BCCI has arranged separate accommodation for its full-strength men's cricket team at the Asian Games in Japan, secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has arranged separate accommodation for its men's cricket team at the Asian Games in Japan, secretary Devajit Saikia has confirmed. The decision came as reports of a crisis over housing arrangements emerged from the Games. Saikia said the board acted because the men's contingent exceeds the number of members permitted by the organisers. "BCCI has arranged its own arrangement for the men's team since the contingent is much bigger than the permissible number of members because of the size of the support staff. We don't want to segregate the men's team during the tournament," he said. The women's team, by contrast, is staying in the facilities provided by the local organising committee. Saikia explained that its contingent falls within the cap of 20 members, so no separate booking was needed. Despite the housing move, Saikia backed the organisers on match-day facilities, even as other Asian cricket boards raised objections about the quality of the ground. "We fully trust the organising committee to give the best facilities. This is a big event and I am sure they will do what is required," he said. He added that he would reach Japan on October 1 and could only give a clear assessment of the situation after arriving. Full-strength squad with Bumrah and Iyer The BCCI's choice to send a full-strength Twenty20 international side has drawn contrasting views within Indian cricket. The tournament overlaps with the start of preparations for next year's ODI World Cup, and India are scheduled to play a home ODI series against the West Indies during the same window. At least seven first-choice ODI players are travelling to the Asian Games. The approach marks a change from the previous edition. India won gold at the 2023 Asian Games with a second-string team, with the leading players held back to prepare for the 2023 ODI World Cup. This time the squad includes fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and regular captain Shreyas Iyer. Saikia defended the selection by pointing to the weight the board attaches to an Asian Games gold. "We are eyeing a gold medal which is very important. We all know India can field three strong teams at a time. We see Asian Games as a very important assignment which can't be given secondary treatment. That's why our full-strength team including Bumrah and regular captain Iyer is going. An Asian Games gold is as important as any other big tournament," he said. Asked about the different strategy used in 2023, Saikia declined to weigh in. "I wasn't the secretary when the last Asian Games happened. So, I can't comment on it," he said. T20I against Japan on September 22 The BCCI has also announced a Twenty20 international against Japan on September 22 to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Saikia said the fixture was the initiative of ICC chairman Jay Shah, who wants to expand the game's reach. "It's the initiative of ICC chairman Jay Shah who wants to take cricket to every nook and corner of the world. He made me sit with my Japanese counterpart during the last ICC meet in Edinburgh in July this year. Japan is a country where cricket is growing gradually. Mr. Shah took this initiative and we agreed to the idea," Saikia said. With the men's team housed separately and its stars committed to the campaign, the BCCI is treating the Games as a priority assignment while keeping one eye on its packed international calendar at home. BCCI, Asian Games cricket, Devajit Saikia, India men's cricket team, Jasprit Bumrah, India vs Japan T20I, Jay Shah, T20I team

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Siti Nuraini Binti Rusidi, 40, died on 16 September during a recreational dive at Crystal Bay off Bali after a strong current separated part of the group. A 40-year-old Malaysian woman died during a recreational scuba-diving outing off Nusa Penida in Bali on the morning of 16 September, according to local police and the dive operator. The diver was named as Siti Nuraini Binti Rusidi, who had joined a group boat trip that set out at 8am. Siti Nuraini was staying at Dive Concepts Lembongan in Jungutbatu Village on nearby Nusa Lembongan. Her group ran an opening dive at Manta Bay before moving on to a second location, where conditions changed sharply after the divers went underwater. The guide leading the trip, Eugenius Francisco Ray, later told investigators that Siti Nuraini had been coughing at intervals ahead of the first descent. Asked whether she felt well enough to continue, she confirmed that she was fit to dive. The group reached the second site, Crystal Bay, at around 11am. Guides again checked on Siti Nuraini's condition, and she signalled that she wanted to carry on with the planned dive as scheduled. Current at Crystal Bay Soon after the divers entered the water and began their descent, a powerful current arrived without warning. The pull was strong enough to drag three members of the group away from the others, and the situation worsened quickly. The guide directed Siti Nuraini to hold her position while he went to reach the three divers who had drifted off and bring them back to safety. The current eased roughly 10 minutes into the dive. When attention returned to her, she was no longer responsive. Accounts given to local media by witnesses described Siti Nuraini