French blast 'ignorant' US tyre boss

21 February 2013 Last updated at 04:39 ET

A French minister has responded angrily to the boss of US tyremaker Titan who said he would have to be "stupid" to invest in the country.

Maurice Taylor made the claims in a letter to France's minister for industrial recovery, Arnaud Montebourg.

On Thursday, Mr Montebourg replied that Mr Taylor's "extreme" comments showed a "perfect ignorance of what our country is".

He added that 20,000 foreign firms are in France, employing 2 million people.

Mr Taylor - a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 - was replying to a request for Titan to consider investing in a loss-making Goodyear plant in Amiens, north France.

"I have visited that factory a couple of times. The French workforce gets paid high wages but only works three hours," Mr Taylor said in the letter, dated 8 February, and published by French business daily Les Echos on Wednesday.

"They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three. I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!"

He is nicknamed "the Grizz" for his bear-like no-nonsense style. He added: "How stupid do you think we are?"

French unions had blasted the content of his letter.

In his response, Mr Montebourg said: "May I point out that Titan, the company you lead, is 20 times smaller than Michelin, our French leader of international influence, and 35 times less profitable?"

The minister added that 4,200 subsidiaries of US firms employed more than 500,000 people in France and that some firms had been around since 1842.

He went on to praise the efforts of young US soldiers in World War II and the current efforts of President Barack Obama to stop deindustrialisation in the US.

This is not the first row that Mr Montebourg has been involved in since the Socialists took charge of the presidency last summer.

He accused steelmaker Arcelor Mittal of "lying" and "disrespecting" the country and said it was no longer welcome during a spat over the closure of two furnaces at its steel plant in Florange.

France has a 35-hour statutory working week, brought in by the Socialist Party in 2000, but critics say it is now stifling economic growth.

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Pistorius officer on criminal charge

21 February 2013 Last updated at 06:19 ET

The South African detective leading the Oscar Pistorius inquiry is facing seven charges of attempted murder, police have confirmed.

Detective Hilton Botha, who has faced fierce questioning at Mr Pistorius's bail hearing, was allegedly involved in a shooting two years ago.

Mr Pistorius, a Paralympic champion, denies the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, 29.

His bail hearing is now under way for a third day in Pretoria.

The defence has said there is no evidence of premeditated murder.

Separately, sports giant Nike has confirmed it has suspended its contract with Oscar Pistorius.

Reinstated charges

Police spokesman Neville Malila said that Det Botha and two other officers were due to appear in court in May.

Mr Malila said it was alleged that while driving a state-owned vehicle the three had opened fire on a minibus taxi loaded with passengers.

The three were arrested in 2011, Eyewitness News says, citing police.

Mr Malila said the charges against Det Botha had originally been dropped but were reinstated.

It is unclear when this took place or whether Det Botha will continue working on the case in the long run.

Continue reading the main story

The news Hilton Botha is facing reinstated charges of attempted murder has stunned everyone. The immediate question is what impact, if any, the news may have on the prosecution argument that Mr Pistorius should not be allowed bail pending trial.

The timing of the reinstatement of the charges is still unclear and the National Prosecuting Authority says they are in no way connected to the athlete's murder case. It is curious, though, that the information about Det Botha was not provided to the Pistorius defence team or, apparently, to the prosecution.

Some might argue that Det Botha, who wilted under strenuous cross-examination by the defence, eventually conceding that he had not yet seen any evidence to contradict the athlete's version of events, has already done enough damage to the prosecution's call for Mr Pistorius to be denied bail and that the new revelations may not affect the magistrate's decision significantly.

Medupe Simasiku, a spokesman for the Pistorius prosecutors, told Associated Press they were unaware of the charges and would now investigate whether the detective should remain.

The BBC's Peter Biles in Pretoria says the police statement concerning Det Botha is an extraordinary turn of events.

Mr Pistorius says he shot Ms Steenkamp in the bathroom of his home after mistaking her for an intruder.

If denied bail, Mr Pistorius could face months in prison before a full trial begins.

'Extremely concerning'

Thursday's proceedings began with prosecutor Gerrie Nel confirming to the court that Det Botha was facing seven attempted murder charges.

