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Libya floods: Derna city alone recovers 1,000 bodies – minister
The death toll from floods in Libya in one city alone stands at more than 1,000, a senior official who visited the eastern port of Derna has said.
“Bodies are lying everywhere,” the minister from the eastern-based government told Reuters news agency.
Much of Derna, which has about 100,000 residents, is under water after two dams and four bridges collapsed. The flooding, which has also devastated other coastal areas, is as a result of a Storm Daniel which hit on Sunday.
“The number of bodies recovered in Derna is more than 1,000,” Hichem Chkiouat, the aviation minister and part of the eastern government’s emergency response committee, told Reuters by phone. He said the final death toll was expected to be much higher. “I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.”
The eastern cities of Benghazi, Sousse and Al-Marj have also all been affected.
Earlier, Eastern Prime Minister Osama Hamad told a Libyan TV channel it was estimated that 2,000 people had died and thousands were missing: “Entire neighbourhoods in Derna have disappeared, along with their residents… swept away by water.”
Alongside areas in the east, the western city of Misrata was among those hit by the floods.
Libya has been in political chaos since long-serving ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011 – leaving the country effectively split with an interim, internationally recognised government operating from the capital, Tripoli, and another one in the east.
According to Libyan journalist Abdulkader Assad, this is hampering rescue efforts as the various authorities are not able to respond with agility to a natural disaster. “There are no rescue teams, there are no trained rescuers in Libya. Everything over the last 12 years was about war,” he told the BBC. “There are two governments in Libya and that is actually slowing down the help that is coming to Libya because it’s a little bit confusing. You have people who are pledging help but the help is not coming.”
(BBC)
Oscar-winning US actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two Baftas, four Golden Globes and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
A statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff in New Mexico said: “We can confirm that both Gene Hackman and his wife were found deceased Wednesday afternoon at their residence on Sunset Trail.
“This is an active investigation – however, at this time we do not believe that foul play was a factor.”
Hackman won the best actor Oscar for his role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s 1971 thriller The French Connection, and another for best supporting actor for playing Little Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s Western film Unforgiven in 1992.
His other Oscar-nominated roles were in 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde – as Buck Barrow in his breakthrough role – and 1970’s I Never Sang for My Father, as well as playing the agent in Mississippi Burning (1988).
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the news to local media just after midnight on Wednesday that the couple had died, along with their dog.
The news was later confirmed to the Press Association news agency. Hackman was 95 and his wife 63.
Mr Mendoza said there was no immediate indication of foul play.
But he did not provide a cause of death or say when the couple might have died.
“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant.”
Much celebrated actor Hackman played more than 100 roles including Lex Luthor in Superman movies in the 1970s and 1980s.
He also starred in the hit movies Runaway Jury and The Conversation, as well as Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.
His last big screen appearance came as Monroe Cole in Welcome to Mooseport in 2004.
Born in California in 1930, Hackman had enlisted in the army after lying about his age at 16, serving for four-and-a-half years.
Following his military service, after briefly living in New York he decided to pursue acting.
In order to pursue his chosen career, Hackman joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where he befriended a young Dustin Hoffman.
“I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press,” he once said.
“It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on-screen. I think of myself, and feel like I’m quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.”
[BBC]
Hamas has handed over what it says are the bodies of four Israeli hostages from Gaza.
Israel is testing DNA samples to confirm they are the remains of Shlomo Mansour, 86, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, Tsachi Idan, 50, and Itzik Elgarat, 69, all of whom were taken by Hamas in the 7 October 2023 attacks.
Israel is due to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners once the remains are identified.
It will be the final exchange of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is due to end on Saturday.
[BBC]
A company which fell victim to what’s thought to be the world’s biggest ever theft is seeking to recover some of its losses by crowdsourcing online bounty hunters.
Last week, hackers believed to be from North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group stole $1.46 billion of cryptocurrency from ByBit, a crypto trading platform.
The criminals are trying to rapidly cash out the hoard through a complex online money laundering process.
ByBit is now offering cash rewards to anyone who spots and prevents them from cashing out.
“Join us on war against Lazarus” the company’s CEO Ben Zhou posted online with a link to a new website offering a bounty to anyone who can help.
Cryptocurrencies are stored in public wallets anyone can look up so it’s possible to follow the money as the criminals split it into smaller chunks and send it through various channels to obscure its origins.
The new website has a live leader board showing companies and individuals who have successfully located some of the coins.
The bounty scheme gives 5% of the sum identified to individuals who successfully persuade a company that has control of the funds to freeze the money.
It’s also awarding 5% to the companies that take action.
The website is already displaying millions of dollars in payments to successful crypto sleuths.
“We have assigned a team to dedicate to maintain and update this website, we will not stop until Lazarus or bad actors in the industry is eliminated,” Mr Zhou said.
Crypto investigation firm Elliptic described it as a “really positive innovation.”
“There are a lot of very talented blockchain investigators out there who will now be motivated to track down these stolen funds, and to help to seize them,” said Tom Robinson, from Elliptic.
However Louise Abbott, crypto fraud partner at Keystone Law, suggested the heist would still “negatively impact the perception of trust” in what she said was already a “volatile” industry.
“If such a hack can occur on this scale in the world’s second largest exchange, it can certainly happen again,” she said.
There are no authorities such as central banks or regulators involved in crypto transactions which means anyone who falls victim to criminal behaviour does not have an obvious body to turn to for help.
That’s left ByBit reliant on the goodwill of other crypto companies to act on their behalf. Not all have.
ByBit’s website is keeping track of crypto firms that don’t respond to requests for help.
One exchange called eXch is apparently refusing to cooperate.
According to researchers at crypto investigators Elliptic, eXch is a platform notable for allowing its users to swap crypto-assets anonymously.
In a blog post Elliptic alleges that “hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto-assets derived from criminal activity, including multiple thefts perpetrated by North Korea” have been successfully laundered through the service.
So far $75m from the ByBit hack has been tracked flowing through the website, according to analysis.
EXch has not responded to BBC requests for comment.
ByBit is promising to open up it’s new bounty website to other victims of the prolific North Korean hacking group.
The site has a logo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s hair with a knife through it.
Crypto investigators around the world have attributed the hack to the group which has been blamed for around $6bn of crypto thefts in recent years.
Researchers say the stolen funds are used by the hermit state to skirt international sanctions and develop its military powers.
North Korea has never admitted to being responsible for the Lazarus Group.
[BBC]
Gene Hackman and his wife found dead at their home
President meets Senior Naval Officers
Hamas hands over four bodies
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