Seoul, South Korea — North Korea fired “several” ballistic missiles on Monday toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said.

A Japanese government alert and its coast guard also said North Korea had fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile.

The projectile appeared to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone area, the NHK broadcaster said.

Japan’s NTV broadcaster said the projectile was a short-range ballistic missile, citing a Japanese government official.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North launched what it suspected to be several short-range ballistic missiles from near its capital, Pyongyang, without providing further details.

The reports of the launch came as South Korea said its top military officer, Admiral Kim Myung-soo, had hosted the commander of U.S. Space Command, General Stephen Whiting, on Monday to discuss the North’s reconnaissance satellite development and growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

After a summit between the two countries’ leaders in September, North Korea has been suspected of supplying arms and munitions to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, although both deny that claim.

The North is believed to be preparing to launch another spy satellite, after successfully putting a reconnaissance satellite in orbit in November.

North Korea said last week that it had fired a strategic cruise missile to test a large warhead, and a new anti-aircraft missile.

Earlier in April, the North fired a new hypersonic missile as part of its development of solid-fueled missiles for all ranges of its arsenal.

The North has defied a ban by the United Nations Security Council on developing ballistic missiles, rejecting Council resolutions as infringing on its sovereign right to defend itself.
…

ISLAMABAD — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in neighboring Pakistan Monday for official meetings with the host nation’s leaders amid Iran-Israel tensions.

An official pre-arrival announcement from Islamabad’s foreign ministry stated that the talks will provide an “important opportunity” to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, connectivity, energy, and agriculture.

It said Raisi’s high-level delegation would include the Iranian foreign minister, other Cabinet members, and business representatives.

During his three-day stay in Pakistan, the Iranian president is scheduled to meet his counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, among others. 

The Pakistani statement said without elaborating, “They will also discuss regional and global developments and bilateral cooperation to combat the common threat of terrorism.” 

Iran and Pakistan share a 900-kilometer border, which is prone to militant infiltration, smuggling, and other illegal crossings. The countries accuse each other of not preventing militant groups from sheltering on their respective lands and launching cross-border terrorist attacks.

In January, Iranian security forces launched missile strikes against what they said were anti-Iran militant hideouts in the southwestern Pakistani border province of Baluchistan. Islamabad condemned Iran’s violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity and retaliated with strikes on bases of anti-Pakistan militants operating from Iranian soil.

The unprecedented exchange of so-called counterterrorism strikes raised concerns about a larger conflict between the two Muslim countries and of wider regional instability after Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out an Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. 

Tehran and Islamabad urgently undertook diplomatic efforts to defuse bilateral tensions, renewing pledges to enhance counterterrorism cooperation and respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

Raisi’s visit is part of those mutual efforts to mend relations between Iran and Pakistan.

Gas pipeline 

Analysts said this week’s meetings in Islamabad are also expected to focus on financial and legal issues related to constructing a gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan. The two countries signed an agreement in June 2009 for the proposed pipeline to export Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.

While Tehran has since claimed to have completed construction of 1,100 kilometers of the pipeline on its side of the border, construction has not started on the Pakistani side because Islamabad fears it would invite U.S. sanctions for importing Iranian gas.  

Iran’s energy sector is under sanctions from Washington for its nuclear program.

Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to sue Pakistan in international arbitration and impose a penalty of around $18 billion for breach of contract. 

The U.S. State Department has recently renewed its warning to Islamabad, advising against proceeding with the project to avoid sanctions.

Iran’s recent direct attack on Israel, with more than 300 drones and missiles, has made it even more difficult for Pakistan to build the pipeline, said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Washington’s Wilson Center. 

On social media platform X, Kugelman wrote, “Any possibility of the U.S. giving Pakistan a sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline it claims it plans to build with Iran is essentially nonexistent. And that possibility was practically nil even before the Iranian attack on Israel.”

The Iranian strikes were in response to Israel’s apparent destruction on April 1 of an Iranian consular building in Syria in which seven members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals, were killed. 

“The visit was planned weeks before the current hostilities, and Pakistani officials likely had no estimates that the visit would coincide with a full-blown regional crisis involving Iran,” said Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani expert on Middle Eastern affairs.

“Coming on the heels of Israel-Iran tensions, the Iranian government is likely to use this visit to suggest regional support for Iran’s position,” Quraishi said.
…

Mumbai, India — In fake videos that have gone viral online, two of India’s A-lister Bollywood actors are seen criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asking people to vote for the opposition Congress party in the country’s ongoing general election.

In a 30-second video that shows Aamir Khan and another 41-second clip of Ranveer Singh, the two Bollywood actors purportedly say Modi failed to keep campaign promises and failed to address critical economic issues during his two terms as prime minister.

Both AI-generated videos end with the Congress election symbol and slogan: “Vote for Justice, Vote for Congress.”

The two videos have been viewed on social media more than half a million times since last week, a Reuters review shows.

Their spread underlines the potential role such AI (artificial intelligence)-generated content can play in the mammoth Indian election that started on Friday and will continue until June. AI and AI-generated fakes, or deepfakes, are being increasingly used in elections elsewhere in the world, including in the U.S., Pakistan and Indonesia.

Campaigning in India has long focused on door-to-door outreach and public rallies, but extensive use of WhatsApp and Facebook as campaigning tools started in 2019. This year’s general election – in which Modi is expected to secure a rare third term – is the first in which AI is being used.

A Congress spokesperson, Sujata Paul, shared actor Singh’s video with her 16,000 followers on X on April 17 and by Saturday afternoon, her post had been reshared 2,900 times, liked 8,700 times and received 438,000 views.

Paul told Reuters by telephone she was aware the video was marked “manipulated media” by X, but she did not want to delete it as, while posting, she thought the person was a look alike of Singh and “it has creativity for sure.”

The post was no longer visible on X on Sunday, hours after Reuters sent a request for comment to Congress’ head of social media cell, who did not respond.

Both actors have said the videos are fake. Facebook, X and at least eight fact-checking websites have said they are altered or manipulated, which the Reuters digital verification unit has also confirmed.

Reuters could not ascertain who created the videos. Khan was “alarmed” by the viral “fake” video and Singh’s team was looking into the matter, according to a spokesperson for both actors.

Singh wrote on X on Friday: “Beware of deepfakes, friends.”

Modi’s office, and the IT head of his Bharatiya Janata Party, did not respond to requests for comment.

Police probe

Nearly 900 million people in India have access to the Internet and a survey conducted by research organization Esya Centre and the Indian Institute of Management business school showed an average Indian spends over three hours a day on social media. The country has nearly one billion voters.

Some versions of the videos have been blocked on social media but at least 14 were still visible on X on Saturday.

Facebook deleted two videos Reuters flagged to the company but one other was still visible.

Facebook in a statement said it has “removed the videos” for violation of its policies. X did not respond to Reuters queries.

The videos have sparked one police investigation with Khan registering a case in Mumbai against unnamed persons on April 17 for alleged impersonation and cheating for creating the fake video.

Mumbai police did not return a request for comment, but two officers working on Khan’s case, who declined to be named, said they wrote to Facebook and X to take down the video and the companies had said it was done.

