As we reported last night, pretty much no one within the FBI had the slightest idea that Comey’s firing was coming. Even Comey himself, according to the New York Times, learned of his dismissal on the news and thought it was just a prank. Not surprisingly, this sudden and shocking ouster of an FBI director that has led an agency of 56 U.S. field offices and 30,000 […]
Doomed children gasp their last breaths in the back of a truck filled with lifeless bodies that could have been their playmates hours ago. Volunteers sprint back and forth in an attempt to salvage the remaining lives. And a camera witnesses it all, capturing video that the public won’t see for more than a month. That was the scene shown Tuesday, when CNN showed horrific footage of […]
The World Health Organization, the public health arm of the United Nations, reported 2,022 suspected cases of cholera and acute watery diarrhea in Yemen from April 27 to this past Sunday, including at least 34 deaths. Continue reading the main story Cholera has long been an underlying risk in Yemen, but it subsided during the cold winter months this year. With the sudden spike of cases, health […]
JEDDAH: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem said on Monday his country would reject any UN role in monitoring the implementation of four “de-escalation” zones.“We do not accept a role for the UN or international forces to monitor the agreement,” Al-Moallem told reporters in Damascus.Regime backers Russia and Iran and opposition supporter Turkey reached a deal on Thursday on four “de-escalation zones” in Syria where the regime and […]
A ransomware attack against any business could be potentially devastating, but there are some sectors which are more at risk from file-encrypting attacks than others, as cybercriminals prey on industries which can’t afford to not have access to their networks. Ransomware has boomed over the last 18 months, growing from an annoyance which targeted home PC users with moderate ransom demands, to a billion-dollar industry, with cybercriminals […]
PATTANI, Thailand Muslim militants fighting for a separate state in the south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand were suspected of carrying out a car-bomb attack on Tuesday outside a supermarket in the city of Pattani that wounded 42 people, police said. A decades-old separatist insurgency in the largely ethnic Malay Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat has killed more than 6,500 people since 2004, according to independent […]
BOSTON When the Masjid Al-Kareem mosque in Providence, Rhode Island, received a threatening letter in November calling Muslims a “vile and filthy people,” its members were frightened enough they asked for and got extra police protection. The 42-year-old mosque was far from alone. The letter it received was one of 2,213 anti-Muslim bias incidents in the United States last year, according to a report released Tuesday by […]
Malaysia’s police chief says the country’s top Islamic State operative has been killed in an attack in Syria last month. Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, 26, is believed to have been responsible for a grenade blast at a bar in a suburb outside Kuala Lumpur last June that injured eight people. It was the first attack in the country by the Islamic State militant group. Inspector General of […]
PARIS Police gradually began reopening Paris’ Gare du Nord train station early on Tuesday morning after earlier evacuating the platforms and cordoning off the area because of a security alert, local police authorities said. A Reuters witness at the scene said there were between 20 to 30 police vans outside the station in central Paris with security forces wearing balaclavas and carrying assault weapons. “End of security […]
‘Silver weapons bear magical powers to conquer foes’. The proverb ascribed to the ancient Greek’s Delphic Oracle has survived centuries to become a favourite selling pitch for information security tools. Silver weapons, now like then, are a myth. Yet we information security professionals regularly encounter pitches selling intrusion prevention systems, threat intelligence, and other defensive technologies as a cure-all to complex problems. Organisations, despite the marketing pitch, […]
There are about 60 such light sources in the world, which have been become increasingly valuable as tools in medicine and engineering. In April, for example, scientists using X-rays from a light source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California discovered new details about the structure of proteins that regulate blood pressure, raising the possibility of better treatments for hypertension. Continue reading the main story Sesame, […]
“We should all agree that in our constitutional democracy, the executive’s ability to attack another country is constrained by the law,” Justin Florence, the group’s legal director and a former Obama White House lawyer, wrote in an essay announcing the lawsuit. He added: “Some countries may tolerate a head of state launching a new conflict without offering a clear legal justification, but we should not.” Continue reading […]
