Tag: Region Asias

KAZAN: A Russian court on Monday extended until June 5 the pre-trial detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who faces 15 years in prison on charges of spreading “false information,” according to her employer. In court in the central city of Kazan on Monday, Kurmasheva smiled but complained about the poor conditions in which she was being held. “This cell is five square metres for two people. There is no hot water. Instead of a toilet there is a hole…

Israeli strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo early on Friday killed 38 people, including five members of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two security sources said, the deadliest attacks so far in an intensified Israeli campaign against Iran’s allies in Syria. Israel has ramped up its airstrikes on both Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria since the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel led by Iran-backed Palestinian faction Hamas. Tehran and its proxies have entrenched themselves across…

LONDON – Just as they first ventured to do over a century ago, the world’s largest oil companies are staking claims far from home – this time to swallow, rather than spew, planet-warming industrial emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) storage is emerging as a potential multi-billion-dollar revenue stream for companies like ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, which are under global pressure to rein in the unfettered burning of fossil fuels. In Asia, which will generate the majority of this century’s carbon emissions,…

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Wednesday it is pouring an additional $2.75 billion into Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the artificial intelligence startup to $4 billion. Amazon will maintain a minority stake in San Francisco-based Anthropic, a rival of ChatGPT maker OpenAI. “Generative AI is poised to be the most transformational technology of our time, and we believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further improve our customers’ experiences, and look forward to what’s next,” said Swami Sivasubramanian,…

The American plane maker has been under intense pressure since early January, when a panel blew off a brand-new Alaska Airlines 737 Max midflight. That’s spotlighted a lengthy series of safety and manufacturing problems that have piled up for Boeing over the years — including two devastating crashes that also involved Max jets. Leadership shakeups have arrived amid this turmoil, too. On Monday, Boeing announced that CEO David Calhoun would be stepping down from his post at the end of…

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus reached the space outpost after Saturday’s blastoff from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan that followed an aborted launch attempt two days earlier. Thursday’s attempted launch was halted by an automatic safety system about 20 seconds before the scheduled liftoff. Roscosmos and NASA said the crew wasn’t in danger during the aborted launch. The head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Borisov,…

SHANGHAI – The Chinese authorities are examining the role of PricewaterhouseCoopers in China Evergrande Group’s accounting practices after the developer was accused of a US$78 billion (S$105 billion) fraud, ramping up pressure on the global accounting giant that audited a slew of developers before the sector’s meltdown. The country’s securities regulator this week accused Evergrande’s main onshore subsidiary Hengda Real Estate Group of recognising sales in advance and massively overstating its revenue in the two years through 2020, prior to…

  MUMBAI – India’s inequality gap has widened sharply under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power, with the richest 1 per cent of the population now owning 40 per cent of the country’s wealth, a new study found. The top 1 per cent, or about 9.2 million people, earn 22.6 per cent of total income – the highest share since data going back to the 1920s – and hold more than 40 per cent of the wealth in the…

SINGAPORE – Mr Mikkel Larsen, chief executive officer of Singapore’s Climate Impact X (CIX), a carbon credit exchange and marketplace, has announced his resignation, CIX said in a statement on March 21. Mr Larsen, 49, will remain in his role until a new or interim CEO is appointed. He will continue to serve as a member of CIX’s board thereafter, the company said, adding that Mr Larsen was stepping down to focus on his family. A company spokeswoman confirmed the…

  Ukrainian drones were used to hit multiple targets in a sweeping attack on Russia that reportedly ignited fires at two major oil facilities and saw armed groups cross into Russian territory. Russia’s Defense Ministry said nine of its regions were attacked by Ukrainian drones, while Ukrainian missiles were shot down over the Belgorod region early on March 12. The attacks, the ministry said, targeted several energy facilities, including LUKoil’s Norsi refinery, Russia’s fourth-largest, in the Nizhny Novgorod region about…

Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition is “in jeopardy”, according to a US intelligence assessment that highlighted mass protests against Israel’s prime minister and the prospect of looming elections. The conclusions over Netanyahu’s precarious political position were part of the US intelligence community’s “annual threat assessment” report on Monday, which reflects the “collective insights” of Washington’s intelligence agencies. “Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties . . . may be in jeopardy,” the assessment said. It added that…

As you read through the details of the DOJ investigation, ask yourself why Boeing was permitted to regulte itself. Deregulation is a choice made by government.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated a criminal investigation into the Boeing jetliner incident that occurred on an Alaska Airlines plane earlier this year, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to the newspaper, the DOJ has reached out to passengers and crew members, including pilots and flight attendants, who were on…

In a letter addressed to Congress, Boeing has admitted the inability to locate records for maintenance performed on a door panel that malfunctioned during an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon two months ago. “We have looked extensively and have not found any such documentation,” Ziad Ojakli, Boeing executive vice president and chief government lobbyist, wrote to Sen.Maria Cantwell on Friday. Alaska Airlines suspended operations of its entire Boeing 737-9 fleet on January 5, following an alarming incident where a window…

A United Airlines jet with 166 passengers aboard rolled off the runway into a grassy area in Houston on Friday morning, making it the third such mishap involving a Boeing plane this week. No casualties were reported, the Airlines said in a statement. Video footage taken after the landing showed the plane leaning to one side, with one of its wings quite close to the ground. United Flight 2477 from Memphis, Tennessee, had arrived at Bush Intercontinental Airport at 8am…

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Ukraine’s allies not to be “cowards” in supporting the country to fight off the Russian invasion. It seems that only a coward can fear nuclear conflict, in Macron’s view. Are all political ‘leaders’ losing their minds? Maybe. Or maybe it is only the insecure ones who need to put forth such grand (verbal) gestures of strength in the face of rapidly declining public approval. Macron appears desperate to create a ‘stong man’ image…

NEW DELHI: Elon Musk on Tuesday in a social media post on X bashed President Joe Biden referring to a news report which says “Biden administration ADMITS flying 320,000 migrants secretly into US to reduce the number of crossing at the border has nation security vulnerability.” Elon musk said “This administration is both importing voters and creating a national security threat from unvetted illegal immigrants.It is highly probable that the groundwork is being laid for something far worse than 9/11….