Estonia News Blog @newzblogz.com

For the past three weeks, Estonia, a small European country that is a member of both NATO and the European Union, has been under assault from neighboring Russia. The offensive is of a new kind: cyber-warfare. Computers serving Estonian government ministries, banks, schools and media have been vandalized via the Internet. Some of the attacks have been traced to Russian government servers, including that of the president’s office in the Kremlin. For ...

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MOSCOW — One of the computers on reporter Vyacheslav Izmailov's desk is more than a decade old, an antique by high-tech standards. But he refuses to part with the machine: Mikhail S. Gorbachev paid for it with his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize money.

"It is pretty outdated and not of much practical use anymore, but I will never throw it away," said Izmailov, the military analyst for the fiercely independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. "It is a little monument to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. And of course to Mikhail Gorbachev."

When Novaya Gazeta, or "New Newspaper," was launched in 1993 with a little help from the last Soviet leader, it soon won respect for its coverage of subjects such as corruption and the misdeeds of Russian forces in war-torn Chechnya. It also made powerful enemies.

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As of Saturday, May 19, 2007, at least 3,414 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,773 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is 19 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 148 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 20; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, one death each.

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MOSCOW — Eight correspondents have resigned from a Russian broadcast-news agency to protest the pro-Kremlin management's decision to withhold stories in line with a new policy that half its coverage must portray the government in a "positive" light, journalists said.

The reported policy by the Russian News Service, which provides news broadcasts to Russia's most popular radio network and runs its own station, heightens concerns over President Vladimir Putin's moves to increasingly bring mass media under state control or influence.

In another case highlighting the concerns, the Russian Union of Journalists is protesting an order that it vacate its offices in a building that houses state media operations.

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TALLINN, Estonia -- This small Baltic country, one of the most wired societies in Europe, has been subject in recent weeks to massive and coordinated cyber attacks on Web sites of the government, banks, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers and news organizations, according to Estonian and foreign officials here.

Computer security specialists here call it an unprecedented assault on the public and private electronic infrastructure of a state. They say it is originating in Russia, which is angry over Estonia's recent relocation of a Soviet war memorial. Russian officials deny any government involvement.

The NATO alliance and the European Union have rushed information technology specialists to Estonia to observe and assist during the attacks, which have disrupted government e-mail and led financial institutions to shut down online banking.

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