SOUTH KOREA
Camping site fire kills five
A fire swept through a camping site yesterday, killing five people, including three children, and injuring two others, firefighters said. The dead victims — all from two families — were asleep when the fire broke out, ravaging their tent close to an island beach near Incheon. An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the blaze, but firefighters suspect a short circuit in the victims’ electric sleeping mat might have triggered the fire. The two injured included a 43-year-old man surnamed Park, who was sleeping in another tent nearby. “I was awakened by the flame early in the morning. I ran out of my tent and saw a boy standing outside the burning tent. I took him to safety, but others had no chance,” Park was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
CHINA
Former police chief arrested
The former police chief of the northern region of Inner Mongolia has been detained on suspicion of murder, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing public security authorities. Zhao Liping (趙黎平) was in charge of the police in Inner Mongolia from 2005 until 2010 and had worked for almost three decades as a police officer, Xinhua said in a brief report. He is suspected of involvement in a murder that happened in Inner Mongolia’s Chifeng on Friday, Xinhua said. The state-run Legal Evening News said the person who was murdered was “a lady with whom he had quite a close relationship.” Neither report elaborated. It was not possible to reach Zhao for comment.
AFGHANISTAN
Ghani reveals candidates
President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday announced 16 new names to complete his Cabinet, nearly two months after parliament rejected two-thirds of his proposed ministers. Nearly six months after Ghani’s inauguration and the formation of a “national unity government” with his rival Abdullah Abdullah, only eight out of 25 ministerial posts have been filled. The rest were rejected by parliament on technicalities in late January, despite a power-sharing deal agreed between Ghani and Abdullah that was seen as saving Afghanistan from the risk of civil war. The 16 ministers announced on Saturday have not yet been approved by the lower house of parliament. In line with a commitment made by Ghani, four women are included in the list of 16 nominees. Names have also been proposed for several key portfolios, including economy, trade and industry and agriculture. However, no name has been released to head up the crucial defense ministry, just as “fighting season” between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents begins. The position is currently held by an interim minister.
INDIA
Officers arrested in brothel
Police in eastern India were left red-faced when a raid on a sex district discovered four of their own along with a convicted murderer whom they were supposed to be guarding, a report said yesterday. The four constables had been tasked with transporting the murderer from a jail in the underdeveloped state of Jharkhand to a hospital for a check-up, the Hindustan Times reported. However, the officers decided to make a 206km detour to visit the red light area in the town of Asansol, across the border in West Bengal State, the newspaper said. West Bengal police rounded up the four as part of the raid, although the murderer managed to escape — and then made his own way back to jail in the city of Kodarma in Jharkhand, the paper said.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
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