I got an e-mail verifying my password, meaning that someone tried the "forgot password" option for my account. I deleted the e-mail completely (since it showed my password) and changed my e-mail password just to be safe. Probably unnecessary, since my e-mail password is more than twenty characters long, but whatever.
As for news post spamming, there's a flood technique that I saw on one of Creeb's accounts a few days ago, so that's how it's being done. It's kind of hilarious, since all it does is increase loading time by a couple seconds, and can instantly be undone simply by copying a post, deleting it, and reposting it. I got one of those a week or so ago and was bemused at how desperate they were becoming.