Uniquely Nelson

Ten US states, led by Texas, are suing Google, accusing it of taking illegal steps to preserve its monopoly over the online advertising market. The lawsuit takes aim at Google's control of the online advertising market (file image). Photo: 123RF The alleged moves include striking a deal with Facebook to manipulate online advertising auctions, the states said. This is the latest legal complaint facing the tech giant, which is under pressure from regulators globally. Google rejected the claims, saying it would be "strongly" defending itself in court. "We've invested in state-of-the-art ad tech services that help businesses and benefit consumers. Digital ad prices have fallen over the last decade. Ad tech fees are falling too. Google's ad tech fees are lower than the industry average," a company spokesperson said in response to Wednesday's lawsuit. "These are the hallmarks of a highly competitive industry." Facebook declined to comment. The lawsuit takes aim at Google's control of the online advertising market, which it says was cemented in 2008 with its purchase of DoubleClick, the main software that publishers use to sell online advertising. Google's advertising sales account for over 80 percent of its revenues. The 10 states suing Google are Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah and Idaho, all of which have Republican prosecutors. The states claim Google used its new role to benefit other parts of its business, for example by forcing publishers to license its advertising servers. The lawsuit also says the firm took steps to secretly undercut innovations that were circumventing its fees. #BREAKING: Texas takes the lead once more! Today, we’re filing a lawsuit against #Google for anticompetitive conduct.This internet Goliath used its power to manipulate the market, destroy competition, and harm YOU, the consumer. Stay tuned… pic.twitter.com/fdEVEWQb0e — Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) December 16, 2020 The lawsuit also accuses Google of giving Facebook advantages in online advertising markets, in exchange for the firm dropping some of its plans to compete. "Google repeatedly used its monopolistic power to control pricing, engage in market collusion to rig auctions in a tremendous violation of justice," said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a video announcing the lawsuit, posted on Twitter. "Right now, when you visit the website of a news outlet you know and trust, like the Wall Street Journal or your favourite local paper, you'll see advertisements likely placed there by Google. But Google doesn't tell you - the public - that they manipulate the advertising auctions, and they continually illegally profit by taking money away from those web pages and putting it in their own pockets." He added that the tech giant was a "Goliath of a company" using its power to manipulate the market, and that this was causing harm to every US citizen. "It isn't fair that Google can harm the web pages you visit and read," said Mr Paxton. "Let me put it this way - if the free market were a baseball game, Google positioned itself as the pitcher, the batter and the umpire." Regulator pressure The lawsuit adds to the scrutiny facing Google's operations, in which it serves as both a search engine serving up results, as well as a broker of online advertising sales. In October, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) filed a landmark anti-monopoly lawsuit against the firm, focusing on the billions of dollars Google pays each year to ensure its search engine is installed as the default option on browsers and devices like mobile phones. Google has maintained that it is operating in a competitive market, with new threats emerging from Amazon and others. But it is not the only tech firm to find itself in regulators' crosshairs - in the UK and Europe in recent weeks, officials have announced plans for new rules aimed at regulating Big Tech. Facebook this month was hit by lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and nearly all 50 US states, also over monopoly abuse. And over time, internet giants are increasingly being criticised for their impact on the global media industry and content publishers. Many news providers say they are struggling to survive and feel tech giants and social networks have thrived by reposting and aggregating news content. Facebook this month announced that it would begin paying UK news publishers for some articles in January, following a similar move in the US. - BBC

