Malaysia's judiciary faced fresh allegations of high-level corruption yesterday when opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim released a video apparently showing a lawyer claiming to have bribed a top judge.
Anwar sparked an outcry in September when he made public a secretly filmed video clip of a man who appeared to be prominent lawyer V.K. Lingam telling someone on the phone in 2001 that he could use his political and business connections to get that person promoted as chief justice.
Anwar released what he said was the next segment of that video yesterday. The five-minute footage showed the same man in the video alleging that he had given "the most expensive gift" to a former top judge and taken him out to dinner three times.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The release of the clip in September led the government to order a public inquiry that began on Jan. 14. Lingam has refused to confirm or deny whether he is the man in the video, claiming he cannot recall the incident.
Anwar said the clip highlighted the urgency for the inquiry to "operate with the highest level of integrity and transparency so as not to be seen as feeding the rot which has tarnished the Malaysian courts."
Lingam testified at the inquiry yesterday that he was approached in 2000 by another lawyer who wanted him to ask former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad to appoint that lawyer as a judge. Lingam said he told the lawyer that he "couldn't help him."
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS