snap each other's pictures and instantly navigate to that person's profile, rather than having to exchange business cards or remember a user name.

This month, Google redesigned its Profiles pages in a change that more closely resembles Facebook's site. On Wednesday the company announced a new social-search tool, called +1, that allows people to share helpful search links with their friends.

Battles rage in Libya amid defections of key Gadhafi allies

By the CNN Wire Staff

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- As Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle showed possible signs of cracking Friday, heavily armed forces loyal to the Libyan leader continued pounding cities that were once some of the country's most prosperous places.

Officials and analysts said the surge in firepower from the Libyan government sends a message: Gadhafi is determined to prevail, and defections of some of his high-profile allies are making him nervous.

"You're certainly getting evidence that there are a lot of tensions. ... Each person that leaves, that makes it a little scarier for the people that are still remaining. And you may, at some point, get a tipping effect," said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University.

On Thursday word emerged that Gadhafi's pick for U.N. ambassador had defected to Egypt -- a day after Libya's foreign minister fled to London and told the government there that he had resigned.

Citing unnamed British government sources, the Guardian newspaper reported Friday that a senior adviser to one of Gadhafi's sons was in London for secret talks with British officials. The adviser to Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, Mohammed Ismael, told CNN earlier this week that he would be traveling to London for family reasons. Calls placed to his mobile phone by CNN on Friday were not answered.

Asked about the Guardian report, a UK Foreign Office spokesman neither confirmed nor denied it.

"We are not going to provide running commentary on our contacts with Libyan officials," the spokesman said. "In any contact that we do have, we make it clear that Gadhafi has to go."

Rebel fighters also said they remained determined to topple Gadhafi's nearly 42-year reign.

But the battles over key cities are far from over.

Rebels massed on the outskirts of the government-controlled oil town of al-Brega, which has changed hands six times in six weeks under dramatically shifting circumstances in the country's civil war.

Misrata, Libya's third largest city and the final rebel stronghold in the western part of the country, was under siege by pro-Gadhafi forces. Badly damaged buildings lined streets covered with wreckage after weeks of urban combat.

Witnesses said most residents fled the downtown area after government forces positioned snipers on tall buildings and used tanks and artillery in the city center.

Clearly outgunned, opposition forces have pinned their hopes on more NATO airpower.

"We want to bring a speedy end to this," Col. Ahmed Omar Bani, an opposition spokesman, told CNN. "A strike is not a strike unless it kills."

U.S. officials claim Gadhafi's military capabilities have been steadily eroded since the onset of U.N.-sanctioned airstrikes.

But the dictator's forces still outnumber rebels by about 10-to-1 in terms of armor and other ground forces, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told the House Armed Services Committee Thursday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also speaking before the House committee, warned that the Libyan rebels still need significant training and assistance.

"It's pretty much a pickup ballgame" right now, he said.

U.S. and British officials say no decision has been made about whether to arm the opposition.

Gates reiterated the Obama administration's promise that no U.S. ground forces will be used in Libya, telling committee members that the rebels had indicated they didn't want such an intervention.

But the United States does have CIA personnel on the ground.

CIA operatives have been in Libya working with rebel leaders to try to reverse gains by loyalist forces, a U.S. intelligence source said. The United States, insisting it is now fulfilling more of a support role in the coalition, shifted in that direction as NATO took sole command of air operations in Libya.

A U.S. intelligence source said the CIA is operating in the country to help increase U.S. "military and political understanding" of the situation.

But officials leaving Libya may end up playing a more decisive role than troops or CIA agents on the ground.

After defecting Wednesday, former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa was voluntarily speaking with officials in the United Kingdom, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Hague said Koussa's departure from Libya provides evidence "that Gadhafi's regime ... is fragmented, under pressure and crumbling from within."

Koussa did not tell the Libyan government he was planning to quit before he arrived in Britain, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Thursday.

But Ibrahim downplayed the defection itself, saying Koussa was an old man in poor health who had not been able to handle the pressure of his job.

On Thursday an opposition leader and a relative said that the man Gadhafi tapped as the country's U.N. envoy had defected to Egypt.

Former Foreign Minister Ali Abdussalam Treki, who recently served as the president of the U.N. General Assembly, was to replace Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham as ambassador in New York. But he never arrived.

"I do think it's evidence that Gadhafi is increasingly isolated in his own country. ... Some of the key participants in his regime and people closest to him are abandoning him," Alan Solomont, the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, told reporters Friday.