A state of disaster has been declared in Fiji, with a powerful cyclone due to bear down on much of the country overnight. Cyclone Yasa is due to make landfall on Fiji's two main islands this evening, with winds gusting as high as 350 kilometres per hour. A nationwide curfew is now in effect and will last through the night. The National Disaster Management Office said at least 600,000 people lie in the path of the storm, whose strength could rival the devastation wrought by Cyclone Winston in 2016. The NDMO director, Vasiti Soko, said the time for people to evacuate was fast running out. "For those living in coastal areas, please move to upland," she said. "We are expecting storm surges with waves up to 16 metres. "If you need assistance, please contact the police or your divisional commissioners emergency operation centre to hep you move. "Please evacute now. Move your family to higher ground." Vasiti Soko at a press briefing in Suva. Photo: AFP Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Cyclone Yasa could easily surpass the devastation of 2016's Cyclone Winston. Winston, which was a similar magnitude, flattened villages, left 44 people dead, tens of thousands homeless and caused an estimated US$1.4 billion damage. Bainimarama said the entire country should prepare for severe damage, though the government stood ready to respond immediately. Thousands of residents in the north of Fiji - where Yasa is expected to make landfall - have already started to feel the effects. The coastal village of Nabouwalu, in the northern province of Bua, is directly in the path of Cyclone Yasa. During Winston, Bua suffered widespread devastation. Village elder Paula Cama said during Winston, people did not heed the warnings from authorities. This time, he told RNZ Pacific from an evacuation centre, they weren't taking any chances. "The strong winds and heavy rain are coming and Yasa has not yet made landfall," he said. "We have brought supplies and food including cassava and breadfruit from our gardens as we don't know how long we are going to be here." Labasa is the main town on the northern island of Vanua Levu. Journalist Seraphina Silaitoga said there was a rush of activity to shutter the town and brace for Yasa. Heavy rain had already caused some flooding, stranding residents in some areas. People in Fiji have been preparing for the arrival of Cyclone Yasa. Photo: AFP In Nabalebale Village, Cakaudrove, she said floodwaters had started to rise, inundating food gardens. "People are not wasting time because of what happened with Winston," she said. "They are moving things, they are putting up shutters and identifying [evacuation centres] and already the youths know what to do. "They know when to take the elders. Winston really really affected them." Rotuma spared To the west of Vanua Levu lies Rotuma and the islanders have also been hit with strong winds and heavy rain since last night. 50-year-old Makareta Susau of Oinafa District said the wharf had been damaged. But she said they were lucky. "We can feel that Yasa is here already and even though we are not directly in its path we can see that with the wharf damaged, this cyclone is not to be taken lightly. "Villagers have been busy pulling down a shed that was erected earlier to hold a function. "People have also boarded up their homes and cleared their compounds as they stay indoors for the duration of this storm which we do not know how long it will be around." Photo: AFP Meanwhile, yacht owners have moved their boats into mangroves and up rivers, their owners sheltering in hotels. The main island of Viti Levu is already experiencing power outages. "Our team is working on the fault and will restore power at the earliest," Energy Fiji Limited said in a statement. "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. The government also confirmed a nationwide curfew was in place from 4pm to 6am local time. Acting Commissioner of Police, Rusiate Tudravu, said curfew passes would only be issued for emergency cases.

A rushed lockdown of nine tower blocks in Melbourne due to an outbreak of coronavirus breached human rights laws, an ombudsman has found. Residents look from a window at one of nine public housing estates locked down due a spike in COVID-19 coronavirus numbers in Melbourne in July. Photo: AFP About 3000 people were confined - under police guard - to their public housing units from 4 July for up to two weeks, after a state government order. The residents were given no notice, meaning many people were left without food or medicine, the ombudsman found. The Victorian government denies that the detention broke human rights laws. The Victorian Ombudsman - who has no legal power but is the official investigator into government complaints - called on the government to apologise to residents for the "harm and distress caused by the immediacy of their lockdown". Housing Minister Richard Wynne rejected that recommendation, saying: "We make no apology for saving people's lives." What happened at the towers? A sign is seen pasted on a window at one of nine public housing estates locked down. Photo: AFP In early July, a second wave of the Covid-19 coronavirus was just beginning in Melbourne and authorities were scrambling to locate cases and stop the spread. A cluster of about two dozen infections were found in the towers, prompting a desire for a swift containment. On 4 July, health officials recommended an intervention, with a lockdown to begin on 5 July, to allow planning for food supplies and logistics. However, Premier Daniel Andrews announced