New York Times claims huge attack by Chinese hackers
Stories about wealth of outgoing premier Wen Jiabao appeared to be catalyst for attack, possibly by military, says paper
Hackers with possible ties to the Chinese military have repeatedly attacked the New York Times' computer systems over the past four months, possibly in retaliation for a series of stories that the paper ran exposing vast wealth accumulated by the family of outgoing premier Wen Jiabao, the newspaper has reported.
The hackers gained entry to the newspaper's internal systems and accessed the personal computers of 53 employees including David Barboza, its Shanghai bureau chief and author of the Wen exposé, and Jim Yardley, a former Beijing bureau chief.
An investigation by Mandiant, a cyber-security company hired by the New York Times, concluded that the hacks were likely part of an elaborate spy campaign with links to the country's military. The company traced the source of the attacks to university computers that the "Chinese military had used to attack United States Military contractors in the past", the Times said.
HOLOCAUST
Germany marks the roots of Hitler's Nazi dictatorship
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was named Reichskanzler. Germany's present-day chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said it's crucial to mark Germany's dark history - as Hitler's rise was aided by the majority's silence.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened an exhibition at the center documenting the Nazi era in Berlin called "Berlin 1933 – the path into dictatorship." Almost simultaneously, representatives in the German Bundestag held a ceremony in memorial of the victims of Adolf Hitler's rule.
Merkel said that Germany's descent into fascism should serve as a reminder that human rights and basic decency do not happen by themselves, but rather require courageous and vigilant people to protect them.
Zimbabwean government bank balance 'down to $217'
The country's finance minister has announced that $217 is all that remains in the public account of the Zimbabwean government.
The paltry amount cast doubt over claims of a slow economic recovery and raised fresh questions about the fate of the country's diamond revenues – officials say almost $685-million worth were sold last year.
"Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 [left] in government coffers," Finance Minister Tendai Biti told journalists in the capital Harare on Tuesday, noting that some of them have healthier bank balances than the state. "The government finances are in a paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets."
Zimbabwe's elections agency has said it needs $104-million to organise polls this year. Biti added: "The government has no money for elections … We will be approaching the international community to assist us in this regard, but it's important that government should also do something."
Southeast Asia
Jan 31, 2013
Pyrrhic victory in Myanmar
By Anthony Davis
The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one more such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and... there were no others there to make recruits. -Plutarch
The apparently relentless advance of the Myanmar military eastwards towards the town of Laiza, headquarters of the insurgent Kachin Independence Army (KIA), has involved some of the heaviest sustained fighting in the country since independence in 1948. Predictably, international news coverage has focused on two salient elements of the conflict: the sheer weight of force, including newly acquired air-power, brought to bear by the government; and the yawning gulf between the conciliatory statements emanating from the office of President Thein Sein and the actions of the military, or Tatmadaw, on the ground Guatemala's Rios Montt to stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity |
A judge in Guatemala ordered former military leader Efrain Rios Montt to stand trial. He is the first ex-president charged with genocide by a Latin American court.
Jose Efrain Rios Montt will be tried on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for the massacres and displacements Mayan indigenous in 1982-83 (BBC, Prensa Libre, Plaza Publica, HRW).
I think the "and" in that previous sentence is going to become an important point in this trial. While I and many others believe Rios Montt is guilty of genocide, it is a particularly difficult crime to prove in court given that it is based on intent. There are no public ideological writings of Rios Montt that clearly call for the extermination of a particular ethnic group, even if he was behind the deaths of 1,700 Mayans, and the private writings can be challenged in court.
As 2014 NATO pullout approaches, more Afghans flee their homeland
Posted by Kevin Sieff
KABUL — Sixteen years after he fled from the Taliban, Zia Ahmadi was back at the Kabul airport, waiting for the body of a cousin who tried to do the same.
Zia had done what he thought was best for his cousin, Javed Ahmadi, offering a smuggler $15,000 to shuttle him out of Afghanistan and away from insurgents. By December, Javed, 19, was halfway through an arduous 3,500-mile trip from Helmand province to Zia’s home in Sweden, running from the same Taliban that Zia escaped in 1997.
But the smuggler’s overloaded skiff capsized off the coast of Greece, and Javed’s body washed ashore with 21 others, nearly all of them Afghan refugees eager to leave their country before U.S. troops do next year. Now Zia was back in Kabul to bury his cousin.
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