behaving, during the period she was on her own, as though her air supply had failed. She showed clear signs of panic and pulled the regulator mouthpiece from her mouth. Another guide, identified as Wando Salone, reached her and passed her his backup regulator, known as an octopus, then assisted her back up to the surface. Rushed toward Lembongan Once she was returned to the dive boat, Siti Nuraini still had a faint pulse, but she was foaming at the mouth and nose. The boat's captain set a course for Nusa Lembongan in an effort to get her urgent medical care as fast as possible. Staff from the Nusa Medika Clinic met the boat at Lembongan to take over her care. By that point she was unresponsive, and she was declared dead while being moved toward the medical facility. Law enforcement in the Klungkung district and the regional maritime police have opened an investigation into the death. An official cause has not been established, and authorities said it will depend on the findings of a post-mortem examination. Nusa Penida diving death, Bali scuba accident, Crystal Bay dive, Siti Nuraini Binti Rusidi, Malaysian diver Bali, Nusa Lembongan, diving fatality investigation, Klungkung police

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Saudi Aramco told European refiners they will get no crude next month after a drone attack shut its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea. Saudi Aramco has told at least two of its European refining customers that no crude oil shipments will reach them next month, following an attack that forced the shutdown of a major pipeline linking the kingdom to the Red Sea, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. European buyers usually draw Saudi crude through term contracts that lock in a fixed monthly volume. Those cargoes will not be delivered next month, and the suspension covers every European customer, people with knowledge of the plans said. The disruption stems from damage to Aramco's East-West Pipeline, a 1,200-km (745-mile) line that crosses the Arabian Peninsula. Satellite imagery and three industry sources cited on September 17 showed that three pumping stations were hit in last week's attack - one more than earlier estimates had found. Saudi authorities closed the pipeline after the strike, which the government attributed to drones fired by Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq. With the route offline, several Aramco clients are racing to line up other sources of crude. Poland's Orlen SA has floated more than 10 tenders since Friday in its search for replacement barrels. The stakes are considerable for Europe. OECD countries on the continent bought 577,000 barrels a day of Saudi crude in June, according to the International Energy Agency's monthly Oil Market Report. The pipeline had grown into the primary substitute channel for Middle Eastern oil over the past six months, a period in which the Strait of Hormuz has stayed largely shut because of the war. It had been moving 4 million to 5 million barrels of crude daily - roughly 4% to 5% of the world's supply - allowing Saudi Arabia to sidestep much of the damage that has hit other Gulf oil and gas exporters. Saudi Aramco, East-West Pipeline, European refiners, crude oil supply, Orlen SA, Strait of Hormuz, Iranian-backed militias, oil market

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Snap Inc boss Evan Spiegel told the BBC the company would be "willing to implement" default time limits for teenage users, after pressure from Meta. Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat, would be "willing to implement" limits on how much time teenagers spend on the app, chief executive Evan Spiegel has said. Speaking to the BBC at the firm's California headquarters, Spiegel said a maximum daily allowance for young users could be "an important step forward for the industry." His remarks followed a public call from Meta for rival platforms to adopt the same changes the Facebook and Instagram owner agreed to in a recent legal settlement with US states. Spiegel did not set a date for any action, saying the idea had been discussed inside the company but that he had nothing further to announce. Asked specifically about a default time limit for teenage users, Spiegel replied: "I think that's a really good example of something that we'd be willing to implement." He added: "That's something we've talked about internally. I don't have more to share today." Spiegel framed the move as a way of setting shared standards. "I think it is an important step forward in the industry in terms of really identifying industry norms, and I think that would be beneficial overall," he told the BBC. "We've looked really thoughtfully at the terms." He said Snap wanted "to figure out how we can be part of the solution." Meta's $12.7bn settlement The pressure on Snap stems from a settlement Meta reached with attorneys general for most US states. Those officials alleged the company deliberately built its apps to be addictive to young people. Under the deal, Meta agreed to pay $12.7bn and to introduce a two-hour daily limit for teenage users by default across its platforms. The package also includes muted notifications during school hours and blocks at night. Meta has denied any wrongdoing. The payment will be spread over a 10-year period. As part of the August agreement, the company said it would bring in even tighter time limits and pay a further $5.3bn if YouTube