CHINA
Tibetan self-immolates
A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in Guolou, Qinghai Province, on Monday, according to the US-based International Campaign for Tibet and Radio Free Asia. Police extinguished the flames and took Tsering Gyal, 20, to a hospital, they said, adding that his condition was unknown.
JAPAN
Shut nuclear plants: ex-PMs
Former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Morihiro Hosokawa yesterday spoke out in favor of phasing out atomic power. Koizumi told the Japan Press Club that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should take advantage of his high public support and sway in parliament to “do the right thing … do what the majority of the people want.” Hosokawa, in an interview published in the Tokyo Shimbun, said he favors ending to the reliance on nuclear power. “I can’t understand why they want restarts of the nuclear plants when there is no place to discard the nuclear waste,” he said.
PAKISTAN
Militants’ financier killed
The chief financier of the Haqqani militant network has been shot dead in Islamabad. Gunmen attacked Nasiruddin Haqqani, a son of the group’s founder, on the edge of Islamabad on Sunday evening, the Pakistani Taliban said on Monday. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but a Pakistani Taliban spokesman accused the Inter-Services Intelligence agency of killing Haqqani and vowed revenge.
NEPAL
Transport strike enforced
Police say opposition activists have attacked cars in Kathmandu that defied a transport blockade that began yesterday and is aimed at disrupting next week’s elections. An alliance of 33 opposition parties ordered the nine-day nationwide strike. Police spokesman Ganesh Chetri says strike supporters vandalized at least three cars. The passengers were not hurt.
AUSTRALIA
Stamp carries message
Australia Post has created a “video stamp” to deliver a 15-second personal message that recipients can view on their mobile phone. The stamp will be distributed for free in the pre-Christmas period. Senders scan the stamp, attach it to their parcel and record a personalized greeting using their smartphone and the free Australia Post Video Stamp app within 12 hours of posting. The recipient then scans the stamp with their phone and it will play the message.
SINGAPORE
Hacker suspects detained
Five men aged 17 to 45 are being held for allegedly hacking the Web sites of the president and prime minister, police said yesterday. They said the alleged hackers had “exploited a vulnerability” in both Web sites to display pages from other sources last week. In an unrelated case, 35-year-old James Raj, was charged in court yesterday with hacking a local council’s Web site and posting an image of a Guy Fawkes mask, the international symbol of Anonymous. Police said Raj was also linked to a series of hacking incidents.
JAPAN
Abuse of disabled growing
The abuse of disabled people has emerged as a major problem, with the violence most often inflicted by family members or domestic carers, a government survey said. The survey, published on Monday, found 1,699 confirmed cases of physically or mentally disabled people being abused over a six-month period physically, verbally or through neglect.
UNITED KINGDOM
Man swims entire coast
An adventurer has become the first person to swim the length of the country after emerging from the chilly seas at the northeast tip of Scotland on Monday. Sean Conway took 135 days to swim 1,450km up the west coast from Land’s End, the southwest tip of England, to John O’Groats in Scotland. The Zimbabwe-born 32-year-old spent 90 days in the sea since June 30, with the rest out of the water due to bad weather. “I found out that no one had done it before and that just inspired a bit of imagination in me,” he told the BBC. “The toughest part was getting stung in the face by jellyfish. I’ve had to grow a ridiculous beard to help me.”
RUSSIA
Tomato-throwers detained
A Moscow district court on Monday sentenced opposition activists to time in police cells for petty hooliganism after they flung tomatoes at Dutch King Willem-Alexander. The court sentenced 23-year-old Denis Kudryavtsev to 15 days, while 18-year-old Viktoria Kuznetsova was sentenced to 10, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The activists were arrested after they hurled tomatoes at the Dutch king — missing their target — on Saturday as he and Dutch Queen Maxima arrived at a gala concert in Moscow. Both are members of The Other Russia opposition party. The party said the activists were expressing outrage at the January death of activist Alexander Dolmatov, who committed suicide after the Netherlands turned down his asylum request and sent him to a detention center.
UNITED STATES
Ousted musician kills three
A gunman who killed three Iranian indie rock musicians and injured a fourth person inside a Brooklyn apartment on Monday before killing himself was upset because he had been kicked out of another band last year, police said. Ali Akbar Mahammadi Rafie killed himself on the roof after struggling with a member of his former band, the Free Keys, police said. Rafie, 29, “was upset that he wasn’t in the band anymore,” New York Police Department spokesman John McCarthy said. Two of Rafie’s victims were brothers and members of the Yellow Dogs, a band that came to the country from Iran three years ago.
GERMANY
Shutterbug doctor jailed
A gynecologist who secretly took intimate photographs of more than 1,000 patients was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on Monday. The judge said the gynecologist violated 1,467 women’s “most personal part of life” and also found the doctor guilty of sexual abuse in three cases, national news agency DPA reported. The doctor lost his medical license and will likely never get it back, DPA reported the judge as saying. After being tipped off by two long-time medical assistants, investigators found tens of thousands of photographs of more than 1,000 patients in the man’s possession, DPA said.
MEXICO
Former US soldier detained
Authorities have detained a former US soldier accused of leading a gang of kidnappers, officials said on Monday. The 32-year-old suspect spearheaded a band of 16 people who operated in the states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Tamaulipas over the past four years, Nuevo Leon security spokesman Jorge Domene said. He moved to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, from the US in 2009, Domene said. The ex-soldier is accused of ordering the Sept. 25 kidnapping of Jorge Luis Martinez Martinez, the 70-year-old father of the mayor of Zuazua in Monterrey. The victim was found dead five days later, although a ransom was paid.
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
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
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
STILL IN POWER: US intelligence reports showed that the Iranian regime is not in danger of collapse and retains control of the public, casting doubt on Trump’s exit Nearly every US Senate Democrat on Wednesday signed a letter sent to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting a “swift investigation” of airstrikes on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and any other potential US military actions causing civilian harm. Reuters reported on Thursday last week that US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the Feb. 28 strike on the school, as US and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran. “The results of this school attack are horrific. The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages
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