Twelve Chinese nationals, including mercenary hackers, law enforcement officers and employees of a private hacking company, have been charged in connection with global cybercrime campaigns targeting dissidents, news organizations, U.S. agencies and universities, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

A set of criminal cases filed in New York and Washington add new detail to what U.S. officials say is a booming hacking-for-hire ecosystem in China, in which private companies and contractors are paid by the Chinese government to target victims of particular interest to Beijing in an arrangement meant to provide Chinese state security forces cover and deniability.

The indictments come as the U.S. government has warned of an increasingly sophisticated cyber threat from China, including a hack last year of telecom firms called Salt Typhoon that gave Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, including U.S. government officials and prominent public figures.

One indictment charges eight leaders and employees of a private hacking company known as I-Soon with conducting a sweeping array of computer breaches around the world meant to suppress speech, locate dissidents and steal data from victims. Among those charged is Wu Haibo, who founded I-Soon in Shanghai in 2010 and was a member of China’s first hacktivist group, Green Army and who is accused in the indictment of overseeing and directing hacking operations.

Earlier AP reporting on leaked documents from I-Soon mainly showed I-Soon was targeting a wide range of governments such as India, Taiwan or Mongolia, but little on the United States.

L.A. County to sue utility over wildfires

Los Angeles County said Wednesday that it’s suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked January’s Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people in the suburban Altadena area.

The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged “essential community infrastructure” and “massively impacted the County’s natural resources, harmed the environment and wildlife, and threatened public health,” the county said in a statement.

Additional costs have been incurred by county departments for ongoing support in assisting residents recovering from the fire’s destruction, according to the lawsuit.

Edison was reviewing the lawsuit and “will address it through the appropriate legal process,” utility spokesperson Kathleen Dunleavy said Wednesday.

The fire’s cause is still under investigation.

Wyoming ultrasound law veto overridden

Women planning pill abortions in Wyoming will need to get an ultrasound after lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto of the law.

Wednesday’s 22-9 vote by the state Senate followed a 45-16 vote by the House on Tuesday to override. In vetoing the bill Monday, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon questioned whether it was reasonable and necessary, especially for victims of rape and incest.

Lawmakers cited concerns about women’s well-being Wednesday in voting to override, and they cleared the two-thirds majority requirement.

“He’s very concerned about the psychological effects of this procedure,” Republican Sen. Darin Smith of Cheyenne said of the governor, “but what about the psychological effects of having an abortion, for the rest of your life?”

The new requirement, which takes effect right away, was criticized by abortion rights advocates.

Pro-Palestinian protest clears Bernard library

Barnard College’s library was evacuated Wednesday as New York police responded to a fake bomb threat during a sit-in staged by pro-Palestinian protesters.

The police department said on the social platform X that the threat was reported at the upper Manhattan college’s Milstein Center, which serves as the hub for academic life on campus. The department said anyone refusing to leave during the evacuation would be subject to arrest.

At about 8 p.m., police announced on X that the threat was “investigated and cleared.”

Videos shared widely on social media showed protesters inside the building earlier Wednesday afternoon chanting, playing drums and hanging Palestinian flags on walls. Most wore kaffiyeh scarves and other coverings obscuring their faces.

Llamas to take over NBC anchor chair

Tom Llamas will take over as the anchor of NBC’s flagship news program, “NBC Nightly News,” the company said Wednesday.

Llamas, 45, has been the anchor on the company’s streaming news outlet, NBC News Now. He succeeds Lester Holt, the longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” who last month announced his plans to step down from the role.

The network said Llamas would take over “NBC Nightly News” this summer, assuming a lead anchor job that has been held by only three men — Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams and Holt — over the past 42 years.

A new wrinkle on ‘diamonds in the rough’

A suspected thief gulped down two pairs of diamond earrings during his arrest on the side of a Florida Panhandle highway last week, detectives say, leaving them with the unenviable task of waiting to “collect” the Tiffany & Co. jewelry worth nearly $770,000.

In the squad car, a state trooper heard the suspect say, “I should have thrown them out the window,” and at the Washington County jail he asked staff, “Am I going to be charged with what is in my stomach?” according to the arrest report.

The 32-year-old man from Texas is accused of two felonies for forcibly stealing the earrings from an upscale Orlando shopping center last Wednesday.

An X-ray of his torso shows what the Orlando Police Department believed to be the diamond earrings — a white mass shining brightly against the grey backdrop of his digestive tract.

— From news services