Country singer Angaleena Presley takes on Nashville in her new CD Wrangled.
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Month: May 2017
Youth Robotics Contest Promotes Innovation for Africa Economic Growth
Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots. Organizers of the annual robotics competition say the goal is to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent. Ricci Shryock reports for VOA from Senegal’s capital.
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Tattoos Talk and Play Music
A tattoo artist in California has created what many of us can’t imagine — a tattoo that also produces sound. Artist Nate Siggard inks audio soundwaves onto the skin that makes it possible to hear music or someone’s voice by using a smartphone app. VOA’s Deborah Block explains how he does it.
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Alcohol Increases, Exercise Decreases Breast Cancer Risk
One of the largest cancer prevention studies of its kind to date reached a sobering conclusion. Just one alcoholic drink per day can increase the risk of breast cancer in women. But researchers also concluded there are things women can do to decrease their risk of breast cancer.
The study by the American Institute for Cancer Research was a review of 119 prior studies involving 12 million women, 260,000 of who had developed breast cancer.
Lead author Anne McTiernan is a cancer prevention expert at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.
In 10 of the studies involving 4,000 women of childbearing age who developed breast cancer, McTiernan said investigators uncovered a connection between alcohol consumption and increased risk of breast cancer.
“We found that those women who drank an average of just 10 grams of alcohol a day had a five percent increased risk of breast cancer. So, five percent is a small amount but it was statistically significant so it gives us more confidence that it’s probably real,” said McTiernan. She noted, “Ten grams of alcohol is like a small glass of wine.”
In another subset of studies involving 35,000 post-menopausal women who developed breast cancer, McTiernan said alcohol was found to be a greater risk factor.
According to McTiernan, “We found that there was a nine percent increased risk of drinking that same amount of alcohol, drinking 10 grams per day of alcohol. Again, small glass of wine, eight ounce of beer, one ounce of hard liquor.”
McTiernan said the World Health Organization considers alcohol a carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent. It contains a metabolite called acetaldehyde that is damaging to DNA, according to McTiernan.
Lowering risk
On the positive side, investigators found that vigorous exercise, such running or bicycling fast, decreased the risk of breast cancer in young women by 17 percent and 10 percent in post-menopausal women.
Moderate activity, such as walking and gardening frequently, was found to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 13 percent in the most active women compared to the least active.
There was also evidence too that eating a non-starchy, plant-based diet is beneficial.
“That does not mean becoming a vegetarian,” said McTiernan. “It just means eating a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit. Making sure most of the vegetables are non-starchy, not potatoes. Eating dairy products because they are high in calcium and they have some benefit on their own.”
To the extent that being overweight has been found to increase an older woman’s breast cancer risk, McTiernan said eating a diet full of fruits and vegetables can help women keep their weight down.
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, an organization concerned with cancer prevention, one in three breast cancer cases in the United States could be prevented if women did not drink alcohol, stayed physically active and maintained a healthy weight.
McTiernan said the evidence of “this comprehensive and up-to-date report … is clear: Having a physically active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight throughout life and limiting alcohol, these are all steps women can take to lower their risk” of breast cancer.
The American Institute for Cancer Research is part of the World Cancer Research Fund, which collects and analyzes data from around the world on cancer prevention, drawing conclusions on how attention to weight, diet and exercise can reduce the risk of developing cancer.
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Proposed Trump Budget: More Military; Less for Social Programs
U.S. President Donald Trump is proposing major changes in the way Washington’s $4.1 trillion budget is spent, with more money for the military, border security, and veterans. The just-published budget for next year also slashes money for programs that benefit the poor.
Trump’s top budget official Mick Mulvaney says for the first time the budget looks at spending from the point of view of the taxpayers, rather than the people who get government help.
The director of the Office of Management and Budget says the budget translates Trump’s campaign promises and priorities into practical plans. Mulvaney says the approach will balance the budget in 10 years, and boost economic growth to three percent.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and World Bank Economist Larry Summers, calls the budget’s economic assumptions “ludicrously optimistic.” In an opinion article in the Washington Post he says the impact on low income Americans will be “dire.”
