India steps up Dalai Lama’s security over potential threat to his life
The Indian government has increased the security cover for Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, over a potential threat to his life.
The federal home minister on Thursday provided Z-category armed protection – one of the highest security covers – to the Dalai Lama based on a threat assessment report by India’s Intelligence Bureau, news agency PTI reported.
The 89-year-old spiritual leader will now have a security team of 33 personnel, including static guards stationed at his residence in Himachal Pradesh state’s Dharamshala. He will have round-the-clock protection, trained drivers, surveillance personnel, and commandos forming an armed escort in shifts.
Prior to this, the Dalai Lama had only a small protection cover in Himachal Pradesh, which was increased during his travels to New Delhi or any other place outside the state.
The Dalai Lama made the hillside town of Dharamshala his headquarters since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Representatives of a Tibetan government-in-exile also reside there. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama formally relinquished his political and administrative powers in 2011 and handed his political responsibilities to the community’s elected leadership. But he has remained the spiritual leader of the Tibetan community.
His followers see him as capable of uniting and mobilising Tibetans inside and outside China.
Over 100,000 Tibetan refugees live in India, Nepal and Bhutan, according to Tibetan organisations. Their number in India is estimated at around 85,000, while many have also moved to countries such as the US, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.
China castigates the Dalai Lama as an advocate for Tibetan independence and has not had direct contact with his representatives for more than a decade.
The Dalai Lama says he merely advocates for Tibet’s substantial autonomy and protection of its native Buddhist culture.
Footballer gets suspended jail term for filming woman
South Korean footballer Hwang Ui-jo received a suspended one-year jail sentence on Friday for illegally filming sexual encounters with a woman without her consent.
The 32-year-old, who plays for Turkish club Alanyaspor, was suspended from the national team in 2023 amid the allegations. The striker was indicted for secretly filming two women without their consent on four occasions between June and September 2022.
The Seoul Central District Court convicted him in one case but acquitted him in the other, suspending his sentence for two years.
“Considering that he filmed them with a cellphone during sexual intercourse against their will, the number of times the crime was committed and the specific details of the filmed material, the nature of the crime is not good,” the court said, according to Yonhap news agency.
“Given the seriousness of the socially harmful effects of illegal filming, it is necessary to punish strictly,” it said.
However, the court noted that Hwang admitted to the crime, expressed remorse and that the video was shared on social media by a third party.
Hwang Ui-jo’s sister-in-law, who was not named, shared the videos despite “knowing it would be disseminated indiscriminately”, the Seoul Central District Court said in a verdict last year in March.
“The content has been widely distributed in and out of South Korea … the nature of her crime is very serious,” the court said.
The footballer’s sister-in-law was sentenced to three years in jail for sharing private videos of him to blackmail him.
Hwang initially denied wrongdoing but later pleaded guilty. “I send out a sincere apology to all those hurt by my wrongful actions,” Hwang said during his final testimony.
“I am also sorry for disappointing the people who have adored and cheered for me with my improper behaviour.”
On Friday, when asked by reporters if he had anything to say to the victim after the case, Hwang responded that he was “sorry”.
“I personally apologise to football fans and genuinely feel very sorry,” he added.
Hwang played as a striker for clubs including Seongnam FC, Gamba Osaka, Bordeaux, and was an unused reserve for Nottingham Forest, and had been a key player for the South Korea national team before his suspension.
In a statement to the judge last year in October, he said: “I offer my sincerest apologies to the victims who have suffered because of my wrongdoings. I sincerely plead for the utmost leniency.”
Apple will collaborate with Alibaba to release ‘censored’ AI in China
Apple is reportedly planning to release a censored version of its anticipated artificial intelligence features in China in the middle of this year in collaboration with local tech giants like Alibaba and Baidu.
The Silicon Valley giant has been working to adapt its Apple Intelligence platform for China for a rollout expected as early as May, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Apple’s share rose by about 2 per cent on Thursday after announcing its AI partnership with the Chinese giant Alibaba.
To ensure its AI models provide outputs filtered to comply with Chinese censorship, Apple is reportedly relying on local software makers Alibaba and Baidu.
China is the second biggest market for Apple after the US, but the iPhone maker has suffered declining sales in the country.
Apple’s iPhone sales in China dropped to 43 million units in 2024 from about 52 million the previous year.
Analysts have flagged a rise in competition from local Chinese phone brands and Apple falling behind in the adoption of AI technology as potential reasons for the sales decline.
