US charges two Russian spies and two 'criminal hackers' over Yahoo hack

Two Russian spies and two "criminal hackers" have been charged in the US over a massive Yahoo data breach in 2014.

Acting assistant attorney general Mary McCord announced that the four people had been indicted at a news conference in Washington DC.

She said: "Two FSB officers, protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the US and elsewhere."

The FSB agents were identified as Dmitry Dokuchaev, 33, and Igor Sushchin, 43.

Dokuchaev was an officer in the FSB's Centre for Information Security, which is supposed to investigate hacking crimes and is the FBI's point of contact in Moscow.

According to AFP, he was arrested earlier this year in Moscow on treason charges.

He is accused of running the Yahoo hack, along with his superior Sushchin.

Ms McCord said they had "protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere".

They are accused of hiring Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov to carry out the attack.

Belan, 29, was born in Latvia but has Russian citizenship, a Russian passport and speaks Russian.

The FBI said he may travel within Russia, Greece, Latvia, the Maldives, Thailand and has been on the FBI's most wanted list for three years.

Baratov is a Canadian/Kazakh national and was arrested on Tuesday in Canada. There were no further details given about him.

:: Yahoo cyberattack trial would shine a light on Russian hacking

Ms McCord said the targets of the hack included security, diplomatic, journalists and military personnel, and that the attack was used for espionage and financial gain.

Officials revealed the Yahoo hack began as early as 2014 and, even though the hackers lost access last September, they continued to use the information acquired until as late as December 2016.

Details of 500 million users were stolen during the hack - one of the largest in history.

Yahoo's chief executive Marissa Mayer tweeted: "Very grateful to the FBI and DOJ for bringing to justice the Russian officials and hackers who led the attack on Yahoo."

Earlier, Chris Madsen, the tech company's senior legal director, said: "The indictment unequivocally shows the attacks on Yahoo were state-sponsored.

"We are deeply grateful to the FBI for investigating these crimes and the DOJ for bringing charges against those responsible."

Sky News Technology Correspondent Tom Cheshire said the indictments would be "a massive relief" for Yahoo, which had been criticised for poor security.

Britain's spy agency MI5 had also been described as having been "very helpful in the investigation", he added.

The US is not alleging any connection between the Yahoo hacking and the attack on the Democratic National Convention.

Russia has not commented but the country's news agencies cited a "highly placed" source in Moscow as saying that they have not heard from Washington about the charges.

The source also said that the topic was part of an internal political struggle in the US.

Tory election expenses row: How bad could it get?

How many MPs are under the spotlight?

Two dozen are believed to be under investigation by their local police forces, who have until later this year to decide whether charges should be brought.

They include Craig Mackinlay, who beat Nigel Farage in South Thanet after a big operation by Tory campaigners. He was understood to have been interviewed by police last weekend for six hours.

Previous investigations by Channel 4 News and the Daily Mirror have highlighted others.

Sky News has seen a list of more than 30 Tory MPs who are implicated, although at least two are believed to have been cleared by local police forces.

Some of the MPs are much more concerned than others. Some had a visit by the campaign "battle bus" for just one morning and say they had enough money in local spending that they could have covered it - if they had known it should be registered locally. Others are said to be "scared" about the investigation.

What has Sky News found out?

That recriminations are flying within the party about who is to blame, as an official investigation looms.

A leaked email from Tory MP Karl McCartney, who narrowly beat Labour in Lincoln, refers to the situation as a "mess" which he predicts will result in a "media s***storm".

He blames "clever dicks" at Conservative central office for the spending row, and says MPs are being hung out to dry while Tory officials who masterminded the campaign are "covering their backsides".

Party chairman Patrick McLoughlin has been in touch with Tories affected, and held his first showdown meeting with them on Tuesday. The party has also paid for a lawyer for them.

Mr McCartney claims central office has seen a draft report from the Electoral Commission into the affair ahead of publication and refused to reveal its contents but Conservative sources deny this.

What happens next?

The Electoral Commission is investigating the Conservative party's national spending, and spending on three by-elections in 2014, and is due to report in the coming weeks.

It emerged last year that some £38,000 of spending had not been declared to the watchdog, which the Conservatives put down to an "administrative error". A £20,000 fine could be imposed.

There are also more than 20 separate police investigations into MPs and their election agents and whether they knowingly made a false declaration.

Election agents who filed the campaign return - how much was spent in their local area - face jail. Some MPs have told Sky they expect to be cleared because they closely followed guidance from headquarters which they believed was correct.

How bad could this get for the Conservatives?

The one the Tories are particularly worried about is South Thanet, where Mr Mackinlay beat Mr Farage by 2,000 votes in a contest the Tories were desperate to win.

The campaign return came in at under the £15,000 local limit, imposed to ensure a level playing field. But it has been claimed another £18,000 was spent at nearby hotels.

If any police forces decide there is a case to answer, they will pass a file to the Crown Prosecution Service and the case will go to court.

This could result, eventually, in contests being rerun and the prospect of a raft of by-elections for a Prime Minister with a 12-seat majority and tricky Brexit negotiations to navigate.

Other Tory MPs are simply worried it has dragged on for so long, and hope they will be able to clear their names well ahead of the next general election. Whenever it comes.

Suicide bomber kills 30 at Justice Palace in Damascus

A suicide bomber has killed at least 30 people after detonating an explosive vest inside the main judicial building in Damascus, state media has said.

Official state news agency SANA said a second suicide blast struck a restaurant in the Rabweh district of the Syrian capital, leaving an unknown number of casualties.

The bombing inside the historic Justice Palace - near the crowded Hamidiyeh market - is the latest in a spate of deadly explosions and suicide attacks targeting government-controlled areas in Syria.

Damascus police chief Mohammad Kheir Ismail said the Justice Palace attacker was wearing a military uniform and carrying a shotgun and grenades and arrived at the entrance to the building at around 1.20pm.

He was stopped by guards, who removed his weapon and asked to search him.

At that point, the man hurled himself inside the building and detonated the explosives, the police chief told state TV.

Another 45 people were wounded in the blast, which is believed to have been timed to kill lawyers, judges and other people going into the building.

In the second attack, a suicide bomber killed several people inside a restaurant in Rabweh district.

Ikhbariyeh TV said the attacker was chased by security guards, before rushing inside the restaurant and detonating an explosive vest.

It comes as airstrikes killed 20 people, at least 14 of them children, in Idlib on Wednesday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The group said the aircraft behind the attack, believed to be Russian, struck the city and the town of Maarrat Misrin.

More than 400,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since the conflict began in Syria in March 2011, when a popular uprising against President Bashar al Assad descended into a civil war.

:: Red Cross: Syria war destruction 'on World War Two scale'

The recent attacks have targeted highly symbolic sites, and could herald the start of a new insurgency campaign by al Qaeda-linked militants.

On Saturday, twin attacks near holy shrines frequented by Shia Muslims in Damascus killed at least 40 people. They were claimed by the al Qaeda-linked group known as the Levant Liberation Committee - formerly the Nusra Front.

Peace talks have been taking place in the Kazakhstan capital Astana, but Syria's armed opposition has boycotted the most recent round over what it claims is ongoing government military offensives in the country.

The talks, brokered by Russia and Turkey, centre on reaching a ceasefire in Syria and getting humanitarian aid to millions of civilians.

US charges Russian spies over Yahoo hack

Two Russian spies and two "criminal hackers" have been charged in the US over a massive Yahoo data breach in 2014.

Acting assistant attorney general Mary McCord announced that the four people had been indicted at a news conference in Washington DC.

She said: "Two FSB officers, protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the US and elsewhere."

The FSB agents were identified as Dmitry Dokuchaev, 33, and Igor Sushchin, 43.

Dokuchaev was an officer in the FSB's Centre for Information Security, which is supposed to investigate hacking crimes and is the FBI's point of contact in Moscow.

According to AFP, he was arrested earlier this year in Moscow on treason charges.

He is accused of running the Yahoo hack, along with his superior Sushchin.

Ms McCord said they had "protected, directed, facilitated and paid criminal hackers to collect information through computer intrusions in the United States and elsewhere".

They are accused of hiring Alexsey Belan and Karim Baratov to carry out the attacks.

Belan, 29, was born in Latvia but has Russian citizenship, a Russian passport and speaks Russian.

The FBI said he may travel within Russia, Greece, Latvia, the Maldives, Thailand and has been on the FBI's most wanted list for three years.

Baratov is a Canadian national and was arrested this week in Canada.

There were no further details given about him.

:: Yahoo cyberattack trial would shine light on Russian hacking

Ms McCord said the targets of the hack included security, diplomatic, journalists and military personnel and the cyberattack was used for espionage and financial gain.

Officials revealed the Yahoo hack began as early as 2014 and, even though the hackers lost access last September, they continued to use the information acquired until as late as December 2016.

Details of 500 million users were stolen during the hack - one of the largest in history.