Det Botha was not initially in court and Magistrate Desmond Nair had to ask for him to be found.

After a short break, Det Botha was brought in and was questioned about telephone records from the night of the shooting, evidence of violence in Mr Pistorius's past and the extent of the flight risk.

Lead defence counsel Barry Roux then addressed the court and called for the charge to be listed as "schedule 5", not the current "schedule 6", which is one of premeditated murder.

The defence team would have to prove extenuating circumstances to justify granting bail if schedule 6 remains.

The defence said the poor quality of Det Botha's evidence exposed disastrous shortcomings in the prosecution.

The court is in brief recess. It will then hear more defence arguments and then the prosecution case.

Mr Roux told the BBC's Andrew Harding, who is in the courtroom, that a bail decision might not come until Friday.

Correspondents say Det Botha's evidence on Wednesday appeared first to boost the prosecution's case and then offer the defence a hope of winning the argument.

Det Botha told the court that the trajectory of gunshots through the bathroom door indicated that Mr Pistorius, a double amputee, was wearing his prosthetic legs and shot downwards through the door.

This contradicted an earlier account given by Mr Pistorius, who said he was walking on his stumps and grabbed his gun because he felt vulnerable when he thought an intruder had entered.

The detective then said a witness had said he heard fighting at Mr Pistorius's home on the night Ms Steenkamp was shot.

Det Botha initially said the witness was some 600m (1,800ft) away, but later amended his answer to 300m after a break for lunch.

Mr Pistorius's family said the changes were "extremely concerning".

Det Botha said police had lost track of ammunition found inside the house.

The detective was also accused of not wearing protective clothing at the crime scene.

The defence also countered police suggestions that testosterone and needles had been found in Mr Pistorius's bedroom, arguing instead that the substance was a herbal remedy, called Testocompasutium co-enzyme.

The magistrate appeared to question Det Botha's assertion that Mr Pistorius could be a flight risk who should be denied bail.

The Pistorius family issued a statement saying they were "satisfied with the outcome" of Wednesday's proceedings.

Oscar Pistorius won gold medals at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.

In London he made history by becoming the first double-amputee to run in the Olympics, making the semi-final of the 400m.

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Explosion rocks Syrian capital

21 February 2013 Last updated at 05:40 ET

A huge car bomb in the Syrian capital Damascus has sent smoke billowing across the capital's skyline.

Syrian media and pan-Arab satellite station al-Jazeera have spoken of deaths and injuries resulting from the blast, which state media have blamed on "terrorists".

Ambulances rushed to the scene near headquarters of the ruling Baath party.

The violence comes as Russia and the Arab League say they want to broker direct government-opposition talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the violence as "a road to nowhere".

The opposition Syrian National Coalition is holding a two-day meeting in Egypt to discuss a framework for a possible solution to the Syrian war.

Some 70,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, the UN says.

Lifeless bodies

Police and witnesses said the blast was a car bomb. It went off in the central Mazraa neighbourhood, close to the Baath offices and Russian embassy.

Surrounding roads are reported to have been closed off to traffic.

State and pro-regime TV showed pictures of lifeless bodies and destroyed cars.

State media said the explosion had struck near a school and clinic and that schoolchildren were among the casualties.

Firefighters and medical staff were pictured at the scene.

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Match-fixing suspect held in Italy

21 February 2013 Last updated at 05:52 ET

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Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble: "He's not been physically forced"

An international football match-fixing suspect has been arrested in Italy after arriving from Singapore and giving himself up, Italian police have said.

Italian media have named the suspect as a Slovenian man, Admir Sulic.

Interpol says that the suspect is believed to be linked to a match-fixing organisation based in Singapore.

Investigators have been critical of Singapore for allowing alleged match fixers to live there freely.

Interpol - the international organisation of criminal police - believes that Mr Sulic is linked to a match-fixing group controlled by Singaporean businessman Tan Seet Eng - also known as Dan Tan.

Initial reports said that Mr Tan himself was on the plane from Singapore to Italy.

'Crime syndicate'

Mr Sulic was arrested at Malpensa airport in Milan after stepping off a flight from Singapore, police said. They had been tipped off by his lawyer that he was on the flight, they added.

