Belgian Police Arrest Virus-Writer Gigabyte; Mixed-Up Driver Closes U.S.-Canada Border Crossing; Haiti Revolt Spreads to New Town; Japans Citizens and Companies Gird Against Terrorism

Belgian Police Arrest Virus-Writer Gigabyte

According to an AP story posted on Security News Portal.com, Belgian police arrested a 19-year-old female technology student who gained international notoriety for creating computer viruses. The woman, identified only by her nickname “Gigabyte,” was charged with computer data sabotage under legislation introduced in 2000 to deal with cyber-crime. Police reportedly released the woman after 24 hours, confiscated her five computers and shut down her Web site. She was arrested yesterday in Mechelen, 20 miles north of Brussels. “She was preparing to publish new viruses on this site,” Inspector Olivier Bogaert of the Belgium police was quoted as telling La Libre Belgique. Mixed-Up Driver Closes U.S.-Canada Border CrossingGlobe and Mail today, Canada Customs found a hand grenade in the glove compartment of an American woman who was stopped at the Peace Arch border crossing yesterday, near Blaine, Wash. They took her into custody and closed the busiest border crossing in Western Canada for almost an hour. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police bomb squad retrieved the hand grenade, which Canada Customs officials thought might be live. (KOMO, a U.S. television station, described it as “an old military dummy/souvenir grenade,” according to the Globe and Mail.) The 28-year-old woman, whose husband is in the U.S. military, stationed at Ft. Lewis, Wash., was apparently trying to get to Vancouver, Wash., but was lost. RCMP spokesman Constable Tim Shields said the woman apparently didn’t know about the grenade in the glove box of her husband’s car. The woman was later released, and RCPM as of late yesterday was trying to determine whether the grenade were a dummy or real.

According to Canadas

Haiti Revolt Spreads to New TownBBC News Online reports today. The rebels are now reported to control the town and two major roads leading into the north of the country. France has raised the possibility of an international peace force being sent to Haiti, where the recent wave of unrest has left about 50 people dead. Neighboring Dominican Republic has expressed alarm about the unrest, warning it could not cope on its own if there were a mass exodus of Haitians, and it has closed the border.

About 50 men attacked a police station in the town of Hinche north of the capital Port au Prince, killing three people, including the police chief,

Japans Citizens and Companies Gird Against TerrorismAsahi Shimbun, businesses and citizens are preparing for a possible terrorist attack against Japan, a threat that has risen in level since the government’s decision in December to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. The story profiles Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, a sprawling commercial complex that opened last spring, where approximately 15,000 people work. Residents, too, are building shelters, leading to a booming security products business in Japan.

According to the English language edition of