Author: CensorBiz

Negotiations to restructure Lebanon’s foreign currency debt should not last more than nine months if well-intentioned, the economy minister was quoted as saying, after the heavily indebted state said it could not meet its debt repayments.Lebanon is set to default on its sovereign debt after declaring on Saturday it could not pay forthcoming maturities – the first of which is a $1.2 billion bond due on Monday. The state has called for restructuring negotiations.The country is grappling with a major financial crisis which came to a head last year as capital inflows slowed and protests erupted over decades of state corruption and bad governance.The default will mark a new phase in a crisis that has hammered the economy since October, slicing around 40% off the value of the currency, denying savers free access to their deposits and fueling unemployment and unrest.Face-to-face negotiations between Lebanon and bond holders are expected to begin in about two weeks, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.Prime Minister Hassan Diab, in a televised address to the nation on Saturday, said foreign currency reserves had hit a “critical and dangerous” level and were needed for basic imports.”The negotiation process will last for months and if we have good intentions will not go on for more than nine months,” Raoul Nehme, the economy minister, told broadcaster al-Jadeed in comments published on its website overnight.Lebanon has a total of some $31 billion in dollar bonds that sources have said the government will seek to restructure.Lebanon’s banks, big holders of the sovereign debt, are ready to talk with the foreign creditors as the government seeks to restructure its debt, a source familiar with the matter said on Saturday.There was no timetable yet for any restructuring and the discussions with foreign creditors are likely to start slowly, the source added. Houlihan Lokey has been appointed financial adviser by the Association of Banks in Lebanon to help with the process, the source said.Diab said public debt has reached around 170% of gross domestic product, meaning Lebanon is close to being the world’s most heavily indebted state.The financial crisis is seen as the biggest risk to Lebanon’s stability since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.There has been no sign of a bailout from foreign states that aided Lebanon in the past. Western governments insist Beirut first enact long-delayed reforms to fight waste and corruption.Many analysts believe that the only way for Lebanon to secure financial support would be through an IMF program.But this is opposed by the powerful, Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, which has said the kind of terms the IMF would seek to impose would cause a “popular revolution” in Lebanon.Lebanon has however sought technical assistance from the IMF. 
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The cease-fire deal in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib remains in effect Sunday.The pact is between Turkey, which backs some rebel groups, and Russia, which backs the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Turkey and Russia have reached multiple cease-fire agreements previously in Idlib, but none had been successful.The fighting in the region since late last year has triggered a massive humanitarian crisis with almost a million people fleeing their homes.Some of the area’s residents have returned since the cease-fire began last week, only to discover that their homes have been destroyed.Majd Sammoud, a villager from Sarmin, told the Associated Press his home had been “completely flattened to the ground” and he was not able to retrieve any of his family’s belongings.Turkey and Russia have also agreed to secure a key highway in the Idlib area with joint patrols, beginning this week.The announcement came just days after Turkey said it would open its borders, allowing refugees access to Western Europe. Since then, migrants have massed at the Turkish-Greek border, leading to clashes with Greek police.Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million refugees from Syria.
 
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Six people have died in the collapse of a hotel in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, the Ministry of Emergency Management said Sunday, after state media said the place was being used to quarantine individuals under observation for the coronavirus.The hotel began to collapse Saturday evening. As of 11:30 a.m. Beijing time Sunday, authorities had retrieved 43 individuals from the site of the collapse, the ministry said.Of that total, six have been confirmed dead, 36 have been sent to the hospital for care, and one individual has been deemed in need of no medical treatment, according to the ministry’s Weibo post.Authorities are still searching for 28 people, the ministry added.According to state media outlet Xinhua, the owner of the building, a man with surname Yang, has been summoned by police.The building’s first floor had been under renovation at the time of the collapse, the news agency said.Spread of virus slowsNews of the collapse comes as the spread of COVID-19 continues to slow in China.According to data from China’s National Health Commission (NHC), cases fell by roughly one-half Saturday from the day before.The agency confirmed 44 new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus at the end of March 7, a decline from 99 the previous day.The fall comes as Chinese cities gradually relax quarantine measures put in place over a month ago, while authorities keep a close watch on the virus’ spread overseas.Of the 44 new confirmed cases, 41 were discovered in Wuhan, the origin of the virus’ outbreak and its hotbed.The remaining three were cases imported from outside mainland China.Cases originate overseasThis marks the second consecutive day in which all of China’s newly confirmed cases outside of the city of Wuhan originated from overseas. The three cases bring China’s total imported case count to 63.According to the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, two of the cases found in Beijing originated in Italy and Spain.As the virus slows its spread in Wuhan, authorities have reacted by closing hospitals built specifically to house its patients.After the first such closure last week, on Sunday, CCTV reported that operations at a second hospital had been suspended, with its 25 remaining patients now discharged and declared cured.