Yahoo's chief executive Marissa Mayer tweeted: "Very grateful to the FBI and DOJ for bringing to justice the Russian officials and hackers who led the attack on Yahoo."

Kurt Geiger and Endless among suitors for ailing Jones Bootmaker

The upmarket shoe retailer Kurt Geiger and Endless, the turnaround firm which owns Bathstore, are among a pack of suitors circling Jones Bootmaker as the footwear chain hovers on the brink of administration.

Sky News has learnt that the two prospective bidders are in discussions with advisers to Jones Bootmaker's owners about a rescue deal that could preserve hundreds of jobs.

It emerged earlier this week that Alteri Investors, which has owned Jones for two years, had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators - a move that gives it breathing space from creditors until next week.

However, doubts persist about how many of the 1100 jobs at Jones would be saved after any deal, with Kurt Geiger's prospective bid predicated upon salvaging the Jones brand but not its high street shops.

Endless, which has successfully backed companies such as Crown Paints and was among the bidders last year for parts of Tata Steel's UK operations, is said to have lodged a bid for Jones ahead of a deadline on Monday.

The sale process, being run by the accelerated mergers and acquisitions team at KPMG, is also said to have attracted interest from several other parties.

Jones, which has been trading for more than 150 years, has been operating in an increasingly difficult high street environment.

Forthcoming increases in business rates, along with currency-related cost inflation and new Government taxes have hurt chains in every part of the retail sector.

Retail Week reported last week that one of Jones' creditors had filed a winding-up petition against the company.

The Jones brand is sold in just over 100 standalone stores and concessions.

Insiders believe that any rescue deal will initially involve Jones being put through a process called a pre-pack administration - used last week by a venture of the sportswear tycoon Mike Ashley to acquire Agent Provocateur.

Alteri bought Jones Bootmaker - alongside the Brantano brand in 2015, and then repurchased the latter's UK operations after putting them through an insolvency process.

An Alteri spokesman could not be reached for comment, while Endless and Kurt Geiger's owner, Cinven, both declined to comment.

Beyonce fans convinced she is having twin boys

Beyonce is expecting twin boys - according to her fans, anyway.
The singer posted photos on her website wearing a black velvet dress, a Gucci bag, black boots and a honeycomb choker.It was her earrings that caught the attention of fans, however.
They were the same silver patterned hoops she wore in the music video for her hit song If I Were A Boy in 2008.

Fans quickly seized on the picture and tweeted that the jewellery choice was Beyonce's way of dropping a hint about the sex of her babies.
"Beyonce is wearing the If I Were A Boy earrings again...does this mean she's having twin boys??" posted one admirer on Twitter.

"Beyonce is having twin boys!!! she is wore the same earrings from "If I Were A Boy" music video," said another, adding a string of hearts.
It would not be the first time that Beyonce, who announced in February that she and husband Jay Z are expecting, has given pregnancy clues.

Weeks before she officially announced she was having twins, the 35-year-old had posted a picture of herself flashing the peace sign - or possibly the number two - on Instagram.
And five years ago, while expecting her daughter Blue Ivy, she appeared on TV wearing bright blue leggings.

Exploding headphones injure sleeping woman on Beijing to Melbourne flight

A woman has spoken of her horror after her battery-powered headphones exploded on her face as she slept during a flight.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued a warning after the incident on a flight from Beijing to Melbourne, which left the woman with burns to her face and hands.

The passenger, who has not been named, said she fell asleep two hours into the flight, only to be woken when the headphones exploded.

She said: "As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face. I just grabbed my face which caused the headphones to go around my neck.

"I continued to feel burning so I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor.

"They were sparking and had small amounts of fire."

Flight attendants poured water on the headphones and placed them in a bucket at the back of the plane.

However, the battery and its cover had both melted and stuck to the floor near the woman.

The ATSB said fellow passengers "endured the smell of melted plastic, burnt electronics and burnt hair" for the remainder of the flight.

The woman, who was pictured with a blackened face and neck and blisters on her hands, added: "People were coughing and choking the entire way home".

The ATSB said the headphone battery "likely caught fire", adding: "As the range of products using batteries grows, the potential for in-flight issues increases."

A spokesperson for the authority said it was the first report of headphones catching fire in Australia, but there have been a number of other phone and device battery incidents.

Last year, a flight due to leave Sydney had to be evacuated when smoke was seen coming from a passenger's hand luggage. It was later found that lithium batteries had caught fire.

In the UK, a train was evacuated and several people were injured when a workman's drill overheated and sparked a fire last month.