A10 A4 Monday, June 26, 2017 • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Cyber attack hits e-mails of British Parliament
The World BusinessMirror
34 high-rise apartments in UK with unsafe cladding
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ONDON—The British Parliament was the target of a cyber attack that left many legislators unable to access their e-mails last Saturday, as remote access to accounts was disabled as a security measure. Legislators were made aware of the problem last Friday night, and Chris Rennard, a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, publicized the problem in a Twitter message last Saturday, saying those with “urgent messages” should text him. Last week there were reports in The Times of London that the passwords of British Cabinet ministers, ambassadors and senior police officers were being sold online after Russian-hacking groups gained access. According to The Times, the stolen data revealed the private login details of 1,000 British members of Parliament and parliamentary staff, 7,000 police employees and more than 1,000 Foreign Office officials. The National Cyber Security Center, which was set up to protect the country against cyber attacks, said that it would reissue guidance to government departments after being presented with the findings. The parliamentary authorities are also working with the center to protect the network and ascertain the scale of the damage, according to a spokesman for the House of Commons, who did not provide a name by British convention. In a statement, the spokesman said that “the Houses of Parliament have discovered unauthorized attempts to access parliamentary user accounts. We are continuing to investigate this incident and take further measures to secure the computer network, liaising with the National Cyber Security Center.” To protect member and staff accounts and “secure our network”, the statement added, “we have temporarily restricted remote access to the network. As a result, some members of Parliament and staff cannot access their e-mail accounts outside of Westminster.” New York Times News Service
Residents are evacuated from the Taplow residential tower block on the Chalcots Estate, in the borough of Camden, north London, on June 23. A local London council has decided to evacuate some 800 households in apartment buildings it owns because of safety concerns, following the devastating fire that killed 79 people in a west London high-rise. AP/Alastair Grant
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ONDON—Britain’s fire-safety crisis expanded substantially last Saturday, as authorities said 34 high-rise apartment blocks across the country had cladding that failed fire safety tests.
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Attention has focused on the 24-story tower's external cladding material, which has been blamed for the rapid spread of that blaze, but multiple other fire risks have now been identified in some housing blocks. The government said last Saturday that the cladding samples that failed fire-safety tests came from 34 apartment towers in cities, including London, Manchester, Plymouth and Portsmouth. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said further testing “is running around the clock”. So far, Camden Council has been the only local authority to have asked residents to leave as a precaution. It said about 650 apartments were evacuated, though initial reports put the figure at 800 apartments. The council said residents would be out of their homes for three to four weeks, while it completes firesafety upgrades. “I know some residents are angry and upset, but I want to be very clear that Camden Council acted to protect them,” Gould said in a statement.
“Grenfell changed everything, and when told our blocks were unsafe to remain in, we acted.” Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who has been criticized for her slow response to the Grenfell tragedy, said on Saturday that the government was supporting Camden officials to ensure residents have somewhere to stay while building work is done. In response, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said May needed to “get a grip” and lead a stronger response to what is now a “national threat.” Residents—including families with babies and elderly relatives— trooped out of the buildings late last Friday night with suitcases and plastic bags stuffed with clothes. Council workers guided dozens to a nearby gym, where they spent the night on inflatable mattresses. Others were being put up in hotels or other housing projects. Many residents complained about a lack of information and confusion. Officials first announced the evacu-
London officials scrambled to evacuate four public-housing towers after experts found them “not safe for people to sleep in overnight”. Hundreds of residents hastily packed their bags and sought emergency shelter, with many angry and confused about the chaotic situation. Some refused to leave their high-rise apartments. Scores of evacuees slept on inflatable beds in a gym, while officials sought better accommodations for them. Camden Council leader Georgia Gould said it decided to evacuate four blocks in north London’s Chalcots Estate late last Friday after fire inspectors uncovered problems with “gas insulation and door stops”, which, combined with the presence of flammable cladding encasing the buildings, meant residents had to leave immediately. The evacuation comes amid widening worries about the safety of high-rise apartment blocks across the country following the inferno that engulfed Grenfell Tower in west London on June 14, killing at least 79 people.