Continue reading the main story

• Believed to be an ethnic Chinese, in his late 40s
• Reportedly called "the boss" and "the capo" by his accomplices
• Seldom seen in public, he told a Singaporean newspaper in 2011 that he was innocent of all match-fixing charges
• Implicated by Interpol in fixing of hundreds of sports events, mostly football matches
• Italian officials are reportedly unable to take him into custody as an arrest warrant cannot be served while he is in Asia
• Said to live in a wealthy neighbourhood of Singapore
• Reported to have a personal net worth of more than $58m (£38m)

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Bangkok said that news of the pending arrest first emerged on Wednesday evening, when Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble told a news conference on match-fixing in Malaysia that a suspect was on his way from Singapore to Milan.

The man - who was not named by Mr Noble - was wanted by Italian police in connection with a scandal which saw several high profile Italian players given bans from football and clubs penalised, Interpol said.

"I can't tell you where he is wanted on in the Interpol list," Mr Noble told the BBC from Singapore. "I can tell you he is wanted for arrest by Italian authorities for his alleged involvement in match-fixing under the organisation based in Singapore controlled by Tan Seet Eng."

Mr Noble defended Singapore and south-east Asian countries from the charge that they had allowed the region to become a hub for international match-fixing.

He argued that the European police were not sharing information internationally - leaving the Asians with very little evidence to act on.

News of the arrest follows details released by European police earlier this month at the conclusion of an 18-month investigation in match-fixing.

They said that a crime syndicate based in Singapore was liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe, and that match-fixing had taken place in 15 countries and 50 people have so far been arrested.

In total, 30 countries and close to 700 matches worldwide were examined.

Many of the allegations involved matches in lower divisions around Europe.

Some 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals are suspected of being involved.

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Japan posts record trade deficit

19 February 2013 Last updated at 23:41 ET Continue reading the main story

Japan's monthly trade deficit hit a record in January after its recent aggressive monetary policy stance weakened its currency sharply.

Exports rose in January, the first jump in eight months, as its goods became more affordable to foreign buyers.

However, a weak currency also pushed up its import bill resulting in a monthly trade deficit of 1.6tn yen ($17.1bn; £11.1bn), a 10% jump from a year ago.

Japan's deficit has also been impacted by an increase in fuel imports.

The world's third-largest economy has seen a rise in fuel imports, as most of Japan's nuclear reactors continue to remain closed.

Japan's imports rose 7.3% in January, from a year earlier. One of the biggest jumps was in the import of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which surged more than 28%.

Meanwhile, exports rose 6.4%, driven up mainly by shipments of manufactured goods, the customs and tariff bureau said.

Exports boost?

Japan's exports, one of the key drivers of its economic growth, have been hurt by a variety of factors.

Demand from the eurozone, one of Japan's biggest markets, has been hurt by the region's ongoing debt crisis.

A territorial dispute with China has hit sales of Japanese goods to the country, Japan's biggest trading partner, over the past few months.

However, the latest data indicated that things may be starting to change.

Japan's shipments to China rose by 3% in January from a year earlier, the first rise since May.

At the same time, exports to the US, the world's biggest economy, also jumped 10.9%, further adding to hopes of a recovery in the sector.

Meanwhile, the pace of decline in exports to the European Union also slowed during the month.

There are hopes that as shipments to key markets recover and the yen continues to remain weak, Japan's export sector may see a sustained recovery.

The yen has dipped nearly 15% against the US dollar since November.

A weak currency helps boost profits of exporters when they repatriate their foreign earnings back home, giving them a much bigger pile of cash to invest at the end of the financial year.

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'Action needed' on football fixing

20 February 2013 Last updated at 02:27 ET

Officials in the world of football have said all countries and organisations must do more to tackle corruption.

The acting head of the Asian Football Confederation, Zhang Jilong, told a meeting in Malaysia about match-fixing that it had become "a pandemic" which no organisation could fight alone.

Fifa's security chief Ralf Mutschke said corruption should be addressed "on a political level".

The two-day conference in Kuala Lumpur was organised by Interpol and Fifa.

Some 200 representatives from 43 countries are attending the event, which aims to alert officials and law enforcement officers on how best to fight match-fixing.

