JAPAN
Pepper robot ‘alive’ and well
Technology firm Softbank denies that it is pulling the plug on its friendly bubble-headed Pepper robot. “There is absolutely no change to our Pepper business,” Softbank Robotics spokesperson Ai Kitamura said yesterday. While production was halted temporarily, Kitamura denied reports setting off speculation that Pepper might be “killed.” The robot’s latest gig has involved computer programming education in schools. Experts say that locals have a soft spot for robots like Pepper, which look somewhat human and can appear to show emotion. The outpouring from Pepper fans showed that the robot has become a beloved icon, Kitamura said. “So many people said they would be sad if Pepper was gone,” she said.
INDONESIA
Bali ferry sinks; seven dead
Rescuers were searching for 11 people still missing after a passenger ferry sank off the coast of Bali in rough seas, killing at least seven, authorities said yesterday. Dozens of survivors were on Tuesday evening plucked from the water after the KMP Yunicee, carrying 57 passengers and crew, went down near the Port of Gilimanuk. It had been traveling across a narrow strait from Java island. “We are still searching for the missing. Last night, the rescue was hampered by low visibility and high waves,” Bali National Search and Rescue Agency head Gede Darmada said. It was unclear what caused the accident.
CAMBODI
Golden cat caught in images
Camera traps have captured images of a rare golden cat inside northeast Ratanakiri Province for the first time. The golden cat is listed as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List and there is little information on them. “The presence of the golden cat is rarely recorded because it is a rare species among the eight species of tigers,” Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said. The sightings of the cat, weighing about 9kg to 16kg, inside Virachey National Park were part of a three-month research project on wildlife aimed at better managing conservation work, the ministry said on Tuesday.
MALAWI
Ex-central banker charged
Former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor Dalitso Kabambe and three other former senior officials have been charged with four counts of financial impropriety, including money laundering, at a magistrates’ court in Lilongwe. Tuesday’s charges followed his arrest on Monday and came in the wake of a forensic audit by Deloitte, which showed that the central bank had made several irregular payments to firms linked to the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party, including to a local bank listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange. Kabambe, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not yet entered a plea.
DR CONGO
IS claims suicide bombing
The Allied Democratic Forces, an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) group, on Tuesday claimed responsibility for two explosions in the eastern town of Beni, including the area’s first suicide bombing. On Sunday, a Ugandan man detonated explosives at a busy intersection and another explosion rocked a Catholic church, authorities said, urging residents to remain calm. News of the suicide bomber terrified many residents. “Here in Beni we have never seen such things,” Mumbere Mafuta said. “Today it is a bar, church and market. We don’t know if tomorrow it will be a school. May God help us.”
RUSSIA
Reporters’ homes raided
Police on Tuesday questioned several investigative journalists and raided their apartments. Proyekt, one of Russia’s last remaining independent media firms specialising in in-depth investigations, said that police raided the homes of its chief editor, Roman Badanin, deputy editor Mikhail Rubin and reporter Maria Zholobova. All three were questioned later in the day, with police confiscating their computers and phones. The searches came ahead of the publication of an investigation into the alleged wealth of Minister of the Interior Vladimir Kolokoltsev, his son and other relatives, Proyekt said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there were “legal grounds” for such searches.
RUSSIA
Cargo craft launched
An uncrewed Russian cargo ship yesterday blasted off on a mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The Progress MS-17 lifted off atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russian space complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 4:27am. It was scheduled to dock at the station two days later, delivering food, fuel, equipment and supplies for its seven residents. The orbiting outpost is operated by NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Russians Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide; and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
UNITED STATES
Delia Fiallo dies
Cuban screenwriter Delia Fiallo, widely seen as the “mother of the telenovela” and the writer behind international hits like the soap opera Crystal, died on Tuesday in Miami at the age of 96, her daughter-in-law said. A pioneer of the romantic soap operas in Latin America, Fiallo, whose career began in the middle of last century, said in an interview in 2018 that she wanted to be remembered “as a person who loved a lot and who was very loved.” Adored by her fans, Fiallo left her mark on Hispanic popular culture in the US in the second half of the 20th century. In all, she wrote more than 40 works for radio and television.
UNITED STATES
LA buys back fireworks
Los Angeles announced a fireworks buyback program that was to be held yesterday ahead of the July 4 holiday. The initiative was to make it possible to anonymously hand in fireworks — whose sale and use are banned in the city — to the police in exchange for baseball tickets and other gifts. The majority of California is under extreme drought conditions, according to the Drought Monitor, creating parched vegetation and conditions ripe for wildfires.
UNITED STATES
Couple fined over trees
A couple has been fined US$18,000 after uprooting 36 Joshua trees to make space for a home and then burying them in a hole. Authorities hope the fine discourages others from mowing down the crooked-limbed plant, which is an imperiled species being considered for protection under California’s endangered species act. Douglas Poston, a prosecutor in San Bernardino County, reportedly said that the couple thought that Joshua trees under a certain diameter could be taken down. The couple owns the lot and wanted to build a home there. However, “that’s not accurate, obviously,” the Los Angeles Times quoted Poston as saying. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a foot [30cm] tall or 20ft tall, it’s under that protection.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of