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.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
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