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McCoy Tyner, the groundbreaking and influential jazz pianist and the last surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet, has died. He was 81.Tyner’s family confirmed the death in a statement released on social media Friday. No more details were provided.”It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of jazz legend, Alfred “McCoy” Tyner. McCoy was an inspired musician who devoted his life to his art, his family and his spirituality,” the statement read. “McCoy Tyner’s music and legacy will continue to inspire fans and future talent for generations to come.”Tyner was born in Philadelphia on December 11, 1938. He eventually met Coltrane and joined him for the 1961 album “My Favorite Things,” a major commercial success that highlighted the remarkable chemistry of the John Coltrane Quartet. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.The quartet would go on to release more revered projects, becoming an internationally renowned group and one of the seminal acts in jazz history.Tyner eventually found success apart from the John Coltrane Quartet, releasing more than 70 albums. He also won five Grammy Awards.In 2002, he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Over the years, villagers who live near Greece’s border with Turkey got used to seeing small groups of people enter their country illegally. The Greek residents often offered the just-arrived newcomers a bite to eat and directed them to the nearest police or railway station.But the warm welcomes wore off. When Turkey started channeling thousands of people to Greece, insisting that its ancient regional rival and NATO ally receive them as refugees, the Greek government sealed the border and rushed police and military reinforcements to help hold back the flood.Greeks in the border region rallied behind the expanding border force, collecting provisions and offering any possible contribution to what is seen as a national effort to stop a Turkish-spurred incursion.’We know the crossings’In several cases, authorities asked villagers familiar with the local terrain to help locate migrants who managed to slip through holes cut in a border fence or to cross the River Evros — Meric in Turkish — that demarcates most of the 212-kilometer border.”We were born here, we live here, we work here, we know the crossings better than anyone,” Panayiotis Ageladarakis, a community leader in Amorio, a village that lies 300 meters from the river banks.Other villages also responded to the call for volunteer trackers. Small groups of unarmed men monitor known crossing points after dark.”We sit at the crossings, and they come,” Ageladarakis told The Associated Press as he drove a pickup truck with a fellow Greek border village resident along a rough track at night. “We keep them there most of the time, call police, and they come and arrest them. Then, it’s a matter for the police. We aren’t interested in where they take them. We just try to help this effort taking place by the army and the police.”Pitching inHelp for the border units also came from Evros businesses and store owners. Nikos Georgiadis, head of the local restaurant owners association, said his colleagues delivered food and water to units stationed at four points on the border.”They also asked us for masks and gloves, and we’ll try to find some,” he said.Ageladarakis said all the migrants he encountered over the past few days were cooperative.”These people are frightened. Nobody has caused any trouble,” he said.But the village community leader said that in his view, the people he encountered did not look like they were fleeing wars in their own countries.”There’s nobody coming from a war,” he said. “None of them are refugees. They’re all illegal migrants and that’s why they’re trying to get into Europe [this way].”Greek authorities said that out of a the 252 people arrested for illegal entry over the past week as of Friday, 64% were Afghans, 19% Pakistanis, 5% Turks and 4% Syrians. The others were from Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Egypt.
