A new Internet virus is reported to have infected and destroyed more than 500 000 online bank accounts and affected several thousands credit cards in Nigeria, South Africa and some countries in the developed world.
The Trojan’s’ origin is yet to be established, but computer experts on security say it was first detected in 2006 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland.
According to a local daily newspaper in this commercial capital city of Nigeria, the virus has been under close scrutiny but no solution has been forthcoming.
A joint internet research by Nigeria and its South African counterparts specialising in computer security is working on possible ways to destroy the virus which is threatening internet banking, internet researches and email communications.
Nigeria and South Africa computer experts have described Trojan virus as one of the most sophisticated “crime syndicates” to emerge in the 21st century.
A local newspaper here quoted South Africa’s Fraud Action Research Lab expert, Sean Brady, as saying the new internet virus is called “Windows Sinowal Trojan”, which he claimed was detected in 2006.
“This is a serious incident on a very noticeable scale and we have seen an increase in the number of Trojans and their variants, particularly in the United States and Canada. The effect has been really global with over 2000 domains compromised,” said Brady.
It is estimated that 500 000 online bank accounts and more than 270 000 credit and debit cards have been compromised from several financial institutions, particularly the United States, Poland, United Kingdom and Australia.
Information technology researchers believe the Trojan virus was “created” by unscrupulous scientists with a view to do business, and have been modifying it occasionally.
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO — In the past 30 years, more than 100,000 Ethiopian Jews have emigrated to Israel, but thousands more still wait in Gondar province for their chance to leave.
Yellow Springs filmmaker Aileen LeBlanc has been filming them for two years. She showed a 20-minute clip of her film “Take Us Home” at Temple Sholom on Friday, Nov. 14.
LeBlanc, who made the documentary “Dayton Codebreakers” in 2005, has been traveling to Israel and Ethiopia to chronicle the lives of four Ethiopian families trying to get to Israel. Her appearance Friday was a fundraising event for the Springfield Jewish Welfare Fund, which sends money to the nonprofit United Jewish Communities and “Operation Promise,” a program designed to rescue and resettle Ethiopian Jews.
“There’s three reasons why (Ethiopians come to Israel),” LeBlanc said. “Their religion, persecution and the impoverished conditions in their country.”
LeBlanc, who herself is not Jewish, was hired to make the documentary by Karen Levin, executive director of the Levin Family Foundation, which is underwriting the film. Levin said she got the idea for the documentary during a fundraising mission to Gondar in 2006.
“All of these people were in a holding pattern,” Levin said. “They left everything they owned with the faith that someday they would end up in Jerusalem.”
The steady influx of Ethiopian Jews is controversial in Israel, LeBlanc said. Under Israel’s Law of Return, unanimously adopted in 1950, the country opened its doors to Jews all over the world. But the Ethiopian Jews now trying to get in are Falash Mura, Jews that converted to Christianity, some of whom say they did so to avoid persecution. The Ethiopian Jews now living in Israel are having difficulty assimilating.
LeBlanc is not sure when her film will be finished. Shooting wrapped in September, but LeBlanc is now editing more than 100 hours of footage, which could take as long as five months. She also plans to overdub the film in English.
“Most of the film is in Amharic and Hebrew and I don’t want people reading (subtitles) the whole time,” she said.
NAIROBI, KENYA – The construction of an eight-lane highway on Thika Road begins on Monday. This follows the Government’s signing of a Sh27 billion contract with three Chinese road construction firms.
Acting Roads Minister Chris Obure, yesterday said the construction of the first modern highway in East and Central Africa will take 30 months to complete.
Obure said the 50.4km highway expansion project would open a new chapter in the construction of roads.
Chinese firms, China Wu Yi Company, Synohydro Corporation Ltd and Shengli Engineering Construction, have been contracted for the project.
“Thika highway has been made possible today, with the support of African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Kenya, we envisage the completion of a model road in the region in 30 months,” Obure said.
He said the highway will have all the T-junctions done away with, and extra features such as flyovers, underpasses, interchanges, pedestrian grade separators, cross drainage system and modern street lighting to Thika town, introduced.
It will also have a well-lit underpass and a flyover between Uhuru Highway and Muthaiga, and Kenyatta University.
The highway starts at Globe Cinema roundabout. Highway designers have proposed the construction of four major interchanges between Globe Cinema and Ruiru and three underpasses between Globe Cinema and Kasarani.
