Gaza ceasefire plan hangs in balance as Hamas seeks changes - CNA

DOHA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday (Jun 12) that Hamas had proposed numerous changes, some unworkable, to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, but that mediators were determined to close the gaps.

The proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden envisages a truce and a phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.

At a press conference with Qatar's prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from the militant group administering Gaza had sought to amend terms that it had accepted in previous talks.

Negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar have tried for months to mediate a ceasefire in the conflict - which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated the enclave - and free the hostages, more than 100 of whom are believed to remain captive in Gaza.

"Hamas could have answered with a single word: Yes," Blinken said.

"Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted."

The US has said Israel has accepted its proposal, but Israel has not publicly stated this.

Izzat al-Rishq from Hamas' political bureau said its formal response to the US proposal was "responsible, serious and positive" and "opens up a wide pathway" for an accord.

Hamas also wants written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan, two Egyptian security sources said.

Blinken said Washington would in coming weeks put forward proposals for the post-war administration and rebuilding of Gaza: "We have to have plans for the day after the conflict ends in Gaza, and we need to have them as soon as possible."

Major powers are intensifying efforts to halt the conflict in part to prevent it spiralling into a regional war, with a dangerous flashpoint being the escalating hostilities on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, backed by Iran, fired barrages of rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander. Israel said it had in turn attacked the launch sites from the air.

Taleb Abdallah, or Abu Taleb, was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed in the conflict, a security source said, and Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine vowed that the group would expand its operations against Israel.

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2024-06-12 11:07:00Z
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Chinese universities clamp down on AI-generated content, as record graduation season starts - CNA

Polls suggest the use of AI tools is common among Chinese university students. A November 2023 survey by state youth newspaper China Youth Daily showed that nearly 85 per cent of the 7,000-plus respondents have used AI tools. 

Mr Zhang Hang, a student from Jinan University told the newspaper that he had used an AI tool to summarise an English text to Chinese. 

He said he had used translation software to “speed up” his readings in English, but found that the translations provided did not “flow smoothly”, China Youth Daily reported. 

As more universities take steps to weed out AI-generated content, some students are even resorting to AI tools to ensure their writing clears the checks, according to a report by Sixth Tone.

The online news site also reported that on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu, there were more than 10,000 posts sharing tips on reducing “AI detection rates”.

There were also services to lower AI detection rates on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao. 

In August last year, state broadcaster CCTV reported that a draft law on academic degrees submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress included a ban on using AI to write dissertations. 

The law, which was adopted on Apr 26, did not include mention of a ban on using AI to write dissertations.

Under it, an academic degree will be withheld or revoked if the recipient’s dissertation involves academic misconduct such as ghostwriting, plagiarism or falsification. 

The law will take effect from Jan 1, 2025, according to state news agency Xinhua.

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2024-06-12 10:23:46Z
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Man charged with paying children to drink at ordination - Bangkok Post

PUBLISHED : 12 Jun 2024 at 13:11

Jetsada Phongphatthanaporn, 26, behind the partition wall, surrenders to police at Nong Bunmak police station in Nakhon Ratchasima on Tuesday. He was charged over paying two 13-year-olds to drink alcohol at an ordination ceremony on Sunday. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A man who admitted paying a 13-year-old girl to guzzle alcohol at an ordination ceremony, leading to her collapsing into a coma, has surrendered to police to face charges.

Pol Col Thanaphat Phet-arun, chief of Nong Bunmak police station, said on Wednesday that Jetsada Phongphatthanaporn, 26, of Pak Thongchai district of Nakhon Ratchasima, turned himself in on Tuesday afternoon.

He admitted being the person seen in a video paying money to two 13-year-olds, a boy and a girl, at the ordination ceremony on Sunday.

Jetsada claimed that the girl and the boy had first offered to drink liquor in exchange for money. He said he had no intention of asking them to drink an entire bottle.

