Author: viking

Malaysia’s counterterrorism officers this month arrested three Islamic State terror suspects, including a Malaysian national who rejects the country’s government and believes Muslims who take part in democratic elections are infidels, police said on Thursday.The suspects – from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh – were detained in a swoop operation conducted between May 17 and 30, said Police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador.The Malaysian suspect, a 42-year-old contractor, was arrested at…

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday offered a forceful defence of embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei, suggesting Western nations bent on shutting it down were being hypocritical in their concerns over the company’s ties to Chinese cyber espionage.In back-to-back public appearances in Tokyo, the 93-year-old premier dismissed the prospect of his country joining the likes of the United States and its allies – including Japan – in banning government purchases of the Shenzhen…

An unauthorised payment surcharge imposed on an individual who participated in a pension liberation scheme was confirmed by the tax tribunal as it said the individual had not acted reasonably in entering into the scheme.

The United States’ move on Wednesday to include Southeast Asian economic powerhouses Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam on a list of countries it is scrutinising for unfair currency practices has been met with strong official pushback – as well as a healthy amount of ridicule from analysts.While nine countries – including China, and US treaty allies Japan, Germany and South Korea – were named on the latest list of countries requiring extra attention, none were identified as currency manipulators…

UK tax authority HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is warning energy businesses of the risks of being caught up in VAT fraud relating to Guarantees of Origin (GOs).

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s assurance of preferential treatment for Malay and other indigenous businesspeople when awarding contracts for the multibillion-dollar China-backed East Coast Rail Link has been sharply criticised by political analysts and the opposition for deviating from his administration’s pledge to enhance multiracialism.His government said it would continue affirmative action for Bumiputra companies – a term referring to the Southeast Asian nation’s Malay and other…

The UK’s Environment Agency (EA) has used powers introduced last year for the first time, blocking access to an illegal waste site after obtaining a restriction order against the company.

Malaysia will send back 10 shipping containers of contaminated plastic waste illegally shipped from countries including the United States and Japan, according to environment minister Yeo Bee Yin, who labelled the local importers who allowed the rubbish in “traitors” to the nation’s sustainability.“Malaysia won’t continue to be a dumping ground for the developed nations and those responsible for destroying our ecosystem with these illegal activities are traitors,” Yeo on Tuesday told reporters. …

Two people, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in a market place bombing in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, a military spokesman said Tuesday – an apparent retaliatory attack for the killing of a wanted rebel leader.Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, have since 2004 been plagued with conflict between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state, which annexed the region around a century ago.Around 7,000 people, mostly civilians,…

As the Korean war raged in the 1950s, eight students – all members of the North’s new elite, destined for a life of privilege and power – left for Moscow to study at a prestigious Russian film school. They never returned.Scattered to the corners of the Soviet Union after they chose asylum and exile to denounce the personality cult around the North’s founder Kim Il-sung, the eight of them lived as authors and filmmakers – forever separated from friends and family.“We call the places we are born…