Karachi airport under terror siege, 5 dead

[email protected] (CD Network)
June 9, 2014

terror

Karachi, Jun 9: At least five persons, including four security personnel, were killed on Sunday night when heavily armed militants attacked the Jinnah International Airport's old terminal in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi.

Around five to eight men armed with explosives and ammunition dressed in airport security personnel uniforms entered the Fokker building at the old airport terminal, police sources said.

“Four personnel of the Airport Security Force (ASF) have been killed and one militant gunned down,” one police source told PTI.

Heavy contingents of paramilitary rangers and police have been called in and had surrounded the Fokker building where the attackers were holed up.

All flight operations at Jinnah Terminal have been suspended and all routes to the airport have been sealed.

“Heavy firing is going on near a building located just next to the Pakistan International Airlines head office,” one eye witness said.

The old airport area houses the PIA engineering and other departments and also offices of civil aviation and ASF.

Television footage showed a loud explosion inside the old airport terminal while heavy firing also continued to go on.

A source said the militants had also carried out hand grenade attack was on the Isphani Hanger.

The attackers are said to have forged fake ID cards of ASF and entered the area.

Staff is being rescued by the security personnel and moved to safer areas, reports said, adding that rescue teams are being allowed after being checked thoroughly.

The militants are said to have entered from the Fokker gate which is used by engineering staff to go to the runaway and hangers.

Scores of people have been injured in the attack.

Pakistan Army contingents were called in from the nearby Malir cantonment to tackle the situation as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed authorities to end the attack as soon as possible.

“Four airport security personnel bodies and a injured man have been brought to the Jinnah hospital,” Dr Seemi Jamali told reporters at a state-owned hospital.

TV news channels said upto 10 heavily armed men dressed in ASF uniforms forced their way into the old terminal building from different points and caught the security personnel on duty unaware.

“The four ASF men were killed by the attackers in heavy firing while one of the terrorists has also been killed in the crossfire going on,” one police official said.

Flights at the Jinnah international airports had been diverted to Nawabshah and Quettto.

“Security high alert has also been sounded off at the other airports of the country,” he said.

A senior police official said the number of the attackers was not confirmed as yet but some of them had managed to enter the runaway from the old terminal building and had fired and thrown explosives at the aircrafts parked there.

“It appears they want to damage the aircrafts on the runaway,” he said.

The old airport terminal is surrounded from one side by the Gulistan—e—Jauhar area and sources said some of the attackers had also entered the runaway directly from the Pehalwan Goth residential area by cutting the fences while others came in from the Fokker gate.

The attack is reminiscent of the deadly attack carried out by some 15 militants of the Tehreek—e—Taliban in May, 2011 on the Mehran naval airbase here in which the attackers killed some 18 personnel and damaged aircraft before being killed in a counter attack.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Washington, Apr 11: China is considered a developing country, make the United States too a developing one, US President Donald Trump said on Friday, alleging that Beijing has taken advantage of his country.

"China has been unbelievably taken advantage of us and other countries. You know, for instance, they are considered a developing nation. I said well then make us a developing nation too,” Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus.

The president was responding to a question on China.

“They get big advantages because they are a developing nation. India, a developing nation. The United States is a big developed nation. Well, we have plenty of development to do,” he said.

Reiterating that United States was taken advantage of by the World Trade Organization, Trump said the Chinese economy started booming after it joined WTO with the help of the US.

“If you look at the history of China, it was only since they went into the WTO that they became a rocket ship with their economy. They were flatlined for years and years,” he said.

“Frankly, for many, many decades. And it was only when they came into the WTO that they became a rocket ship because they took advantage of all -- I'm not even blaming them. I'm saying how stupid were the people that stood here and allowed it to happen,” he said.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click  here

The Trump Administration will now allow that to happen, he said.

“If they don't treat us fairly, will leave. But now we're starting to win cases,” he said.

