MALAYSIA
Meta apologizes to Anwar
Tech giant Meta yesterday apologized for removing social media posts by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim about the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. The apology came a day after Anwar’s office summoned Meta representatives to seek an explanation on why the leader’s Facebook and Instagram posts about Haniyeh’s death had been removed. “The content has since been restored with the correct newsworthy label,” Meta said in a statement. Anwar’s posts included a video showing him on a phone call with a Hamas official, offering his condolences. On Instagram, there was a note by Meta, shared by Anwar, that the posts were taken down because of association with “dangerous individuals and organizations.” Anwar’s office had described Meta’s removal of the posts as “a blatant suppression of free expression” and demanded an apology from the tech behemoth.
MEXICO
Mexico pleads Glas’ case
The government on Monday said it had asked that jailed former Ecuadoran vice president Jorge Glas be allowed to go to a third country due to his “critical” health condition. Glas, 54, had sought refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito when Ecuadoran security forces raided the building on April 5 and held him on corruption charges, prompting a break in diplomatic ties between the two nations. He was later detained at a high-security prison in Guayaquil, a port city in western Ecuador. In a statement, Mexico’s foreign ministry said it asked Ecuador to allow Glas’ safe passage so that he “may be delivered and transferred to a third country” in accordance with the Caracas Convention on diplomatic asylum. Glas was briefly hospitalized on April 8 after refusing to eat, prison authorities and his attorneys said.
AUSTRALIA
Fisher likely killed by croc
Police yesterday said that human remains were found inside a large crocodile suspected of killing a fisherman in the nation’s second fatal attack in about a month. The latest victim was a 40-year-old man who fell from a steep bank on Saturday into the Annan River south of Cooktown in Queensland state. He never surfaced. Wildlife rangers on Monday killed a 4.9m crocodile in a creek 4km from where the man disappeared. The crocodile had scars on its snout like those witnesses described seeing on a reptile in the vicinity of the disappearance, officials said. The human remains found inside the crocodile during an examination in Cooktown were believed to be the missing man, a police statement said. Further testing would be conducted to positively identify the remains.
UNITED STATES
Lynch has emphysema
Hollywood film director David Lynch on Monday said that he was living with emphysema, a chronic lung disease, but it has not forced him into retirement. “Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking,” he wrote on X. Lynch, 78, had originally discussed the diagnosis in an interview published in the British film magazine Sight and Sound, where he said the condition affected his mobility and that he was only able to continue directing remotely, according to multiple media reports. The director framed emphysema, a chronic lung condition that causes shortness of breath, as a “price” for his smoking habit. Lynch said he has not smoked cigarettes in more than two years and that — barring the emphysema diagnosis — he was “in excellent shape.” “I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire,” he wrote. “I want you all to know that I really appreciate your concern.”
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
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