Cyberattack disrupts check-in systems at airports
Brussels, Sep 20: A cyberattack targeting check-in and boarding systems has snarled air traffic and caused delays at some of Europe’s top airports, officials said on Saturday. The Brussels airport says the attack means that only manual check-in and boarding were possible there, and the incident was having a “large impact” on flight schedules. “There was a cyberattack on Friday night, 19 September, against the service provider for the check-in and boarding systems affecting several European airports, including Brussels Airport,” it said in a statement. Authorities at Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport said a service provider for passenger handling systems was attacked on Friday evening, prompting airport operators to cut off connections to the systems. London Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, said “a technical issue” affected a service provider for check-in and boarding systems. (AP)
Pakistani court charges man with murder of TikTok influencer
Islamabad, Sep 20: A Pakistani court charged a man on Saturday with murder for shooting a teenage social media influencer outside her home earlier this year after refusing his offer of friendship. Judge Mohammad Afzal Majoka in the capital, Islamabad, indicted Umar Hayat for killing 17-year-old Sana Yousuf. Hayat pleaded not guilty. Hayat, a 22-year-old TikTok content creator, was arrested in June in Faisalabad. Yousuf’s death drew widespread condemnation. Judge Majoka asked Hayat if he had killed Yousuf. Hayat replied that he had not. He also rejected the allegation that he had stolen her mobile phone, a court official said. (AP)
US carried out strike targeting drug-smuggling boat: Trump
Washington, Sep 20: President Donald Trump said Friday the US military has carried out its third fatal strike against an alleged drug smuggling vessel this month. Trump in a social media posting said the strike killed three and was carried out against a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narco-trafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” He did not provide more precise details about the location of the strike. The Pentagon deferred questions about the strike to the White House, which did not respond to a request for clarity about the origins of the vessel. “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans,” Trump said in the post. (AP)
Unexploded WWII bomb defused in Hong Kong
Hong Kong, Sep 20: Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Hong Kong overnight so experts could defuse a large US-made bomb left over from World War II that was discovered at a construction site. Police said the bomb was 1.5 metres in length and weighed about 450 kilograms. It was discovered by construction workers in Quarry Bay, a bustling residential and business district of Hong Kong Island. (AP)