China has also come up with a powerful new AI model DeepSeek, becoming a strong competitor to American firm OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform.
The DeepSeek AI model’s responses to some user queries have also been observed to align closely with narratives spread by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In light of these recent AI developments, Apple may need some alterations to its existing AI platform to be more competitive in China.
Currently, the Apple Intelligence platform offers three types of AI in the US, including the tech giant’s own features that run on its device, features powered by the company’s internet servers, as well as OpenAI tools running on Apple’s infrastructure.
While its phones may run their AI features as they do in the US, an additional layer of Alibaba’s software may censor material that the Chinese government objects to, according to Bloomberg.
For some user queries that require rewriting large chunks of text, Apple Intelligence computes a response using its connection to a secure cloud computing system that runs on Apple’s Mac chips.
In China, Apple may need a local Chinese partner company for its cloud computing AI features.
Complying with local Chinese laws isn’t new to Apple.
Last year, the tech giant was forced to remove Meta’s Threads app as well as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal messaging apps off its App Store in compliance with China’s demands.
“We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” Apple said.
Apple’s compliance with Chinese rules is seen as part of its heavy reliance on the country for both manufacturing and sales.
Japan drones find cabin swallowed by sinkhole with ‘person inside’
At least one person’s remains could be inside a truck cabin swallowed by a sinkhole in Japan and found inside a sewer pipe after two weeks of search, a fire department official said on Wednesday.
The body of a truck’s missing 74-year-old driver could be inside the cabin that got sucked into a chasm near Tokyo, officials said, confirming that drone images have captured what is likely a “person”. The truck slipped into the sinkhole two weeks ago near the Japanese capital city.
It is unclear if the body is that of the missing driver.
“After experts analysed photos taken with a drone, they said there’s a cabin of a truck in the photos and they can’t rule out the possibility that what appears to be inside is a person,” local fire department official Tomonori Nakazawa said, reported AFP.
A lorry was swallowed after the sinkhole surfaced at an intersection in the city of Yashio during morning rush hour on 28 January.
The sinkhole is now 40m (131ft) in diameter, officials said. It is believed to be caused by a sewer rupture. The rescuers were able to pull out the truck’s loading platform from the sinkhole but were unable to reach the cabin which had the driver.
The Mainichi reported that sediment likely flowed into the heavily corroded pipe, laid about 33ft underground, creating a hollow beneath the road, which collapsed under the weight of passing vehicles.
Nearly 30 hours after the collapse, the driver remained trapped in the vehicle as sand and mud filled his seat, according to Japan’s Nippon TV.
Rescue workers initially heard the driver responding to their calls, but soon lost contact.
However, rescuers were unable to enter the 5m-wide sewer pipe where the truck cabin was last seen due to the continuous water flow and high levels of hydrogen sulphide gas, Mr Nakazawa said. The sinkhole was initially sized at 10m wide and 5m deep.
However, it merged with another nearby sinkhole and has since quadrupled in size. The efforts to rescue the man had to be suspended as further cave-ins at the sinkhole made the area highly unstable.
The authorities called off the search inside the sinkhole on Sunday to focus on the nearby sewer pipe where the truck’s cabin was spotted, reported Kyodo News.
It will take at least three months to build a temporary bypass pipe to stop the water flow, according to governor Motohiro Ono of Saitama prefecture.
The rescue team will have to wait for the completion of the bypass before moving in to access the truck cabin, he said on Tuesday.
Five families living in the vicinity of a sinkhole in Japan have been told to evacuate as the crater continued to expand, days after swallowing a truck along with its driver. More than a hundred residents living within a 50m radius of the hole had already been moved out in the week incident took place.
Four dead after suspected gas explosion at Taiwan department store
At least four people died and 26 were injured after a suspected gas explosion blew out the upper floor of a department store in central Taiwan on Thursday.
The blast took place in a food court on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi store in Taichung City at around 11.33am local time, the Taichung Fire Bureau said.
Two of the dead were visiting from Macau, the city’s Tourism Office confirmed on Thursday. They were reportedly travelling in a family of seven. A third member of the family was severely injured.
Nearly 235 people were evacuated from the building and nearby structures.
The blast was so powerful it threw at least four people out the windows of the building in the Xitun district, Focus Taiwan quoted the bureau as reporting after speaking to eyewitnesses.
The explosion was captured by a CCTV camera on a street outside. The CCTV video showed the glass panels of the 12th storey blowing up and throwing debris on pedestrians below.