A president’s budget has to be approved by Congress, so the final form may be quite different from what the chief executive submits. Democrats oppose many of Trump’s plans, and the president’s Republican allies in Congress are divided on some budget issues.
Cuts in social programs
The Trump budget includes $3.6 trillion in cuts over 10 years, with some of the largest reductions in programs that help the poor pay for health care and buy food. A nutrition program known as “food stamps” currently serves more than 40 million people.
The budget proposal also follows Trump’s campaign promises to not to cut Social Security, a government-run old age pension program, or Medicare, which helps the elderly pay for doctors, hospitals and medicine.
Critics of Mr. Trump’s budget, including a group called “Campaign to Fix the Debt,” says these popular and expensive programs make up just more than half of government spending during the next 10 years. They say it is difficult to balance the budget without trimming spending on Social Security and Medicare.
Mulvaney explained the cuts in social programs as a desire to get people who are relying on federal programs when they should not be to go back to work.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has said the Trump plan “guts investment in jobs and hollows out our economy,” and instead should be focused on investments in jobs, education, clean energy and medical research.
Man Dies in California After Being Sickened in Apparent Botulism Outbreak
A botulism outbreak linked to contaminated nacho-cheese dip sold at a Northern California gas station has killed one man and left at least nine other people hospitalized, health officials said.
The San Francisco County coroner’s office identified the dead man as Martin Galindo-Larios Jr., 37.
On Monday, Matt Conens, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, declined to release further information on the death, the condition of the other victims, or the status and extent of the investigation into the weeks-old outbreak.
Family members of Galindo-Larios did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. An online fundraising page said the man had been married and the father of two small children.
Tests have confirmed the botulism toxin was present in nacho-cheese dip sold at a gas station in the Sacramento suburb of Walnut Grove, the state health agency said Monday in a statement.
The agency said last week the container and cheese dip were removed May 5, and that authorities believe the contamination posed no further risk to the public.
Wisconsin-based food distributor Gehl Foods said in a statement that it had been notified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that the company’s nacho cheese was among the products that inspectors seized at the gas station.
“We immediately retested samples from the relevant lot of cheese, and it remains clear of any contamination,” the company said. The manufacturer said an independent lab also found no sign of the toxin in the samples tested there.
There is no recall of the nacho cheese product, the company said.
Botulism, a comparatively rare kind of food poisoning, can lead to paralysis, breathing difficulty and sometimes death. Survivors often are forced to spend weeks or months on ventilators to help them breathe.
A major outbreak of food-borne botulism stemmed from a church potluck in Ohio in 2015, when at least 29 people fell ill. Authorities blamed potato salad made from potatoes that had been canned improperly at home.
After Legal Battle, Apollo 11 Moon-rock Bag Up for Auction
A piece of space memorabilia once bought for less than $1,000 is expected to fetch between $2 million and $4 million at an upcoming auction.
The moon-rock bag, which also contains moon dust, is from the first manned mission to the moon, Apollo 11, and could have belonged to the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Sotheby’s also touts the bag as “the only such artifact in private hands.”
Sotheby’s will auction the bag in New York City on July 20, the 48th anniversary of Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind.”
“This seemingly modest bag … played a crucial role in the most important scientific task of the Apollo 11 mission — to bring back the first sample of lunar material ever collected. To be able to see such an object in person is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Cassandra Hatton, vice president and senior specialist in charge of the space exploration sale at Sotheby’s.
“It is one thing to read about going to the moon; it is quite another to hold in one’s hands an object that was actually there and still carries traces of that faraway place,” Hatton added.
The bag was involved in a lot of drama before ending up at Sotheby’s.
It’s unclear how NASA lost the bag, but it eventually ended up in a private museum called the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. The owner of the museum was later convicted of stealing and selling space memorabilia.
In 2015, the U.S. Marshals Service mistakenly put the bag up for bidding, but it took three auctions to finally sell for just $995.
The highest bidder, Nancy Lee Carlson of Illinois, decided to send the bag back to NASA to test its authenticity.
