The Christchurch attacks — carried out by a self-avowed white supremacist who opened fire on worshippers at two mosques — claimed 50 lives.

Many people have “rightly questioned how online platforms such as Facebook were used to circulate horrific videos of the attack,” chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an online post.

“In the wake of the terrorist attack, we are taking three steps: strengthening the rules for using Facebook Live, taking further steps to address hate on our platforms, and supporting the New Zealand community,” she added.

Facebook is looking into barring people who have previously violated the social network’s community standards from livestreaming on its platform, according to Sandberg.

The social network is also investing in improving software to quickly identify edited versions of violent video or images to prevent them from be shared or re-posted.

“While the original New Zealand attack video was shared Live, we know that this video spread mainly through people re-sharing it and re-editing it to make it harder for our systems to block it,” Sandberg said.

“People with bad intentions will always try to get around our security measures.”

Facebook identified more than 900 different videos showing portions of the streamed violence.

– Hateful nationalism –

The social network is using artificial intelligence tools to identify and remove hate groups in Australia and New Zealand, according to Sandberg.

Those groups will be banned from Facebook services, she said.

Facebook this week announce it would ban praise or support for white nationalism and white separatism as part of a stepped-up crackdown on hate speech.

The ban will be enforced starting next week on the leading online social network and its image-centric messaging service Instagram.

“It’s clear that these concepts are deeply linked to organized hate groups and have no place on our services,” the social network said in a statement.

Facebook policies already banned posts endorsing white supremacy as part of its prohibition against spewing hate at people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity or religion.

The ban had not applied to some postings because it was reasoned they were expressions of broader concepts of nationalism or political independence, according to the social network.

Facebook said that conversations with academics and “members of civil society” in recent months led it to view white nationalism and separatism as linked to organized hate groups.

People who enter search terms associated with white supremacy will get results referring them to resources such as Life After Hate, which focus on helping people turn their backs on such groups, according to Facebook.

Amid pressure from governments around the world, Facebook has ramped up machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for finding and removing hateful content.

“We are deeply committed to strengthening our policies, improving our technology and working with experts to keep Facebook safe,” Sandberg said.

“We must all stand united against hate and work together to fight it wherever and whenever it occurs.”

A State Department spokesperson said the United States was “concerned” about the arrest of the prominent critic of President Rodrigo Duterte and called on the Philippines to respect freedom of the press.

“The freedom of expression is a cornerstone of any truly democratic society and a fundamental freedom recognized by both the United States and the Philippines,” the spokesperson said.

“Maria Ressa is a highly respected and experienced journalist.

“We hope these charges will be resolved quickly, in a way that fully respects the freedom of expression, allows Ms Ressa and Rappler to continue to operate freely, and is consistent with the Philippines’ tradition of a free and independent press.”

After being arrested last month on different charges and then freed on bail, Ressa was rearrested on Friday on charges that she and her colleagues at the news site violated rules on foreign ownership of media.

The arrest — and fears that she was targeted for her coverage — have sent shockwaves through the media scene in the Philippines, which historically has been vibrant and unafraid to question leaders.

Rappler has reported extensively, and unflatteringly, on Duterte’s deadly narcotics crackdown that has claimed thousands of lives and which rights groups say may be a crime against humanity.

US President Donald Trump shares Duterte’s antipathy toward media coverage and has voiced admiration for him, but the rest of the US government has generally still advocated freedom of the press.

The South Korean government announced Friday it had approved mobile carriers’ pricing plans for fifth-generation wireless networks, with the third-biggest telecom company, LG Uplus, revealing that its pricing will start from 55,000 won ($48) per month.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the government has greenlighted SK Telecom’s pricing for 5G services. SK Telecom is the only mobile carrier required to obtain the government’s approval for new pricing plans.

While the details of SKT and KT’s pricing plans will be kept under wraps until they hold a press conference early next week, LG Uplus said the pricing scheme will start from 55,000 won per month for 9 gigabytes.

“Combined with our initiative in pricing plans and distinctive contents for 5G network, we will accelerate our efforts to lead commercial rollout of 5G,” said LG Uplus’s Vice President Hwang Hyun-sik.

South Korea has been seeking to become the world’s first country to offer commercial service for 5G network. Samsung Electronics said last week its first 5G-powered smartphone, Galaxy S10 5G, will hit the market on April 5.

