S. African protesters accused of racism
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s black president on Monday said many white demonstrators calling for his resignation are racist, prompting critics to describe the remarks as an affront to legitimate protest.
President Jacob Zuma sharply criticized multi-racial protests held Friday to express anger over presidential scandals and Zuma’s dismissal of a widely respected finance minister last month. He was speaking at a commemoration for an anti-apartheid leader who was assassinated in 1993.
“The marches that took place last week demonstrated that racism is real and exists in our country,” Zuma said, recalling the era of white minority rule that ended 23 years ago. “Many placards and posters displayed beliefs that we thought had been buried in 1994, with some posters depicting black people as baboons. It is clear that some of our white compatriots regard black people as being lesser human beings or sub-human.”
The president also referred to “overt racist utterances and public displays that we saw during the marches last week.” spam emails worldwide each year. The Russian man alleged to be at the head of the scheme was arrested Friday in Spain.
The U.S. Justice Department said it was working to take down the sprawling Kelihos botnet, which at times was made up of more than 100,000 compromised computers that sent phony emails advertising counterfeit drugs and work-athome scams, harvested users’ logins and installed malware that intercepted their bank account passwords.
Controlling the vast network since 2010 was Pyotr Levashov, a 36-year-old described in U.S. court documents made public Monday as “one of the world’s most notorious criminal spammers.”
Levashov’s arrest in Barcelona on Friday, following a joint U.S.-Spanish operation, set cybersecurity circles abuzz after his wife told Russia’s RT broadcaster that he was being linked to America’s 2016 election hacking. Justice Department officials said Monday there was no such connection but declined to elaborate. Details of a pending criminal case against Levashov in the United States remain sealed.