Britain has agreed to take back 42 containers of plastic waste illegally exported to Malaysia, officials said Monday, as several Asian nations push back against becoming the world’s rubbish dump.Southeast Asia has been flooded with plastic from more developed nations such as the US and Australia since last year when China – which boasted a massive recycling industry – ordered a halt to imports.Many recycling businesses from China moved to Malaysia after the ban took effect, leaving officials…
Duterte fires Philippine vice-president Leni Robredo from anti-drugs tsar post after just 3 weeks
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday fired vice-president and arch-critic Leni Robredo from her post as overseer of his deadly drugs war, an aide said, just days after calling her a “scatterbrain” not to be trusted with state secrets.Robredo, 54, lasted less than three weeks as head of Duterte’s signature anti-narcotics campaign, which she vowed to reform amid allegations that police were committing crimes against humanity in killing thousands of drug suspects.“The vice-president…
Duterte’s spokesman calls Bette Midler ‘gullible talking head’ after US actress says Trump is gateway to ‘dictator’ like Philippine leader
A Philippine official on Sunday lashed out at US actress Bette Midler for naming President Rodrigo Duterte as one of the world’s most notorious leaders, calling her “incompetent” and “a gullible talking head”.Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Midler, who has been a critic of Duterte and described him as a “murderous dictator” in a tweet in 2017, had no right to criticise the Philippine leader.“She has the right to criticise in her country as an exercise of her freedom of expression,”…
Teen Vietnamese UK truck victim had escaped from Dutch migrant centre
One of the 39 Vietnamese victims found dead in a refrigerated truck in Britain last month is a minor who disappeared from a Dutch asylum shelter previously, a newspaper report said on Saturday.The boy, whose name and age was not released, was among the bodies found near the southeast English port of Purfleet on October 23, the Algemeen Dagblad daily reported.“The teenage boy absconded from an extra-secure facility for vulnerable asylum seekers,” the paper said, quoting a source at the COA, the…
Isis terror tactics being exported to Southeast Asia, US official says
Islamic State militants are not heading to Southeast Asia “in droves” following the fall of the Caliphate even though the terror group has been encouraging its fighters in Syria to take the fight to other regions, according to the US State Department’s top counterterrorism official. “We have seen a few indications of an interest in travelling to Southeast Asia, but truth be told, it’s not one of the regions that Isis fighters seem to be heading to in droves,” Nathan Sales told a press briefing…
Key 1MDB witness Nor Salwani Muhammad praised by Malaysians for ‘pencil case’ recording
A key witness in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption trial has been lauded as a “national hero” by Malaysians, after she revealed in court that she had recorded a meeting between top officials discussing a 1MDB audit report and kept a copy of a document she was meant to destroy.Former government auditor Nor Salwani Muhammad, 52, said yesterday that she had taped a 2016 discussion between senior government officials and former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy, although she maintained…
Singapore executes Malaysian drug trafficker despite appeals
Singapore hanged a Malaysian heroin trafficker on Friday, despite appeals from his homeland to stay a “heart-wrenching” execution that critics said was too extreme for a low-level drug mule.The city state, known for strict enforcement of laws and low crime rates, steadfastly maintains that capital punishment is an effective deterrent against crime despite appeals from rights groups to soften its stance.Abd Helmi Ab Halim was sentenced to death in 2017 for transporting 16.56 grammes (0.58 ounces…
680 Chinese held in Malaysia over online scam targeting WeChat Pay users
Nearly 700 Chinese nationals have been detained in Malaysia after the Immigration Department raided the call centre of a suspected online scam syndicate based in the science park town of Cyberjaya. National news agency Bernama described the raid, carried out on Wednesday, as the largest this year. In addition to the 680 Chinese detained, a further 100 people escaped as immigration officers approached the six-storey building thought to house the call centre. The office had security guards,…
Vietnam tells importers to reject goods showing China’s nine-dash line claims
Vietnam wants its importers to ensure that nothing they bring into the country contains a disputed South China Sea map that has been spotted in items from vehicle navigation to solar inverter software.The Ministry of Industry and Trade, in a statement on its website, said companies must review contracts and improve their monitoring of imported goods. For high risk items like maps, publications and gadgets, importers must ask sellers for a “written commitment” that none of the products violate…
China can turn off the Philippine national power grid, officials say
Philippine senators have called for an investigation into the security implications of China’s part ownership of the national energy grid after officials said engineers in Beijing could black out the entire country with the flick of a switch.National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) president Melvin Matibag confirmed there was a “possibility” of such a scenario during deliberations in the Senate on Tuesday over the government budget for 2020.The State Grid Corporation of China holds a 40 per…