on 4 July that it would begin immediately. Dozens of police officers were at the housing estate towers shortly after. "Most of the residents found out about it when they saw uniformed police officers surrounding their homes," Ombudsman Deborah Glass said. In her report, she found the snap imposition of the lockdown was a decision made by the state government, and not based on health advice. The state's acting chief health officer was given only 15 minutes to assess the human rights implications of the order. She signed the directive but had not recommended it take effect immediately, Glass found. The towers lockdown was Australia's most strict coronavirus restrictions. Confinement lasted five days for most residents, but 14 days for those in the worst-affected tower. "Residents [at that tower] waited more than a week to be allowed outside under supervision for fresh air," Glass said. Members of the Melbourne Fire Brigade (MFB) prepare to take food parcels to residents in a locked down public housing estate. Photo: AFP What's been the response? The state government has disagreed with the report's findings, which were tabled to state parliament on Thursday. "We had to act and act immediately because of the viciousness of the virus," Wynne said. Authorities had acted in line with human rights law for the entire process, he said. However, Glass said that the rushed lockdown was "not compatible with the residents' human rights, including the right to inhumane treatment when deprived of liberty" and appeared to contravene Victoria's human rights charter. At the time, residents - many of whom were refugees or migrants from non-English-speaking communities - told the BBC they were angered by the sudden and harsh restrictions which they said discriminated against them. Many were also intimidated by the heavy police presence. Glass found it was discriminatory, saying government documents had suggested the estates "were a hotbed of criminality and non-compliance". "But the evidence was the vast majority were law-abiding people, just like other Australians," she said. It was "unimaginable" that the "theatre of policing" which followed would have occurred for a similar Covid outbreak in a luxury apartment block, she said. Glass acknowledged the lockdown had worked to contain the outbreak but a proper consideration of human rights would have "put health, not security, front and centre". "In a just society, human rights are not a convention to be ignored during a crisis, but a framework for how we will treat and be treated as the crisis unfolds," she said. What happened elsewhere in Melbourne? Just days after the tower lockdowns, the entire city of Melbourne was ordered into lockdown to combat the wider outbreak which was fuelling over 100 cases per day. The city-wide lockdown began on 9 July and lasted 112 days. For most of this time, residents faced a nightly curfew and stay-at-home orders, but unlike for the tower residents there were permitted reasons for leaving home. As the virus spread outside the city, stay-at-home restrictions were also imposed on the rest of the state. The heavily policed lockdown - one of the toughest in the world - divided opinion among the city's residents and prompted small protests. The stringent measures eventually worked to bring down the case rate from over 700 new cases per day to zero. Victoria has recorded 48 consecutive days of no locally acquired infections. - BBC

Marshall Islands police have destroyed over 635 kilogrammes of cocaine after the cache of drugs drifted into a remote atoll. Marshall Islands Police Captain Eric Jorban, left, empties a bag of one-kilo packages of cocaine into an incinerator Photo: RNZ Pacific / Giff Johnson Police said the discovery last week was the largest volume of cocaine to ever wash into the Marshall Islands, which has seen hundreds of kilos of cocaine found near multiple islands over the past two decades. The drug haul has an estimated street value of over $US80 million. "A local resident on Ailuk discovered a boat with 649 one-kilogram bricks of cocaine," said Attorney General Richard Hickson, who praised community members at Ailuk for immediately notifying law enforcement about the drug discovery. At times, cocaine wash-ups on remote islands were not reported and instead people filtered the drugs into Majuro for sale to the urban population. Earlier this year an Ailuck man was arrested and convicted after he attempted to transport three kilogrammes of cocaine from the northern atoll to Majuro on an Air Marshall Islands flight. He confirmed to authorities that more drugs washed in at Ailuk, possibly over a year ago. Richard Hickson said the latest haul of cocaine was not related to that earlier prosecution of the drug courier. "This is a new lot of cocaine, just arrived," he added. Ailuk resident, Kosby Alfred, last week discovered a boat that washed up on Ailuk. The atoll is 244 miles north of the capital Majuro with a population of about 400 people. When islanders could not lift the boat out of the water onto the