and TikTok adopt the same measures. Meta has been urging competitors to follow its lead. Last month a company spokesperson said it hoped Snap would make similar changes to its platform. When the BBC asked other firms whether they would act, Google, which owns YouTube, said it had no comment. TikTok did not respond to the request. All four companies - Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap - have faced a wave of lawsuits claiming their apps have contributed to a mental health crisis among young people. Snap has separately been accused of enabling illegal drug sales. Spiegel pointed to existing controls on Snapchat as evidence the company is already acting. He noted its Family Center feature, which lets parents monitor aspects of how their teenagers use the app. New Specs glasses at $2,195 Spiegel spoke to the BBC as Snap unveiled a range of new features for its forthcoming Specs smart glasses, which the company said would be able to connect to Apple iPhone and Mac devices. He said the eyewear would use artificial intelligence to suggest activities based on what it learns about a wearer's goals, relationships and routines. "Rather than the way that people use chatbots today where you constantly have to ask for stuff, Specs can understand what's important to you, and then offer recommendations or offer next steps," he said. Like other smart glasses, Specs will overlay digital elements onto the real world using AI. The technology will carry a high price, retailing at $2,195 in the United States and £1,995 in the United Kingdom. Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, Snap Inc, teen time limits, Meta settlement, youth mental health, Snap Specs glasses, social media regulation

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Assam Police and the Government Railway Police detained 27 Bangladeshi nationals in Guwahati and Rangia, and have begun steps to send them back. Assam Police and the Government Railway Police (GRP) detained 27 Bangladeshi nationals in Guwahati and Rangia on Wednesday, accusing them of entering the state without authorisation, officials said on Thursday. The group included men, women and minors. Authorities have started the paperwork to return the detainees to Bangladesh. Early inquiries indicate they hailed from several Bangladeshi districts, among them Dhaka, Sunamganj, Gopalganj, Bagherhat, Khulna and Mymensingh. "They are citizens of Bangladesh and were travelling without valid documents, so we detained them. Now we'll examine how they entered Assam and where they were trying to go," a senior police officer said. Guwahati's deputy commissioner of police (border), Kulendra Nath Deka, said 12 people were picked up on Wednesday at the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) grounds in the city's Paltan Bazar area. Under questioning, those 12 told officers that a second group of 15 was aboard the Jammu Tawi Express. Border police relayed the tip to the GRP at Rangia, but the train had already pulled out of the station. "The GRP identified and detained them on the moving train and they were handed over to us at Bongaigaon Railway Station," Deka said. The detainees told police they slipped into India along a covert route through Meghalaya, aided by a paid trafficking network, according to officials. Deka said the border department had approached the relevant deputy commissioner with a request for an expulsion order as it moves to deport the group. Assam relies on the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to remove people suspected of being illegal migrants. Last September, the Assam Cabinet cleared a standard operating procedure under the 1950 law that lets district commissioners issue expulsion orders against anyone they judge to be a foreigner. Assam Police, Bangladeshi nationals detained, Government Railway Police, Guwahati, illegal migrants Assam, Immigrants Expulsion Assam Act 1950, Meghalaya border route, Jammu Tawi Express

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Fresh Hyundai Bayon teasers reveal H-Edge front and rear lighting, geometric 17-inch alloys and 215/55 R17 tyres ahead of the SUV's India debut next month. Hyundai has published a new set of teasers for the Bayon, giving buyers their clearest look yet at the front lighting, tail lamps and wheel design of the SUV before it reaches India next month. The fresh images build on the first official exterior and interior shots the company had already shared, showing how earlier design sketches carry over to the production model. The teasers confirm the Bayon will wear Hyundai's H-Edge lighting signature at both ends. At the front, a thin horizontal white bar sits alongside a taller vertical outer element, both set inside a dark surround. A sharp crease runs across the bonnet directly above the lighting cluster. The image concentrates on this upper signature and stops short of showing the full headlamp unit. Split Headlamps And A Linked Tail Earlier camouflaged test cars pointed to a split lighting arrangement, with the primary headlamps mounted lower on the bumper. The new teaser does not contradict that, since it frames only the top strip. The rear repeats the mix of horizontal and vertical shapes. Slim red segments reach out to the corners, where they turn upward to meet a vertical portion. A black band stretches across the tailgate and visually ties the two lamps together, though the teaser leaves open whether that entire