Russia sends truck convoy into Ukraine; Kiev government calls it a ‘direct invasion’
LUHANSK, Ukraine — Tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated sharply on Friday as Moscow sent more than 130 trucks rolling across the border in what it said was a mission to deliver humanitarian aid. Ukraine called it a “direct invasion,” and the U.S. and NATO condemned it as well.
In another ominous turn in the crisis, NATO said it has mounting evidence that Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine and launching artillery attacks from Ukrainian soil — significantly deeper involvement in the fighting than the West has previously alleged.
The trucks, part of a convoy of 260 vehicles, entered Ukraine without government permission after being held up at the border for a week amid fears that the mission was a Kremlin ploy to help the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
By late afternoon, trucks had reached the city of Luhansk, whose war-reduced population of a quarter-million people has suffered under intense fighting over the past several weeks between Ukrainian forces and the separatists.
Russia said the white-tarped vehicles were carrying food, water, generators and sleeping bags.
Homeland Security warns retailers about hacking software, estimates 1,000 businesses affected
WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 U.S. retailers could be infected with malicious software lurking in their cash register computers, allowing hackers to steal customer financial data, the Homeland Security Department said Friday.
The government urged businesses of all sizes to scan their point-of-sale systems for software known as “Backoff,” discovered last October. It previously explained in detail how the software operates and how retailers could find and remove it.
Earlier this month, United Parcel Service said it found infected computers in 51 stores. UPS said it was not aware of any fraud that resulted from the infection but said hackers may have taken customers’ names, addresses, email addresses and payment card information.
The company apologized to customers and offered free identity protection and credit monitoring services to those who had shopped in those 51 stores.
Backoff was discovered in October, but according to the Homeland Security Department the software wasn’t flagged by antivirus programs until this month.
Costa Rica to probe US program that recruited anti-government activists to work in Cuba
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — The Costa Rican government will investigate undercover U.S. programs operated from the Central American country and using its citizens in a ploy to destabilize the government in Cuba, the director of intelligence and security said Friday.
Mariano Figueres told The Associated Press that the new administration, which took office May 8, has found no records or information from their predecessors about the U.S. Agency for International Development project, which starting in 2009 sent young Venezuelans, Costa Ricans and Peruvians to Cuba in hopes of stirring opposition to the island’s communist government.
Figueres said Costa Rica’s only information came from an Aug. 4 Associated Press article, which said USAID and a contractor, Creative Associates International, used the cover of health and civic programs, some operating out of Costa Rica, in hopes of provoking political change in Cuba. The AP found the program continued even as U.S. officials privately told contractors to consider suspending travel to Cuba after the arrest there of contractor Alan Gross, who remains imprisoned after smuggling in sensitive technology.
“If we can confirm all this, of course we’re not going to agree that our national territory be used to attack a friendly government, regardless of what ideological side you’re on,” Figueres said. “It’s a matter of sovereignty and respect … and we’re very alarmed that they used Costa Rican citizens and put them at risk.”
He said that Costa Rica has yet to ask the U.S. about the program and that any findings would be relayed through the Foreign Ministry.
Ebola outbreak widens in Nigeria; Liberia death toll tops 1,000; Experts fear ‘shadow zones’
ABUJA, Nigeria — Two alarming new cases of Ebola have emerged in Nigeria, widening the circle of people sickened beyond the immediate group of caregivers who treated a dying airline passenger in one of Africa’s largest cities.
The outbreak also continues to spread elsewhere in West Africa, with 142 more cases recorded, bringing the new total to 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Most of the new cases are in Liberia, where the government was delivering donated rice to a slum where 50,000 people have been sealed off from the rest of the capital in an attempt to contain the outbreak.
New treatment centers in Liberia are being overwhelmed by patients that were not previously identified. One center with 20 beds opened its doors to 70 possibly infected people, likely coming from “shadow-zones” where people fearing authorities won’t let doctors enter, the U.N health agency said.
“This phenomenon strongly suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system,” the agency said. This has “never before been seen in an Ebola outbreak.”
By wire sources