Alleging that China has taken advantage of the United States for 30 years, he said, China has taken advantage of the US through WTO and using rules that are unfair to the United States.

"They should have never been allowed it, this should have never been allowed to happen", he added.

“When China joined and was allowed to join under those circumstances the WTO, that was a very bad day for the United States because they have rules and regulations that were far different and far easier than our rules and regulations,” he said.

“Plus. They took advantage of them down to the last. China took advantage of them like few people would even think to take advantage of them and again they are considered right a developing nation,” he added.

The United States, he rued, is not considered a developing nation.

“The were given advantages (for being a developing nation). For many years China has ripped off the United States. Then I came along and right now, as you know, China is paying 25 percent," said Trump, adding that the US is now gaining "billions and billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China”.

The US is not paying, he asserted.

“Not every country is China but China would devalue their currency and they would also pour out money and they essentially were paying most of those tariffs not us,” he said.

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News Network
May 19,2020

Washington, May 19: As the scientists across the world are struggling to develop a vaccine for combating coronavirus, US drugmaker Moderna announced on Monday (local time) that the phase I trial of its Covid-19 vaccine has shown positive early results.

The company is hopeful that it's vaccine could be available to the public as early as January next year. Several firms across the world are in the race to develop a vaccine for the deadly virus which has claimed over 3 lakh lives worldwide.

CNN citing Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer reported that "if future studies go well, the company's vaccine could be available to the public as early as January".

"This is absolutely good news and news that we think many have been waiting for for quite some time," Zaks was quoted as saying.

Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts announced that the vaccine developed neutralising antibodies to the virus at levels reaching or exceeding the levels seen in people who have naturally recovered from Covid-19, reported CNN.

These will be followed by phase 2 trials and phase 3 trials, which Moderna plans to start in July.

President Donald Trump had on Friday said that that the United States will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, under 'Operation Warp Speed', by the end of this year.

"I have very recently seen early data from a clinical trial with a coronavirus vaccine and this data made me feel even more confident that we'll be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020 and we will do the best we can," Trump had said at a press conference at the White House on Friday.

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Agencies
July 18,2020

Days after Twitter accounts of several billionaires were hacked to engineer a crypto scam, Twitter on Saturday said it is embarrassed, disappointed and, more than anything, sorry for what happened with some of its high-profile users as attackers successfully manipulated its employees and used their credentials to access internal systems, including getting through the two-factor protections.

In the first detailed summary of the "social engineering attack" via a crypto scam that hit at least 130 users this week, Twitter said for 45 of those accounts, the attackers were able to initiate a password reset, login to the account and send Tweets.

"We are continuing our forensic review of all of the accounts to confirm all actions that may have been taken. In addition, we believe they may have attempted to sell some of the usernames," the micro-blogging platform said in a statement.

For up to eight of the Twitter accounts involved, the attackers took the additional step of downloading the account's information via "Your Twitter Data" tool.

This is a tool that is meant to provide an account owner with a summary of their Twitter account details and activity.

"We are reaching out directly to any account owner where we know this to be true. None of the eight were verified accounts," said Twitter.

The company said the attackers were not able to view previous account passwords, as those are not stored in plain text or available through the tools used in the attack.

"Attackers were able to view personal information including email addresses and phone numbers, which are displayed to some users of our internal support tools," informed Twitter.

In cases where an account was taken over by the attacker, they may have been able to view additional information, Twitter added, saying its forensic investigation of these activities was still ongoing.

"We are actively working on communicating directly with the account-holders that were impacted".

The company said it will soon restore access for all account owners who may still be locked out as a result of the remediation efforts.

The New York Times reported on Friday that the Twitter crypto scam can be traced back to a group of hackers who congregate online at OGusers.com, a username-swapping community where people buy and sell coveted online handles.

The report said that the Twitter hack is not from Russian, Chinese or North Korean hackers but was done by a group of young people, "one of whom says he lives at home with his mother".

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