20/04/2026

MONDAY | APR 20, 2026 7 N. Korea test fires short range missiles SEOUL: North Korea test-fired short-range ballistic missiles yesterday, South Korea’s military said, the latest in a recent flurry of launches by the nuclear-armed state. The launches add to a series of weapons tests Pyongyang has carried out in recent weeks, including ballistic missiles, anti warship cruise missiles and cluster munitions. “Our military detected several short range ballistic missiles fired into the East Sea from the Sinpo area of North Korea,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to a body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. “The missiles flew 140km, and South Korean and US intelligence authorities are conducting a detailed analysis of their exact specifications,” it said. Seoul was maintaining a “firm combined defence posture” with its security ally the United States, which stations about 28,000 troops in the South to help it defend against military threats, and will “respond overwhelmingly to any provocation”, it said. South Korea’s presidential office said it held an emergency security meeting. Analysts said the tests signalled Pyongyang’s latest rejection of attempts by Seoul to repair strained ties. Among them was an expression of regret from Seoul over civilian drone incursions into the North in January, a gesture initially described as “very fortunate and wise behaviour” by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader. But this month, a senior official described the South as “the enemy state most hostile” to Pyongyang, reviving a label used by leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea is subject to UN sanctions banning its nuclear weapons development and use of ballistic missile technology, restrictions it has repeatedly flouted. “Pyongyang must immediately halt its successive missile provocations that are heightening tensions,” Seoul’s Defence Ministry said in a statement. The North should “actively engage in the South Korean government’s efforts to establish peace”. – AFP Wellington cleans up after flash floods SYDNEY: A clean-up began in New Zealand’s capital Wellington after flash flooding, sparked by heavy rain, hit the nation’s North Island, authorities said yesterday. “Severe weather has caused flood damage across the city,” said Hutt City Council, a government authority within the Wellington region, which has a population of 520,971. “We know many people across Lower Hutt are dealing with flooding impacts and debris,” the council said, adding that crews were in the field cleaning up “hardest hit areas: in the suburb of Stokes Valley”. A state of emergency was declared in the Whanganui District 150km north, and 18 people were evacuated due to flooding, public broadcaster Radio New Zealand reported. The nation’s weather forecaster predicted more thunderstorms, accompanied by very heavy rain, for parts of the North Island including Wellington yesterday. “These severe thunderstorms are moving towards the southeast,” it said. The wild weather, which sparked evacuations on Saturday, follows the island’s battering a week earlier by Cyclone Vaianu , which forced residents to higher ground. – Reuters

Robots outrun humans in half-marathon

o Winner beats world record faster than the half-marathon world record set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon last month.

University of Posts and Telecommunications. “The future will definitely be an AI era.” Another spectator, 11-year-old schoolboy Guo Yukun, said after watching the race, he was inspired to pursue a university degree in robotics. Guo said he takes regular classes in robotics theory and programming at his elite Beijing school, and is part of his school’s team for the International Olympiad in Informatics, a global programming competition for high schoolers. While economically viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase, the half-marathon’s showcasing of these machines’ physical prowess highlights their potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat. However, Chinese robotics firms are still struggling to develop the AI software that would enable humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers. Experts said the skills on display during the half-marathon, while entertaining, do not translate to the widespread commercialisation of humanoid robots in industrial settings, where manual dexterity, real-world perception and capabilities beyond small-scale, repetitive tasks are crucial. – Reuters

Teams from Honor, a Huawei spin-off, took the three podium spots, all self-navigated and posting world-record-beating times. Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year, fitted with legs 90-95cm long to mimic elite human runners and liquid cooling technology used in its smartphones. Du said the sector remained in a nascent phase, but he was confident humanoids would eventually reshape many industries, including manufacturing. “Running faster may not seem meaningful at first, but it enables technology transfer, for example, into structural reliability and cooling, and eventually industrial applications,” Du said. Spectators largely viewed the variety of humanoids on display as evidence of China’s improvements in robotics. “The humanoid robots’ running posture I saw was impressive ... considering that AI has only been developing for a short time, I’m already very impressed that it can achieve this level of performance,” said Chu Tianqi, a 23 year-old engineering student at Beijing

BEIJING: Dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots showed off their fast-improving athleticism and autonomous navigation skills as they whizzed past human runners in a half marathon race in Beijing yesterday, highlighting the sector’s rapid technical advances. The race’s inaugural edition last year was riddled with mishaps and most robots were unable to finish. This year’s contrast was stark. Not only had the number of teams increased from 20 to more than 100, but several robot frontrunners were noticeably faster than professional athletes, beating the human winners by more than 10 minutes. Unlike last year, nearly half of the robot entrants navigated the tougher terrain autonomously instead of being directed by remote control during the 21km race. The robots and 12,000 men and women ran in parallel tracks to avoid collisions. The winning robot, developed by smartphone brand Honor, finished the race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, several minutes

A robot and its engineers taking part in the half-marathon yesterday. – AFPPIC

Papua civilian killings under probe JAKARTA: Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights said yesterday it was investigating the killings of 12 civilians, including women and children, in a military operation in the restive easternmost Papua region. Indonesian soldiers were responsible. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

whether perpetrated by state or non-state actors, constitutes a violation of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the commission said in a statement on Saturday. It urged restraint from all sides and called on the military to re-evaluate its operations against Papuan rebels. Papua, which shares its main island with Papua New Guinea, is a former Dutch colony that declared independence in 1961. Indonesia, however, took control two years later, followed by a 1969 referendum in which 1,000 Papuans out of a population of some 800,000 voted to integrate into the country. Papuan independence activists regularly criticise the vote and call for fresh polls. – AFP

Local media reported the military’s Habema task force in Papua as saying its forces had killed four members of the independence guerilla movement in an“armed contact”in Kembru, and that they are investigating a report of a fatal shooting that killed a child in another village. Komnas-HAM, which is part of the Indonesian state system but functions independently, said any operation that resulted in civilian casualties “cannot be justified on any grounds”. “Any form of attack against civilians, whether occurring in situations of war or otherwise, and

The commission, abbreviated as Komnas HAM, said at least 12 civilians died of gunshot wounds in “an enforcement operation” by the armed forces against the TPNPB-OPM rebel group in the central Papuan village of Kembru on Tuesday. Several other people were wounded. The commission was “conducting monitoring”, chairwoman Anis Hidayah said yesterday. She said there was a “strong suspicion” that