CHINA
Activist lawyer’s aide held
Police have taken away the aide of prominent lawyer Pu Zhiqiang (浦志強), who was detained last week in a government clampdown on activists ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, an attorney said yesterday. Pu’s aide, Qu Zhenhong, who is also his niece, was recently detained by Beijing police on suspicion of “illegally obtaining personal information,” said Zhang Sizhi (張思之), a veteran rights lawyer who is Pu’s attorney. Activists said police took two other people away in relation to the investigation into Pu, including an employee of leading Japanese newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The newspaper’s office in Tokyo said it was investigating the situation. The employee is not believed to be a Japanese journalist. Authorities placed Pu under criminal detention last week after he attended a forum on the June 4, 1989, crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Several other dissidents who attended the forum were also detained and accused of “creating a disturbance,” a vague charge increasingly used against government critics. Also detained by police was Chen Guang (陳光), a former People’s Liberation Army soldier who was deployed in 1989 to help clear out the protesters. Chen later became a painter and publicly urged authorities to allow for unfettered discussions of the crackdown.
SINGAPORE
PAP hits back over video fail
The People’s Action Party (PAP) has defended a promotional video produced by its youth wing that went viral after being lambasted online for its amateurish quality and “robotic” feel. The five-minute YouTube video clip, titled “Re-ignite the Passion of Servant Leadership,” featured youth leaders of the long-ruling party espousing a series of motivational messages. Some appeared to be reading from a script placed on either side of the camera. One segment featured a woman and a man clad in the all-white party uniform holding miniature toy guitars, as others around them took turns to complete a sentence: “We must empower our members... to make a positive impact... to those around us.” In a statement, the party said the effort by the Young PAP was “genuine and sincere.” “We did not expect that our humble [raw and unpolished] in-house production would go viral like this,” it said on Facebook on Wednesday. The video continued to draw a steady stream of derision yesterday, with local comedian Hirzi Zulkiflie writing “And here kids, you find yourself a bunch of brainwashed young adults. They even sound like robots. Amazing,” on Facebook, while another user wrote: “Sad to see youth talking like parrots, reading script and with bad diction/pronunciation.”
AUSTRALIA
MH370 search put on hold
The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean was put on hold yesterday after technical issues with a US Navy mini-submarine that require spare parts to be sent from Britain. The Joint Agency Coordination Agency, which is leading the search, said on Wednesday that the Bluefin-21 submersible lasted only two hours in the water this week before it had to be raised. The center blamed “communications problems” for the aborted mission and after a more thorough examination, announced that spare parts are needed before the sophisticated mini-sub can be used again. The jet vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board. It is believed to have crashed far off the country’s west coast after mysteriously diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route. No wreckage has been found, despite a massive international search.
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
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