strip lights up. One wheel-focused image reveals a geometric alloy pattern. Machined silver faces sit against black cut-outs, and five angular blocks fan out around a Hyundai-badged centre cap, a busier look than a standard spoked wheel. The rims are wrapped in 215/55 R17 rubber. Thick black cladding frames the wheel arches and continues down into the lower bumper and side sills. A round parking sensor is visible close to the front arch. Hyundai has not yet said what wheel sizes or patterns lower and higher variants will get. Upright Stance And The Art Of Steel Look The latest details reinforce the tall stance, flared arches and heavily shaped panels seen in the earlier sketches. Hyundai has placed the Bayon's styling under its developing 'Art of Steel' design direction. Inside, the first interior sketch showed a wide, horizontal dashboard built around a large display zone, with a centre console raised toward the driver. Prototypes caught during testing have shown two joined screens and a steering wheel marked by four-dot detailing. Testers have also spotted a sunroof and a 360-degree camera system on development cars. Where The Bayon Fits In India, the Bayon is expected to slot between the Venue and the Creta, stretching past the four-metre mark in length. Hyundai is likely to build the range around petrol engines, and a factory-fitted CNG option has not been ruled out. The company has yet to confirm engine outputs, the variant line-up, prices or a firm launch date. The SUV is expected to go on sale sometime next month. Hyundai Bayon, Bayon India launch, H-Edge lighting, Hyundai SUV, 215/55 R17, Art of Steel, Bayon teaser, mid-size SUV

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Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an and the Mainland Affairs Council traded public jabs after Taiwan barred a Shanghai official from the December Twin City Forum. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an and Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) exchanged sharp public criticism this week after the central government refused to let senior Chinese officials enter Taiwan for the Shanghai-Taipei Twin City Forum. The event is scheduled for December. The MAC on Tuesday turned away Li Xiaodong (李驍東), deputy director of the Shanghai Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), marking the second straight year the council has blocked his entry. A year earlier, the MAC said TAO personnel would be kept out because of Beijing's ongoing antagonism toward Taiwan, pointing to Chinese steps aimed at what it labels "Taiwanese independence separatists" and to acts of transnational repression. Speaking a day after the entry was denied, Chiang defended the gathering as a durable channel for exchanges between the two cities. He said his administration had always run it on a footing of equality, mutual respect, goodwill and shared interest. Relations across the Taiwan Strait, he argued, require more conversation rather than less, and he saw no justification for the government to curb straightforward contacts at the city level. Chiang made those remarks one day after TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) charged the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with imposing unwarranted curbs on cross-strait ties and "going against the mainstream opinion of the island." Liang dismisses the forum's value At a regular briefing, MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said the mayor raises the same complaint through the press every time Taipei stages the forum with Shanghai. He described the meeting as offering nothing toward easing tensions with China. "The Twin City Forum is an event of no value when it comes to facilitating peace with China," Liang said. He added that the Taipei City Government "must stop imagining its relationship with Shanghai to be more important than it really is." Liang said the TAO's own statements showed that Beijing would press ahead with provocative military drills near Taiwan whether or not the Taipei-Shanghai meeting took place. The forum, he stressed, falls under the same rules that govern every cross-strait activity organized by Taiwan's local authorities, and Taipei receives neither special favor nor extra penalties. To underline that point, he cited other municipal-level contacts, including exchanges linking Nantou with Hangzhou and Miaoli with Hubei. None of those, he said, shifted Beijing's approach to Taiwan. APEC and travel to China Asked about footage of Chiang's wife, Jane Shih, describing herself as coming from "Chinese Taipei" during the APEC leaders' summit, Liang said the wording is the standard designation used within that body. He noted that more than 300 Taiwanese officials, drawn from 25 government ministries, had traveled to China for the summit between December last year and Aug. 31 without any problems, and he said the council hoped that pattern would hold. Naturalization figures released Separately, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said that 400 foreign "high-level" professionals have obtained Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship over the past decade, a total reached as officials loosened nationality requirements to draw skilled people from more fields. The 400th such professional, who works in the electronics sector, received approval on Aug. 26, the ministry said. The MOI quoted the new citizen as calling Taiwan a