Dilitas International Security Brief

A somewhat belated weekly international security brief.

Dilitas provides the following services:

INVESTIGATIONS

DUE DILIGENCE

SURVEILLANCE

CLOSE PROTECTION

SECURITY CONSULTANCY

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL

The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is SEVERE

Threat levels are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

LOW means an attack is unlikely

MODERATE means an attack is possible, but not likely

SUBSTANTIAL means an attack is a strong possibility

SEVERE means an attack is highly likely

CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently

AFRICA

Dozens of people are dead following an attack by Islamist militants on a town in northern Mozambique, officials say.

Mozambican troops are carrying out what they call a “cleansing and manhunt” operation against militant Islamists who had carried a massive assault on the coastal town of Palma [2 weeks ago].

The family of a British man missing in Mozambique after an attack by Islamist militants have said a body has been found. Philip Mawer, 58, was working in Palma, in the north of the country, when it was stormed by militants.

About 1,200 people displaced by last week's attack by militant Islamists on the northern Mozambican town of Palma have disembarked in the city of Pemba.

An attempted coup has been thwarted in Niger following heavy gunfire overnight close to the presidential palace, security sources say.

The United Nations mission in Mali says four of its peacekeepers have been killed by suspected jihadists in the north of the country.

Gunmen shot dead at least 28 people in a night-time raid on a village in Ethiopia's Oromia region on Tuesday.

The G7 group of leading economic powers has said it is "strongly concerned" by reports of human rights abuses in Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray region. The group, which includes the UK, US and the EU, called for the reported crimes to be investigated and those responsible to be held to account.

The BBC has obtained a series of disturbing videos, which later circulated on social media. They appear to show the massacre of unarmed civilians in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, by people wearing Ethiopian army uniforms.

The Nigerian Air Force says it has lost radar contact with one of its aircraft while on a routine mission in the country's north-east.

Gunmen have attacked the former head of Nigeria's central bank, Prof Charles Soludo, killing three policemen guarding him.

A journalist in Chad has gone missing days after covering protests held in the country, a local human rights group has said.

UK charity Oxfam says it has suspended two members of staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo over allegations of sexual exploitation and bullying.

International observers stationed in South Sudan as part of the peace agreement say military training camps lack proper food and shelter, and female soldiers don't have appropriate hygiene facilities.

ASIA

At least 43 children have been killed by armed forces in Myanmar since February's military coup, according to rights organisation Save the Children.

Russia and China have jointly condemned Western sanctions, a day after the EU, UK, US and Canada blacklisted some senior Chinese officials for rights abuses against ethnic Uighurs.

Bangladesh had hoped that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence at its 50th independence anniversary celebrations [2 weeks ago] would be memorable. But the visit turned deadly as violent protests broke out against Mr Modi, leaving at least 12 people dead.

Firefighters in Indonesia are working to put out a massive fire that has broken out at one of the largest oil refineries in the country.

AUSTRALIA

An Australian Olympic kayaker and his brother have been found guilty of attempting to smuggle A$200m ($152m; ￡109m) of cocaine into the country.

EUROPE

Nato planes were scrambled 10 times in a six-hour period on Monday in response to an "unusual peak" of Russian flights in several areas, the Western military alliance said on Tuesday.

Russia has warned Nato against sending any troops to help Ukraine, amid reports of a large Russian military build-up on its borders.

Turkish security forces neutralised a total of 134 terrorists affiliated with the PKK and its Syrian branch YPG during domestic and cross-border anti-terror operations.

Spanish police have arrested 100 suspected gang members, accused of smuggling drugs from Morocco to Spain in speedboats.

An Italian navy officer has been arrested after being caught in the act of handing secret documents to a Russian military official, police say.

The remains of a Swiss woman held hostage for more than four years in Mali have been found and identified, the Swiss foreign ministry says.

Campaigners in Belgium are calling for urgent reform of the police after a series of high profile deaths in custody.

MIDDLE EAST

Kurdish-led security forces have made arrests inside a camp in northern Syria holding family members of Islamic State group members.

The former crown prince of Jordan says he has been placed under house arrest as part of a crackdown on critics.

UK

A man described as "immature but no fool" has been jailed after police found terrorist material in his home. Sohaib Embarek was arrested at his flat in Bristol after an operation involving Avon and Somerset Police and counter-terrorism officers.

A schoolboy who created his own online neo-Nazi group has been sentenced after admitting terrorism offences. The 16-year-old, from Newcastle, called himself Hitler and set up accounts on multiple social media platforms which glorified extreme right-wing violence.

