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Showing posts from November 14, 2021

Yemen's Houthis say they attacked Saudi cities

  The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen said on Friday it destroyed three drones launched towards southern Saudi Arabia and a fourth over Yemen. It said the group "failed to launch two ballistic missiles" and they fell inside Yemen. Saudi Aramco, the state oil firm, said when contacted by Reuters that it would respond at the earliest opportunity. The Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised press conference that the group had attacked Aramco's refineries in Jeddah as well as military targets in Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha, Jizan and Najran. Sarea's statement contained inaccuracies. It mentioned the wrong name for the international airport in Jeddah and the wrong location for King Khalid base, saying it was in Riyadh when it is actually in the south of the kingdom. The Saudi-led coalition said later on Saturday it has attacked 13 targets during a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen. The operation hit weapons depots, air defense sys

Over 1.8 mln square metres of land cleared of landmine in Angola's Lunda Sul

  Luanda [ Angola ], November 18 (ANI/Xinhua): More than 1.8 million square metres of land was cleared from   landmines   in 2021 in   Lunda Sul province ,   Angola , the National Institute for Demining announced on Wednesday. According to the head of the department of the Institution Jose Dumba, the demining actions were done in agricultural areas and in the construction site of new infrastructures in Saurimo, the capital of  Lunda Sul province . The official explained that during the process, 1,524 unexploded ordnance devices were removed, with emphasis on anti-tank mines, anti-personnel, grenades, PRG, unexploded ordnance, 60 and 80 MM projectiles, cannon, large and small ammunition cartridges, fuses, and various metals. He underlined that the institution is doing demining work throughout the entire length of  Lunda Sul province . Dumba added that the clearing of the areas will allow the increase of cultivation areas and free movement of people and goods with greater security. On th

Yorkshire racism row resolution shows Britain has come a long way

  Oh Bachchoo, why not separate The serious from the trivial? Why do we humans overrate The depressing and the convivial? Oh Bachchoo, dispense your advice And lend your fans a caution Some things don’t need this thinking twice All life’s about proportion.” — From The Saitannama by Bachchoo My late friend C.L.R. James — writer, Marxist philosopher, cricket commentator — would say that one of the factors that brought discipline to his native Caribbean was the ethos of the game. Cricket was to the West Indies what the Olympic Games were, as a unifying factor, to ancient Greece.   In the era before British colonial governance ended in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua and the smaller islands, CLR made a political plea for their unity as a Federation of the West Indies. It didn’t come about. Politicians of separate islands declared their independence and were granted their fragmenting autonomy. And yet, and yet, the West Indies had a unified cricket team. Cricket came t

U.S. patrol boats sent to beef up Ukrainian Navy near Black Sea

  KYIV (Reuters) - A ship carrying two refitted former U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats designed to beef up the Ukrainian Navy transited the Dardanelles strait on Saturday days after Ukraine said it feared Russia might be preparing an attack on it. The ship carrying the two Island-class patrol boats departed Baltimore for the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Nov. 8. Ukrainian sailors have already undergone extensive training on the vessels in the United States. Ukraine got two similar vessels in 2019. The two new boats are part of a security package to Ukraine worth over $2.5 billion since 2014, the year when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and Russian-backed separatists seized a swath of eastern Ukraine, the U.S. embassy in Kyiv says. The United States, Ukraine and NATO have accused Russia of threatening behaviour towards Kyiv in recent weeks alleging that it has built up its forces in proximity to Ukraine in an unusual way. Russia says it has the right to move its troops anywhere it wan

Armenia-Azerbaijan border clash claims casualties, dozens missing

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 A border  skirmish  between  Armenia  and Azerbaijan this week resulted in eight deaths and many more wounded before the nations agreed to another cease-fire. The Armenian Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijan’s military of opening fire on Armenian positions. Azerbaijan claimed instead that Armenia provoked the conflict. The fighting occurred exactly one week after the one-year anniversary of an armistice signed between the neighboring countries and Russia that ended a 44-day war in the region. WHY IT MATTERS: ARMENIA DEFIANT AGAINST TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN DESPITE SHRINKING BORDERS Armenian officials reported one casualty to Azerbaijan’s seven during the clash, with 13 Armenian troops captured and another two dozen allegedly missing. Lawmaker Eduard Aghajanyan claimed that 15 Armenian soldiers died, but only one death has been officially confirmed. CHINESE OFFICIALS SILENT ON MISSING TENNIS STAR AFTER SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM, XI CRACKDOWN MAY BE CONNECTED Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu

Ethiopia insists airspace safe after US warning

Ethiopia insisted on Friday that its airspace was safe after the United States warned of a possible risk to civilian aircraft because of the spiralling conflict. The Federal Aviation Administration this week advised US carriers to exercise caution while flying into or near Addis Ababa, as the year-long war moves closer to the Ethiopian capital. Airlines "should plan to exercise caution during flight operations due to the potential inadvertant risk to civil aviation operating in or near areas of fighting," it said in a statement. "Civil aircraft may be directly or indirectly exposed to ground weapons fire and/or surface-to-air fire." But the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority dismissed the US warning as "baseless and quite contradictory to the reality". "Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority would like to state that any flight in Ethiopian airspace including Addis Ababa international airport is safe and secured." The government declared a nationwide

