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H-1B visa process begins March 6 amid overhaul of lottery system (USCIS) said on Tuesday.
New York, Jan 31 (IANS)
The initial registration for the H-1B visa application for fiscal year 2025 will open from March 6 and run through March 22, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services
The announcement came as part of a final rule to strengthen the integrity of and reduce the potential for fraud in the registration process of the non-immigrant visa that allows US employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. Some of the steps taken by the federal agency include reducing the potential for gaming the registration system and
ensuring each beneficiary would have the same chance of being selected, regardless of the number of registrations submitted on their behalf. “The initial registration period for the FY 2025 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 6, 2024, and run through noon Eastern on March 22, 2024,” USCIS said in a news release. continued on pg. 2
Meta CEO Zuckerberg apologizes to families at social media hearing in US San Francisco, Feb 1 (IANS)
Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to families at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on kids’ online safety in the US. When Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) pressed Zuckerberg to apologise to families who attended the hearing,
calling attention to kids who were targeted by predators online, Zuckerberg offered his apology.
During the hearing, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel informed that 20 million teenagers use Snapchat in the US and that around 200,000 parents use its Family Center supervision controls.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” he told the families in attendance He also shared that approxiat the hearing late on mately 400,000 teen accounts Wednesday. have been linked to a parent’s account through Family “No one should go through Center, reports TechCrunch. the things that your families have suffered and this is why Snapchat’s Family Center we invest so much and we allows parents to see who are going to continue doing industry wide efforts to make their teens are friends with on sure no one has to go through the app and who they have the things your families have been communicating with. had to suffer,” the Meta CEO Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif) added. continued on pg. 2
US shuts down China-backed botnet targeting home office routers “In wiping out the KV Botnet Washington, Feb 1 (IANS)
The vast majority of routers that comprised the KV Botnet The US government has were Cisco and NetGear shut down a Chinese govrouters that were vulnerable ernment-backed botnet that hijacked “hundreds” of small because they had reached office and home office routers “end of life” status, no longer supported through security in the US. patches or other software The hackers, known to the pri- updates. vate sector as ‘Volt Typhoon’, The court-authorised operaused privately-owned small tion deleted the KV Botnet office/home office (SOHO) routers infected with the “KV malware from the routers and took additional steps to sever Botnet” malware to conceal their connection to the botnet, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) origin of further such as blocking communications with other devices used hacking activities directed against US and other foreign to control the botnet, the US Justice Department said in a victims. statement.
“The Justice Department has disrupted a PRC-backed hacking group that attempted to target America’s critical infrastructure utilising a botnet,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. www.mccq.org.au
Website: mccq.org.au Email: secretary@mccq.org.au
FEB 2024 - Vol 1, Issue 1
from hundreds of routers nationwide, the Department of Justice is using all its tools to disrupt national security threats – in real time,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. The operation did not impact the legitimate functions of, or collect content information from, hacked routers. Additionally, the court-authorised steps to disconnect the routers from the KV Botnet and prevent reinfection are temporary in nature. “A router’s owner can reverse these mitigation steps by restarting the router. However, a restart that is not accompanied by mitigation steps similar to those the court order authorised will make the router vulnerable to reinfection,” said the Justice Department.
Premier League: Spurs record epic turnaround 3-2 win over Brentford
London, Feb 1 (IANS)
Tottenham Hotspur completed Brentford pulled one back an epic second-half turnthrough Ivan Toney in the around to beat Brentford 3-2 67th minute but Spurs held and leapfrog Aston Villa into firm to pick up maximum fourth place in the Premier points and move into the top League table. four of the Premier League. Trailing 1-0 at the break to Neal Maupay’s goal, a blistering start to the second half saw Spurs hit three quickfire goals to overturn a half-time deficit and pave the way for an important victory.
Spurs move on to 43 points, level with Aston Villa but above them on goals scored. Brentford are 15th, with 22 points, four above the relegation zone.
Brentford went ahead at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after 12 minutes through Neal Maupay and Spurs trailed at the break after a frustrating first half, but three goals in nine minutes early in the second period – from Destiny Udogie, Brennan Johnson and Richarlison - changed the complexion of the game.
UNRWA totally ‘infiltrated’ by Hamas: Israel Tel Aviv, Feb 1 (IANS)
Israel has said that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Near East (UNRWA) is “totally infiltrated” by Hamas and wants it to be replaced by another aid agency.
Israeli allegations that 12 of its employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas onslaught against Israel.
According to a statement from Israel Government Press Office, Netanyahu told the UN ambassadors that the UNRWA has been in the service of Hamas, in its schools and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had con- many other things. veyed this to the Ambassadors Israel Prime Minister said: of the UN during a meeting “I say this with great regret with them on Wednesday at Jerusalem, a statement issued because we hoped that there would be an objective and by Israel Prime Minister’s constructive body to offer aid. Office said. We need such a body today in Israel had conveyed to the UN Gaza, but UNRWA is not that and funding countries that 12 body.” UNRWA staff members had A dossier prepared by Israel directly participated in the October 7 attack when Hamas revealed that during October 7 terrorists swarmed into Israel massacre, an UNRWA teacher was accused of being armed killing 1,200 people and with an anti-tank missile, holding 253 hostage. while another teacher had been accused of filming a Israel has in its report prehostage being taken captive sented before the UN stated on October 7. that of the 12 UNRWA staff continued on pg. 2 who had directly participated in the attack, seven were UNRWA teachers, two were educational consultants and others were administrative staff of the Agency. The UNRWA has also said that it was extremely important to conduct an independent investigation into
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