Category: Ireland

Ransomware Attack Hits AXA Units in Asia, Irish Healthcare

A cyberattack has left Asian units of AXA, a Paris-based insurance company, crippled, part of a wave of so-called ransomware breaches on company networks around the world. A ransomware hacker targeted Asia Assistance, also known as Inter Partners Assistance, in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, AXA said Tuesday. The attackers were able to…


Irish Lawmakers Send Messages Commemorating World Falun Dafa Day

Irish lawmakers have joined officials from around the world in sending messages to commemorate World Falun Dafa Day. Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline with slow meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. On May 13, 1992, Li Hongzhi, the founder of the…


Irish Health Service Shut IT Systems to Block ‘Significant Ransomware Attack’

Ireland’s national health service has shut down its IT systems on Friday morning after it was hit by a ransomware attack. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the move was precautionary. “There is a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems. We have taken the precaution of shutting down all our our [sic] IT…


WHO Approves Emergency Use Listing for China’s Sinopharm CCP Virus Vaccine

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday approved China’s state-owned Sinopharm CCP virus vaccine for emergency use for adults over 18. This comes despite concerns raised by a separate group of WHO experts who said they had “very low confidence” regarding the risk of serious side-effects in some patients. The Sinopharm jab’s inclusion on the…


3 Cars Burned at Police Officer’s Home in Northern Ireland

Three cars were set alight and destroyed on Thursday at the home of a police officer in Northern Ireland. Police in the Northern Irish town of Larne attended the officer’s address on Glenarm Road after receiving a report of three cars on fire in the early hours on Thursday. All three cars were destroyed by…


EU Commission Urges Ireland to Rethink Hotel Quarantine

BRUSSELS—The European Commission urged Ireland on Friday to pursue less restrictive measures than the mandatory hotel quarantine regime introduced last month and sought clarifications as to why some fellow EU member states were subject to the rules. Ireland is the only one of the EU’s 27 countries that forces arrivals from certain countries to pay…


Youth Role in Northern Ireland Riots ‘Deeply Concerning’: UK Minister

Young people’s involvement in the riots in Northern Ireland has been “tragic and deeply concerning,” a British minister has said while appealing for dialogue among communities in the province. “It is tragic and deeply concerning that young people have been engaged in and encouraged into this violence and as a result will now end up…


EU, UK Voice Concerns After BBC, RTE Correspondents Forced to Leave China

The European Union and the UK on Friday voiced their concerns over media freedom in China after two journalists working for British and Irish broadcasters were forced to leave the country late last month. The BBC’s China correspondent John Sudworth and his wife, Yvonne Murray, the China correspondent of the Irish broadcaster RTE, left China…


NatWest’s Ulster Bank Fined Record 38 Million Euros for Mortgage Overcharging

DUBLIN—Ireland’s central bank on Thursday fined NatWest’s Irish business, Ulster Bank, a record 37.8 million euros for overcharging mortgage customers, some of whom lost their homes after being denied their right to a cheaper “tracker” mortgage. The penalty was almost twice the largest fine previously laid down by the regulator on any institution, a 21…


To Judge a Book by Its Cover

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the hospitable Irish took in a “foreigner,” a Welshman named Patrick, and made him their own patron saint! And Saint Patrick’s Day, that exuberant day of merriment, comes around again this month, on the 17th of March. The Irish also gave the world Halloween, another day of revelry, but in…