“Scientific tests revealed the dust in the bag to be moon dust, specifically from the Apollo 11 landing site and a part number printed inside of the bag matched up to that of the ‘Contingency Lunar Sample Return Decontamination Bag’ listed in the Apollo 11 stowage list,” Sotheby’s stated.
NASA did not have any records of having released the bag and decided not to return the bag to Carlson. It did offer to reimburse her the $995.
Carlson sued, and in December of 2016, judges ordered the bag returned to her. She took possession on Feb. 27 and consigned the bag for auction at Sotheby’s.
While the bag appears to be a rare case of Apollo memorabilia in private hands, there are other souvenirs from the missions, including patches and medals, most of which were carried by astronauts specifically as souvenirs.
According to Space.com, the highest price paid for an Apollo souvenir was $1.625 million for a Bulova watch worn on the moon in 1971 by Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott.
Sotheby’s said Carlson will give some of the proceeds from the moon-rock bag auction to various charities.
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Google Aims to Connect Online Ads to Real-World Sales
Google already monitors your online shopping – but now it’s also keeping an eye on what you’re buying in real-world stores as part of its latest effort to sell more digital advertising.
The offline tracking scans most credit and debit card transactions to help Google automatically inform merchants when their digital ads translate into sales at a brick-and-mortar store.
Google believes the data will show a cause-and-effect relationship between online ads and offline sales. If it works, that could help persuade merchants to boost their digital marketing budgets.
Google windfall
The Mountain View, California, company already runs the world’s biggest online ad network, one that raked in $79 billion in revenue last year. That puts it in the best position to capture any additional marketing dollars spent on computers and mobile devices.
Google plans to unveil the store-sales measurement tool Tuesday in San Francisco at an annual conference it hosts for its advertisers.
The gathering gives Google a prime opportunity to woo advertisers – one that it surely welcomes, given that it’s still trying to overcome a marketing boycott of its YouTube video site . The boycott began two months ago over concerns that Google hadn’t prevented major brand advertising from appearing alongside extremist video clips promoting hate and violence.
Google is also introducing several other features designed to help merchants drive more traffic to their physical stores and to gain a better understanding on how digital ads appearing across a variety of devices are affecting their sales.
Smarter ad tracking
Most of the new analytics twists draw upon Google’s inroads in “machine learning” – a way of “training” computers to behave more like humans – to interpret the data. Google’s search engine and Chrome web browser are a rich source of data about people’s interests and online activities that it can feed into machine-learning systems.
In the case of the store sales measure tool, Google’s computers are connecting the dots between what people look at after clicking on an online ad and then what they purchase with their credit and debit cards.
For instance, if someone searching for a pair of running shoes online clicked on an ad from a sporting goods store but didn’t buy anything, an advertiser might initially conclude that the ad was a waste of money. But Google says its new tool will now be able to tell if the same person bought the shoes a few days later at one of the advertiser’s brick-and-mortar stores.
Digital dossiers
Google says it has access to roughly 70 percent of U.S. credit and debit card transactions through partnerships with other companies that track that data. That means Google still won’t be able to document every purchase made using plastic – and it still has no way of knowing when people buy something with cash.
The digital dossiers that Google has compiled on the more than one billion people who use its search engine and other services, including Gmail, YouTube and Android, worry privacy watchdogs. Google gives its users the option to limit the company’s tracking and control what types of ads they are shown.
Google says its computers can collect identifying data triggered by online clicks and match it with other identifying information compiled by merchants and the issuers of credit and debit cards to figure out when a digital ad contributes to an offline purchase.
Shoppers remain anonymous, meaning they aren’t identified by their names, according to Google. And the company says it doesn’t share any of its anonymized information with its advertisers; instead, it targets ads at individuals who fit demographic profiles sought by advertisers.
Hopes Growing China May Ease Informal South Korea Sanctions
South Korea’s recent election of liberal politician Moon Jae-in as the country’s new president has triggered a shift in China’s approach to relations with Seoul.
After months of harsh criticism of South Korea’s decision to deploy a U.S.-made missile defense system and the enactment of harsh economic sanctions, Beijing appears to be changing its tact.
