Tag Archives: England

British hospitals, Spanish firms among targets of huge cyberattack

An ambulance waits outside the emergency department at St Thomas' Hospital in central London, Britain May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

By Costas Pitas and Carlos Ruano

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) – A huge cyberattack brought disruption to Britain’s health system on Friday and infected many Spanish companies with malicious software, and security researchers said a dozen other countries may be affected.

Hospitals and doctors’ surgeries in parts of England were forced to turn away patients and cancel appointments. People in affected areas were being advised to seek medical care only in emergencies.

“We are experiencing a major IT disruption and there are delays at all of our hospitals,” said the Barts Health group, which manages major London hospitals. Routine appointments had been canceled and ambulances were being diverted to neighboring hospitals.

Telecommunications giant Telefonica was among the targets in Spain, though it said the attack was limited to some computers on an internal network and had not affected clients or services.

Authorities in both countries said the attack was conducted using ‘ransomware’ – malicious software that infects machines, locks them up by encrypting data and demands a ransom to restore access. They identified the type of malware as ‘Wanna Cry’, also known as ‘Wanna Decryptor’.

A Telefonica spokesman said a window appeared on screens of infected computers that demanded payment with the digital currency bitcoin in order to regain access to files.

In Spain, the attacks did not disrupt the provision of services or networks operations of the victims, the government said in a statement. Still, the news prompted security teams at large financial services firms and businesses around the world to review their plans for defending against ransomware attacks, according to executives with private cyber security firms.

A spokeswoman for Portugal Telecom said: “We were the target of an attack, like what is happening in all of Europe, a large scale-attack, but none of our services were affected.”

British based cyber researcher Chris Doman of AlienVault said the ransomware “looks to be targeting a wide range of countries”, with preliminary evidence of infections from 14 countries so far, also including Russia, Indonesia and Ukraine.

PM BRIEFED

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was being kept informed of the incident, which came less than four weeks before a parliamentary election in which national security and the management of the state-run National Health Service (NHS) are important campaign themes.

Authorities in Britain have been braced for possible cyberattacks in the run-up to the vote, as happened during last year’s U.S. election and on the eve of this month’s presidential vote in France.

But those attacks – blamed on Russia, which has repeatedly denied them – followed a entirely different modus operandi involving penetrating the accounts of individuals and political organizations and then releasing hacked material online.

The full extent of Friday’s disruption in Britain remained unclear.

“This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organizations from across a range of sectors,” NHS Digital, the computer arm of the health service, said in a statement.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, part of the GCHQ spy agency, said it was aware of a cyber incident and was working with NHS Digital and the police to investigate.

A reporter from the Health Service Journal said the attack had affected X-ray imaging systems, pathology test results, phone systems and patient administration systems.

Although cyber extortion cases have been rising for several years, they have to date affected small-to-mid sized organizations, disrupting services provided by hospitals, police departments, public transportation systems and utilities in the United States and Europe.

“Seeing a large telco like Telefonica get hit is going to get everybody worried. Now ransomware is affecting larger companies with more sophisticated security operations,” Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with cyber security firm Veracode, said.

The news is also likely to embolden cyber extortionists when selecting targets, Chris Camacho, chief strategy officer with cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, said.

“Now that the cyber criminals know they can hit the big guys, they will start to target big corporations. And some of them may not be well prepared for such attacks,” Camacho said.

In Spain, some big firms took pre-emptive steps to thwart ransomware attacks following a warning from Spain’s National Cryptology Centre of “a massive ransomware attack.”

Iberdrola and Gas Natural, along with Vodafone’s unit in Spain, asked staff to turn off computers or cut off internet access in case they had been compromised, representatives from the firms said.

It was not immediately clear how many Spanish organizations had been compromised by the attacks, if any critical services had been interrupted or whether victims had paid cyber criminals to regain access to their networks.

(Additional reporting by Jim Finkle, Eric Auchard, Jose Rodriguez, Alistair Smout, Kate Holton, Andy Bruce, Michael Holden and David Milliken; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Ralph Boulton)

English hospitals say hit by suspected national cyber attack

FILE PHOTO: A National Health Service (NHS) sign is seen in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital, in front of the Houses of Parliament in London June 7, 2011. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

By Costas Pitas and Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) – Hospitals across England were being forced to divert emergency cases on Friday after suffering a suspected national cyber attack.