In his opening remarks, Mr Zhang, who is from China, said it was time to "admit that match-fixing is a real danger to football's ethical values and needs to be eliminated to preserve the sanctity of the sport".

He said the problem was "too complicated and widespread for one organisation to fight it alone".

He acknowledged that Asia has become a centre of match-fixing, but said that "no continent is now left untouched by this disease. Match-fixing is now a pandemic in the world [of] football."

'Laws needed'

Earlier this month, police in Europe said an organised crime syndicate based in Singapore had been behind the rigging of hundreds of games between 2008 and 2011.

Mr Mutschke said the issue went beyond Fifa's jurisdiction, and that while football's governing body could ban players and referees, "criminals are out there free - they get no sentence. That's wrong".

"We have to bring in governments to change legislation and laws. Many countries do not have laws to fight match manipulation," he said.

Dale Sheehan, Interpol's training director, said it was essential to "take back the game of football" from criminals, who he said were able to make millions in profits with "little risk of being detected".

"Sports and fair play are the very fabric of our society and youth, and the impact of match-fixing, including murder, suicide, assault and threats has the ability to undermine that very fabric," he said.

The conference comes a day after China's football authorities banned 33 players and officials for life after they were found guilty of fixing matches. Another 25 people were given five-year bans, while 12 clubs were given financial or points-based penalties.

Mr Zhang became acting president of the AFC after his predecessor, Mohammed Bin Hamman, was given a lifetime ban by Fifa for corruption and bribery.

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FBI to investigate Heinz trades

20 February 2013 Last updated at 05:05 ET

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is joining an investigation into suspicious trades ahead of the Heinz takeover deal last week.

The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is already suing unnamed traders for insider dealing.

Last Thursday, Heinz was bought for $23bn by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fund and 3G Capital.

Unusual trading activity in the shares was noticed the previous day.

"The FBI is aware of trading anomalies the day before Heinz's announcement" a spokesman said. "The FBI is consulting with the SEC to determine if a crime was committed."

The SEC believes that some traders knew about the takeover before it was announced and made $1.7m from the knowledge. It obtained an emergency court order to freeze assets in a Swiss-based account.

The traders in question made risky bets that Heinz's stock price would increase, using financial instruments called options. After the official announcement of the deal Heinz's share price rose by 20%.

"Irregular and highly suspicious options trading immediately in front of a merger or acquisition announcement is a serious red flag that traders may be improperly acting on confidential non-public information" said the SEC's head of the Market Abuse Unit, Daniel Hawke.

There is no implication that Heinz or its new owners have committed any wrongdoing.

The SEC said a bank account at Goldman Sachs was used. Goldman Sachs has said it is co-operating with the investigation.

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'Screams' heard at Pistorius home

20 February 2013 Last updated at 05:48 ET

A witness heard gunshots, screaming, and then more shots fired at the home of athlete Oscar Pistorius on the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed, a police officer has said.

Day two of his bail hearing in Pretoria also heard testosterone and needles were found in Mr Pistorius' bedroom.

He denies the premeditated murder of Ms Steenkamp, his girlfriend, saying he mistook her for an intruder.

A full trial of the Paralympic star, 26, is not expected for months.

However, allegations of what happened on Valentine's Day last week have continued to emerge in the packed courtroom.

Interest is at fever pitch, correspondents say, and courtroom proceedings were delayed as journalists and onlookers tried to get into the court. One journalist fainted in the scrum.

Steenkamp 'dressed'

As the prosecution began setting out its case on Wednesday, it said a witness had testified to hearing "non-stop talking like fighting" between the hours of 02:00 and 03:00 on 14 February.

The first officer to arrive on the scene - chief investigating officer Hilton Botha - later said a witness had testified to hearing screams and gunshots from the house.

"We have statement of a person who said after he heard gunshots, he went to his balcony and saw the light was on. Then he heard a female screaming two-three times, then more gunshots," Mr Botha told the court, according to AFP news agency.

Mr Pistorius claims he was asleep until only moments before the shooting and that there was no argument between the couple.

Earlier, Mr Botha said he arrived at the house at 04:15 and found Ms Steenkamp lying dead on the ground floor. She was wearing white shorts and a black vest and was covered in towels, he said.

