Friday, 11 April 2025

Author: AFP

Man City’s fresh faces offer hope of miracle

MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has downplayed his team’s chances of advancing to the Champions League last 16 against Real Madrid, saying they have just a “one per cent chance” of progress.  City suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in the first leg at home after squandering a late 2-1

Pontiff watches mass from hospital bed

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, 88, followed Sunday mass and his Angelus prayer on television from a Rome hospital, where he is being treated for bronchitis. Admitted to Gemelli hospital on Friday, the pope remains in stable condition, the Vatican said.  He received the Eucharist and alternated between reading and resting. 

Taliban diplomacy goes East

KABUL: A Taliban government delegation arrived in Japan yesterday for a rare diplomatic visit outside the region, marking its first official trip to the country. The delegation, which left Kabul on Saturday, includes officials from the ministries of higher education, foreign affairs, and economy. The visit is expected to last

The smartest AI on Earth

WASHINGTON: Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, has unveiled its Grok 3 chatbot yesterday, calling it the “smartest AI on Earth” in an increasingly competitive market. Musk announced the release on X, saying the AI — trained on synthetic data — can refine its reasoning by reviewing errors for logical consistency. 

Corruption is Indonesia’s biggest disease

JAKARTA: President Prabowo Subianto has called corruption Indonesia’s “biggest disease,” blaming it for the country’s declining performance across all sectors. Speaking via video at the 2025 World Governments Summit in Dubai, Prabowo responded to Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, who questioned how corruption has weakened education, research, and innovation in Indonesia.

$480 mln fraudster on the run

BANGKOK: Thai prosecutors on Friday formally indicted Boon Vanasin, the 86-year-old former chairman of Thonburi Healthcare Group (THG), for loan fraud totalling 16 billion baht ($480 million). Boon, who fled Thailand, is accused of running a decade-long scheme that defrauded numerous individuals, according to the attorney-general’s office.  Authorities have requested an

World’s oldest panda Eimei dies

SHANGHAI: A Chinese giant panda research centre announced on Friday that Eimei, repatriated from Japan in 2023, passed away in late January at the age of 32—equivalent to 100 human years, reported Kyodo. Eimei, who fathered 16 cubs at a zoo in western Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture and was recognised as

ESA approves first ‘parastronaut’

PARIS: British surgeon and former Paralympian John McFall has been medically cleared for a mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), making him the first astronaut with a physical disability to reach this milestone, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Friday. McFall, 43, lost a leg in a motorbike accident

Korean automakers could take a hit

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will unveil tariffs on imported cars on April 2, a move that could hit South Korea’s auto industry, Yonhap reported. Trump, who has used tariffs to shrink the trade deficit and boost domestic manufacturing, hinted at the announcement during a meeting.  “We’re going to do

Four dead in fire in S. Korean port city

SEOUL: Four people have died and four more were injured in a fire in South Korea’s southern port city of Busan yesterday, the National Fire Agency said. The fire started just before 11 am (local time) at a construction site at the Banyan Tree Hotel, authorities said. Around 10 workers