The other pricing plans from LG Uplus are 75,000 won per month for 150 gigabytes and 95,000 per month for 250 gigabytes. If users subscribe to the 95,000 won plan by June, they will be provided with an additional 1,000 gigabytes every month for free, LG Uplus said.

As the country’s biggest mobile carrier, SKT has been under pressure to come up with a cheaper pricing model. Earlier this month, the government rejected the company’s original pricing plan, criticizing it for “restricting consumers’ choice.”

During a meeting with shareholders Tuesday, SKT Chief Park Jung-ho hinted that the company’s 5G pricing plan would start in the range of 55,000 won per month following the government’s proposal.

“There was request for a pricing plan in the range of 55,000 won (from the government). We are about to wrap up the discussion,” said Park.

However, consumer activist groups have continued to take issue with the possibility that consumers may end up with hefty bills for use of the next-generation network. Combined with the cost of new 5G smartphones, a consumer could pay up to 20,000 won more than a current 4G Long Term Evolution plan.

According to industry watchers here, SKT’s pricing plan is expected to consist of four parts: 55,000 won for 8 gigabytes; 75,000 won for 150 gigabytes, 95,000 won for 200 gigabytes and 125,000 won for 300 gigabytes.

Given that the price of Samsung’s first 5G smartphone, the Galaxy S10 5G, would be set around 1.4 million won, a consumer advocacy group argued that the hyper-speed network may not be accessible to low-income households.

“Those who spend 30,000 to 40,000 won on telecom bills would not be able to use 5G network services,” said People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. “It is the worst pricing plan in the era of worsening income disparity.”

Telecom firms have said that they are compelled to raise prices as a result of the extensive infrastructure they needed to install for the introduction of 5G services. They spent about 3.6 trillion won combined last year to purchase the rights to use certain frequencies for 5G services.

Industry watchers said while the average price per unit of data would decrease, thanks to the increased amount of data delivered via the ultrahigh speed network, the overall price of 5G services could initially be higher than existing services, as companies seek to recoup the costs of establishing the new networks.

SKT chief Park told reporters if 5G subscribers were to use the same amount of data as 4G subscribers, 5G would be cheaper by up to a third. The 5G network is expected to be up to 20 times faster than 4G, allowing users to download high-definition movie in a few seconds.

The English textbooks show how the publishers tried to address teachers’ anxieties about their ability to teach English, by creating texts that will be easy to use even for teachers with poor English skills.

Publishers also strived to make sure students do not develop a dislike of English.

English will be taught starting in fifth grade. The seven publishers that submitted textbooks had a total of 15 texts approved, in results announced Tuesday.

“We had nothing to base our work on, so we had to feel our way in creating a textbook that follows the curriculum guidelines,” the person in charge of the matter at Sanseido Co. said.

Kairyudo Publishing Co. had 18 current schoolteachers and administrators on the author team for its elementary school English textbook, representing about half of the total number on the team.

In contrast, there were only four or five teachers and administrators among the about 30 authors of its junior high and high school English textbooks.

The company wanted to emphasize ease of use in the classroom, so it took the unusual step of using active teachers and administrators for about half of the authors for the elementary school English textbook.

The current curriculum guidelines, which have been in force since the 2011 school year, introduced “foreign language activities” to accustom students to English through songs and games. Starting in fifth grade, students have 35 class periods per year (one per week for 45 minutes each) on these activities.

A fiscal 2014 survey by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry found that 92.6 percent of English teachers at public junior high schools felt that first-year junior high school students who had experienced these activities “had better attitudes about trying to communicate in English,” indicating the program had had some effect.

The curriculum guidelines that will be used starting in the 2020 school year move these activities up to third grade, with English becoming a graded subject in fifth grade with 70 periods per year.

The goal is to prepare students for a globalizing world by helping them acquire four basic skills — listening, speaking, reading and writing — at an early stage.

In fifth and sixth grade, the students will come into contact with about half the English words that are currently studied in junior high, or 600 to 700 words.

In China and South Korea, English education starts in the third grade, though not in all areas.

“Japan finally has the same starting point as other countries,” said Yokohama National University Prof. Chisato Saida, a specialist in English education.

The area textbook publishers struggled with most was how to avoid making students dislike English.

“If teachers start to feel they can’t handle the job, children will come to dislike English. The joy children feel when they are able to speak English is incalculable. The content of the textbooks is simple and will make classes easy to conduct, so I hope teachers will use it to actively and repeatedly engage with students,” said Tamagawa Gakuen Prof. Emeritus Kumiko Sato, a specialist in English education.