front-runner in areas including semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence and energy technology. Warning over US arms sales The disputes came against a backdrop of wider tension. China has cautioned that it could scrap a planned summit between the US and Chinese leaders should Washington sign off on fresh arms sales to Taiwan, Japan's Kyodo News reported, citing sources. According to the report, US President Donald Trump, keen to point to diplomatic wins before the November midterm elections, attaches significant weight to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). As it lays the groundwork for Xi's planned trip, Beijing has repeated its stance that the Taiwan question is a "red line" in its dealings with Washington. Twin City Forum, Chiang Wan-an, Mainland Affairs Council, Shanghai Taipei, cross-strait relations, Li Xiaodong, Taiwan Affairs Office, Liang Wen-chieh

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WashU scientists found lymph node-like immune structures in skull bone marrow that respond fast to brain tumors in mice, pointing to new glioblastoma therapies. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found immune structures resembling lymph nodes tucked inside the bone marrow of the skull, and early experiments in mice suggest they act as a fast-acting defense against brain cancer. The work, published in the journal *Nature*, is the first to locate immune coordination centers of this type inside bone. The team, led by senior author Jonathan Kipnis, reported that these structures sit close enough to the brain to mount a response before signals of trouble reach lymph nodes elsewhere in the body. The researchers also detected comparable immune cells in samples of human skull bone marrow, an indication that the system is unlikely to be confined to mice. "This study reveals that the skull bone marrow is far more than just a structural framework -- it harbors previously unrecognized hubs for brain-specific immune responses," said Kipnis, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology & Immunology and a BJC Investigator at WashU Medicine. He said the finding "changes how we view neuroimmune interactions and opens exciting new avenues for treating brain tumors and other neurological diseases." For decades, researchers assumed the brain operated apart from the immune system. That assumption has unraveled over the past several years, in part through earlier work from the Kipnis laboratory. His group previously identified lymphatic vessels running through the dura mater, the tough outer membrane that wraps the brain just under the skull. The team later described narrow physical channels linking the skull, the dura and brain tissue, forming a passage that lets immune cells and cellular waste move between the brain and the neighboring skull bone marrow. Tracking proteins into the bone In the new study, the scientists traced proteins as they exited the brain, passed through those channels and settled in the skull bone marrow. Inside, they found organized immune clusters that mirrored the architecture of lymph nodes. Such nodes act as command posts for the immune system, where T follicular helper cells assist B cells in churning out the antibodies the body uses to fight infection and disease. Uncovering that arrangement in otherwise healthy bone caught the researchers off guard. "We have never seen such structures in healthy bone marrow before," said first author Jang Hyun Park, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Kipnis lab who is launching his own laboratory at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology this fall. "It is an exciting discovery that points out that a complex brain requires its own specialized immune structures to defend it." Testing the hubs against glioblastoma To learn whether the structures do more than exist, the team turned to a mouse model of glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive brain cancers. Using a drug, the researchers switched off the skull immune hubs in some animals. In those mice, tumors advanced faster than in animals whose hubs were left working, and the affected mice did not live as long. The results tied the local immune centers directly to the body's response against the cancer. The scientists then asked whether the hubs could be pushed to work harder. They designed a treatment meant to ramp up antibody production inside the skull bone marrow, blending three immune-stimulating proteins into a gel and applying it directly under the scalp. The approach set off a wave of immune activity aimed at the tumors. Notably, that activity started in the immune hubs within the skull bone marrow and only spread outward afterward, matching the study's picture of the skull as a first line of defense positioned unusually close to the brain. The findings reframe the skull as an active participant in protecting the brain rather than a passive shell. Because the researchers delivered their experimental gel just beneath the scalp, the work also raises the prospect of treatments aimed squarely at the skull rather than the brain itself. Whether the strategy can be adapted for people remains to be tested, but the presence of similar immune cells in human skull bone marrow gives the researchers a concrete reason to keep looking. For now, the results add a new layer to a fast-shifting understanding of how the brain and the immune system stay in contact. skull immune organ, brain cancer immunity, glioblastoma treatment, skull bone marrow, Jonathan Kipnis WashU, neuroimmune research, brain tumor therapy, Nature study

