Monthly Archives: April 2019

Bitcoin, fake identities, and a computer in Illinois: how Russia’s military intelligence hacked the US election

Donald Trump blamed Barack Obama for not responding aggressively enough to Russian hacking of Democrats in the 2016 US election. It came after Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating whether Mr Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia, charged 12 of Vladimir Putin’s military intelligence officers with computer crimes. Writing on Twitter the US president said: "The stories […]

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Woman killed as gunman barricades himself inside Los Angeles supermarket

Police arrest teenage suspect after stand-off Car crashed outside Trader Joe’s store Witnesses say suspect opened fire before running inside supermarket One woman killed inside store Los Angeles police arrested a suspect on Saturday evening after a gunman barricaded himself inside a supermarket, sending shoppers fleeing in terror and leaving one woman dead.  Armed officers in […]

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Greece wildfires a ‘Biblical disaster’: At least 74 killed near Athens as tourists forced to flee into sea

Raging wildfires have killed at least 74 people and injured scores more as flames swept through a small resort town near Athens. Emergency crews found one group of 26 victims, including families with children clasped in a last embrace as they tried to flee the flames. They were huddled together in a field just 30 metres from the sea […]

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Emmanuel Macron to fire Elysée security official filmed beating protester as ‘scandal of state’ grows

The French presidency is to fire a top security aide who beat a protester during a demonstration in Paris in May after saying “new facts” had emerged in a scandal that has deeply embarrassed Emmanuel Macron. A video released this week shows Alexandre Benalla, 26, dragging and hitting a demonstrator while wearing a police helmet […]

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Brazilian plastic surgeon ‘Dr Bumbum’ arrested over death of patient

A Brazilian celebrity buttock-enhancement surgeon known as Dr Bumbum was arrested on Thursday over the death of a patient in a botched operation after spending four days on the run. Police said on Twitter that the doctor, who performed the operation in his own apartment, was arrested in Rio. Denis Furtado, who calls himself Dr Bumbum on social media, […]

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Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $4.7bn to 22 women over talc products linked to ovarian cancer

US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay out $4.69 billion (£3.57 billion) in damages in a lawsuit representing 22 women and their families who alleged a talc sold by the company contained asbestos and caused them to suffer cancer. It is the latest twist in a matter that has seen several thousand lawsuits filed against […]

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Heartbreak and heroics in Greece as wildfire survivors search for loved ones in the scorched rubble

Families were desperately searching for their loved ones Wednesday night amid the chaos of wildfires in Greece which have left at least 81 dead and transformed one of the country’s most popular holiday resorts into an ashen waste land. Among the missing were 9-year-old twins Sophia and Vasiliki Philipopoulos, who disappeared along with their grandmother shortly after […]

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Israel evacuates 400-plus White Helmets to Jordan for resettlement in UK, Canada and Germany

Hundreds of White Helmet search and rescue volunteers and their families have been rescued from Syria via Israel in a secret overnight operation backed by the UK.  The group will be resettled in Canada and Germany, and the UK after diplomatic efforts to secure safe passage for the group, who were stranded in the volatile […]

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Deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says he will return to Belgium

Catalonia’s deposed president Carles Puigdemont, who has been in Germany for four months, said on Wednesday he will return to Belgium after a Spanish judge dropped a European arrest warrant for him. "This weekend I will return to Belgium," the separatist leader told a news conference in Berlin, adding his "political activity will be based […]

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Twitter users in Egypt with more than 5,000 followers will be classed as media entities amid crackdown on dissent

Twitter and Facebook users in Egypt with more than 5,000 followers will be monitored under the state’s media regulator as part new laws tightening free speech and cracking down on dissent. Egypt’s parliament passed a bill regulating the press that includes restrictions on social media, one of the few remaining forums for critcisim in the increasingly authoritarian […]

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