Mastercard, a leader in global payments and technology launched a campaign that provides Thai shoppers over 20 attractive offers when they shop online using Mastercard cards, in collaboration with its partners such as Grab, Lazada, Shoppee and Thai Airways, according to Mastercard’s press release.

Thailand is the second largest e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, and is expected to grow by 30 per cent to reach $13 billion USD by 2025.

Thai millennials are among the world’s top adopters of mobile payments, representing 40 per cent of online shoppers in the country. This has been driven by a shift in consumer behavior as technology connects more people and their devices to online shopping platforms.

In spite of this, e-Commerce payments today are supported by technologies that are nearly 20 years old and not mobile optimized. Consumers unable to successfully complete online payments are compelled to abandon their cart, yielding a poor user experience.

Real fraud and false declines fetter consumer trust and drive them away from digital payments.

“Online commerce is poised to account for a quarter of all transactions by 2025 and Mastercard is innovating at pace to overcome these hindrances and create an enriched, frictionless customer experience through what we call the ‘Digital Security Framework’, built on the foundations of security and scalability.” said Aileen Chew, Vice President, Business Development, Thailand and Myanmar, Mastercard.

“This Framework is built in tandem with industry-wide initiatives and comprises four key pillars: authentication, tokenization, continuity and intelligence to solve for friction in payment transaction flows.”

‘Authentication’ technology verifies the customer’s genuine intent to pay, ‘tokenization’ prevents any risk of data breach for card-on-file merchants, ‘continuity’ ensures that customer card data stored at merchants is kept up to date automatically to pre-empt declines on account of card expiry or card replacement and ‘intelligence’ enables merchants to use data in real time to make effective approval decisions.

These work together to address the end to end customer journey and online transaction experience, solving for friction at each stage of the lifecycle.-

These are made possible by the rollout of EMV 3D-Secure 2.0 (3DS2.0), the new authentication standard for all digital transactions that connect the dots from the time someone logs into an account to when they purchase something, when they authenticate to when that authentication becomes an authorized transaction.

This not only brings issuers and merchants onto a common, globally interoperable standard, but also allows issuers and merchants to carry out secure and frictionless consumer authentication eliminating the need for OTPs or passwords for everyday low value transactions.

Another significant innovation in Mastercard’s Framework is its ‘passive authentication technology’ that uses device behavioral and biometric data to discern legitimate users from the fraudulent ones.

This technology gauges users by the way they type on their smartphone, and the pressure applied to the touch screen, among other signals to detect suspicious activity and accurately authenticate users’ identities.

The Framework is paving the way for Mastercard to convert any device to a secure remote device whether it is making a Mastercard payment through your taxi booking app, paying with your wearable device in-store or even enabling your car to make a payment each time it is re-fueled at the petrol pump.

Mastercard’s acquisition of Brighterion, Nudata and Ethoca are testimony to the strong commitment we have towards keeping our consumers’ transactions secure.

The Thailand e-commerce campaign underpins Mastercard’s continuing commitment to drive innovation and grow the online commerce space. Recently Mastercard announced its partnership with the National Interbank Transaction Management and Exchange (ITMX) to widen the acceptance of debit cards. The partnership makes Mastercard’s Payment Gateway Services the first and only global payment gateway to connect directly with the ITMX. Such developments are helping to advance digital payments in the country and move Thailand towards becoming an inclusive cashless society, in-line with the government’s ‘Thailand 4.0’ vision and its ‘National e-Payments Master Plan.

    Ressa and her website Rappler have been hit with a string of criminal charges in recent months that have sent shockwaves through the Philippines’ media scene, prompting allegations she and her team are being targeted for their work.

The latest charges allege she and colleagues at Rappler violated rules on foreign ownership of media. She was taken into custody after arriving at Manila’s airport from a trip abroad.

“The press in this country is under attack… We won’t take the threat sitting down,” Ressa told reporters after her release on the equivalent of $1,700 bail. “The rule of law has been weaponised.”

    Rappler has reported extensively, and unflatteringly, on Duterte’s deadly narcotics crackdown that has claimed thousands of lives and which rights groups say may be a crime against humanity.

Duterte has also lashed out at other critical media outfits, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper and broadcaster ABS-CBN.

