Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has fully open-sourced an internally developed framework designed to run AI models efficiently, as a senior researcher at the company described the growing divide between open-source and closed-source AI as a battle between “light and darkness”. The company on Tuesday released DeepInfer, an inference framework tailored to support its DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash model on both Nvidia’s SM100 Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) and Huawei...

Laddli Khatun pulled one document after another from a yellow bag, desperately hoping one would be enough to keep her name on India’s electoral rolls. As the world’s largest democracy overhauls its voter lists, millions like Khatun are scrambling to re-establish their credentials, despite having voted before. Critics and opposition parties say the exercise risks mass disenfranchisement, and those removed fear wider citizenship repercussions. More than 133 million names – including 28 million...

Malaysia’s border control chief pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to two charges of assaulting junior police officers at the country’s main international airport last month, after a video of the confrontation went viral. Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain, director general of the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency, was filmed confronting two men at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on September 28. He previously linked the incident to an operation against airport touts following complaints about...

Malaysia is negotiating with Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to establish overland transit routes for fresh durian exports to China, according to Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu. The minister said the move would reduce transport costs and improve access to the lucrative Chinese market. “Durian is a favourite among Chinese consumers, but they sometimes find it difficult to get the fruit at a more affordable price,” he said during parliament’s question and answer time on...

The response came after Homeland Security ordered the removal and exclusion of products developed by the Chinese company.

A Singaporean couple who regularly abused their first child after he was born, resulting in his death at the age of eight months, were sentenced to jail on Wednesday. Chloe Gan Ci Xuan, 23, and Neo Jia Ming, 27, were sentenced respectively to 15 years and three months’ jail and 16 years’ jail for various charges over the death of their son, Trevor Neo Yu Hin. Gan pleaded guilty to three charges comprising causing the death of a child, ill-treating a child and permitting such ill-treatment. Neo...

Machines whirred around Siddiqui as her vision blurred and her heart hammered. The garment factory on the outskirts of Karachi was sweltering. The room was packed with sweating fellow workers and huge industrial equipment that radiated heat. The air felt thick with the humidity of this summer’s monsoon. Siddiqui, who asked to be identified only by surname, felt like she was suffocating. Concerned colleagues called over her supervisor. “The supervisor said, ‘Just complete this work,’” the...