By Raphael Satter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A former Wall Street Journal reporter is accusing a major U.S. law firm of having used mercenary hackers to oust him from his job and ruin his reputation.

In a lawsuit filed late Friday, Jay Solomon, the Journal’s former chief foreign correspondent, said Philadelphia-based Dechert LLP worked with hackers from India to steal emails between him and one of his key sources, Iranian American aviation executive Farhad Azima.

Solomon said the messages, which showed Azima floating the idea of the two of them going into business together, were put into a dossier and circulated in a successful effort to get him fired.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, said Dechert “wrongfully disclosed this dossier first to Mr. Solomon’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, at its Washington DC bureau, and then to other media outlets in an attempt to malign and discredit him.” It said the campaign “effectively caused Mr. Solomon to be blackballed by the journalistic and publishing community.”

Dechert said in an email that it disputed the claim and would fight it in court. Azima – who filed his own lawsuit against Dechert on Thursday in New York – had no immediate comment.

Solomon’s suit is the latest in a series of legal actions that follows Reuters’ reporting about hired hackers operating out of India. In June, Reuters reported on the activities of several hack-for-hire shops, including Delhi area-companies BellTroX and CyberRoot, that were involved in a decade-long series of espionage campaigns targeting thousands of people, including more than 1,000 lawyers at 108 different law firms.

At the time, Reuters reported that people who had become hacking targets while involved in at least seven different lawsuits had each launched their own inquiries into the cyberespionage campaign.

That number has since grown.

Azima, Solomon’s former source, is among those who have gone to court over the alleged hacking. His lawyers, like Solomon’s, allege that Dechert worked with BellTroX, CyberRoot and a slew of private investigators to steal his emails and publish them to the web.

BellTroX and CyberRoot are not parties to the suit and could not immediately be reached. Executives at both firms have previously denied wrongdoing.

Solomon and Azima allege that Dechert undertook the hack-and-leak operation in the interest of its client, Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, ruler of the Middle Eastern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. Reuters has reported that lawyers for Ras Al Khaimah’s investment agency – RAKIA – used the emails to help win a fraud lawsuit filed against Azima in London in 2016.

Azima, who denies RAKIA’s fraud allegations, is trying to have the judgment thrown out.

In addition to being deployed in court, the leaked emails also made their way to The Associated Press, which published two articles about Azima in June of 2017, including one that revealed the airline mogul had offered reporter Solomon a minority stake in a company he was setting up. The Journal fired Solomon shortly before the AP’s story was published, citing ethical violations.

Solomon says he never took Azima up on his proposal or benefited financially from their relationship. In a first-person account of the scandal published in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2018, the ex-journalist said he never pushed back on Azima’s talk of business opportunities because he was trying to humor a man who had been crucial to his reporting on the Middle East. Solomon acknowledged “serious mistakes in managing my source relationship with Azima” including accepting stays on the businessman’s yacht. But he said he had been the target of an “incredibly effective” information operation.

The Journal, which is not a party to suit, declined comment. The AP did not immediately return a message.

Solomon said in a statement Saturday that the hack-and-leak he suffered was an example of “a trend that’s becoming a great threat to journalism and media, as digital surveillance and hacking technologies become more sophisticated and pervasive. This is a major threat to the freedom of the press.”

(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by David Gregorio)

BERLIN (Reuters) -Lufthansa raised its forecast for full-year adjusted operating profit to over 1 billion euros ($980.40 million) on Monday, boosted by strong demand for air travel that continued its post-COVID recovery.

The company previously expected adjusted operating profit (EBIT) of more than 500 million euros.

Preliminary results for the third-quarter indicated that the airline almost doubled its year-on-year revenue in the third quarter to 10.1 billion euros, with quarterly adjusted earnings coming in at 1.1 billion euros.

The impact from strikes brought down earnings by around 70 million euros, according to the statement by the airline.

“Based on the positive development in the third quarter, the current booking situation, which continues to reflect strong demand for air travel in the coming months … Lufthansa Group is raising its forecast for the full year,” the statement said.

Final quarterly results are due on Oct. 27.

Pilots at Lufthansa’s Eurowings began a three-day strike over working hours on Monday, affecting tens of thousands of passengers – the latest in a series of strikes and strike threats by the airline’s employees.

Still, Lufthansa’s chief executive Carsten Spohr struck a positive note last week about the future of the sector, stating that the re-opening of Japan to tourists and a rise in demand for business travel was keeping it going despite inflation.

Consumer demand for travel in Europe is holding up with consumers willing to pay higher fares, according to recent statements by airlines including Ryanair and EasyJet.

($1 = 1.0200 euros)

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Riham Alkousaa, Christoph Steitz and David Evans)

By Amruta Khandekar, Sruthi Shankar and Devik Jain

(Reuters) -Europe’ STOXX 600 index climbed on Monday, buoyed by banks and real estate companies as investors cheered the reversal of Britain’s fiscal plan that had sent jitters across the markets.

