04/03/2026

WEDNESDAY | MAR 4, 2026

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Beijing votes out three generals from top body

STRONG QUAKE HITS OFF SUMATRA, NO TSUNAMI BANDA ACEH: A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off Sumatra yesterday, according to the US Geological Survey, rattling residents but causing no serious damage. The quake originated offshore from Sumatra’s northeastern tip, authorities said, prompting people to flee outdoors. “I was at home when it happened ... the shaking was really strong,” 50-year-old Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from the small coastal town of Sinabang in Aceh. “I panicked. We fled but because the jolt was short, things went back to normal,” he said, adding he could see “families running around on the street”. Rahmat Triyono, head of Indonesia’s BMKG earthquake and tsunami centre, said people on Simeulue island and east-coast areas of Aceh would have experienced a strong tremor. But he said there was no tsunami risk. – AFP PHILIPPINES HAS ENOUGH OIL, SAYS MARCOS MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said the country has sufficient oil supply, but warned of higher prices as the US Israeli conflict with Iran widens. Marcos told a press conference that the government was studying targeted fuel subsidies for the transport and agriculture sectors. He said it will watch “very, very closely” the impact of the crisis on the foreign exchange rate. He said he may ask Congress for authority to suspend excise taxes on oil. Marcos urged Filipinos in Israel and other countries in the Middle East affected by the crisis to move to safety, saying the government will arrange repatriation flights once it is secure to do so. More than 2.4 million Filipinos are living and working in the Middle East, including 31,000 in Israel and 800 in Iran. More than a thousand migrant workers have requested to be repatriated. – Reuters 42 CIVILIANS KILLED IN AFGHAN-PAKISTAN CLASHES KABUL: At least 42 civilians have been killed and 104 wounded in Afghanistan in the fighting with Pakistan between Feb 26 and March 2, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said yesterday, as the conflict between the neighbours entered its sixth day. Military tensions remained high, with Afghanistan saying it had captured another Pakistani post in the Kandahar region and the fighting was“still ongoing”.“The civilian casualties include those caused by indirect fire in clashes as well as those caused by airstrikes,” the agency said. The conflict was sparked last week by what Afghanistan’s rulers said were retaliatory strikes on Pakistani installations in response to Pakistan’s targeting of militants in Afghanistan. – Reuters CONFLICT-RELATED SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURGES TOKYO: Conflict-related sexual violence has seen a sharp rise and is being used as a “tactic of war, torture, terrorism and political oppression”, a UN special representative has said, calling on Japan and other nations to continue funding and supporting victims. Pramila Patten, special representative of the secretary general on sexual violence in conflict, told Kyodo News that the UN’s support framework is at a “critical time” due to reduced funding from the United States and other major donors. Conflict-related sexual violence includes rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against people regardless of age and sex that is linked to a conflict, according to the 2025 annual report compiled by Patten’s office. “It’s a strategy. It’s deliberate to humiliate, to terrorise, to destabilise,” Patten said. “It’s a powerful tool.” – Bernama

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chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, which oversees combat planning. “The detention of Zhang Youxia was the capstone arrest of the greatest series of purges in the history of China’s PLA,” experts from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a note. Only one general remains on the CMC, which usually has six officers of that rank. In the near term, given the significant vacancies in the top ranks of China’s PLA, “it would be incredibly difficult for China to launch large military campaigns against Taiwan”, the experts said. The Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but Beijing claims the island of 23 million people is part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to annex it. China’s defence budget “outpaces the wider” Asia-Pacific region, accounting for some 44% of regional military spending, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said. – AFP

ruling, such decisions are usually final. The CPPCC also voted to remove two other members. No reason was specified. Ten other members were officially ousted following an earlier vote to remove them. The vote comes after the NPC removed 19 of its delegates on Thursday, including nine military officials. Last week’s removals also included the minister of emergency management, Wang Xiangxi, and the head of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) military court, Liu Shaoyun. President Xi Jinping has launched a massive drive to root out graft at all levels of the Communist Party and state since coming to power more than a decade ago, with the campaign mainly targeting the military in recent years. Xi hailed the military’s “fight against corruption” last month in a rare acknowledgement of graft, weeks after Beijing launched a probe of its top general. Beijing’s Defence Ministry said in January it was investigating Zhang Youxia, a vice

o Purge of military officials

BEIJING: China’s top political advisory body voted to remove three generals, state media said, a week after nine military officials were ousted from its legislature. Beijing has escalated a sweeping purge of military officials in the days before thousands of delegates from across the country meet for the annual Two Sessions political conclave that starts tosday. Simultaneous gatherings of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), and a separate political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), will be held over the course of a week. The CPPCC voted at a Standing Committee meeting to remove retired military generals Han Weiguo, Liu Lei and Gao Jin, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. While they can theoretically appeal the

BOUNTIFUL BLESSINGS ... Buddhist devotees offering food to monks near a giant Buddha statue during an event to mark Makha Bucha Day in the southern Thai town of Narathiwat yesterday. – AFPPIC

Nepal polls turns into ‘digital battleground’

KATHMANDU: AI-generated disinformation has flooded election campaigns in Nepal, which votes tomorrow in the first polls since protests triggered by a brief ban on social media overthrew the government. The September 2025 protests were driven by youth angry at job shortages and corruption among the political elite. Now parties are tapping social media to push their agendas and woo voters. But some of the content is manipulated or outright fake, experts and fact-checkers say. “In a country where digital literacy is low, people believe what they see,” said Deepak Adhikari, editor of the NepalCheck team. Technology policy researcher Samik Kharel described a “digital battleground” , warning that Nepal lacked the expertise to monitor the onslaught of machine-generated content. Around 80% of all of Nepal’s internet traffic is through social media platforms, he said. Internet analytics site DataReportal estimates more than 56% of Nepal’s 30 million people are online, including 14.8 million Facebook users and around 4.3 million on Instagram. About 2.2 million are on TikTok, according to the Internet

Another AI-generated video purported to show Gagan Thapa, leader of the Nepali Congress party, urging voters to back a rival. The Election Commission says there is widespread use of hate speech and deepfake content, including videos created with readily available artificial intelligence tools purporting to show candidates insulting opponents or using obscene language. More than 600 cases have been passed on to the authorities, commission information officer Suman Ghimire said. The Election Commission can impose fines or bar candidates from running but experts say the sheer scale of disinformation and hate speech online outstrips any effective response. “Candidates and people close to political parties not only compete to win, but also compete to spread misinformation,”said Basanta Basnet, editor-in-chief of news website Onlinekhabar , which has collaborated with Nepal FactCheck to verify posts. The organisation has warned that “misinformation encourages citizens to take wrong decisions”, which in turn could undermine the“foundation of democracy”. – AFP

Service Providers’ Association of Nepal. “Disinformation remains a top concern that could undermine the integrity of the election process,” said Ammaarah Nilafdeen of the US based Centre for the Study of Organised Hate. The protests last year began after the government moved to regulate social media, briefly banning at least 26 platforms. At least 77 people were killed in two days of unrest, parliament was set on fire and the government collapsed. Activists used the group-chat app Discord to put forward their suggestion of interim leader and days later their choice, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki, was appointed to lead the country to elections. Social media is playing a key role again. Marxist party loyalists have shared AI generated images purporting to be drone photographs of a massive gathering, which were then reposted by top leaders, boasting a sea of more than 500,000 supporters. Analysis by fact-check experts TechPana found the images had been created using OpenAI’s ChatGPT, while police said less than 5,000 people were at the real event.