Tag Archives: Test

Putin says deadly military accident occurred during weapons systems test

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in the Presidental Palace in Helsinki, Finland, August 21, 2019. Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva/via REUTERS

By Olesya Astakhova and Anne Kauranen

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that a deadly blast at a military site in northern Russia earlier this month had taken place during the testing of what he called promising new weapons systems.

Putin said that Moscow could not reveal everything about the blast because of its military nature, but that information exchanges about such accidents should be improved.

“When it comes to activities of a military nature, there are certain restrictions on access to information,” Putin told a news conference in Helsinki, standing alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

He did not reveal which weapons system was being tested at the time of the blast on Aug. 8.

“This is work in the military field, work on promising weapons systems. We are not hiding this,” Putin said. “We must think of our own security.”

Russia’s state nuclear agency said this month that five of its staff members were killed and three others injured in a blast involving “isotope power sources” that took place during a rocket test on a sea platform. Two Russian military personnel were also reported to have been killed.

Putin said this week that there was no risk of increased radiation levels following the blast and that all necessary preventive measures were being taken.

(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova and Anne Kauranen; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

U.S. pushes back national wireless alert test to Oct. 3

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a reception for Congressional Medal of Honor recipients in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has delayed until next month plans to send a message to all U.S. cellphones testing a previously unused presidential alert system that aims to warn the public about national emergencies, officials said on Monday.

The test message was originally scheduled for 2:18 p.m. EDT (1818 GMT)on Thursday but is being pushed back to the same time on Oct. 3 because of response efforts to Tropical Depression Florence, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a statement.

Florence came ashore in North Carolina on Friday as a hurricane and has caused widespread flooding in North and South Carolina.

FEMA, which will send the alert, said last week that the messages would bear the headline “Presidential Alert,” and that phones will make a loud tone and have a special vibration.

The test has been scheduled to ensure that the alert system would work in the event of a national emergency, and U.S. cellphone users will not be able to opt out. The message will read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

Former President Barack Obama signed a law in 2016 requiring FEMA to create a system allowing the president to send cellphone alerts regarding public safety emergencies.

The country’s wireless emergency alert system was started in 2012 and has issued over 36,000 alerts for situations such as missing children, extreme weather and natural disasters, but never a presidential directive.

Cellphone users can opt out of natural disaster or missing children alerts.

In its statement last week on the test messages, FEMA said the presidential alerts can be used only for national emergencies and the president has sole responsibility for determining when such alerts are used.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Boy, 11, hacks into replica U.S. vote website in minutes at convention

FILE PHOTO: A man takes part in a hacking contest during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on July 29, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo

(Reuters) – An 11-year-old boy managed to hack into a replica of Florida’s election results website in 10 minutes and change names and tallies during a hackers convention, organizers said, stoking concerns about security ahead of nationwide votes.

The boy was the quickest of 35 children, ages 6 to 17, who all eventually hacked into copies of the websites of six swing states during the three-day Def Con security convention over the weekend, the event said on Twitter on Tuesday.

The event was meant to test the strength of U.S. election infrastructure and details of the vulnerabilities would be passed onto the states, it added.

The National Association of Secretaries of State – who are responsible for tallying votes – said it welcomed the convention’s efforts. But it said the actual systems used by states would have additional protections.

“It would be extremely difficult to replicate these systems since many states utilize unique networks and custom-built databases with new and updated security protocols,” the association said.

The hacking demonstration came as concerns swirl about election system vulnerabilities before mid-term state and federal elections.

U.S President Donald Trump’s national security team warned two weeks ago that Russia had launched “pervasive” efforts to interfere in the November polls.

Participants at the convention changed party names and added as many as 12 billion votes to candidates, the event said.

“Candidate names were changed to ‘Bob Da Builder’ and ‘Richard Nixon’s head’,” the convention tweeted.

The convention linked to what it said was the Twitter account of the winning boy – named there as Emmett Brewer from Austin, Texas.

A screenshot posted on the account showed he had managed to change the name of the winning candidate on the replica Florida website to his own and gave himself billions of votes.

The convention’s “Voting Village” also aimed to expose security issues in other systems such as digital poll books and memory-card readers.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

FDA issues emergency authorization for ZIKA test

(Reuters) – Vela Diagnostics said its test for the Zika virus had received “emergency use authorization” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The test, already approved in Europe, is validated for plasma, serum and urine samples, the Singapore-based company said on Monday.

The FDA issues such emergency use authorization during public health emergencies, to quickly deploy unapproved medical products for as long as they are needed.

The regulator last month issued a similar authorization for a Zika diagnostics test from Swiss drugmaker Roche.

Zika, which was detected in Brazil, has spread to the Americas and is associated with microcephaly, a birth defect characterized by an unusually small head and potential developmental problems.

In adults, it has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a temporary paralysis.

The disease has since spread to parts of Southeast Asia.

(Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay and Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

North Korea says missile test simulated attack on South’s airfields

Kim Jong Un watching missile test

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea said on Wednesday it had conducted a ballistic missile test that simulated preemptive strikes against South Korean ports and airfields used by the U.S. military, a likely reference to the launches of three missiles on Tuesday.