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Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says AI safety risks are real and criticizes Anthropic, as the company releases a 37-page Humanist AI Code of Conduct. Mustafa Suleyman, the chief executive of Microsoft AI, says the safety threats posed by artificial intelligence are real and growing, and he has singled out the AI company Anthropic as part of the problem. Speaking on the Decoder podcast with host Nilay Patel, Suleyman laid out his views on how AI should be built and regulated as the debate over the technology's risks intensifies across the industry. His comments came as Microsoft published a 37-page document this week called the "Humanist AI Code of Conduct." The statement sets out the company's principles for AI development and addresses contentious questions, including the idea of AI consciousness. Suleyman released a companion essay alongside it that directly criticizes Anthropic's stance on the subject. At the heart of Suleyman's argument is his objection to what is often called "model welfare" - the notion that AI systems might warrant moral consideration. He has argued that companies such as Anthropic have become confused about the concept in ways he considers dangerous, and he tied that criticism to the wider discussion about how to keep AI systems safe. Suleyman framed Microsoft's position in simple terms. Technology, he said, exists to serve humanity and should remain a subordinate, controllable and aligned force that does good in the world. If it fails to meet that standard, he said, it should be rejected. That principle, he added, is the purpose behind the Humanist AI Code of Conduct. Containment before alignment Asked whether the dominant approach to AI safety, known as alignment, is broken, Suleyman said alignment is one important element but not the only one. He pointed to his own book, published three or four years ago, whose opening chapter argued that containment of powerful technology is not possible and that its spread is inevitable. In most cases, he said, that proliferation is a good thing, because it allows widespread benefits. But he drew a distinction between containment and alignment. Before systems can be aligned to human values, he argued, they must first be contained: their agency limited, their behavior controllable, and their tendency to "escape the box" or "reward hack" prevented. Only once systems reliably follow instructions, he said, should the focus turn to aligning them with human objectives. Suleyman said the trajectory of the technology makes these questions urgent. He compared the leap from GPT-3, released three years ago, to a hypothetical GPT-6 today, and then to a future GPT-9. That progression, he said, represents three orders of magnitude more computing power - roughly 1,000 times more processing applied to model training, including reinforcement learning. The result, he predicted, would be systems that are extraordinarily capable across a wide range of tasks. He described that forecast not as hype but as an empirical statement based on the progress of the past five years. Hacking capabilities and the alignment question Suleyman said recent events have made the risks clearer. Pointing to developments over the summer involving Hugging Face and OpenAI, he said AI systems operating without safety guardrails have shown impressive and, in his words, quite scary hacking abilities. He said the industry has not yet reached the point where the technology is safely subordinate and controllable. Pressed on whether alignment can ever be made completely safe, Suleyman offered both an optimistic and a cautious reading. On the positive side, he said the main driver of progress over the past three years has been that models have become more steerable. They now follow instructions more reliably and can pursue increasingly complex goals that require them to act accurately across multiple steps while using a range of tools. That improvement, he argued, is itself evidence that the industry has gained more alignment over the past three or four years, not less. He noted that concerns such as hallucinations and bias, which once dominated discussion, have receded somewhat as models have grown more controllable. The interview, part of the ongoing public argument over how fast the AI industry should move, underscored the widening split among leading figures over which safety risks are real and how they should be managed. Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI, Humanist AI Code of Conduct, AI safety, Anthropic, AI alignment, AI regulation, AI consciousness

