A man who posed as a teenager online to talk to underage girls was sentenced to 11 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane on Tuesday. The Singaporean, now aged 25, who cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the identity of two victims, pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory rape, one count of sexual grooming of a minor and one count of sexual penetration of a minor. Another 14 charges wer...
A man who posed as a teenager online to talk to underage girls was sentenced to 11 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the cane on Tuesday. The Singaporean, now aged 25, who cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the identity of two victims, pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory rape, one count of sexual grooming of a minor and one count of sexual penetration of a minor. Another 14 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. Advertisement The court heard that the offender held various jobs such as a banquet server, warehouse assistant, swimming teacher, clerk and luge operator. In August 2023, when the offender was 22 years old, he matched with a 13-year-old girl on a Telegram bot. Advertisement The offender knew the girl’s age, as she stated it in her profile. Although the offender lied in his profile that he was 15, the girl asked him about his age as he looked older in his photos.
Chinese consumers are experiencing "luxury shame" similar to what happened in the U.S. during the 2008-09 financial crisis, according to a June Bain and Company report. Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images China's consumer inflation rose less than expected in January while the deflation in producer prices persisted, in a sign of continued deflationary pressure in the absence of stronger stimulus. The con...
Chinese consumers are experiencing "luxury shame" similar to what happened in the U.S. during the 2008-09 financial crisis, according to a June Bain and Company report. Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images China's consumer inflation rose less than expected in January while the deflation in producer prices persisted, in a sign of continued deflationary pressure in the absence of stronger stimulus. The consumer price index rose 0.2% in January from a year earlier, China's National Bureau of Statistics data showed on Wednesday, below economists' forecast of 0.4% increase in a Reuters poll. That followed a 0.8% growth in December , its highest level in nearly three years. Prices rose 0.2% month-on-month, below economists' forecast of a 0.3% increase. Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, jumped 0.8% from a year earlier, easing from the 1.2% in December. China's producer price index declined 1.4% from a year ago, better than economists' expectations of a 1.5% drop, official data showed, moderating from a 1.9% drop in December . The deflation in factory-gate prices has persisted for more than three years, weighing on the profitability of manufacturers who have weathered tepid consumer confidence and production disruptions stemming from U.S. trade policies for much of last year. The world's second-largest economy grew 5% last year, in line with Beijing's official target, thanks to resilient export growth to non-U.S. markets. China has struggled to shake deflationary pressure since the end of the pandemic, weighed down by a prolonged property downturn and uncertain job-market prospects. Authorities have sought to curb price wars across industries, where overcapacity has fueled a glut of goods and forced companies to cut prices. Top policymakers are expected to unveil economic targets for the year at a parliamentary meeting next month. In a policy report on Tuesday, the People's Bank of China reiterated its determination to implement "appropriately loose" mone...
Hong Kong stocks rose on Wednesday, supported by holiday-related flows ahead of the Lunar New Year break, with investors adjusting positions as the market heads into a shortened trading schedule next week. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 per cent to 27,246.18 at the open, adding to the 0.6 per cent gain recorded on Tuesday. The Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 0.2 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 I...
Hong Kong stocks rose on Wednesday, supported by holiday-related flows ahead of the Lunar New Year break, with investors adjusting positions as the market heads into a shortened trading schedule next week. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2 per cent to 27,246.18 at the open, adding to the 0.6 per cent gain recorded on Tuesday. The Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 0.2 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index were little changed. Wuxi Biologics jumped 3.6 per cent to HK$41.44 after reporting a nearly 22 per cent rise in net profit, beating market expectations. Techtronic Industries rose 1.8 per cent to HK$116.40, and Innovent Biologics surged 1.4 per cent to HK$90.90. Short-video sharing platform Kuaishou Technology added 1.4 per cent to HK$71.35, and blind-box toymaker Pop Mart International advanced 1.3 per cent to HK$273.20. Advertisement Chinese chipmaker SMIC lost 2.4 per cent to HK$69.85 after fourth quarter net income missed estimates. WeChat operator Tencent Holdings slid 1.5 per cent to HK$543, and online travel-booking agency Trip.com declined 1.5 per cent to HK$442. Hong Kong stocks will trade for only half a day on Monday before closing for the holiday, reinforcing near-term calendar effects on market moves. The benchmark typically sees lighter volumes and a positive bias ahead of the holiday, as traders square positions and selectively add exposure before the break. Advertisement Two stocks debuted on Wednesday. Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment added 1 per cent to HK$46.26 in Hong Kong, and Isvision (Hangzhou) Technology advanced 8 per cent to 100 yuan in Shanghai.
US singer Britney Spears has become the latest musician to sell the rights to her catalogue that includes hits like “Baby One More Time” and “Oops!...I Did It Again”, US media reported on Tuesday. The deal is believed to be worth around US$200 million, according to sources cited by celebrity site TMZ, though it said the exact amount is not detailed in legal documents. That sum would be comparable ...
