Sony cyber-attack: North Korea calls US sanctions hostile
4 January 2015 Last updated at 07:52
BBC
North Korea has described new sanctions imposed in response to a major cyber-attack against Sony Pictures as part of a hostile and inflammatory US policy.The US placed sanctions on three North Korean organisations and 10 individuals after the FBI blamed Pyongyang for the cyber-attack.
North Korea praised the attack on Sony but denied any involvement in it.
It came as Sony was about to release The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader.
Sony initially cancelled plans to show the film, before deciding to release it online and at a limited number of cinemas.
Dresden crowds tell a chilling tale of Europe’s fear of migrants
Tens of thousands are expected to mass on Monday in Dresden in a swell of anti-immigrant sentiment that has forced Angela Merkel to speak out
Kate Connolly The Observer, Sunday 4 January 2015
Sitting on a wooden bench on a Dresden square with his jacket collar turned up against a cold evening wind, a retiree in his mid-sixties with a dog by his side starts a conversation with a couple in their early thirties. “I used the dog as an excuse to take a look at what’s going on here,” he says, squinting and drawing on a cigarette. “I’m not a political animal at all. The wife doesn’t know I’m here.” The man and woman, dressed in cashmere scarves and coats by a popular outdoor clothing brand, seek to reassure the newcomer. “This is our third time. We were nervous at first until we realised how many other people like us were here, demanding a proper asylum policy, one that doesn’t disadvantage native Germans,” the woman says.The pensioner’s mind seems to have been put at ease. When the protest started moving through the city, eerily silent – at the explicit request of organisers – he and his Jack Russell join in.
War with Isis: The West is wrong again in its fight against terror
World View: Barack Obama flippantly dismissed the militants as minor-league players last January. Is he any better informed now?
Patrick Cockburn Sunday 4 January 2015
Islamic State (Isis) will remain at the centre of the escalating crisis in the Middle East this year as it was in 2014. The territories it conquered in a series of lightning campaigns last summer remain almost entirely under its control, even though it has lost some towns to the Kurds and Shia militias in recent weeks. United States air strikes in Iraq from 8 August and Syria from 23 September may have slowed up Isis advances and inflicted heavy casualties on its forces in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. But Isis has its own state machinery and is conscripting tens of thousands of fighters to replace casualties, enabling it to fight on multiple fronts from Jalawla on Iraq’s border with Iran to the outskirts of Aleppo in Syria. In western Syria, Isis is a growing power as the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad loses its advantage of fighting a fragmented opposition, that is now uniting under the leadership of Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda.
The year ahead in science
January 4, 2015 – 4:15PM
Los Angeles: Some serious groundwork has been laid. Some amazing instruments are turning on. Some incredible destinations are in sight. If you ask us, 2015 is going to be an awesome year in science. From solar system exploration to new adventures in particle physics to the possible defeat of a microscopic foe, here are some of the science stories we can’t wait to follow in the coming year.Our first good look at Pluto
Our telescopes take amazing images of distant galaxies, but the best pictures of Pluto are fuzzy and difficult to interpret. That’s about to change. In 2015, humans will get a good look at the dwarf planet – for the very first time.
Jewish settlers attack US officials visiting West Bank
In an incident likely to further chill US-Israeli relations, Jewish settlers threw rocks at American officials visiting the West Bank Friday to look into Palestinian claims that settlers had uprooted scores of their olive trees.
By Peter Enav and Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press
Jerusalem – Jewish settlers attacked American consular officials Friday during a visit the officials made to the West Bank as part of an investigation into claims of damage to Palestinian agricultural property, Israeli police and Palestinian witnesses say.The incident is likely to further chill relations between Israel and the United States, already tense over American criticisms of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and Israeli perceptions that President Barack Obama is only lukewarm in his support of Israeli diplomatic and security policies.
Settlers have often spoken against what they call foreign interference in their affairs, but this is the first known physical attack against diplomatic personnel.
Villagers: Boko Haram abducts 40 boys, young men in northeastern Nigeria
By Aminu Abubakar and Greg Botelho, CNN
The Islamist militant group Boko Haram kidnapped 40 boys and young men — ages 10 to 23 — from a village in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, some of those fleeing said Saturday.The terrorists arrived in the village of Malari carrying assault rifles and then preached to them about the group’s extremist ideology before forcibly taking 40 hostages and driving toward the Sambisa forest on December 31, villagers who fled to Maiduguri said.
Recent Comments