MALAYSIA
Death penalty to be revised
The Cabinet agreed to abolish the mandatory death penalty and give judges the discretion to mete out other punishments to offenders in capital crimes — including murder, drug trafficking and terrorism. The move would require several legal amendments, Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin wrote on Twitter yesterday. The Cabinet agreed that further research into the matter was needed to ensure the amendments would take into account principles of proportionality and constitutionality, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department For Parliament and Law Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said. Then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad in 2020 planned to draft a bill to end the mandatory death penalty, but his government collapsed before that could happen.
UNITED NATIONS
Five nations enter council
Member nations on Thursday elected five countries to join the Security Council — Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland. Winning a seat on the 15-member council is considered a pinnacle of achievement for many countries because it gives them a strong voice on issues of international peace and security. Besides Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many other conflicts have over the past few months been on the council’s agenda, including Syria, Yemen, Mali, Myanmar, and the nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran.
FRANCE
Trial of serial rapist begins
A former janitor accused of dozens of rapes and sexual assaults in France and Belgium over several decades was to go on trial yesterday, after admitting to a spate of assaults. Dino Scala, 61, known as the “Rapist of the Sambre” — after the river near several towns along the France-Belgium border where he operated — was arrested in 2018, after his DNA was first found at a crime scene in 1996. He confessed to about 40 rapes and assaults he attributed to uncontrollable “compulsions.” The youngest victim was 13, the oldest 48, and most were attacked the same way — surprised on deserted streets, strangled and dragged into nearby bushes.
UNITED STATES
Britney Spears marries
Pop star Britney Spears has married her long-time partner Sam Asghari at a Southern California ceremony that came months after she won her freedom from a court conservatorship. Asghari’s representative, Brandon Cohen, confirmed the couple’s nuptials, saying: “I am very ecstatic this day has come... I know he wanted this for so long.” The wedding happened nearly seven months after Spears’ conservatorship ended. While seeking an end to the court case that controlled many aspects of her life, Spears expressed her desire to marry Asghari.
JAPAN
Amino acids found on asteroid
Asteroid dust collected by a space probe indicates that some of the building blocks of life on Earth might have formed in space, scientists said yesterday. Pristine material from asteroid Ryugu was brought back to Earth in 2020 after a six-year mission to the celestial body about 300 million kilometers away. Scientists are only just beginning to discover its secrets in the first studies on small portions of the 5.4 grams of dust and dark, tiny rocks. The group of researchers led by Okayama University said they had discovered “amino acids and other organic matter that could give clues to the origin of life on Earth... The discovery of protein-forming amino acids is important, because Ryugu has not been exposed to the Earth’s biosphere.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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