News in Brief

Date: 21 February 2018 - 20:45

News ID: ۵۰۳۱۹

BEIJING (Dispatches) – Eleven Chinese warships have entered the East Indian Ocean this month, in what seems to have been a show of strength amid a rivalry in the region with India and a crisis in the Maldives.
A fleet of Chinese destroyers and at least one frigate, a massive amphibious transport dock, and three support tankers sailed into the Indian Ocean in February, reports said.
"If you look at warships and other equipment, the gap between the Indian and Chinese navy is not large,” it said.
Reports did not say when exactly the fleet had been deployed or for how long, but Indian defense sources said on Tuesday that a Chinese flotilla of a destroyer, frigate, and tankers did enter the region around February 10 after conducting some drills in the South China Sea.
The flotilla, which according to the sources was well over 3,500 kilometers away from the Maldives, went back through the Lombok Strait after several days.
"Indian satellites, warships, and long-range maritime surveillance aircraft like P-8I kept close tabs on the Chinese flotilla, which was in international waters towards Australia,” The Times of India quoted a defense source as speaking on condition of anonymity.

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MADRID (AFP) -- A Spanish court Wednesday issued an arrest warrant valid only in Spain for a former Catalan lawmaker who moved to Switzerland to avoid being jailed while she is investigated over her role in the region's secession drive.
The Supreme Court "ordered the arrest" of Anna Gabriel, who failed to turn up on Wednesday before a judge for questioning, it said in its ruling. The arrest warrant only applies "nationally", a court spokesman told AFP.
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PARIS (AFP) -- At least 3,000 people sleep rough on the streets of Paris, according to figures from the city's first ever homelessness census which authorities warned Wednesday were likely a serious underestimate.
Some 1,700 Parisian volunteers and 300 officials carried out the census last Thursday night, going street by street counting the number of people huddled in sleeping bags in doorways or camped out in tents.
They also surveyed homeless people about their housing and health problems, collecting data that Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo hopes will allow authorities to design better policies to help those on the streets.
Deputy mayor Bruno Julliard, unveiling the results, warned that the figure of 2,952 people sleeping rough - added to 672 in emergency winter shelters - was a low estimate.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The annual cost of cybercrime has hit $600 billion worldwide, fueled by growing sophistication of hackers and proliferation of criminal marketplaces and cryptocurrencies, researchers said Wednesday.
A report produced by the security firm McAfee with the Center for Strategic and International Studies found theft of intellectual property represents about one-fourth of the cost of cybercrime in 2017.
The researchers said ransomware is the fastest-growing component of cybercrime, helped by the easy availability of marketplaces offering hacking services.
The global research report comes days after the White House released a report showing cyberattacks cost the United States between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016, while warning of a "spillover" effect for the broader economy if certain sectors are hit
Globally, criminals are using the same tools for data or identity theft, bank hacks, and other cyber mischief, with anonymity preserved by using bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.

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HAVANA (AFP) -- Cuban President Raul Castro received a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers Tuesday, who are visiting the island with the alleged "acoustic attacks" against U.S. diplomats on their agenda.
"During the meeting they discussed matters of interest to both countries," the Cuban government said in a statement.
The delegation, led by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, arrived in Cuba Sunday to address various issues including the mysterious supposed attacks in Havana.
The issue has hit U.S.-Cuba relations, with Washington withdrawing half of its diplomats from Cuba and expelling 15 officials from the Cuban Embassy in the U.S. capital.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry's U.S. director, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, met with the congressmen Monday assuring them that "no evidence that attacks occurred against US diplomats in Cuba exists," according to his deputy Johana Tablada.

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KOLKATA (AFP) -- Indian police said Wednesday they have arrested two men over the gang rape of a mentally ill woman in West Bengal state who required surgery after enduring the violent assault.
The 27-year-old woman remains in a critical condition after being abducted Saturday evening from a carnival and taken to a field where she was assaulted with an iron bar.
She was found naked and bloodied the next day and rushed to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. "Two men, aged 50 and 54, were arrested on Tuesday," Anju Sharma, a West Bengal police director general, told AFP.
A local court ordered they be held in police custody, Sharma said. The brutality of the crime has generated shock even in a country where violent sexual assaults remain persistently high.