Such defections are significant, but not as important as the departure of one of Gadhafi's family members would be, according to Robert Baer, a former CIA operative in the Middle East.

"Crack that clan and he's done. Those elite units will fall apart, the tribe will defect, and it will all be over," Baer told CNN's AC360.

With defections, Libya has tough time getting envoy to U.N.

From Ivan Watson and Richard Roth, CNN

Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann is a former president of the U.N. General Assembly and a former Nicaraguan foreign minister.

(CNN) -- The drama over who will next represent Libya at the United Nations deepened Thursday in the wake of two apparent defections.

Moammar Gadhafi's government earlier this month asked that former Foreign Minister Ali Abdussalam Treki be approved as its envoy.

Treki, who recently served as the president of the U.N. General Assembly, was to replace Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham as ambassador in New York, but he never arrived.

A relative of Treki and an opposition leader said Thursday that Treki has defected and was in Cairo.

Cairo-based Libyan opposition activist Hani Soufrakis said he spoke with Treki several times by phone on Thursday, and confirmed that the diplomat had cut ties with Gadhafi's government.

Treki declined to speak with CNN, telling an associate he was "too tired."

With recent questions over Treki's whereabouts, it appeared Libya had shifted to Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a former president of the U.N. General Assembly and a former Nicaraguan foreign minister, to be its envoy.

But that came before news that the Libyan foreign minister who supported him defected Wednesday.

Former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa signed a letter requesting that Brockmann be the new Libyan ambassador. The letter, produced by the Nicaraguan government, was seen by several U.N. member countries, but was not properly submitted.

Brockmann canceled a Thursday news conference and another that had been scheduled for Friday.

The United Nations said Thursday it has still not received an official, legal form from Libya requesting Brockmann be its man.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice told reporters she found it intriguing that a former Nicaraguan foreign minister wants to represent Libya. She said he could face a problem because he is in the United States on a tourist visa and can't legally represent a foreign country on a U.S. tourist visa. Rice said he would have to leave the country and then reapply for a diplomatic visa.

Rice warned if Brockmann was found representing a country while here on a tourist visa, his visa status would be reviewed.

Gadhafi's top two diplomats at the U.N. split with him weeks ago, but are still allowed to enter U.N. grounds. One of them, Shalgham, was warmly greeted by U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday at a ceremony at the U.S. mission.

Syria to study lifting emergency law, probe deaths

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- Syria says it will study the idea of lifting the country's state of emergency and promptly investigate the deaths of civilians and troops in two flashpoint regions, the state news agency said on Thursday.

The moves come amid countrywide protests that have left dozens dead in Daraa and Latakia provinces, according to activists and human rights organizations.

President Bashar al-Assad ordered the Supreme Judicial Council to form a committee that would conduct "an immediate investigation in all cases that killed a number of civilians and military personnel."

"The committee will work in accordance with the law provisions and may use the help of anyone it deems appropriate to accomplish the task entrusted to it. It also has the right to request any information or documents from any party whatsoever," the report said.

The committee exploring the lifting of the emergency law is expected to complete the study before April 25. It will be made up of senior lawyers, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported. One of the key demands of the demonstrators, who have taken to the streets in the country's major cities, is the scrapping of the law, which has been in place for nearly 50 years.

The committee will "study and draw up a legislation that secures the preservation of the country's security, the dignity of citizens and combating terrorism in preparation for lifting the state of emergency," SANA said.

The plan is "based on the directives" of al-Assad, whose failure to address the lifting of the emergency law during a nationwide speech on Wednesday prompted citizens to stage angry protests.

The emergency law allows the government to make preventive arrests and override constitutional and penal code statutes. In effect since 1963, it also bars detainees who haven't been charged from filing court complaints or from having a lawyer present during interrogations.

Reem Haddad, a spokeswoman for the Syrian Information Ministry, told CNN earlier that the emergency law "will be lifted," but she said procedures must be worked out.

"The president presented his own vision" on an announced package of reforms, Haddad said. Details will come in a "limited time frame," she said.

Reacting to the study of the emergency law, Syrian rights activist Malath Aumran was skeptical, saying, "I think they are just playing around -- they will not really make any change."

He expressed concern that the government will create a stiff anti-terror law to take the place of the emergency rules.

"They will change it and they will start executing us for terrorist crimes," he said. "It's just like they want to manipulate us -- they want to change this thing and make it something worse."

Al-Assad also ordered a 20 to 30% salary hike for state workers and employees in embassies and foreign delegations, according to a SANA report.

