The same Russian intelligence hackers who attacked the Democratic National Committee and stole thousands of internal emails used computer malware to penetrate the Android cellphone of a Ukrainian military officer, enabling the Russian military to target and destroy Ukrainian artillery forces in that country, according to a new report released Thursday by a top cybersecurity firm. The report is by CrowdStrike, the firm that was hired by the DNC last spring and that first linked the hack of the committee’s computers to Russian hackers it called “Fancy Bear.” Its new analysis further strengthens the case that these same Fancy Bear hackers are closely tied to the Russian military, said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer and co-founder of CrowdStrike.
In news that should drive Tesla short sellers nuts, Tesla has topped Consumer Reports’ Owner Satisfaction Survey, beating out Porsche, Audi and Subaru for 1st place, with 91% of owners stating they would buy another. This follows the Tesla Model S winning “Most Loved Model” in the United States earlier this year, and the Model X winning the Golden Steering Wheel award. How is it possible Tesla can persist despite the combined might of the world’s car industry and a concerted and surreptitious public relations effort by the petroleum lobby?
The children told prosecutors the two Roman Catholic priests repeatedly raped them by an image of the Virgin Mary inside the small school chapel in remote northwestern Argentina. Only their tormenters would have heard their cries because the other children at the school were deaf. The clerical sex abuse scandal unfolding at the Antonio Provolo Institute for hearing impaired children in Mendoza province would be shocking enough on its own.
A one-kilometer-long stretch of road surfaced in solar panels has opened in the village of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy, France on Thursday—and officials believe it could harvest enough power to turn on all of the town's street lights, reports said. The road, made up of 30,000 square feet of solar panels, is strong enough to hold the weight of large trucks, The Verge reported. French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal has high hopes for the solar road and has plans to use the panels on every 1,000 kilometers, or about 620 miles, of France's more than 621,000 miles of roadway. The plan is to see if the road will be able to energize all the street lights in the 3,400-person town, The Guardian reported.
After hours of tense negotiations, two Libyans who hijacked a plane from Libya to Malta and threatened to blow it up surrendered peacefully Friday, allowing 118 passengers and crew to leave the plane before walking out themselves with the last of the crew. The hijacked Airbus A320 flight, operated by Afriqiyah Airways, was traveling from the Libyan oasis city of Sabha to Tripoli when it was diverted to Malta midmorning on Friday. Malta state television TVM said the two hijackers had hand grenades and had threatened to explode them.
The United States Coast Guard was called in to search for a man who went overboard from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship off the coast of the Florida Keys Thursday morning. “A Coast Guard Air Station Miami MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew, an Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry airplane crew, a Station Islamorada boat crew and the Cutter Margaret Norvell crew are assisting in the search,” the Coast Guard said in a news release. Royal Caribbean confirmed the Independence of the Seas cruise ship was finishing a four-night trip and was on its way back to port in Florida when the incident occurred.
A Missouri teen seriously injured in a car crash awoke from a medically induced coma only to learn his parents had died in a head-on collision on their way to the hospital. Chris Hahn, 19, suffered several skull fractures and brain swelling after he struck an oncoming car Friday on an icy stretch of highway, authorities said. “Please help me in putting this man’s life back together,” wrote Alexa Daniel on a GoFundMe page she established to help the teenager, who works with her at an area Walmart.
Bill O’Reilly doesn’t want the Electoral College – or the disproportionate power it brings rural, white voters – to disappear. In a two-and-a-half minute introduction to the segment, the conservative Fox News anchor threw his support behind the system, insisting its survival was necessary to ensure that voters in predominantly rural states are not overrun by a growing population of minorities in city centers. “The left sees white privilege in America as an oppressive force that must be done away with.” he told The O'Reilly Factor viewers on Tuesday.
Iran's national carrier Iran Air on Thursday completed an order for 100 Airbus planes with a list price of around $20 billion (19 billion euros) as the Islamic Republic opens up to the West. The order follows a commitment inked in January when President Hassan Rouhani visited Paris in the wake of a deal between Western powers and Iran over its nuclear programme. The jets will bolster Iran's ageing passenger fleet with the addition of 46 A320 planes for medium-haul routes, 38 long-haul A330s and 16 A350s, the European aircraft maker said in a statement.
Four Iraqi aid workers and at least seven civilians were killed by mortar fire this week during aid distribution in Mosul, the United Nations said, as the campaign to retake the city from Islamic State continued to make slow and punishing progress. On Thursday, three vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) claimed by Islamic State went off in Kokjali, an eastern suburb that the authorities said they had retaken from the jihadists almost two months ago. Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said in a statement circulated online that suicide bombers had targeted the army.
The next year or two should be particularly interesting for Corvette fans. As far as we can tell based on spy shots and word-of-mouth, General Motors has not one but two high-performance takes on Chevy’s sports car spinning in the tubes and ready to fire: a track-attack version of the current C7-generation car likely named ZR1, and a mid-engined C8 that can best be described as “revolutionary,” insofar as it might actually inspire an armed uprising among Corvette loyalists. As a poster on reddit discovered, tucked away on the fifth page of a recent GM service department document detailing the internal codes the company will use for its 2018 model year vehicles sits a table called “Passenger Car Engines for GMNA,” and at the end of the table lies the description of an utterly alien engine: ENGINE GAS CYL, 6.2L, SIDI, DOHC, VVT, ALUM, GM, It’s listed with the book code “Y,” which in internal GM parlance means it will only be available in the Corvette.
