Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rarely makes big-ticket acquisitions. Its biggest ever purchase was the $3 billion deal for Beats Electronics. But angel investor and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis predicts that the Cupertino company would pay a staggering $75 billion to buy Tesla (TSLA) in the next 18 months. Rumors have been doing rounds for more than a year that Apple was interested in buying Tesla.

Why Apple and Tesla are a perfect match

Last week, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Financial Times reported within a span of three days that Apple was indeed working on its own electric car. The Cupertino has hundreds of engineers dedicated to working on a top-secret car project dubbed ‘Titan.’ Apple has been aggressively hiring Tesla engineers by offering them big salaries. The Elon Musk-led company is also poaching Apple employees.

Calacanis confessed that he had no proof or inside information that Apple was looking to buy Tesla. His prediction is based Apple’s interest in building cars and Tim Cook’s “obsession” with clean energy. The iPhone maker last week signed a $850 million deal with First Solar to build a solar plant. Calacanis said that Apple and Tesla were a perfect match.

Steve Jobs wanted to challenge Detroit

Steve Jobs was also interested in building cars to take on Detroit. In an interview with John Markoff of The New York Times before Jobs died, the Apple co-founder said that if he had more energy, he would have liked to challenge Detroit. Moreover, Apple’s reputation for making great products puts it among the few companies Elon Musk would consider selling Tesla to.

Calacanis added that Apple’s software, design team, and global distribution network would “level Tesla up.” No other company can acquire Tesla because they either don’t have the money, or they can’t assure Elon Musk that they won’t mess it up. Apple already offers CarPlay for a variety of automakers. The connected car market is expected to be worth $141 billion in five years.

Russian researchers expose 'NSA's secret weapon': Outrage at program that enables America to spy on EVERY home computer in the world is uncovered

• The NSA has figured out how to hide spying and sabotage software deep within hard drives, according to cyber researchers and former operatives 
• The group said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs
• The most infections were seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria 
• The infections started in 2001, but increased drastically in 2008, the year President Barack Obama was elected
• The tools are designed to run on computers even when they are not connected to the Internet, and even the makers of some of the hard drives are unaware that these programs have been embedded 
• The spies made a technological breakthrough by figuring out how to lodge malicious software in the obscure code called firmware that launches every time a computer is turned on 

By REUTERS REPORTER and CHRIS SPARGO FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

KABUL (Reuters) - Four suicide attackers on Tuesday stormed a provincial police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan, killing 22 police, an official said. Taliban insurgents immediately claimed responsibility.

The attack in Logar province outside the capital, Kabul, was the latest to target Afghan security forces following the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops at the end of last year.

In neighbouring Pakistan, another Taliban suicide attack on a provincial police headquarters killed at least seven people in the eastern city of Lahore, in what militants called a revenge bid for the recent hangings of their colleagues.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are separate groups that share the goal of establishing hard-line Islamic rule.

In the Afghan assault, the four attackers rushed the gates of the police compound in early afternoon, with one detonating his explosives-filled vest at the main gate and killing one policeman, Logar government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said.

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A man comforts a woman grieving over the death of her relative, who was killed in a bomb blast, at a …

The attack triggered a 25-minute battle with police, he said.

Another of the militants reached the station's dining hall, killing 21 police and wounding seven when he detonated his vest, said Abdul Wali Toofan, Logar's deputy police chief. The other two attackers were killed with no further casualties.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility on his official Twitter feed.

Earlier on Tuesday, a bomb attached to a vehicle wounded one person in Kabul, police said, breaking a recent lull in attacks in the Afghan capital.

Kabul had been rocked by a string of bombings by insurgents late last year in the run-up to the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan after 13 years of war.

A suspected magnetic bomb attached to a 4-wheel-drive vehicle exploded in the east of the city, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.

One person was wounded in the blast, Rahimi said, but gave no details.

(Additional reporting by Mustafa Andalib in Ghazni; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Nick Macfie)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — At least 20 people were killed early Tuesday in the Haitian capital after a man on top of a musical group's Carnival float was electrocuted, setting off a panic in which dozens of people were trampled, witnesses and officials said.

The accident occurred as thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince for the raucous annual celebration. Video from the scene shows sparks coursing from the wire after a singer from the Haitian hip-hop group Barikad Crew was touched by an overhead power line as the float passed beneath it. The wire appeared to have electrocuted several others as well.

There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. Nadia Lochard, a coordinator for the Department of Civil Protection, said at least 20 people were killed and 46 were injured. Radio station Zenith-FM quoted a doctor as saying that the singer, known by the stage name Fantom, was expected to survive.