Syria is one of many Arabic-speaking nations beset with discontent over economic and human rights issues. Protests began in and around the southern city of Daraa and spread to other locations, including the western coastal city of Latakia.

Human Rights Watch said, "Syria's security forces have used live ammunition against protesters throughout Syria in the last two weeks, killing at least 61 in Daraa and its surrounding villages, and have arrested scores of people since large-scale demonstrations began on March 16."

There have been deaths in Latakia as well.

At least 16 people were killed in clashes there after the al-Assad speech, an eyewitness and an activist told CNN. Haddad denied any deaths in the city.

Before those disturbances, a Human Rights Watch official said at least 12 people had been killed there.

Syrian officials have put the death tolls lower in both cities, according to news reports.

More demonstrations are planned for Friday.

Official: Tens of thousands of evacuees can't head home for months

By the CNN Wire Staff

A family group from Fukushima at a makeshift shelter in Yokote city, Akita prefecture.

Tokyo (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of people who evacuated an area around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant may not be allowed home for months, a Japanese minister said Friday.

There is no end in sight for the nuclear crisis amid fresh concerns about alarming radiation levels in beef, seawater and groundwater.

While he didn't set a firm timetable, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said people who'd lived within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the nuclear plans would not return home permanently in "a matter of days or weeks. It will be longer than that.

"The evacuation period is going to be longer than we wanted it to be," Edano said. "We first need to regain control of the nuclear power plant."

About 78,000 people lived in the evacuation zone in northeast Japan. Another 62,000 lived within a 20-to-30 kilometer (12-to-19 mile) radius -- the so-called exclusion zone, where people have been told to stay indoors -- an official from Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office said.

The evacuees' plight is one of many storylines still playing out in relation to the crisis. At the embattled power plant, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) north of Tokyo, dozens of workers, soldiers and others are rushing to prevent the disaster from worsening. Meanwhile, farmers, citizens and officials are dealing with the effects of already released radiation.

On Friday, Edano said more tests would be conducted on radiation levels in beef, as well as chicken and pork that came from the most affected areas.

Japan's health ministry reported the previous day that radiation higher than the regulatory limit has been found in beef from Fukushima prefecture, the same province as the embattled nuclear plant. Radiation likely would enter a cow -- or, similarly, a pig or chicken -- indirectly, after it ate grass and other feed that has been contaminated.

The radiation levels, detected in a single cow, were slightly above the guidelines set by Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission -- 510 becquerels (a measurement of radioactivity by weight), compared to the official limit of 500 becquerels.

The meat will not be sold and will be retested, the health ministry said.

This radiation finding is the first one involving beef, although authorities have banned the sale and transport of numerous vegetables grown in the area after tests detected radiation.

The radioactive isotope cesium, meanwhile, has been found in the sea at levels 527 times the regulatory limit. Questions remain about how it got there.

Radioactive iodine-131 also reached the ocean. Samples taken Wednesday 330 meters (361 yards) into the Pacific Ocean showed levels 4,385 times above the regulatory limit. This exceeded the previous day's reading of 3,355 times over the standard -- and was an exponential spike over the 104-times increase seen just last Friday.

Officials have downplayed the potential perils posed by the radioactive iodine, since it loses half of its radiation every eight days. All fishing is banned within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the plant, and Hidehiko Nishiyama of Japan's nuclear safety agency adds that such waterborne radiation should dilute over time.

As efforts continued Friday to cool nuclear fuel in reactors and spent fuel pools -- using concrete pumping trucks and a new supply of fresh water from a U.S. Navy barge that docked in waters outside the plant Thursday -- concerns remained about other water sources that have shown high levels of radiation.

This includes water in exposed maintenance tunnels leading in and out of the Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 reactor buildings, one of which earlier had radiation levels 100,000 above the norm.

Authorities have been working in recent days to drain these tunnels, to prevent them from spilling over and sending tainted water into the ground. By Friday, an official with the Tokyo Electric Power Company -- which operates the plant and heads the recovery effort -- said water levels had dropped one or more meters, and that the issue was no longer urgent.

What has become more of a priority is testing, and finding the source of, an apparent spike in radiation in groundwater near the plant.

Just after midnight Friday, a Tokyo Electric official said that iodine-131 levels in ground water from a pipe near the No. 1 reactor had 10,000 times the standard limit. But the utility later backtracked, promising to get more clarity later.

Edano addressed this confusion in a press conference later Friday, noting that a "constant amount of radiation" appeared to be getting into the groundwater while noting that further tests are forthcoming.

