Posts Tagged ‘World’
Hacker attack underlines Web role in China scandal
A massive hacker attack has crippled an overseas website that has reported extensively on China's biggest political turmoil in years, underscoring the pivotal role the Internet has played in the unfolding scandal.North Carolina-based Boxun.com was forced to move to a new web hosting service Friday after its previous host said the attacks were threatening its entire business, website manager Watson Meng told The Associated Press. He believes the attacks were ordered by China's security services, but it isn't clear where they were launched from.The assaults on Boxun's server followed days of reporting on Bo Xilai, formerly one of the country's most powerful politicians, who was fired as head of the mega-city of Chongqing and suspended from the Communist Party's powerful Politburo amid [...]
China assisting N.Korean missile program
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - China has provided some assistance to North Korea's missile program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, a week after the hermit state's failed missile launch triggered broad international condemnation. "I'm sure there's been some help coming from China. I don't know, you know, the exact extent of that," Panetta told members of the House Armed Services Committee when asked whether China had been supporting North Korea's missile program through "trade and technology exchanges." North Korea's powerful Asian neighbor is the hermit kingdom's only major ally, with military and economic ties that date back to the communist origins of the two nations. On Wednesday, Pyongyang said it was ready to retaliate in the face of widespread [...]
Egypt refers ban on presidency candidates to court
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military rulers have asked the constitutional court to rule on whether top officials from Hosni Mubarak's era can run for the presidency, a judicial source said on Thursday, after the Islamist-dominated parliament passed a law banning them. Last week's new law must be passed by the ruling military council to take effect. MPs drafted the legislation in response Mubarak spy chief Omar Suleiman's decision to run for the presidency. Suleiman has since been disqualified on the grounds that he failed to secure enough voter endorsements to run. The legislation, if approved, could disqualify former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq - in power during Mubarak's last days. The Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to issue its ruling within 15 days. A [...]
Italian kidnapped in Algeria freed after 14 months
ROME (Reuters) - Maria Sandra Mariani, an Italian tourist kidnapped by Al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Algeria more than 14 months ago, was freed in northern Mali, authorities in Italy and Burkina Faso said on Tuesday. Mariani, who was kidnapped in southeastern Algeria on February 2, 2011, was released in the northern Malian town of Tessalit and then taken south to Ouagadougou, capital of Mali's neighbor Burkina Faso. "I thank President (Blaise) Compaore for his contribution to my release," Mariana told reporters before boarding a plane to Italy. She said her period of captivity had been "difficult", but gave no more details about the circumstances of her release. Northern Mali is a vast rugged area on the Sahara's southern edge where al Qaeda operatives often hold foreign [...]
East Timor holds run-off vote for new president
Two former guerrilla leaders vied for East Timor's presidency Monday, each hoping to help steer the region's newest and poorest nation after U.N. peacekeeping troops begin their planned withdrawal later this year.Taur Matan Ruak appeared headed for an easy victory over Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres in the run-off vote, according to an early quick count.Incumbent Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, bowed out last month following a poor showing in the first round.East Timor, a half island nation of 1.1 million people, voted overwhelmingly in 1999 to end 24 years of brutal Indonesia occupation that had left more than 170,000 dead.When withdrawing soldiers and proxy militias went on a rampage, killing another 1,500 people and destroying much of the infrastructure, the international [...]