Eideard

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MADRID — Spanish police arrested three men suspected to be members of the hacker group Anonymous on Friday, charging them with organizing cyber attacks against the websites of Sony Corp, banks and governments — but not the recent massive hacking of PlayStation gamers.

Anonymous responded by threatening to retaliate for the arrests…

Spanish police alleged the three “hacktivists” helped organize an attack that temporarily shuttered access to some Sony websites. They were not linked to two massive cyber attacks against Sony’s Playstation Network that resulted in the theft of information from more than 100 million customers.

Police also accused the men of launching cyber assaults on Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia, and Italian energy group Enel SpA.

The arrests are the first in Spain against alleged members of Anonymous, following the detention of others in the United States and Britain. Police told Reuters all three men were Spanish and in their 30s. One worked in the merchant navy.

Anonymous is a loose grouping of self-proclaimed hactivists who frequently try to shut down the websites of businesses and other organizations that it opposes…

To date, the group has not been linked to crimes for financial profit…

Spanish police said the accused, who were arrested in Almeria, Barcelona and Alicante, were guilty of coordinated computer hacking attacks from a server set up in a house in Gijon in the north of Spain.

The police did not rule out further arrests.

Though their rationales and excuses play heavily on calling themselves “freedom fighters” methinks that’s the result of too much time in mommy’s basement playing war games. They accomplish about as much positive political change as the average graffiti “artist” – which means little or none. Vandalism rarely does more than despoil the landscape – and “freedom fighters” like this almost never share an identity or ideology with ordinary citizens around the world.

Faced with the prospect of hard time behind their role-playing, I expect some will flip and the arrests will continue.

From Yury Dolgoruky kitted out as Santa Claus to Mikhail Sholokhov donning a colourful woolly hat, Moscow’s monuments are getting an impromptu makeover. A growing trend among pranksters has seen many of the city’s statues decorated with so-called “yarnbombing” (pryazhemetanie) or knitted graffiti. And it seems to be a mixture of official initiative and individual exuberance which has prompted the colourful displays.

But opinion is divided over whether this is just harmless fun, or alarming disrespect.

One of the first monuments to get a makeover was Yury Dolgoruky’s statue opposite the mayor’s offices on Tverskaya. On the orders of Yury Luzhkov, City Hall boss at the time, the city’s founder was dressed up in the red robes of Santa Claus for the festive season from 2006-2008. But while that has since stopped, the idea has caught on and statues across the city have been kitted out in woolly hats or colourful scarves by jokers wishing to brighten up the city.

The designers of the works involved tend to be in favour of these temporary new looks, Noviye Izvestiye reported.
When brightly-striped knitwear or sculpted birds appear on the Gogolevsky Bulvar monument to Mikhail Sholokhov, author of “Quiet Flows the Don”, the creator sees it as a success.

“The author of the monument, Alexander Rukavishnikov, considers it an indication that the monument has successfully been integrated into the urban environment,” said Sergei Polovinkin of the city’s department of culture. But Polovinkin himself warned that such gestures might spark annoyance on other occasions, pointing out that nobody would consider doing this in a cemetery and suggesting that monuments in the city should enjoy the same respect…

Some people think cemeteries are suitable for everything from picnics to sex, Sergei. Although I wouldn’t recommend sex on a statue in front of city hall, a picnic might not be so bad. And bring a scarf for the statue.

A group of volunteers clearing graffiti from the walls and bus stops in their home town have inadvertently painted over a modern masterpiece – and cost its owner £5,000.

The work, attributed to street artist Banksy, depicted Paddington Bear with the caption “Migration is not a crime” and was painted onto a wall owned by Julian Chatt in Glastonbury, Somerset. But well-meaning volunteers painted over the artwork as part of the council’s drive to rid the area of graffiti.

Chatt said he had struck a deal to sell the piece for about £5,000 and had agreed with the council that it would not be removed. “I’d spoken to the town council in the past and asked them not to paint over the artwork”.

“Sure enough, the last few times the council have been out they didn’t paint it over. But on Saturday morning, I came out of my house and there was this chemical smell, and when I turned the corner Paddington was gone…”

Glastonbury town council said the image was one of several in the region said to be by Banksy. It accepted the picture had been painted over in error.

At least it wasn’t like having the Rivera murals at Rockefeller Center deliberately painted over.