US singer Britney Spears has become the latest musician to sell the rights to her catalogue that includes hits like “Baby One More Time” and “Oops!...I Did It Again”, US media reported on Tuesday. The deal is believed to be worth around US$200 million, according to sources cited by celebrity site TMZ, though it said the exact amount is not detailed in legal documents. That sum would be comparable to the sale of Canadian singer Justin Bieber’s catalogue in 2023. Advertisement Spears, 44, joins a growing list of artists who have sold their music rights in recent years. Notable sellers include Bruce Springsteen, who in 2021 made a deal with Sony Music Entertainment to relinquish his master recordings and songs for US$500 million. Shortly thereafter, David Bowie’s estate sold his songwriting catalogue to Warner Chappell Music for US$250 million. ZZ Top, Tina Turner and Paul Simon all made similar deals around the same time. Advertisement The Hollywood Reporter reported that the rights to Spears’ music were bought by music publisher Primary Wave, whose portfolio includes the works of Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Prince and others.
Elon Musk announced his new company xAI which he says has the goal to understand the true nature of the universe. Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images Elon Musk's xAI has lost its second co-founder in two days. Influential researcher Jimmy Ba on Tuesday announced his departure in a post on X, thanking Musk and writing that he was, "Grateful to have helped cofound at the start." Ba's departure co...
Elon Musk announced his new company xAI which he says has the goal to understand the true nature of the universe. Jaap Arriens | Nurphoto | Getty Images Elon Musk's xAI has lost its second co-founder in two days. Influential researcher Jimmy Ba on Tuesday announced his departure in a post on X, thanking Musk and writing that he was, "Grateful to have helped cofound at the start." Ba's departure comes just one day after fellow co-founder Tony Wu announced his own exit from xAI, which merged with Musk's aerospace company SpaceX earlier this month. The xAI co-founder exodus comes as SpaceX prepares to go public sometime this year. A University of Toronto professor, Ba was credited for critical research that influenced the company's Grok version 4 AI models. Besides Ba and Wu, other co-founders including Igor Babuschkin , Kyle Kosic and Christian Szegedy, have also departed Musk's artificial intelligence venture. Greg Yang announced last month that he would be stepping back from his role to focus on his battle with Lyme disease. The record-setting, all-stock deal valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, according to documents viewed by CNBC. Musk previously used xAI to acquire his social network X, formerly Twitter, in another all-stock transaction announced in March 2025 . The departures also come as xAI faces regulatory probes in multiple jurisdictions across Europe, Asia and the U.S. The probes were initiated after the company's Grok AI chatbot and image generator allowed mass-creation and syndication of non-consensual, explicit images, colloquially known as deepfake porn. The images were based on photos of real people, including children. Musk launched xAI in 2023 alongside 11 other people in an effort to compete against OpenAI and Google . The company's stated goal was to "understand the true nature of the universe," according to its website at the time. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. WATCH: SpaceX deal to aquire xAI ...
Monday night, xAI co-founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced he was leaving the company. “It’s time for my next chapter,” Wu wrote in a late-night post on X. “It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.” Less than a day later, on Tuesday afternoon, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, said that he, too, is bouncin...
Monday night, xAI co-founder Yuhuai (Tony) Wu announced he was leaving the company. “It’s time for my next chapter,” Wu wrote in a late-night post on X. “It is an era with full possibilities: a small team armed with AIs can move mountains and redefine what’s possible.” Less than a day later, on Tuesday afternoon, xAI co-founder Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, said that he, too, is bouncing, posting a gracious note on X on his way out. “Enormous thanks to @elonmusk for bringing us together on this incredible journey. So proud of what the xAI team has done and will continue to stay close as a friend of the team,” it read in part. On their own, both were pretty standard tech departure announcements — but they’re part of a troubling pattern for the lab. Six members of the company’s 12-person founding team have now left the company, with five of the departures coming in just the last year. Infrastructure lead Kyle Kosic left for OpenAI in mid-2024, followed by Google veteran Christian Szegedy in February 2025. This past August, Igor Babuschkin left to found a venture firm, and Microsoft alum Greg Yang departed just last month, citing health issues. By all accounts, the splits have all been amicable, and there are lots of reasons why, nearly three years in, some founders might decide to move on. Elon Musk is a notoriously demanding boss, and with the SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI complete and an IPO pending in the coming months, everyone involved has a pretty big windfall coming. It’s a great time to be fundraising for an AI startup, so it’s only natural for high-level researchers to want to strike out on their own. There are also less amicable reasons that might factor in. The company’s flagship product, the Grok chatbot, has struggled with bizarre behavior and apparent internal tampering — the kind of thing that might easily create friction on the technical team. Then there were the recent changes to xAI’s image-generation tools that flooded the platform with dee...