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About 30 people remained trapped early Sunday after a five-story hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou, state media said.About four hours after the collapse, the Quanzhou municipality said 38 of the 70 or so people who had been in the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel had been rescued.A video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over rubble and twisted steelwork carrying people towards ambulances.The hotel collapsed at about 7:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) on Saturday evening.”I was at a gas station and heard a loud noise. I looked up and the whole building collapsed. Dust was everywhere, and glass fragments were flying around,” a witness said in a video posted on the Miaopai streaming app.”I was so terrified that my hands and legs were shivering.”A woman named only by her surname, Chen, told the Beijing News website that relatives including her sister had been under quarantine at the hotel as prescribed by local regulations after returning from Hubei province, where the coronavirus emerged.She said they had been scheduled to leave soon after completing their 14 days of isolation.”I can’t contact them, they’re not answering their phones, she said.”I’m under quarantine too (at another hotel) and I’m very worried, I don’t know what to do. They were healthy, they took their temperatures every day, and the tests showed that everything was normal.”The municipality said 36 emergency rescue vehicles such as cranes and excavators, 67 firefighting vehicles, 15 ambulances, and more than 700 firefighters, medical and other rescue workers were at the scene as the operation stretched into the night.Quanzhou is a port city on the Taiwan Strait in the province of Fujian with a population of more than 8 million.The official People’s Daily said the hotel had opened in June 2018 with 80 rooms.Beijing News’ video stream was viewed by more than 2 million Weibo users on Saturday evening, and the hotel’s collapse was the top trending topic on the Weibo site, China’s close equivalent to Twitter.Some users demanded a investigation into how the hotel could have collapsed.Anger has been building up against the authorities in China over their early handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 3,300 people globally, most of them in China.The Fujian provincial government said that as of Friday, the province had 296 cases of coronavirus and 10,819 people had been placed under observation after being classified as suspected close contacts.The official Xinhua News Agency said the committee responsible for working safety under the State Council, China’s cabinet, had sent an emergency working team to the site. 
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Philippine troops have killed at least 14 Muslim militants aligned with the Islamic State group in a weeklong offensive in a southern province that also left four soldiers dead, a regional military commander said Saturday.Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said an unspecified number of militants, including gunmen belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, were wounded in clashes in the towns of Ampatuan and Datu Hoffer Ampatuan in Maguindanao province.The bodies of five of the slain militants were recovered by government forces, he said, adding that 10 soldiers were wounded in the fighting.The Islamic State group claimed that militants killed 43 soldiers using explosives while repulsing the recent military assaults in two Maguindanao villages, but Sobejana said the claim was “untrue.”
Government forces launched airstrikes and artillery fire on an encampment of the militants in Salman village in Ampatuan on Monday after receiving intelligence that the gunmen were plotting attacks, the military said.Troops later assaulted the encampment and another group of armed militants in Datu Hoffer Ampatuan, seizing firearms, ammunition and homemade bombs, the military said.
The largest Muslim rebel group in the southern region, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed an autonomy deal with the government in 2014, ending decades of separatist insurrection.Its leader and many of its commanders have been appointed to govern a five-province autonomous region under a transitional setup, but smaller hardline armed groups, including some that have been linked to the Islamic State group, have continued to fight the government. 
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Some remote Aboriginal settlements in Australia are banning outsiders in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Visitors who’ve been in China, Iran, South Korea, Japan or Italy will not be allowed in for the next three months.Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt believes such peoples are vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus because of the prevalence of pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes and renal failure, as well as high rates of smoking, overcrowded housing and poor general hygiene.Wyatt said some settlements want to keep outsiders away.”What they want to do is restrict access of entry, which is showing that they are forward-thinking, they are understanding what the implications are and they are making a decision because the community are doing it with their medical staff and with their community-controlled health services,” Wyatt said.Indigenous leaders believe any outbreak of the coronavirus would be devastating for communities that already have complex health problems. The government says Aboriginal Australians are one of the groups most at risk from the disease. So far, there are no confirmed infections among Indigenous people in Australia.During a 2009 swine flu outbreak, Aboriginal Australians made up a fifth of all hospitalizations and 13% of deaths. They comprise about 3% of the national population, and suffer disproportionately high rates of poverty, ill health and imprisonment.Authorities in the Northern Territory, which has a large Aboriginal community, are to release a remote area health pandemic plan Monday.Australia has at least 65 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Two people have died. 
