Mes: septiembre 2019

(AP) BEIRUT – Armed Shiite clansmen in Lebanon said Wednesday they had captured more than 20 Syrians and will hold them until one of their relatives seized by rebels inside Syria is freed. The tensions were a stark reminder of how easily Syria’s civil war could spill over to neighboring states. In Geneva, a U.N. investigation said Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces and pro-government militiamen were responsible for war crimes during a May bloodbath in the village of Houla that killed more than 100 civilians, nearly half of them children. It also said rebels were blamed for war crimes in at least three other killings. The report by the U.N. Human Rights Council said the scale of the Houla carnage indicated “involvement at the highest levels” of Syria’s military and government. It is first time the U.N. has described events in Syria’s civil war as war crimes and could be used in possible future prosecution against Assad or others. The council also said the conflict is moving in increasingly “brutal” directions on both sides. Hotel used by U.N. observers rocked by explosion in Damascus, Syria’s capital cityPentagon: Iran training militiamen for 창녕출장마사지 AssadU.S. lifts sanctions on ex-Syria PM More in After the Arab Spring As the fighting deepens, so do the fears of it triggering unrest in fragile Lebanon, which is deeply divided between supporters and opponents of President...

Updated 12:32 p.m. ET (CBS/AP) At least six security checkpoints in Egypt along the border with Israel were attacked Tuesday, just two days after 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed in similar attacks, according to Egyptian media. State-run media reports 20 people were killed after the Egyptian military launched an aerial assault on the attackers, according to Reuters. Egyptian security officials and residents say Egyptian military attack helicopters fired missiles on suspected Islamic militants. Security officials say it is the first time that the army has fired missiles in Sinai since Egypt’s 1973 war with Israel, which was an attempt to recapture the Sinai Peninsula. Security officials tell The Associated Press that they launched the missile attack just hours after three security checkpoints were attacked by suspected Islamic militants in North Sinai’s main city of El-Arish, some 31 miles from the Gaza-Israel border. Officials say six people were wounded in the attacks — among them a military officer, two soldiers, two policemen and a civilian whose condition is critical. In addition to the checkpoints, attackers also targeted a cement production company in Sinai, Al Jazeera reports. At least two gunmen suspected in that attack have allegedly been arrested. The rugged, rural desert region of Sinai that separates much of populated Egypt from Israel has seen a rise in lawlessness since former President Hosni Mubarak’s fall. Egyptian state media is reportedly...

(CBS/AP) LONDON – Computer security firm Kaspersky says it has discovered a new batch of malicious software linked to the infrastructure-wrecking Stuxnet virus. In a statement Thursday the Moscow-based company said it had found a virus dubbed “Gauss” which it said was aimed at stealing financial information from its mainly Middle Eastern victims. Kaspersky Lab ZAO said that the newly-discovered virus shared similarities in terms of structure and operation with Flame, a program aimed at vacuuming information from target computers. Flame in turn shared similarities with Stuxnet, a program experts believe was designed to sabotage Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Both pieces of malicious software have been attributed to the U.S. and Israeli governments. Kaspersky’s statement said that all three viruses likely came from the same “factory” or “factories.” In a “60 Minutes” broadcast in March, correspondent Steve Kroft reported that Stuxnet was first detected and isolated by a tiny company in Belarus after one of its clients in Iran complained about a software glitch in June of 2010. Within a month, a copy of the computer bug was being analyzed within a tight knit community of computer security experts, and it appeared to be the first salvo in a new era of warfare. In June, a new virus called “Flame”, was unleashed. It was a massive, data-slurping cyberweapon circulating in the Middle East, and computers in Iran appear to...