Pakistani security officials say authorities have hanged four militants who were sentenced to death over a Taliban attack on an army-run school last year that killed more than 150 people, mostly children. The two officials said the men were executed yesterday in the northwestern city of Kohat. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The executions came less than two weeks after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked the country’s president to reject the clemency petitions of the four “terrorists.” The Dec. 16 attack on the school in Peshawar was claimed by the Taliban and prompted Pakistan to lift a 2008 moratorium on the death penalty. Since then, Pakistan has hanged nearly 300 people, most of them convicted criminals, not militants.
Australia | Weather bureau won’t comment on cyberattack report
Australia’s weather bureau has refused to comment on a media report that it has been hacked in a major cyberattack that compromised sensitive systems across the federal government. Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported yesterday that China has been blamed for the recent attack that breached the defenses of the Bureau of Meteorology’s computers and would costs millions of dollars to fix. The bureau said in a statement it does not comment on security matters. The statement says: “The bureau’s systems are fully operational and the bureau continues to provide reliable, on-going access to high quality weather, climate, water and oceans information to its stakeholders.” The ABC report, citing unnamed officials, said the motivation for the attack could be commercial, strategic or both.
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