BGP noise tonight?

[cowie () renesys com]

Say, our alarms went off tonight when we saw a roughly tenfold spike in 
BGP prefix announcement and withdrawal rates at RIPE's rrc00 and rrc03
collection points in Amsterdam.  The trouble started around 20:00 GMT,
hit its peak by about 21:00 GMT, and has trailed off slowly since then.

Looking at the worst-behaved prefixes and AS paths led me to put in   
a call to the tech support center of an unnamed Major Provider, who 
confirmed that there had been a major BGP event but would provide 
no specifics.  

So, what's going on out there in the NOCs tonight?  Inquiring minds  
want to know. --jim