Among them was the Barts Health group which manages major central London hospitals including The Royal London and St Bartholomew’s.

“We are experiencing a major IT disruption and there are delays at all of our hospitals,” it said.

“We have activated our major incident plan to make sure we can maintain the safety and welfare of patients. Ambulances are being diverted to neighboring hospitals.”

Patients requiring emergency treatment across England were diverted away from the hospitals affected and the public was advised to only seek medical care for acute medical conditions.

Reuters was unable to independently verify whether the hospitals were the subject of a concerted cyber attack ahead of the June 8 election.

Britain’s National Crime Agency said it was aware of the reports of a cyber attack but made no further comment.

The National Health Service (NHS) said it was responding to the incidents.

“We are aware of a cyber security incident and we are working on a response,” said a spokesman for NHS Digital, a division of the NHS which handles information technology issues.

There was no immediate comment from the Health Ministry.

Earlier on Friday, Spain’s government warned that a large number of companies had been attacked by cyber criminals who infected computers with malicious software known as “ransomware” that locks up computers and demands ransoms to restore access.

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton, Andy Bruce, Michael Holden and David Milliken; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Stephen Addison)

‘Near-impossible’ to stop London-style attack: Israeli security expert

FILE PHOTO: A man walks next to a newly erected concrete barriers at the entrance to Jabel Mukaber, in an area of the West Bank that Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed to the city of Jerusalem, the morning after a Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of Israeli soldiers on a popular promenade in Jerusalem January 9, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

By Luke Baker

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Attacks like the one in London are almost impossible to stop, the former head of VIP protection at Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said on Thursday, acknowledging that even Israel struggled to prevent them.

Despite building a barrier intended to prevent Palestinian attackers protesting against occupation entering from the West Bank, Israel has suffered dozens of low-tech vehicle or knife attacks in the last two years on civilians, police and soldiers.

“What happened in London was basically in a public area and, when it comes to public areas, it’s nearly impossible (to prevent),” said Shlomo Harnoy, who spent 25 years in the Shin Bet, sometimes coordinating protection for U.S. presidential visits. He now directs Sdema Group, a global security consultancy.

“There are ideas to build public areas to counter specific security threats, especially when it comes to explosive materials, but when it’s an attack on a bridge or something like that, it’s very difficult.”

In Wednesday’s attack, the suspect drove his rented vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a policeman at the entrance to the Houses of Parliament. Four people were killed and at least 40 injured. The attacker, identified by police as British-born, was shot dead.

In Israel, Palestinians have rammed cars and trucks into civilians or members of security forces standing in particular at bus stops, tram stations and security posts.

In January, four soldiers were killed and 17 injured when a Palestinian drove his truck at high speed into a group of cadets waiting by the side of the road in Jerusalem.

BLOCKS AND BOLLARDS

Steel bollards have been put up in sensitive areas, and there are now concrete blocks stopping vehicles from approaching tram stops.

But Harnoy said that “you can’t put concrete blocks and barriers everywhere, especially in the center of a city like London. It can’t be like a military installation”.

“To my mind, the best solution for stopping an attack is having people who know how to use arms, including civilians,” he said.

In Israel, police carry guns, it is not uncommon to see armed soldiers on the streets, and many civilians, most of whom have done army service, carry pistols. When attacks occur, video footage often shows civilians drawing weapons at the scene.

“But of course in Britain that is very difficult,” Harnoy said. “Even most police don’t carry weapons. For me, that is one of the mistakes in Britain, not allowing police to have weapons.”

Even in Israel, Harnoy is not convinced that most civilians who carry a weapon are sufficiently trained to handle an attack.

He also noted that Israel allowed its intelligence services more freedom to dig up background information on individuals than Britain, which had to strike more of a balance with privacy and human rights.

“This is a war,” said Harnoy. “When it comes to intelligence, you need 10 to 15 years of information on people, and in doing that you have to think carefully about their rights, about the balance between freedom and security.

“To implement such an intelligence system, you have to make a different balance with democratic rights.”

(Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Middle-aged London attacker was criminal who wasn’t seen as threat

Flowers are placed at the scene of an attack on Westminster Bridge, in London, Britain March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Staples

By Michael Holden

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – Before he killed at least four people in Britain’s deadliest attack since the 2005 London bombings, Khalid Masood was considered by intelligence officers to be a criminal who posed little serious threat.

A British-born convert to Islam, Masood had shown up on the periphery of previous terrorism investigations that brought him to the attention of Britain’s MI5 spy agency.

But the 52-year-old was not under investigation when he sped across Westminster Bridge on Wednesday, plowing down pedestrians with a hired car before running into the parliamentary grounds and fatally stabbing an unarmed policeman.

He was shot dead by police.

Although some of those he was involved with included people suspected of being keen to travel to join jihadi groups overseas, Masood “himself never did so”, said a U.S. government source, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Britain’s senior counter-terrorism police officer, Mark Rowley, told reporters: “Our investigation focuses on understanding his motivation, his operation and his associates.”

He added: “Whilst there is still no evidence of further threats, you’ll understand our determination is to find out if either he acted totally alone, inspired perhaps by terrorist propaganda, or if others have encouraged, supported or directed him.”

Islamic State claimed responsibility for Masood’s attack, although it was unclear what links – if any – he had with the militant group. Police said there had been no prior intelligence about his intent to mount an attack.

“An act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy,” Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament. “He took out his rage indiscriminately.”

BRITISH-BORN KILLER

Born Adrian Russell Ajao in Kent to the southeast of London on Christmas Day in 1964, he moved though several addresses in England, although he was known to have lived recently in Birmingham in central England.

The Daily Mail newspaper said he was brought up by his single mother in the town of Rye on England’s south coast, later converting to Islam and changing his name. Other media reports said he was a married father of three and a former English teacher who was into bodybuilding.

One soccer team photograph of Masood, taken at school in southern England, showed the future attacker smiling.

Little detail has been given by the British police about the man and what might have led him to carry out Wednesday’s attack, the deadliest in Britain since the London suicide bombings of 2005 by four young British Islamists, which killed 52.

Known by a number of aliases, he racked up a string of convictions, but none for terrorism-related offences. His occupation was unclear.

It was as long ago as November 1983 that he first came to the attention of authorities when he was found guilty of causing criminal damage. His last conviction came 14 years ago in December 2003 for possession of a knife.

He may have taught in Saudi Arabia for four years from 2005 but there was no confirmation of this. A spokesman for the Saudi interior ministry referred Reuters questions to the British authorities.

“Our working assumption is that he was inspired by international terrorism,” said Rowley.

But Masood’s age does not fit the profile of militant attackers, who are typically younger than 30, according to counter-terrorism officers.

Rowley said detectives were questioning nine people in custody, having made two further “significant” arrests in central and northwest England.

Iwona Romek, a former neighbor from Birmingham, told reporters: “When I saw the pictures on TV and in the papers of the man who carried out the attack, I recognized him as the man who used to live next door.

“He had a young child, who I’d think was about 5 or 6 years old. There was a woman living there with him, an Asian woman. He seemed to be quite nice, he would be taking care of his garden and the weeds.”

In December, she said, he suddenly moved out.

BIRMINGHAM CONNECTION

Birmingham has been one of the hotbeds for British Islamists. According to a study by the Henry Jackson think tank earlier this month, 39 of 269 people convicted in Britain of terrorism offences from 1998 to 2015 came from the city.

Among those plots was one to kidnap and behead a British soldier. In December, two men were found guilty of planning to give 3,000 pounds ($3,750) to Brussels bombing suspect Mohamed Abrini – widely known as “the man in the hat”.

There are over 213,000 Muslims in Birmingham, making up over a fifth of the population, according to the 2011 census, and there has been growing concern about divisions in the diverse city.

“It has been disturbing today to learn of the apparent Birmingham connection to this atrocity,” said the Birmingham Faith Leaders Group, made up of representatives of major religions from the city. “We implore people to recognize that such actions are taken by individuals, not by whole communities.”

The car Masood used in Wednesday’s attack had been hired in Birmingham from rental firm Enterprise, suggesting he still had connections to the area.

