China kindergarten stabbing: What’s behind spate of attacks?
We still know little about what might have caused a man to enter a kindergarten in southern China and stab six people to death.
There are rumours swirling that it was revenge – that one of the dead adults had previously hit the attacker’s child with his or her car. But that does not explain why six died, including three children and a teacher.
These sorts of crimes can feel senseless, and yet also depressingly common.
Go back to the 1990s and things like this were virtually unheard of in China. It’s not that terrible things didn’t happen to children. They did.
There was the horrific incident in March 2001 when a school in the southern province of Jiangxi exploded, killing 41 children. An investigation found the school was doubling as a fireworks factory and the school children as cheap labour.
Programs to detect AI discriminate against non-native English speakers, shows study
Over half of essays written by people were wrongly flagged as AI-made, with implications for students and job applicants
Computer programs that are used to detect essays, job applications and other work generated by artificial intelligence can discriminate against people who are non-native English speakers, researchers say.
Tests on seven popular AI text detectors found that articles written by people who did not speak English as a first language were often wrongly flagged as AI-generated, a bias that could have a serious impact on students, academics and job applicants.
Iranian rapper given 6-year prison sentence over protests
Toomaj Salehi has avoided a death sentence over his participation in the nationwide protests last year. So far, Iran has executed seven people in connection with the unrest.
Toomaj Salehi was charged with “corruption on earth” — an accusation that covers a broad range of offenses including those related to Islamic morality and can carry the death penalty.
The judicial decision to not put the prominent musician to death saved Salehi from the fate that led to the execution of at least seven other protesters.
Salehi was also acquitted of “insulting the Supreme Leader” and “cooperation with hostile governments,” his lawyer Rosa Etemad Ansari said.
Sons’ jailing turns Cuban mothers into activists
Lawsuit takes aim at age limits to bring youths into politics
By KAZUFUMI KANEKO/ Staff Writer
July 10, 2023 at 21:35 JST
Six young individuals filed a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on July 10 challenging the age restriction on who can run for public office as unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs, aged between 19 and 25, are asking the court to rule that they are eligible to run for office.
“It may be difficult to win an unconstitutional judgment, but we hope more people will learn through the lawsuit that there are limits to who is eligible to run in elections,” Momoko Nojo, a plaintiff, told a news conference.
Jenin raid is over. Palestinians are left to cope with the trauma
Palestinians sift through the wreckage of their destroyed homes and of their damaged psyches.
Every morning, Fatima Salahat, a mother of four, would wake up at 7, get out of bed and tiptoe into the kitchen of her home in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
With her husband, Zeid, still lost in slumber, she would start her day with the music of Lebanese icon Fairuz – often the same song, on repeat.
“The Way of Our Love, that was her favourite,” said Zeid, a 56-year-old paramedic. “But now I can’t feel anything for that song. We’ve lost those happy moments.”
Recent Comments