MALAYSIA
More infectious strain found
A mutation of SARS-CoV-2, called D614G, that is 10 times more infectious has been found in at least three of the 45 cases in a cluster that started from a restaurant owner returning from India and breaching his 14-day home quarantine. The man has since been sentenced to five months in prison and fined. The strain was also found in another cluster involving people returning from the Philippines. The strain could mean that existing studies on vaccines might be incomplete or ineffective against the mutation, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said. “People need to be wary and take greater precautions because this strain has now been found in Malaysia,” he said on Facebook on Sunday.
GUATEMALA
Militants attack 40 families
An armed group attacked a community of Maya Q’eqchi in the town of Cubilguitz on Sunday, burning down their houses, the government said. Police received calls warning of the attack and sent agents to the site, where they found 40 families had been attacked, a spokesman said, adding that the local district attorney’s office is investigating. “Violence is not acceptable between brothers. We are concerned about the events in the community of Cubulwitz, Coban, Alta Verapaz, and we have coordinated with various institutions to guarantee the safety and lives of the residents,” President Alejandro Giammattei said in a tweet.
GERMANY
Police action investigated
Duisburg police are investigating an incident on Saturday evening where officers in Duesseldorf pinned a young man to the ground, one holding his arms behind him and the other holding his head with his knee, authorities said yesterday. A video of the incident has gone viral. Officers had been called to a restaurant on reports that about 10 people were rioting. The youth who was pinned was apparently not involved in the fracas, but “disrupted police measures” when they arrived on the scene, then assaulted officers when they were trying to identify him, police said. The investigation is being conducted by police in Duisburg “for reasons of neutrality,” police said.
UNITED STATES
Funds raised for slain boy
More than US$700,000 have been raised for the funeral service expenses of slain five-year-old Cannon Hinnant in North Carolina, whose death has captured national attention. The donations poured into a GoFundMe page organized by Gwen Hinnant, who identified herself as the boy’s grandmother. The funeral service was held on Thursday, days after the boy was fatally shot in his family’s driveway as he rode his bike, allegedly by a 25-year-old neighbor, Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, who has been charged with first-
degree murder.
NEW ZEALAND
Lego piece out of nose
A missing Lego piece has dropped out of a child’s nose two years after he pushed it up. Seven-year-old Sameer Anwar of Dunedin inserted a Lego piece up his nose in 2018. His parents took him to a doctor, who was unable to find it. Over the weekend, a plate of pink cupcakes prompted the boy to lean down and take a great big sniff of them. His nose immediately began to hurt. His mother helped him blow his nose, but instead of cake crumbs, out dropped a tiny piece of black Lego, covered in fungus. “We never expected such thing,” Anwar’s father said. “The Lego piece looks a bit gross, but that’s how it is. Unbelievable.”
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
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
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
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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