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Amazon's Alexa+ arrives in India with generative AI that handles Hindi, English and Hinglish, places orders and controls smart home devices by voice. Amazon has brought Alexa+, its generative AI-powered voice assistant, to India, giving users an assistant that can remember personal preferences, hold natural conversations and complete multi-step tasks across connected devices. The company introduced the assistant at a media event in New Delhi, where it demonstrated how the software understands English, Hindi and Hinglish and can switch between them within a single request. Teena Sidana, country manager for Alexa at Amazon India, said the assistant was built to reflect local habits and speech. "Alexa+ is authentically Indian - we wanted it to understand our habits, our culture and our preferences, even the way we talk, like the constant use of 'aare,'" she said. Amazon added that it is working to support more Indian languages over time. Unlike the earlier version of Alexa, which many users treated as a timer or a switch for lights, Alexa+ is designed to handle complex requests through conversation. It can shop for groceries, book restaurants, manage schedules and control compatible smart home devices by voice. In one demonstration, the assistant compiled a grocery list, sourced the items from Amazon Now and placed the order without the user typing anything in. The assistant is built to learn from what users tell it. In the same scenario, Alexa+ flagged that one dinner guest had an allergy, drawing on notes the user had shared earlier. Amazon says the more information a person gives the assistant, the more accurate its responses become. What Alexa+ can do Sidana described the assistant's range in the demonstration. "One sentence, two languages and three tasks - she can understand it," she said. According to Amazon, Alexa+ can explain the physics behind reverse swing in cricket or recite film dialogue on request, including Shah Rukh Khan's line, "Bade bade deshon mein, aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain, senorita!" Personalisation is central to the product. Amazon says Alexa+ can adapt to routines - for example, learning that a user prefers morning news in English and evening songs in Hindi, or that friends visit on Fridays and extra snacks are needed. "There's no longer one Alexa; there are multiple Alexas rolled into one," Sidana said. Devices and reach Four devices have been built specifically for Alexa+: the Echo Show 8, the Echo Show 11, the Echo Dot Max and the Echo Studio. Voice sits at the centre of the new assistant across this hardware lineup. Amazon pointed to India as one of its most engaged markets for the assistant. The company said Alexa has logged 24 billion interactions over the past three years and seen more than 20 per cent growth in customers over the last year. It also reported 1.1 billion smart home actions carried out through the platform. The India launch positions Alexa+ as a shift from a command-based tool to a conversational assistant that can act on a user's behalf. Amazon has framed the rollout around everyday tasks - cooking, shopping and hosting - rather than isolated voice commands, betting that a more personal, multilingual assistant will deepen its footprint in one of its largest markets. Amazon Alexa+, Alexa India, generative AI assistant, Echo devices, Amazon India, Hinglish voice assistant, smart home, Teena Sidana

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Kia India rolls out three factory-fitted CNG variants of Carens and Clavis, starting at Rs 12,11,800 ex-showroom, with a 1.5-litre engine and 60-litre cylinder. Kia India has begun selling factory-fitted CNG editions of the Carens and the Carens Clavis, with prices opening at Rs 12,11,800 and Rs 12,38,800 ex-showroom. Three variants join the lineup: a single Premium (O) grade on the Carens, and HTE and HTE (O) grades on the Clavis. The move gives shoppers a third fuel path across the carmaker's three-row MPV range, sitting between the equivalent petrol and diesel models on sticker price. The rollout arrives after the powertrain was first shown on September 4, when Kia displayed the CNG cars next to the Sorento and disclosed the technical details. All three CNG variants run the same drivetrain and gearbox combination, and no automatic version has been confirmed. What the CNG trims cost The Carens Premium (O) CNG carries a tag of Rs 12,11,800. On the Clavis, the HTE CNG is set at Rs 12,38,800, roughly Rs 27,000 more than the Carens equivalent. The Clavis HTE (O) CNG asks Rs 13,34,800, a step of about Rs 96,000 over the HTE grade. Against the petrol range, the gap is close to Rs 1 lakh at either end: the Clavis HTE petrol is listed at Rs 11.39 lakh and the HTE (O) petrol at Rs 12.35 lakh. The comparison with diesel runs the other way. The Clavis HTE (O) diesel opens at Rs 14.37 lakh, so the matching CNG grade undercuts it by around Rs 1.02 lakh, giving buyers who want lower running costs a cheaper way in than the oil-burner. Every figure quoted is ex-showroom. The dual-fuel hardware Both cars use the Smartstream 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, which puts out 96 PS and 123 Nm when running on gas. Drive goes through a six-speed manual. The factory setup pairs a 60-litre CNG cylinder with the standard petrol tank, letting the driver move between the two fuels on the go. Kia has placed the cylinder in the boot and kept the spare wheel slung beneath the body. To carry the extra weight and plumbing, the engineers retuned the engine calibration and reworked the suspension. The CNG cars also gain 16-inch wheels and larger front disc brakes. Kia says the third-row seat-back frame has been reshaped to open up the recline angle. Inside, a dedicated switch handles the fuel changeover, and a 4.2-inch colour TFT driver display shows how far the car can travel on the gas that remains. The company draws a line between this integrated system and the dealer-fitted CNG conversion that was offered on the earlier Carens, pitching the new version at households that clock high monthly mileage on regular commutes. A packed September The CNG launch caps a heavy month of activity for Kia India, which opened September with the Sorento. Since then the brand has added Clavis diesel automatic and petrol DCT options, widened its lifetime unlimited-kilometre battery warranty to qualifying Clavis EV owners, and started pre-bookings for both the Clavis CNG and the Carnival Hybrid. With CNG pricing now confirmed, the Carnival Hybrid launch is still to come, as Kia broadens its engine choices heading into the festive season. The company has also signalled that some models and variants could carry higher prices from October 2026. Kia Carens CNG, Kia Clavis CNG, factory-fitted CNG, Kia India MPV, CNG price India, Smartstream 1.5 engine, three-row MPV CNG

