Consumer, Health, Crime & justice, AI, IT & software
638 storiesShizuoka city holds parents' briefing after swim coach arrested over indecent act
A male swimming coach at a swimming school in Makinohara City, Shizuoka Prefecture, was arrested on September 28 on suspicion of non-consensual indecency involving an elementary school girl. The city, which had outsourced a junior high scho…
Boston Dynamics names former Amazon AI executive Rohit Prasad as CEO
Boston Dynamics, described by Korean outlets as Hyundai Motor Group's robot affiliate, said it has appointed Rohit Prasad, a former Amazon executive who led work on the Alexa voice assistant, as its new chief executive. The company said the…
Kremlin urges reliance on official statements amid Irkutsk infection rumors
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Rospotrebnadzor is the competent agency on the situation in the Irkutsk region and that people should follow its official statements rather than rumors and speculation. The comments follow the death of a…
Russia quarantines hospital as lab worker’s death puts nearly 200 under observation
A female employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week of pneumonia of unknown cause, Russian authorities said, and a hospital in the town of Shelekhov was placed under quarantine. Officia…
Russia's Gosuslugi portal to add red and green anti-fraud buttons
TASS reported that Russia's Gosuslugi portal will get red and green buttons against fraud. iXBT said the red button will alert banks, telecom operators and law enforcement via the GIS Antifraud system, which can then suspend transfers or re…
Trump announces “Super Intelligence Force” AI task force led by Jay Clayton
President Donald Trump announced Sunday the creation of a “Super Intelligence Force,” a federal task force he said will coordinate government efforts to keep the United States leading in artificial intelligence, which he has directed the fe…
Police: bar owner held over girlfriend’s body in Miyagi; staged messages suspected
Police in Tokyo have arrested a 36-year-old bar owner on suspicion of abandoning the body of his 25-year-old girlfriend in mountains in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, on 28 September. Investigators believe he used her smartphone to send messa…
Russian woman at plague research institute dies; cause disputed
A woman in her 20s who worked at a plague control research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region died on October 2. Russian health authorities said on October 4 the cause was “pneumonia of unknown origin,” while speculation of plague infecti…
Korea financial regulator orders AI-based defense after hacking wave
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission held an emergency meeting on 4 October after hacking and data leaks were confirmed at seven financial companies, including Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hana and BNK Busan banks, savings banks Yegaram and …
OpenAI chief Altman says AI benefits justify risks, warns on overregulation
Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, said the benefits of artificial intelligence justify the risks and negative events that come with it, according to RBC, TASS and RIA Novosti, which attributed the remarks to an intervi…
US Marine arrested in Naha hotel killing; Japan protests, Okinawa governor speaks out
A 20-year-old US Marine was arrested on suspicion of robbery-murder after a 39-year-old woman was found dead at a hotel in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, and Japanese officials protested to the US side. Foreign Ministry Senior Deputy Minister Ta…
France's Mistral releases largest open-weight AI model, Mistral Large 4
France's Mistral released Mistral Large 4, its largest open-weight AI model, nicknamed “Chonk”, on Oct 6 foreign local time, with general availability set for Oct 27. Users can download the parameters, or weights, and customize the model on…
Shinhan Bank data breach victims move toward class action in Seoul
A law firm in Seoul has begun recruiting plaintiffs for a damages class action against Shinhan Bank over a data breach that exposed about 25,000 customers’ personal information on Oct. 1. Shinhan’s chief executive has apologised and promise…
Okinawa police send US Marine to prosecutors over Naha hotel robbery-murder
Okinawa prefectural police arrested US Marine lance corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, of Futenma base, on suspicion of robbing and killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha, and sent him to the Naha district prosecutors’ office on Oct …
Ex-CIA official found with gold bars pleads guilty to $194 million fraud
David J. Rush, a former senior CIA official, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to one count of wire fraud in a scheme prosecutors say cost the federal government about $194 million. Prosecutors said Rush fabri…
Trump approves firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan
The Pentagon said President Donald Trump approved execution by U.S. Army firing squad for Nidal Hasan, who was convicted in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people and wounded 32. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell…
Korea police open formal probe into AI-linked hacking of financial firms
South Korean police have converted their investigation into a series of AI-linked hacking attacks on financial institutions into a formal probe, assigning a 28-member, four-team dedicated unit. Data leaks have been confirmed at seven financ…
Korea financial regulator orders full security review after bank data leaks
Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won chaired an emergency meeting of the entire financial sector in Seoul on Oct. 4 after customer data leaks spread from major banks to non-bank lenders, saying the possibility of AI-enabled ha…
KFF poll finds Medicare for All support at 66% in US, highest since 2016
A KFF poll published Tuesday found 66 percent of U.S. adults support Medicare for All, the highest level since 2016, with 32 percent saying they strongly favor a single government health plan. Support was up about 13 points from 2020, but t…
Russian anti-plague lab researcher dies; US and EU say they are monitoring
A 28-year-old female researcher at the Irkutsk anti-plague research institute in Shelekhov, Russia, died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause, the state agency Rospotrebnadzor said. About 200 people who may have had contact…