By Thierry Chiarello and Sarah White | PARIS PARIS Emmanuel Macron may have won Sunday’s presidential election by a comfortable margin, but even his supporters’ enthusiasm is tempered by the scale of the challenge that the inexperienced politician faces in tackling France’s deep-seated economic, social and security problems. Macron, a former economy minister who had never previously stood for elected office, beat far-right leader Marine Le Pen […]
MOGADISHU At least three Somali soldiers on a ordnance-clearing mission were killed on Monday by a roadside bomb just 90 km (60 miles) north of the capital, from where Islamists militants were routed six years ago. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the town of Shalanbood in the Lower Shabelle region. “We went out of town in […]
LONDON The head of the Iranian armed forces warned Islamabad on Monday that Tehran would hit bases inside Pakistan if the government does not confront Sunni militants who carry out cross-border attacks. Ten Iranian border guards were killed by militants last month. Iran said Jaish al Adl, a Sunni militant group, had shot the guards with long-range guns, fired from inside Pakistan. The border area has long […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Two officials in former President Barack Obama’s administration will testify on Monday in a Senate investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Moscow. James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence under Obama, and Sally Yates, who was Deputy Attorney General, will testify to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on […]
By Felix Onuah and Ahmed Kingimi | ABUJA/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria ABUJA/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Boko Haram militants have released 82 schoolgirls out of a group of more than 200 whom they kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok three years ago in exchange for prisoners, the presidency said on Saturday. Around 270 girls were kidnapped in April 2014 by the Islamist militant group, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced […]
JERUSALEM Israeli paramilitary police officers shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian teenage girl who tried to attack them at an entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, a police spokeswoman said. The incident was the latest in a 19-month-long period of sporadic street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, and the bustling Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s walled Old City where it occurred has seen many attacks. Police […]
EGYPT: Security officials say a Christian man has been shot dead by suspected Daesh militants while inside a barber’s shop in Egypt’s turbulent northern Sinai.The late Saturday killing in the coastal city of Al-Arish came one day after the Daesh group’s local affiliate warned it would escalate attacks against Christians.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.Ayoub is at […]
KIRKUK, Iraq At least two people were killed and six injured when multiple Islamic State suicide bombers attacked a base in northern Iraq where U.S. military advisers are stationed, security sources said on Sunday. In addition, two of the militants died when they detonated their vests at the entrance to the K1 base overnight, and three more were killed by Kurdish peshmerga forces who control the Kirkuk […]
By Ingrid Melander | PARIS PARIS After a tumultuous election campaign filled with scandal and surprises, the French public began to vote on Sunday on whether a pro-European Union centrist or an anti-EU, anti-immigration far-rightist will lead them for the next five years. Opinion polls indicate they will pick Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who wants to bridge the left-right divide, resisting an anti-establishment tide that […]
Hamas announced on Saturday that it had chosen Ismail Haniyeh, a longtime leader of the militant Islamist group in Gaza, as its new political chief, after signalling a more pragmatic line in a new policy document. Mr Haniyeh served as a deputy to Khaled Mashal, the outgoing political leader of Hamas, and is expected to continue his policies. As head of the group’s political bureau, Mr Mashal […]
Government agencies want their own backdoor into communications. Image: iStockphoto More details of how the UK’s new surveillance law will operate have been revealed, in details about the use of encryption. Under draft regulations to support the new Investigatory Powers Act, the government will be able to issue ‘technical capability notices’ to companies with more than 10,000 UK users to make it easier for police, spy agencies […]
A corner of Wall Street has been gripped by the unknown identity of a trader that has been buying up Vix call options priced at 50 cents each, swelling to account for nearly 10 per cent of the listed market. The FT has now reported that bankers with knowledge of the trades say the so-called “50 Cent” – a reference to the American rapper known for his […]
