TAIPEI: Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday (Jul 30) “a threat from China to any country is a threat to the world”, emphasising to lawmakers of more than 20 countries that global democracies must unite against “authoritarian expansion”. China has in recent years stepped up military and political pressures onContinue Reading
TOKYO: Grilled eel, or unagi, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, is behind a department store food poisoning incident that has left more than 140 people sick and one dead, the store’s president said.
Shinji Kaneko of Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama – about an hour from Tokyo – apologised after the customers, who last week bought lunch boxes containing eel, suffered vomiting and diarrhoea.
One of the customers – reportedly a woman in her 90s – died, Shinji Kaneko told reporters on Monday (Jul 29), bowing deeply and offering “our most sincere condolences”.
The products included eel cooked in the traditional “kabayaki” style: Skewered, grilled and basted in a sweet, sticky mixture of soy sauce and mirin rice wine.
Consumed worldwide, eel is particularly popular in Asia, and remains found in Japanese tombs show it has been eaten on the archipelago for thousands of years.
A probe by health officials detected a type of bacteria called staphylococcus aureus in the products, Keikyu Department Store said.
“We take what happened very seriously and feel deeply sorry about it. We will fully cooperate with investigations by public health authorities,” Kaneko said.
Tokyo-based restaurant Isesada, which operates a stand inside the Keikyu department store, was responsible for cooking and directly selling the eel products.
Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to farmlands due to poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure. Typhoons and torrential rains in 2020 were among the difficulties Kim previously said had created “multiple crises” at home, along with draconian pandemic-related restrictions and UN sanctions over his nuclear weaponsContinue Reading
BEIJING: According to state media reports on Sunday ( Jul 28 ), persistent heavy rain from Tropical Storm Gaemi caused flash floods in northeast China on the border with North Korea and caused railway disruptions and landslides in other areas of the nation. Two officers, including the deputy governor ofContinue Reading
The military leaders vowed to increase war effectiveness by staging an “overwhelming assault on the army anywhere and without delay and completely eliminate them again the respectable Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gives an order, while accusing the US and South Korea of “being hell-bent on provoking a radioactive war.”Continue Reading
Tokyo: According to officials and media reports from Friday ( Jul 26 ), record heavy rain forced the evacuation of thousands of people across parts of northern Japan as rivers burst their banks wreak havoc on bridges and cars. In Yamagata and Akita regions on the major area of Honshu,Continue Reading
” Big Floods” Officials in China were alerted that Typhoon Gaemi was bringing with it heavy storms that might cause flooding. They have relocated more than 290, 000 people in Fujian and locked down public transportation, offices, schools and businesses in some places. In the neighboring Zhejiang province, film airedContinue Reading
Two people were killed when Typhoon Gaemi blew through northern Taiwan on Thursday ( Jul 25 ), causing floods and causing traffic snarls, before heading across the sea to China, where it is anticipated to continue to pour torrential rain. On Taiwan’s northeast coast, in Yilan region, Gaemi made landfallContinue Reading
SINGAPORE: China’s leading short video app Douyin is cracking down on the accounts of false authorities and” self-proclaimed experts”, amid a wider cyber recovery being undertaken by the state.
The domestic sister app of TikTok announced the clampdown on Monday ( Jul 22 ) in a WeChat statement. It claimed it recently found a number of accounts with “fake personas.”  ,
Claiming to become professionals from popular companies, professionals or” self-proclaimed masters”, these characters gain the trust of Douyin people before directing them to third-party systems to make a profit.  ,
” Such behaviour violates ( Douyin’s ) platform rules and may cause other users to suffer financial and emotional losses”, the platform warned. Douyin had about 755 million monthly active users as of February 2024, according to Statista.
On Monday, Douyin stated that it has always been committed to keeping a” clean, healthy, and trusted environment.” It urged the upsetting accounts to promptly” right” or remove false or misleading information, or give believable proof of their claims.
If never, they face possible accounts bans, a update of their names or personal information, as well as movies being removed.
Insulting accounts may also have their crowdfunding rights cancelled, removed from search advertisements, or banned from gaining new fans.  ,
Douyin gave instances of conduct by these “fake specialist” records that went against its standards.
For example, people who claim to be successful but ca n’t or do not provide credible evidence, such as self-declared senior executives who claim to be the “director of a large factory” or professionals with” 20 years of experience in companies.”
Also in the crosshairs- accounts with” unverifiable performances”. For example, they would claim to have” successfully helped more than 300 companies double their sales”, helped” 1 million mothers get rich while working part-time”, or” brought 5, 000 couples together”, Douyin stated.
Accounts run by” self-proclaimed masters” who are well-known in society may also see themselves banned.
These are people who claim to be the” love and marriage experts””, life coaches””, spiritual healing gurus” as well as” masters of lost love recovery”, Douyin pointed out.
BEIJING: Authorities in northern China warned heavy rains could bring floods and landslides on Wednesday ( Jul 24 ), issuing the country’s second-highest flood response. China is experiencing a summer of severe weather, with heavy storms coming from the east and the north as well as a heatwave that hasContinue Reading