Paris terror attack trial begins
PARIS, Jan 24: The first trial stemming from the November 2015 Paris terror attacks opens Wednesday when Jawad Bendaoud appears in court, charged with harbouring two of the jihadists in the aftermath of the carnage. Bendaoud, 31, became a national laughing stock after a television interview in which he came across as clueless, insisting "I didn't know they were terrorists". It provided a rare reason to laugh after the deadliest attacks in France since World War II, spawning endless parodies on the internet mocking his apparent naivety. Bendaoud stands accused of lending his apartment to Abdelhamid Abaaoud-a senior Islamic State jihadist suspected of coordinating the attacks that killed 130 people-and his accomplice Chakib Akrouh. — AFP
Malaysia probes online date breach
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24: Malaysia has launched an investigation after the details of 220,000 people who registered as organ donors were reportedly leaked online, the second big data breach in recent months. Details including the name, identity card number, age, race and address of people who had signed up between 2009 and 2016 were included in the data dump, technology website Lowyat.net reported. The data, which appeared to have come from a central database, also contained details of next of kin of those who had registered, it said. The Personal Data Protection Commission, which is under the authority of the communications ministry, said it viewed the report of the leak "seriously" and had started an investigation. — AFP
Two-day Czech presidential run-off begins Friday
PRAGUE, Jan 24: Czech voters will choose between two very different candidates -- pro-Russian incumbent Milos Zeman and pro-European academic Jiri Drahos -- during a presidential run-off on Friday and Saturday that is expected to go down to the wire. A poll by the Kantar TNS and Median agencies for the Czech Television showed on Sunday that 45.5 per cent of Czechs would vote Zeman against 45 per cent in favour of Drahos, with the rest undecided. "This is a showdown between two completely different candidates representing two parts of a rather split society," Tomas Lebeda, a political analyst at Palacky University in the eastern Czech city of Olomouc, told AFP.