Since the attack, police have raided a number of addresses across the city, arresting five men and two women on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

Masood may have rented an apartment close to the Edgbaston area of the city, not far from the Enterprise offices, and that was one of the properties raided by armed officers.

On the eve of the attack that May cast as an assault on democracy, Masood spent his last night in a budget hotel in Brighton on the south coast, where he ate a takeaway kebab, the Sun newspaper said.

Michael Petersen, a guest who saw him at the hotel reception, said Masood appeared polite and had done nothing to arouse suspicion.

“Nothing in his demeanor or his looks would have given me any thoughts that would make me think he was anything but normal,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Reem Shamseddine in Riyadh; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)

Four dead, others injured in UK parliament ‘terrorist’ attack

An air ambulance lands in Parliament Square during an incident on Westminster Bridge in London. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

By Toby Melville and William James

LONDON (Reuters) – Four people were killed and at least 20 injured in London on Wednesday after a car plowed into pedestrians and an attacker stabbed a policeman close to the British parliament, in what police called a terrorist incident.

The dead included the assailant and the policeman he stabbed, while the other two victims were among the pedestrians hit by the car as it tore along Westminster Bridge, which is right next to parliament.

“We’ve declared this as a terrorist incident and the counter-terrorism command are carrying out a full-scale investigation into the events today,” Mark Rowley, Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer, told reporters.

“The attack started when a car was driven over Westminster Bridge, hitting and injuring a number of members of the public, also including three police officers on their way back from a commendation ceremony.

“A car then crashed near to parliament and at least one man, armed with a knife continued the attack and tried to enter parliament.”

Reuters reporters who were inside parliament at the time heard loud bangs and shortly afterwards saw the knifeman and the stabbed policeman lying on the ground in a courtyard just outside, within the gated perimeter of the parliamentary estate.

A Reuters photographer said he saw at least a dozen people injured on the bridge. His photographs showed people lying on the ground, some of them bleeding heavily and one under a bus.

A woman was pulled alive, but with serious injuries, from the Thames, the Port of London Authority said. The circumstances of her fall into the river were unclear.

Three French schoolchildren aged 15 or 16 were among those injured in the attack, French officials said.

The attack took place on the first anniversary of attacks by Islamist militants that killed 32 people in Brussels.

PARLIAMENT SESSION SUSPENDED

“I just saw a car go out of control and just go into pedestrians on the bridge,” eyewitness Bernadette Kerrigan told Sky News. She was on a tour bus on the bridge at the time.

“As we were going across the bridge, we saw people lying on the floor, they were obviously injured. I saw about 10 people maybe. And then the emergency services started to arrive. Everyone was just running everywhere.”

The House of Commons, which was in session at the time, was immediately suspended and lawmakers were asked to stay inside.

Prime Minister Theresa May was safe after the incident, a spokesman for her office said. He declined to say where May was when the attack took place.

Journalist Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail newspaper told LBC radio that he had witnessed the stabbing of the policeman and the shooting of the assailant from his office in the parliament building.

“He (the assailant) ran in through the open gates … He set about one of the policemen with what looked like a stick,” Letts said.

“The policeman fell over on the ground and it was quite horrible to watch and then having done that, he disengaged and ran towards the House of Commons entrance used by MPs (members of parliament) and got about 20 yards or so when two plain-clothed guys with guns shot him.”

Britain is on its second-highest alert level of “severe” meaning an attack by militants is considered highly likely.

In May 2013, two British Islamists stabbed to death soldier Lee Rigby on a street in southeast London.

In July 2005, four British Islamists killed 52 commuters and themselves in suicide bombings on the British capital’s transport system in what was London’s worst peacetime attack.

(Additional reporting by Kylie Maclellan, Elizabeth Piper, Costas Pitas, Alistair Smout, Michael Holden, Kate Holton, Elisabeth O’Leary and London bureau, writing by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Stephen Addison, Mark Trevelyan and Guy Faulconbridge)

Scottish parliament suspends independence debate after London attack

A police car is parked outside the Scottish Parliament following suspension of the referendum debate in Edinburgh Scotland, Britain March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

EDINBURGH (Reuters) – Scotland’s devolved parliament suspended a planned vote on Wednesday to give its government a mandate to seek a new independence referendum after an attack on Britain’s Houses of Parliament in London which police said they were treating as a terrorist incident.