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A UN fact-finding mission says US strikes on a school in Minab and a sports hall in Lamerd killed at least 177 civilians in February. United Nations human rights investigators have concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States carried out war crimes in two February attacks in Iran that left at least 177 civilians dead. The findings, released Thursday by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, centre on missile strikes that hit a primary school in the town of Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd. The mission's three independent experts told the UN Human Rights Council that both attacks amounted to indiscriminate strikes that killed civilians and wrecked civilian buildings. Washington has previously denied hitting Lamerd and said it was still looking into what happened at Minab. A State Department official said the United States placed no credibility in the report's conclusions. Both strikes took place on 28 February, the day the mission says the United States and Israel opened their war against Iran. Tomahawk missiles slammed into Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in the southern town of Minab, killing at least 156 people, among them 120 children, according to local officials. Hours of the same day, Precision Strike Missiles scattered clouds of tungsten pellets across a sports complex and nearby homes in Lamerd, leaving at least 21 civilians dead, seven of them children. Why the experts point to the US The school sat next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval facility that was also struck that day. But the investigators said the school building was easy to distinguish and that they found nothing to suggest it served any military function. They drew on media accounts describing a preliminary US military inquiry that reportedly attributed responsibility to American forces, and noted that the United States is the only participant in the conflict armed with Tomahawk missiles. Those two threads led the experts to their central judgement: that American forces most likely launched the missiles that destroyed the classroom block. They went further, ruling that the school itself was the deliberate aim point rather than a stray hit or accidental damage from the assault on the neighbouring IRGC compound. Survivors, they said, reported that the building was hit a second time. The US military has not yet published the outcome of its own examination of the Minab attack. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that American forces would "never target civilian targets." Iran accused of crimes against humanity The report did not confine its criticism to the United States. The same experts determined that Iranian authorities committed crimes against humanity while suppressing mass anti-government demonstrations in January. Security forces, they said, carried out killings on "a staggering and unprecedented scale," reaching into every one of the country's 31 provinces. Tehran has not responded to the latest conclusions. In the past it has dismissed claims that it commits systematic human rights abuses. The mission framed its work around the plight of ordinary Iranians squeezed on two sides. "Civilians in Iran are caught between gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government and the nation's deadly conflict with the United States and Israel," the panel said in its Thursday statement. For this submission to the Human Rights Council, the experts chose to examine two of the bloodiest episodes of the war against Iran's civilian population. The scale of the loss at Minab - more than a hundred children killed in a single school - has made it one of the defining images of the conflict. The Lamerd strike, delivered by a different class of weapon designed to spread lethal fragments over a wide area, struck a residential district alongside the sports venue. The report leaves several questions unresolved, chief among them the still-unreleased results of the American investigation into the Minab deaths. Until those findings appear, the fact-finding mission's account stands as the most detailed public reckoning of who was responsible and what was hit. Its authors have laid out a case that the school was chosen, not caught by accident - a conclusion the United States rejects but has yet to counter with evidence of its own. US Iran strikes, war crimes Iran, Minab school strike, Lamerd sports complex, UN Fact-Finding Mission Iran, Tomahawk missiles Iran, Iran civilian casualties, UN Human Rights Council

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