MALAYSIA
Police arrest 15 linked to IS
Authorities have arrested 15 people, mostly foreigners from Indonesia, on suspicion of having links with the Islamic State (IS) group, police said yesterday. The suspects were arrested in several raids across the country between July and this month, police counterterrorism head Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said in a statement. The first case involved a 25-year-old Indonesian palm plantation worker in Sabah state, who police believe had acted as a facilitator for a family of five that carried out a suicide attack on a church in Jolo, in the southern Philippines, in December last year. Ayob said that the suspect had also allegedly channeled funds to the Maute group, which seized control of the lakeside town of Marawi in the Philippines for five months in 2017, a conflict that killed more than 1,100 people.
SINGAPORE
Facebook tightens ad rules
Social media giant Facebook yesterday said that it had implemented new rules for political advertisements in the city-state ahead of an election expected within months. The new rules require those who want to run ads about social issues, elections or politics to confirm their identity and location, and disclose who is responsible for the advertisement. Facebook also requires “Paid for by” disclaimers in advertisements, which are to be stored in a searchable online library for seven years. Under pressure from authorities worldwide, Facebook last year started introducing several similar initiatives in various countries, including the US and India, to increase oversight of political ads.
UNITED STATES
Man returns from China jail
As the word dropped from Wendell Brown’s lips, the former college football player and Detroit, Michigan, native appeared to try to relish its taste for just a moment more: “Freedom.” After three years in a Chinese prison for allegedly assaulting a man during a bar fight, Brown on Wednesday returned home to the hugs and smiling faces of his loved ones. Outside of his family’s house on Detroit’s east side, he took a few moments to reflect on regaining his freedom. “We don’t really understand that word to its fullest extent until [we’re] without it,” Brown said. Brown was teaching English and coaching football in southwestern China when he was arrested in September 2016 and charged with intentional assault. He denied hitting the man and said that he was defending himself after being attacked. Witnesses said that Brown was being harassed by other patrons. Brown was the only person prosecuted. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but a court later reduced it to three years.
UNITED STATES
Cop takes plea in toilet case
A former Honolulu police officer on Wednesday pleaded guilty to failing to report that another officer forced a homeless man to lick a public urinal. Reginald Ramones is one of two officers arrested and charged with depriving the man of his civil rights. As part of a plea agreement, Ramones pleaded guilty to a lesser charge that he knew a fellow officer committed a civil rights breach and did not inform authorities. Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said that Ramones left the department last month. The second officer charged in the case, John Rabago, remains on restricted duty. He has pleaded not guilty. The plea agreement said that Rabago told the man he could avoid arrest by licking the urinal. The man reluctantly did. Ramones said that Rabago convinced him not to report it.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in