A lawyer and Mr Pistorius's brother were already at the scene.

Mr Botha said a memory stick was recovered with details of Mr Pistorius's offshore bank accounts - and claimed that made him a flight risk.

And he said Mr Pistorius would face an additional charge of possessing unlicensed ammunition.

Ms Steenkamp was shot in the right side of her head, her right hip and her right elbow, Mr Botha said.

He later testified that he thought the bullets were fired "down", suggesting Mr Pistorius had his prosthetic legs on.

Mr Pistorius has claimed he was walking on his stumps - making him feel particularly vulnerable - but the prosecution has argued he stopped to put his legs on, adding weight to its case that the shooting was premeditated.

Mr Botha said police found two boxes of the male sex hormone testosterone and needles in Mr Pistorius's bedroom.

But Mr Botha was later put on the defensive when questioned by Mr Pistorius's lawyer, says the BBC's Andrew Harding who is in the courtroom.

He admitted one witness who heard arguing at the house was in her own home 600m (a third of a mile) away.

The testosterone found was actually a legal herbal remedy used by athletes, the defence said.

It accused Mr Botha of putting the "worst possible interpretation" on the evidence.

'Intruder'

On Tuesday, Mr Pistorius told the court he had woken in the middle of the night and heard what he thought was an intruder in the bathroom.

He shot through the door and only then realised Ms Steenkamp was not in bed.

He said he was "absolutely mortified" at her death.

The magistrate has deemed this a schedule six case - meaning Mr Pistorius is accused of premeditated murder.

His defence team will have to prove the extenuating circumstances that would justify granting bail.

Two days were set aside for this bail hearing, but it now looks as though it might not be completed until the end of the week, says the BBC's Peter Biles outside the court.

The first day of the hearing on Tuesday coincided with Ms Steenkamp's funeral.

The 29-year-old model and law graduate was cremated in her home town of Port Elizabeth.

Her father, Barry Steenkamp, told reporters: "We have to keep Reeva in our hearts forever."

The case has aroused huge interest both in South Africa, where Oscar Pistorius is regarded as a national hero, and around the world.

He is a multiple Paralympic champion, winning gold medals at the 2004 Games in Athens, at Beijing 2008 and at London 2012.

In London he made history by becoming the first double amputee to run in the Olympics, progressing to the semi-finals of the 400m.

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Nestle finds horsemeat in beef meals

18 February 2013 Last updated at 21:07 ET

Nestle, the world's biggest food company, has removed beef pasta meals from shelves in Italy and Spain after tests revealed traces of horse DNA.

The Swiss-based firm has halted deliveries of products containing meat from a German supplier.

Nestle is the latest in a string of major food producers to find traces of horsemeat in beef meals.

A spokesman for the company said levels of horse DNA were very low but above 1%.

Last week the firm said its products did not contain horsemeat.

Nestle withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain.

Lasagnes a la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be withdrawn.

A spokesman for the company told the BBC that Nestle had identified a problem with a supplier from Germany.

'New tests'

A statement on the Nestle website identified the supplier as HJ Schypke, a sub-contractor of JBS Toledo, a major meat processing company based in Belgium.

"There is no food safety issue, but the mislabelling of products means they fail to meet the very high standards consumers expect from us," the statement said.

In addition to removing the three affected products from sale, Nestle would be "enhancing our existing comprehensive quality assurance programme by adding new tests on beef for horse DNA prior to production in Europe", it added.

Continue reading the main story

• In mid-January, Irish food inspectors announced they had found horsemeat in some burgers stocked by UK supermarket chains
• Subsequently, up to 100% horsemeat found in several ranges of prepared frozen food in Britain, France and Sweden
• Concerns that a drug used to treat horses, and which may be harmful to humans, could be in food chain
• Meat traced from France through Cyprus and The Netherlands to Romanian abattoirs
• Investigation suggests adulteration was not accidental but the work of a criminal conspiracy

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the news that the world's biggest food producer is now having to withdraw some foods, shows the problem is far wider than previously thought and, critics say, how dangerously unregulated the food industry has become.

The widening scandal over mislabelled horsemeat has affected at least 12 European countries, including Switzerland, where the retailer Co-op - famous for its broad range of organic, locally-sourced food - was on Monday forced to remove nine different products from its shelves.

