►Tucson shooting rampage suspect Jared Loughner pleaded guilty [1]yesterday to a 2011 shooting that killed six people while injuring 13 others, including U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords. The Associated Press reports that Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 counts, including attempted assassination of a U.S. Congress member. In exchange, 30 counts were dropped and Loughner will spend life in prison but will not be eligible for the death penalty.

►There is a security alert in Great Britain this morning as seven Cameroonian athletes have disappeared [2] from the Olympics, according to Gantdaily.com. The article reports that the London Olympic Games Organizing Committee suspects that the athletes disappeared of their own volition in search of "a better life." Cameroonian athletes have also disappeared from the Commonwealth Games and world championships in recent years.

►Wired's Threat Level blog provides tips on how to avoid an "epic hacking" [3]of the sort that happened to Wired writer Mat Honan. In Honan's case, hackers infiltrated not only his e-mail and Twitter accounts [4], but also obtained his Apple ID. This allowed them to erase information from his laptop, iPhone, and iPad. Honan writes that the hackers received some of the vital information for the hacks from Apple and Amazon tech support.

►In other news, a suicide attack on a NATO patrol [5] in Afghanistan killed three coalition service members and a civilian. ♦ An Ohio moviegoer arrested for bringing a gun and knives to the latest Batman movie claims he brought the weapons for protection in case there was another attack [6]like that in Aurora Colorado last month. ♦ The contract security company formerly known as Blackwater has agreed to pay a $7.5 million fine [7] related to weapons smuggling and other offenses.