INDIA
Ambani’s zoo under probe
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a panel led by retired judges to investigate allegations of illegal animal imports and financial misconduct at a vast private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest person. Vantara, which bills itself as the “world’s biggest wild animal rescue centre,” is run by Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire head of Reliance Industries. The site in the western state of Gujarat is home to more than 200 elephants, as well as 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, among other animals, the Central Zoo Authority said. Wildlife activists have criticized the facility, saying it is housing endangered species on baking flatlands next to a giant oil refinery complex without any plan to return them to the wild.
JAPAN
Tighter business visa rules
The Immigration Bureau plans to tighten the rules for granting business manager visas as the program has increased in popularity. The new rules would raise the minimum capital investment from ￥5 million (US$33,875) to ￥30 million, as well as require employment of at least one staff, a document published yesterday showed. Inbound entrepreneurs would also need to pass educational and experience checks, and have their business plans vetted before being eligible for the five-year residence permit. The bureau is seeking public comment on the proposed changes, which are expected to take effect from the middle of October.
UNITED STATES
AI taking over entry workers
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making it harder for entry-level workers to find jobs in fields such as software development and customer service, a study by Stanford University researchers released yesterday showed. Over the past three years, employment has dropped 13 percent for people who are just starting out in fields determined to be the most exposed to AI, such as accountants, developers and administrative assistants, the researchers said. Over the same time frame, employment trends have remained the same or improved for more experienced workers in the same fields, even as they slowed for workers ages 22 to 25, they said. Employment trends also strengthened for lower-tech jobs, such as nursing aides. The study, coauthored by economist Erik Brynjolfsson and researchers at Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab, is the latest in a growing number of reports purporting to shed light on how the explosive popularity of AI is affecting the workforce.
CHINA
Trapped woman rescued
A Chinese woman trapped in a locked room for 30 hours was finally rescued after she flung a pillow bearing a message written in her own blood out of a window, an article published by the Leshan City Government’s social media account earlier this month said. The woman, surnamed Zhou, was cleaning a guesthouse in Sichuan Province when she entered a bedroom without her phone, it said. What followed was one-and-a-half days of desperation, after Zhou realized that the door could not be opened due to a malfunctioning lock. She had no access to food and there was no toilet in the room. “Out of desperation, she bit her finger and used the blood to write ‘110 625’ on a pillow which she then threw out the window,” it said. The number of the room the woman was trapped in was 625, and 110 is the emergency services phone number. Food delivery man Zhang Kun spotted the message and immediately called the police, who rescued Zhou.
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
‘NO INTEGRITY’: The chief judge expressed concern over how the sentence would be perceived given that military detention is believed to be easier than civilian prison A military court yesterday sentenced a New Zealand soldier to two years’ detention for attempting to spy for a foreign power. The soldier, whose name has been suppressed, admitted to attempted espionage, accessing a computer system for a dishonest purpose and knowingly possessing an objectionable publication. He was ordered into military detention at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch and would be dismissed from the New Zealand Defence Force at the end of his sentence. His admission and its acceptance by the court marked the first spying conviction in New Zealand’s history. The soldier would be paid at half his previous rate until his dismissal
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