The officers said they were up until 2 a.m. on Friday, refreshing pages to check if Khan’s online videos were removed.

Asked about progress in the case, one of them said: “Such technical investigations take time.”

AI video of dead father

In this year’s election, politicians are using AI in other ways.

In southern India, Congress leader Vijay Vasanth’s spokesperson said his team has created a 2-minute audio-video clip using AI that was shared on social media platforms and shows his now dead but more popular politician father, H. Vasanthakumar, seeking votes for him.

The late politician is seen saying “even though my body left you all, my soul is still around.”

In videos put out on YouTube by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Samata, an AI-generated anchor dressed in a traditional saree and speaking in a style that mimics regular news channels, criticizes the ruling party in West Bengal state.

In one clip, the anchor alleges the party does not care about the environment as many water bodies have vanished due to illegal construction.

A spokesperson for the ruling party denied the allegation and said the state government has ensured no such construction takes place. The CPM did not respond to requests for comment.

In the video, which has been seen 12,000 times, anchor Samata declares: “These are questions that we the citizens of this city need to ponder over.”
…

Manila, Philippines — Thousands of Filipino and American troops will kick off joint military exercises in the Philippines on Monday, as Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region raises fears of a conflict. 

The annual drills — dubbed Balikatan, or “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog — will be concentrated in the northern and western parts of the archipelago nation, near the potential flashpoints of the South China Sea and Taiwan. 

China claims almost the entire waterway, a key route for international trade, and also considers self-ruled Taiwan to be part of its territory. 

In response to China’s growing influence, the United States has been bolstering alliances with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including the Philippines. 

Washington and Manila are treaty allies and have deepened their defense cooperation since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022. 

While the Philippines is poorly armed, its proximity to the South China Sea and Taiwan would make it a key partner for the United States in the event of a conflict with China. 

“The purpose of armed forces, why we exist, is really to prepare for war,” Philippine Colonel Michael Logico told reporters ahead of the drills. “There’s no sugarcoating it … for us not to prepare, that’s a disservice to the country.” 

The Philippine coast guard will join Balikatan for the first time, following several confrontations between its vessels and the China coast guard, which patrols reefs off the Philippines’ coast. 

The joint drills involve a simulation of an armed recapture of an island in Palawan province, the nearest major Philippine landmass to the hotly disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. 

The same exercise will be held in the northern provinces of Cagayan and Batanes, both less than 300 km (180 miles) from Taiwan.  

Like last year, there will be a sinking of a vessel off the northern province of Ilocos Norte. 

Other training will concern information warfare, maritime security, and integrated air and missile defense. 

The United States has deployed its Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) guided missiles to the Philippines for Balikatan, but Logico said the weapons would not be used in the drills. 

China’s foreign ministry has accused the United States of “stoking military confrontation,” and warned the Philippines to “stop sliding down the wrong path.” 

‘It matters for regional stability’ 

The exercises, which will run until May 10, will involve around 11,000 American and 5,000 Filipino troops, as well as Australian and French military personnel.  

France will also deploy a warship that will take part in a joint exercise with Philippine and U.S. vessels. 

Fourteen countries in Asia and Europe will join as observers. 

For the first time, the drills will go beyond the Philippines’ territorial waters, which extend about 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) from its coastline, Logico said. 

“Balikatan is more than an exercise; it’s a tangible demonstration of our shared commitment to each other,” Lieutenant General William Jurney, commander of U.S .Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, said in a statement.  

“It matters for regional peace,” he said. “It matters for regional stability.”  
…

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill on Saturday. The measure now heads to the U.S. Senate, which is expected to take up a vote early this week. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports.
…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A race car veered off the track during a competition in Sri Lanka on Sunday and rammed into a crowd of spectators and race officials, killing seven people and injuring 20 others, officials said.

Thousands of spectators looked on as the crash took place during a race in the town of Diyatalawa in the tea-growing central hills, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of the capital Colombo.

The cause wasn’t immediately clear.

Police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa said one of the cars veered off the track and struck spectators and officials. Seven people, including four officials, were killed and another 20 were being treated at a hospital, said Thalduwa. He said three of the injured were in critical condition.

Thalduwa said police have launched an investigation into the crash, which happened during the 17th out of 24 scheduled events. The race was suspended afterward.

About 45,000 spectators had gathered at the race circuit at a Sri Lankan military academy. The event was organized by the Sri Lankan army and Sri Lanka Automobile Sports.
…

BEIJING — Major rivers, waterways and reservoirs in China’s Guangdong province are threatening to unleash dangerous floods, forcing the government Sunday to enact emergency response plans to protect more than 127 million people. 

Calling the situation “grim,” local weather officials said sections of rivers and tributaries at the Xijiang and Beijiang river basins are hitting water levels in a rare spike that only has a one-in-50 chance of happening in any given year, state broadcaster CCTV news said Sunday. 

China’s water resource ministry issued an emergency advisory, CCTV reported. 

Guangdong officials urged departments in all localities and municipalities to begin emergency planning to avert natural disasters and promptly disperse disaster relief funds and materials to ensure affected people have food, clothing, water and somewhere to stay. 

The province, a major exporter and one of China’s main commercial and trading centers, has seen major downpours and strong winds for several days, in a weather pattern which has also affected other parts of China. 

12 hours of rain

A 12-hour spell of heavy rain, starting from 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) Saturday, battered the central and northern parts of the province including the cities of Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Jiangmen, where rescue workers have been dispatched. 

More than 45,000 people have been evacuated in Qingyuan, according to state media, and some power facilities in Zhaoqing were damaged, cutting power to some places. 

Overall in Guangdong, 1.16 million households lost power due to the heavy rains, according to state-backed media. 

About 1,103 schools in Zhaoqing, Shaoguan and Qingyuan will suspend classes Monday, Chinese state radio said. 

“Please look at Zhaoqing’s Huaiji county, which has become a water town. The elderly and children at the countryside don’t know what to do with power outages and no signal,” said one user on the popular social media site Weibo. 

‘It rained like a waterfall’

Raging flood waters swept one vehicle down a narrow street in Zhaoqing, a video released by Hongxing News showed. 

“It rained like a waterfall for an hour and a half on the highway driving home last night,” said another Weibo user. “I couldn’t see the road at all.” 

Authorities in Qingyuan and Shaoguan also suspended ships from traveling through several rivers, with maritime departments dispatching forces to be on duty and coordinate emergency tugboats and emergency rescue vessels. 

Many hydrological stations in the province are exceeding water levels, weather officials warned, and in the provincial capital Guangzhou, a city of 18 million, reservoirs have reached flood limits, city officials announced Sunday. 

Data showed 2,609 hydrological stations with daily rainfall greater than 50 mm (1.97 inches), accounting for about 59% of all observation stations. At 8 a.m. Sunday, 27 hydrological stations in Guangdong were on alert. 

In neighboring Guangxi, west of Guangdong, violent hurricane-like winds whipped the region, destroying buildings, state media video footage showed. Some places have also experienced hailstones and major flooding, CCTV said. 

In another video, rescuers could be seen trying to save an elderly person clinging to a tree half-submerged in flood waters. 

As of 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT), 65 landslides were recorded in the city of Hezhou located in Guangxi, state media reported. 