"The numbers released ... looked strange, and that led to the recalculation," he said. "In either case, underground water seems to contain some level of radioactive substances, and this leads to an understanding that the ... soil in the vicinity needs to be monitored closely."

All this contamination -- both into the ground and, eventually, the sea -- is the result of a leak or some other sort of ground seepage from one of the nuclear plant's four most embattled reactors, a Tokyo Electric official said Thursday. The official noted that the high levels suggest the release of radiation into the atmosphere alone couldn't be the lone source.

Meanwhile, the prime minister said Friday that Tokyo Electric will pay a steep price for the nuclear crisis -- and that the government could end up footing some of that expense.

A report released this week by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimated that compensation claims alone, with payouts going to those most adversely affected by the nuclear crisis, could rise to between 1 trillion Japanese yen ($12.13 billion) in compensation claims if the recovery effort lasts two months, or up to 10 trillion yen if it goes on for two years

"If the costs are beyond the means of Tokyo Electric, the government should take part," Kan said, before adding that as a "private institution, (the utility company) has to do their best."

Beyond dealing with the financial ramifications, Kan also promised to address long-term safety concerns as well. He said that, while Japan wouldn't necessarily abandon nuclear power, it will reevaluate its power plan once the situation stabilizes at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

"We will have strong risk management measures in place, in some cases even if they're considered too extreme," he told reporters. "We will (guard against) every possible scenario."

Ex-rugby star alleged to be axe murderer

By Nkepile Mabuse, CNN

The rugby star played for the Blue Bulls.

Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN) -- A former South African rugby star who is charged with the murder of three people in Durban on Monday will undergo mental observation, police say.

The man, who played for a top provincial team, the Blue Bulls, allegedly hacked his victims to death with an axe, decapitating one of them. Investigators say his fourth victim escaped and is helping them with their probe.

Media reports claim the player went on a killing rampage after his daughter was raped and infected with HIV. Police, however, say his motive is still under investigation.

The player was nabbed in the early hours of Wednesday morning on South Africa's East Coast. Police allegedly found his bloodied murder weapon in a dog kennel at the home where the arrest took place. Bloodied clothes and a car linked to the crimes have also been found.

Prosecutors have asked that his name not be released before he appears in a lineup. Five witnesses will be asked to identify him before his next court appearance on April 7.

"Our fear is that if his name is released, someone might be able to get hold of his picture on the internet, publish it and then destroy the credibility of our eyewitnesses, who could be accused by the defense of having seen him in the media and not in person," prosecutor Martin Mtambo told CNN.

According to police, there have been over 100 serial killings in South Africa since 1936, with the bulk of them in the mid-1990s. Since 1996 the South African police force has had a specialized unit dealing specifically with psychologically motivated crimes.

This month the Johannesburg high courts handed down 16 life sentences to 42-year-old Jack Mogale, who was found guilty of a year-long murder spree that saw him rape 19 women and kill 16.

Lawyers for the former Blue Bulls player want the court to determine whether their client is fit to stand trial.

The team is no stranger to controversy. One of its stars, Bees Roux, goes on trial for murder in August. He is accused of beating a policeman to death last year. Team manager Ian Schwartz, who is currently in New Zealand, has refused to comment on the latest case.

Australia warns citizens about terror threats in Indonesia

By the CNN Wire staff

(CNN) -- Australian authorities issued a warning Friday to its citizens who may be traveling to Indonesia that the recent arrest of a terror suspect could lead to terror attacks there.

"The reported arrest in Pakistan of Umar Patek, an Indonesian national alleged to be involved in several major terrorist attacks, may increase the risk of violent responses in Indonesia in the short term," the warning from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

Patek is one of the top suspects in the Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people in 2002, Indonesian police have said.

Several news organizations reported Monday that Patek had been arrested in Pakistan on March 2.

Indonesia has sent a team to Pakistan to confirm that it is indeed Patek that was arrested.

Michael Tene, spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said he was not sure why Australia issued the warning.

"As far as I know from our security forces, the police, the situation in Indonesia is quite normal. I cant speculate on what specific information the Australian government has that would make them issue this advisory," Tene said.

Patek, an Indonesian of Javanese and Arab descent, is suspected of acting as the deputy field coordinator of the 2002 bombings in Bali

Seven Americans were killed in the attacks.

Authorities and security experts say Patek was a member of the terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, that he took part in the Bali bombings, and that fled to Mindanao in the Philippines in 2003.