UUNet Outage & Online Assassins

A fire sparked by a train derailment in a tunnel in downtown Baltimore raged for a second day Thursday, and its impact rippled onto the Internet. The fire, which has caused power outages in the area, has also brought segments of WorldCom's UUNet Internet network to a grinding halt, affecting customers along the Eastern corridor — which finally explains why so many sites were down last week.

The armed Russian who posted the following ad on the Net advertising his services was deadly serious: 'Will help retire from life, possibly without patient's consent'. Unfortunately for the would-be assassin, the only people interested in his offer were the police.