A man has become the first serving British police officer to be convicted of a terrorism offence after he was found guilty of membership of a banned neo-Nazi group. Ben Hannam had been working as a probationary officer for the Metropolitan police for nearly two years before his details were found on a leaked database of users of an extreme rightwing forum.

Petrol bombs, bricks and bottles were thrown at police during sustained rioting in the Sandy Row area of Belfast on Friday night. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said eight officers were injured and seven people arrested.

Police were attacked with petrol bombs and fireworks in Newtownabbey on a second night of trouble in Northern Ireland.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority reported suspicious activity involving more than ￡200m to law enforcement authorities in the past year, a new report has revealed.

USA

An attack at the US Capitol complex in Washington DC has left one police officer dead and another in hospital with injuries. A car crashed into a security barrier before the driver lunged towards the officers with a knife, police said. The officers opened fire and the suspect was shot dead.

At least four people, including a child, have been killed in a shooting at an office building in southern California, US media report.

US authorities have released a video showing two children being dropped over a 14ft (4.2 m) wall by alleged smugglers at the US-Mexico border in New Mexico.

Former Mexican politician pleads guilty to money laundering in Texas. Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba entered a guilty plea in court Thursday, eight years after he was hit with a 53-page indictment.

A court in the United States has sentenced the brother of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to life in prison for drug trafficking.

Customs officials in Ecuador discovered 185 baby tortoises packed inside a suitcase that was being sent from the Galápagos Islands to the mainland on Sunday [28th March].

Outrage has been growing over the death in police custody of a Salvadorean woman in the Mexican resort of Tulum on Saturday as more details of the incident emerged.

A Kansas man has been indicted on a federal charge accusing him of tampering with a public water system, Acting U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard said Wednesday.

A state of emergency has been declared in Florida after a leak from a large pond of toxic wastewater in Tampa Bay.

CYBER/CRYPTO

Acer Gets Hacked With $50M Ransomware Demand.

Facebook has removed a group of China-based hackers it says targeted members of the Uighur community living abroad.

[UK] A ransomware attack on multiple schools has left 37,000 pupils unable to access their email.

The Harris Federation, which runs 50 primary and secondary academies in and around London, said it had temporarily disabled email while it deals with the cyber-attack.

The well-known Project Zero security team run by Google exposed intelligence agency hacking operations by a US-allied nation, according to reports, causing counter-terrorist intelligence efforts to be shut down.

Project Zero is dedicated to finding so-called “zero-day” vulnerabilities in widely used software and systems.

Suspected Russian hackers accessed email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a new report.

The 'sophisticated criminal attack' against the clothing retailer FatFace which put employees' bank details and National Insurance numbers and the personal details of customers at risk was caused by a staff member clicking on a dodgy email, it has been reported.

A hacking group associated with the Iranian government targeted senior medical researchers in the U.S. and Israel over the past few months, new research released Wednesday found.

Scotland's environmental watchdog has spent nearly ￡800,000 on its response to a major cyber attack, new figures show. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) had more than 4,000 of its digital files stolen by hackers on Christmas Eve.

[UK] A gang selling ecstasy around the world on the dark web has been "dismantled", police have said. Two men from South Tyneside have been arrested on suspicion of importing and supplying drugs.

The University of California is warning its students and staff that a ransomware group might have stolen and published their personal data and that of hundreds of other schools, government agencies and companies nationwide.

Hackers recently stole Yeshiva University students’ and employees’ personal information — including Social Security numbers and financial information — in a data security breach of Accellion, Inc., a third-party vendor used by the university to securely transfer files.

AND FINALLY 1

A fugitive Italian gangster's urge to show off his cooking skills has landed him in jail after seven years on the run. Italian police tracked down Marc Feren Claude Biart, 53, through the culinary videos he had uploaded to YouTube. While he carefully hid his face, he failed to disguise his body tattoos. The alleged member of the 'Ndrangheta crime gang was arrested in the Dominican Republic last Wednesday and has now been extradited back to Italy.

AND FINALLY 2

A young child inadvertently sparked confusion over the weekend by posting an unintelligible tweet to the official account of US Strategic Command.

The agency is responsible for safeguarding America's nuclear weapons.

Some social-media users feared the account may have been hacked.

But it has since been revealed a young member of the account's social-media manager's family was responsible for posting the tweet, “;l;;gmlxzssaw", which was then deleted within minutes.