The Financial Times on Friday said some of its blogs and social-media accounts were hacked by a group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army. "Apologies, we have been hacked and you may see tweets not from the FT?we are working on getting this fixed," the news organization wrote on its Financial Times Live Twitter feed.

Messages appeared briefly online on the newspaper's Twitter feed, including one stating "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here," and another including a link to a YouTube video of several bound and blindfolded individuals who appeared to be shown being executed.

The group describes itself as "a group of enthusiastic Syrian youths" who support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Last month, the Associated Press's Twitter account was also hijacked, and the hackers had spread confusion to the stock market as they had posted a false message reporting that President Barack Obama was injured by explosions at the White House.

The Guardian newspaper in London also said less than a month ago its Twitter accounts had been hacked by the same group.