INDONESIA
Woman jailed for pork video
A court has sentenced a woman to two years in prison and handed her a heavy fine after she recited an Islamic prayer before eating pork in a viral TikTok video widely criticized in the Muslim-majority country. Lina Mukherjee, 33, was on Tuesday found guilty of “spreading information aimed at inciting hatred against religious individuals and specific groups” at a court in the South Sumatra city of Palembang. A resident reported Mukherjee in March for the video, which had amassed millions of views. In it she uttered a Muslim prayer that translates to “in the name of God,” before consuming crispy pork skin. Pork is forbidden under Islam, Indonesia’s dominant religion. Mukherjee was also fined 250 million rupiah (US$16,262), and her jail term would be extended by three months if it is not paid.
SINGAPORE
Ex-PM’s son charged
Goh Jin Hian (吳仁軒), the son of former prime minister Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), was among four people yesterday charged with false trading offenses, Channel News Asia reported. The 54-year-old former CEO of investment holding company New Silkroutes Group Ltd, Goh stands accused of conspiring with three other men linked to the firm for creating a misleading appearance of the price of its securities on 31 trading days between February and August 2018, the report said. Goh is also accused of pushing up the price of the firm’s securities by placing orders and executing trades using his bank investment account. He was handed 39 charges under the Securities and Futures Act, while the three other men each received 31 similar charges.
RUSSIA
Top official woos China
A senior Kremlin official on Tuesday called for closer policy coordination between Moscow and Beijing to counter what he described as Western efforts to contain them, as he hosted China’s top diplomat for security talks. Moscow “seeks progressive development and strengthening of the Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation,” Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅). “Amid the campaign unleashed by the collective West that is aimed at the double containment of Russia and China, it’s particularly important to further deepen Russian-Chinese coordination and interaction on the international arena,” Patrushev said. Putin is set to hold “substantive” talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a trip next month to Beijing, he added. Patrushev reaffirmed Russia’s “invariable” support for Beijing’s policy on issues related to Taiwan, the Xinjiang region and Hong Kong, which he said “are being used by the West to discredit China.”
UNITED STATES
Neuralink to start human trial
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain-chip start-up Neuralink on Tuesday said it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruitment for the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients. Those with paralysis due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis can qualify for the study, it said, but did not reveal how many participants would be enrolled in the trial, which would take about six years to complete. The study would use a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move), Neuralink said, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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