Weather forecasters are expecting heavy rain through Monday in the Guangxi region, Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. 
…

PHNOM PENH — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Cambodia on Sunday for a three-day official visit to reaffirm ties with Beijing’s closest ally in Southeast Asia. His visit is the last stop on a three-nation regional swing that also took him to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

He is visiting amid foreign concerns about two big Chinese-funded projects in Cambodia — a planned canal and a naval base — that critics allege could aid Beijing’s strategic military interests in Southeast Asia.

China is Cambodia’s most important ally and benefactor, with strong influence in its economy. That is illustrated by numerous Chinese-funded projects — particularly infrastructure, including airports and roads, but also private projects such as hotels, casinos and property development. More than 40% of Cambodia’s $10 billion in foreign debt is owed to China.

Wang is scheduled to have separate meetings with Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, Hun Sen, now serving as president of the Senate after serving for 38 years as Cambodia’s head of government until he stepped down last year to be succeeded by his son. Wang was also granted a royal audience with King Norodom Sihamoni.

Hun Manet has shown no sign of deviating from his father’s pro-Beijing foreign policy. In August 2023, Wang visited Cambodia just days after Hun Sen announced he would step down as prime minister in favor of his eldest son.

Beijing’s support allows Cambodia to disregard Western concerns about its poor record on human and political rights, and in turn Cambodia generally supports Beijing’s positions on foreign policy issues such as its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Cambodia has recently reiterated its determination to go ahead with the Chinese-financed 180-kilometer (112-mile) long, $1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal project across four provinces in the southern part of the country to connect the capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand. 

The plan has raised concern from neighboring Vietnam, where some scholars speculated the 100-meter (330-foot) -wide and 5.4 meter (18-foot) -deep canal could make it easier for China to send military forces southward, close to Vietnam’s southern coast. There are often frosty relations between Vietnam and its massive northern neighbor China, which aggressively claims maritime territory claimed by Hanoi and in 1979 staged a brief invasion.

The United States has also weighed in on the project, appealing for transparency on the part of Cambodia’s government. Wesley Holzer, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh, was quoted as telling VOA that “the Cambodian people, along with people in neighboring countries and the broader region, would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water management, agricultural sustainability, and security,”

Hun Manet, speaking Thursday to government officials and villagers in southern Takeo province, dismissed the Vietnamese concern and vowed to push forward with the project, which he said would provide a huge benefit to Cambodia.

China also is involved with another project causing foreign concern, its Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, which the United States and some international security analysts say is destined to serve as a strategic outpost for Beijing’s navy.

The Ream base initially attracted attention in 2019 when The Wall Street Journal reported that an early draft of an agreement seen by U.S. officials would allow China 30 years’ use of the base, where it would be able to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships.

Hun Sen in response repeatedly denied there was such an agreement, pointing out that Cambodia’s constitution does not allow foreign military bases to be established on its soil and declared that visiting ships from all nations are welcome.

The base is situated on the Gulf of Thailand, adjacent to the South China Sea, where China has aggressively asserted its claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway. The U.S. has refused to recognize China’s sweeping claims and routinely conducts military maneuvers there to reinforce its status as international waters. 

On Dec. 7, two Chinese naval vessels became the first ships to dock at a new pier at the base, coinciding with an official visit to Cambodia by China’s top defense official.
…

ISLAMABAD  — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will arrive in neighboring Pakistan on Monday for official meetings with the host nation’s leaders amidst Iran-Israel tensions. 

An announcement from Islamabad’s foreign ministry Sunday stated that the talks will provide an “important opportunity” to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, connectivity, energy, and agriculture. 

It said Raisi’s high-level delegation would include the Iranian foreign minister, other Cabinet members, and business representatives. 

During his three-day stay in Pakistan, the Iranian president is scheduled to meet his counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, among others.  

The Pakistani statement said without elaborating, “They will also discuss regional and global developments and bilateral cooperation to combat the common threat of terrorism.”  

Iran and Pakistan share a 900-kilometer border, which is prone to militant infiltration, smuggling, and other illegal crossings. The countries accuse each other of not preventing militant groups from sheltering on their respective lands and launching cross-border terrorist attacks. 

In January, Iranian security forces launched missile strikes against what they said were anti-Iran militant hideouts in the southwestern Pakistani border province of Baluchistan. Islamabad condemned Iran’s violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity and retaliated with strikes on bases of anti-Pakistan militants operating from Iranian soil. 

The unprecedented exchange of so-called counterterrorism strikes raised concerns about a larger conflict between the two Muslim countries and of wider regional instability after Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out an October 7 terror attack on Israel.  

Tehran and Islamabad urgently undertook diplomatic efforts to defuse bilateral tensions, renewing pledges to enhance counterterrorism cooperation and respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

Raisi’s visit is part of those mutual efforts to mend relations between Iran and Pakistan. 

Gas pipeline  

Analysts said this week’s meetings in Islamabad are also expected to focus on financial and legal issues related to constructing a gas pipeline between Iran and Pakistan. The two countries signed an agreement in June 2009 for the proposed pipeline to export Iranian natural gas to Pakistan. 

While Tehran has since claimed to have completed construction of 1,100 kilometers of the pipeline on its side of the border, construction has not started on the Pakistani side because Islamabad fears it would invite U.S. sanctions for importing Iranian gas.   

Iran’s energy sector is under sanctions from Washington for its nuclear program. 

Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to sue Pakistan in international arbitration and impose a penalty of around $18 billion for breach of contract.  

The U.S. State Department has recently renewed its warning to Islamabad, advising against proceeding with the project in order to avoid sanctions. 

Iran’s recent direct attack on Israel, with more than 300 drones and missiles, has made it even more difficult for Pakistan to build the pipeline, said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Washington’s Wilson Center.  

On social media platform X, Kugelman wrote, “Any possibility of the U.S. giving Pakistan a sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline it claims it plans to build with Iran is essentially nonexistent. And that possibility was practically nil even before the Iranian attack on Israel.” 

The Iranian strikes were in response to Israel’s apparent destruction on April 1 of an Iranian consular building in Syria in which seven members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals, were killed.  

“The visit was planned weeks before the current hostilities, and Pakistani officials likely had no estimates that the visit would coincide with a full-blown regional crisis involving Iran,” said Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani expert on Middle Eastern affairs. 

“Coming on the heels of Israel-Iran tensions, the Iranian government is likely to use this visit to suggest regional support for Iran’s position,” Quraishi said. 
…

Colombo — The United Nations on Sunday urged Sri Lanka to bridge its “accountability deficit” and ensure justice as the country commemorated the 279 victims of its worst-ever attack against civilians five years ago.

The U.N.’s top envoy to the country, Marc-Andre Franche, told a remembrance service in Colombo that there should be a “thorough and transparent investigation” to uncover those behind the Easter carnage in 2019.

Islamist bombers hit three churches and three hotels in the island’s deadliest suicide attack aimed at civilians, but grieving families say they are still waiting for justice.

Among the dead were 45 foreigners, including tourists visiting the island a decade after the end of a brutal ethnic conflict that had claimed more than 100,000 lives since 1972.

