China-based hackers stole Indian national security information, 1,500 e-mails from the Dalai Lama's office and other sensitive documents

BEIJING China-based hackers stole Indian national security information, 1,500 e-mails from the Dalai Lama’s office and other sensitive documents, a new report said Tuesday.Researchers at the University of Toronto said they were able to observe the hacking and trace it to core servers located in China and to people based in the southwestern city of Chengdu. The researchers said they monitored the hacking for the past eight months.

The report said it has no evidence of involvement by the Chinese government, but it again put Beijing on the defensive. Separate reports earlier this year said security investigators had traced attacks on Google and other companies to China-based computers.”We have from time to time heard this kind of news. I don’t know the purpose of stirring up these issues,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular press conference in response to questions about the report.

“We are firmly opposed to various kinds of hacking activities through the Internet,” Jiang said. She said China will fight cybercrime according to law.She added the researchers have not formally contacted China.The report describes a hacking operation called the “Shadow network” that researchers were able to observe as it broke into computers and took information, including computers at Indian diplomatic offices in Kabul, Moscow and elsewhere.

The report said the researchers were able to recover Indian national security documents marked “secret” and “confidential,” including ones referring to security in India’s far northeast, which borders China. Others related to India’s relationships in the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

Researchers also recovered 1,500 e-mails sent from the Dalai Lama’s office between January and November 2009, the report said.A map in the report showed computers were compromised on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. One was a United Nations computer, at the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.”In addition we found personal banking information, scans of identification documents, job (and other) applications, legal documents and information about ongoing court cases,” the report said.

The identity and motivation of the hackers remain unknown, the report said.”We have no evidence in this report of the involvement of the People’s Republic of China,” it added. “But an important question to be entertained is whether the PRC will take action to shut the Shadow network down.”

There was no immediate comment Tuesday from the government in India, China’s massive neighbor to the south with which it has a growing military rivalry and lingering territorial disputes.Rob Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, said the Indian government was notified in February.”Their reaction was that they were very grateful. They were going to look into it further and they asked for continued dialogue and cooperation between us,” Deibert said in a telephone interview.

“A small portion of it contained very very sensitive information, some of it market secret, some of it marked confidential, some of marked restricted,” he said. “It was a major compromise across all aspects of the Indian national security state.”Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna is visiting China this week to take part in celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries.

The office of the Dalai Lama was aware of new hacking report.”These things are not new,” said Tenzin Takhlha, a spokesman for the office of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader accused by China of supporting independence for Tibet. He said the office is working closely with the researchers to secure its computer systems.

A Canadian research group involved in Tuesday’s report, the Information Warfare Monitor, released a similar report a year ago that said a cyberspy network, based mainly in China, hacked into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.Tibet’s government-in-exile quickly denounced that network at the time.(AP)

Toyota stopping production at its factories in France and Britain for a total of nine days

TOKYO  Toyota said Friday it is stopping production at its factories in France and Britain for a total of nine days amid falling sales that the company partly attributed to its recent recall woes.The world’s No. 1 automaker will suspend output at it plant in France for four days starting April 6, said spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi. Toyota will also stop production at its two factories in Britain for five working days sometime in May.”In France, we’re reviewing production because of the impact of recall problems,” Takeuchi said. The closures in Britain were part of previous plans, she said, but also due to sluggish car sales in Europe.

In early June, Toyota also plans to halt one of its two assembly lines at its Burnaston plant in Britain for another five working days, Takeuchi said.

The stoppages come after Toyota recalled 8.5 million vehicles globally over braking problems in its Prius hybrid, sticky gas pedals and pedals that can get stuck under floor mats.Toyota’s sales in the 27-nation European Union sank 20 percent in February from a year earlier – even though overall EU car sales rose 3 percent.In the U.S., the automaker’s sales fell 9 percent in February, prompting the company to launch a slew of incentives to lure back buyers.To beef up quality controls following the spate of safety problems, Toyota has formed a quality review committee that will meet regularly with President Akio Toyoda. The first meeting will take place Tuesday in Japan.(AP)

MOSCOW Tsunami waves of up to 0.8 meters hit Russia's east coast on Sunday following a major earthquake in Chile

MOSCOW Tsunami waves of up to 0.8 meters hit Russia’s east coast on Sunday following a major earthquake in Chile, but no damage was reported.A series of waves hit the Kamchatka Peninsula, northeast of Japan, peaking at around 80 cm (2 ft 7 in), an official at the Sakhalin Tsunami Center said. Waves were continuing to hit the nearby Kuril islands, she said.

The tsunami alert was lifted on the Kamchatka Peninsula, a spokeswoman for the region’s Emergencies Ministry said. “No damage has been reported,” she said.The volcanic Kamchatka peninsula is Russia’s easternmost region, nine time zones east of Moscow. Heavily militarized during the Soviet Union, it is now a center for mining of platinum, copper, gold and nickel.

Dozens of people were evacuated from coastal homes on the Kuril Islands, the state-run RIA news agency reported, quoting a local official. Most of the residents of the islands live on high land, the official said.The remote archipelago of sparsely inhabited islands stretches northeast from Japan to the Kamchatka peninsula. Japan claims four of the islands, and the territorial dispute has soured relations with Russia since the Second World War.

A number of boats left ports to take refuge from the waves in the open sea to the west of the islands, an official from the regional administration told RIA.Japan evacuated hundreds of thousands of people over fears that 3 meter waves could hit. The tsunami was racing across the Pacific from Chile where the 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday, killing more than 300 people.(Reuters)

The U.S. has contacted government officials in Chile and offered help after a powerful earthquake struck the country

WASHINGTON  The U.S. has contacted government officials in Chile and offered help after a powerful earthquake struck the country.State Department spokeswoman Megan Mattson says the U.S. sends its “heartfelt condolences and prayers for the residents of Chile.”Mattson says she has no immediate information about the welfare of Americans visiting or living in the country. She did say that all the 118 employees of the U.S. Embassy are accounted for.The State Department advises Americans seeking information on family and friends in Chile to contact the Bureau of Consular Affairs at 1-888-407-4747.(AP)

Ship protester hails breakthrough

Ship

Peter Maddison, who hit the headlines last year when he staged an occupation on board the City of Adelaide, said an engineering firm was willing to help. It plans to take the ship from Irvine, Ayrshire, to Sunderland, in the north east of England, where it was built. Mr Maddison wants to stop the Scottish Maritime Museum scientifically deconstructing the 145-year old vessel.He said: “Our company secretary and lawyer is right now attempting to get permission from Scottish Maritime and Ayrshire Metals to get a site visit on January 4 or 5″Clearly, if we are to recover the ship, we must have access to the site to allow our naval architect and engineers to plan the recovery. “I wish it could be straightforward, but it won’t be. Every inch of the way we have to contend with awkwardness and obstruction.” The vessel took people and wool between Australia and Britain on 28 round trips.

‘No viable option’

Mr Maddison, a Sunderland councillor, faces rival bids from Australia, where the vessel – later known as Carrick – is seen as an integral part of the country’s history. But he said: “We’ve got the city of Sunderland behind us. I’ve got two hotels in Irvine ready to take 30 volunteers from Sunderland. “The volunteers are highly skilled and highly motivated former shipyard workers ready to graft again and prepare the Adelaide for her return journey. “Half the bars and clubs in Sunderland are on stand-by ready to hold fundraising events to support our volunteers in Irvine.” Following recent discussions, Historic Scotland said: “Sadly, and despite the recent widespread publicity about her future, no viable option for her restoration has yet been presented.” Deconstruction is “the most appropriate conclusion”, a spokeswoman added.

anadian government approved for telecom Globalive Wireless Management Corp

telecom Globalive

The Canadian government said Friday that it has approved a request from Egyptian-backed telecom Globalive Wireless Management Corp. to launch its mobile phone service in Canada.

It will be the fourth major wireless company serving Canada, competing with Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said the federal cabinet has determined Globalive meets Canadian ownership requirements, reversing an earlier ruling by the country’s federal telecom regulator.

“Now we’re ready for action,” Globalive CEO and Chairman Anthony Lacavera told cheering supporters in Toronto. “We could be launching as early as next week.”

“The objective is to have a few–quite a few–WIND Mobiles under your Christmas tree,” Ken Campbell, CEO of WIND Mobile, the brand name Globalive will operate under across Canada.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission had turned down Globalive’s request in October because it is majority funded and controlled by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holding, the Middle East’s largest telecommunications operator by market capitalization.

Orascom, which is controlled by Egyptian telecommunications mogul Naguib Sawiris, holds 65 percent of parent company Globalive Holdings, while Canadian entrepreneur and Globalive chairman Anthony Lacavera owns the rest. Orascom also holds much of Globalive’s debt.

But Clement said 80 percent of Globalive’s voting shares are held by Canadians and the wireless company, which is based in Toronto, should be considered Canadian.

“We came to the conclusion the lender had influence over the company, which is perfectly acceptable under our legislation, it did not have control over the company,” Clement said. “This variance is effective immediately allowing Globalive to enter the market without delay.”

Globalive’s arrival is expected to put pressure on consumer prices across the industry, as it heralds the entry of more players into the market opened up through an auction of wireless spectrum in 2008. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s annual Communications Outlook study, published in August, found that Canada has the third-highest wireless rates among developed countries after the United States and Spain.

In that auction, Globalive paid 442 million Canadian dollars ($419 million) for airwaves over which to operate and has invested millions more in its network and employees.

