President Donald Trump said on April 23 the United States is in no rush to end the war with Iran but “the clock is ticking” for the Islamic republic, as a third aircraft carrier arrived in the Middle East.
Iranian media reported blasts over the capital Tehran, a first since an increasingly tenuous ceasefire in the Middle East war came into effect two weeks ago.
It was not clear what caused the blasts, though an Israeli security source told AFP that their country was not currently striking Iran.
Prospective peace talks in Pakistan were hanging in the balance, meanwhile, with no sign of a return to diplomacy to end a standoff in the Strait of Hormuz.
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PHOTO: AFP
President Donald Trump on April 24 vowed the United States would destroy any vessel laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, as he ratchets up pressure on Iran to reopen the crucial sea passage.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be… that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our mine ‘sweepers’ are clearing the Strait right now.”
Iran has pledged it will keep the strategic strait closed to all but a trickle of approved vessels for as long as the US blockades its ports, brushing off Mr Trump’s demands.
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PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES VIA ISTOCKPHOTO
Anonymised medical data of half a million members of UK health database Biobank was temporarily listed for sale on an Alibaba-owned Chinese website, the government said on April 23.
Data minister Ian Murray told Parliament that the breach involved the information of all 500,000 Biobank members.
“This has been an unacceptable abuse of the UK Biobank charity’s data,” he said, adding that the data was downloaded legitimately by three research institutions in China.
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PHOTO: REUTERS
The United States imposed sanctions on April 23 on a Cambodian senator, alongside people and entities in his network, charging that they have been “defrauding Americans” at scam compounds across the South-east Asian country.
Senator Kok An and his affiliates were said to have operated “out of casinos and office parks retrofitted for fraudulent activity,” laundered victims’ funds and provided a base to target US citizens, the US Treasury Department added in a statement.
Besides him, 28 people and entities were also targeted by the Treasury.
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PHOTO: AFP
As 41-year-old Ms Annie Tse visited her flat in Hong Kong for the first time since a massive fire in 2025, a blackened staircase brought back memories of her lucky escape.
The world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980 killed 168 people when it ripped through seven of the eight apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court complex in November.
For the first time since then, around 6,000 residents are being given three-hour windows starting this week to enter their homes and get their belongings.
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