Malaysia football suspends a top official over Fifa eligibility scandal

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) said on Friday it had suspended its secretary general and will form an independent committee to investigate a “technical error” that led to Fifa, the sport’s world governing body, suspending seven naturalised players of the national team over the alleged use of doctored documents.
During a heated press conference, FAM and its legal team denied it had committed forgery, but declined to address repeated questions from reporters on how the players were…

3 Singaporeans sanctioned over links to Cambodia’s Chen Zhi scam network

Three Singaporeans have been sanctioned for alleged links to a fraud empire involving a Cambodian conglomerate and its China-born chief executive, as part of the largest crackdown by the United States and United Kingdom on cybercriminal networks in Southeast Asia.
Of the three, Chen Xiuling, also known as Karen, has resigned from her position as an independent non-executive director at Taiwan-based live streaming platform 17Live Group, based on a company announcement on the Singapore Exchange…

‘Ghost sounds’ along Thai-Cambodia border summon war of words

Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen has complained to Kuala Lumpur that Thailand has been broadcasting “ghost sounds” along the disputed border despite a Malaysia-brokered ceasefire agreement.
The former Cambodian prime minister wrote in a social media post that he had informed Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of the scary noises disturbing residents in the Sereng and Prey Chan border villages for four consecutive nights from Friday.
During the meeting on Tuesday, Hun Sen…

Pakistan and Afghanistan agree to ceasefire amid escalating tensions

Pakistan said on Wednesday it agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire with Afghanistan following days of violence that have killed dozens of people on both sides of the border.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the ceasefire was at Afghanistan’s request.
Moments later, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the truce was at “the insistence” of the Pakistani side. His social media post did not mention a 48-hour time frame. All Afghan forces have been instructed to observe the…

Given its rare earth vulnerability, US cannot risk all-out trade war

US President Donald Trump has returned to a trademark policy in announcing a new round of trade confrontation that clearly echoes the conflict he launched in his first term. Officially, the trade war began on January 22, 2018, when he imposed a 30 per cent import tariff on solar panels.
While such measures are usually justified by noble intentions – protecting domestic industries and reviving local manufacturing – in reality, trade wars are often driven by the desire to seize foreign markets and…

UK and US sanction Southeast Asian scam networks exploiting trafficked workers

Britain and the United States on Tuesday sanctioned a Southeast Asia-based multinational network accused of operating large-scale online “scam centres” that used trafficked workers to defraud victims around the world.
The British government said the centres, located in Cambodia, Myanmar and across the region, used fake job adverts to lure workers who were then forced to commit online fraud under threat of torture.
This included luring victims into fake romantic relationships before persuading…

Singapore doubles down on zero tolerance for identity politics

Singapore’s government has reinforced its bottomline of zero tolerance for the politics of race and religion as well as foreign interference, arguing that such elements should be rejected swiftly.
In parliament on Tuesday, Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh and Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam disagreed on the “timing” and “substance” of the WP in rejecting election endorsements by a self-styled Islamic preacher Noor Deros and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS)…