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A US citizen whose Singapore permanent residence status was revoked after the government identified him as being an agent of foreign influence yesterday said he had appealed the decision to expel him.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.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to