Blue Whale Challenge: 19-year-old student commits suicide in Tamil Nadu

The Blue Whale Challenge has claimed its first victim in Tamil Nadu in a 19-year-old college student, who hanged himself at his house, police said today.

Vigesh in a suicide note said "the game was a devastating one... Once you enter it, you would not be able to come out", they said.

In another incident in the southern part of the state, a school student in Tirunelveli hurt himself reportedly after playing the social media "game" which has reportedly been linked to teenage deaths in several countries.

Vignesh reportedly hanged himself at his house yesterday when his parents were at work.

His devastated father Jayamani, who works at a bakery, said he was not aware that his son was "so serious" about the online game.

"I thought it was like boys playing on the street. But my son died due to the cruel game," he said.

He appealed to the youngsters "not to be maniacal about video games".

Jayamani also wanted the creator of the Blue Whale challenge to be identified and booked on murder charges.
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'You'll be held accountable, Trump,' pro-IS hackers write on US govt sites

Several government websites in the US state of Ohio were apparently hacked to broadcast an anti-government and pro-Islamic State (IS) message, the media reported.

"You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries," said the message on Sunday, which was left by "Team System Dz", Xinhua news agency reported

The affected websites included Ohio Governor John Kasich's office, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the Ohio Casino Control Commission, the Ohio Office of Workforce Transformation, the Ohio Office of Health Transformation, the Ohio Inspector General and the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

The affected sites' homepages were replaced with the same black background accompanied by music. By noon (1 pm), all of the affected sites appeared to no longer be online.

"As soon as we were notified of the situation, we immediately began to correct it and will continue to monitor until fully resolved," said a spokesperson for the Governor's office in a statement issued on Sunday afternoon.

"We are investigating how these hackers were able to deface these websites. We also are working with law enforcement to better understand what happened," said the Ohio Department of Administrative Services in another statement.

USA Today reported that "Team System Dz" is actually a group of "anti-Israeli Arab teenagers". It has hacked numerous random websites such as the University of New Brunswick's student union site and a Canadian food truck's sandwich site.
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