MALAYSIA
Mahathir under probe
The government has launched an inquiry into massive foreign-exchange losses by the central bank more than two decades ago, in a probe that could lead to criminal prosecution of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. Opposition leaders slammed the inquiry as a political ploy to discredit Mahathir just months after he set up a new political party. He leads an opposition coalition aimed at ousting Prime Minister Najib Razak in general elections due next year. Mahathir, 92, led the country for 22 years before stepping down in 2003. A five-member Royal Commission of Inquiry meeting for the first time yesterday said it would investigate how much the central bank lost in currency trading in the 1990s and determine if there was a cover-up.
AUSTRALIA
Drug raids net 17 suspects
Police in three countries have arrested 17 people and seized nearly 2 tonnes of drugs in connection with what Australian authorities said was an effort by organized crime groups to transport large amounts of drugs into the country. Federal Police said 10 people in Sydney, five Australians in Dubai and two people in the Netherlands were arrested yesterday as part of an investigation into what police say were two interlinked crime syndicates operating across the three nations. Officials in the Netherlands seized 1.8 tonnes of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, 136kg of cocaine and 15kg of crystal methamphetamine, all bound for Australia. The drugs were worth about US$640 million.
INDONESIA
Coffee for fighter jets?
The government yesterday said it would trade palm oil, coffee and tea for Russian fighter jets, saying it wanted to capitalize on international sanctions on Moscow as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to arrive for a visit. The two nations signed a memorandum of understanding to exchange 11 Russian-made Sukhoi fighters for key commodities in Moscow last week, a spokesman for the trade ministry said. The EU and US have targeted Russia with sanctions for alleged meddling in the US presidential election and its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. The exact time frame and value of the exchange were not clear.
SINGAPORE
American appeals expulsion
A US citizen whose Singapore permanent residence status was revoked after the government identified him as being an agent of foreign influence yesterday said he had appealed the decision to expel him. The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday said it had canceled the permanent residence of Huang Jing, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and of his wife, Shirley Yang Xiuping, also a US citizen. The ministry said Huang interacted with a foreign country with the aim of bringing about a change in the nation’s foreign policy and that his wife was aware of his activities. It did not identify the foreign country with which he was said to be interacting.
INDIA
Cops faked Everest climb
Two police officers who falsely claimed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest last year have been sacked, authorities said yesterday. Nepal’s government last year imposed a 10-year mountaineering ban on Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod, a married couple, after finding they had doctored photos to support their claim. Now the police force in the western Indian city of Pune where the couple worked has dismissed them after conducting its own investigation.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
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