NewsLite

LONDON — British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to calls for a formal apology for Britain's historical role in slavery, before attending next week's Commonwealth summit at which he is likely to face demands for financial reparations.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Burnham said Britain was "offering a structured dialogue with those affected by the transatlantic slave trade", in which at ​least 12.5 million Africans were abducted and sold into slavery.

"Listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state will form an important part of this process, and I am open to them," he added.

But Burnham rejected calls for financial reparations, writing: "I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part."

Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said it has covered US$6 billion (S$7.66 billion) of the US$6.3 billion stolen from its platform by using company money to buy replacement tokens, after a hack that US officials said was carried out by a North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor.

"We had already covered $6B of the impacted amount of the hacked loss," Binance said on X on Saturday, after saying earlier that it had covered 90 per cent of the stolen funds.

The remaining amount, now less than 10 per cent, consists of assets that are less liquid and may take longer to source in the required amounts, according to Binance.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Saturday the North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor was responsible for the attack.

SEOUL — North Korea's state media KCNA reported on Sunday (Nov 1) that the country's defence science research institutes tested a major weapon system.

The test was intended to "assess adaptation to combat and power of a cluster-bomb warhead to be tipped on tactical ballistic missiles," KCNA said.

The test found that a standard Type 2 cluster bomb warhead can destroy a target area of 12 to 13 hectares at its highest density, KCNA said.

The cluster bomb warheads fall into four categories, an official at North Korea's missile administration said without elaborating.

HANOI — Vietnam will cut its average retail electricity price by two per cent and remove its special consumption tax on gasoline from Nov 1 to support economic stability and reduce costs for households and businesses, the government said on Saturday.

• The average retail tariff will fall to 2,159.9 dong (S$0.11) per kilowatt-hour, excluding value-added tax, the government said in a statement.

• Its special consumption tax on gasoline will be cut to zero from seven per cent-10 per cent from Nov 1 until the end of March next year.

• The decision was intended to help maintain macroeconomic stability while supporting social welfare and business activity, it said.

Scary pets, monsters, and even a figure dressed as Donald Trump spook the streets of La Paz on Saturday (Oct 31) to take part in a zombie walk, a tradition that has gained steam in the traditionally Catholic country.

Families, youth, children and pets marched in La Paz in scary costumes, following the tradition borrowed from Halloween, which participant Brenda Zabala said has become a custom.

Bolivia, a conservative country, marks All Saints' Day and Day of the Dead on Nov 1 and 2. But in recent years the Andean country has adopted the global festivity of Halloween with parades and costumes with a local twist.

Day of the Dead is a celebration to honour and welcome back the spirits of deceased loved ones. It is primarily observed in Mexico and parts of Latin America, including Bolivia, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Rio de Janeiro, the city known for its glitter and colourful carnivals, adopted a spooky, darker tone on Saturday (Oct 31) during a Halloween parade in the city.

Organised by Planta na Mente, a street party group that advocates for marijuana legalisation, participants in zombie, monster and terror costumes danced and celebrated Halloween with a pre-Carnival spirit under the name "Day of the Dead Plants."

One participant, Felipe, who did not provide their surname, said the global festivity of Halloween is an excuse to move the Carnival mood forward in time, adding that it helps people "express our reality outside of everyday life."

Rio's Carnival celebrations will kick off on Feb 5.

A group of friends spent $1,000 buying out a Bedok minimart's stock to help its elderly owner call it a day early, but she had other plans - joining them in distributing the food to residents instead.

Taking to social media on Friday (Oct 30), one of the friends, who goes by the name Jay Tan, shared the heartwarming gesture, explaining that the group had wanted to buy out a minimart aunty's stock and distribute the goods to charity.

In the video , Tan is heard explaining that the items were being bought for charity before approaching the stall owner and handing her cash. He also tells her that she can rest early for the day.

However, he later shared that the owner had expressed interest in joining them to distribute the items to nearby residents.

A federal immigration officer charged with aggravated assault after he ran over a Mexican man with his car in Houston will turn himself in on Monday (Nov 2), according to his attorney.

Mario Alberto Morales, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old construction worker, with his unmarked SUV on Oct 10, as he chased Parra Hernandez through a parking lot. A grand jury indicted Morales on Friday on a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Morales is planning to turn himself in at a courthouse sometime on Monday, David Lindenmuth, his attorney, told The Associated Press. Lindenmuth previously told the AP that the incident was "clearly just an accident" and that local officials had "invented a crime out of thin air."

Parra Hernandez broke his leg and is recovering at a rehabilitation facility while in federal custody, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told reporters on Friday.

SINGAPORE — Where junior software developers were once hired to hammer out routine code, they are now expected to act as critical gatekeepers by auditing AI-generated drafts for security, logic and business fit.

With the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence that can take over routine tasks, employers across sectors are no longer content with entry-level workers who can produce a first draft of software code or marketing scripts, business associations, schools and manpower groups told The Straits Times.

Instead, being able to put AI tools to work while applying sound judgement skills is now the new basic expectation.

This shift comes amid concerns from the Government about the "bottom rung" of the career ladder being broken by AI, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong earlier in October.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — An ageing NASA telescope is barely clinging to space after a failed rescue effort left it tottering lower and lower.

The US Space Force predicts the Swift Observatory will come crashing down on or around Friday.

Most of the 1 ½-ton telescope is expected to burn up in the atmosphere. But a handful of pieces made of denser-than-lead tungsten and some mirror parts could survive reentry, according to NASA's Brad Cenko, the mission's chief scientist.

Any surviving wreckage will most likely plunge into the ocean. But swaths of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America are within the reentry zone. The Space Force is tracking the telescope's dwindling path.