beach, they investigated to find out why the fiberglass boat was so heavy. They discovered a large compartment under the deck that had been sealed to hide hundreds of one-kilo "bricks" of cocaine wrapped in plastic and stamped with the initials "KW," said Marshall Islands Police Department's Criminal Investigation chief Captain Vincent Tani. The 18-foot boat contained 649 one-kilo packages, said Tani. After discovery of the drugs, Ailuk's Acting Mayor, Redner Alfred, called authorities in Majuro who quickly dispatched MIPD's Lomor patrol vessel to the northern atoll. There, police officers boxed and bagged the 649 bricks of cocaine and headed back to Majuro, arriving Monday in the capital. On Tuesday, more than a dozen police officers and detectives opened the locked hold of the patrol vessel, filled the backs of two police pickup trucks with boxes and bags filled with cocaine packages, and drove straight from the dock to a local company that operates an incinerator to dispose of the drugs. Marshall Islands police work with the US Drug Enforcement Agency when they discover cocaine washed up. DEA officials requested police provide them with two kilogrammes of the latest haul for laboratory analysis, Majuro authorities said. "We are incinerating 647 bricks and saving two for the DEA," said Criminal Investigation Division Lt. Carney Terry. Both Tani and Terry said they estimated that the largest previous find of cocaine was around 40 kilogrammes. Numerous other islands, including Enewetak, Rongelap, Bikini, Kwajalein, Likiep and Mili have seen multi-kilo bundles of cocaine wash up over the past two decades. Some of the one kilo packages that were discovered in Ailuk atoll Photo: Marshall Islands Police Law enforcement officials have various theories about the drugs washing up: they are the result of drug transshipment operations gone awry due, for example, to the loss of a radio beacon attached to the drugs, were tossed overboard when drug runners were in danger of discovery by law enforcement authorities, or drug runners were caught in a storm or experienced engine problems resulting in their drifting west from their starting point in South or Central America. In 2014, El Salvadoran fisherman Jose Alvarenga drifted for 14 months from the Mexican coast before washing up on Ebon Atoll in the southern Marshall Islands. After his discovery at Ebon, University of Hawaii researchers conducted 16 computer simulations of drift patterns from the Mexico coast using weather and ocean data during the period of the fisherman's drift and nearly all of drift patterns arrived in the Marshall Islands. The fiberglass boat discovered at Ailuk was similar to two other boats carrying plastic wrapped kilo packages of cocaine that washed ashore in two different atolls several years ago, said Tani. "All three boats had three stars on them," he said. Aside from the stars, each boat had a different marking. The boat found at Ailuk last week had a variation of the Nike "swoosh" painted on its side. One of the earlier boats had a dolphin, said Tani. Tani and Hickson both said they believed the boat drifted into the Marshall Islands from South or Central America. "It could have been drifting for a year or two," said Hickson. A drug boat discovered at Ailuk Atoll Photo: Marshall Islands Police

The global scheme to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries faces a "very high" risk of failure, potentially leaving nations home to billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024, internal documents say. A Pfizer vaccine being prepared in a US hospital. The COVAX scheme relies on cheaper vaccines that have so far yet to receive approval, rather than from frontrunners such as Pfizer/BioNTech that use more expensive technology. Photo: AFP The World Health Organisation's COVAX programme is the main global scheme to vaccinate people in poor and middle income countries around the world against the coronavirus. It aims to deliver at least two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021 to cover 20 percent of the most vulnerable people in 91 poor and middle-income countries, mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. But in internal documents reviewed by Reuters, the scheme's promoters say the programme is struggling from a lack of funds, supply risks and complex contractual arrangements which could make it impossible to achieve its goals. "The risk of a failure to establish a successful COVAX Facility is very high," says an internal report to the board of Gavi, an alliance of governments, drug companies, charities and international organisations that arranges global vaccination campaigns. Gavi co-leads COVAX alongside the WHO. The report and other documents prepared by Gavi were being discussed at Gavi's board meetings on 15-17 Dec December. The failure of the facility could leave people in poor nations without any access to Covid-19 vaccines until 2024, one of the documents says. The risk of failure is higher because the scheme was set up so quickly, operating in "uncharted territory", the report says. "Current risk exposure is deemed outside of risk appetite until there is full clarity on the size of risks and possibilities to mitigate them," it says. "It therefore requires intensive mitigation efforts to bring the risk within risk appetite." Gavi hired Citigroup last month to provide advice on how to mitigate financial risks. In one 25 November memo included in the documents submitted to the Gavi board, Citi advisors said the biggest risk to the programme was from clauses in supply contracts that allow countries not to buy vaccines booked through COVAX. A potential mismatch between vaccine supply and demand "is not a commercial risk efficiently mitigated by the market or the MDBs," the Citi advisors wrote, referring to multilateral development banks such as the World Bank. "Therefore it must either be mitigated through contract negotiation or through a Gavi risk absorption layer that is carefully managed by a management and governance structure." Asked about the documents, a Gavi spokesman said the body remains confident it can achieve its goals. "It would be irresponsible not to assess the risks inherent to such a massive and complex undertaking, and to build policies and instruments to mitigate those risks," he added. The WHO did not respond to a request for comment. In the past it has let Gavi take the lead in public comments about the COVAX programme. Citibank said in a statement: "As a financial advisor, we are responsible for helping Gavi plan for a range of scenarios related to the COVAX facility and supporting their efforts to mitigate potential risks." Supply deals COVAX's plans rely on cheaper vaccines that have so far yet to receive approval, rather than vaccines from frontrunners Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna that use more expensive new mRNA technology. The Pfizer vaccine has already been approved for emergency use in several countries and deployed in Britain and the United States, and the Moderna vaccine is expected to be similarly approved soon. COVAX has so far reached non-binding supply agreements with AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sanofi for a total of 400 million doses, with options to order several hundred million additional shots, one of the Gavi documents says. But the three companies have all faced delays in their trials that could push back some possible regulatory approvals to the second half of 2021 or later. This could also increase COVAX's financial needs. Its financial assumptions are based on an average cost of $5.20 per dose, one of the documents says. Pfizer's vaccines costs about $US18.40-$19.50 per dose, while Moderna's costs $US25-$37. COVAX has no supply deals with either of those firms. Nor is it prioritising investment in ultra-cold distribution chains in poor countries, necessary for the Pfizer vaccine, as it still expects to use mostly shots which require more conventional cold storage, one of the Gavi documents says. On Tuesday a WHO senior official said the agency was in talks with Pfizer and Moderna to include their COVID-19 vaccines as part of an early global rollout at a cost for poor countries possibly lower than current market prices. Other shots are being developed worldwide and COVAX wants to expand its portfolio to include vaccines from other companies. Rich countries, which have booked most of the currently available stocks of Covid-19 vaccines, are also planning to donate some excess doses to poor countries, although is not clear whether that would be through COVAX. Financial pressure To meet its target of vaccinating at least 20 percent of people in poor countries next year, COVAX says it needs $US4.9 billion in addition to $2.1bn it has already raised. If vaccine prices are higher than forecast, supply is delayed or the additional funds are not fully collected, the facility faces the prospect of failure, the documents say. So far Britain and European Union countries are the main donors to COVAX, while the United States and China have made no financial commitments. The World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions are offering cheap loans to poor countries to help them buy and deploy vaccines through COVAX. The facility is issuing vaccine bonds which could raise as much as $US1.5 billion next year if donors agreed to cover the costs, one of the Gavi documents says. COVAX is also receiving funds from private donors, mainly the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But even under the best financial conditions, COVAX could still face failure, because of disproportionate financial risks caused by its complex deal-making process. COVAX signs advance purchase contracts with companies on vaccine supplies that need to be paid for by donors or receiving countries that have the means to afford them. But under clauses included in COVAX contracts, countries could still refuse to buy pre-ordered volumes if they prefer other vaccines, or if they manage to acquire them through other schemes, either faster or at better prices. The facility could also face losses if countries were not able to pay for their orders, or even if herd immunity were developed too quickly, making vaccines no longer necessary, the Citigroup report said. It proposed a strategy to mitigate these risks including through changes in supply contracts. - Reuters

