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by M. Jegathesan KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia was plunged into a bitter power struggle Wednesday as Mahathir Mohamad sought to form a unity government following his shock resignation, but old foe Anwar Ibrahim also pushed to become premier. The shock developments deepened a crisis that began when the ruling coalition — which included both men when it stormed to a historic poll victory in 2018 — fell apart after a failed weekend bid […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — A Chinese man infected with coronavirus and his wife have been charged in Singapore for lying to health authorities investigating whether they had passed the illness to others, officials said Wednesday. Singapore has recorded nearly 100 cases of the COVID-19 infection since the illness first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December. With nearly 2,800 confirmed deaths and more than 81,000 cases worldwide, Singapore has banned the entry of […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday proposed forming a unity government in his first public comments since his shock resignation as prime minister plunged the country into turmoil. Political factions have been jockeying for position after a bloc of ruling coalition lawmakers and opposition parties attempted to form a new government and stop the rise of Mahathir’s designated successor Anwar Ibrahim. There were also reports that lawmakers from the collapsed “Pact […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Five people were killed, three more are missing and thousands are unable to return to their waterlogged homes after floods submerged parts of Indonesia’s capital, officials said Wednesday. The muddy deluge inundated the presidential palace, a major hospital, and entire neighborhoods across Jakarta on Tuesday, only weeks after 70 residents of the low-lying megacity died in some of the deadliest floodings in memory. Two teenagers were among the five people drowned […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A strong 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit a remote part of eastern Indonesia Wednesday, the United States Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning. The undersea quake struck at a depth of some 61 kilometers (38 miles), about 280 kilometers southwest of the city of Tual in the archipelago’s Maluku province. The Southeast Asian country is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth. In 2018, a 7.5-magnitude quake and […]
by Sam Reeves KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, at 94 the world’s oldest leader, submitted his resignation to the king Monday after a bid by his allies to bring down the government and block the succession of leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim. The shock move followed 24 hours of political drama which saw an attempt by Anwar’s rivals within his own “Pact of Hope” coalition, which stormed to a historic election victory in 2018, and […]
by Sam Reeves KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysian politics was in turmoil Monday after leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim denounced a “betrayal” by coalition partners he said were trying to bring down the government, two years after it stormed to victory. Anwar’s “Pact of Hope” alliance was thrown into crisis after his rivals within the coalition and opposition politicians met at the weekend reportedly to try to form a new government. Speculation is mounting that Anwar, […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A stridently anti-military Thai party was dissolved Friday and its key members banned from politics for a decade over a $6 million loan by its billionaire founder, a withering blow to the kingdom’s pro-democracy movement. The Future Forward Party (FFP), fronted by the charismatic auto-parts scion Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, emerged from nowhere in March last year to become Thailand’s third-biggest party in the first elections since a 2014 coup. The party’s radical […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Nearly 900,000 pangolins are believed to have been trafficked across Southeast Asia in the past two decades, a wildlife watchdog said Thursday, highlighting the challenge in tackling the illicit trade. As the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal, the creatures are targeted for their body parts which are highly valued in traditional medicine in countries including China and Vietnam, and their meat is seen as a delicacy. Also known as the […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — A woman was killed Tuesday at a Bangkok mall in shooting Thai police blamed on “jealousy”, less than two weeks after a soldier went on a gun rampage which left 29 dead at another shopping complex. The incident occurred inside a cosmetic clinic at the busy downtown Century Mall when a man burst in and gunned down his former partner over an alleged affair. One woman was killed and another was […]
https://youtu.be/o15Ei–Kblk by Aidan Jones, with Dene-Hern Chen in Pattaya, Thailand Agence France Presse Elephant parks unvisited, curios at markets unsold as tuk-tuks sit idle: Southeast Asia is facing billions of dollars in losses from a collapse in Chinese tourism since the outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus. From Luang Prabang in northern Laos to Pattaya in Thailand, Hoi An in Vietnam and the Cambodian casino town of Sihanoukville, takings have plummeted as Chinese travellers find […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted Thursday as fiery red molten lava streamed down from the crater and it belched clouds of grey ash 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the sky. Authorities did not raise the rumbling volcano’s alert status after the early-morning eruption, but they advised commercial planes to take caution in the area. But any activity at Merapi raises concern and local residents were […]