Its opposition to South Korea’s deployment of the advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system has not gone away, but is becoming less shrill.
And some see signs that China is already beginning to loosen its ban on the import of South Korean cultural products such as television shows and entertainment performances, as well as group travel by Chinese tourists to the country.
The shift started with signals from the top late last week.
On Friday, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with an envoy of South Korean President Moon, he said Beijing was willing to work together with Seoul to “properly handle disputes” and “put China-South Korea relations back onto a normal track.”
Over the past few days, reports in the Chinese state media have noted signals that the ice-breaking may have already begun. Two South Korean musicals already have performance dates in Beijing and Shanghai. “Bballae,” which means laundry in Korean, will begin in late June. Performances of another musical, “My Bucket List,” will begin in Beijing and Shanghai in August, reports said.
According to a report in the National Business Daily, which was also carried in the Communist Party-mouthpiece People’s Daily, 4,000 Chinese employees of an unnamed medical equipment company are reaching out to travel agents in Seoul to book a group trip to South Korea.
According to the report, the trip is expected to “thaw” the frozen-out tourism industry. Alitrip is also reporting a rise in the number of bookings to South Korean amusement parks.
Nonetheless, the tourism sanctions have hit South Korea hard, with the number of tourists visiting China’s northeastern neighbor dropping sharply in recent months.
Chinese travel agencies are still barred from booking group tours to South Korea. Advertisements for individual travel packages are also absent from most websites. Those websites that do have discount tours (such as CTrip.com) are not prominently placed.
“China will take some different actions regarding Korean entertainment or access to the Korean market and tourism, but actually that will come after President Moon and Xi Jinping meet,” said Lee Ki-beom, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
President Moon will be traveling to Washington next month to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and then is likely to meet with Xi around July. In the run-up to that meeting, China is likely to try to sweeten the relationship with continued moves, but some are skeptical the ban on group tours will be completely lifted.
Lee said since Moon is leading a minority government, he needs the support of South Korea’s legislature, the National Assembly, for major issues like approving a new law on the THAAD missile system. This would provide Moon an opportunity to soften South Korea’s diplomatic stance towards China, but the National Assembly is unlikely to accept Beijing’s demand to dismantle it.
American Pop Singer Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande is an American pop singer, dancer and actress. Grande was born in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1993 and began performing onstage when she was a child.
A role in a Broadway play at age 15, followed by some small TV roles, helped her land a role on TV’s “Victorious,” which was set in a performing arts high school. Grande was cast as a goofy aspiring singer-actress named Cat Valentine.
Her pop music career was set off by “Victorious,” and she was signed to the Universal Republic Record label. In 2012, her first single “Put Your Hearts Up” gained great attention, debuting at number 25 on the pop charts.
Her debut album, Yours Truly, was released in August 2013. Grande’s 2014 release, “My Everything,” sold 169,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 1.
In 2015, Grande released Christmas & Chill, a holiday album, and the single “Focus.” In February 2016, she released her third album Dangerous Woman, and the title track debuted at number 10 on the Hot 100 that March.
With it, Grande became the the first person in the history of that chart to have the lead single from each of her first three albums debut in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Grande’s accolades include three American Music Awards, the Music Business Association’s Breakthrough Artist of the Year, an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards and four Grammy Award nominations.
In 2016, Time magazine named Grande one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
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Scandal-plagued Fox News Hit with 3 More Lawsuits
New sexual harassment and racial discrimination lawsuits are rocking the already scandal riddled Fox News Channel.
Three new lawsuits were filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Two allege racial harassment at Fox News, while a third alleges sexual harassment at Fox News Radio.
The cases increase to 23 the number of past or present Fox employees represented by attorney Doug Wigdor, the majority having cases alleging racial hostility by a since-fired financial executive. Fox said Monday that the lawsuits have no legal basis.
Kathleen Lee, a Fox News Radio employee of more than 10 years, alleges that radio anchor Ron Flatter subjected her to “unrelenting sexual harassment” after the network hired him in 2013.