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Weeks after its scientists released the sequence of the coronavirus, China says the first vaccines could be in “emergency use” next month.A top Chinese health official said Friday the country was moving full steam ahead to develop vaccines for the coronavirus, which has infected more than 100,000 people and killed upwards of 3,000 worldwide.“According to our estimates, we are hopeful that in April some of the vaccines will enter clinical research or be of use in emergency situations,” said Zheng Zhongwei, director of the National Health Commission’s Science and Technology Development Center.Zheng said dozens of China’s vaccine research institutions are being involved, and the development of different types of vaccines also are moving forward.Developing vaccines that are safe and effective takes time, investment, and good science. For a coronavirus like the one that causes COVID-19, the process comes with even more challenges. The testing alone for its safety and efficacy will take 12 to 18 months or more, officials say.Under China’s law, vaccines developed for major public health emergencies can be deployed for urgent use under specified conditions, if the National Medical Products Administration considers that the benefits of the treatment outweigh the risks.Zheng did not elaborate on under what kind of condition the vaccine could be used on humans.China announced in late February that it could begin clinical trials as early as April.In the U.S., in a record-breaking pace, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna shipped its vaccine last month to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to begin human testing.Scientists say the world has a long way to go in the race to find a vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a recent White House briefing the whole process of approving an effective vaccine is going to take at least a year.VOA’s Steve Baragona contributed to this report. 
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China’s exports fell by double digits in January and February as anti-virus controls closed factories, while imports sank by a smaller margin.Exports tumbled 17.2% from a year earlier to $292.4 billion, a sharp reverse from December’s 7.8% rise, customs data showed Saturday. Imports declined 4% to $299.5 billion, down from the previous month’s 16.3% gain.Trade was poised for a boost after Beijing and Washington removed punitive tariffs on some of each other’s goods in a trade truce signed in January. But that was offset by Chinese anti-virus controls that shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy in late January.Exports to the United States plunged 27.7% in January and February to $43 billion, worsening from December’s 12.5% decline. Imports of American goods crept up 2.5% to $17.6 billion, but China still recorded a $25.4 billion trade surplus with the United States.China’s global trade balance fell to a $7.1 billion deficit for the first two months of the year.Factories reopen slowlyManufacturers that make the world’s smartphones, toys and other consumer goods are reopening but say the pace will be dictated by how quickly supply chains start functioning again. Forecasters say industries are unlikely to be back to normal production before at least April.Until the virus outbreak, Chinese trade had been unexpectedly resilient despite Beijing’s tariff war with President Donald Trump over its technology ambitions and trade surplus. Last year’s exports rose 0.5% over 2018.Beijing told exporters to pursue other markets in Asia, Europe and Africa after Trump slapped punitive duties on their goods starting in 2018. China retaliated by raising tariffs on American soybeans and other goods.Some of those penalties were rolled back after the two sides signed a “Phase 1” agreement in January. Washington canceled additional planned tariff hikes and Beijing promised to buy more American farm exports.Economists warn the truce fails to address contentious U.S.-Chinese disputes that might take years to resolve.
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After months of cooling tensions, Japan and South Korea may be on the verge of another row, this time, over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.South Korea sent out a foreboding omen Friday after Japan said it would quarantine travelers from South Korea or China. South Korea’s National Security Council called the decision “unreasonable, excessive and extremely regrettable,” adding it would consider reciprocal measures.South Korea now has the second-largest outbreak in the world, with at least 6,767 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 45 deaths as of mid-afternoon Saturday. Meanwhile, Japan has more than 1,000 cases between its mainland and the Princess Diamond cruise ship. The nations, however, have taken different approaches in handling their outbreaks — South Korea has tested its citizens for COVID-19 aggressively compared to Japan, using thousands of kits more per day.In Japan, chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga called the travel curbs decision “result of a comprehensive review of the information available about the situation in other countries and the effects of other measures.”Although several other nations have banned the entry of South Korean travelers, Japan’s move likely hit a nerve with Seoul because of already-existing, unresolved conflicts between the two countries.An empty departures are is pictured at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, March 4, 2020.A dispute broke out between the two countries last year after Tokyo restricted exports of three products used in South Korean electronics on national security grounds.  Many in South Korea saw the export restrictions as retaliation for a South Korean Supreme Court order that a Japanese company compensate living Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s World War II occupation of the Korean peninsula, and boycotted Japanese products.”I think we have to see this in context of very poor bilateral relations between the two countries,” said Peter Ward, a researcher on the North Korean economy. “The imposition of trade sanctions, the boycott in South Korea, the forced labor disputes … It has to be seen in that context.”Although the boycotts have died down, Japan’s decision to quarantine South Korean travelers may be provoking old strife.”Put it this way: If another country that was not Japan had outlined such measures, I’m not sure that South Korea would have been so quick to respond the way they have,” Ward said.”It is regrettable that a public health threat that knows no borders is complicated by nationalist politics,” said Leif Eric-Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.Ultimately, he said, “the need and opportunities for cooperation regarding COVID-19 should outweigh the points of friction.” 
