The widow of a slain pro-Islamic State (Isis) Filipino leader, Omar Maute, whose group seized control of Marawi city in southern Philippines in 2017, has been freed from prison. Indonesian Minhati Madrais, 39, was married to Omar Khayyam Maute of the pro-Isis Maute Group, which he led together with his brother Abdullah Maute. Remnants of the Maute Group are believed to be waiting for her release from jail as she holds the key to their financing. “Minhati was freed very recently and she is…
Malaysia election just around the corner, potential PM candidate says
Malaysia’s opposition is preparing for early elections after a crucial vote in the lower house this week showed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin may lack a parliamentary majority, said Shafie Apdal, a potential rival for the premiership.Muhyiddin on Monday succeeded in his bid to replace the speaker of parliament’s lower house by a margin of two votes. But he fell one vote short of a simple majority with only half of the 222 lawmakers in the house voting for his motion.“It is not even a simple…
Surge in coronavirus cases triggers fresh lockdown for 250,000 in Manila
About 250,000 people in Manila will go back into lockdown, an official said Monday, as the number of new coronavirus infections in the Philippines surges.Residents in Navotas, one of 16 cities that make up the sprawling capital of 12 million people, will have to stay home for a fortnight, just six weeks after emerging from one of the world’s longest lockdowns.“I am not sure if this is a solution, but I am certain that if I do this the number of cases will not increase,” Navotas city mayor Toby…
Singapore’s Changi Airport was regarded as world’s best but how is it handling coronavirus pandemic?
Flying is often an afterthought when visiting Singapore’s Changi Airport. With its butterfly and orchid gardens, custom-made airport fragrance and glass-domed mall housing the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, the experience is considered the gold standard of international airports – a stark example of everything it’s austere American counterparts are not.But the airport crowned the world’s best eight years running has been humbled by the Covid-19 pandemic.Passenger traffic has plunged 99 per…
Philippines’ South China Sea arbitration win ‘non negotiable’, top diplomat says
The Philippines will adhere without compromise to a 2016 court victory that nullified China’s claims in most of the South China Sea, its top diplomat said.“The award is non-negotiable,” Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said in a statement on Sunday. He was commemorating the fourth anniversary of a Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision which ruled China had no historic right to resources within the seas falling within its “nine-dash line”.Locsin on Sunday also called on…
Coronavirus: Thailand eyes vaccine roll-out in late 2021 as it prepares for human trials
Thai researchers plan to begin human trials of a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus in November and are preparing 10,000 doses, a senior official said on Sunday, aiming for a vaccine that could be ready for use by late next year.Following favourable results in trials on primates, the next step is to manufacture doses for human trials, said Kiat Ruxrungtham, director of the Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University vaccine development programme.China’s military becomes world’s first to use…
In Indonesia, some cash-strapped residents are selling pet dogs to be cooked
When Indonesian doctor Susana Somali saw a social media video of a pregnant dog about to be slaughtered, she was overcome with shock. “Someone posted images of this crying dog on social media and I saw the tears in her eyes,” she said. “That’s when I became aware of the butchers.” Since then, Somali has been confronting butchers and helping to rescue the animals from the chopping block. Somali’s sprawling Jakarta complex, home to about 1,400 canines, has become a refuge for at-risk animals…
Singapore election: hard truths for the PAP as voters deny ruling party an easy ride into power
Singapore ’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong went into Friday’s general election saying a nation deep in “the crisis of a generation” needed the leadership of a strong People’s Action Party (PAP).In the early hours of Saturday, his government was presented with a different set of hard truths. Voters demanding a check on PAP power boosted the opposition’s small presence in parliament and raised questions about the government’s carefully orchestrated leadership succession plans.As expected, the…
Malaysia sought Hong Kong’s help in search for 1MDB scandal fugitives
Malaysia’s police sought help from Hong Kong authorities in its 1MDB probe that includes the hunt for Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the billion-dollar scandal.The police have sent letters and information to their Hong Kong counterparts to seek help in the investigation, Inspector General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.“It’s not only Jho Low, I know the locations of four or five other people, but we can’t get them because of these certain restrictions,” he…
Malaysia smashes US$14 million people-smuggling syndicate, arrests police, soldiers
Authorities in Malaysia’s southern Johor state on Friday said they had crippled a major people-smuggling syndicate which is believed to have brought some 43,000 people in and out of the country with the help of corrupt police officers, immigration personnel and soldiers, resulting in 122 arrests. Inspector-General of Police Ahmad Hamid Bador described the rogue security officers as “treasonous” and said they had enabled “thousands of migrants to breach” the country’s borders. As Malaysia…