A former Fox employee, Adasa Blanco, said she alerted Fox executives about racially hostile behavior on the part of former Fox controller Judith Slater more than eight years before the executive was let go. Slater has denied charges of racially hostile conduct. Blanco, who is Hispanic, said that Slater made fun of her accent.
In the lawsuit, Wigdor said Fox “knowingly harbored and protected” a racist employee for more than eight years and misrepresented to the public that it fired Slater quickly upon learning of her behavior.
Naima Farrow, another former Fox employee who worked for Slater, said she was fired without warning or explanation in 2015, less than three days after telling superiors she was pregnant. Farrow, who is black, said Slater mockingly referred to her as “girlfriend.”
Fox News said in a statement that it is committed to a diverse workplace free from discrimination, and takes any complaint seriously. In these cases, Fox “took prompt, effective and, when necessary, strong remedial action,” the network said. “We believe these latest claims are without legal basis and look forward to proving that the company at all times has acted appropriately, and lawfully, in connection with these matters.”
The new legal claims come as Fox News is battling a series of lawsuits that led to the resignations of former chief executive Roger Ailes, who died last week, star anchor Bill O’Reilly and network co-president Bill Shine.
Wigdor said he also is representing an unidentified black information technology employee who was subjected to racially insensitive remarks by Bob Beckel, an on-air host who was fired last week, days after the worker complained.
Gambia’s Exiled President Accused of Massive Public Theft
Gambia’s government used a court order Monday to seize assets belonging to exiled former President Yahya Jammeh.
They include nearly 90 bank accounts and 14 companies linked to Jammeh.
Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou says Jammeh stole $50 million in public funds before fleeing Gambia for Equatorial Guinea in January.
Jammeh and his associates have been unavailable for comment since he left the country.
Jammeh ruled Gambia for 22 years before losing December’s presidential election to Adama Barrow. He contested the results for several weeks before giving up and fleeing the country.
His long-ruling political party lost April’s parliamentary elections to the opposition United Democratic Party.
Along with allegations of looting public funds, investigators in Gambia are also probing a number of disappearances under the Jammeh government.
Robotics Contest for Youth Promotes Innovation for Economic Growth in Africa
Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots. Organizers of the annual robotics competition say the goal is to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent.
The hum of tiny machines fills a fenced-off obstacle course, as small robots compete to gather mock natural resources such as diamonds and gold.
The robots were built by teams of young people gathered in Dakar for the annual Pan-African Robotics Competition.
‘Made in Africa’
The event’s founder, Sidy Ndao, says this year’s theme is “Made in Africa,” and focuses on how robotics developed in Africa could help local economies.
“We have noticed that most countries that have developed in the likes of the United States have based their development on manufacturing and industrialization, and African countries on the other hand are left behind in this race,” Ndao said. “So we thought it would be a good idea to inspire the kids to tell them about the importance of manufacturing, the importance of industry, and the importance of creation and product development.”
During the week, the students were split into three groups.
The first group worked on robots that could automate warehouses. The second created machines that could mine natural resources, and the third group was tasked to come up with a new African product and describe how to build it.
Building a robot a team effort
Seventeen-year-old Rokyaha Cisse from Senegal helped her team develop a robot that sends sound waves into the ground to detect the presence of metals and then start digging.
Cisse says it is very interesting and fun, and they are learning new things, as well as having their first opportunity to handle robots.
As part of a younger team, Aboubacar Savage from Gambia said their robot communicates with computers.
“It is a robot that whatever you draw into the computer, it translates it and draws it in real life,” Savage said. “It is kind of hard. And there is so much competition, but we are trying. I have learned how to assemble a robot. I have learned how to program into a computer.”
The event’s founder, Ndao, is originally from Senegal, but is now a professor at the University of Nebraska’s Lincoln College of Engineering in the United States.
“I have realized how much the kids love robotics and how much they love science,” Ndao said “You can tell because when it is time for lunch, we have to convince them to actually leave, and then [when] it is time to go home, nobody wants to leave.”
Outsourced jobs cost Africa billions
A winning team was named in each category, but Ndao hopes the real winners will be science and technology in Africa.
