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.”
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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