People in Fiji are being warned the window of opportunity to prepare to be hit by the powerful Cyclone Yasa is closing. Evacuation centres have opened with the category five storm expected to make landfall tonight. At least 600,000 people lie in the path of the cyclone which packs winds gusting up to 350km/h. NDMO Director, Vasiti Soko Photo: AFP The Director of the National Disaster Office, Vasiti Soko, said people should either move into evacuation centres or secure their homes and clear loose items in their surroundings. Soko warned the winds would be destructive "It's strong enough to uproot trees, it's strong enough to uproot buildings, those that are not well secured, and therefore it can also cause a lot of flying debris." On its current track, Cyclone Yasa is expected to move between the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu tonight. Photo: AFP However Stephen Meke, a forecaster from Fiji's Meterlogical Service, said impacts were already starting to be felt. "We have reports from the Yasawas that they are getting some damaging gale force winds. Also from Vanua Levu, the other large island of Fiji, as of last night they have reported that they have continuous heavy rain and some damaging gale force winds." Meke said the winds were starting to pick up over the Western half of Fiji. As of yesterday people had started moving into evacuation centres but more were being encouraged to do so. "Time is limited now as severe Tropical Cyclone Yasa narrows in on Fiji," Meke said. "We've been telling them [the public] this is one of those tropical cyclones, especially when it comes from the northwest, it brings in all these damaging storm surges as well." Residents have boarded up their houses and secured loose property Photo: AFP Suva-based correspondent Lice Movono, said government services were moving to help people in vulnerable locations such as the informal settlements where many on Viti Levu live. "But there are still people going to work, there are still people preparing to go to work today even though the civil service itself has kept their non-essential staff at home," Movono told RNZ's Morning Report. "In some places where memories of [Cyclone) Winston are still fresh people are moving very quickly, but I think there needs to be a lot more urgency given the scale of the cyclone that's coming for us now." Communciation on disaster preparedness was stronger since the 2016 cyclone, she said, and donor partners and development agencies had a lot of experience in getting aid to the outer islands. "But given this cyclone, unlike any other, is coming straight for the two major islands where our urban centres are, where our businesses are and most importantly where our government infrastructure is located, it's quite a different picture we're looking at - we're I think quite fearful, if I may say so." Stephen Meke said the impacts could be similar to the 2016 Cyclone Winston which killed 44 people, flattened villages and caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage. Flooding has already been experienced Photo: Fiji Govt

A French court has found guilty 14 accomplices of the French Islamist militants behind the January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Hayat Boumeddiene, right, shown on CCTV presenting her passport at an Istanbul airport on in early January 2015, days before the Paris attacks. Photo: AFP The trial has reopened one of modern France's darkest episodes, with the attacks marking the onset of a wave of Islamist violence that has killed scores more since. Another wave of Islamist attacks this autumn, including the beheading of a schoolteacher, prompted the government to crack down on what it calls Islamist separatism. Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris, spraying gunfire and killing 12 in Janaury 2015, nearly a decade after the weekly published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed. A third attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a policewoman and then four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb. Like the Kouachis, Coulibaly was killed in a shootout with police. Among the 14 accomplices sentenced on Wednesday was Hayat Boumeddiene, the former partner of Coulibaly and one of three defendants tried in absentia. Believed to be still alive and on the run from an international arrest warrant, prosecutors referred to her as an "Islamic State princess". The judges convicted Boumeddiene, 32, of financing terrorism and belonging to a criminal terrorist network, and sentenced her to 30 years in jail. File photo taken on January 7, 2019 shows police officers next to a painting by French street artist and painter Christian Guemy, known as C215, in