IMF targeted in computer attack

IMF targeted in computer attack

NEW YORK

The International Monetary Fund, already reeling from last month’s arrest of its former leader, is investigating an attack on its computer system.

IMF spokesman David Hawley said the organization is fully functional. He declined to provide further details on what he termed an “IT incident,” including its scope or nature and whether any sensitive data were taken. The IMF has confidential information on countries in financial trouble.

The New York Times cited unnamed IMF officials as saying the attack was sophisticated and serious.

The IMF already is facing a public-relations headache after the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as IMF chief last month after being accused of sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel.

Protesters rally on quake anniversary

TOKYO

Protesters conducted mass demonstrations against nuclear power across Japan on Saturday, the three-month anniversary of the powerful earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 23,000 people and triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

Streets in parts of Tokyo were completely jammed with thousands of chanting protesters, paralyzing sections of the city. Some marchers called for the country’s nuclear plants to be shut down immediately and for stricter radiation tests by the government.

Embassy bombing suspect is killed

NAIROBI, Kenya

The al-Qaida mastermind behind the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was killed this week at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu by Somali forces who didn’t immediately realize he was the most-wanted man in East Africa, officials said Saturday. The death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed — a man who topped the FBI’s most-wanted list for nearly 13 years — is the third major strike in six weeks against the worldwide terror group that was headed by Osama bin Laden until his death last month.

Libyan rebels retake major oil-port city

ZAWIYA, Libya

Libyan rebels battled their way back into a major oil port just 30 miles west of Tripoli on Saturday, forcing Moammar Gadhafi’s troops to close the vital coast highway and key supply route from Tunisia. The renewed rebel offensive marked a significant rebound for opposition forces who were crushed and driven out of the city nearly three months ago.

Rebels first took Zawiya in early March but were brutally expelled less than two weeks later in an assault by members of an elite brigade commanded by Gadhafi’s son Khamis. That had left rebels with only tenuous footholds in Libya’s far west.

On Saturday, Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the rebels’ political leadership council, said opposition fighters had taken control of a large area on the western side of the city.

Queen marks ‘official’ birthday

LONDON

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday marked her 85th birthday earlier this year with the pomp and pageantry of the “Trooping the Color” parade attended by newlyweds Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Under bright and breezy summer skies, the Queen’s Guard regiments performed a flawless spectacle repeated every year to mark the monarch’s “official birthday.”

Because of the better weather in June, the celebrations of the queen’s birthday, which is April 21, traditionally are delayed until the second Saturday in June.

Combined dispatches