CAMBODIA
Duch appeals sentence
The man who admitted to overseeing the killing of 16,000 people as the Khmer Rouge’s chief prison warden has returned to a courtroom to appeal his 19-year prison sentence. Kaing Guek Eav — also known as Duch — was convicted last year of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is the only person so far to be tried by a UN-backed tribunal set up to prosecute Khmer Rouge officials. An estimated 1.7 million people were killed under the regime’s 1975 to 1979 reign. Defense lawyers say the tribunal has no jurisdiction over Duch, since the court was set up to prosecute top leaders of the Khmer Rouge. They argue that he was not a top leader. Appeal proceedings started yesterday and are expected to finish later this week.
ISRAEL
Leaked cable sparks anger
An official says Israel wants clarifications from Argentina over a report it offered Iran a deal — that it would stop investigating bombings on Jewish centers in exchange for better trade ties. The Argentine paper Perfil quoted a leaked Iranian cable. Eighty-five people were killed and 200 injured when a bomb exploded outside a Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994. The center was a symbol for Argentina’s Jewish population of more than 200,000. Two years earlier, a bomb flattened Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people. Iran was widely blamed for the attacks. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Sunday he was waiting for official Argentine comment. “If this is true, then it would be a display of infinite cynicism and a dishonor to the dead,” he said.
VIETNAM
Zoo owner sold dead tigers
A zoo owner has been sentenced to three years in prison for selling the carcasses of several endangered tigers that died in his care, a judge said yesterday. Huynh Van Hai was convicted during a two-day trial earlier this month of selling the dead tigers, which had been raised at his zoo in Binh Duong Province near Ho Chi Minh City, presiding judge Hoang Huy Toan said. Hai told the court that the tigers died of natural causes — four of bird flu contracted after eating infected chickens in 2003 and another from choking on a bone, Toan said. Rather than reporting the deaths to authorities as required, he sold the dead animals, saying he needed the money to care for his other tigers, Toan said.
INDIA
Tiger numbers on the rise
The nation’s latest tiger census shows an increase in the numbers of the endangered big cat. The census counted at least 1,706 tigers in forests across the country, about 300 more than four years ago, a government official said yesterday. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called the increase good news, but cautioned against any complacency in efforts to save the iconic animal from extinction. Conservationists used hidden cameras and DNA tests to count the cats in 19 Indian states where tigers live in the wild.
UNITED STATES
Web pioneer Baran dies
Paul Baran, whose work with packaging data in the 1960s has been credited with playing a key role in the later development of the Internet, has died. Baran’s son David said on Sunday night that his father died at his home in Palo Alto, California, of complications from lung cancer on Saturday. He was 84. Baran is best known for the idea of “packet-switching,” in which data is bundled into small packages and sent through a network.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
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