“Sri Lanka suffers from a continuing accountability deficit, be it for alleged war crimes, more recent human rights violations, corruption or abuse of power, which must be addressed if the country is to move forward,” Franche said.

He noted that victims were still seeking justice despite the country’s Supreme Court holding the then president Maithripala Sirisena and his top officials responsible for failing to prevent the attack.

“Delivering justice for victims of these attacks should be part of addressing the systemic challenge,” Franche said.

He said the U.N. Human Rights office has also called on Colombo to publish the complete findings of previous inquiries into the Easter Sunday bombings and to establish an independent investigation.

The leader of Sri Lanka’s Catholic church, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, accused President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government of suppressing new evidence and protecting those behind the jihadists.

“It is clear that Islamist extremists carried out the attack, but there were other forces behind them,” Ranjith said.

“We have to conclude that the current government too is trying to protect them.”

He has previously alleged that military intelligence officers engineered the April 21, 2019 attack to help the political ambitions of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a retired army officer who campaigned on security. Seven months later he won the presidency.

Since coming to power, Rajapaksa had systematically protected those behind the bombings, the Cardinal said.

Rajapaksa was forced out of office in July 2022 following months of protests over an unprecedented economic crisis that caused shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

Thousands of Sri Lanka’s Catholic minority staged a silent protest outside the capital after multi-faith services to bless the victims, who included more than 80 children.

Relatives carried photos of the dead and protested in the town of Negombo — known as Sri Lanka’s ‘Little Rome’ because of its heavy concentration of Catholics.

Military personnel armed with automatic assault rifles watched as the protesters marched to the nearby St Sebastian’s church, where 114 people were killed in the coordinated suicide bombings.

Evidence tendered during a civil case brought by relatives of the victims showed that Indian intelligence officials warned Colombo of the bombings some 17 days earlier, but the authorities failed to act.

Then-president Sirisena and his officials have been ordered to pay 310 million rupees ($1 million) in compensation to victims and relatives.

But the ruling has yet to be fully implemented as Sirisena has appealed and a fresh hearing is scheduled for July.
…

Kabul — One person was killed and three others wounded by an explosion in Kabul on Saturday evening, Afghan police said, with the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the sticky bomb attack.

The improvised explosive device was detonated in the Kot-e-Sangi neighborhood, near an enclave of the historically persecuted Shiite Hazara community, which has been targeted by the militant group in the past.

“The sticky bomb was planted on a minibus,” Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said in a statement late Saturday.

“The driver of the vehicle lost his life, and three other civilians were injured.”

Security personnel were investigating the incident, the statement added.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel, saying a minibus carrying Hazaras was blown up as it passed through a Taliban checkpoint.

The attack “led to its destruction and the killing and wounding of around 10” people, the IS statement said.

The number of bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has reduced dramatically since the Taliban ended their insurgency after ousting the U.S.-backed government and returning to power in August 2021. 

However, a number of armed groups, including IS, remain a threat.

Multiple people were killed last month when an IS suicide bomber targeted a bank as people were gathering to collect their salaries. Authorities put the blast’s toll at three, but hospital sources told AFP 20 people were killed. 
…

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM/WASHINGTON — While this month’s death sentence in a multibillion-dollar Vietnamese fraud case may show the power of Hanoi’s antigraft campaign, interviews in recent days showed continuing concerns over political impunity in Vietnam and vulnerability and corruption in the country’s poorly paid public sector.

Meanwhile, two of those interviewed expressed doubts the sentence would actually be carried out.

On April 11, Truong My Lan, the 68-year-old chairwoman of real-estate firm Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group was given the death sentence for embezzling $12.5 billion, leading to damages that have now reached $27 billion, as well as well as 20 years each for bribery and violating banking regulations. She was also ordered by the court to return $27 billion to Saigon Commercial Bank, or SCB, for taking out bad loans over 11 years.

In 2012, Lan merged three banks into SCB. Although Vietnamese law prohibits anyone from owning more than 5% of the shares of any bank, prosecutors said that through proxies and thousands of shell companies Lan indirectly owned 91.5% of SCB.

Nguyen Hong Hai, senior lecturer at VinUniversity in Hanoi, said Lan’s sentence shows the government’s effort to impart a public message.

“We have to put it in the context of the ongoing blazing furnace anticorruption campaign launched by the Party in 2016,” Hai told VOA on April 16.

“They want to send a clear message to the public that they really want to clean up society and they are determined to combat corruption.”

A 38-year-old bank clerk in Ho Chi Minh City struck a similar chord in an April 17 written message, telling VOA that the verdict helps to restore faith in financial institutions.

“Lan and her people have used the banking system to take the money for their own purposes,” he wrote in Vietnamese. “A quick verdict helped to gain back people’s trust.”

Corruption said likely widespread

However, Zachary Abuza, Southeast Asia expert and professor at the National War College in Washington, said corruption is likely widespread in Vietnam’s banking sector and despite the sentences meted out, high-level officials escaped implication.

The country’s Communist Party “definitely circled the wagons and made sure that some lower-level party officials and regulators were held responsible, but it didn’t go any higher,” he told VOA on April 12.

“It definitely should have gone higher,” he added.

During the trial, 85 individuals were punished in addition to Lan, with sentences ranging from probation to life imprisonment. Do Thi Nhan, the head banking inspector of the State Bank of Vietnam, was given a life sentence for accepting a $5.2 million bribe to cover up SCB’s wrongdoing.

Hai in Hanoi said authorities are likely implicated in Lan’s corrupt business practices and more officials may be revealed.

“In any corruption case, they are somehow involved with authorities and government officials particularly when it comes to a very huge corruption case like this one that involves real estate and the banking sector,” Hai said.

“Maybe more investigations will be conducted. … The authorities have not yet said that it’s the end of the case,” he said.

Systemic bribery

Part of the cycle of corruption that led to Lan’s scam is the low pay of public sector workers, making them vulnerable to bribery, said Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Giang told VOA on April 17 that the monthly salary for the government’s top role of general secretary is approximately $1,000, mid-level officials make about $400, and those entering the public sector out of college do not make enough to live without accepting bribes or taking on side jobs.

“People who just start working for the state, they get about $150 a month,” Giang said. “If you get this kind of salary you cannot survive in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.”

The government is trying to address the issue by increasing public sector salaries by 30% starting July this year. Although the move shows a “strong political will,” Giang said he worries it will not be enough to stop entrenched corruption with salaries starting at such a low level.

“We have 2.5 million bureaucrats,” he said. “There’s a lot of people on the state payroll and basically when you have too many people and a very small cake it is impossible to give everyone the share that they wish to have.”

Sentence may not be carried out

Meanwhile, it may be that Lan’s death sentence will not actually be carried out, even though its imposition signals a serious government attitude toward corruption.

Ha Huy Son, the director of the Ha Son Law Company in Hanoi told VOA April 11 that he expected appellate courts would commute Lan’s death sentence.

Lan’s death sentence “conveys the message that authorities are not lenient on economic crimes incurring consequential losses,” he said, adding that Vietnamese courts “have made it a norm” that if embezzlement case defendants compensate more than three-fourths of the losses incurred, their sentences will be commuted.

In addition, he said. It can take up to 20 years for a death sentence to be carried out, and Lan is almost 70.