Emergency services rushed to the spot and dozens of firefighters were working inside the building to douse the fire and take the injured to hospital.
President Lai Ching Te called on “relevant units to clarify the cause of the accident as soon as possible” in a Facebook post and directed the city authorities to conduct speedy rescue work.
A part of the store was under renovation but it was not clear if the work was connected to the explosion, Taichung vice mayor Cheng Chao Hsin told reporters.
“If it’s found there were illegal actions or parts that violated renovation regulations, it will be dealt with appropriately,” Mr Cheng said.
The shock of the blast was felt in nearby areas. Taichung mayor Lu Shiow Yen told reporters at the scene that she felt the shock at her office nearby.
She said the fire bureau was focusing on rescue work first, but an investigation was underway and officers were checking whether there were other sources of danger.
Local media suggested the explosion may have been caused by a leak from a gas canister which was being changed at a restaurant or during renovations at the food court.
The incident came less than two months after nine people died in a massive fire at an under-construction food-processing building in Taichung city on 20 December.
The fire in the building being developed by PX Mart supermarket chain was caused by welding sparks and spread rapidly through a large quantity of foam panels on the site.
Honda-Nissan’s $60bn mega merger deal collapses
Talks for a multi-billion-dollar merger between Japanese car giants Honda and Nissan have collapsed, formally ending the negotiations for the deal that would have led to the formation of one of the world’s biggest carmakers.
The tie-up between the two carmakers would have created an auto group worth $60bn that would have helped both Japanese companies compete against the Chinese and US rival brands, such as BYD and Tesla, upending the car industry.
As the deal talks ended on Thursday, Honda and Nissan said they will continue their partnership on the in-house development of batteries, software and electric vehicle technology along with Mitsubishi.
“Going forward, the three companies will collaborate within the framework of a strategic partnership aimed at the era of intelligence and electrified vehicles,” the three said in a statement.
Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Corp announced in December they would hold talks to set up a joint holding company. The merger would have created the world’s third-largest auto group by vehicle sales, only after Toyota and Volkswagen.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp then said it was considering joining that group.
Honda and Nissan initially said they were trying to finalise an agreement by June 2025 and set up the holding company by August that year. However, the media reports widely reported that cracks were emerging in a potential deal.
The negotiations between Japan’s third largest automaker, Nissan, and its larger rival, Honda, were complicated by growing differences between the two, sources previously told Reuters.
It was reported that Nissan baulked at the idea of becoming a junior player in the partnership with Honda which has a better financial position and was tipped to take the lead in the joint executive team.
For Nissan, the talks came amid ongoing financial trouble. Nissan reported loss in sales for the July-September quarter as its vehicle sales sank and it stunned investors in November when it decided to cut profit forecast by 70 per cent.
It announced slashing 9,000 jobs, one-fifth of global capacity in a turnaround plan for dwindling sales.
At that time, chief executive Makoto Uchida promised to forfeit 50 per cent of pay to take responsibility for the results and said he was focused on making business leaner but resilient.
The talks over a potential merger followed a collaboration earlier last year that saw Honda and Nissan agree to jointly develop EV technology, including software systems and battery platforms.
Nissan, whose fleet of electric vehicles includes the Leaf, has struggled to maintain its early momentum in the EV market. Honda has committed to making all its sales electric or hydrogen-powered by 2040 but has faced challenges scaling up its operations.
Taiwan’s Foxconn has now emerged as a new partner for Nissan as its chair said he is considering taking a stake in the company.
“If cooperation requires it (purchasing Nissan shares), we will consider it,” Foxconn’s chairman Young Liu told reporters on Wednesday.
What is the Su-57 stealth fighter jet Russia is offering to India?
Russia is offering the production of Sukhoi Su-57, its fifth-generation stealth fighter and most advanced warplane, in India for boosting the Indian Air Force’s fleet, after unveiling the jet in the South Asian country’s air show this week.
The fighter jet could go into production as early as this year upon acceptance of a production offer from the Indian government, a spokesperson for the Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said in Bengaluru, where India is holding its biennial Aero India show.
The Russian Su-57 fighter jet was displayed at the Aero India show alongside the US fifth-generation advanced F-35 stealth fighter jet as the two took flight at the military aviation exhibition.
In a spectacle aimed at making a sales pitch to its decades-old defence partner, the Russian fighter jet, run by Sukhoi’s chief test pilot Sergei Bogdan, hovered at 600m after a speedy aerial ballet at the Indian Air Force Station in Yelahanka. The theatrics, seen as the showstopper at the Indian air show, included Su-57’s ability to perform at extreme angles of attack, especially at 120 degree, suspended in the air.