tribute to members of Charlie Hebdo newspaper who were killed in January 2015. Photo: AFP The attacks, claimed by al Qaeda and Islamic State, laid bare France's struggle to counter the threat of militants brought up in the country and of foreign jihadists. "The fact of choosing victims precisely because they were journalists, or a member of the security forces, or of Jewish faith, clearly demonstrates in itself their desire to sow terror in Western countries," the presiding judge told the court. Terrorism-related charges were dropped for six of the defendants who were found guilty of lesser crimes. Journalists from Charlie Hebo testified during the trial. After Wednesday's ruling, the magazine's lawyer, Richard Malka, described the defendants as part of a nebulous support network that enabled the attackers to spill blood. "Without these nebulous networks, attacks cannot occur," he told reporters, in the first reaction from the magazine or its representatives to the verdicts. On the eve of the trial's opening, Charlie Hebdo, which has long tested the limits of what society will accept in the name of free speech, re-printed the cartoons that had stirred outrage in the Muslim world when they were first published by a Danish paper in 2005. A month later, history teacher Samuel Paty was decapitated by a teenage Islamist who said in a recorded message that he was avenging Paty's use of the cartoons in a class on civil liberties. - Reuters

A rights group has said it is "unsurprised" after it was revealed almost half of Singapore's migrant workers have been infected with Covid-19 in the past nine months. Men look out from a dormitory in Singapore used by foreign workers. The building was made an isolation area to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in April. Photo: AFP New data shows that 152,000 foreign workers - 47 percent - have been infected. Without counting the migrant workers, fewer than 4000 people have tested positive in Singapore. The men, the majority of whom live in large dormitories where several men share a room amid cramped facilities, have essentially been quarantined from the rest of the population since cases exploded in April. Over the past months, infections in both the general population and the migrant dormitories have dropped to almost zero and authorities have just announced a further easing of restrictions for the general population. Migrant workers live in large dormitories and share cramped facilities. Photo: AFP But Singapore's foreign workers - typically low-wage migrant labourers from South Asia who largely work in the construction and manufacturing sectors - still face restrictions on their freedom of movement which will only be gradually lifted next year. "There is no justification for Singapore to treat migrant workers like prisoners," Alex Au of the charity Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) told the BBC. "Many have been locked in for eight months." Why did the numbers suddenly jump? The new figure is a combination of the normal PCR coronavirus tests - which check whether a person currently has the virus - and a separate drive of serology tests which trace whether a person has had it at in the past. About 54,500 workers have tested positive in the PCR test while another 98,000 were found via the serology test. The previous number had been public before, while the latter was released only on Monday. Singapore's Health Ministry said that by August, the entire worker population had been tested at least once, with either of the two types of tests. Photo: AFP The ministry said anyone who tested positive was isolated including those that were found to only have carried the virus in the past. Authorities also said they provided the workers with medical care and assistance. The combined 152,000 cases among the foreign workers make up almost half of the 323,000 workers living in dormitories across the island state. But with some 65,000 workers' serology tests still pending, the percentage might still go up. "These new figures don't surprise us," Au said. "During the middle of the year, workers who tested positive were telling us that they were told to stay in their rooms and not taken into isolation. They remained in contact with their room-mates. "But this is history," Au said. "We're more concerned that Singapore continues to treat the workers as prisoners even though the same statement by the ministry says that 'since October, no new cases were detected in the dormitories on many days'." He argues that since the active infection rate is virtually zero and workers are tested regularly every two weeks, there is no reason to place such hard restrictions on them. Singapore's success and failure The country's first coronavirus cases were were registered in January but a meticulous contact tracing programme managed to keep the infections in check initially. But when the virus began spreading among migrant workers, authorities struggled to trace and isolate all of the infected and numbers began to skyrocket in that community. Out