Police have charged him under child protection legislation provisions outlawing forcing, persuading or enticing children into behaving inappropriately, hiring children to work or act in a way that may be harmful to the body and selling or giving alcohol or cigarettes to children.

The offences carry a jail term of up to 3 months and/or fine up to 30,000 baht under the Child Protection Act. He was released after reporting to police.

Pol Col Thanaphat said more witnesses would be questioned. As most were children, child protection officials would also be present. 

On Sunday, the girl collapsed unconscious after downing the half-bottle of liquor. She was rushed to Nong Bunmak Hospital then transferred to Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital where she was admitted to the intensive care unit.

A video taken by a local resident showed men forming a circle and cheering on the girl and the boy as they raised their bottles and gulped down the liquor.

The girl’s grandmother Oui Krapheenok, 72, said on Wednesday that her granddaughter was now out of danger and had regained consciousness. She could sit up in a wheelchair and interact with people, but her voice was still hoarse.

Picharn Trapakwaen, chief of Nong Bunmak district, on Wednesday held a meeting to discuss measures to help the girl’s family, after he visited the family at Mitsamphan village on Tuesday. The family is poor with 13 members, six aged between one year and 16. Two adults had underlying illnesses and were unable to help themselves, he said.

The family relied on money sent by the parents of those children each month, and state allowances for the elderly.

Aside from assistance for the girl's family, local authorities would launch a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of drinking alcohol. Sales of cigarettes to children and alcohol consumption at schools and temples, particularly during ordination or funeral ceremonies, were illegal and the ban must be enforced, the district chief said.

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2024-06-12 06:11:00Z
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World Bank cuts Myanmar's growth forecast to 1% as conflict worsens - CNA

Economic growth in conflict-torn Myanmar will be around 1 per cent for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the World Bank said on Wednesday (Jun 12), as escalating violence, labour shortages and a depreciating currency make it harder to do business.

In December, the World Bank had projected Myanmar's economy would grow by around 2 per cent during the period, after estimated GDP growth of 1 per cent in the fiscal year that ended in March 2024.

"The downward revision in projected growth for FY2024/25 is largely due to the persistence of high inflation and constraints on access to labour, foreign exchange, and electricity, all of which are likely to have larger impacts on activity than was previously expected," the World Bank said in a report.

The Southeast Asian country of about 55 million people has been in political and economic turmoil since a 2021 coup when the military ousted an elected civilian government, ending a decade of tentative democratic and economic reform.

Faced with a widening armed resistance against its rule, Myanmar's junta earlier this year announced a conscription plan to replenish its depleted military manpower.

"The announcement of mandated conscription in February 2024 has intensified migration to rural areas and abroad, leading to increased reports of labour shortages in some industries," the World Bank said.

The junta has also lost access to some key land borders with China and Thailand, leading to a sharp drop in overland trade.

"Excluding natural gas, exports through land borders declined by 44 per cent," the World Bank said. "Imports via land borders declined by half, accounting for 71 per cent of the decline in overall imports."

Overall, merchandise exports fell by 13 per cent and imports dropped by 20 per cent in the six months to March 2024, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the World Bank.

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2024-06-12 03:16:40Z
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CNA Correspondent Podcast: Journey to the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea - CNA

Here's an excerpt from the podcast:

Teresa Tang: 

What I found really interesting in your TV report was that when you were out on the water, you actually saw these orange buoys in the distance and written on them was a Filipino phrase that you said translates into “This is ours”, which is hugely symbolic. On the water, did you encounter any problems? You know what happened when you approach the shoal?  

Buena Bernal:

So 40 nautical miles from shore, two China coast guard vessels already started shadowing our convoy. By this time, the 100 small wooden boats weren't with us anymore ... And I talked to experts after that trip, because 40 nautical miles from shore, that's well within the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone of a country, and those are distances that are set by the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea that sets the belt of sea that a country can claim based on distance from its shore.