Britain’s ITV rallied on a report it could sell stake in production arm.

The region-wide STOXX 600 index ended 1.8% higher, extending gains for a third straight session.

London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index gained 0.9% after the new finance minister Jeremy Hunt scrapped most of Prime Minister Liz Truss’s 45 billion pounds of unfunded tax cuts that led to market turmoil and forced the Bank of England to intervene.

Euro zone government bond yields fell, taking cues from British gilts, but were still not far off their highest levels in more than 10 years.

All the STOXX 600 sectors advanced, with real estate up nearly 4%, followed by 3.3% rise in travel and leisure stocks. Banks added 2.3%.

“The message is very much one of calm and getting a steady hand back on the tiller. The focus on market turmoil was interesting, being an acknowledgement that the UK and its fiscal policies do not exist in a vacuum, isolated from financial markets,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst, IG, London.

“Looks like a sigh of relief really, though everyone knows it will be a tough winter.”

European equities have suffered losses in the recent weeks as investors fret about the prospects of a recession from aggressive central bank actions to tame inflation. UK’s latest political turmoil only added to worries.

Investors are now keenly watching third-quarter earnings reports to see how businesses are dealing with cost pressures and to gauge guidance from companies amid growing recession concerns.

Among individual stocks, Credit Suisse rose 2.6%. Reuters reported the Swiss bank has approached at least one Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund for a capital injection.

ITV surged 9.1% after a Financial Times report that the Britain’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster is exploring options for its production arm ITV Studios.

Hargreaves Lansdown fell 1.9% after saying its chief executive officer would step down, a day after the British investment platform was hit by a multi-million pound lawsuit.

Nel rose 3% after the Norwegian hydrogen company received a NOK 600 million ($56.4 million) order from Woodside Energy for a U.S. hydrogen project.

Mowi added 4.9% after the Norwegian salmon farmer’s third-quarter profit came in above expectations.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Savio D’Souza and Angus MacSwan)

By Nidhi Verma

MOSCOW/NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Russia’s biggest oil exporter Rosneft has expanded its tanker chartering business to ease oil shipments for buyers amid looming Western sanctions on insurance of Russian oil shipments, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Previously, state-controlled Rosneft, which produces more than 40% of Russian oil, would sell its oil at the port of loading, meaning the buyer would have to find tankers and handle freight and insurance costs for the voyage.

But with new, tighter Western sanctions looming, Rosneft’s customers are asking the company to handle delivery to the final destination by assuming costs of insurance and freight, the three sources familiar with the matter said.

Many of Rosneft’s customers do not have trading businesses that handle operations such as shipping. Rosneft’s move to offer freight services will help customers which are not based in regions subject to sanctions to avoid delays, traders said.

Russia has increased exports to Asia, Africa and South America following the imposition of Western sanctions for its actions in Ukraine. The West accuses Moscow of invading Ukraine, while Russia calls it a special military operation.

Russia’s seaborne Urals crude exports to Asia have jumped six times during January-September this year compared with the same period of 2021, Refinitiv Eikon data and Reuters calculations showed.

Indian imports of Russian oil over the first eight months of 2022 rose by 1,252% year-on-year, based on Reuters calculations using Refinitiv Eikon data and Russia became China’s top crude supplier from May to July 2022.

Significant volumes of oil and products still flow from Russia to the European Union but Moscow will have to reroute a quarter of its total oil exports from December, when a full EU embargo comes into effect on Dec. 5.

Some of the G7 countries are working to introduce a price ceiling on Russian oil though it is not yet clear how this will work in practice.

Russia has threatened to cut supply to countries that accept the price cap.

FIRST CHARTER

The three sources said Rosneft is using its Rosnefteflot subsidiary to handle the shipping costs for buyers.

Previously, Rosnefteflot was focused on non-chartering activities like towing, refuelling of ships and inspection.

A Rosneft spokesperson said the company “has enough experience and readiness to find effective options for transportation of its cargoes in any, even very turbulent, market conditions.”

The spokesperson said, “using resources of Rosnefteflot, which is mostly dedicated to port services, is not always necessary,” referring to Rosneft’s capacity to also provide these services.

Rosneft chartered its first Suezmax ship capable of carrying 140,000 tonnes in June this year, based on Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data, when it sent a cargo of Urals crude from the Black Sea to India.

The volumes have steadily increased and in October Rosneft chartered almost 1 million tonnes, mainly via Rosnefteflot, based on trade sources and Refinitiv Eikon data.

That represents nearly 40% of the planned 2.5 million tonnes of Rosneft Urals crude tanker exports scheduled for October, according to Refinitiv Eikon and traders’ data.