“It’s like making a five-tonne fighter jet dance in the sky,” the Russian pilot told the reporters.
India already has 260 of Russia’s Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft in the Indian Air Force’s fleet.
Designed in the “pixelated” camouflage colour scheme, the Sukhoi fighter jet’s body has a colour mix of dark and light grey with and black pixels, which experts say is designed to add to its stealth capabilities.
According to Mr Bogdan, the latest Russian fifth-generation fighter jet has no limits for development and is the first such Russian warplane that can participate in real combat. Its stealth feature – the first in the Russian Air Force – comprises a low signature design which minimises its chances of detection by radar systems.
It can be developed for carrying missiles and bombs in cargo compartments and has a major onboard defence complex. The jet also features an internal weapons bay for the pilot, allowing a flexible choice between a long-range or a close-combat missiles option in a scenario of military engagement.
Mr Bogdan claims the fighter jet’s agility could give it an edge over its American competitor F-35.
According to its manufacturer, serial production of the aircraft began in 2022.
However, military experts have long cautioned against Russian Su-57 stealth fighter jet deals being made by Moscow. Despite being touted as a Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft to rival its US equivalent, the Su-57 was plagued by development delays and a crash in 2019.
In December 2019, one of Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter jets crashed in the Far East during a test flight, marking the first accident of its kind involving the superior plane.
According to the military sources, the crash was caused by a failure in the steering system, causing a massive loss to Russia in its attempt to sell the fighter jet to its allies. The crash also delayed the handover of the plane to the Russian Air Force that year.
Russia’s risk-averse approach to using the Su-57 was “symptomatic” of the military’s wider approach to the war, according to an assessment by the British Defence Ministry in January 2023.
North Korea, Iran, and Algeria are among the nations who have shown interest in buying the stealth fighter jet.
If India confirms the deal with Russia, Moscow is likely to get a major boost for its defence industry which has been facing losses due to war efforts in Ukraine. Russia is further bleeding in the defence sector due to the Western sanctions for its war in Ukraine and related supply chain hurdles.
An official for Rosoboronexport said Russia will share the fifth generation technologies with India, Moscow’s biggest defence importer. These will include fifth generation technologies comprising engines, Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, optics, AI elements, software communication means, and air weapons.
India can manufacture these critical technologies without any fear of sanctions, the official said.
India, the world’s largest arms importer, has stressed the need to modernise its military and boost domestic defence production to counter rival China‘s growing military strength and influence in South Asia.
However, the country has failed to ink any significant defence deal in its biennial aerial shows, reducing its efficacy of holding the military exhibition – a gap Moscow could likely fill with its fighter jet.
Man jailed for raping wife freed as marital rape not a crime in India
A man jailed for raping his wife after she accused him in a dying statement has been freed by a judge, on the grounds husbands in India cannot be prosecuted for marital rape.
The 40 year-old man was convicted of charges of rape, “unnatural” sex, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder for his wife’s death, and jailed for 10 years in 2019.
He had been arrested two years earlier after his wife made a dying declaration saying that she was forced to have sex with him and suffered injuries as a result. She was admitted to hospital and died the same day, according to the legal media outlet Live Law.
However, the Chhattisgarh High Court has now overturned that conviction citing the country’s laws on forced sexual acts within marriage, and ordered his immediate release from prison.
The single judge bench of justice Narendra Kumar Vyas said that “if the age of wife is not below age of 15 years then any sexual intercourse or sexual act by the husband with his wife cannot be termed as rape under the circumstances, as such absence of consent of wife for unnatural act loses its importance”. This appears to be at odds with a landmark Supreme Court ruling in October 2017 that raised the age of marital rape from 15 to 18.
The defence also argued before the high court that there was no legally admissible evidence against the accused and the conviction was based only on the woman’s dying declaration.
The counsel further disputed her cause of death, contending that the original trial “overlooked statements from two witnesses who testified the woman had suffered from piles since her first childbirth which caused bleeding and abdominal pain”, the Times of India reported.
Last year the Indian government opposed calls to classify non-consensual sexual acts within marriage as rape, arguing the move could have an impact on conjugal relationships and ‘disturb the institution of marriage’.
The federal Home Ministry told the Supreme Court that while a husband does not have the right to violate his wife’s consent, labelling such an act “rape” would be “excessively harsh and therefore disproportionate”.