The organizers of the Next Einstein Forum, which held its annual global gathering last year in Senegal, said Africa is currently missing out on $4 billion a year by having to outsource jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to expatriates.
Ndao said African governments and private investors need to urgently invest more on education in those fields, in particular at the university level.
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Robotics Contest for Youth Promotes Innovation in Africa
Several hundred middle school and high school students from Senegal and surrounding countries spent last week in Dakar building robots, and organizers hoped to encourage African governments and private donors to invest more in science and math education throughout the continent.
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Hackers Hit Russian Bank Customers, Planned International Cyber Raids
Russian cybercriminals used malware planted on Android mobile devices to steal from domestic bank customers and were planning to target European lenders before their arrest, investigators and sources with knowledge of the case told Reuters.
Their campaign raised a relatively small sum by cybercrime standards — more than 50 million roubles ($892,000) — but they had also obtained more sophisticated malicious software for a modest monthly fee to go after the clients of banks in France and possibly a range of other western nations.
Russia’s relationship to cybercrime is under intense scrutiny after U.S. intelligence officials alleged that Russian hackers had tried to help Republican Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency by hacking Democratic Party servers.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied the allegation.
The gang members tricked the Russian banks’ customers into downloading malware via fake mobile banking applications, as well as via pornography and e-commerce programs, according to a report compiled by cybersecurity firm Group-IB, which investigated the attack with the Russian Interior Ministry.
The criminals — 16 suspects were arrested by Russian law enforcement authorities in November last year — infected more than a million smartphones in Russia, on average compromising 3,500 devices a day, Group-IB said.
The hackers targeted customers of state lender Sberbank, and also stole money from accounts at Alfa Bank and online payments company Qiwi, exploiting weaknesses in the companies’ SMS text message transfer services, said two people with direct knowledge of the case.
Although operating only in Russia before their arrest, they had developed plans to target large European banks including French lenders Credit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Societe General, Group-IB said.
A BNP Paribas spokeswoman said the bank could not confirm this information, but added that it “has a significant set of measures in place aimed at fighting cyberattacks on a daily basis.” Societe General and Credit Agricole declined comment.
The gang, which was called “Cron” after the malware it used, did not steal any funds from customers of the three French banks. However, it exploited the bank service in Russia that allows users to transfer small sums to other accounts by sending an SMS message.
Having infected the users’ phones, the gang sent SMS messages from those devices instructing the banks to transfer money to the hackers’ own accounts.
The findings illustrate the dangers of using SMS messages for mobile banking, a method favored in emerging countries with less advanced internet infrastructure, said Lukas Stefanko, a malware researcher at cybersecurity firm ESET in Slovakia.
“It’s becoming popular among developing nations or in the countryside where access to conventional banking is difficult for people,” he said. “For them it is quick, easy and they don’t need to visit a bank. … But security always has to outweigh consumer convenience.”
Cybercriminals
The Russian Interior Ministry said a number of people had been arrested, including what it described as the gang leader.
This was a 30-year-old man living in Ivanovo, an industrial city 300 km (185 miles) northeast of Moscow, from where he had commanded a team of 20 people across six different regions.
Four people remain in detention while the others are under house arrest, the ministry said in a statement.
“In the course of 20 searches across six regions, police seized computers, hundreds of bank cards and SIM cards registered under fake names,” it said.
Group-IB said the existence of the Cron malware was first detected in mid-2015, and by the time of the arrests the hackers had been using it for under a year.
The core members of the group were detained on November 22 last year in Ivanovo. Photographs of the operation released by Group-IB showed one suspect face down in the snow as police in ski masks handcuffed him.
The Cron hackers were arrested before they could mount attacks outside Russia, but plans to do that were at an advanced stage, said the investigators.
Group-IB said that in June 2016 they had rented a piece of malware designed to attack mobile banking systems, called Tiny.z for $2,000 a month. The creators of the Tiny.z malware had adapted it to attack banks in Britain, Germany, France, the United States and Turkey, among other countries.
The Cron gang developed software designed to attack lenders including the three French groups, it said, adding it had notified these and other European banks at risk.
