Other News

Malaysia ex-PM Mahathir condemns son’s questioning, blames govt

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad on Monday condemned the questioning of his son by the country’s anti-graft agency, calling it “selective” and driven by his political rivalry with the sitting government. The 98-year-old former two-time leader is a political rival and fierce critic of current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who came to power in 2022 vowing to stamp out high-level corruption. Last week the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission […]

Musk to address anti-Semitism online in Poland

By Anna Maria JAKUBEK KRAKÓW, Poland, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk was Monday due to address anti-Semitism online at an event in Poland just weeks after sparking a firestorm by endorsing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. The conference, hosted by the European Jewish Association, comes after Musk in November repeated a tweet on the theory and declared it the “actual truth” — before apologising. The tech tycoon has also faced accusations of […]

Three Pakistan universities shut over security threats: police

ISLAMABAD, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Three universities affiliated with Pakistan’s military were shut over security threats in the capital Islamabad on Monday, police said. Pakistan is due to vote in general elections in two weeks amid overlapping political, economic and security crises — with a spike in militant attacks targeting police and soldiers. An Islamabad police official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the National Defence University, Bahria University and Air University in […]

NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars

WASHINGTON, Jan 21, 2024 (AFP) – NASA has re-established contact with its tiny helicopter on Mars, the US space agency said Saturday, after an unexpected outage prompted fears that the hard-working craft had finally met its end. Ingenuity, a drone about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) tall, arrived on Mars in 2021 aboard the rover Perseverance and became the first motorized craft to fly autonomously on another planet. Data from the helicopter are transmitted via Perseverance […]

Sony ‘terminates’ Indian merger with Zee

By Simon Sturdee with Anuj Srivas in Mumbai TOKYO, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Sony “terminated” on Monday the $10-billion merger of its Indian operations with local rival Zee Entertainment that would have created a new streaming giant in the world’s most populous nation. The joint entity with mooted annual revenue of $2 billion would have helped both firms better compete with Disney, Amazon and Netflix in the entertainment market of 1.4 billion people. But […]

Mac computers could ride AI wave or be left behind

By Glenn CHAPMAN Forty years after igniting a PC revolution, Apple’s Mac is stronger than ever and could reach new glory due to AI computing — or be left behind. Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984 with a history-making television ad pitching the machine as an anti-establishment blow against a dystopian future. The computer, referred to simply as a Mac, won fans with user-friendly features such as a graphical interface, clickable icons, and a mouse. […]

Dozens buried, eight killed in southwest China landslide

By Matthew WALSH BEIJING, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Dozens of people were buried and eight confirmed killed when a landslide struck a remote and mountainous part of southwestern China on Monday. The pre-dawn landslide buried 18 homes and sparked the evacuation of more than 200 people when it struck in Zhenxiong County, Yunnan province, state media said. Eight people are confirmed dead and rescuers have extracted four, according to a report by state broadcaster […]

Vietnam sentences nine to death for drug trafficking

HANOI, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Vietnam sentenced nine people to death and two others to life in prison on Monday for their involvement in a cross-border drug trafficking ring, state media reported. The Southeast Asian country has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, and is notoriously secretive about its executions. At the end of a three-day trial, a court in central Nghe An province sentenced ringleader Tran Thi Mau, 56, and eight accomplices […]

Trump closes in on Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire

By Frankie TAGGART MANCHESTER, United States, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump aims to sew up the Republican presidential nomination after the contest narrowed to a two-horse race with Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s withdrawal less than 48 hours before the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. Short of a defeat in the Granite State, or a close second-place for his remaining rival Nikki Haley, the timeline to Trump’s nomination as the candidate to face President […]

Wanted crypto boss Do Kwon’s Terraform files for US bankruptcy

SINGAPORE, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – South Korean entrepreneur Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs, whose cryptocurrencies crashed dramatically in 2022, is seeking bankruptcy protection in the United States, according to court documents filed Sunday. The collapse of the Singapore-based firm’s TerraUSD and Luna wiped out around $40 billion in investments and caused wider losses in the global crypto market estimated at more than $400 billion. Kwon, who co-founded Terraform in 2018, was arrested last year in […]

German train drivers’ union calls six-day strike

FRANKFURT, Germany, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – German train drivers will hold a six-day strike this week, the GDL union said, the longest walkout yet in an escalating row with Deutsche Bahn over pay and working hours. The strike is due to start at 2:00 am (0100 GMT) on Wednesday and last until 1700 GMT on Monday. For freight services, the stoppage is due to begin at 1700 GMT on Tuesday, GDL said in a […]

UN panel to grill Russia on fate of Ukrainian children

By Agnès PEDRERO GENEVA, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Moscow will be asked to explain at the UN on Monday what has happened to thousands of Ukrainian children believed to have been forcibly sent to Russia since its 2022 invasion. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child — 18 independent experts — is set to examine Russia’s record over two days, as part of a regular review. Their lengthy list of concerns […]