Day: April 28, 2024

South Korea’s top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Corp. said Sunday they have inked an agreement with China’s tech giant Baidu to develop technologies for connected cars.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed in Beijing last week, the two South Korean carmakers and Baidu will join hands in a wide array of areas, including connectivity and self-driving technologies.

Hyundai and Kia will also utilize Baidu’s smart cloud computing technology to address Beijing’s enhancing data regulations.

The South Korean companies will seek to find new business models harnessing artificial intelligence technologies with the Chinese counterpart as well, they added.

“Through the strategical collaboration with Baidu, we will make efforts to establish the ecosystem for connected cars in the Chinese market,” Hyundai and Kia said in a press release.

The agreement came amid the growing market for connected cars in China.

The annual sales of connected cars in China are anticipated to reach 17 mil
lion units this year, marking a sharp rise from 7.2 million units tallied in 2019, Hyundai said, citing Chinese data.

Hyundai and Kia have been working closely with Baidu since 2014, including the development of voice recognition technology.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

BANDUNG: Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said that an earthquake with magnitude 6.5 rocked Garut District, West Java, Saturday night, but no tsunami warning was issued.

“The modeling results show that this earthquake does not have the potential to cause a tsunami,” the head of the BMKG Earthquake and Tsunami Center Daryono said in Bandung Sunday.

He explained that the tectonic earthquake occurred in the sea on Saturday evening (April 27) at 11:29 p.m. local time at a distance of 156 kilometers southwest of Garut District at a depth of 70 kilometers.

The shock was felt in several districts including Tasikmalaya, Garut, Sukabumi, and Bandung City. However, until Saturday evening, there had been no official report on the impact caused by the earthquake.

The earthquake was an intermediate type due to the rock deformation activity in the Indo-Australian Plate which was subducted under the Eurasian Plate in the south of West Java.

The agency concluded by paying attention to the epicenter
location and the depth of the earthquake hypocenter.

“The result of the epicenter mechanism analysis showed that the earthquake had an upward movement mechanism,” he said.

Daryono said there was no aftershock activity until 11:55 p.m. local time.

However, he appealed to the public to avoid buildings that are easily damaged or cracked when an earthquake occurs.

“Remain calm and not be influenced by issues whose truth cannot be justified,” he added. (Antara)

Map of the epicenter of an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 in Garut District, West Java, Saturday (April 27, 2024) night.

Source: Philippines News Agency

MANILA: Another vessel of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) was spotted Sunday near the “Balikatan” multilateral maritime exercise (MME) area off Palawan waters.

The PLAN vessel (bow number 578) was spotted around 9 a.m. between seven and eight nautical miles of the MME flotilla, sailing in the northern part of Palawan as of this posting, Western Command (Wescom) spokesperson Capt. Ariel Joseph Coloma said in an interview.

“I cannot speak for them but we are monitoring them, and we record then we report whatever our ships are monitoring in the area,” he said when asked what the Chinese vessel was doing.

Coloma said the first PLAN vessel (bow number 793) spotted Saturday was no longer in the vicinity.

Filipino, American and French naval vessels conducted a search and rescue training with photo exercise Sunday.

The ships are the Philippine Navy’s offshore patrol vessel BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16) and landing dock BRP Davao Del Sur (LD-602); USS Navy’s landing ship dock USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49);
and French Navy’s Floreal-class frigate FS Vendémiaire (FFH-734).

Coloma said they were not bothered by the presence of the uninvited ship as there was no provocation.

“As long (as) we continue to monitor and report them, we are in control of the situation, and besides tuloy-tuloy pa rin naman ang exercises (and besides the exercises are still ongoing),’ he added.

The MME started April 25 and will end April 29.

Source: Philippines News Agency

South Korea and Cuba have agreed to open diplomatic missions in each other’s countries, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Sunday, as a follow-up step to the establishment of their diplomatic relations earlier this year.

A South Korean delegation, led by Song Si-jin, director general for planning and management at the foreign ministry, visited Havana from Wednesday through Saturday and discussed efforts to open the missions with Cuban officials, the ministry said in a release.

“The two countries agreed to establish permanent embassies in Seoul and Havana, respectively, and exchanged diplomatic letters confirming this,” the ministry said.

Based on the agreement, the government plans to set up a temporary mission in Havana and dispatch diplomats as an interim step before establishing a permanent embassy, the ministry said.

On Feb. 14 (Seoul time), South Korea and Cuba made the surprise announcement on the establishment of diplomatic relations, in an apparent heavy blow to North Korea that has touted “brotherly”
ties with Havana.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun has visited Saudi Arabia to attend a non-regular session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) as the South Korean government representative, his office said Sunday.

Ahn took part in the WEF’s Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development in Riyadh, set for Sunday through Monday (local time), Seoul’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said.

The forum in Riyadh is a special WEF session that has been organized aside from the two main annual meetings that take place in Switzerland and China. The latest Davos forum was held in January.

During the meeting, Ahn participated in panel discussions, including an informal gathering of world economic leaders, known as the IGWEL session, the ministry said.

Ahn is expected to have bilateral meetings with some top government officials of the participating countries and discuss economic cooperation in a range of areas, such as energy and investment, his office said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The incoming head of South Korea’s leading doctors’ lobby group reiterated on Sunday the call for the government to scrap the planned medical school quota hike to initiate dialogue with the medical community.

About 12,000 trainee doctors have left their worksites since Feb. 20 in protest of the plan to boost the number of medical students by 2,000, causing delays in medical treatments, with some emergency rooms partially limiting their treatment of critically ill patients.

Lim Hyun-taek, the president-elect of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), pressed the government to fully scrap its proposed medical reform plans, including the medical school quota hike, to open a discussion with doctors from scratch.

“This is not a conflict between the medical community and the government. Rather, it is a unilateral abuse of power by the authorities,” Lim said in a general meeting of the KMA in Seoul. “Otherwise, the medical community will not budge, and not respond to any call for negotiations.”

A presidential com
mittee on medical reform was formally launched on Thursday to seek a breakthrough over a prolonged walkout by doctors, but the KMA has been boycotting the initiative as well.

Lim, known for his hawkish stance in the ongoing stalemate with the government, is set to begin his official term starting on Wednesday.

Last week, the police conducted an additional raid on Lim, who is accused of having instigated collective resignations by junior doctors

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it additionally seized Lim’s mobile phone and sent investigators to his office in western Seoul and his residence in Asan, 83 kilometers south of Seoul.

The police seized Lim’s phone in their previous raid in March, but it was confirmed to have been used by him in the past.

Source: Yonhap News Agency