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Top news: North Korea’s strike plan, England’s World Cup chances and the biggest ever cyber attack

By River Reporter Apr 1, 2013

The River’s Jack Hammond rounds up the top fives stories from the past week’s news.

North Korea targets America

North Korea released photographs of Kim Jong Un inside his military command centre signing the order to put rockets on standby to attack the U.S. mainland.

The news came on the same day that the country announced it was in a ‘state of war’ with neighbouring country South Korea.

The pictures, which appeared in the state-run Rodong newspaper, show Mr Kim surrounded by his generals, large-scale maps and diagrams during an ’emergency meeting’ at an undisclosed location.

A chart marked ‘U.S. mainland strike plan’ appears to show missile trajectories that the NK News website estimates targets Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.

Teenage girl killed by 5 dogs

14-year-old Jade Lomas-Anderson was found dead in a house in Greater Manchester after five dogs savagely attacked her.

The pack of dogs were said to be “aggressive and out of control”. The Police arrived to find the girl alone in the house and managed to get four of the five dogs contained in the garden.

Armed officers then put the animals down “humanely”, while a fifth dog was securely contained.

Cyprus financial crisis worsens

The central bank in Cyprus imposed a 100 euro per day withdrawal limit at cash machines for the island’s two biggest banks on Sunday to avert the fleeing of lenders with their savings.

After negotiations in Brussels, President Nicos Anastasiades said the 10 billion euro (£8.5 billion) rescue plan agreed was “painful” but essential to avoid economic meltdown.

He agreed to close down the second largest bank, Cyprus Popular, and inflict heavy losses on big depositors, many of them Russian, after Cyprus’s outsize financial sector ran into trouble when its investments in neighbouring Greece went sour.

Biggest ever cyber attack

The Internet around the world was slowed down in what security experts described as the biggest cyber-attack of its kind in history.

A row between a spam-fighting group and hosting firm sparked retaliation attacks affecting the wider Internet.

It had an impact on popular services like Netflix, and experts worry it could escalate to affect banking and email systems. Five national cyber police forces are investigating the attacks.

England draw in Montenegro match

England’s path to World Cup qualification remains far from guaranteed as Montenegro battled back to earn a deserved draw in Podgorica.

Wayne Rooney’s early header, his fifth in six games he has played for England since Euro 2012, was reward for an enterprising and positive opening half.

England, however, paid a heavy price for failing to capitalise.

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