Le Quoc Quan, a dissident and lawyer living in exile in the U.S. state of Virginia predicted to VOA April 11 that Lan would not be put to death, saying that while the death sentence is needed “to placate public sentiment, which is boiling over corruption,” it can “also serve as a bargaining chip to force Lan to compensate.”

“Truong My Lan being alive and well is good for recovering losses. Dead Truong My Lan serves nothing,” Quan said.

Le Nguyen of VOA’s Vietnamese Service reported from Washington.
…

HONG KONG — Apple said it had removed Meta’s WhatsApp messaging app and its Threads social media app from the App Store in China to comply with orders from Chinese authorities.

The apps were removed from the store Friday after Chinese officials cited unspecified national security concerns.

Their removal comes amid elevated tensions between the U.S. and China over trade, technology and national security.

The U.S. has threatened to ban TikTok over national security concerns. But while TikTok, owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, is used by millions in the U.S., apps like WhatsApp and Threads are not commonly used in China.

Instead, the messaging app WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, reigns supreme.

Other Meta apps, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger remained available for download, although use of such foreign apps is blocked in China due to its “Great Firewall” network of filters that restrict use of foreign websites such as Google and Facebook.

“The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns,” Apple said in a statement.

“We are obligated to follow the laws in the countries where we operate, even when we disagree,” Apple said.

A spokesperson for Meta referred to “Apple for comment.”

Apple, previously the world’s top smartphone maker, recently lost the top spot to Korean rival Samsung Electronics. The U.S. firm has run into headwinds in China, one of its top three markets, with sales slumping after Chinese government agencies and employees of state-owned companies were ordered not to bring Apple devices to work.

Apple has been diversifying its manufacturing bases outside China.

Its CEO Tim Cook has been visiting Southeast Asia this week, traveling to Hanoi and Jakarta before wrapping up his travels in Singapore. On Friday he met with Singapore’s deputy prime minister, Lawrence Wong, where they “discussed the partnership between Singapore and Apple, and Apple’s continued commitment to doing business in Singapore.”

Apple pledged to invest over $250 million to expand its campus in the city-state.

Earlier this week, Cook met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi, pledging to increase spending on Vietnamese suppliers.

He also met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Cook later told reporters that they talked about Widodo’s desire to promote manufacturing in Indonesia, and said that this was something that Apple would “look at.”
…

Peshawar, Pakistan — A Pakistani province has issued a flood alert due to glacial melting and warned of heavy loss of life, officials said Saturday.

The country has witnessed days of extreme weather, which killed scores of people and destroyed property and farmland. Experts say Pakistan is experiencing heavier rains than normal in April because of climate change.

In the mountainous northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has been hit particularly hard by the deluges, authorities issued a flood alert because of the melting of glaciers in several districts.

They said the flood could worsen and that people should move to safer locations ahead of any danger.

“If timely safety measures are not taken, there is a possibility of heavy loss of life and property due to the expected flood situation,” said Muhammad Qaiser Khan, from the local disaster management authority.

Latest figures from the province said that 46 people, including 25 children, have died in the past five days due to rain-related incidents.

At least 2,875 houses and 26 schools have either collapsed or been damaged.

The southwest province of Baluchistan has also been battered by rainfall. It said it had limited resources to deal with the current situation but if the rains continued, it would look to the central government for help.

In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods also caused $30 billion in damage.

Pakistan’s monsoon season starts in June.
…

Sydney — Australian researchers have built an electrical generator that consumes carbon dioxide, generates electricity and admits no exhausts.  They say the technology could create a new industrial-scale carbon capture method.  

Scientists say too much carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the atmosphere is main driver of warming temperatures.  

Researchers at the University of Queensland have created a generator that consumes carbon dioxide and produces electricity.

The carbon-negative “nano-generator” has been built by the university’s Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation.

The prototype device uses what is known as a poly amine gel to absorb carbon dioxide to create an electrical current.  

The design team acknowledges the technology needs further development and refinement but believes it could help to significantly curb global CO2 emissions.

Zhuyuan Wang from the University of Queensland told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the concept has great potential.  

“We actually just finished the proof of concept that proves this can work but the current power density and efficiency is not high enough to compete with other energy sources, like solar panel[s], like the wind turbine,” he said.

The Queensland researchers hope their prototype could have industrial applications to help, for example, power plants reduce their emissions, as well as smaller units for use at home.

Carbon capture and storage techniques are used by the oil and gas sector to try to offset its emissions of greenhouse gases. Current methods involve harnessing CO2 produced by power companies, for example, and then burying it deep underground where it becomes trapped in rock formations. There are several large-scale CO2 burial sites in the United States.

However, the Climate Council, an Australian advocacy organization, claims that carbon capture and storage technology “has not been trialled and tested – anywhere in the world – at the scale required to tackle the climate crisis.” 

Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, states that “emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels make the largest contribution to climate change.” 

Australia is the world’s 14th highest emitter, contributing just over 1% of global emissions.  It has, however, some of the world’s highest per capita emissions.  Coal and gas generate much of Australia’s electricity, but solar and wind are leading an energy transformation. 

The Climate Council states that almost a third of Australia’s energy is renewable and will soon reach 50%.
…

Male, Maldives — The Maldives votes Sunday in a parliamentary election likely to test President Mohamed Muizzu’s tilt toward China and away from India, the luxury tourism hotspot’s traditional benefactor.

Primarily known as one of the most expensive holiday destinations in South Asia, with pristine white beaches and secluded resorts, the strategic Indian Ocean island nation has also become a geopolitical hotspot.

Global east-west shipping lanes pass the nation’s chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands, stretching around 800 kilometers (500 miles) across the equator.

Muizzu, 45, won last September’s presidential poll as a proxy for pro-China ex-President Abdulla Yameen, this week freed after a court set aside his 11-year jail term for corruption.

This month, he awarded high-profile infrastructure contracts to Chinese state-owned companies as campaigning for the parliamentary elections was in full swing.

His administration is also in the process of sending home a garrison of 89 Indian troops that operate reconnaissance aircraft gifted by New Delhi to patrol the vast maritime borders of the archipelago.

The current parliament, dominated by the pro-India Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of his immediate predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has sought to stymie his efforts to realign the archipelago’s diplomacy.

“Geopolitics is very much in the background as parties campaign for votes in Sunday’s election,” a senior aide of Muizzu told AFP, asking not to be named.

“He came to power on a promise to send back Indian troops and he is working on it. The parliament has not been cooperating with him since he came to power.” 

Since Muizzu came to office, lawmakers have blocked three of his nominees to the cabinet and refused some of his spending proposals.

Splits in all the main political parties, including Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC), are expected to make it hard for any single party to win a majority. 

But Muizzu’s prospects this week received a fillip with the release of his mentor Yameen from house arrest this week.

A court in the capital Male ordered a retrial in the graft and money laundering cases that saw Yameen sent to prison after he lost a reelection bid in 2018.

Yameen had also backed closer alignment with Beijing while in power, but his conviction left him unable to contest last year’s presidential poll on his own.

He instead put forward Muizzu as a proxy, and after leaving the High Court on Thursday, Yameen vowed to continue the running anti-India campaign that helped his ally to victory.

