By Parisa Hafezi | ANKARA ANKARA Many Iranians who dreamt of quiet, comfortable lives after a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 are starting to worry for the first time in decades they might be bombed in their own homes. Since taking office last month, U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to get tough with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic after its ballistic missile test on […]
The government is struggling to protect the UK from cyberattacks, say MPs. Image: iStock An inconsistent, dysfunctional and chaotic response to cybersecurity by the British government is causing concerns about its ability to protect the country from cyberattacks and hackers, MPs have warned. The damning indictment is set out in a by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report into protecting information across government, which comes as defence […]
A man who attacked a soldier at the Louvre museum in Paris on Friday cried “Allahu akbar” before he was shot. French police said they believed the man, who was seriously wounded in the incident, intended to carry out a terrorist attack. The man who had two backpacks shouted “God is great” in Arabic and lunged at the soldier at the entrance to the museum shortly after […]
By Michel Rose and Elizabeth Pineau | PARIS PARIS A French soldier on Friday shot and wounded a man armed with a knife after he tried to enter the Louvre museum in central Paris carrying a suitcase, police sources said. One source said the man had been trying to get into the museum’s shopping mall and had attacked another soldier before being shot and seriously wounded. Police […]
By Tom Westbrook and Jane Wardell | SYDNEY SYDNEY Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull might receive a short-term boost after his infamous phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump but is likely to be the long-term political loser, analysts and rights advocates said on Friday. Languishing in opinion polls and vulnerable to attacks from within his own conservative party, Turnbull at least woke on Friday to domestic […]
I recently wrote about an agenda to mitigate the threats of insecure devices on the Internet of Things. One of the requirements expressed in that agenda is “For every product sold, there is a way that security researchers can responsibly disclose vulnerabilities found”. In this post I want to reflect on the issue of responsible disclosure from the perspective of the Collaborative Security approach, how responsible security […]
KABUL On a snowy mountaintop to the west of Kabul, a group of Afghan girls practice the flowing movements of Wushu, a sport developed from ancient Chinese kung fu martial arts, stretching and bending and slashing the air with bright swords. In a country where women’s sport is severely restricted, the Shaolin Wushu club in a part of Kabul that is home to the capital’s Hazara ethnic […]
By Isabel Coles | RASHIDIYA, Iraq RASHIDIYA, Iraq His name was Ayman, but the couple who brought the boy home to their Iraqi village after buying him for $500 called him Ahmed. Islamic State militants had killed or enslaved Ayman’s parents in their purge of the Yazidi religious minority to which he belongs, then sold the four-year-old to Umm and Abu Ahmed, who are Muslims. For the […]
La Villette, a corrugated iron convention hall on the northern rim of Paris, was meant to be François Fillon’s launch pad towards the French presidency after winning the centre-right nomination in a landslide. But on Sunday he stood in the packed venue, days after claims emerged that the Republican candidate had allegedly employed his wife in a fake parliamentary job for years and, suddenly, victory seemed to […]
For Syrians, Mr. Trump is merely pushing to extremes a process that has been going on for years. The situation of the refugees, and the underprivileged in general, has been worsening everywhere for a generation. Syria exemplifies a greater global failure. Continue reading the main story The executive order barring Syrians and the citizens of six other countries was among Mr. Trump’s very first actions in the […]
Targeting the weak The us-versus-them dynamic is “easy for many people to rally around,” said Jonathan D. Weiler, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina. Targeting feared or unpopular minorities is a way of “setting a boundary,” said Sheri E. Berman, a political scientist at Barnard College — a way to distinguish between “us” deserving of protection, and “them” who are a threat. Continue reading […]
This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings about extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme […]
By Ayesha Rascoe | DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. The U.S. military said on Wednesday it was looking into whether more civilians were killed in a raid on al Qaeda in Yemen on the weekend, in the first operation authorized by President Donald Trump as commander in chief. U.S. Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens died in the raid on a branch of […]
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white […]
Whenever pressure mounts on the American press to be more responsible, my reflex is to consult an ancient guide for wisdom. Published in 1947, “A Free and Responsible Press” is the work of a World War II-era commission, sponsored by Time magazine founder Henry Luce and led by Robert M. Hutchins, perhaps the leading intellectual of his day. Its formal name is “Report of the Commission on […]
Soon after two top Russian cyber crime officers vanished late last year, the rumours began to spread. One newspaper reported that Sergei Mikhailov, head of cyber security at the FSB, the KGB’s successor agency, was abruptly escorted from a meeting with a dark bag over his head. A far-right website suggested that Mr Mikhailov had been plotting to overthrow Russian president Vladimir Putin. In the past few […]
BERLIN More than 1,100 German police searched 54 homes, business premises and mosques in Frankfurt and other towns in the western state of Hesse in the early hours of Wednesday and arrested a Tunisian man suspected of planning an attack, German authorities said. The 36-year-old Tunisian is suspected of recruiting for Islamic State in Germany since August 2015 and building up a network of supporters with the […]
MANILA The Maoist-led rebel group in the Philippines said on Wednesday it was terminating a unilateral ceasefire it declared five months ago and resuming a protracted guerrilla warfare that has killed tens of thousands of people. The New People’s Army said in a statement that the ceasefire agreed to last August would expire on Feb. 10, but added the rebels would still support peace talks with the […]
Brady, Coach Bill Belichick and the Patriots’ owner, Robert K. Kraft, also happen to be friends of the president, whose actions, including his temporary ban on refugees and restrictions on immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries, have been highly controversial. Continue reading the main story Of the transcripts provided for the interviews with 26 of the Patriots players and coaches and 28 of the Falcons players and coaches, […]
RIYADH The top U.N. humanitarian official in Yemen said on Tuesday he feared for the lives of civilians in two Red Sea coast cities where Yemeni government forces and their Gulf Arab backers are on an offensive to oust Iran-allied Houthi militia. Coalition-supported Yemeni army forces advanced northward into al-Mokha and Dhubab last week in a bid to deprive the Houthis of strategic Red Sea ports. “I […]
The US stock market suffered its largest decline this year, alongside investors snapping up protection against a possible rise in volatility, pointing towards the nervousness over the recent rally. The S&P 500 dipped 0.6 per cent to 2,281, its biggest one-day fall since December 28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6 per cent to 19,971, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8 per cent to 5,614. […]
Spam emails work, cybercriminals are discovering. Image: iStock In all walks of life, there are those who believe that the old ways are the best. It appears that despite involvement in a technologically advanced, constantly evolving arena, cyberattackers are increasingly turning back to the same tactics which worked for them at the start of the decade. The payloads might have changed, but cybercriminals are turning back to […]
GENEVA The United Nations has restarted air drops of food to support 93,500 Syrians besieged by Islamic State in the city of Deir al-Zor, the U.N. World Food Programme said on Tuesday. Air drops were halted on Jan. 15 after Islamic State militants cut the besieged zone in two and overran the drop zone that had been used for 177 air drops since April. WFP spokeswoman Bettina […]
By Praveen Menon and Pairat Temphairojana | KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK Seeking to capitalise on U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial new travel restrictions, companies and officials in Asia said they would target greater tourism and education ties with Muslims worried about the curbs. Trump’s Friday directive put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar […]