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As cases of the new coronavirus grow in the U.S., President Trump has been criticized for what some view as inaccurate and misleading statements regarding the coronavirus threat. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks into why some say the president’s unique style of communication is not helpful during a public health crisis.
 
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The new coronavirus, which has killed nearly 3,400 people worldwide, hit a new milestone Friday with the number of confirmed cases topping 100,000.  As nations prepare for the worst, VOA correspondent Mariama Diablo reports on a new reality with many donning masks and choosing to stay home as markets tumble and large gatherings are canceled.
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In March 2012, a 25-year-old Russian computer whiz named Yevgeny Nikulin sat with several others in a conference room in a hotel in eastern Moscow. A video taken by a Ukrainian named Oleksandr Ieremenko showed them discussing plans for an Internet cafe business and other matters.In an earlier part of the video, Ieremenko, 19, drives to the hotel to meet the group, which he calls a “summit of bad [expletives].”That same month, according to U.S. prosecutors, Nikulin broke into a social media company engineer’s computer a half a world away, in California — and allegedly stole the usernames and passwords used by tens of millions of people to access their LinkedIn accounts. Some of that data was put up for sale on a notorious Russian hacker forum that June.These details and other evidence were contained in pretrial motions prosecutors filed this week ahead of the opening of Nikulin’s trial in U.S. federal court in San Francisco. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday.The case against Nikulin, who was arrested in 2016 in Prague and extradited to the United States in 2018, is the latest example of a Russian citizen facing prosecution in the United States for cybercrimes. It’s a trend that has infuriated the Russian Foreign Ministry, which complains that the United States is “hunting” Russians around the globe.But the pretrial motions add yet more evidence of the web of relationships among Russia’s cyber underworld, allegedly tying Nikulin, now 32, to people who have been charged with even bigger, more serious hacks. That includes a hacker who allegedly worked for Russian intelligence to steal hundreds of millions of Yahoo user credentials — possibly used in the 2016 hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee, according to cyberexperts.Nikulin, who was examined by court-ordered psychologists last year amid concerns about his mental health, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.Arkady Bukh, one of Nikulin’s lawyers, said prosecution lawyers appeared to be trying to pressure Nikulin to plead guilty ahead of the trial — particularly, he said, since the conviction rate for such cybercases is high.Nikulin, however, has refused his lawyer’s counsel to change his plea to guilty.’Zhenya’ from MoscowAccording to prosecutors’ evidence, the video showing Nikulin, Ieremenko and others was from a hard drive seized by Ukrainian authorities who raided Ieremenko’s home in Kyiv, and the homes of several other alleged Ukrainian hackers, in November 2012.An FBI affidavit said photographs found on the hard drive included photos that said “Zhenya from Moscow” — a diminutive form of the name Yevgeny.The U.S. Secret Service obtained the hard drive as part of an investigation into hacks of several business newswires, a scheme that involved selling unreleased corporate information to stock traders who then made trades based on the nonpublic information.Ieremenko, now 27, was implicated in that scheme, but he gained wider notoriety in 2019 when U.S. authorities indicted him and another Ukrainian in connection with a similar scam that traded on corporate earnings reports stolen from a database of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Ieremenko is believed to be in Russia.According to the trial motions, Nikulin worked closely with Ieremenko in 2012, sharing hacked passwords and coding tips, using Skype accounts. A Skype address they tied to Nikulin — dex.007 — was used to send Ieremenko a link containing the password to one of Nikulin’s accounts on a domain hosting site, along with stolen LinkedIn credentials.’Reporting on the spot’The video, one of eight copied from Ieremenko’s hard drive, was shot on March 18 or 19, 2012. In it, the person making the video narrates it, saying: “In short, we are reporting on the spot. Now, here at this Vega Izmailovo Hotel, there will be a f****** summit of bad motherf*****s,” according to the U.S. transcript submitted in the court record.Nikulin also worked closely with another Russian, Nikita Kislitsin, who was indicted in the United States in 2014 on conspiracy charges related to the hack of another, lesser-known social media company called Formspring. Kislitsin’s indictment, which was under seal since being filed, was unsealed earlier this week.U.S. prosecutors say that, three months after the Moscow meeting, Nikulin himself stole 30 million user credentials from  Formspring and utilized some of those credentials when he