Around 285,000 Maldivians are eligible to vote Sunday, with results likely by early the next day. 
…

Tokyo — Two Japanese navy helicopters carrying eight crewmembers were believed to have crashed in the Pacific Ocean south of Tokyo during a night-time training exercise, and rescuers were searching for the missing, Japan’s defense minister said.

The two SH-60K choppers belonging to the Maritime Self Defense Force and carrying four crew each, lost contact late Saturday near Torishima island in the Pacific about 600 kilometers (370 miles) south of Tokyo, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters.

One of the eight crewmembers was recovered from the waters, but his or her condition was unknown. Officials were still searching for the other seven.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, Kihara said, adding that officials are prioritizing the rescue operation.

The MSDF deployed eight warships and five aircraft for the search and rescue of the missing crew. They recovered fragments believed to be from one of the SH-60Ks, Kihara said.

“We believe the helicopters have crashed,” he said.

The helicopters, twin-engine, multi-mission aircraft designed by Sikorsky and known as Seahawk, were on night-time anti-submarine training in the waters, Kihara said. One lost contact at 10:38 p.m. (1338 GMT) after sending an emergency signal. The other aircraft lost contact about 25 minutes later. One belonged to an air base in Nagasaki, and the other at a base in Tokushima prefecture.

The SH-60K aircraft is usually deployed on destroyers for anti-submarine missions.

Saturday’s training only involved the Japanese navy and was not part of a multinational exercise, defense officials said. They said no foreign aircraft or warships were spotted in the area.

Japan, under its 2022 security strategy, has been accelerating its military buildup and fortifying deterrence in the southwestern Japanese islands in the Pacific and East China Sea to counter threats from China’s increasingly assertive military activities. Japan in recent years has extensively conducted its own naval exercises as well as joint drills with its ally the United States and other partners.

Saturday’s apparent crash comes a year after a Ground Self-Defense Force UH-60 Blackhawk crashed off the southwestern Japanese island of Miyako, leaving all 10 crewmembers dead. In January 2022, an Air Self-Defense F-15 fighter jet crashed off the northcentral coast of Japan, killing two crew.

Japan’s NHK public television said no weather advisories were issued in the area at the time of Saturday’s crash.
…

Palu, Indonesia — Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism police arrested eight suspected militants in recent days believed to be part of a new cell linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked group, authorities said Saturday.

Police conducted raids in Central Sulawesi province between Tuesday and Thursday, said Agus Nugroho, the provincial police chief, adding that five suspects were arrested in the city of Palu, two in Sigi, and one in Poso which is a known extremist hotbed.

Two laptops, several cellular phones and documents, including jihadi books were seized and suspects were being interrogated, Nugroho said.

National Police spokesperson Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko said the arrests were the result of information obtained from 59 suspected militants detained in Oct. 2023.

“(The eight) all actively participate in organization activities, particularly in military-style training and collecting funds for alleged plans of terror acts,” Andiko told reporters at the National Police headquarters in the capital, Jakarta. He added that convicted leaders of the group and veteran fighters in Afghanistan were recruiting and training new members.

Jemaah Islamiyah is responsible for several attacks inside Indonesia, namely, the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. A court banned the group in 2008 and constant counterterrorism crackdowns, supported by the United States and Australia, have weakened it further.

Last year, police arrested a total of 142 suspected militants, including four women, and fatally shot two others on southern Sumatra island.

Militant attacks on foreigners in Indonesia have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces, and people militants consider to be infidels, inspired by Islamic State group tactics abroad.
…

Islamabad — “I have a sword hanging over my head,” says journalist Asad Ali Toor. A vocal critic of Pakistan’s state institutions, Toor was arrested February 26 for, among other charges, running a malicious campaign against government officials. He has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail, awaiting trial.

As Pakistan enters a third month of suspension of social media platform X — formerly Twitter — Toor, with nearly 300,000 followers, said disrupting access to the platform is an embarrassment for the state. 

“What it has contributed, except controversy and embarrassment to the state of Pakistan, that we are a nuclear armed country, and we are threatened by a social media app? Toor said.

X went down on February 17 in Pakistan, hours after a high-level government official, who later walked back his claim, declared he was involved in large-scale vote manipulation. Pakistan held general elections on February 8, but the results were marred by wide-spread allegations of rigging.

On Wednesday April 17, when Pakistan marked two months of disruption in services, the Interior Ministry told the Islamabad High Court it sought the suspension of X based on information from intelligence agencies. 

“The decision to impose a ban on Twitter/X in Pakistan was made in the interest of upholding national security, maintaining public order, and preserving the integrity of our nation,” the ministry’s report to the court stated.

In March, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or PTA, an independent regulator, revealed to the Sindh High Court that it shut down the platform at the request of the interior ministry. Until then, government officials had denied any ban on the use of X, citing the lack of formal notice.  

Pakistanis, including government ministers, have been using X through virtual private networks, or VPNs, raising questions about the practical value of the suspension. Access to the platform is often restored temporarily, causing confusion about the status of the ban. 

Criticism vs. fake news

In recent years, Pakistani authorities have blamed social media for an alleged rise in the spread of fake news, and anti-state propaganda. 

Since May 9, 2023, when former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s supporters stormed military installations to protest his arrest, the government and the military have lashed out at social media more frequently.

X is a politically active platform in Pakistan, despite a small user base. There, Khan’s diehard supporters and others openly call out the state-backed crackdown on the former prime minister’s political party and criticize the military’s alleged interference in civilian matters.

Toor criticized Pakistan’s top court on social media after it upheld a decision in January to deprive Khan’s party of its electoral symbol, and he says the state labels any news reporting against the establishment as fake news.  

“What is the fake news? When people talk about the election? Which everybody says is a very controversial election. You start calling it fake news,” Toor said. “When anybody reports against the establishment, you call it fake news.”

Amber Rahim Shamsi, director of the Karachi-based Center for Excellence in Journalism, said there is some truth to the Pakistani government’s claims of a rise in the spread of misinformation. 

Shamsi’s team runs a fact-checking platform called iVerify and recorded spikes in misinformation claims in the lead-up to the February 8 poll. But suspending X, she said, hurts rather than helps. 

“It is also hindering the ability of journalists and independent fact checkers to, you know, monitor, trace and correct disinformation, misinformation,” Shamsi said. She is also part of a group of four petitioners challenging the suspension of X in the Sindh High Court.

Most of the false information, she said, is shared via Whatsapp, a popular private messaging app owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta. 

Platform vs. user

Justifying the suspension of X, Pakistan’s interior ministry told the high court the platform was not registered locally as a company and ignored requests by the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency to remove content maligning the chief justice of Pakistan.

Haroon Baloch, a senior program manager at Bytes for All, a Pakistani think-tank that focuses on information and communication technologies, told VOA that requirement written into the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (2016) is an attempt to influence a company and gain access to users’ data.   

“They [Pakistani authorities] wanted data of Pakistani social media users to be housed or hosted through Pakistan and not be hosted outside Pakistan,” Baloch explained. 

X’s response

After staying silent on the suspension, X’s Global Government Affairs account finally posted a brief statement Thursday.