Globalive has already hired 800 employees and approximately half have already finished their training and are now doing paid volunteer work at organizations such as food banks, boys and girls groups, literacy groups and the Salvation Army.

The telecom regulator reviewed Globalive’s corporate structure last spring and decided its operations would contravene the Telecommunications Act that stipulated companies be controlled by Canadian interests. That decision flew in the face of an earlier review by Industry Canada that gave the company a license in the interest of promoting competition.

The Canadian government, wanting to spark more competition in the telecommunications business, reviewed the earlier ruling with input from the industry.

And Clement said last week that the federal cabinet has the power to overrule the telecommunications regulator and that Globalive was entitled to launch its own protest.

Clement stressed that Friday’s announcement was not giving Globalive special treatment.

“Let me state for the record, government is not removing, reducing, bending or creating an exception to Canadian ownership and control requirements in the telecommunications and broadcast industries,” he said.

Rogers Communications, BCE and Telus, which together control 95 percent of the Canadian market, lobbied to halt Globalive’s advances, saying Globalive was breaking the Telecom Act because it was under foreign control.

“It’s disappointing, as we think Globalive quite clearly does not meet the requirements for Canadian control,” said Bell Canada spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis. “We’ll be taking a close look at the reasoning behind this decision.”

Michael Hennessy, senior vice president of Telus’s regulatory and government affairs, said the ruling “has established an enormous precedent going forward as to how people are supposed to interpret our Canadian ownership laws.”

“This could be enormous from airlines to banks to telecom to broadcasting,” he said.

But Rogers said competition is good for Canadian consumers.

“We’ve always thrived in a competitive environment and we’re ready to meet the competition head on,” said spokeswoman Odette Coleman.

Deloitte Canada analyst Duncan Stewart said the federal government wants more competition in the cell phone industry. Globalive is probably the new competitor that the established players fear the most, said Stewart.

Shares in the major telecoms dropped Friday in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Rogers shares fell 3.4 percent to 32.25 Canadian dollars, Bell Canada parent BCE’s stock was off 2.4 percent at 27.75 Canadian dollars and Telus stock slipped 1.7 percent to 33.10 Canadian dollars.

G.M. to Decide Saab’s Fate Next Week

DETROIT  General Motors said it could decide next week to close its Saab Automobile unit after the Swedish company that planned to buy the brand backed out.It was the third time in less than two months that a sale of a G.M. brand has been called off, reflecting the difficulty of selling underperforming divisions in the midst of a global sales slump.G.M. said on Tuesday that its board planned to determine next week what to do with Saab. Closing the brand, as G.M. initially planned to do if it could not find a buyer, is a strong possibility, two people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the board had not made its decision.

The other options for G.M. are to seek another buyer or keep Saab, though both those steps are considered less likely.

When Penske Automotive terminated its deal to buy Saturn in September, G.M. immediately announced that the brand and its dealerships would close.Koenigsegg, which agreed to buy Saab in June, issued a statement attributing its decision to G.M.’s moving too slowly.“The time factor has always been critical for our strategy to breathe new life into the company,” Koenigsegg said. “Unfortunately, delays in closing this acquisition have resulted in risks and uncertainties that prevent us from successfully implementing the new Saab business plan.”Officials at G.M, who were caught off-guard by the deal’s collapse, denied responsibility. “We negotiated in good faith and we met all our timing obligations under the agreement,” a G.M. spokeswoman, Renee Rashid-Merem, said.

“We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase,” G.M.’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, said in a statement.Three weeks ago, G.M. backed out of a deal to sell its European operations, Adam Opel, to a Canadian parts supplier and Russian bank.It has a tentative deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese industrial machinery manufacturer, but the Chinese government has not given its approval.Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Company spent nearly a year shopping around its Swedish brand, Volvo, before entering into exclusive talks with the Chinese carmaker Geely last month.

John Casesa, an auto analyst with the firm Casesa Shapiro Group, said the collapse of the Saab and Saturn deals was more a symptom of the state of the automobile industry than of any missteps by G.M.“Saab is a weak brand in a market where there are no buyers,” Mr. Casesa said. “Car companies are in no mood to buy anything and financial sponsors aren’t able to buy anything. Saab wouldn’t be an easy sale in a good market.”Saab, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Sweden in February, has been a perennial money-loser and is among G.M.’s smallest brands, with sales of 93,000 vehicles worldwide last year.

It is on pace to sell fewer than 10,000 vehicles in the United States this year.Closing Saab would cost G.M. considerably less than it is spending to shut down Saturn, analysts said, and failing to sell Saab is not expected to affect G.M.’s post-bankruptcy recovery.G.M. paid $600 million for half of Saab in 1990 and $125 million for the rest in 2000. Terms of the deal with Koenigsegg have not been revealed, but it was contingent on $600 million of financing from the European Investment Bank and Swedish government guarantees.Joran Hagglund, the Swedish secretary of state for industry, said on Tuesday that it was too early to know if it was the end of the line for Saab, but he said that there was no chance of the government stepping in.David Jolly contributed reporting from Paris.