hacked into the LinkedIn engineer’s computer.According to the court documents, the FBI used “court-ordered electronic interceptions” — phone and email taps — to track Nikulin in 2012 and 2013.U.S. investigators discovered overlap with another Russian, Aleksei Belan, under investigation in connection with a separate hack: the theft of user credentials from the Internet giant Yahoo, beginning in 2013.FILE – A cyclist rides past a Yahoo sign at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., July 19, 2016. The Yahoo hack announced in December 2016 exposed personal details from all of the company’ user accounts.Yahoo eventually revealed all 3 billion of its users had had their credentials compromised in what is today considered one of the largest data breaches in the history of the internet.Prosecutors said the FBI, which had obtained a court-authorized warrant to search Belan’s e-mail and tap his phones, found that Belan, along with Kislitsin, purchased the Formspring passwords in July 2012.That same year, Belan was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for cyberthieves. The following year, he was arrested in Greece at the request of U.S. authorities. But he avoided being extradited and escaped back into Russia, according to U.S. and European authorities.In 2014, according to previous U.S. documents, Belan was recruited by Russia’s main intelligence and security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and its cyberunit, known as the Center for Information Security.Belan, according to the 2016 Yahoo hack indictment, was ordered by the FSB cyberunit to conduct the breach of Yahoo accounts.In all, U.S. officials charged four people with the Yahoo breach, including two FSB officers. Those officers themselves were later arrested by the FSB itself and charged with state treason, allegedly for passing classified intelligence to U.S. agencies.One, Sergei Mikhailov, pleaded not guilty to the Russian charges and was sentenced last year to 22 years in prison. The other, Dmitry Dokuchaev, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with investigators. He was handed a six-year sentence.In December 2016, in response to the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia had tried to meddle in the presidential election won by Donald Trump that year, the administration of outgoing President Barack Obama announced sweeping sanctions against Belan and another Russian, who also allegedly had ties to Russian intelligence, Yevgeny Bogachev.The interference, according to U.S. intelligence, included the hack of the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the theft of emails that were later leaked publicly during the election campaign. U.S. officials, and cyberanalysts, have said the FSB was among those responsible for the hack, and that the stolen Yahoo credentials may been used to trick victims into letting hackers steal their emails.Kislitsin connectionsA further illustration of the web of ties among Russia’s cyber underground comes in the case of Kislitsin, who attended the March 2012 meeting in Moscow with Nikulin and Ieremenko.Kislitsin, according the U.S. prosecutors, allegedly partnered with Belan to get the Formspring data from Nikulin in July 2012.The following year, in 2013, Kislitsin met with an official from the U.S. Justice Department to discuss “research into the [cyber]underground,” according to Group IB, a prominent Russian cybersecurity and research firm.Kislitsin was joined in the meeting with the Justice Department official by representatives from Group IB, according to a Group IB statement provided to RFE/RL.Group IB later hired Kislitsin, and he is currently listed as the “head of network security” for the company.Asked for comment about the newly unsealed charges, which include conspiracy and trafficking in stolen user names and passwords, against Kislitsin, Group IB said that they predated his employment.”The information that has become public contains only allegations, and no findings have been made that Nikita Kislitsin has engaged in any wrongdoing,” the company said in the statement to RFE/RL.The company also said that after the 2013 meeting with the Justice Department official, “neither Group-IB nor Nikita Kislitsin has been officially approached with any additional questions.”And there’s one other connection involving Kislitsin. He previously worked as editor in chief for a well-known Russian cybermagazine called Hacker, where the ex-FSB officer Dokuchaev worked for him, writing under his nickname, Forb.’I want to hack the prison’Nikulin was arrested in Prague in October 2016 after his entrance into the country a few days earlier triggered a notification among Czech law enforcement.He and his lawyers strenuously fought the U.S. request for his extradition. Ultimately, he was sent to the United States in March 2018, prompting an angry statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which called it “a conscious, politically motivated step by the Czech side aimed at undermining the constructive basis of bilateral cooperation.”While in U.S. custody, Nikulin was reported by prison authorities as behaving strangely, prompting a judge to order a psychological examination. He was later deemed competent to stand trial.”He is refusing to accept a guilty plea, and this is another example of his mental condition,” Bukh told RFE/RL.The evidence that will be introduced in the trial also included other less significant but revealing comments, including a transcript of a phone conversation Nikulin had with a woman named Anya in November 2018.In the conversation, Nikulin complained that he had not received food, books or magazines, as he requested. He also joked with Anya.”I want to hack the prison,” he is quoted as saying. “The rules here are stupid.”This story was first published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
