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Did North Korea order hack on Sony Pictures computers? –
Sony Pictures Entertainment is said to be investigating whether North Korea was behind a hack of its computer network, over a Hollywood film depicting a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un. The hermit state’s anger over the comedy about CIA plans to kill its leader may have been behind the attack on the company’s system, according to tech news website Re/code. A group calling itself #GOP (Guardians of Peace) posted a warning on employees computers on Monday saying “If you don`t obey us, we’ll release the data shown below to the world”, giving a deadline of 11:00 the same day and listing five data links. #GOP said Sony Pictures had been warned before but did not detail its demands. North Korea had threatened “a strong and merciless countermeasure” against the US if it released the Sony Pictures’ film The Interview.
Angelina Jolie ‘set to become a peer’ –
The dusty old House of Lords has been considerably enlivened in the past few weeks when a number of half-famous people have been officially sworn in as members of Parliament’s second chamber. But the most excitement came last week when Arminka Helic – best known as a highly-regarded special adviser to former foreign secretary William Hague – was formally welcomed into the House of Lords as Baroness Helic of Millbank. Elderly Parliamentarians dozing off a good lunch were startled to glance up to the public gallery and spot actress Angelina Jolie, an old friend of Lady Helic, gazing down benignly. Now tongues are wagging in Westminster that Miss Jolie is being lined up herself set on a seat in the House of Lords. The idea is not so far-fetched. Last month Miss Jolie was made an honorary dame by the Queen for her campaign work fighting sexual violence and for services to UK foreign policy. And last week it emerged that Miss Jolie has decided to retire from acting and focus her energies on her humanitarian work.[Daily Telegraph]
Angelina Jolie
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Xinjiang conflict
- Chinese police apprehend and execute eleven Uyghur terrorists following an attack with 15 killed and 14 injured in Yarkant County, China.(AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- Islamist insurgency in Nigeria:
- Suspected Boko Haram militants storm the Christian-majority town of Shani, Nigeria, leaving dozens dead. (Daily Sabah)
- Law and crime
- A Cairo court clears former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak on murder charges related to the death of hundreds of protesters in the 2011 Egyptian revolution. (AFP via Channel News Asia), (BBC)
- Shooting of Michael Brown
- Ferguson PD officer Darren Wilson resigns following a grand jury decision not to indict him in the Michael Brown case. (AP)
- Politics and elections
- Jiang Yi-huah resigns as the Premier of Taiwan as the ruling Kuomintang suffers heavy losses in local government elections. (AFP via Khaleej Times)
- 2014 Hong Kong protests
- Sunni candidates retain a majority of seats in the Bahraini Council of Representatives after an election which was boycotted by the main Shi’iteopposition. (AFP via The Daily Star)
- Voters go to the polls in the Australian state of Victoria for a state election. The election sees Labor, led by Daniel Andrews, defeat Denis Napthine‘s Liberal–National Coalition, the first time a one-term government has lost power in the state since 1955. (BBC) (The Age)(News.com.au) (Bloomberg News)
- The Union for a Popular Movement reelects former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as the party leader. (AP)
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