MYANMAR
Rebels admit beheadings
A rebel group yesterday said its members beheaded two prisoners in a rare admission of deadly violence, as it fights to maintain control of the western borderlands. The incident, which “violated military discipline,” occurred in February last year during an Arakan Army (AA) offensive on Kyauktaw township in Rakhine state, group spokesman Khaing Thu Kha said. “Our local [AA] militias were unable to control their anger and committed crimes ... in retaliation for the terrorist Myanmar army soldiers who had unjustly arrested, tortured and killed their families,” he said. In a two-minute clip that circulated on social media, about seven men, some wearing AA uniforms and holding firearms, kicked and beat two shirtless men on the ground. In another video, the same alleged killers were seen beheading the captives with machete-like knives.
PHILIPPINES
Manila amenable to Interpol
Manila would respond favorably if Interpol is asked by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants related to its probe into former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs,” a top official said yesterday. Thousands of people were killed in Duterte’s crackdown on drugs launched in 2016, many in mysterious circumstances, prompting the ICC to launch an investigation into possible crimes against humanity. Duterte and police have denied activists’ allegations of systematic executions and cover-ups, and say drug suspects were killed in self defense. “If the ICC makes a move, and courses the move through the Interpol, and the Interpol makes the request to us for the arrest of delivery of the custody of a person subject to ICC jurisdiction, we will respond favorably or positively to the Interpol request,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin told a media briefing.
UNITED KINGDOM
Rolls-Royce wins sub deal
The Ministry of Defence yesterday said it had awarded Rolls-Royce a ￡9 billion (US$11.2 billion) eight-year contract to design, make and provide support services to nuclear reactors that power its fleet of submarines. The deal would strengthen the Royal Navy’s continuous at-sea deterrent — under which at least one nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine patrols the seas at all times — while also boosting the AUKUS defense pact with the US and Australia, the ministry said. Minister of Defense John Healey said the contract with Rolls-Royce, which also makes engines for aircraft, would save the kingdom ￡400 million over eight years by combining multiple contracts into one.
FRANCE
Fake tracks swamp Deezer
Music streaming site Deezer yesterday said that one in 10 tracks uploaded to the streaming service each day is either fake or just noise created by artificial intelligence programs. The company’s fraud detection technologies, rolled out in 2023, discovered that “around 10,000 tracks completely generated by AI are uploaded to the platform every day, representing around 10 percent of the total,” the Paris-based firm said in a statement. The success of its technologies, which can identify AI content “without the need for extensive training on specific databases,” had led it to seek two patents last month. Deezer says it aims to pay genuine musicians better by weeding out fake songs that are then streamed by fraudulent accounts created in order to remunerate the “artists.” Many fake tracks can clone the voices of existing artists, which currently cannot be copyrighted, or copycat popular songs.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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