And they told me that based on their monitoring that Chinese vessels that are surveilling the West Philippine Sea, which is how the Philippines calls its maritime zone in the larger South China Sea, are coming closer and closer to shore. They're seeing that China is moving their goalposts each time. It started in 1996 with West Philippine Sea with China seizing Mischief Reef, 2012, China's seizing the inner lagoon of Scarborough Shoal.

And now the issue is becoming Sabina Shoal, which is the closest major maritime feature in the West Philippine Sea to the island of Palawan. And so what you're really seeing here, according to academics that I've spoke to is China's quote unquote, constructive occupation of the West Philippine Sea.

And it's trying to normalise, the academics are saying, that movement of its goalpost. And so efforts like this, where civilians are trying to go to these maritime features ... or this is our civilian mission that I joined, there have been medical missions to Spratly Islands, at least to the Philippine occupied islands there, there was a tour boat, a tour yacht that went again to the Spratly Islands that I joined last year.

So all these efforts to "civilianised" the area, they say, is basically a defiance of, or a challenge to growing Chinese constructive occupation of the West Philippine Sea, or what they say is China's militarisation of that area.

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2024-06-11 23:18:44Z
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US President's son, Hunter Biden, lied about drug use to buy gun, jury finds - The Straits Times

Hunter Biden is still facing three felony and six misdemeanour tax offences in California. PHOTO: NYTIMES

WILMINGTON, Delaware – President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden was convicted by a jury on June 11 of lying about his drug use to illegally buy a gun, making him the first child of a sitting US president to be convicted of a crime.

A 12-member jury in Wilmington, Delaware - the Bidens’ hometown - found the defendant guilty on all three counts against him.

Hunter Biden, 54, lightly nodded his head after the verdict was read but otherwise showed little reaction. He then patted his lawyer Abbe Lowell on the back and hugged another member of his legal team.

Mr Lowell said in a statement they would “vigorously pursue all the legal challenges available to Hunter.”

Hunter Biden still faces a separate tax case in California.

The trial took place against the background of a Nov 5 election pitting Democrat Joe Biden against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, who was himself found guilty at a landmark New York state trial in May.

After about three hours of deliberation, the jurors found Hunter Biden falsely claimed to be free of illegal drugs when he filled out a government screening document for a Colt Cobra revolver in 2018 and then illegally possessed the weapon.

In a statement Hunter Biden said he was more grateful for the love and support he had received than he was disappointed by the guilty verdict. He said he was “blessed” to experience the gift of recovery “one day at a time.”

US District Judge Maryellen Noreika set no date for sentencing, but added it would usually be within 120 days. That would place it no later than about a month before the Nov 5 US presidential election.

President Joe Biden issued a statement saying he accepted the outcome of the case and would respect the judicial process as his son considers an appeal.

Some 61 per cent of registered voters responding to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in February said Hunter Biden’s legal troubles would have no impact on whether they voted for his father in November. The poll showed voters divided over whether Hunter Biden’s legal troubles were related to his father’s service as president.

Sentencing guidelines for the gun charges are 15 to 21 months, but legal experts say defendants in similar cases often get shorter sentences and are less likely to be incarcerated if they abide by the terms of their pretrial release.

In an audio interview with CNN, a juror identified only as No. 10, said: “In deliberating, we were not thinking of the sentencing and I really don’t think that Hunter belongs in jail.”

The juror said: “No politics came into play and politics was not even spoken about. The first family was not even spoken about. It was all about Hunter.”

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Hunter Biden’s daughter testifies at his criminal gun trial

Focus on tight White House race

The trial followed the May 30 criminal conviction of Donald Trump, the first US president to be found guilty of a felony.

Trump, convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal, has claimed without evidence that the multiple criminal prosecutions he faces have been orchestrated by Joe Biden in a bid to block his reelection.

On June 11, Trump’s campaign showed no signs of changing its tack.

