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Three People Dead, Several Missing after Heavy Rains, Flooding in Tuscany

Italian firefighters work in flooded streets in the Tuscany region, Italy, November 3, 2023. Several people died and went missing in the central region of Tuscany as storm Ciaran battered western Europe. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERS
Italian firefighters work in flooded streets in the Tuscany region, Italy, November 3, 2023. Several people died and went missing in the central region of Tuscany as storm Ciaran battered western Europe. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERS
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Three People Dead, Several Missing after Heavy Rains, Flooding in Tuscany

Italian firefighters work in flooded streets in the Tuscany region, Italy, November 3, 2023. Several people died and went missing in the central region of Tuscany as storm Ciaran battered western Europe. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERS
Italian firefighters work in flooded streets in the Tuscany region, Italy, November 3, 2023. Several people died and went missing in the central region of Tuscany as storm Ciaran battered western Europe. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERS

At least three people have died and several were missing after rivers overflowed due to heavy rains in central Italy, local authorities said on Friday, as Storm Ciaran continued to lash western Europe.
A bridge collapsed near the city of Pistoia, killing two people. Another person died in the town of Rosignano.
"Over 200 millimeters of rain have fallen in three hours," Luigi D'Angelo, who is leading the Civil Protection rescue efforts, told Sky TG24 television.
The governor of Tuscany said there were challenging issues around two large rivers in the area, the Bisenzio, north of Florence, and the Ombrone, in the southern part of the region.
"The situation is problematic, the Arno river is expected to reach a peak around midday in Florence, but there are no particular worries about this if it stops raining," Governor Eugenio Giani said in an interview with RAI's Radio Anch'io.
Patients from three separate hospitals had to be moved to other facilities and many buildings were seriously damaged, Giani added.
The defense ministry was supporting rescue efforts sending helicopters, trucks and water pumps to the flood-hit areas, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in a statement.
Italy's Civil Protection agency on Thursday issued a warning of heavy rains and strong winds in central and southern Italy, with a high alert "red code" for Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia in the north of the country, and a medium alert "orange code" for nine other regions.
Another person went missing in the Veneto region, the local governor was quoted as saying by Sky TG24.
Storm Ciaran, which follows on the heels of Storm Babet two weeks ago, was driven by a powerful jet stream that swept in from the Atlantic, unleashing heavy rain and furious winds that have already caused heavy flooding in Northern Ireland, parts of Britain, Belgium and France.

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US Sanctions Beijing-based Cyber Group for Alleged Hacking Role

(FILES) The US Treasury Department building is seen in Washington, DC, January 19, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The US Treasury Department building is seen in Washington, DC, January 19, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
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US Sanctions Beijing-based Cyber Group for Alleged Hacking Role

(FILES) The US Treasury Department building is seen in Washington, DC, January 19, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(FILES) The US Treasury Department building is seen in Washington, DC, January 19, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

The US Treasury on Friday sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company for its alleged role in multiple hacking incidents targeting critical US infrastructure.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit Integrity Technology Group, Inc. with sanctions Friday morning, for conducting multiple hacks against US victims, including incidents attributed to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored campaign that targets US critical infrastructure.

The sanctions come a few days after Treasury reported that Chinese hackers remotely accessed several US Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents in a major cybersecurity incident.

The Treasury Department said it learned of the problem on Dec. 8, when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to workers.

Friday's sanctions do not appear to be related to the Dec. 8 Treasury hack.
According to The Associated Press, Treasury Acting Under Secretary Bradley Smith said the US will disrupt cyber threats "as we continue working collaboratively to harden public and private sector cyber defenses.”

The sanctions block access to US property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.
US officials are continuing to grapple with the fallout of a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.