    FROM INDIA TO CUBA    Rosnefteflot, which owns only five tankers, including two Aframaxes, its website said, has chartered more vessels on the open market and often uses tankers of Russian state shipping company Sovcomflot (SCF), the three sources said.

Other tankers chartered by Rosnefteflot delivered oil to India, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cuba in recent months, the sources said and Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

Rosneft had previously relied on so-called free-on-board sales of its oil and had long-term deals with major trading groups that handled most of the shipping, insurance and trading operations costs.

Unlike Russia’s second biggest oil company, Lukoil, and oil producer Gazpromneft, Rosneft does not have a chartering arm.

Attempts to develop a full-fledged trading arm like Lukoil’s Litasco were derailed after the United States added Rosneft’s trading unit RTSA in Switzerland to the sanctions list in 2020.

(Reporting by Reuters. Editing by Jane Merriman)

DUBAI (Reuters) -Eight prisoners died as a result of a fire at Tehran’s Evin prison over the weekend, Iran’s judiciary said on Monday, doubling the death toll from a blaze that has increased pressure on the government as it struggles to contain mass protests.

The fate of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died in custody on Sept. 16 after she was apprehended by Iran’s morality police for “inappropriate attire”, unleashed a wave of protests that spread rapidly and to all layers of society.

The unrest has turned into one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution, with protesters calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, even if the protests do not seem close to toppling the system.

Iran’s judiciary said the blaze on Saturday evening was started by prisoners in a workshop after a fight, and that those killed had died of smoke inhalation. All were from a section of the prison for inmates jailed for robbery-related crimes, it said.

Tehran’s tough crackdown on protests which include people from all layers of society, has drawn sharp international criticism from the United States and other Western powers.

Apparently opening up another new channel of foreign pressure, several European Union countries called on Monday for sanctions against Iran over the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia.

Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks, and on Monday Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with drones, killing at least four people in an apartment building in downtown Kyiv during morning rush hour.

Ukraine said the attacks were carried out by Iran-made “suicide drones” and said Tehran was responsible for the “murders of Ukrainians”.

Iran denies supplying drones to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has not commented.

Iran’s protests have seen Iranians calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic, even if the demonstrations do not seem close to toppling the system.

Eight prisoners died as a result of a fire at Tehran’s Evin prison over the weekend, Iran’s judiciary said on Monday.

Iran’s judiciary said the blaze on Saturday evening was started by prisoners in a workshop after a fight, and that those killed had died of smoke inhalation.

Evin, which in 2018 was blacklisted by the U.S. government for “serious human rights abuses”, holds political prisoners and many detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality.

Iran’s top judge Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei blamed the fire on “agents of Iran’s enemy”, while the foreign ministry said such an event could have happened in any country.

Iran has accused countries who have expressed support for the protests of meddling in their internal affairs, including President Ebrahim Raisi, who on Sunday blamed his U.S. counterpart for inciting “chaos, terror, and destruction” in Iran.

One traffic police officer was shot on Monday in Saravan in southeastern Iran by what the province’s police commander said were “terrorists” armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

The sounds of gunfire were frequently heard in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, according to audio files that human rights group Hengaw received.

A dozen young men in a key historical street of the city of Isfahan demonstrated on Monday, shouting “death to the dictator”, a popular slogan that refers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At the university of Mazandaran, in northern Iran, dozens of female students on Monday were heard calling for their professors to back the protests, a video shared on social media showed.

KURDISH REGION

The protests, which started at Amini’s funeral in her Kurdish hometown of Saqez, spread rapidly to cities and provinces across Iran, a country of more than 80 million people.

Demonstrations resumed early Monday in the central city of Yazd and several other cities, including Piranshahr in the northwest and Tehran.

The widely followed activist Tasvir1500 Twitter account carried a video showing people setting tires on fire in the streets and calling for the death of Khamenei.

Reuters could not independently verify the videos.

Much of the crackdown by security forces has focused on the northwest where most of Iran’s estimated 10 million Kurds live, but the protests have swept other areas home to ethnic minorities with long-standing grievances against the state.

Iran’s religious leaders have said the unrest part of a breakaway uprising by the Kurdish minority, threatening the nation’s unity rather than its clerical rule.

Iran has deployed the Basij militia, voluntary military troops which have been at the forefront of repressing popular unrest, but they have failed to take control.

The elite Revolutionary Guards, who have not taken part in the crackdown, began military exercises on Monday.

Rights groups said at least 240 protesters had been killed, including 32 minors. Over 8,000 people had been arrested in 111 cities and towns, Iranian activist news agency HRANA said on Saturday. The authorities have not published a death toll.

Iran, which has blamed the violence on enemies at home and abroad, denies security forces have killed protesters. State media said on Saturday at least 26 members of the security forces had been killed by “rioters”.

(Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold, Marine Strauss, Gabriela Baczynska;Writing by Michael GeorgyEditing by Raissa Kasolowsky, William Maclean)