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Posts Tagged ‘Austria’
Europe gas pipeline deal agreed
July 13th, 2009 |
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By David O’Byrne
BBC News, Ankara
Four European countries are meeting in Turkey to sign a five-nation agreement for the long-planned 3,300km Nabucco natural gas pipeline.
Once completed, the line will bring up to 31 billion cubic metres of gas a year from the Caspian and the Middle East across Turkey and into Europe.
It will give an important alternative energy supply to Russia, which already meets 30% of Europe’s gas needs.
But much still remains to be agreed on, not least where the gas will come from.
The five countries – Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria – have been working on the Nabucco project with the European Commission for seven years now.
But still the decision to sign the heads of government agreement on 13 July has come as a surprise.
To begin with there is still no clear idea as to what has been agreed.
Turkey and the European Commission are still at loggerheads over how much gas Turkey will be able to take from the line, with Ankara claiming that it might be another six months before a final agreement is reached.
More worrying still, Nabucco still has no guaranteed supply of gas.
Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Egypt are all considered potential suppliers in the long term.
Currently though, only Azerbaijan is in a position to supply the 15 billion cubic metres a year the line needs if it is to be constructed as planned by 2014.
But two weeks ago, Baku agreed to sell some of that gas to Russia, a move many understood as a warning to the Nabucco partners to sort out their differences or look elsewhere.
In the same way, Monday’s signing ceremony is being seen as largely an attempt to persuade Baku that the Nabucco partners can reach an agreement, on some issues at least.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
North Korea Army, Lab 110, Suspected Over Cyber Attacks
July 11th, 2009 |
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SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean army lab of hackers was ordered to “destroy” South Korean communications networks _ evidence the isolated regime was behind cyberattacks that paralyzed South Korean and American Web sites _ news report…
North Korea launched cyber attacks, says south
July 11th, 2009 |
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Intelligence service claims document shows hackers across border waged internet war on Seoul and the US
South Korea has obtained intelligence that North Korea ordered a military institute of computer hackers known as Lab 110 to “destroy” its neighbour’s communications networks last month, news reports said.
The National Intelligence Service told parliament of its finding on Friday, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing evidence the north was behind cyber attacks that paralysed major South Korean and US websites in recent days.
The newspaper, citing unidentified members of the parliament’s intelligence committee, said Lab 110, which is affiliated with the north’s defence ministry, received an order to “destroy the South Korean puppet communications networks in an instant”.
The JoongAng Ilbo said Lab 110 specialised in hacking and spreading malicious programmes.
The NIS – South Korea’s main spy agency – said it could not confirm the report. Calls by Associated Press to several key intelligence committee members went unanswered.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency carried a similar report, saying the NIS obtained a North Korean document issuing the order on 7 June. The report, quoting an unidentified senior ruling party official, said the North Korean institute was affiliated with the people’s army.
The state-run Korea Communications Commission said it had identified and blocked five internet protocol (IP) addresses in five countries used to distribute computer viruses that caused the wave of website outages, which began in the US on 4 July.
The addresses point to computers distributing the virus that triggered the “denial of service” attacks in which many computers try to connect to a single site at the same time, overwhelming the server. They were in Austria, Georgia, Germany, South Korea and the US, a commission official said on condition of anonymity.
The attacks targeted high-profile websites, including those of the White House and South Korea’s presidential Blue House.
Though fingers were immediately pointed at the north, the IP addresses themselves provide little in the way of clarity. It is likely the hackers used the addresses to conceal their identities – for instance, by accessing the computers from a remote location. IP addresses can also be faked or masked, hiding a computer’s true location.
South Korean media reported in May that a North Korean internet warfare unit was trying to hack into American and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service. The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the north had between 500 and 1,000 hackers.
Members of the parliamentary intelligence committee have said in recent days that the NIS also suspects North Korea because of a threat it made in state media last month where it boasted of being “fully ready for any form of hi-tech war”.
The fact that some of the attacked sites – such as that of the ruling party and the office of President Lee Myung-bak – have links to the South Korean government’s hardline policies toward the north were further cited.
The north has drawn repeated international rebukes in recent months for threats and actions seen as provocative by the international community. Those include a nuclear test in May and short-range ballistic missile launches on 4 July.
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