MANILA – When a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Myanmar on March 28, tremors rolled through Southeast Asia. In central Bangkok, the shaking brought down scaffolding and shook high-rises — then, more disastrously, caused a 30-story government building still under construction to collapse. Twenty-two people were confirmed dead, with over 70 still missing or trapped beneath the rubble. Thai officials launched an immediate investigation, pointing early on to questionable materials and possible lapses in oversight. READ: 43 trapped as Bangkok skyscraper collapses after quake “We will definitely find the true reasons as to why this building has collapsed, because it’s all…
Author: Asia News Network
SINGAPORE – A British woman at the centre of a new Netflix documentary – about how she is said to have tricked her own son into giving her £300,000 (S$520,000) – has been charged in court in Singapore with defrauding three people. It was only after Con Mum, a documentary about how Dionne Marie Hanna scammed London pastry chef Graham Hornigold after re-entering his life in 2020, 45 years after his birth, aired on March 25 that other people made reports to the Singapore police. They arrested her on March 28. On April 5, Hanna, 84, was handed five charges…
Meanwhile, a former official from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) revealed that workers from it had received notice they were losing their jobs after arriving in the disaster zone. In addition to those killed by the earthquake on March 28, 4,850 people were injured, and 220 remain missing, according to state media. During a visit to Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city near the epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude quake, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher made an appeal for international support. “The destruction is staggering. Lives lost. Homes destroyed. Livelihoods shattered. But the resilience is incredible,” he said in a post…
MANILA – “It’s insane!” An American author found himself in the middle of a social media mix-up as supporters of former President Rodrigo Duterte sent him a deluge of messages. They apparently mistook him for Duterte’s lawyer at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. The two men’s name sounded the same. The author’s name is Nicholas Kaufmann and his last name is spelled with double letter n. Duterte’s counsel’s name, on the other hand, is Nicholas Kaufman and his last name is spelled with a single letter n. On his Facebook account, the author describes how overwhelmed…
SEOUL – The Korea Music Copyright Association recently implemented a procedure for registering a new song, requiring songwriters to verify that they did not use artificial intelligence, reaffirming its stance that AI-generated music cannot be copyrighted. The new measure, which went into effect on March 24, mandates songwriters to confirm they have 100 percent contributed to writing the song without using AI. The KMCA confirmed that the criteria for not using AI does refer to “0 percent contribution.” “(Songwriters) are consenting to taking legal liability for any civic or criminal legal proceedings that may accompany false registration,” the group said,…
BANGKOK – The death toll from the 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has risen to over 3,000 people, with more than 4,500 injured and 351 still missing, according to a facebook post of the Japanese Embassy in Myanmar on Wednesday (April 2). The earthquake struck in the afternoon of Friday (March 28) near Mandalay at the depth of 10 km. Since then, rescue operations have been continuing to search for additional victims. The embassy said relief efforts may face more challenges as the Meteorological Department has warned of seasonal rains starting from Sunday to Friday (April 6-11), which could cause…
BANGKOK – Vietnam produces about half of sporting giant Nike’s shoes, hosts an Intel chip assembly plant, and is a major hub for the production of Apple’s watches and AirPods. Major apparel retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and Lululemon rely heavily on both Vietnam and Cambodia for their production. And electric carmaker Tesla signed a US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) deal in 2022 to source nickel from Indonesia for its e-vehicle production. South-east Asian nations have been among the hardest hit by the latest Trump tariff rout across the globe, which has dealt a heavy blow to the region’s export-reliant economies, and…
KATHMANDU – The management and rehabilitation of captive wildlife in the Sudurpaschim province has become a major challenge due to a shortage of rescue centres. Royal Bengal tigers, an endangered species, are found in some national parks and forests in the Tarai region of Nepal. According to the latest tiger census conducted in 2021, the tiger population in Nepal has risen to 355, with the country nearly tripling the number in 12 years. While this increase in the tiger population has positive indications for wildlife conservation, it has also led to increased human-tiger conflicts and created challenges in rehabilitating captive…
ISLAMABAD – An artist spends years perfecting their skills. Hours spent drawing, scrapping and redrawing to bring to life a vision that goes on to inspire millions. Studio Ghibli’s co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is one such artist. Miyazaki’s films have not only received many awards but his retinue of works including Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle and so on have instilled the power of imagination and dreams in countless children and adults. Artistic inspiration can be a powerful thing, Miyazaki’s art inspired the creation of Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated film, The Glassworker. With their own unique spin, a…
Bin Bunluerit, an actor and official of the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, said scanning conducted on Tuesday morning revealed over 70 people or bodies trapped beneath the wreckage. However, he noted that the scanned image could not determine how many metres below the pile of concrete the bodies or people were located. Despite the devastation, rescuers remain hopeful of finding survivors among the detected human shapes. Rescue Teams Work to Recover Bodies The bodies were detected after rescuers began using heavy machinery to remove concrete slabs from the rubble. Meanwhile, other teams employed drilling machines in an attempt to reach and retrieve…