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A third Turkish journalist has been arrested for reporting on the funeral of a Turkish intelligence officer purportedly killed in Libya, according to local news media reports.OdaTV editor Barış Pehlivan was arrested Friday as part of a state-led probe of OdaTV’s coverage of the officer’s quiet March 2 burial ceremony in the Manisa province of western Turkey.State prosecutors say Pehlivan, along with OdaTV news director Baris Terkoglu and reporter Hulya Kilinc — both of whom were detained March 4 — disclosed the agent’s identity in violation of national law.Facing up to nine years in prison, Terkoglu and Kilinc Thursday rejected the charges in statements before the court.Agent already identifiedKilinc said she published the officer’s first name and the initial of his last name only after an opposition lawmaker had already publicly identified the deceased agent.”Since I learned that citizens and government officials also attended the funeral, I did not see any harm in conveying it to the press,” Kilinc said, adding that images included in her news report were already publicly accessible on social media.OdaTV news director Terkoglu told the court that he respected the wishes of family members who did not want to comment on their loss, but that he saw no crime in publishing footage of the ceremony.”I don’t think me being a suspect here is related to this news [story] at all,” he said. “This news is an excuse made up to make me a defendant in these trials.”Terkoglu served 19 months in jail in 2011-12 on accusations of taking part in an alleged plot to topple the government. He was later released along with many others at the time and the case later fell apart.Pehlivan, who spoke with VOA’s Turkish Service Thursday, was defiant.“The identity of the official had already been revealed by opposition IYI Party Istanbul deputy Umit Ozdag at a press conference in parliament that was broadcast online,” Pehlivan told VOA. “Our curiosity and passion for journalism cannot be prevented by prisons, deaths and threats.”Pehlivan also said he had received text and phone messages of support from some government and ruling AKP officials shortly after his colleagues had been detained.It is not clear whether Pehlivan’s sudden arrest on Friday was a result of the comments he made to VOA.Site blockedTurkish Communications officials blocked OdaTV’s website Wednesday, leaving only a government disclaimer to greet readers: “After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the law nr.5651, administrative measures have been taken for this website according to decision nr. 490.05.01.2020-935064 dated 05/03/2020 of the Information and Communication Technologies.”The site was accessible for international visitors as of Friday. Asked whether Ankara’s response was too heavy-handed, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu criticized OdaTV in an interview with CNN Turk.”There is such a thing as state secrets, national security secrets,” he said.The Turkish Journalists’ Association (TGC), however, issued a statement countering that notion.“We find unacceptable that the public information channels are blocked by bans and notions such as ‘state secrets,’” they wrote. “TGC also called for the immediate release of all imprisoned journalists.”“The detentions of OdaTV journalists Barış Terkoglu and Hulya Kilinc are absurd, and they should be released immediately and all charges should be dropped,” said Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “Reporting on matters of public interest should not land journalists in jail, especially if that information is already in the public domain.”Turkey has sent dozens of military personnel for training purposes to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli as it heads off an assault by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, but denies they are engaged in active fighting.RSF ranks Turkey 157 out of 180 countries for press freedom, and the CPJ said at least 47 journalists were in Turkish jails as of December 2019.This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service. Translation by Mehtap Yilmaz. Pete Cobus contributed reporting from Washington.
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Meet Professor Sandrine Mubenga, whose near death in her native Congo led her to a career in electrical engineering. She also works to inspire girls to pursue science.  Reporter/Camera: Jeff Swicord, Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips
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VOA Connect Episode 112 – Women in science and some new technologies for a better life.  
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