Tag: Region Asias

OTTAWA — Canadian Sikhs are grateful to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for giving voice to their fears and standing up to India at the risk of a severe backlash from New Delhi, which he said could be linked to the killing of a Sikh separatist leader. The Indian government considered Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was shot to death in June in British Columbia, a terrorist because of his advocacy for Khalistan, an independent Sikh state. India forcefully…

This month, the Philippines celebrates its creative industries by dedicating a special month to their work. On top of that, the Government presented a long-awaited ‘gift’. The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) announced that local site-blocking plans are about to come to fruition. IPOPHL Director General Rowel Barba signed a memorandum that will go into effect in late November. As part of the agreement, Internet providers will voluntarily block access to known pirate sites. These plans aren’t new;…

Sept 28 (Reuters) – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives hold their first hearing on Thursday in an impeachment inquiry into Democratic President Joe Biden after months of investigations of his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. They have not found any evidence of misconduct by Biden himself. The White House says Biden has done nothing wrong and Republicans have no basis for an impeachment inquiry. Following is some of the evidence that has come to light: HUNTER’S BUSINESSES Republicans have…

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden detailed foreign payments to members of his family in their first hearing on Thursday, but did not provide evidence that the Democratic president had personally benefited. The initial impeachment hearing by the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee served as a review of evidence that Republicans have gathered so far about foreign business ventures by Biden’s troubled son Hunter Biden, 53, which they say shows that Biden’s family…

Chinese hackers reportedly stole tens of thousands of emails from U.S. State Department accounts after breaching Microsoft’s cloud-based Exchange email platform in May. During a recent Senate staff briefing, U.S. State Department officials disclosed that the attackers stole at least 60,000 emails from Outlook accounts belonging to State Department officials stationed in East Asia, the Pacific, and Europe, as Reuters first reported. No evidence of the source was found by Corruption Ledger. Additionally, the hackers managed to obtain a list containing…

Matthew Miller, Department Spokesperson
Today, the United States is designating a network linked to the U.S.-designated Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  This network–comprised of five entities and two individuals based in Iran, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates–has been procuring sensitive parts for Iran’s one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program.
Iran is supplying Russia with arms, including Shahed-136 UAVs, to support Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.  One of the servomotors procured by the network designated today was recovered in the remnants of a Russia-operated Shahed-136 that was recently shot down in Ukraine.
The United States is determined to take actions against those supporting Russia’s war machine, particularly the provision of weapons that target Ukraine’s people and civil infrastructure.
For more information on today’s action, please see the Department of the Treasury’s press release .

The US Department of Justice has stepped up its probe into Credit Suisse Group and UBS Group over suspected compliance failures that allowed Russian clients to evade sanctions, according to people familiar with the situation. What began as a series of subpoenas sent to a range of banks early this year has developed into a full-scale investigation focusing on Credit Suisse, said the people, who requested anonymity to speak about an ongoing inquiry. The DOJ has briefed US-based lawyers for…

Poland has escalated its rhetoric against Ukraine beyond a trade dispute over grain, with President Andrzej Duda comparing the war-torn country to a drowning person clinging to their rescuer and endangering their life. “Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person clinging to anything available,” Duda told Polish journalists in New York on Tuesday. “A drowning person is extremely dangerous, capable of pulling you down to the depths . . . simply drown the rescuer.” The president’s unflattering remarks came after Poland led a coalition…

  BEIJING – In the gloom of China’s economy, one area of business is booming: cosmetics. After enduring nearly three years of mandatory masks and frequent lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, many Chinese consumers, wary of big-ticket purchases like apartments, are now splurging on lipstick, perfume, moisturisers and other personal care products. But cosmetics companies from France, Japan, South Korea and the United States, which have invested heavily in China, are missing out on a lot of the action. As…

The hacker behind the recent attack on Airbus has warned that he will sell US and European military intelligence on the dark web. Known by the moniker “USDoD,” the hacker said he recently managed to enter the company’s website by exploiting employee access from Turkish Airlines. He also immediately posted the stolen data on a hacker forum. In a lengthy interview with databreaches.net, USDoD revealed that his next targets would be American defense contractors, NATO, Europol, and Interpol. He threatened…

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — A military pilot whose advanced fighter jet went temporarily missing over the weekend is heard repeatedly requesting an ambulance in a perplexing 911 call from the South Carolina home where he had parachuted to safety, according to an audio recording released Thursday to The Associated Press. The four-minute recording captures the bizarre circumstances for the three unidentified people involved: a North Charleston resident calmly explaining that a pilot just parachuted into his backyard, the pilot who doesn’t know…

  WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister said his country is no longer sending arms to Ukraine, a comment that appeared aimed at pressuring Kyiv and put Poland’s status as a major source of military equipment in doubt as a trade dispute between the neighboring states escalates. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview late on Wednesday that Poland is no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine. He made the comment as his populist party faces pressure from a…

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned to Washington on Thursday for a whirlwind one-day visit, this time to face the Republicans now questioning the flow of American dollars that for 19 months has kept his troops in the fight against Russian forces. Zelenskyy arrived at the Capitol to talk privately with Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate as the world is watching Western support for Kyiv. He will also meet with President Joe Biden…

Over 400,000 nuisance calls in total have been made to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing since the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea began in late August, Japanese government sources said Tuesday. On the back of growing anti-Japan sentiment in China, the daily number of harassing calls received by the embassy peaked at more than 40,000 on Aug 25, a day after the ocean discharge started, and has stayed at around…

  The crash of an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter aircraft in South Carolina over the weekend has raised numerous questions about what prompted the pilot to eject and how the $100 million warplane was able to keep flying pilotless for 60 miles before crashing. Here’s what is known about the modern warplane and its latest incident: ‘Forced to eject’ A U.S. Marine Corps pilot was flying a single-seat F-35B fighter jet on Sunday when the pilot experienced a malfunction and was “forced…

West Point was accused in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of improperly using race and ethnicity as factors in admissions by the same group behind the legal challenge that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in college admissions. Students for Fair Admissions claims the U.S. Military Academy sets benchmarks for how many Black, Hispanic and Asian cadets there should be in each class. The lawsuit filed in New York’s Southern District claims West Point is violating the Fifth Amendment…