Cyberattack halts Martinique’s search for new flag, hymn

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A quest to select the first official flag and hymn for the French Caribbean island of Martinique was interrupted Wednesday by a cyberattack. The attack on government servers upended on Wednesday a nearly two-week online voting window that began on Jan. 2. Officials said the attack was not successful but forced them to temporarily shut down the system. They did not say when voting would resume. Residents on the island of more than 370,000 inhabitants had been given 19 flag options and four hymns from which to choose. The attack comes less than two months after a large-scale cyberattack in the neighboring French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.