NORWAY
Russia accused of hacking
Russia was behind a cyberattack launched against parliament in August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Soereide said on Tuesday, an accusation Moscow denied. The parliament on Sept. 1 said that it had sustained a cyberattack the previous week and that the e-mail accounts of several lawmakers and employees had been hacked. “Based on the information available to the government, it is our assessment that Russia stood behind this activity,” Soereide said in a statement. The Russian embassy in Oslo said that the accusations were not backed up with evidence and were unacceptable. “We regard this as a serious deliberate provocation, harmful for bilateral relations,” the embassy said. When authorities announced the incident last month, they did not say who they thought was behind the attack. “The fact that we go out with an attribution is a strong signal ... from Norwegian authorities,” Soereide told reporters. “We cannot accept that parliament is the subject of such attacks.”
KAZAKHSTAN
Three blast off to ISS
Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut yesterday blasted off on a high-speed journey to the International Space Station (ISS) in the first such launch aboard a Russian capsule since SpaceX’s game-changing debut manned flight from US soil. Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA’s Kathleen Rubins launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Their journey was the first manned flight to the ISS to last just over three hours before docking — a new fast-track profile that takes half the time of standard trips. Only an unmanned cargo ship had previously used the profile, which requires just two orbits of the Earth.
UNITED STATES
Pompeo defends detainees
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday defended the 12 Hong Kongers who were detained by China while allegedly trying to flee to Taiwan by boat in August, saying that they had “committed no crime.” “They simply believe that they are worthy of freedom and the unalienable rights due to every person,” Pompeo said in a speech from the Department of State delivered virtually at the John S. McCain Freedom Award Ceremony. “They aren’t alone in that belief. America stands with them.” The 12, some of whom are linked to protests and were facing charges in Hong Kong prior to their arrest, are being held in Shenzhen, China, where they await prosecution. Two are suspected of organizing an illegal border crossing, while the other 10 are suspected of entering Chinese waters illegally.
CANADA
Trudeau criticizes China
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said that China’s “coercive diplomacy,” repressive measures in Hong Kong and detention of Uighurs are counterproductive for itself and the rest of the world. Trudeau took aim at Beijing’s record as he marked the 50th anniversary of the nation’s diplomatic ties with China. “We will remain absolutely committed to working with our allies to ensure that China’s approach of coercive diplomacy, its arbitrary detention of two Canadian citizens alongside other citizens of other countries around the world is not viewed as a successful tactic by them,” he said at a news conference. He also mentioned Ottawa’s “concern for the protection of human rights and places like Hong Kong and ... with the Uighurs.” Former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor have been held in China for nearly two years and have been charged with spying.
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest. However, voters in what Transparency International deems the EU’s most corrupt country believe otherwise — and they might make Orban pay in a general election this Sunday that could spell an end to his 16-year rule. The wealth amassed by Orban’s inner circle is fueling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services. “The government’s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,” said Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst
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