He threatened to go after their owners over alleged unpaid taxes or block the network’s franchise renewal application.

Ressa, 55, and six other current and former Rappler associates are accused of allowing foreigners, through a 2015 bond sale, to take control of the website.

Under the constitution, investment in media is reserved for Filipinos or Filipino-controlled entities.

This case and most of the 10 previous ones against Rappler spring from the 2015 investment from the US-based Omidyar Network, which was established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

   – ‘Unprecedented’ –

Philippine authorities first arrested Ressa in February on an internet libel charge, which sparked international condemnation and allegations that she was being targeted for Rappler’s critical stance on Duterte.

“This case against Ressa… is unprecedented and speaks volumes of the Duterte administration’s determination to shut the website down for its credible and consistent reporting on the government,” said Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch.

Rappler generally casts a critical eye on the president’s leadership and his government, including the nation’s deep-rooted corruption and Manila’s moves to court Chinese trade and investment.

But Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign is his signature initiative and he fiercely defends it against criticism.

High-profile critics have wound up in jail or been pushed out of their jobs in government, including the nation’s first female chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Ressa insists the site is not anti-Duterte, saying it is just doing its job to hold the government to account.

The country’s corporate regulator revoked Rappler’s business licence last year over the 2015 bond sale, but the site continued operating as it appealed the case in the courts.

Last month, Ressa spent a night in detention after being arrested at her office but eventually posted bail for allegedly libelling a businessman in a news article written in 2012.

Ressa’s legal team said this latest case would not stop Rappler from doing its work.

“Let it be clear that these acts of harassment will not deter our clients from doing their duty as journalists,” legal counsel Francis Lim said in a statement. “We believe in the rule of law.”

The government has repeatedly denied that the numerous cases against Ressa and Rappler are connected to journalism, saying the law is being applied evenly and fairly.

Jokowi, running for re-election in the world’s third-biggest democracy, has a tight schedule so he and his vice-presidential running mate are projecting three-dimensional images of themselves at some campaign rallies, his team said.

The high-tech campaign launched this week and is targeting the heavily populated provinces of West, Central and East Java — seen as key sources of support.

More than 190 million people are registered to vote on April 17, with thousands running for seats in parliament and local councils across Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation.

Like the candidate himself, Jokowi’s life-sized hologram will keep moving across the Southeast Asian nation in the coming weeks.

The 57-year-old leader is believed to be the first Indonesian politician to rely on a hologram, but others including Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, India’s Narendra Modi and a far-left French politician have used them in recent years.

Dressed casually in a white long-sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers, the hologram pitches Widodo’s economic record.

It also hits out against false claims, including that Jokowi is an ethnic Chinese communist and not a devout Muslim.

Indonesia has been battling a wave of fake news and misinformation campaigns online in the lead-up to the polls.

Last month, three Indonesian housewives were arrested over an online video that claimed Jokowi would ban prayer and make gay marriage legal if re-elected — deeply unpopular moves that the politician has never publicly pushed.

“I assure you it’s all slander, lies. Don’t believe it,” his hologram said.

“We must fight against it, explain this to those who do believe it.”

The image of Jokowi’s vice-presidential running mate Ma’ruf Amin — a prominent Islamic cleric widely seen as a buffer against questions about Widodo’s Muslim credentials — warned against letting religion influence voters.

“Islam has become a political commodity,” the hologram said. “Verses from the Koran are being used for political purposes.”

Recent polls show Jokowi and Amin hold a wide lead over rivals Prabowo Subianto, a retired general, and business magnate Sandiaga Uno.

Jokowi beat Subianto in a 2014 presidential contest.

People trapped inside a burning office building gesture at Bangladeshi firefighters for help in Dhaka on March 28, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

Six people died after jumping from the 22-floor building while another victim suffered fatal burns, officials said.

    Emergency services said at least 65 people were being treated in hospitals.

People were seen screaming for help as hundreds of panicked onlookers crowded the streets of the upmarket Banani commercial district.

Some workers slid down a television cable on the side of the building. Others grabbed ropes lowered by emergency service helicopters which pulled them out of the blaze.

The inferno erupted barely a month after at least 70 people were killed in Dhaka apartment buildings where illegally stored chemicals exploded.

The latest disaster brought new scenes of horror amid fears that the toll would rise. More than 100 ambulances were parked in streets around the building.

