Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Swords, headsets and Indian wedding for Zuckerberg's Asia tour

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg would attend the March 1-3 pre-wedding celebrations of the son of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries

Swords, headsets and Indian wedding for Zuckerberg's Asia tour

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg was in Japan on Monday on a mini-Asia tour involving sword-making, mixed-reality headsets in Seoul, and reportedly also lavish pre-wedding celebrations for an Indian multi-billionaire's son.

Zuckerberg posted footage on Sunday on social media of a "special afternoon learning about making katanas" with a sword master, including of him hammering molten metal and swinging a blade.


The 39-year-old had been skiing in Japan with his family and was due to meet with Facebook developers in Tokyo on Monday and Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported.

Zuckerberg was then expected to travel to South Korea where he is lining up meetings with President Yoon Suk Yeol and leaders of tech titans Samsung and LG, according to South Korean media.

"Mark is planning a brief visit to the country and is scheduling some key meetings," Meta said in a statement to AFP without sharing further details.

South Korea is home to some of the world's biggest tech companies, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, global leaders in memory chips.

These two are among the few firms in the world that make high-end memory chips tailored for artificial intelligence processors.

During his South Korea trip, Zuckerberg will meet the CEO of consumer tech giant LG Electronics to discuss the development of a mixed-reality headset to compete with Apple's Vision Pro, the Korea Economic Daily reported.

In India Zuckerberg was set to attend the March 1-3 pre-wedding celebrations of the son of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of oil-to-telecoms giant Reliance Industries, Bloomberg said.

Meta, Google and others have invested billions of dollars in Reliance's digital unit Jio Platforms as it seeks to take on Amazon and Walmart in India's vast e-commerce market.

Ambani, 66, is the world's 10th-richest person according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list, while Zuckerberg is ranked fourth.

The other 1,000 invitees from politics, business, Bollywood and cricket for the pre-nuptials for Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, the daughter of an industrialist, reportedly include Bill Gates and Ivanka Trump. (AFP)

More For You

Streeting hails India’s global role as Labour backs bilateral relations

Wes Streeting addresses the Republic Day reception at the Guildhall in London last Tuesday (28),joined by Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Vikram Doraiswami

Streeting hails India’s global role as Labour backs bilateral relations

WES STREETING spoke of the priority prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour government attach to relations with India when he addressed a Republic Day reception at the Guildhall in London last Tuesday (28).

But the secretary of state for health and social care won over the large Indian crowd by paying an unexpected tribute to Rishi Sunak.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sri Lanka seeks to negotiate with Adani over renewable energy plants

Gautam Adani

Sri Lanka seeks to negotiate with Adani over renewable energy plants

SRI LANKA’S government started talks with India’s Adani Group to lower the cost of power from two wind power projects the group will build in the island nation’s northern province, the cabinet spokesman said last Tuesday (28).

Sri Lanka has been reviewing the group’s local projects after US authorities in November accused billionaire founder Gautam Adani and other executives of being part of a scheme to pay bribes to secure Indian power supply contracts. Adani has denied the allegations.

Keep ReadingShow less
Badenoch proposes stricter citizenship rules for all migrants

Kemi Badenoch delivers speech on January 16, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Badenoch proposes stricter citizenship rules for all migrants

CONSERVATIVE PARTY on Thursday (6) proposed a clampdown on all migrants by tightening citizenship rules and barring social benefit claimants from residency rights.

Kemi Badenoch, who took over from Rishi Sunak in November last year, outlined her first major policy agenda as Tory leader in a move seen as an attempt to win back the support of Conservative voters drawn to the far-right anti-immigrant Reform party.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pakistan court gives unusual punishment to Youtuber Rajab Butt for owning lion cub

Pakistani zookeeper Mohammad Amir holds the confiscated lion cub at Lahore’s safari zoo last Tuesday (28)

Pakistan court gives unusual punishment to Youtuber Rajab Butt for owning lion cub

A PAKISTANI YouTube star who was gifted a lion cub on his wedding day avoided jail after promising a judge to upload animal rights videos for a year.

Rajab Butt has one of the largest online followings in south Asia, and his week-long nuptials in December were plastered over celebrity gossip websites.

Keep ReadingShow less
Theft and violence in retail shops hit record high in 2024

The Labour government has pledged to address the rise in retail crime through stronger measures to tackle shoplifting and anti-social behaviour

iStock

Theft and violence in retail shops hit record high in 2024

THEFT and violence against retail workers in Britain soared to record levels last year, driven partly by criminal gangs, and are “out of control”, according to a report last Thursday (30).

The British Retail Consortium's annual crime survey found that more than 20 million thefts occurred in the year to August 31, 2024 – an average of 55,000 a day – costing retailers £2.2 billion.

Keep ReadingShow less