Tech billionaire Elon Musk launched Sunday his Starlink service on Indonesia's resort island of Bali as the country aims to extend internet to its remote areas. Millions of people in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, are not currently hooked up to reliable internet services. Musk, making his first visit to the Southeast Asian nation, inaugurated the satellite unit services at a clinic in Bali's capital Denpasar on Sunday afternoon. He also signed an agreement o

BEIJING — Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day visit to China on Friday, emphasizing the countries’ burgeoning strategic ties as well as his own personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they sought to present an alternative to US global influence. Putin praised the growth in bilateral trade while touring a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin. He met students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, known for its defense research and its

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Friday its troops in Gaza found the bodies of three Israeli hostages killed by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack, including German-Israeli Shani Louk. A photo of 22-year-old Louk's twisted body in the back of a pickup truck ricocheted around the world and brought to light the scale of the militants’ attack on communities in southern Israel. The military identified the other two bodies as those of a 28-year-old woman, Amit Buskila, and a 56-year

One in three 11-year-olds in England has tried alcohol (34 percent of girls, 35 percent of boys), according to a World Health Organization report, which warned it is a “serious public health threat” to the country. The organization examined data from 280,000 children aged 11, 13, and 15 from 44 countries, and the England topped the list of child alcohol use. Romania, Slovenia and Greece also placed high on the list. Even worse for the England, by the time children reach 13 years

SINGAPORE -- Singapore was to inaugurate Lawrence Wong on Wednesday as its new prime minister and fourth leader since independence six decades ago, completing a carefully calibrated power transfer designed to guarantee continuity in the wealthy city-state. Wong, 51, comes from among a crop of so-called "4G" leaders, a new generation of politicians hand-picked by the long-ruling People's Action Party to take over the reins of the key Asian trade and financial center. Wong will retain hi

US President Joe Biden plans to quadruple tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and hike duties for solar cells, semiconductors and other "strategic" sectors, the White House said Tuesday, as he is revving up his reelection campaign. The Biden administration announced a new package of tariff increases, casting it as an endeavor to protect American workers and businesses from what it calls China's unfair trade practices, and accusing China of flooding global markets with "artif

SAN FRANCISCO -- OpenAI on Monday released a higher performing and even more human-like version of the artificial intelligence technology that underpins its popular generative tool ChatGPT, making it free to all users. The update to OpenAI's flagship product landed a day before Google is expected to make its own announcements about Gemini, the search engine giant's own AI tool that competes with ChatGPT head-on. "We're very, very excited to bring GPT-4o to all of our free use

Flash floods caused by heavy rains have devastated villages in northern Afghanistan, killing 315 people and injuring more than 1,600, authorities said on Sunday, as villagers buried their dead and aid agencies warned of widening havoc. Thousands of homes were damaged and livestock wiped out, the Taliban-run refugee ministry said, while aid groups warned of damage to health care facilities and vital infrastructure, such as water supply, with streets left coated in mud. In the Nahrin district of B

A Pentagon spokesperson refused Thursday to comment on whether the United States wants Seoul to provide lethal arms support to Ukraine, after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol reaffirmed his administration's policy against any provision of offensive weapons to the war-torn country. Seoul has maintained a stance to offer humanitarian and non-lethal defense assistance to Ukraine, such as protective suits, demining equipment and other military supplies, though pressure has continued for arm

Ninety percent of global citizens say that types of plastic that are not recyclable should be banned, according to a study. The World Wildlife Fund’s latest report is based on a survey of around 25,000 people from 32 countries, asking for their opinions about unrecyclable plastic products and their negative impact on human health. In Korea, 1,000 people participated in the survey. In the survey, 87 percent of respondents are against the use of unrecyclable plastic products, and 85 percen

WASHINGTON -- The US paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the US, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 900-kilogram bombs and 1,700 225-kilogram bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of US concern being the

With school shootings in the United States reaching 82 cases in 2023, a majority of the country's teachers worry about the possibility of a shooting occurring at their school. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of US public school teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade, or K-12, say they are at least somewhat worried about such an occurrence. Among them, 7 percent say they are extremely worried. About a quarter of teachers report experiencing a gun

An Israeli tank brigade seized control Tuesday of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, authorities said, moving forward with an offensive in the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remain on a knife’s edge. The move comes after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war, with the militant group on Monday saying it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated cease-fire proposal. Israel, meanwhile, insisted the deal did not meet its core demands. The high

An American soldier was detained on charges of criminal misconduct in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok last week while on leave after finishing his tour of duty in South Korea, officials said Monday. US Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith said that the soldier, whose name was withheld, was detained Thursday, and that the US Army notified his family of his detention. The soldier was on leave in Russia following the completion of his tour of service in South Korea, a US official told Yonhap Ne

Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money trial are moving deeper into his orbit following an inside-the-room account about the former president's reaction to a politically damaging recording that surfaced in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. Hope Hicks, a former White House official and for years a top aide, is by far the closest Trump associate to have taken the witness stand in the Manhattan trial. Her testimony Friday was designed to give jurors an insider's view of a cha