A spokeswoman for Sberbank said she had no information about the group involved. However, she said: “Several groups of cybercriminals are working against Sberbank. The number of groups and the methods they use to attack us change constantly.”
“It isn’t clear which specific group is being referred to here because the fraudulent scheme involving Android OS [operating system] viruses is widespread in Russia and Sberbank has effectively combated it for an extensive period of time.”
Alfa Bank did not provide a comment. Qiwi did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Google, the maker of Android, has taken steps in recent years to protect users from downloading malicious code and by blocking apps which are insecure, impersonate legitimate companies or engage in deceptive behaviors.
A Google spokesman said: “We’ve tracked this malware family for several years and will continue to take action on its variants to protect our users.”
Fake mobile apps
The Russian authorities, bombarded with allegations of state-sponsored hacking, are keen to show Russia too is a frequent victim of cybercrime and that they are working hard to combat it. The interior and emergencies ministries, as well as Sberbank, said they were targeted in a global cyberattack earlier this month.
Since the allegations about the U.S. election hacking, further evidence has emerged of what some Western officials say is a symbiotic relationship between cyber criminals and Russian authorities, with hackers allowed to attack foreign targets with impunity in return for cooperating with the security services while Moscow clamps down on those operating at home.
The success of the Cron gang was facilitated by the popularity of SMS-banking services in Russia, said Dmitry Volkov, head of investigations at Group-IB.
The gang got their malware on to victims’ devices by setting up applications designed to mimic banks’ genuine apps. When users searched online, the results would suggest the fake app, which they would then download. The hackers also inserted malware into fake mobile apps for well-known pornography sites.
After infecting a customer’s phone, the hackers were able to send a text message to the bank initiating a transfer of up to $120 to one of 6,000 bank accounts set up to receive the fraudulent payments.
The malware would then intercept a confirmation code sent by the bank and block the victim from receiving a message notifying them about the transaction.
“Cron’s success was due to two main factors,” Volkov said.
“First, the large-scale use of partner programs to distribute the malware in different ways. Second, the automation of many [mobile] functions which allowed them to carry out the thefts without direct involvement.”
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Race, Gender, Fame All Issues As Cosby Jury Selection Starts
Thirteen years after a Temple University basketball team manager went to famous alumni Bill Cosby’s nearby home for career advice, her complaint that Cosby drugged and molested her that night will soon be a task for a Pennsylvania jury.
Lawyers this week hope to find a dozen jurors and six alternates willing to spend two weeks or more sequestered nearly 300 miles (482 kilometers) from home.
The case has attracted worldwide publicity the judge hopes to shield from jurors when the trial starts June 5 in suburban Philadelphia. Jurors are being chosen in Pittsburgh starting Monday. Cosby arrived at the courthouse Monday morning, holding onto the arm of an assistant and ignoring reporters’ questions.
“You want to see if they’re a celebrity-conscious person – if they read celebrity stuff, if they worship celebrity,” trial consultant Howard Varinsky said. “Prosecutors have to be very worried about fans.”
The lawyers also will be weighing a potential juror’s race, gender, age, occupation and interests as the questioning gets underway. They hope to tease out whether they relate more to the beloved actor who brought the world Fat Albert, Dr. Cliff Huxtable and bemused quips about family and fatherhood, or a woman who was rebuffed when she first filed a police complaint, only to relive the case a decade later after Cosby’s testimony from her lawsuit became public and dozens of other accusers came forward to support her.
“In a normal case, juries are all banging the door to get out, bringing up every hardship in the world,” Varinsky said. “But on this case, you’re going to see people that may lie to get on, and people who convince themselves that they can be fair, but they can’t.”
“Whatever side you’re on, you have to really weed through this,” he said. “I’m looking [as a consultant] for every single micro-expression, each body movement.”
Jurors will be dismissed “for cause” if they admit to strong views about the case or persuade the judge they have family, health or financial situations that prevent them from serving. After that, each side can strike seven people during jury selection and three more when they choose alternates.
Accuser Andrea Constand went to police in January 2005 to report that Cosby had sexually assaulted her a year earlier. She had left Temple the previous March and was back home in the Toronto area, setting aside a life in basketball to retrain as a massage therapist.