of Singapore's 58,341 total positive PCR tests to date, 93 percent have been among that migrant worker community. In response to the high infection rate, many of the dormitories - often holding thousands of workers - were placed under quarantine in April, essentially locking the workers inside. So far, even healthy workers are only allowed out to be taken to their work sites and occasionally to shop in designated shops near their dorms, Au said. "Workers are still interned and treated like prisoners, used for their labour with no freedom of movement." On Monday, Singapore authorities said that given "the outbreak in the dormitories is under control", restrictions on migrant workers would be progressively eased. In the first quarter of 2021, some workers will be allowed access to the general community once a month, wearing contract-tracing devices and adhering to the safety measures. - BBC

On an earnings call two months ago, SolarWinds chief executive Kevin Thompson touted how far the company had gone during his 11 years at the helm. (File image). Photo: 123rf There was not a database or an IT deployment model out there to which his Austin, Texas-based company did not provide some level of monitoring or management, he told analysts on the 27 October call. "We don't think anyone else in the market is really even close in terms of the breadth of coverage we have," he said. "We manage everyone's network gear." Now that dominance has become a liability - an example of how the workhorse software that helps glue organisations together can turn toxic when it is subverted by sophisticated hackers. On Monday, SolarWinds confirmed that Orion - its flagship network management software - had served as the unwitting conduit for a sprawling international cyberespionage operation. The hackers inserted malicious code into Orion software updates pushed out to nearly 18,000 customers. And while the number of affected organisations is thought to be much more modest, the hackers have already parlayed their access into consequential breaches at the US Treasury and Department of Commerce. Three people familiar with the investigation have told Reuters that Russia is a top suspect, although others familiar with the inquiry have said it is still too early to tell. A SolarWinds representative, Ryan Toohey, said he would not be making executives available for comment. He did not provide on-the-record answers to questions sent via email. In a statement issued Sunday, the company said "we strive to implement and maintain appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards, security processes, procedures, and standards designed to protect our customers." Cybersecurity experts are still struggling to understand the scope of the damage. The malicious updates - sent between March and June, when America was hunkering down to weather the first wave of coronavirus infections - was "perfect timing for a perfect storm," said Kim Peretti, who co-chairs Atlanta-based law firm Alston & Bird's cybersecurity preparedness and response team. Assessing the damage would be difficult, she said. "We may not know the true impact for many months, if not more, if not ever," she said. The impact on SolarWinds was more immediate. US officials ordered anyone running Orion to immediately disconnect it. The company's stock has tumbled more than 23 percent from $US23.50 on Friday - before Reuters broke the news of the breach - to $US18.06 on Tuesday. SolarWinds' security, meanwhile, has come under new scrutiny. In one previously unreported issue, multiple criminals have offered to sell access to SolarWinds' computers through underground forums, according to two researchers who separately had access to those forums. One of those offering claimed access over the Exploit forum in 2017 was known as "fxmsp" and is wanted by the FBI "for involvement in several high-profile incidents," said Mark Arena, chief executive of cybercrime intelligence firm Intel471. Arena informed his company's clients, which include US law enforcement agencies. Security researcher Vinoth Kumar told Reuters that, last year, he alerted the company that anyone could access SolarWinds' update server by using the password "solarwinds123" "This could have been done by any attacker, easily," Kumar said. Neither the password nor the stolen access is considered the most likely source of the current intrusion, researchers said. Others - including Kyle Hanslovan, the cofounder of Maryland-based cybersecurity company Huntress - noticed that, days after SolarWinds realized their software had been compromised, the malicious updates were still available for download. The firm has long mooted the idea of spin-off of its managed service provider business and on 9 December announced that Thompson would be replaced by Sudhakar Ramakrishna, the former chief executive of Pulse Secure. Three weeks ago, SolarWinds posted a job ad seeking a new vice president for security; the position is still listed as open. Thompson and Ramakrishna could not be reached for comment. -Reuters