Last Wednesday, the company said it had found horsemeat in its own-brand frozen lasagne produced by the Comigel food processing company in France.

Co-op now faces possible charges of negligence from the Swiss authorities.

France meanwhile partially lifted a production ban for another meat processing firm, Spanghero.

The French government revoked its licence last week over suspicions that Spanghero knowingly sold horsemeat labelled as beef, an allegation the company rejects.

The French authorities said that unwitting workers should not be penalised.

As a result the firm will be allowed to produce minced meat, sausages and ready-to-eat meals, but not to stock frozen meat.

Meanwhile the UK and Germany have also both pledged to step up testing of frozen food products.

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China military unit 'behind hacking'

19 February 2013 Last updated at 05:15 ET

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BBC Chinese service editor Raymond Li: "In China, everything about the military is top secret"

A secretive branch of China's military is most likely one of the world's "most prolific cyber espionage groups", a US cyber security firm has said.

Mandiant said Unit 61398 was believed to have "systematically stolen hundreds of terabytes of data" from at least 141 organisations around the world.

It traced the attacks to the doorstep of a non-descript building in Shanghai used by the unit.

China denied hacking and questioned the validity of Mandiant's report.

"Hacking attacks are transnational and anonymous," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

"Determining their origins are extremely difficult. We don't know how the evidence in this so-called report can be tenable.

"Arbitrary criticism based on rudimentary data is irresponsible, unprofessional and not helpful in resolving the issue."

Mr Hong added that Beijing "firmly opposes hacking", has taken steps to prevent it and is also a victim of cyber attacks.

'Extensive cyber espionage'

In its unusually detailed report, US-based computer security company Mandiant said it had investigated hundreds of data breaches since 2004, most of which it attributed to what it termed "Advanced Persistent Threat" actors.

The details it had uncovered, it said, "convince us that the groups conducting these activities are based primarily in China and that the Chinese government is aware of them".

The most prolific of these actors is APT1, which Mandiant says it "a single organisation of operators that has conducted a cyber espionage campaign against a broad range of victims since at least 2006".

"From our observations, it is one of the most prolific cyber espionage groups in terms of the sheer quantity of information stolen," it said, adding that it was "likely government-sponsored and one of the most persistent of China's cyber threat actors".

"We believe that APT1 is able to wage such a long-running and extensive cyber espionage campaign in large part because it receives direct government support," said Mandiant.

The firm said it had traced the hacking activities of APT1 to the site of 12-storey building in the Pudong area of Shanghai. It said that Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army "is also located in precisely the same area" and that the actors had similar "missions, capabilities and resources".

Among the findings about APT1 in the report were that it:

• is staffed by hundreds, possibly thousands, of proficient English speakers with advanced computer security and networking skills
• has hacked into 141 companies across 20 industries, 87% based in English-speaking countries, and is able to steal from dozens of networks simultaneously
• has stolen hundreds of terabytes of information including blueprints, business plans, pricing documents, user credentials, emails and contact lists
• stayed inside hacked networks for an average of 356 days, with the longest lasting 1,764 days
• targeted industries identified by China as strategically important under its Five Year Plan for economic growth

'Groundless'

Unit 61398 has for some time been suspected by the US of being central to China's cyber espionage programme, the New York Times reports.

Mandiant admitted there could be one alternative explanation for its findings: that "a secret, resourced organisation full of mainland Chinese speakers with direct access to Shanghai-based telecommunications infrastructure is engaged in a multi-year, enterprise scale computer espionage campaign right outside of Unit 61398's gates, performing tasks similar to Unit 61398's known mission".

Several governments, foreign companies and organisations have said in the past they suspect China of carrying out extensive cyber espionage over periods of several years.

Last month, the New York Times said its systems had been infiltrated over a period of four months, after it wrote a report on the alleged wealth of China's outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao.

Mandiant, which the paper hired to investigate, traced the hack to China. However the paper said its breach had been attributed to a different group. The Wall Street Journal also reported a China-based hack.

At the time, China's foreign ministry dismissed the New York Times accusations as "groundless", saying that to "conclude without hard evidence that China participated in such hacking attacks is totally irresponsible".

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