INDONESIA
Volcano erupts again
A volcano in North Maluku Province yesterday erupted, spewing an ash cloud 7km into the sky as authorities warned residents to shelter indoors. It is the latest of about 100 eruptions from the volcano since early this year. Mount Ibu, on Halmahera Island, erupted at 12:45pm, sending thick clouds of ash into the air, Geology Agency head Muhammad Wafid said in a statement. The eruption from the volcano — which has been at the highest alert level of the country’s four-tiered system since the middle of last month — lasted for 6 minutes, 13 seconds, he said.
INDIA
33 polling staff die from heat
At least 33 polling staff died on the last day of voting from heatstroke in just one state, a top election official said yesterday, after scorching temperatures gripped swathes of the country. While there have been reports of multiple deaths from the intense heat wave — with temperatures above 45°C in many places — the dozens of staff dying in one day marks an especially grim toll. The Meteorological Department said that temperatures at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.9°C.
AUSTRALIA
Bill to outlaw ‘deepfake’ porn
The government has announced new legislation making it a criminal offense to share “deepfake” pornographic images of people without their consent. The law, to be introduced to parliament this week, would bring in jail sentences of up to six years for sharing nonconsensual deepfake pornography. The penalty rises to seven years if the offender also created the material. “Digitally created and altered sexually explicit material that is shared without consent is a damaging and deeply distressing form of abuse,” Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement late on Saturday. “We know it overwhelmingly affects women and girls who are the target of this kind of deeply offensive and harmful behavior. It can inflict deep, long-lasting harm on victims.”
UNITED STATES
Boeing calls off launch
Last-minute computer trouble nixed Saturday’s launch attempt for Boeing’s first astronaut flight, the latest in a string of delays over the years. Two NASA astronauts were strapped in the company’s Starliner capsule when the countdown automatically was halted at 3 minutes, 50 seconds by the computer system that controls the final minutes before liftoff. With only a split second to take off, there was no time to work the latest problem and the launch was called off. Depending on what needs to be fixed, the next launch attempt could be as early as Wednesday. “This is the business that we’re in,” Boeing commercial crew program vice president Mark Nappi said. “Everything’s got to work perfectly.”
THAILAND
Police probe hacker’s assets
Police are probing more than 1 billion baht (US$27.21 million) of properties and assets that an alleged Chinese “super hacker” and his associates channeled into the country from their cybercrime activities. Wang Yunhe (王雲鶴) and other co-conspirators had invested in properties and shares of several companies, the Central Investigation Bureau said in a statement on Saturday. The bureau, in cooperation with US authorities, said it has seized at least 88 million baht of assets such as cash, luxury watches, a car and land deeds of Wang from searches of four locations in Chon Buri Province.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
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