International

The Christchurch Call to Action summit against online extremism in Paris which was prompted by the Christchurch mosque attacks in March which killed 51 people led to major tech firms pledging to come up with measures to stamp out violent extremist content on the internet. A special meeting held during the summit was co-chaired by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda …

WhatsApp discovered a disturbing security breach early this month when they found that dozens of users had been hacked. The Facebook subsidiary found that the hack occurred when one or two missed calls were received from an unfamiliar number, enabling the malicious code was shipped onto their phone via that missed call, without any user intervention. “We are deeply concerned …

by Anna SMOLCHENKO / Thibaut MARCHAND Forty-one people including at least two children have died after a Russian passenger plane made an emergency landing and erupted in a huge ball of fire and black smoke at Moscow’s busiest airport on Sunday, investigators said. Dramatic footage that went viral on social media showed Aeroflot’s Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft crash-landing and then …

by Elaine Yu and Catherine Lai HONG KONG — Four prominent leaders of Hong Kong’s democracy movement were jailed on Wednesday (24 Apr) for their role in organising mass protests in 2014 that paralysed the city for months and infuriated Beijing. The prison terms are the latest hammer blow to the city’s beleaguered democracy movement which has seen key figures …

by Dmytro Gorshkov and and Anna Smolchenko AFP – A comedian with no political experience won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday, drawing congratulations from global leaders while dealing a stunning rebuke to his country’s political establishment. Volodymyr Zelensky, whose only previous political role was playing the president in a TV show, trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko by …

In an effort to step up Singapore’s counter-terrorism measures in the face of “expected reprisals” following the Christchurch massacre that took the lives of 50 Muslim worshippers on 15 Mar, the Republic will rely on “intelligence sharing” with Australia. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with senior Australian ministers in Sydney on Fri (29 Mar), Dr Ng was quoted by …

A mere “set of trade numbers” is not what “makes America great”, but rather the spirit of “innovation” at the heart of the world superpower’s economy, said Singapore’s Minister of Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing. Speaking at a lunch dialogue organised by the US-ASEAN Business Council in Washington DC on Wed (20 Mar), Mr Chan said that the United …

A massive explosion at a pesticide plant in eastern China killed 64 people and injured more than 600, with media declaring it as one of the country’s worst industrial accidents in recent years that has sparked public outrage. A 60-year-old resident of Jiangsu surnamed Xiang told AFP that she had been concerned about safety and pollution issues at the site …

Paladin Holdings directors include one German national and an Australian based in Singapore and one Australian based in Australia. The company was awarded more than A$420 million (S$406 million) – about S$16.45 million a month – in contracts by the Australian government to provide security services at their Pacific refugee camps – three camps located on Manus Island in Papua …

On 27 January, 30,000 citizens and 100 civil society groups gathered for a demonstration against a series of social disturbance by a Korean Christian complex at Gwangwhamun Square in Seoul, where symbolic political and social movements are run, including the recent democratic Candlelight Revolution. “Global Citizens’ Human Rights Coalition to Call for the Shutdown of the Christian Council of Korea …