Top Asian News 4:36 p.m. GMT

Upstart Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s founder started out as a low-key hedge fund entrepreneur

BANGKOK (AP) — The 40-year-old founder of China’s DeepSeek, an AI startup that has startled markets with its capacity to compete with industry leaders like OpenAI, kept a low profile as he built up a hedge fund and then refined its quantitative models to branch into artificial intelligence. Liang Wenfeng, who founded DeepSeek in 2023, was born in southern China’s Guangdong and studied in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, home to e-commerce giant Alibaba and other tech firms, according to Chinese media reports. The hedge fund he set up in 2015, High-Flyer Quantitative Investment Management, developed models for computerized stock trading and began using machine-learning techniques to refine those strategies.

Trains canceled across Bangladesh as rail union goes on strike

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Trains were canceled across Bangladesh on Tuesday as railway staff went on strike for higher pensions and other benefits, affecting tens of thousands of passengers and freight transport. Saidur Rahman, acting president of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Union, said the strike was called after a meeting with the interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to reach a deal late Monday. Rahman said the strike would continue indefinitely if the government does not accept their demands. The state-run railway system carries some 65 million passengers per year in the densely populated nation of 170 million people.

New Zealand reviews its aid to Kiribati after the Pacific island nation snubs an official’s visit

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand is reconsidering all development funding to the aid-dependent island nation of Kiribati, following a diplomatic snub from the island nation’s leader, government officials said. The unusual move to review all finance to Kiribati was prompted by the abrupt cancellation of a planned meeting this month between President Taneti Maamau and New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, Peters’ office told The Associated Press on Monday. It followed months of growing frustration from Australia and New Zealand — jointly responsible for more than a third of overseas development finance to Kiribati in 2022 — about a lack of engagement with the island nation.

DeepSeek’s new AI chatbot and ChatGPT answer sensitive questions about China differently

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese tech startup DeepSeek ’s new artificial intelligence chatbot has sparked discussions about the competition between China and the U.S. in AI development, with many users flocking to test the rival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. DeepSeek’s AI assistant was the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple’s iPhone store on Tuesday afternoon and its launch made Wall Street tech superstars’ stocks tumble. Observers are eager to see whether the Chinese company has matched America’s leading AI companies at a fraction of the cost. The chatbot’s ultimate impact on the AI industry is still unclear, but it appears to censor answers on sensitive Chinese topics, a practice commonly seen on China’s internet.

Passenger plane catches fire at South Korean airport. All 176 people on board are evacuated

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A passenger plane caught fire before takeoff at an airport in South Korea late Tuesday, but all 176 people on board were safely evacuated, authorities said. The Airbus plane operated by South Korean airline Air Busan was preparing to leave for Hong Kong when its rear parts caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the southeast, the Transport Ministry said in a statement. All of the plane’s 169 passengers, six crewmembers and one engineer were evacuated using an escape slide, the ministry statement said. The National Fire Agency said in a release that three people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation.

2 soldiers, 5 militants killed in southwest Pakistan during attack on security post

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A group of militants attacked a security post in southwest Pakistan, triggering an intense shootout in which two soldiers and five insurgents were killed, military and local officials said on Tuesday. The overnight attack happened in Qila Abdullah, a district in Balochistan province, the military said in a statement. It said the attempt by insurgents to enter the post was foiled, and the attackers then rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a perimeter wall. The military said that the troops responded bravely and killed the attackers, who the military referred to as “khwarij,” a phrase which the government uses for Pakistani Taliban.

AP PHOTOS: Indonesia welcomes the Year of the Snake with dragon puppets and drum displays

BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) — From narrow side streets to packed malls, the traditional music and dance of dragon puppet performances have filled this bustling city south of Indonesia’s capital to usher in the Lunar New Year. Asian communities across the world will begin ringing in the Lunar New Year on Jan. 29, with 2025 designated as the Year of the Snake in the Chinese zodiac. Fireworks, parades and other Lunar New Year rituals are centered around removing bad luck and welcoming prosperity. In Indonesia, where millions of people have Chinese ancestry, crowds gathered in the city of Bohor to watch as drummers interspersed around puppet performers display the traditional dragon and lion puppets, which stretched up to 65 feet (20 meters) long in interconnected segments held by about a dozen people walking beneath.

New player arrives in US Steel-Nippon takeover saga with the goal of quashing it

An asset manager is seeking to quash Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel and oust the leadership of the U.S. steelmaker after taking a stake in the company. Ancora Holdings Group, with $10 billion in assets, reported acquiring a 0.18% stake in the Pittsburgh company. It said Monday that U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt and the company’s board have prioritized a sale to Nippon because they stand to receive more than $100 million if it goes forward. President Joe Biden blocked the nearly $15 billion acquisition this month — affirming an earlier vow to prevent the acquisition of Steeltown USA’s most storied steel company.

Chinese tech startup DeepSeek says it was hit with ‘large-scale malicious attacks’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chinese tech startup DeepSeek said it was hit by a cyber attack on Monday that disrupted users’ ability to register on the site. The company, whose artificial intelligence chatbot has sent the tech world into a frenzy, said that it had suffered “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services. Registered users could log in normally, DeepSeek said. DeepSeek began attracting more attention in the AI industry last month when it released a new AI model that it boasted was on par with similar models from U.S. companies such as ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and was more cost-effective in its use of expensive Nvidia chips to train the system on huge troves of data.

What to expect after South Korea’s impeached president was indicted on rebellion charges

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has become the country’s first leader to be indicted, less than two weeks after he was the first to be detained. The impeached, jailed president, who had been holed up in his presidential compound for weeks after issuing a shocking martial law decree last month, now faces rebellion charges that are punishable by the death penalty or life in prison. It’s part of a tortuous saga that has plunged South Korea into political turmoil and further riven an already divided society. And it’s not the only legal headache Yoon faces.