This week's international security brief from Dilitas

Dilitas provides the following services:

INVESTIGATIONS

DUE DILIGENCE

SURVEILLANCE

CLOSE PROTECTION

SECURITY CONSULTANCY

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is?SEVERE

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

Ethiopia's government has asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate its own boss, the Ethiopian Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for what it describes as his "harmful misinformation" and "misconduct" over the country's conflict.

Suspected Islamist Militants have killed three people in Nangade and Ibo districts in attacks in the northern Cabo Delgado province that have led many other people to flee for their lives.

The European Union (EU) says it will impose sanctions on Mali after the military leaders who carried out last year's coup went back on a pledge to hold elections next month.

Sudanese security forces have fired tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy protesters who were heading towards the presidential palace in the capital, Khartoum.

Residents of Buea in south-west Cameroon say one man was shot dead and another is in hospital with bullet wounds after suspected separatist rebels opened fire near the town's central market.

A fake army general has been arrested after allegedly forging the signature of the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to commit fraud. Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Bolarinwa Oluwasegun, who was posing as an army general, defrauded Kodef Clearing Resources of over $650,000 (￡475,000).

ASIA

North Korea says it has conducted another hypersonic missile test, under the watch of its leader Kim Jong-un.

An outlawed militant alliance fighting the government of Pakistan confirmed Thursday that one of its top commanders was killed in neighboring Afghanistan earlier in the week. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, known as the Pakistani Taliban or TTP, in a statement identified the dead man as Khalid Balti, saying he was killed on Sunday while traveling.

Pakistani court on Wednesday sentenced four men to death for their involvement in a car bombing last year that killed four people near the residence of an anti-India militant leader.

EUROPE

Russia is plotting to stage acts of provocation to create a pretext to invade Ukraine, a US official has said.

A German court has sentenced a Syrian colonel to life in prison for crimes against humanity in a historic trial. Anwar Raslan, 58, was linked to the torture of over 4,000 people in Syria's civil war in a jail known as "Hell on Earth".

A young man who escaped from a Dutch juvenile offenders' institution has been fatally shot in a gun-battle with police across the border in Belgium.

11 arrested in Spain and France for flying cannabis into Europe. Criminal network smuggled tonnes of cannabis from Morocco to Spain and France and then laundered the proceeds

A former Danish defence minister, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, said on Friday that he had been charged under a law that deals with divulging state secrets.

Lisbon's City Hall has been fined €1.25m ($1.4m, ￡1m) for passing protesters' details to the foreign embassies they had been picketing.

MIDDLE EAST

Three Algerian journalists have been stabbed and robbed of their belongings near their hotel in the Cameroonian city of Douala.

Libyan security forces have violently broken up a sit-in by migrants protesting outside a former UN community centre in Tripoli.

Israel's internal security agency has arrested five Israelis accused of spying for its arch-enemy Iran.

The Israeli military is investigating reports that an 80-year-old Palestinian-American man died following his arrest by its soldiers in the occupied West Bank.

THE AMERICAS

Four people who were held hostage at a synagogue in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, have been freed unharmed after a 10-hour stand-off with police. Explosions and gunfire could be heard before the incident ended. The hostage-taker has since died, police say.

The European Union (EU) has removed The Bahamas from its notorious blacklist of anti-money laundering (AML) jurisdictions.

UK

MI5 has issued a rare warning to MPs that a Chinese agent has infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics. An alert from the security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee "established links" for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with current and aspiring MPs.

China has denied interfering in UK politics after MI5 warned an agent of the country had infiltrated Parliament.

A man who made "terrifying" threats of violence on a train carriage while carrying a knife has been jailed. Mohammed Khan caused "unacceptable panic" on the service, which he boarded in Manchester, during an outburst about 9/11 and the Taliban, police said.

A man has been arrested after counter terrorism police officers descended on a Middlesbrough home. Counter Terrorism Policing North East, supported by officers from Cleveland Police, attended a house on The Avenue, Teesville.

CYBER/CRYPTO/HACKING

More than a dozen Ukrainian government websites went down on Friday [14 Jan], in a cyber-attack that also targeted embassies. The foreign and education ministries were among those hit, along with embassies in the UK, US and Sweden.

Authorities in Russia say they have dismantled the ransomware crime group REvil and charged several of its members. The United States had offered a reward of up to $10m (￡7.3m) for information leading to the gang members, following ransomware attacks. Russia's intelligence bureau FSB said the group had "ceased to exist".

The Pentagon's cybersecurity arm on Wednesday said it has tied a hacking group known as MuddyWater to Iranian intelligence.

North Korean hackers stole almost $400m (￡291m) worth of digital assets in at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms last year, a report claims. Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis said it was one of most successful years on record for cyber-criminals in the closed east Asian state.

Dozens of journalists and activists in El Salvador have had their phones hacked with the spyware Pegasus, which has been used by governments to monitor critics and dissidents.

The Lazarus, Cobalt, and FIN7 hacking groups have been labeled as the most prevalent threat actors striking financial organisations today.