- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
Taiwan, Hungary deny making Hezbollah pagers
Taiwan and Hungary on Wednesday denied making pagers that exploded while being used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon, killing 12 people.
The New York Times, citing American and other anonymous officials, reported that Israel had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan's Gold Apollo.
Taiwanese prosecutors launched an investigation.
Gold Apollo denied producing the devices and instead pointed the finger at its Budapest-based partner BAC Consulting KFT.
But Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the company "is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary".
"The referenced devices have never been in Hungary," Kovacs said on X, formerly Twitter.
He added the case "poses no national security risk" and Hungary was cooperating "with all relevant international partner agencies and organisations" in further investigations.
- 'Not our products' -
Earlier Wednesday, Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang said the pagers were "100 percent not" made in Taiwan.
"They are not our products from beginning to end. How can we produce products that are not ours?" Hsu told reporters in Taipei.
The company said in a separate statement that it has established a "long-term partnership" with the Hungarian company to use its trademark and the model mentioned in media reports "is produced and sold by BAC".
Taiwan's economic affairs ministry said Gold Apollo's pagers made in Taiwan only have "a receiving function" and the capacity of their built-in battery "is about that of an ordinary AA battery that is not possible to explode to cause death or injury".
"After reviewing media reports and pictures, we think it's very questionable that (the model used) is the company's product," the ministry said, adding that there is no record of the company directly exporting to Lebanon.
But BAC Consulting CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono told US broadcaster NBC News that her company worked with Gold Apollo but did not make pagers.
"I don't make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong," NBC cited Barsony-Arcidiacono as saying on the phone.
Barsony-Arcidiacono did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The explosions in Lebanon killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded up to 2,800 others.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the attack.
- Sole employee -
At BAC Consulting's registered postal address in a Budapest suburb, a woman there told reporters that the two-storey semi-detached building belongs to a company providing virtual business addresses.
Barsony-Arcidiacono appears to be the only employee of the company founded in 2022, according to legal documents consulted by AFP, which also report an annual revenue of 210 million forints ($590,000) and profit of around 18 million forints.
On an archived version of a currently inaccessible website, the consultancy described itself as "agents of change with a network of consultants", while Barsony-Arcidiacono touted her experience as a "strategic advisor" for international organisations.
The Times reported about 3,000 pagers were ordered from Gold Apollo, mostly its AR924 model.
"Our company only provides the brand trademark authorisation and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product," Gold Apollo said.
The company declined to comment further, citing ongoing investigations.
"We have assigned the case to the chief prosecutor of the national security team to actively investigate. Our office will clarify the facts of the case as soon as possible," Taipei's Shilin District Prosecutors Office said in a statement.
"If there is any illegality involved, it will be severely punished in accordance with the law," the office added.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, previously told AFP that "the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices" which appear to have been "sabotaged at source".
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the explosions.
burs-jza/rox
L.Davis--AMWN