02/12/2025

TUESDAY | DEC 2, 2025

7 Preload cyber safety app, India orders phone makers

Thailand extradites Vietnamese activist

BANGKOK: A Vietnamese activist who was granted refugee status by the UN has been extradited by Thailand to Vietnam where he faces a decade in prison, his lawyer said yesterday. A Thai appeal court ruled last week to allow the extradition of Y Quynh Bdap, who had lived in exile in Thailand since 2018. A Vietnamese court sentenced him in absentia in January last year for terrorism offences. Bdap was convicted for remotely orchestrating 2023 attacks in which gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on two police posts in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, killing nine people in a rare act of violence against the communist authorities. He has denied the allegations. “Thai immigration said Bdap was handed over to Vietnamese officials without giving further details. We have no news about his fate,” said his lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman. The handover happened on Friday, she said. A spokesman for the Thai immigration department could not be immediately reached yesterday. The Thai corrections department said on Friday that it had coordinated with Thai police to transfer Bdap back to Vietnam. Bdap was granted refugee status by the United Nations but he had been detained in a Bangkok prison since December when he was jailed for staying in the country without proper travel documents. UN-affiliated experts warned last year that Bdap would be at risk of “torture or other ill-treatment or punishment” if sent back to Vietnam. Sunai Phasuk, an adviser at Human Rights Watch, wrote on X that Bdap was extradited “despite concerns from the UN, human rights groups, Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission and western governments that he will face unjust prosecution, including 10 years prison term”. Vietnamese police have said Bdap is the founder of Montagnards Stand for Justice and accused him of directing people there to carry out the 2023 attacks. The group advocates freedom of religion for Vietnam’s hill tribes and ethnic minority groups, which have been branded “terrorists” by the authorities. Montagnards, the collective name for various tribes in the Central Highlands, sided with the US-backed south during Vietnam’s decades-long war. Some have called for more autonomy, while others abroad advocate independence for the region. – AFP

o Telecoms Ministry cites security threats

estimated 4.5% of 735 million smartphones in India by June, with the rest using Android, Counterpoint Research says. While Apple pre-installs its own proprietary apps on phones, its internal policies prohibit installation of any government or third-party app before sale of a smartphone, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. “Apple has historically refused such requests from governments,” said Tarun Pathak, a research director at Counterpoint. “It’s likely to seek a middle ground: instead of a mandatory pre-install, they might negotiate and ask for an option to nudge users towards installing the app.” Apple, Google, Samsung and Xiaomi did not respond to requests for comment. India’s Telecoms Ministry also did not respond.

is among the companies, such as Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi bound by the new order. The Nov 28 order, seen by Reuters, gives major smartphone companies 90 days to ensure that the government’s Sanchar Saathi app is pre-installed on new mobile phones, with a provision that users cannot disable it. For devices already in the supply chain, manufacturers should push the app to phones via software updates, the ministry said in its order, which was not made public and was sent privately to select companies. The government said the app was essential to combat “serious endangerment” of telecom cyber security from duplicate or spoofed IMEI numbers, which enable scams and network misuse. Apple’s iOS powered an

A 14- to 17-digit number unique to each handset, the IMEI, or International Mobile Equipment Identity, is most commonly used to cut off network access for phones reported to have been stolen. The government app allows users to report suspicious calls, verify IMEIs and block stolen devices through a central registry. With more than 5 million downloads since its launch, the app has helped block more than 3.7 million stolen or lost mobile phones, while more than 30 million fraudulent connections have also been terminated. The government says it helps prevent cyber threats and assists tracking and blocking of lost or stolen phones, helping police to trace devices, while keeping counterfeits out of the black market. – Reuters stranded by flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah . At least 340 people have been killed, Sri Lankan officials said yesterday, with many more still missing. Floodwaters in Colombo peaked overnight, and with rain now stopped there were hopes that waters would begin receding. Some shops and offices began to reopen. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster, vowed to build back. “We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” he said in an address to the nation. “Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.” By Sunday afternoon, rain had subsided across Sri Lanka but low lying areas of the capital were flooded and authorities were bracing for a major relief operation. Military helicopters have been deployed to airlift stranded residents, and deliver food, though one crashed just north of Colombo on Sunday evening. Much of Asia is in its annual monsoon season, which often brings heavy rain, triggering landslides and flash floods. But the flooding that hit Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia was also exacerbated by a rare tropical storm that dumped heavy rain on Sumatra. – AFP

BENGALURU: India’s Telecoms Ministry has privately asked smartphone makers to preload new devices with a state-owned cyber security app that cannot be deleted, a government order showed. India is one of the world’s largest telephone markets, with more than 1.2 billion subscribers, and government figures show the app, launched in January, has helped recover more than 700,000 lost phones, including 50,000 in October alone. Apple, which has previously locked horns with the telecoms regulator over development of a government anti-spam mobile app,

Militaries come to aid of Asia flood victims PADANG: Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel yesterday, President Prabowo Subianto said “the worst has passed, hopefully”. hundreds more missing. Unlike his Sri Lankan counterpart, he has also not publicly called for international assistance.

yesterday to help victims of devastating flooding that has killed nearly 1,000 people across four countries in Asia in recent days. Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to Sri Lanka and large parts of Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week. Arriving in North Sumatra

The government’s “priority now is how to immediately send the necessary aid”, with particular focus on several isolated villages, he said. Prabowo has come under increasing pressure to declare a national emergency in response to flooding and landslides that have killed at least 442 people, with

The government has sent three warships carrying aid and two hospital ships to some of the worst hit areas, where many roads remain impassable. In Sri Lanka, the government called for international aid and used military helicopters to reach people

Hat Yai residents shop for flood-damaged products. – REUTERSPIC

Singapore schools tighten smartphone rules to combat digital distractions SINGAPORE: The Education Ministry will impose a stricter ban on smartphones and smartwatches in secondary schools from next month in a push to combat digital distractions. students from using their devices in the classroom. environment that prioritises students’ learning and enhances their friends and family.” Schools may allow smartphone use by exception “where necessary”, the ministry said in a statement.

Next week Australia will go a step further with a world-first ban on social media for under-16s. On its website Unesco highlighted some stringent school bans, such as a requirement in China’s Zhengzhou “that parents provide written consent that a phone was really needed for pedagogical reasons”. – AFP

engagement, fostering healthier habits on screen use and better well being”, the ministry said on Sunday. “Screen use among students has been shown to displace important activities such as sleep, physical activity and social interactions with

This will be broadened to include non-lesson time, with students required to keep phones in designated storage areas such as lockers or school bags during school hours. The goal is “to create a school

A growing number of countries are taking similar action, with 40% of education systems now banning smartphones in school, according to Unesco.

Guidelines in the city-state, one of the world’s most digitally connected populations, bar secondary school