PAKISTAN
Bombings kill at least 24
A pair of bombings at the election offices of a political party and an independent candidate in the southwest killed at least 24 people and wounded more than two dozen others, officials said yesterday, the day before parliamentary elections are to be held. The first attack happened in Baluchistan Province’s Pashin District, provincial spokesperson Jan Achakzai said. Officials said at least 14 people were killed in the attack and the wounded are being transported to a nearby hospital. Police said some of them were listed in critical condition. Later yesterday, another bombing at the elections office of politician Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam party in Baluchistan’s Qilla Saifullah Town killed at least 10 people, Acahkzai and local authorities said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. Caretaker Minister of the Interior Gohar Ejaz denounced the bombings.
NETHERLANDS
China denies hacking
Beijing would never allow any Chinese entities or individuals to conduct illegal activities such as cyberattacks or use Chinese facilities for such attacks, the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands said in a statement yesterday. The embassy was responding to a report by Dutch intelligence agencies that said Chinese state-backed cyberspies gained access to a Dutch military network last year. It was the first time the Netherlands has publicly attributed cyberespionage to China. “China opposes any malicious speculation and groundless accusations, and advocates joint efforts to safeguard cybersecurity through dialogue and cooperation,” an embassy spokesperson was quoted as saying in the statement. The allegations are the latest by a country claiming that China has tried to hack sensitive information, with the Philippines on Monday saying it had thwarted an attack by Chinese hackers.
CHINA
Antarctic station opens
The nation yesterday inaugurated its Ross Sea scientific research station, Xinhua news agency reported, starting operations in an outpost in a part of the antarctic south of Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Resembling a crucifix, like the Crux constellation, the Qinling station is to be staffed year-round with quarters sufficient to house as many as 80 people in the summer months, official media have said. Perched on the rocky coast of Inexpressible Island, Qinling is also situated near the permanently inhabited US McMurdo station. China has four other research stations in other parts of Antarctica, two of which also operate year-round.
SINGAPORE
Ex-PM’s son found liable
The High Court has found Goh Jin Hian (吳振賢) liable for US$146 million in losses under his watch as director of a now-insolvent marine fuel supplying company, adding to the legal problems facing the son of former prime minister Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟). Doing his duties “would have led him to realize that the company was being defrauded,” Justice Aedit Abdullah said in published remarks dated Jan. 24 on a petition involving Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte. The defense argued there was no such breach or causation of loss, and regardless, the company qualifies for relief from liability under the companies act. “The financial position of the company was suspect, and should have primed the defendant to look further and obtain a picture of the true state of the affairs of the company and monitor what was happening within it,” the judge said. “That was his duty as a director.”
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US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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