“We continue to work with Pakistani Government to understand concerns,” it said.

Baloch said that for media freedom workers, engaging with X to seek support is almost impossible.

“Before [Elon] Musk took over, a team in Singapore was accessible but now there’s no team looking into human rights or policy,” he said.

Last year in March, Musk famously tweeted that emails to Twitter’s press team will automatically get the poop emoji as a response.

Bytes for All research indicates the global content hosting company Akamai may be helping Pakistan implement the ban by rejecting requests from users to connect to X.

VOA asked Akamai if Pakistani authorities had requested help to block users. The company said via email that it was “currently not aware of any such requests.”

Pakistan’s plan

Responding to VOA while interacting with media, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said it was the government’s prerogative to take actions “in the best interest of Pakistan.”   

“Surely, the country will take its own decision in the light of different reasons, which were the basis of — you know — putting it off [suspending it],” he said.

Taking an apparent swipe at Washington’s efforts to ban TikTok unless it cut ties with its Chinese parent company, Dar said “may I ask those countries that they also have put [a] ban on certain apps … so, one country is OK, and Twitter banned in Pakistan is not OK?” 

The Sindh High Court gave the interior ministry a week from April 16 to rescind its letter to suspend X.

Shamsi is not hopeful access will be fully restored soon but said her petition has already had an important victory.

“We have been able to extract information from relevant ministries that the basis of the ban is a letter from the Ministry of Interior, and this was not information publicly available,” she said.

That revelation worries Baloch about the independence of the PTA.

“We can see it’s a clear influence on the regulator,” he said.

Both Shamsi and Toor say they believe the ban is driven by the Pakistani state’s aversion to dissent. They say it is a sign the state is failing to present a strong counter-narrative.

“[The] answer of fake news is not banning any platform,” Toor said as he braces for a possibly prolonged legal battle. “Answer [to] fake news is more credible news.”
…

Islamabad — Pakistan criticized the United States on Saturday for penalizing four international companies on charges they are aiding its ballistic missile program.

“Pakistan rejects political use of export controls,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.

The reaction came a day after Washington imposed sanctions on three Chinese companies and one Belarus-based firm for their alleged links to Islamabad’s missile development program.

“These entities have supplied missile‐applicable items to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, including its long-range missile program,” the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

It noted that the sanctions are part of U.S. efforts to disrupt and target “proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery” and strengthen the global nonproliferation “regime.”

“Such listings of commercial entities have taken place in the past as well on allegations of links to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program without sharing any evidence whatsoever,” Baloch said.

“We have pointed out many times the need to avoid (the) arbitrary application of export controls and for discussions between concerned parties for an objective mechanism to avoid erroneous sanctions on (the) technology needed purely for socio-economic development pursuits,” she added.

Baloch renewed Islamabad’s readiness to discuss “end-use and end-user verification mechanisms so that legitimate commercial users are not hurt by discriminatory application of export controls.

She asserted that Pakistan has in the past come across instances where mere suspicions led to the blacklisting of foreign companies.

The U.S. identified the alleged suppliers to Islamabad’s ballistic missile program as China-based Xi’an Longde Technology Development Company Limited, Tianjin Creative Source International Trade Co. Ltd., Granpect Company Limited, and Belarus-based Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.

Under the U.S. executive order, all assets, properties, and interests in properties of the sanctioned companies located within the United States or controlled by U.S. citizens must be blocked and reported to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC.

The listing makes it illegal for any individual or entity within the United States, or any U.S. citizen to engage in any transactions involving property or interests in property of designated or blocked companies unless authorized by a specific or general license issued by OFAC or exempted.

Without naming the U.S. or any other country, Baloch stated that “the same jurisdictions” claiming “strict adherence” to the nonproliferation of weapons and military technologies would sometimes make exceptions “for some countries” and have even waived licensing requirements to help them obtain advanced military equipment.

“Such discriminatory approaches and double standards are undermining the credibility of nonproliferation regimes and accentuating military asymmetries, which, in turn, undermine the objectives of regional and global peace and security,” she said. “This is leading to arms buildup (in the region).”

Baloch was apparently referring to Washington’s close military and nuclear cooperation with Pakistan’s archrival India. The nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors have fought three wars, and their decades-old territorial dispute over the divided Kashmir region remains the primary source of mutual tensions.
…

BEIJING — Russia remained China’s top oil supplier in March, data showed Saturday, as refiners snapped up stranded Sokol crude shipments.  

China’s imports from Russia, including supplies via pipelines and sea-borne shipments, jumped 12.5% on the year to 10.81 million metric tons, or 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.  

That was quite close to the previous monthly record of 2.56 million bpd in June 2023.  

Seven Russian tankers under sanctions offloaded Sokol cargoes in Chinese ports in March, as Russia worked to clear a glut of stranded supply in the wake of tightened U.S. sanctions.  

More than 10 million barrels of the oil supplied by Sakhalin-1, a unit of Rosneft, had been floating in storage over the past three months amid payment difficulties and sanctions on shipping firms and vessels carrying the crude.

Stockpiling of Russian crude for storage in strategic reserves by state-owned CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation) also boosted imports from Russia.  

Data from consultancy Kpler, forecast sea-borne shipments from Russia hitting a record high of 1.82 million bpd, including 440,000 bpd of Sokol and 967,000 of ESPO (Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean) oil pipeline.

Russia was China’s top supplier throughout 2023, shipping 2.14 million bpd despite Western sanctions and a price cap following the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.  

In coordination with other OPEC+ members, Russia opted to roll forward a voluntary reduction in crude oil output of 300,000 bpd into the first quarter of the year to support energy prices.

Imports from Saudi Arabia, previously China’s largest supplier, totaled 6.3 million tons in March, or 1.48 million bpd, down 29.3% on the same period last year.  

Riyadh has said it would extend its voluntary cut of 1 million bpd through the end of June, leaving its output at around 9 million bpd.  

The world’s top exporter kept the March official selling price of its flagship Arab Light to Asia at $1.50 over the Oman/Dubai average as the Kingdom sought to secure market share.  

January-March imports from Malaysia, a trans-shipment point for sanctioned cargoes from Iran and Venezuela, soared 39.2% on the year to 13.7 million tons, or 3.23 million bpd.

The data showed 375,296 tons of imports from Venezuela, following a rare shipment of 352,455 tons of Venezuelan crude in February amid a temporary relaxation of U.S. sanctions on Caracas. Sanctions were re-imposed from Thursday after the U.S. said President Nicolas Maduro had failed to meet his election commitments.

Customs recorded no imports from Iran. 
…

BANGKOK — About 1,300 people have fled from eastern Myanmar into Thailand, officials said Saturday, as fresh fighting erupted at a border town that has recently been captured by ethnic guerillas.

Fighters from the Karen ethnic minority last week captured the last of the Myanmar army’s outposts in and around Myawaddy, which is connected to Thailand by two bridges across the Moei River.

The latest clashes were triggered in the morning when the Karen guerillas launched an attack against Myanmar troops who were hiding near the 2nd Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, a major crossing point for trade with Thailand, said police chief Pittayakorn Phetcharat in Thailand’s Mae Sot district. He estimated about 1,300 people fled into Thailand.