A helicopter carries water to drop on a burning office building as Bangladeshi firefighters on ladders work to extinguish the blaze in Dhaka on March 28, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

Shoikot Rahman heard colleagues raise the alarm and ran to safety before smoke and flames engulfed the building.

“When I heard a fire broke out in the building, I quickly rushed out,” he told AFP. “Many of my colleagues are still trapped in the office.”

Firefighters on long ladders smashed windows to create escape routes. More than one hour after the blaze erupted people could still be seen on the 13th and 14th floors desperately waving for help amid clouds of black smoke.

Army helicopters dangled ropes that victims grabbed so they could be lifted to safety, with crowds below cheering and applauding every time someone was rescued.

– Rescuers kept at bay –

Three hospitals reported that six men and women had died or arrived with fatal injuries after jumping from the office block. They included a Sri Lankan man whose body was taken to the army’s Kurmitola Hospital.

Dilkhosh Ahmed at the Banani Clinic said one of the victims had attempted to use the television cable to climb down, but slipped and fell around the eighth floor.

A seventh death from burns was recorded at the Dhaka Medical College hospital.

Helicopters were deployed to drop water on the blaze as scores of firefighters backed by navy and air force specialists struggled to bring it under control.

A top fire official said the flames had been stopped from spreading to adjoining buildings.

“Teams have entered the building and they are scouring the floors for any remaining victims. The building did not have fire-fighting equipment,” said Lieutenant Colonel Julfikar Rahman of the Dhaka fire service told reporters.

Bangladeshi firefighters (L) try to extinguish a blaze in an office building in Dhaka on March 28, 2019. // AFP PHOTO

Some workers told of risky escapes.

“My uncle and two more people jumped from their floor. His hand and leg are broken and his eye is damaged,” one man said without giving his name.

A man who gave his name as Jico said he had been working on the 19th floor. “The fire started in a restaurant on the sixth floor. We ran to the roof as soon as we heard about it and then used a wooden plank to get over to the next building.”

Fire disasters regularly hit Bangladesh’s major cities where safety standards are notoriously lax.

A massive blaze in Dhaka’s old quarter on February 21 killed at least 70 people and injured 50 others.

A Bangladeshi survivor reacts after being rescued by firefighters from a burning office building in Dhaka on March 28, 2019.// AFP PHOTO

Fire service officials said chemicals illegally stored in an apartment building exploded and set alight five buildings and nearby streets. That blaze took more than 12 hours to control.

A June 2010 fire in the nearby neighbourhood of Nimtoli, one of the most densely populated districts of the capital, killed 123 people.

In November 2012, a fire swept through a nine-story garment factory near Dhaka killing 111 workers. An investigation found it was caused by sabotage and that managers at the plant had prevented victims from escaping.

Experts said inspections of buildings in the city frequently found fire stairs blocked with stored goods and exit doors locked.

MMHA president Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj said such individuals must also undergo psychiatric assessment while being held in custody.

The association’s stand comes following a recent incident in which a Philippine national, Kent Caburnay Acuin, was slapped with two charges for walking around nude and making lewd gestures.

The twenty-nine-year-old Kent, a transwoman, allegedly committed the offence on March 13 at Jalan Bukit Bintang and nearby Jalan Sultan Ismail.

According to Dr Andrew, Kent needed to undergo a psychiatric assessment prior to her upcoming hearing, as she could be suffering from a serious psychotic disorder.

“Walking around naked in public is not a socially acceptable behaviour, and would ordinarily indicate that the person is of unsound mind at the time of the incident,” he said.

Given this, he added, it was incumbent upon the authorities to order a proper psychiatric evaluation, followed by necessary treatment.

In the event Kent’s conduct was due the influence of certain substance, this could possibly be caused by underlying mental health issues.

“Even if she was found to have been under the influence of an illicit substance, it could also be an attempt to self-medicate as a result of an underlying psychiatric disorder,” he said.

Dr Andrew reiterated that regardless of the cause, Kent’s bizarre behaviour warrants a serial psychiatric assessment, which must be presented accordingly at the hearing.

Kent was first charged under Section 14 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 that carries a maximum RM100 fine upon conviction and subsequently charged under Section 509 of the Penal Code, for using a word or gesture intended to insult the modesty of a person, which carries a maximum jail term of five years, or a fine or both.

Magistrate Rahni Kartini Abd Karim ordered the accused to be remanded until the case was mentioned on April 22.