The estimated number of apartments that were evacuated
ation of one building, then expanded it to five before reducing it to four. Some residents said they learned about the evacuation from the television news hours before officials came knocking on doors. Renee Williams, 90, who has lived in Taplow Tower since 1968, told Britain’s Press Association: “No official came and told us what’s going on. I saw it on the TV, so I packed an overnight bag. “It’s unbelievable. I understand that it’s for our safety but they can’t just ask us to evacuate with such short notice. There’s no organization and it’s chaos,” she added. Carl McDowell, 31, said he took one look at the inflatable beds at the gym and went back to his Taplow apartment to sleep there overnight. Other residents were distraught that they were ordered to evacuate, but were told to leave their pets behind in buildings that could be dangerous. Fire-safety experts said the Grenfell Tower blaze, which police said was touched off by a fire at a refrigerator, was probably due to a string of failures, not just the cladding, which is widely used to provide insulation and enhance the appearance of buildings. Police said last Friday they are considering filing manslaughter charges in the Grenfell disaster and they were conducting a wideranging investigation that will look at everything that contributed to it. The Metropolitan Police said cladding attached to Grenfell during a recent renovation failed safety tests conducted by investigators. “We are looking at every criminal offense from manslaughter onwards,” Detective Supt. Fiona McCormack told reporters. “We are looking at all health and safety and fire safety offenses, and we are reviewing every company at the moment involved in the building and refurbishment of Grenfell Tower.” The government has ordered an immediate examination of the refrigerator model that started the blaze, the Hotpoint model FF175BP refrigerator-freezer. The government also urged building owners, public and private, to submit samples of their cladding. One hotel chain, Premier Inn, has calling in experts to check its buildings. Police said 79 people are either confirmed or presumed dead in the Grenfell blaze, although that number may change, and it will take weeks to find and identify remains. To encourage cooperation with authorities, May said the government won’t penalize any Grenfell fire survivors who were in the country illegally. AP
briefs more than 200,000 suspected cholera cases in yemen, u.n. says BERLIN—The UN health agency said there are now more than 200,000 suspected cases of cholera in an outbreak in war-torn Yemen, many of them children. UN Children’s Fund director Anthony Lake and World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan said in a statement last Saturday, “we are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world”, with an average of 5,000 new cases every day. The agencies said that more than 1,300 people have died—one quarter of them children—and the death toll is expected to rise. The UN said collapsing health, water and sanitation systems have cut off 14.5 million people from regular access to clean water and sanitation, increasing the ability of the disease to spread. In addition, an estimated 30,000 local health workers have not been paid for nearly 10 months. AP
overturned oil tanker explodes in pakistan, killing 129 BAWAHALPUR, Pakistan—An overturned oil tanker burst into flames in Pakistan last Sunday, killing 129 people who had rushed to the scene of the highway accident to gather leaking fuel, an official said. Some 140 people were injured, including 40 in critical condition, said Mohammad Baqar, an official with local rescue services, adding that the toll was expected to rise. Local news channels showed black smoke billowing skyward and horrific images of scores of burned bodies, as well as rescue officials speeding the injured to the hospital and army helicopters ferrying the wounded. The disaster came on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. While Saudi Arabia and most other Muslim countries celebrated the holiday last Sunday, Pakistanis will celebrate on Monday. AP
9 bodies found as landslide buries scores in china MAO COUNTY, China—Chinese crews recovered nine bodies and were still searching for 109 others last Sunday, a day after a massive landslide buried a picturesque mountain village in the southwestern province of Sichuan. More than 2,500 rescuers with detection devices and dogs were looking for signs of life amid the rubble of massive boulders that descended on Xinmo village in Mao county early last Saturday. The government lowered an earlier figure of 15 dead retrieved, which was initially reported in the state media. Three people—a couple and their month-old infant—are the only ones rescued from the site last Saturday. The adults were in stable conditions, while the baby was sent to an intensive care unit with pneumonia induced by mud inhalation. AP
5.6 earthquake injures 2, knocks off roof tiles in japan
TOKYO—A strong earthquake shook residents last Sunday in a mountainous region of central Japan, injuring at least two people and knocking roof tiles off homes. The magnitude 5.6 quake struck about 7 a.m. at a shallow depth of 7 kilometers in Nagano prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The epicenter was about 190 kilometers west of Tokyo. The US Geological Survey measured the magnitude at 5.2. Authorities said two people had minor injuries. Japan’s NHK television said an 83-year-old woman in Otaki village was struck on the head by a falling object in her house, and a 60-year-old woman in Kiso town was hit in the leg by a chest of drawers that fell over. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported multiple incidents of fallen roof tiles and broken glass. NHK showed a worker in Kiso picking up glass from a shattered show window at a Nissan car dealer. There was no danger of tsunami from the inland earthquake. AP
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CIA director: US plans to stop, ‘punish’ leakers
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ussia “meddled” in last year’s presidential election as part of a decades-long effort to “undermine American democracy”, said Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo, in an interview where he also said the Trump administration plans to stop leaks and “punish” leakers. “I can’t talk about the details of the intelligence, but we have, the intelligence community has said, that this election was meddled with by the Russians in a way that is frankly not particularly original,” Pompeo said, according to the transcript of an interview with MSNBC broadcast last Saturday morning. It was his first interview with a news network since he became CIA director in January. Before President Donald J. Trump took office, the outgoing director of the national intelligence released a report concluding that Russia attempted to influence last year’s presidential election under orders from President Vladimir Putin. The White House has downplayed Russia’s involvement, even as multiple investigations look into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to sway the election. As recently as last week, White House Spokesman Sean Spicer declined to say whether Trump believes Russia interfered. Trump, in a Twitter message last Saturday, questioned whether his predecessor, Barack Obama, failed to act against Russian meddling to protect his opponent in the November election, Hillary Clinton. “Obama Administration official said they ‘choked’ when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didn’t want to hurt Hillary?” he wrote.
‘Heightened emphasis’
Pompeo, 53, said it isn’t surprising that Russia would meddle in a US vote. “They’ve been doing this for an awfully long time. And we are decades into the Russians trying to undermine American democracy,” he said. “So in some ways, there’s no news, but it certainly puts a heightened emphasis on our ability to figure out how to stop them.” But the spy chief said he couldn’t confirm whether Putin personally directed the plan. Asked about the Middle East, Pompeo said Iran represents a “longer challenge” to the US than Sunni extremists, such as the Islamic State, which he said poses an “enormous risk” to America. “It remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” he added of Iran. “We find it with enormous influence, influence that far outstrips where it was six or seven years ago.”
Nuclear danger
Pompeo said North Korea is a “very real danger” that’s getting closer to threatening the US with nuclear weapons. “For 20 years, America has whistled past the graveyard, hoping on hope that North Korea would turn colors and become part of the Western civilization,” he said. “There’s no evidence that that’s going to take place, absent a very real, very concrete set of policies that put pressure on the North Koreans to denuclearize.” In March the web site WikiLeaks released thousands of documents it said contained secrets about how the CIA hacks into smartphones and other devices as part of the agency’s cyber-espionage efforts. Edward Snowden became a celebrity after leaking classified information from the National Security Agency about how the government monitors communications. “There is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be,” Pompeo said, adding that the trend seems to be accelerating. Bloomberg News