Science & Technology News

BOSTON (Reuters) – Three Google Inc researchers have uncovered a security bug in widely used web encryption technology that they say could allow hackers to steal data in what they have dubbed a “Poodle” attack. “Poodle” stands for Padding Oracle On Downloaded Legacy Encryption. The problem is an 18-year old encryption standard, known as SSL 3.0, which is still widely used in web browsers and websites. It was disclosed in a research paper published late on Tuesday on the website of the OpenSSL Project, a group that develops the most widely used type of SSL encryption software. …

By Adam Jourdan SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A Chinese drugmaker with close military ties is seeking fast-track approval for a drug that it says can cure Ebola, as China joins the race to help treat a deadly outbreak of a disease that has spread from Africa to the United States and Europe. Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has signed a tie-up with Chinese research Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) last week to help push the drug called JK-05 through the approval process in China and bring it to market. …

By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) – Russian hackers exploited a bug in Microsoft Windows and other software to spy on computers used by NATO, the European Union, Ukraine and companies in the energy and telecommunications sectors, according to cyber intelligence firm iSight Partners. ISight said it did not know what data had been found by the hackers, though it suspected they were seeking information on the Ukraine crisis, as well as diplomatic, energy and telecom issues, based on the targets and the contents of phishing emails used to infect computers with tainted files. …

By Geert De Clercq CADARACHE France (Reuters) – Behind thick glass in a laboratory nestled in French woodland, a silvery molten metal swirls like a liquid mirror. But the material is no mere novelty; as dangerous as it is captivating, it could offer a solution to the nuclear power debate. For sodium, the sixth-most abundant element on the planet, is being held up as the key to one of several new types of nuclear reactor being developed as governments grapple with the problem of making atomic energy more environmentally friendly, safe and financially viable. …

LONDON (Reuters) – The winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize, considered one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, will be announced on Tuesday in London. Here are capsule reviews by Reuters correspondents of the six short-listed contenders. “J” – HOWARD JACOBSON Howard Jacobson’s “J” shifts from the contemporary London Jewish world of “The Finkler Question”, which won the Booker Prize in 2010, to a dystopian setting around 60 years in the future. But the questions of identity and assimilation remain. …

By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A rogue crocodile, a green baby, a puking Peter Pan and a punching kangaroo are troublesome yet comedic obstacles that befall the Cooper family on a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” in Disney’s new live-action family comedy. “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” out in U.S. theaters on Friday, is expanded from the 1972 book of the same name about a perpetually unlucky pre-teen boy. …

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha defended a police investigation into the murder of two British tourists on Friday, amid criticism of shoddy forensic work and concern that two arrested Myanmar men may have admitted the crimes under duress. Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, both 21, were arrested last week for the murders of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24. The bodies were found on a beach on the southern island of Koh Tao, or Turtle Island, famous for its coral reefs and diving. …

By Irene Jay Liu HONG KONG (Reuters) – As Hong Kong’s political crisis escalates, both the students and government are grappling with a generational conflict that is playing out on the streets and at dining room tables across the city. Many young protesters talk of fighting for “Hong Kong people”, but they face a challenge in convincing the older generation to take up their cause. …

By Tommy Wilkes NEW DELHI (Reuters) – In late August, India’s environment ministry rejected a proposal to build what would be the country’s largest hydropower plant in a remote and pristine part of the country’s northeast because of the potential damage to an area rich in biodiversity. Less than a month later and, according to two environment ministry officials, after pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, permission was granted for the 3,000 megawatt Dibang plant, the construction of which will mean clearing some 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of forest. …

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – French writer Patrick Modiano has won the Nobel Prize for Literature as “a Marcel Proust of our time,” The Swedish Academy said on Thursday. The academy said the award of 8 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million) was “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation”. Modiano’s works have centred on memory, oblivion, identity and guilt that often take place during the German occupation of World War Two. …