Then-District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to press charges. Constand then sued the comedian, negotiating a settlement after he gave sworn testimony about a string of sexual liaisons with young women. Cosby admitted giving some of them pills or alcohol beforehand.
New prosecutors read that testimony and reopened the case in mid-2015. Cosby was arrested on Dec. 30, 2015, days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on $1 million bail.
He told a talk show host this week that he hopes to beat back the charges and resume his career.
“I want people to understand my work as an artist and a performer,” he said. “I want to get back to the laughter and the enjoyment of things that I’ve written and things that I perform on stage.”
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Ringling Brothers Circus Comes to an End
The circus billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth” has come to an end after 146 years.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus gave its final performance Sunday in Uniondale, New York, 50 kilometers east of New York City.
Ringling Brothers has its origins in the 19th century with showman P.T. Barnum.
Circus executives said the wild animals, acrobats, clowns and other circus acts that had entertained audiences for over a century could not withstand the 21st century competition of IPhones, the internet and video games.
A decline in ticket sales increased when the circus removed the elephants in May 2016, following years of protests from animal rights activists who said forcing animals to perform and transporting them around the country was abuse.
In January, Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s parent company, announced the unthinkable – the circus would close.
Sunday night the circus received a standing ovation, prompting ringmaster Jonathan Lee Iverson to say, “I thought the circus was antiquated? You mean you love the circus?” He led the circus performers, crew and audience through an emotional rendition of Auld Lang Syne.
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EU’s Moscovici Confident Eurogroup Will Reach Deal on Greece
The European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said on Sunday he was confident an agreement between Athens and its creditors could be found at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday in Brussels.
Athens needs funds to repay 7.5 billion euros ($8.4 billion) of debt maturing in July.
“We are very close to an overall agreement,” Moscovici told France Inter radio.
“Greece has assumed its responsibilities,” he said, referring to measures on pension cuts, tax hikes and reforms adopted on Thursday by the Greek Parliament.
“I now wish that we, the partners of Greece, also take our responsibilities,” he said.
Moscovici said his optimism over a deal was partly linked to the fact Germany was now aware of the need to find a structural solution to Greece’s problems.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed during a call on Wednesday that a deal was “feasible” by Monday.
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WHO Optimistic on Controlling DRC Ebola Outbreak
The World Health Organization’s regional chief for Africa says prospects for rapidly controlling the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo are good. WHO reports 29 suspected cases, including three deaths since the outbreak was discovered in a remote region of DRC on April 22.
The World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa does not underestimate the difficulties that lie ahead in bringing this latest outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo to an end.
Matshidiso Moeti notes the outbreak is centered in a remote area where it is difficult to operate and to bring in the personnel and material needed to contain this deadly disease. But, she tells VOA she is very encouraged by the speed with which the government and its national and international partners have responded to this crisis.
“But, I am quite optimistic because this is a government that is experienced at this and which has got off to a very quick start and we are already on the ground with the partners,” she said. “We are getting logistic support from WFP [World Food Program] and from the U.N. mission. So, I am quite optimistic.”
This is the eighth recorded outbreak of Ebola in DRC since 1976. The deadly virus was first detected in Bas-Uele Province, a densely-forested area in northeastern Congo near the border with the Central African Republic.
Moeti calls the remoteness of the area a mixed blessing.
“It is, of course, an area from which we are not expecting rapid expansion of the outbreak to other localities due to population movement as happened in West Africa. Although, we are keeping a close eye on the Central African Republic…where we are concerned that there is insecurity there. There is some population movement there,” she said.
Moeti adds it is difficult to operate and carry out surveillance or investigations in this area because roads for car traffic do not exist. She says the government has fixed up a landing strip to enable helicopters to fly in the experts and material needed to combat this deadly disease.
Russian Ship Brings Medical Care to Isolated People
Recent studies suggest that as many as 400 million people around the world do not have access to basic health care. In some cases it’s because of conflict, but in some cases it’s just geography: humans live in some very far away places, Siberia for instance. That’s where the medical ship comes in handy. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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