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Cyber Attack on Italy's Foreign Ministry, Airports Claimed by Pro-Russian Hacker Group

Illustration picture of a hacker with cyber code projected on him (Reuters)
Illustration picture of a hacker with cyber code projected on him (Reuters)
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Cyber Attack on Italy's Foreign Ministry, Airports Claimed by Pro-Russian Hacker Group

Illustration picture of a hacker with cyber code projected on him (Reuters)
Illustration picture of a hacker with cyber code projected on him (Reuters)

Hackers targeted around ten official websites in Italy on Saturday, including the websites of the Foreign Ministry and Milan's two airports, putting them out of action temporarily, the country's cyber security agency said.
The pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) claimed the cyber attack on Telegram, saying Italy's "Russophobes get a well deserved cyber response".
A spokesperson for Italy's cyber security agency said it was plausible that the so-called "Distributed Denial of Service" (DDoS) attack could be linked to the pro-Russian group.
In such attacks, hackers attempt to flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyze it, Reuters reported
The spokesperson said the agency provided quick assistance to the institutions and firms targeted and that the attack's impact was "mitigated" in less than two hours.
The cyber attack has not caused any disruptions to flights at Milan's Linate and Malpensa airports, a spokesperson for SEA, the company which manages them, said.
While the websites were inaccessible, the airports' mobile apps continued to function, the SEA spokesperson added.

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World

EU Welcomes US-Iran Ceasefire, Urges Efforts to Create Lasting Agreement

A government supporter chants slogans during a gathering after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the United States and Israel in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP)
A government supporter chants slogans during a gathering after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the United States and Israel in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP)
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EU Welcomes US-Iran Ceasefire, Urges Efforts to Create Lasting Agreement

A government supporter chants slogans during a gathering after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the United States and Israel in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP)
A government supporter chants slogans during a gathering after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the United States and Israel in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP)

EU leaders on Wednesday welcomed the two-week ceasefire agreed by the United States and Iran.

"I welcome the two-week ceasefire the US and Iran agreed last night. It brings much needed de-escalation", European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media platform X, adding ‌it was ‌crucial negotiations continue for ‌an enduring ⁠solution.

European Council President ⁠Costa added on X that he urged "all parties to uphold its terms in order to achieve sustainable peace in the region".

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, said the ceasefire ⁠deal was "a step back from ‌the brink ‌after weeks of escalation".

"It creates a much-needed chance ‌to tone down threats, stop missiles, ‌restart shipping, and create space for diplomacy towards a lasting agreement," she added.

US President Donald Trump announced late on Tuesday that he ‌had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, less ⁠than ⁠two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face devastating attacks on its civilian infrastructure.

The announcement late on Tuesday represented an abrupt turnaround from his extraordinary warning earlier in the day, when he said "a whole civilization will die tonight" if his demands were not met.

World

Former Australian Soldier to Remain in Jail on Afghan War Crime Charges

Media wait outside Silverwater Correctional Complex after former Australian Defence Force soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was charged with alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, in Sydney, Australia, April 8, 2026. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Media wait outside Silverwater Correctional Complex after former Australian Defence Force soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was charged with alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, in Sydney, Australia, April 8, 2026. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Former Australian Soldier to Remain in Jail on Afghan War Crime Charges

Media wait outside Silverwater Correctional Complex after former Australian Defence Force soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was charged with alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, in Sydney, Australia, April 8, 2026. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Media wait outside Silverwater Correctional Complex after former Australian Defence Force soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was charged with alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, in Sydney, Australia, April 8, 2026. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia's most decorated living soldier will remain behind bars after his legal team did not seek bail following his arrest over multiple alleged war crimes, local media reported on Wednesday.

Police on Tuesday arrested and charged Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, with five counts of war crimes in connection with the murder of five civilians in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life in jail. He was refused bail by police and taken to Silverwater Correctional Complex in Sydney’s west where he stayed overnight.

Roberts-Smith did not appear via video link at ⁠an online bail court ⁠hearing on Wednesday morning, local media reported.

His lawyer, Jordan Portokalli, told the court he would not be applying for bail, and sought an in-person hearing for later in the day, Reuters reported.

A bail review hearing was instead scheduled for April 17 at a courthouse in Sydney.

Roberts-Smith, a veteran of the elite Special Air Services Regiment, was ⁠hailed as a national hero for his actions during six tours in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2012.

He was awarded several top military honors, including the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for members of the armed forces of Britain and the Commonwealth.

The Australian Federal Police said they would allege that his victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their deaths and were detained, unarmed and under the control of Australian forces when they were killed.

Police would also allege the victims were either shot ⁠by the accused ⁠or his subordinates acting on his orders and in his presence.

The charges follow a joint investigation between the AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator, set up to examine allegations of criminal misconduct by members of Australia's defense force, which began in 2021.

Roberts-Smith has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing during his service, many of which were first reported by Nine Entertainment newspapers in a series of articles starting in 2018. He unsuccessfully challenged the accusations in court in what became the most expensive defamation trial in Australian history, and was found on the balance of probabilities to have been involved in the murder of four Afghan civilians.

World

Israel Opposition Leaders Slam Netanyahu Over Ceasefire with Iran

People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
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Israel Opposition Leaders Slam Netanyahu Over Ceasefire with Iran

People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)
People enter an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP)

Israel's opposition leaders swiftly criticized the ceasefire with Iran on Wednesday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to achieve the war's objectives. 

The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in an 11th-hour bid to avert all-out destruction of Iran threatened by US President Donald Trump. 

Netanyahu's office said Israel supported Trump's decision to suspend the bombing of Iran, but maintained the ceasefire "does not include Lebanon" where Israeli forces are fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. 

"There has never been a political disaster like this in our entire history. Israel was not even close to the table when decisions were made concerning the core of our national security," the country's main opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X. 

"The army carried out everything that was asked of it, and the public showed remarkable resilience, but Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and did not achieve any of the goals he himself set." 

Netanyahu had set the elimination or at least severe degradation of Iran's nuclear program as a central goal of the war, describing it as an "existential threat" to Israel. 

He also called for the neutralizing of Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, the weakening or potentially toppling of the Iranian regime and the curbing of Tehran's regional influence by targeting its network of allied groups. 

"It will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence, and lack of strategic planning," Lapid said. 

The head of the left-wing Democrats party, Yair Golan, called the ceasefire a "strategic failure" by Netanyahu. 

"He promised a historic victory and security for generations, and in practice, we got one of the most severe strategic failures Israel has ever known," Golan said on X. 

"It's a total failure that endangers Israel's security for years to come." 

Member of parliament and opposition figure Avigdor Liberman also denounced the truce, saying it gave the Iranian regime "an opportunity to regroup". 

"Any agreement with Iran that does not include renouncing the destruction of Israel, uranium enrichment, the production of ballistic missiles, and support for terrorist organizations in the region means that we will have to return to another campaign under more difficult conditions and pay a heavier price," Liberman said on X. 

More reaction was expected to come later on Wednesday after the end of the Jewish holiday of Passover. 

Even as Israel backed Trump's ceasefire plan with Iran, it said the truce did not include Lebanon. 

Israel has been fighting a war with Hezbollah since the Lebanese armed group launched rocket fire at Israel in March after the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war.