ISLAMABAD – A HIGH-LEVEL Pakistani delegation is arriving in New York next week to present Islamabad’s position on the ongoing dispute with India as an Indian parliamentary team is already in the United States to step up its own lobbying campaign. The Pakistani delegation currently includes Federal Minister for Environment Musadik Masood Malik, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Senator Bushra Rahman, Khurram Dastagir, former ambassadors to Washington Jalil Abbas Jilani and Sherry Rehman. The group is expected to arrive in New York on June 1. PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto- Zardari is scheduled to lead the…
Author: Asia News Network
TOKYO – Cooking expert Sachiko Murakami, 83, who advocates the importance of meals for senior citizens living alone, has shared her ideas for maintaining a healthy diet even for those not good at cooking. As the population ages and the number of single-person households increases, it is said that many find cooking daunting because they feel it is too much effort or struggle to use all of the ingredients. Breakfast ready in 10 min. Even when she was still supporting her late husband, a company employee who was often transferred, and their three children, Murakami was helping people trying to…
BEIJING – China and the European Union are stepping up cooperation as the United States ramps up tariff pressure and global trade fragmentation deepens, signaling the shared commitment of China and the EU to openness, stability and mutual benefit in an increasingly uncertain world, experts said. Chinese investment in the EU surged 47 percent year-on-year to 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) in 2024, marking its first significant rebound since 2016. The growth, driven by record-high greenfield investment and a revival of mergers and acquisitions, reflects the enduring complementarities between the two sides, according to a joint report released on Wednesday…
PETALING JAYA – Artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes are driving a steep rise in synthetic child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and fuelling addictions to such content, particularly among minors. Bukit Aman Criminal Investigations Department (CID) sexual, women and child investigation division (D11) principal assistant director Senior Asst Comm Siti Kamsiah Hassan (pic) said AI is increasingly being misused to generate hyper-realistic CSAM, including deepfake imagery, which is complicating detection and posing challenges for law enforcement in bringing those behind it to book. She said offenders are also exploiting encrypted messaging applications and dark web forums to share CSAM and are communicating…
DHAKA – An estimated 427 Rohingya may have perished in the sea in two boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar on May 9 and 10, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In a statement issued Friday, the UNHCR said details are still being confirmed, but reports suggest that some 514 Rohingya were travelling on two separate boats. The first boat carried 267 people. Of them, over half reportedly left from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, while the remainder departed from Rakhine state in Myanmar. “The boat sank on May 9, with only 66 survivors. The second boat carried 247…
SEOUL – At a middle school in Daejeon on April 7, a special lunch menu, including rice with seaweed soup and a slice of cake, was served to celebrate the birthdays of students born that month. But students were left disappointed when they looked down at their lunch trays — the seaweed soup had no seaweed. “I didn’t mind too much because there were other side dishes. Still, it felt odd not having seaweed soup in the birthday lunch. You know, it’s kind of a tradition in Korea,” said the seventh grader, who wished to remain anonymous. Behind the missing…
KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is bullish that “very constructive” outcomes will result from the Asean Summit and related meetings that Malaysia is hosting as regional leaders began meeting on May 23, citing progress on a regional power grid and the Myanmar civil war. He told a May 25 interview with select regional press outlets, including The Straits Times, that Kuala Lumpur has been “engaging very aggressively” with others in the 10-nation grouping, which has built “consensus on a number of issues”, including intra-Asean trade and the United States’ blanket import tariffs. On the power grid, the Premier…
DHAKA – What began as a seemingly harmless obsession with TikTok turned into a chilling tale of murder in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh, where a photographer was killed on May 16. The alleged killers — aged between 18 and 20 — often created and shared photos and videos on TikTok. Striving for higher-quality and more attractive content, they decided they needed a DSLR camera. But instead of buying one, they plotted to snatch it from a photographer by luring him to a fake wedding. The victim, Nurul Islam, had no idea he was walking into a trap. He was called to cover…
BENGALURU – Fisherman Nye Nge Soe was returning from a night’s work to his village in Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, when he saw dark figures bobbing among the waves about 50m from the shore. “It was almost 1am. From my boat, I saw a ship dropping many people into the sea. I could hear them shouting,” Mr Nye Nge Soe told The Straits Times over the phone, when describing events on the night of May 8. “They had life jackets, but the water is 2m deep there. There were old people and women who could not swim. A…
SINGAPORE – Wild elephants went on a rampage and destroyed a vehicle in Malaysia in an incident believed to have been triggered by the sound of car horns, the authorities said. The episode took place on the night of May 20 near KM11 of the Gerik-Jeli highway. It is the same highway where an elephant calf was killed earlier in May after it was hit by a lorry. In the latest incident, the driver of a Toyota Vios car was on his way to Gerik, a small town in the state of Perak, when he saw a herd of elephants…