JAPAN
JAL hit by cyberattack
Japan Airlines (JAL) said it was hit by a cyberattack yesterday, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights, but the carrier said it was able to stop the onslaught and restore its systems hours later. There was no impact on flight safety, it said. JAL said that the problem started yesterday morning when the company’s network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning. The airline said it was able to identify the cause as an attack intended to overwhelm the network with massive transmissions of data. Such attacks flood a system or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or crashes. The attack did not involve a virus or cause any customer data leaks, JAL said. It said that as of late morning, the cyberattack had delayed 24 domestic flights for more than 30 minutes. JAL’s ticket sales for domestic and international fights scheduled for departure yesterday were suspended temporarily, but resumed several hours later. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular news conference that the Ministry of Transportation told JAL to hasten efforts to restore the system and to accommodate affected passengers. Other Japanese airlines, including ANA Holdings, Skymark and Starflyer, were not affected. Television footage showed many passengers at Tokyo’s Haneda airport crowded into its terminals as the attack hit the year-end holiday travel season.
Photo: AFP
CAMBODIA
Opposition leader sentenced
A court yesterday sentenced the head of an opposition party to two years in jail for inciting social disorder, in the latest criminal case against government opponents. The court in Phnom Penh found Nation Power Party president Sun Chanthy guilty of the charge, which has been used repeatedly against critical voices in the nation. Rights groups have long accused the government, headed by Prime Minister Hun Manet, of using legal cases as a tactic to silence opposition voices and legitimate political dissent. As well as the prison term, the court also fined Sun Chanthy 4 million riel (US$997) and removed his right to vote or stand for election. The charges related to social media posts by Sun Chanthy, including a video clip in which he criticised the government during a meeting with supporters in Japan. Defense lawyer Choung Choungy said the ruling was an “injustice” to his client and they were considering whether to appeal. “It is very serious [punishment], as what Sun Chanthy said in Japan wasn’t a mistake, but constructive criticism for development,” he said.
UNITED STATES
Taxi hits six people
A taxicab on Wednesday hit six people in midtown Manhattan, police said, with three people — including a nine-year-old boy — transported to hospitals for their injuries. A New York Police Department spokesperson said that the taxi driver might have had a medical episode, but an investigation had yet to confirm that. Two people, including the boy, were taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center, and one person was taken to Bellevue Hospital, the spokesperson said. The other three people who were hit by the taxi refused medical attention. All were in stable condition. The taxi cab jumped the curb near Macy’s flagship store at Herald Square at about 4pm and hit the pedestrians on the sidewalk, police said, adding that the driver remained at the scene. Video footage at the scene showed a damaged yellow taxi on the sidewalk cordoned off by police tape. The taxi was towed away later in the evening.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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