No date for the debate to resume was given.

The Scottish parliament issued a statement saying it would increase security measures, although no specific threat to Scotland had been detected.

London’s permission for a new Scottish referendum is needed because any legally binding vote on United Kingdom constitutional matters has to be authorized by the UK parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May has not completely ruled out another Scottish independence vote but has vowed to fight for what she has called the “precious union” of the United Kingdom.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who argues that Scotland’s vote to keep its EU membership in last June’s referendum has been ignored in May’s Brexit arrangements so far, is seeking authority for a second referendum from the Scottish parliament, to be held in late 2018 or early 2019.

(Reporting by Elisabeth O’Leary; editing by Stephen Addison)

Sterling skids to three-month low as ‘hard Brexit’ fears bite

Different types of currency

By Jemima Kelly

LONDON (Reuters) – Sterling skidded to its lowest levels – bar a “flash crash” in October – in 32 years on Monday, hit by fears that Prime Minister Theresa May will say on Tuesday that Britain is set for a “hard” Brexit out of the EU and its single market.

Sterling fell as much as 1.5 percent against the dollar and 2.5 percent against the yen. That shifted the spotlight away from the greenback, which has come under pressure in recent days as investors ponder U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s likely economic policies after he takes office on Friday.

The pound plunged to $1.1983 <GBP=D4> in early trade in Asia, depths not seen since a bout of thin liquidity triggered a “flash crash” on Oct. 7 that wiped as much as 10 percent off the pound in a matter of minutes. Apart from that, it was the lowest level since May 1985.

By 1230 GMT (7:30 a.m. ET) sterling had managed to climb back above $1.20, but was still trading down more than 1 percent on the day at $1.204.

Dealers said the market was reacting to various media reports over the weekend that said May would signal plans for a “hard” Brexit in her speech on Tuesday, saying she’s willing to quit the European Union’s single market in order to regain control of Britain’s borders.

“Every time there’s ‘hard Brexit’ headlines, that triggers a fresh bout of selling sterling,” said MUFG currency analyst Lee Hardman, in London. “It’s almost impossible to see Europe allowing the UK to remain a full member of the single market if it wants to regain control of the border and the laws and wants to strike its own agreements.”

Hardman added that the weekend reports were “not really new news”, as May’s government has consistently pointed toward giving priority to immigration controls over single market access, and that was why sterling had not fallen further in London trading hours.

U.S. markets were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King day, which means liquidity will be lower.

“The fact that the sell-offs usually happen during periods in which there’s less liquidity increases the risk we could have a sharper sell-off (today), but as we saw in the flash crash that doesn’t mean that’s fundamentally justified,” said Hardman.

Citi’s head of European G10 currency strategy in London, Richard Cochinos, said Britain’s hefty current account and budget deficits meant it was heavily dependent on foreign capital. The more uncertainty investors feel over Britain’s place in Europe, he said, the more investment dries up – the key reason for sterling’s weakness.

May has said she will trigger Article 50 – starting the formal EU withdrawal talks – by the end of March. But so far, she has revealed few details about what kind of deal she will seek, frustrating some investors, businesses and lawmakers.

“SAFE-HAVEN” YEN

The euro climbed as much as 1.5 percent against the pound to a two-month high of 88.53 pence <EURGBP=>, before retreating to 87.85 pence, still up 0.7 percent on the day.

Against the yen, which is perceived as a safe haven, sterling fell as much as 2.3 percent to a two-month low of 136.48 yen <GBPJPY=>, before recovering to trade down around 1.4 percent on the day by 1230 GMT.

The Japanese currency gained broadly as a risk-off mood permeated markets, hitting a six-week high of 113.61 yen to the U.S. dollar <JPY=>.

“The risk-averse sentiment stemming from ‘hard Brexit’ (worries) is pushing down the dollar/yen,” Masafumi Yamamoto, chief forex strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.

“But so far, I think the correction from the dollar/yen’s high in December, and concerns about stronger protectionism under the new U.S. presidency, have been the dominant theme.”