Thai officials reported people had started crossing since Friday following clashes in several areas of Myawaddy.

The fall of Myawaddy is a major setback for the military that seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021. Myanmar’s once-mighty armed forces have suffered a series of unprecedented defeats since last October, losing swathes of territory including border posts to both ethnic fighters, who have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades, and pro-democracy guerrilla units that took up arms after the military takeover.

The clashes, involving drone attacks from the Karen forces and airstrikes by the Myanmar military, had subsided by noon Saturday compared to the morning, but Mae Sot police chief Pittayakorn Phetcharat said he could still hear sporadic gunshots. He said Thai authorities would move people fleeing into a safer area.

Footage from the Thai border showed Thai soldiers maintaining guard near the bridge with sounds of explosions and gunshots in the background. People with children waded across the river with their belongings and were received by Thai officials on the riverbank. Several are seen taking shelter in buildings along the riverbank on the Myanmar side.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday that he was closely monitoring the situation at the border.

“I do not desire to see any such clashes have any impact on the territorial integrity of Thailand and we are ready to protect our borders and the safety of our people. At the same time, we are also ready to provide humanitarian assistance, if necessary,” he wrote.

In March, Thailand delivered its first batch of humanitarian assistance to Myanmar for about 20,000 displaced people.

Nikorndej Balangura, a spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told reporters on Friday that Thailand is currently working to expand its aid initiative.
…

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Saturday it tested a “super-large” cruise missile warhead and a new anti-aircraft missile in a western coastal area as it expands military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and South Korea.

North Korean state media said the country’s missile administration on Friday conducted a “power test” for the warhead designed for the Hwasal-1 Ra-3 strategic cruise missile and a test-launch of the Pyoljji-1-2 anti-aircraft missile. It said the tests attained an unspecified “certain goal.”

Photos released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency showed at least two missiles being fired off launcher trucks at a runway.

North Korea conducted a similar set of tests February 2, but at the time did not specify the names of the cruise missile or the anti-aircraft missile, indicating it was possibly seeing technological progress after testing the same system over weeks.

KCNA insisted Friday’s tests were part of the North’s regular military development activities and had nothing to do with the “surrounding situation.”

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dialing up his weapons demonstrations, which have included more powerful missiles aimed at the U.S. mainland and U.S. targets in the Pacific. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by expanding their combined military training and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.

Cruise missiles are among a growing collection of North Korean weapons designed to overwhelm regional missile defenses. They supplement the North’s vast lineup of ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed at the continental United States.

Analysts say anti-aircraft missile technology is an area where North Korea could benefit from its deepening military cooperation with Russia, as the two countries align in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the U.S. The United States and South Korea have accused North Korea of providing artillery shells and other equipment to Russia to help extend its war in Ukraine.
…

Osaka, Japan — Wider access to abortion in Japan has largely remained elusive a year after the historic approval of medical abortion pills.

In April last year, lawmakers approved the use of the two-step abortion pill — MeFeego Pack — for pregnancies up to nine weeks. Before that, women in the East Asian nation could only receive a surgical abortion in private clinics by designated surgeons that often charge as much as $370.

Financial strain aside, women were often required to provide proof of spousal consent to receive an abortion, making it nearly impossible for them to make the decision on their own. Reports showed that even for single women, doctors still asked for permission of a male partner before agreeing to perform such surgeries.

Despite the approval of the abortion pill, only 3% of all clinics with abortion services in Japan provide them a year after the pill’s approval, according to Kumi Tsukahara, independent researcher of reproductive health and rights, “and none of them have a Maternal Body Protection Law (MBPL) designated doctor,” Tsukahara told VOA News.

Under the MBPL, the controversial requirement for spousal consent before a doctor can prescribe oral abortion medication still exists — it’s the same condition for gaining permission for a surgical abortion.

“Unfortunately, there are no signs of change with regard to either,” the expert said.

In contrast to countries with better abortion access, Japan’s approved abortion pills cannot be administered more than once — sometimes, multiple tries are necessary — and the pregnant women will still need to resort to surgical abortion that involves a serious risk to their health.

Since such surgeries are only allowed in private clinics and are considered profitable by designated doctors, they often charge the same price or higher for abortion pills as for a surgical abortion. Neither measure is covered by Japan’s national health system.

“The high prices and low affordability depending on individual doctors, the inaccurate information given by doctors who cannot use drugs to guide people to conventional surgical procedures, the unjust situation and the state’s failure to respond, and the women are disempowered to have a sense of entitlement on their part,” Tsukahara explained.

Abortion rights activist Kazuko Fukuda, who spearheads a grassroots movement to push for women’s rights to end pregnancies in Japan, echoed the sentiment.

“The abortion rights [in Japan] didn’t improve,” Fukuda told VOA News. “Of course, this [approval of oral abortion] was better than nothing, but conservative politicians went against such pills before the approval. … It’s mandated that women have to stay in hospitals that provide beds until the end of the abortion, but designated private clinics don’t usually have beds.”

Women in Japan are banned from taking abortion pills at home. They must be in hospitals and take the pills in front of the doctors as authorities fear that they might resell them. If violated, these women can be subject to imprisonment for up to a year.

Male-dominated political scene

Abortion is still a big taboo in politics, and real rights improvement will go a long way, Fukuda added.

“News of women being arrested for giving birth alone and abandoning them is still very common — we hear that just a few days ago. … The government should repeal the criminalization of abortion. [Things don’t work] as doctors are still afraid of being sued so they require signatures from boyfriends to prescribe abortion pills.”

Last year, Japan started a study, selling morning-after pills over the counter without prescription. However, the study suffers limited availability in many cities. Girls under 15 are not allowed to purchase them, and those ages 16 to 18 must be accompanied by a parent to buy the pills.

Both experts VOA spoke with say that the information and availability of these contraceptive pills doesn’t appear high in online searches — the usual method for the targeted group to look for contraception.

Japan ranked among the lowest of developed countries in a March report this year by the World Bank in terms of women’s rights.

Currently, women account for less than 10% in Japan’s lower house of parliament and 27% in the upper house. In local politics, only 15% of women are on the front line. The gender pay gap in Japan reached 40%, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Women’s issues like abortion access or contraceptive measures are often not viewed as priorities for female politicians.

“In the male-dominated politics, a lot of women have to become more conservative and look strong to be accepted so it’s really hard for women to liberal or supportive in this kind of thing [abortion and contraception in the parliament],” Fukuda said.

Women blamed for low fertility rate

Social stigma connected to abortion remains strong as Japan blames women for its low fertility rate. The country hit a record low number of births last year.

“The Japanese government has attributed the ‘decreasing number [fertility rate] to ‘women who don’t give birth,’ women are made to feel socially guilty for trying to choose not to give birth. Of course, such an issue construction is itself highly biased and misogynistic,” said researcher Tsukahara.

Fukuda said that the government’s support of favorable reproductive policies stops with women who don’t want babies.

“Anything against that [wanting babies] is not supported at all. Many people think that ‘contraception’ is a taboo and even taking [morning after] pills can expose to judgment as a promiscuous woman. It’s not easy for women to talk about it.”
…