LONDON – A new computer game launched in China encourages players to zap corrupt officials with an electric prod, the BBC reports. The game appears on the Chinese People's Daily website - the official news outlet of China's Communist Party - and is based on the same idea as Whac-A-Mole, the popular 1970s arcade game, the broadcaster said. When the action begins, a range of authority figures poke their heads out of one of eight prison cells, and the player has to give them a jolt from their mouse-controlled taser, the BBC added.
PRAGUE – Former Czech defence minister Martin Bartak pleaded not guilty in a case in which he is accused of accepting bribes during the purchase of Tatra lorries for the Czech military, Czech news agency CTK reports. If found guilty, he faces up to 12 years in prison, CTK said. Bartak called the charges absolute nonsense and an expediently fabricated construct, the news agency added.
MANILA – The Filipino Senate will resume plenary debates next week for a controversial Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, which is likely to be passed by the upper chamber in March this year, The Philippine Star reports. The FOI bill will not only deter graft and corruption but will also empower citizens to actively participate in governance, Senator Grace Poe-Llamanzares, the bill's sponsor and chair of the committee on public information and mass media, told the newspaper. The measure seeks to allow every Filipino citizen to request and be granted access to any government record or information, except those on matters that will affect national security, diplomatic relations and law enforcement operations, the newspaper said.
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