India, France seek concerted action against LeT, JeM, al-Qaeda

  A statement issued after a meeting in Paris of the India-France joint working group on counterterrorism said the two sides condemned all forms of terror activities, including cross-border terrorism India and France on Wednesday sought concerted action against terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen and al-Qaeda, including bringing the perpetrators of terror attacks to justice speedily.  In an apparent reference to Pakistan, a joint statement issued after a meeting in Paris of the India-France joint working group on counterterrorism said the two sides condemned all forms of terror activities, including cross-border terrorism.  The two countries also “stressed the need for all countries to ensure that territories that are under their control cannot be used to plan [and] launch terrorist attacks against any other country, shelter or train terrorist fighters”.  France has consistently backed India’s efforts at multilateral forums such as the

Sydney Dialogue | Democracies must ensure cryptocurrencies don’t end up in wrong hands: PM Modi

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  'In India, we have created a robust framework of data protection, privacy and security,' Mr. Modi said. Special Correspondent The international order should ensure  cryptocurrencies  do not end up in wrong hands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday at The Sydney Dialogue. The Hindu Explains | What does the Supreme Court order reinstating virtual currency activities mean? “It is important that all democratic nations work on this and   ensure that it does not end up in wrong hands , which can spoil our youth,” said Mr. Modi, addressing the event virtually and delivering the inaugural speech. Watch | All about India's new Digital Health Mission The Sydney Dialogue is an annual summit of cyber and critical technologies to discuss the fallout of the digital domain on the law and order situation in the world. Mr Modi said India’s space sector was open to private investment and that the agriculture sector was reaping the benefits of digital revolution. The PM’s speech

Taiwan says it faces 5 mn cyberattacks daily: A look at China’s cyber capabilities, what it means for India

  By employing cyberwarfare during a military conflict, China has permanently changed the long-established rules of border conflicts with India A recent  Pentagon report  on China's increased military capacities that singled out Beijing's growing cyber capabilities as a destabilising factor in the Asia Pacific has left the West  wringing its hands . Meanwhile, three things are happening simultaneously that can impact the fragile peace in the neighbourhood. Taiwan has revealed that it has been facing around five million cyber-attacks and probes each day. India has seen a 261 percent annual increase in Chinese-backed cyber attacks, as of August 2021. China has been deflecting the blame by  accusing India  of a failed hacking attempt, unleashing a vitriolic attack via its State-owned newspaper. All these developments combined have brought back focus on how nuclear-powered China is shoring up its capacity to not only win a traditional war but has also been sharpening its arsenal of

Mexican Cartels Are Embracing Aerial Drones and They’re Spreading

Aerial drones, once the domain of states alone, have  become standard features of the arsenals of  terrorists, insurgents, and guerrillas. These actors find the flexibility of aerial drones appealing. But they are not the only ones: As we discuss in our new book  Criminal Drone Evolution , criminal and cartel uses of small weaponized drones are increasingly in the news. Become a Member Cartel commandos are attacking rival gangs and security forces with armed drones, enhancing their combat power. We can clearly track their  technological and  tactical  progress on this front. It is a part of the increased tactical and operational sophistication of criminal groups in Mexico’s  crime wars . This violent conflict goes well beyond typical criminal violence, including  terrorist tactics, infantry operations, and barbarization  in a quest for territorial control, power, and profit. At times, the levels of sustained violence and sophistication of the groups involved reach levels that rightfull

OMG, your money and financial data at risk! New malware SharkBot attacking banking apps on Android phones

New Delhi: Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Android Trojan that can circumvent multi-factor authentication on banking apps on smartphones, putting users' financial data and money at risk. Called 'SharkBot', the Android malware has been found in attacks across Europe and the US, focused on stealing funds from mobile phones running the Google Android operating system. "The main goal of SharkBot is to initiate money transfers from the compromised devices via Automatic Transfer Systems (ATS) technique bypassing multi-factor authentication mechanisms," the researchers from cyber security firm Cleafy said in a statement. "These mechanisms are used to enforce users' identity verification and authentication, and are usually combined with behavioural detection techniques to identify suspicious money transfers," the team added. 'SharkBot' appears to have a very low detection rate by antivirus solutions since multiple anti-analysis techni

Cyber Security in the Public Sector: Check Point Research Shows Global Trend Toward Increasingly Lucrative Public Sector Targets

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  By Ram Narayanan, Country Manager at Check Point Software Technologies Middle East There’s nothing quite like a global pandemic with legally enforceable lockdowns to expose the public sector’s dependence on outdated digital infrastructure. While the devastating SolarWinds “sunburst” attack made headlines in 2020 for its impact on private corporations like Cisco, Microsoft and thousands of customer organizations, there’s a good chance much of it was collateral damage in pursuit of an increasingly lucrative target: the public sector. The SolarWinds cyberattack, which went undetected for months, also impacted NATO, the UK government, the European Parliament, and even the US Treasury – all public sector entities wielding great power and extremely sensitive data. While the pace of transformation may vary from country to country, the public sector as a whole is gradually becoming more digitally mature. However, the wheels of government have a reputation for turning slowly. Many public-owne