The interchanges will replace the roundabouts, blamed for unwinding traffic jams.
Incidents of pedestrians being knocked by speeding vehicles have also been addressed. Pedestrian separators will be built along the highway.
The minister also said his ministry would work with that of the Nairobi Metropolitan Development to re-plan roads in the city to ensure parking yards are outside the central business district.
Obure also cautioned the three contractors, saying the Government would not tolerate unnecessary delays.
He said plans to expand major roads across the country were underway and warned wananchi against building on the road reserves.
He said the Government was also planning a major expansion of the Outering Road, which connects Mombasa Road and Uhuru Highway to Thika Road.
Kangundo Road, Bomas–Ongata Rongai, Langata, Jogoo, Juja, Kiambu, Limuru, Waiyaki Way and Mbagathi/Valley roads are among those whose expansion programmes the minister said donors have agreed to fund.
Obure said studies are being conducted on a proposal to introduce a Light Rail transport and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) within Nairobi to decongest the city.
“There is a study going on under the Nairobi-Thika highway improvement project to look into how we can make this a reality, I want Kenyans to know we are not just talking, we are going to make it happen,” he said.
He said once the proposed city by-passes covering 110km are built, access to the city centre would be easier and wastages resulting from congestion minimised.
Funds for the construction of the Northern, Eastern and Southern by-passes have been set aside.
He said the European Community and the African Development Bank are among the main donors.
“I hate seeing damages associated with demolitions when we are preparing to start a road project, but I want Kenyans to know roads cannot be built on air, we shall demolish encroaching structures because we want to build roads,” Obure said.
The Government has now put more emphasis on road constructions and three state agencies have been created to handle the planning and building of various roads.
Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) will now take charge of various clusters of roads after they were created a few months ago.
On Thursday, the Government appointed Meshack Otieno, Joseph ole Nkadayo and Mwangi Maingi as Director Generals of the road authorities.
Mozambican and South African energy utilities, EDM and Eskom, will jointly construct a $1.3-billion power station in Mozambique in a move to boost power supply to South Africa ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Eskom and EDM said here on Friday.
The Mozambican power utility said the project was discussed at a recent meeting between the power utilities held in Mozambique and attended by senior officials from both organizations.
The power station which would be fired by gas from Mozambique’s gas fields in Inhambane and would be built in Moamba, 60 km northwest of Maputo, would produce between 610 and 680 megawatts, EDM said.
South Africa has in recent months faced a power supply crisis, leading observers to question if the country would have enough supplies to service the World Cup in two years.
Mozambique is one of the few countries in southern Africa with a surplus of power.
MONROVIA – Three Liberian journalists are expected to leave the country today for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to cover the Sixth African development Forum, which is jointly organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the Development Bank (AFDB).
The journalists include Mrs. Melissa Chea-Annan of The Inquirer Newspaper, Othello Garbla of The New Democrat Newspaper and Cheechiay Jablason of The Daily Observer.
The forum, which runs from 19-21 of November 2008, will be held under the theme, “Action On Gender Equality, Empowerment and Ending Violence against Women in Africa.”
The African Development Forum was initiated in 1999 as a multi-stakeholder platform for building consensus on identifying key challenges of African development and the strategies for over coming them.
The three day forum in Addis Ababa with its focus on gender equality, women’s empowerment and ending violence against women, is expected to provide an opportunity to review the progress made at the national, sub-regional and regional levels to date.
It will also provide an opportunity for a continental debate on the implementation of challenges being experienced in promoting gender equality, women empowerment. It will also end with a platform that will provide a clear recommendation on how to achieve its goals.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The British Embassy in Addis Ababa has launched a new online visa application services. Susannah Richmond, Entry Clearance Manger with British Embassy in Addis Ababa, told WIC that the United Kingdom wants to improve the services it offers for its customers using the available modern technology in the country. Accordingly, the Embassy has brought a new initiative whereby applicants can apply on-line for entry visa.
The Entrance Clearance Manger said that the Embassy has already opened up visa application center along the Bole road where applicants can get the service free of charge. She expressed the system as very time-saving, easiest, flexible and enable to identify mistakes easily weighed against the paper-copy application procedures.
She further explained that the United Kingdom is gradually implementing the on-line application system all over the world where the internet facilities are good at all. She added that Ethiopia is of the first few African Countries which has good internet facilities. Applicants, however, can use the paper copies if they prefer, Richmond said.