Relatives of workers at a fireworks market flattened by a deadly chain-reaction explosion searched hospitals for loved ones Wednesday as attention focused on apparent lax security that allowed vendors to display their dangerous wares in the passageways between stalls. Late Wednesday, the state of Mexico, where the San Pablito Market is located, updated its list of dead to 33, a figure also announced by state Interior Secretary Jose Manzur in a local radio interview. Juana Antolina Hernandez, who has run a stand for 22 years in San Pablito next to one operated by her parents, escaped the market in a mad dash when the explosions began Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier today, the carmaker released an official sketch of the Audi Q8 Concept...and if we’re being honest, it looks pretty damned badass. It also almost certainly looks a helluva lot like the production Q8 Audi intents to roll out in the near future. Audi’s press release describes it as a “near-production study,” but considering how conservative these images are compared to the usual sorts of pretty pictures that flow from automotive designers’ pens, we’re guessing it’s about as photorealistic as a police sketch artist’s work.
The car in question is a 1985 Porsche 911 Targa that has been fitted with a Small Block Chevrolet V8 engine producing an alleged 385 horsepower, and adding a few pounds out back behind the axles. In order to properly outfit the car for off-road duties, this Porsche has received a set of Fox racing rear coilovers. As there is no Fox fitment for a Porsche, I'd really love to see the fabrication involved in this add on.
An Austin man is alleged to have planned and executed the murder of his stepmom Sunday, because she was really happy the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a game of football. According to police, that’s when Jones retrieved the knife, walked behind the couch, lunged over Ruiz, and stabbed her multiple times.
Mary Thorn, of Lakeland, and her gator, Rambo, made headlines earlier this year when the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission denied the doting reptile mom a permit to keep her sharp-toothed friend. It was one of many roadblocks in the year-and-a-half-long battle to keep Rambo that has now ended. Now, as long as she follows a few rules, Thorn may continue keeping Rambo inside her home, taking him for rides, and generally treating him like a member of the family.
The president and first lady are the cutest!
The United States and Russia could both be seeking to increase their nuclear capability, with President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanging comments this week that may signal an end to decades of reducing the role of nuclear
Written off by the West, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has defied all expectations of his downfall, thanks to his iron will but also his crucial alliances with Russia and Iran. Syria's army declared Thursday it has recaptured all of Aleppo, allowing the 51-year-old president to deal a potentially knock-out blow to the opposition forces that rose up against him in 2011. "The liberation of Aleppo is not only a victory for Syria but also for those who really contribute to the fight against terrorism, notably Russia and Iran," state news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying before the army announcement.
Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte called a top U.N. official an "idiot" and "joker" on Thursday for urging that murder investigations be launched against the president after he admitted personally killing people. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Tuesday said Philippine judicial authorities should probe Duterte's accounts of having carried out killings when he was mayor of Davao City. "This guy (Zeid) is ever the joker or crazy," Duterte said during a televised speech, and repeatedly called him "stupid".
Phase two of Volkswagen’s autonomous electric future will kick off next month at the Detroit Auto Show, when the carmaker will reveal the second of its forward-looking vehicles: a battery-powered, all-wheel-drive van with a flat face and an adaptable interior. Volkswagen announced the upcoming debut earlier today in a press release. As with sister brand Audi and its low-key declaration of the upcoming Q8 crossover coupe concept, VW kept its announcement short and sweet, releasing a few paragraphs and a single partial picture of the concept’s front.
Apple won’t be anything anytime soon, but there’s more and more indirect evidence suggesting that at least one iPhone model next year will sport a radical redesign. The iPhone 8, one of three rumored 2017 iPhones, is expected to have a curved OLED display, and it looks like certain Apple suppliers are already preparing for Apple’s component orders next year. Sources familiar with the flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) supply chain told Digitimes that at least two companies are looking forward to Apple’s orders for FPCB products that can be incorporated into products with OLED displays.
At some point in the last century Americans forgot that you can drive damned near any car off-road. It was probably around the time Ferrari-engined Lancia rally cars took a world rally championship. Seeing a car that clearly belonged on Miami Vice get
A man accused in the fatal shooting of a 3-year-old boy in Little Rock has pleaded not guilty to preliminary charges of capital murder and two counts of committing a terroristic act. Gary Eugene Holmes entered the plea Friday morning, about 12 hours after he turned himself in at police headquarters in connection with the Dec. 17 death of Acen (AY'-sin) King. Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle ruled that Holmes be held in jail without bond, and a review hearing was set for Feb. 22.
The Swedish furniture company settled the families’ wrongful death suits, which were filed in Philadelphia, six months after issuing a recall of 29 million Ikea dressers, including the Malm model that was involved in all three fatal tip-overs. “The recalled chests and dressers are unstable if they are not properly anchored to the wall, posing a serious tip-over and entrapment hazard that can result in death or serious injuries to children,” the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission wrote in its June recall announcement. Little Curren Collas, 2, was killed when a 6-drawer Malm chest tipped over and fatally pinned him against his bed in his West Chester, Pennsylvania, room in February 2014.