Navy SEALs accused of punching accused Falluja plotter

Three U.S. Navy SEALs face criminal charges after the alleged mastermind of one of the most notorious crimes against Americans in Iraq accused them of punching him after his capture, the military said Wednesday.Ahmed Hashim Abed — thought to be behind the slayings and mutilation of four U.S. contractors in Falluja in 2004 and captured in summer — made the accusations against the three servicemen, said Lt. Col. Holly Silkman, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command.A civilian lawyer for one of three SEALs said his client and the other SEALs declined a nonjudicial resolution to the case, a step sometimes called a “captain’s mast.” The servicemen say they did not harm the detainee in any way and they want their names cleared in a court-martial so they can continue their careers in the Navy, said the attorney, Neil Puckett.

Because the charges against Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe and Petty Officer Julio Heurtas are the military equivalent of misdemeanors, they will go before a special court-martial, which is for less serious offenses than those heard in a general court-martial. If found guilty, they could be sentenced to a maximum of a year in a military prison, demotion to the lowest Navy rank, a cut in pay and a bad conduct discharge.But if found innocent of all charges, they would be able to continue their careers with no record of the case in their personnel files.The three SEALs are with their unit in Norfolk, Virginia. They will make an initial appearance before a military judge on December 7. The court-martial is scheduled to begin in January.

The attorney said he expects the SEALs will not waive their constitutional right to confront the accuser in court, which could cause a logistical challenge. Abed is believed to be in a U.S. military detention center overseas, and it is unclear if the military would want him brought to the United States for the court-martial.The four contractors, one of whom was a former Navy SEAL, were working for the Blackwater company when they were attacked in Falluja in 2004. After they were killed with hand grenades and rifles, their bodies were set on fire and dragged through the streets. The bodies of two of them were hung from a bridge in Falluja, an image that was broadcast around the world.Four days after the attack, the U.S. Marines launched a major offensive inside Falluja, in part to help find the killers.

Mobile apps help people track H1N1, prevent flu

Rumors of a disease outbreak a century ago probably would have left the general populace feeling frightened, wondering whether their town would be the next to be hit.Now the well but worried can download a flu-tracking application and find out where in their state an H1N1 outbreak has occurred and learn the best ways to avoid it. They also can learn when vaccines will be available nearby and get news on how some of the afflicted are doing.

Outbreaks Near Me, a new, free application developed by non-profit HealthMap, is among a slew of flu-themed applications available on the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch owners.A couple of dozen other flu-related apps have been created recently, including HMSMobile Swine Flu Center, by Harvard Medical School, which offers medical advice with animations. Others include flu games and jokes such as Swine Scan, which supposedly scans your body to detect infection.Outbreaks Near Me works like a GPS. It finds your location and tells you where H1N1 and other infectious outbreaks are occurring nearby with a display of pushpins on a map. Click on a pushpin and you can read news reports as well as personal accounts submitted by users. It also lets you set up an alert system, so if H1N1 arrives in your area, you’ll get a heads-up.

“Our app is all about giving people real-time alerts. We didn’t develop this to increase fear. It’s about helping people arm themselves,” says John Brownstein, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, who developed the app with colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab.H1N1, popularly known as swine flu, has infected an estimated 22 million Americans this year from April to October, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has reported that the outbreak is linked to almost 4,000 deaths, including 540 children.

Since Outbreaks Near Me launched Sept. 1, about 100,000 people have downloaded it, Brownstein says. Though the app also reports recent E. coli, malaria and other outbreaks, H1N1 has by far been the most-searched disease, he says.Brownstein says the app has received more than 2,000 submissions. “People take photos of themselves in bed sick, or e-mail in to say their school is closed, or that there’s a vaccine shortage in their area,” he says.Outbreaks Near Me co-developer Clark Freifeld, a graduate student in media art and sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says developers are analyzing submissions now and say the information appears to correlate with CDC data. It suggests the iPhone may be a sensitive tool for monitoring early outbreak trends, Freifeld says.

For big-picture influenza news, most people probably get information the traditional way, from CDC reports, says influenza expert William Schaffner, chair of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. Apps may be best when you want more focused information, he says. “Like what is happening in grandma’s town, where you’re going for Thanksgiving.”The CDC does not comment on products such as apps, spokeswoman Karen Hunter says. Hunter says the agency is in the prototype stage of several new flu apps for iPhone and the Google Android, and they’re already using mobile text messaging (to sign up, text HEALTH to 87000) and a mobile website (http://m.cdc.gov) to distribute flu updates to tens of thousands of subscribers.