“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Congressional Democrats had pointed to the Hunter Biden trial, as well as ongoing federal prosecutions of two Democratic members of Congress, as evidence that President Biden was not using the legal system for partisan ends.

The president himself said last week he would not pardon his son if convicted.

The Delaware trial included prosecution testimony by Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, former girlfriend and sister-in-law, who gave firsthand accounts of his spiraling addiction in the weeks before and after he bought the gun.

Prosecutors also showed text messages, photos and bank records that they said showed Biden was deep in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and knowingly broke the law by answering “no” to being a drug user on a government screening form.

Biden’s lawyers sought to show he was not using drugs when he bought the gun and did not intend to deceive because he didn’t consider himself a drug user when he filled out the form.

The defence called Hunter Biden’s daughter, Naomi Biden, who testified that her father seemed to be doing well when she saw him shortly before and after he bought the gun.

The Hunter Biden case was brought by US Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss, a Trump appointee.

At a press conference afterwards, Mr Weiss said the case was not just about addiction but also about the illegal choices Hunter Biden made while in the throes of addiction.

“His choice to lie on a government form when he bought a gun, and the choice to then possess that gun. It was these choices, and the combination of guns and drugs, that made his conduct dangerous,” Mr Weiss said.

Mr Weiss has also charged Hunter Biden with three felony and six misdemeanour tax offences in California, alleging he failed to pay US$1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 while spending millions on drugs, escorts, exotic cars and other high-ticket items.

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to those charges. A trial is scheduled for Sept 5 in Los Angeles. REUTERS

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Hunter Biden’s former partners describe toll of his drug abuse

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2024-06-11 15:20:33Z
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JB-S'pore RTS Link project reports steady progress, nears 80% completion - The Star Online

JOHOR BARU: The construction of the Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project between Johor Baru and Singapore is progressing as scheduled, reaching 77.61% completion as of May 31.

Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) said that the maintenance depot, a key part of the railway infrastructure located in Wadi Hana, has achieved 82.14% progress and is set for system installation by the end of the year.

"Currently, the track level floor, architectural, mechanical, and electrical works, as well as external works, are progressing well.

"The platform for Bukit Chagar Station will be ready for system access by the end of the year, with current progress at 71.16% following the completion of U-shell beams above the KTMB tracks," it said in a statement on Tuesday (June 11).

MRT Corp added that the current focus is on constructing the station floors.

"All pier columns along Jalan Tun Abdul Razak and Jalan Ismail Sultan have been installed.

"With more than half of the guideway spans connecting the pier columns along the alignment completed, progress now stands at 65% and is on track for completion by the end of the year.

"Meanwhile, all marine pier columns have been erected and installation works for the guideway spans connecting the columns are underway.

"This brings the progress of overall construction of the marine section to 74.76%, and we anticipate full completion by the end of November 2024.

"Construction of the marine section includes a navigation channel between designated piers, measuring 75m wide and 25m high, to allow boats and barges to pass through.

"With all areas progressing as planned, the operator of the RTS Link, RTS Operations Systems Pte Ltd (RTSO), will have access by the end of this year to carry out system installation works," it added.

The RTS Link is a 4km light rail transit shuttle service between Bukit Chagar Station in Johor Baru and Woodlands North Station in Singapore.

The link has a capacity of 10,000 passengers per hour per direction and is expected to relieve congestion at the Johor-Malaysia Causeway, currently the world’s busiest border crossing.

The Malaysian portion of infrastructure works, which includes the construction of the station, depot, and 2.7km of land and marine viaducts, is being handled by MRT Corp subsidiary Malaysia Rapid Transit System Sdn Bhd, as the Malaysian Infrastructure Company (InfraCo).

"Since construction began, MRT Corp, alongside related federal and state government agencies, has ensured regular updates on the RTS Link project, underscoring our commitment to transparency and keeping the public well-informed about the progress and milestones of this crucial infrastructure project," it said.

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2024-06-11 13:18:00Z
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