The dollar index climbed 0.4 percent to 101.59 <.DXY>.

Trump revealed few policy clues at his first press conference last week since his November election victory. The dollar rose after the election on expectations that his administration would embark on stimulus to boost growth and inflation, prompting the U.S. Federal Reserve to adopt a faster pace of interest rate hikes.

But Trump’s protectionist stance has also added to some investors’ risk aversion, as he has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on China, build a wall along the Mexican border and tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in Sydney and Tokyo markets team; Editing by Catherine Evans)

UK government condemns ‘irresponsible’ English five day doctor strike

Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt arrives to attend a cabinet meeting at Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain

The government says the new arrangements are part of its plan to bring in a safer and fuller seven-day health service, but the doctors say it will result in them working longer hours at anti-social times, putting patients at risk.

“The way to resolve those differences is to sit round the table to talk, it is cooperation and dialogue, it is not confrontation and strikes. That is why I think this action is totally irresponsible,” Hunt told BBC Radio.

He said around 100,000 operations could be canceled as a result of the action.

In May, the BMA and the government reached a deal to end the standoff but its members then voted to reject the new terms and conditions.

The BMA said concerns focus on the impact the contract will have on part-time workers and those who work the most weekends.

“This is not a situation junior doctors wanted to find themselves in … but in forcing through a contract that junior doctors have rejected and which they don’t believe is good for their patients or themselves, the government has left them with no other choice,” BMA junior doctor committee chair Ellen McCourt said in a statement.

There are some 55,000 junior doctors in England, about a third of the medical workforce. NHS services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, are managed separately from England.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan)

World’s largest airship crash lands in England on test flight

The Airlander 10 hybrid airship makes its maiden flight at Cardington Airfield in Britain

LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s longest aircraft, the Airlander 10 airship, has crash-landed after a test flight in Bedfordshire, central England, its British manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles said on Wednesday.

The airship, which is bigger than the size of six double-decker buses, sustained damage on landing from its second test flight, Hybrid Air Vehicles said, adding that all crew were safe and well following the incident.

Privately owned Hybrid Air Vehicles denied a report on the BBC that the airship had hit a telegraph pole.

“No damage was sustained mid-air,” the company said on Twitter. Hybrid Air Vehicles was not immediately reachable by telephone.

The 92-metre Airlander 10 made its first test flight earlier this month and the company had posted photographs of it up in the air before Wednesday’s incident.

Once the concept is proven, Hybrid Air Vehicles hopes the helium-filled giant will be able to stay airborne for up to two weeks, and that potential customers might want to use it to carry cargo or deliver aid, for surveillance, communications or leisure purposes. It can carry 48 passengers.

The Airlander can take off and land vertically meaning it does not need a tarmac runway. It can also operate from open fields, deserts, ice or water.

Airships have a long history stretching back to the 19th century, although their popularity dipped in the face of competition from aeroplanes in the 20th century and high-profile accidents such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.

Hybrid Air Vehicles told Reuters in March that it aimed to be building 12 airships a year by 2018.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Sarah Young; editing by Stephen Addison)

Heat Wave Baking Europe

A heat wave has been baking Europe over the last week setting record high temperatures from Spain to England.

Meteorologists across the continent were reporting temperatures well over 100 degrees fahrenheit including southern France where the daytime highs are expected to top 105 degrees through the rest of the week.

“We have a lot of heat-wave days ahead of us,” MeteoFrance forecaster Francois Gourand told the Associated Press.

Heat in France was causing problems for the power grid, as 120,000 homes in the town of Vannes were left without power on Wednesday.

An all time high temperature for the UK in July was recorded on the first day of the month as London’s Heathrow Airport reported a high of 98.6 degrees.

The heat wave is striking the country at the start of the Wimbledon tennis championships and officials say it’s officially the hottest players have had to compete in the tournament’s history since it began in 1877.   The heat was so intense a ball boy collapsed from the heat and had to be taken out on a stretcher.

While the heat bothered some residents, others took it in stride.

“I’m loving it. I can’t complain,” university student Maggie Cloud told the AP. “We pay so much money to go abroad to holidays, and now we have the weather here. It’s cheaper.”