The North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, supervised the exercise that successfully tested the simulated detonation of nuclear warheads mounted on missiles, its official KCNA news agency reported.

It did not give the date of the exercise, as it customarily reports activities of its leader without dates or locations. Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers’ Party’s official newspaper, carried photographs of Kim with military aides, apparently observing a ballistic missile exercise.

North Korea fired three ballistic missiles that flew between 500 km and 600 km (300-360 miles) into the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and the latest in a series of provocative moves by the isolated country after a series of nuclear weapons tests.

“The drill was conducted by limiting the firing range under the simulated conditions of making preemptive strikes at ports and airfields in the operational theater in South Korea where the U.S. imperialists’ nuclear war hardware is to be hurled,” KCNA said.

“And it once again examined the operational features of the detonating devices of nuclear warheads mounted on the ballistic rockets at the designated altitude over the target area.”

Yang Uk, a senior researcher at the Korea Defence and Security Forum and a policy adviser to the South Korean navy, said there was little firm evidence to suggest the North had succeeded in developing a nuclear warhead for missiles.

“But it’s a reminder that they are continuing to pursue nuclear warhead development, and that itself is an escalation of risks for us,” he added.

Tuesday’s missile launches were seen as a show of force a week after South Korea and the United States chose a site in the South to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system to counter threats from the North.

North Korea had threatened a “physical response” to the move.

“The idea seems to be to signal that (U.S.) war plans cannot succeed because if we activated them, the North Koreans would strike as we made the attempt,” said Joshua Pollack, editor of the U.S.-based Nonproliferation Review.

Late on Tuesday, North Korean state media called U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert a “mentally deranged hooligan” and “a heinous war maniac” for flying in a U.S. fighter jet earlier this month.

Reclusive North Korea occasionally publishes insults of U.S. and South Korean officials.

The North and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy Japan, South Korea and the South’s main ally, the United States.

The U.S. air force said Lippert flew in a familiarization flight in an F-16 on July 12 to gain better understanding of the U.S. and South Korea’s joint defense against North Korea.

(Additional reporting by James Pearson; Editing by Nick Macfie)

North Korea claims rocket engine success; South Korea on high alert

By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine that boosted the power of its ballistic rockets, state media reported on Thursday, as South Korea’s president ordered the military to be ready to respond to the North’s “reckless provocation”.

Pyongyang’s claim indicates it is continuing to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a rapid pace in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and amid assessment by the South’s officials that it could conduct a new nuclear test at any time.

The isolated state has in recent weeks stepped up bellicose rhetoric, threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul, as well as making claims of advancement in its weapons technology.

The Rodong Sinmum, the North’s ruling party newspaper, carried photos of leader Kim Jong Un on site as a rocket engine laid horizontally on the ground emitted a fiery blast. A two-page report detailed the testing of the engine’s structure and thrust.

“He noted with great pleasure that the successful test… helped boost the power of ballistic rockets capable of mercilessly striking hostile forces,” KCNA news agency said.

The North said last week it had conducted a successful simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile, and would soon test ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

On Wednesday, the North repeated the threat to attack the South’s presidential office, saying its large-caliber multiple rocket launch systems are on alert to strike the Blue House and its special operations unit is ready to go into action.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye ordered a heightened state of alert and put the military on standby to “respond actively to reckless provocations by the North,” according to her office.

The current tension on the peninsula follows the United Nations Security Council’s recent imposition of tough new sanctions against the North over its nuclear and missile programs, and as South Korea and the United States conduct annual joint military drills.

The North calls the exercises “nuclear war moves” and has threatened to respond with an all-out offensive, as well as a series of rocket launches in recent days.

SOLID FUEL ROCKET ENGINE

Pyongyang has previously launched long-range rockets that used liquid fuel but it was seen to lack the capability to build solid-fuel long-range or intercontinental missiles.

Solid-fuel rockets have advantages in military use, although liquid fuel rockets are considered more sophisticated as their thrust can be controlled in flight.

The North has deployed short and medium-range missiles and test fired them, but never flight-tested the KN-08 ICBM it is believed to be developing.

The KN-08, which has been put on display at military parades and in official news media, appears to have a three-stage design that is likely intended to use solid fuel, according to experts.

Despite its boasts to be making progress, many experts believe the North is a decade or more away from building an ICBM capable of threatening the United States.

The North’s stepped-up rhetoric and weapons claims come ahead of its planned congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, which will be the first in more than 35 years.

Some Pyongyang-watchers say the North may look to claim a splashy achievement, such as a fifth nuclear test, in the run-up to the conference as young leader Kim Jong Un looks to bolster his legitimacy domestically.

“North Korea may think it is better for them to complete their nuclear weapons program and negotiate later, rather than just to sit back until it withers and dies,” Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, said.

The North is ready to conduct a fifth nuclear test “now, immediately,” the South’s unification ministry said on Monday.

Its nuclear test site remained active, undergoing maintenance on existing tunnels as well as clean-up following the January test, according to 38 North, a project of the U.S. Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will push his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama next week to resume talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park and James Pearson; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Tony Munroe)