MALAYSIA
PM dissolves parliament
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the dissolution of parliament yesterday, allowing for snap elections aimed at bringing political stability as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1MDB corruption scandal. “Yesterday I met the king ... and I sought his permission to dissolve the parliament. And the king agreed to my request to dissolve parliament today,” Yaakob said in a televised address to the nation. “I hope the people will use their votes wisely to vote for stability, economic growth and harmony in the country,” he said, referring to the mainly Muslim but multiracial Southeast Asian nation. He made the announcement a day after an audience with the king, Sultan Abdullah, who gave his consent. No date has been given for an election, but under the constitution polls must be held within 60 days following the dissolution of parliament.
UNITED STATES
Daycare workers probed
State regulators are investigating after a video showing four daycare employees scaring children at a facility in an unincorporated northeast Mississippi community went viral on social media. The videos on Facebook show a daycare worker at Lil’ Blessings Child Care & Learning Center in Hamilton wearing a Halloween mask and yelling at children who did not “clean up” or “act good.” Children can be seen and heard crying and, at times, running away from the employee wearing the mask while another employee gives directions about which children acted good or bad. The employee in the mask is shown screaming a few centimeters away from children’s faces at times. Sheila Sanders, who has owned the business for the past 20 years, said she was unaware of the videos until Wednesday afternoon, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. Sanders said one video was filmed last month and another on Tuesday last week. “No one came forth to tell me it happened in September,” she said.
UNITED STATES
Two shot in New York
Two people were shot on Sunday outside the home of New York congressman and Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who has made addressing crime and violence a key point of his campaign, he said in a statement. The shooting appeared to have no connection to the Zeldin family, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing police and officials familiar with the ongoing probe. Zeldin said he did not know the identities of the two individuals who were shot, but said they had been laying down under his front porch and the bushes in front of it. Zeldin said only his two daughters were at home at the time of the shooting. Further details of the shooting and its motives were not clear. “My daughters are shaken, but ok. Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door,” Zeldin said in his statement.
UNITED STATES
One killed in bar shooting
An early Sunday shooting outside a bar in downtown Tampa, Florida, has left one person dead and six wounded, police said. The Tampa Police Department said in a news release that the shooting occurred about 3am outside the LIT Cigar & Martini lounge. Two groups that had been arguing inside the club continued their confrontation outside when one person began shooting. One man was killed and six people were taken to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
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