Dr. Joel Desire, a doctor at General Hospital, said most of those killed appeared to have been trampled to death as the crowd surged away from the Carnival float.

The Barikad Crew float was one of 16 in the downtown Carnival parade. Witnesses said panic ensued when people jumped off the float to avoid being electrocuted.

"I saw the wire falling and sparks and I started running for my life," said Natacha Saint Fleur, a 22-year-old who was near the float at the time.

Video from the scene shows Haitian ambulance crews racing through the crowds with victims on stretchers. Hundreds of people thronged the General Hospital, where many of the victims were taken.

Haitian officials were expected to announce later Tuesday whether they would cancel a second day of Carnival events. Communications Minister Rothchild Francis said the government was working to assist victims. First lady Sophia Martelly visited some of the injured at the General Hospital but left without speaking to reporters.

It is a common practice in Haiti and elsewhere to have someone positioned atop a parade float to move low-hanging power lines. In Brazil, officials said three people were killed early Tuesday when they were electrocuted while standing atop a Carnival float that hit a power line on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro

ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ) is the world’s largest, richest terrorist organizations, ever. It’s a self-sustaining enterprise that runs mainly on extortion and crime networks, hostages, oil, donations… According to Martin Chulov; ISIS has grown from a ragtag band of extremists to perhaps the most cash-rich and capable terror group in the world with a $2 billion jihadist network. The scale of ISIS resources is unprecedented:  A terrorist organization while ruthless, but still able to occupy large areas of territory, quickly… for example; it controls several major cities in Iraq, which it occupied in just three days, it holds parts of several other cities and continues to menace still other cities throughout Iraq and Syria: It’s quite an accomplishment…  According to Michael Knights; some estimates of ISIS’s wealth are overstated, for example; the $2 billion estimate that’s been floating around is too high, but that’s not to say ISIS isn’t raking in a fair amount of cash– between $2 million and $4 million per day… ISIS is a wealthy terrorist movement or better yet an effective financial enterprise, which it run very much like a large-scale Mafia type protection rackets business across much of Iraq. 

This group has fashioned a small army out of a mix of foreign and local fighters, established oil refining and trafficking operations, and even collects taxes…. Despite longstanding rumors that ISIS has foreign patrons in Gulf States such as; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, there is little evidence that it ever depended on foreign largess…While there may be some foreign money flowing to ISIS, stopping these transnational flows will not stymie the group. Whatever its international influences, ISIS raises most of its money from the territories it feeds off of, making the problem of beating back the group exceedingly difficult… According to Howard J. Shatz; ISIS raises much of its money just as a well-organized criminal gang would: It smuggles, it extorts, it skims, it fences, it kidnaps and it shakes down. Although supposedly religiously inspired, its actions are more like those of an organized criminal cult… To quote  a U.S. mobster; you don’t get ahead just by being thugs but at some point you must also learn to be a racketeer as well…

Mariupol, Ukraine (CNN)Less than two days into a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, deadly violence erupted once again between the military and pro-Russian separatists, casting further doubt about whether the peace plan will hold.

Five Ukrainian security forces were killed and 25 were wounded in fighting with the separatists, Ukrainian defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

He said at least 129 violations of the ceasefire have already taken place -- ranging from small arms fire to mortar attacks. But pro-Russian separatists have also blamed Ukraine for violations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised US President Barack Obama for his silence over the murder of three Muslim students in the US.

He said politicians were responsible for events in their countries and had to clarify their stance over them.

More than 5,000 people attended the funeral of the students who were shot dead in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

With a suspect in custody, police are still investigating the motive, amid family claims it was a hate crime.

Initial indications are that the gunman, Craig Hicks, acted in a dispute over a parking space, according to the police.

A district prosecutor said on Wednesday there was no evidence that the victims - Deah Shaddy Barakat, wife Yusor Mohammad and her sister Razan - had been targeted because of their faith.....

New shelling has been reported in the rebel-held east Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, shortly after the peace deal reached in Minsk.

There are no confirmed reports of casualties. Both cities are near the front line where the pro-Russian rebels face government forces.

The ceasefire agreed in the Belarusian capital is to begin in eastern Ukraine after midnight (22:00 GMT) on Saturday.

The EU has warned Russia of new sanctions if the deal is not respected.

Foreign journalists in Donetsk city heard new shelling on Friday morning though they said it sounded less intense than in recent days.

Reports say the city of Luhansk came under bombardment on Thursday evening.

Doubts remain about the deal, which was agreed at talks between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France.

Leaders from the four countries finalised the truce on Thursday morning after marathon overnight negotiations in Minsk.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad says his government is receiving messages from the US-led coalition battling the jihadist group, Islamic State.

Mr Assad told the BBC that there had been no direct co-operation since air strikes began in Syria in September.

But third parties - among them Iraq - were conveying "information".

He also denied that Syrian government forces had been dropping barrel bombs indiscriminately on rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians.

Mr Assad dismissed the allegation as a "childish story", in a wide-ranging interview with BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Damascus.

"We have bombs, missiles and bullets... There is [are] no barrel bombs, we don't have barrels."

Our correspondent says that his denial is highly controversial as the deaths of civilians in barrel bomb attacks are well-documented.
Analysis: Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor

Mr Assad's many enemies will dismiss his view of the war.

For them, he has been in charge of a killing machine that has been chewing Syrians up and spitting them out.

As the war enters its fifth year, the barrel bomb has become the most notorious weapon in the regime's arsenal.

Two or three years ago, I saw the results of what must have been one in Douma, a suburb of Damascus that has been held by rebels since close to the beginning of the war.

Mr Assad insisted that the Syrian army would never use them in a place where people lived.

"I know about the army. They use bullets, missiles and bombs. I haven't heard of the army using barrels, or maybe, cooking pots."

It was a flippant response; the mention of cooking pots was either callousness, an awkward attempt at humour, or a sign that Mr Assad has become so disconnected from what is happening that he feels overwhelmed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is to discuss a peace plan for east Ukraine with the German, French and Ukrainian leaders by phone.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are pushing a plan to end bloody fighting between government and rebel forces.
Meeting Mr Putin in Moscow on Friday, they agreed to four-way talks with Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko on Sunday.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the east since April.
Thousands more have been injured and more than a million have fled their homes.

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Petro Poroshenko: "Every day the number of civilian victims is rising"

Ukraine's military reported continued shelling on Saturday, accusing the rebels of preparing new offensives, while the rebels accused the government itself of attacking along the line dividing their forces.
Mr Poroshenko has called on the West for support up to and including weapons.
He made the plea at a security conference in Munich on Saturday, when he brandished passports that he said were those of Russian troops in Ukraine.
Russia denies intervening directly in eastern Ukraine.

Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC News, Munich
The escalating winter war in Ukraine provides a grim backdrop to the talks in Munich. Behind the scenes here there have been serious efforts to try to breathe life into the peace process.
But in public nobody was pulling any punches. US Vice-President Joe Biden made clear Washington's distrust of the Russians and its determination to "allow Ukraine to defend itself".
Could that mean giving it weapons? That's the way US thinking seems to be going, to the horror of most of its European allies. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel for one spoke out passionately against such a move.
But there's really no new peace plan in the offing, only a revamp of the old one that was never implemented - the Minsk Agreement of last year. If diplomacy fails and President Barack Obama goes ahead with arms deliveries to Ukraine, it may not only divide Nato, but provoke an even more aggressive Russian response.

WELCOME

 Jordan’s King Abdullah vowed a “relentless” war against Islamic State on their own territory on Wednesday in response to a video published by the hard-line group showing a captured Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive in a cage.

Jordan hanged two Iraqi jihadists, one a woman, on Wednesday and vowed to intensify military action against Islamic State.

“We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground,” state television quoted the king as saying during a security meeting.

US officials said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates had withdrawn from flying air strikes in the US-led coalition campaign against Islamic State after the Jordanian pilot’s plane went down over Syria in December.

Jordan, which is part of the US-led alliance, had promised an “earth-shaking response” to the killing of its pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured after his F-16 crashed.

Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said on Wednesday: “We are talking about a collaborative effort between coalition members to intensify efforts to stop extremism and terrorism to undermine, degrade and eventually finish Daesh.” Daesh is used as a derogatory Arabic term for Islamic State.

He said it was a continuation of Jordan’s long standing policy in fighting hard-line Islamist militants and that King Abdullah, who cut short a trip to the United States, headed a meeting with senior security officials on Wednesday. “All the state’s military and security agencies are developing their options. Jordan’s response will be heard by the world at large but this response on the security and military level will be announced at the appropriate time,” Momani said.

Islamic State had demanded the release of Sajida al-Rishawi in exchange for a Japanese hostage whom it later beheaded. Sentenced to death for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack in Amman, Rishawi was executed at dawn. Jordan also executed a senior al Qaeda prisoner, Ziyad Karboli, an Iraqi man who was sentenced to death in 2008.

The Jordanian pilot was the first from the coalition known to have been captured and killed by Islamic State.