CHINA
Stars who break law banned
Stars who have used drugs, visited prostitutes or broken other laws are not to be allowed to appear on Chinese television, in movies or any other form of broadcast, state media reported yesterday. The ban by the broadcast regulator, which includes radio and advertisements, is meant to “keep the industry healthy,” the China Daily reported. “Celebrities who break the law should not be invited to appear in programmes, and transmission of their words should be suspended,” the newspaper said, citing a statement from the regulator. Chinese prosecutors last month approved the arrest of Jaycee Chan (房祖名), son of Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan (成龍) and Taiwanese actor Kai Ko (柯震東), after a suspected drugs offense. China has detained several other mostly B-list celebrities in recent months on drug-related charges, cases that have been widely publicized in both state and social media.
MYANMAR
Thai helicopter pilot found
The Thai pilot of a helicopter that went missing in a mountainous area almost two weeks ago has been found and taken to hospital. The pilot — identified by Thai media as Chatchawal Thanthong — arrived in Yangon late on Wednesday. He had been flown from northern Kachin State after a search party discovered him earlier in the day. His helicopter disappeared on Sept. 27 as it was delivering supplies to rescuers looking for lost climbers on one of Myanmar’s tallest mountains. Two other men were on board, both from Myanmar. Hope was fading for the crew when one of the men walked into a small town on Tuesday. He said his crewmates were still alive, prompting the search that found the Thai pilot. The other crew member is still missing.
INDIA
Pakistan gets warning
Minister of Defense Arun Jaitley yesterday warned Pakistan to stop its shelling in Kashmir, after some of the worst cross-border violence to hit the disputed region in years. “If Pakistan persists with this adventurism, our forces will make the cost of this adventurism unaffordable for it,” Jaitley said in New Delhi. “Pakistan should stop this unprovoked firing and shelling if it wants peace on the border.” The nuclear-armed neighbors have traded blame for the cross-border violence that has killed at least 12 civilians this week.
MALAYSIA
Grenade blast kills one
Police say one person died and 13 were injured when a hand grenade blew up yesterday outside a night club at a popular tourist belt in Kuala Lumpur. A senior police official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the pre-dawn explosion in the Bukit Bintang area was believed to be due to a gang fight and was “not a terrorism act.” He said police also found a second hand grenade under a car after it failed to explode. Another police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that a Malaysian succumbed to his injuries and died, while 13 others, including foreigners from Thailand, China and Singapore, were hospitalized.
AUSTRALIA
Nurse assessed for Ebola
An Australian woman was being assessed yesterday for the Ebola virus after she developed a fever following her return from a month working as a Red Cross nurse in Sierra Leone, officials said. Queensland state chief health officer Jeanette Young said the 57-year-old developed a “low-grade fever” yesterday morning and went to Cairns Hospital, where she was kept in isolation. Blood was taken from her and sent to Brisbane by plane for testing. “There is the potential there so that’s why we’re treating this so seriously,” Young said, adding that the woman had helped treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.
PALESTINE
Cabinet meets in Gaza Strip
Members of the new Palestinian unity government are traveling from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip for their first Cabinet session there — a meeting meant to signal the end of Hamas’ absolute control of the territory. The meeting was set for later yesterday. It comes three days ahead of an international pledging conference where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking US$4 billion for Gaza’s reconstruction following the summer Israel-Hamas war. By meeting in Gaza for the first time, the Cabinet, which reports to the Western-backed Abbas, hopes to reassure donors it can lead reconstruction efforts.
UNITED STATES
Museum hosts Bigfoot fans
Bigfoot believers are gathering this weekend in Washington state, as the Yakima Valley Museum hosts a Bigfoot Round-Up. The Yakima Herald-Republic reports the event will honor Yakima’s own Bob Gimlin and the late Roger Patterson, who filmed what they say was a Bigfoot encounter in 1967 in northern California. The well-known footage has since been debated and scrutinized, with some calling the filmmakers Bigfoot research pioneers and other saying the video shows a man in an ape suit. The event is planned in conjunction with the museum exhibit “Sasquatch Revealed.” It includes lectures and a banquet to honor Gimlin and Patterson.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
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
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
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
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