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By M JEGATHESAN KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2, 2024 (AFP) – Malaysia’s pardons board said on Friday it had halved the jail term for former prime minister Najib Razak, currently in prison for corruption, to six years. Najib was sentenced in 2022 to 12 years in jail for offences linked to the misuse of public money in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal. “After considering opinions and advice… the pardon board has decided to grant a 50 […]
BEIJING, Jan 26, 2024 (AFP) – China said Friday it had sentenced a British national in 2022 to five years in jail for spying, in its official confirmation of a case that had gone unreported until this week. The Wall Street Journal first broke news of the case of UK businessman Ian Stones on Thursday, reporting, citing his family and other sources, that he had disappeared in 2018 after decades of work in China. Asked […]
SEOUL, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – A South Korean ruling party lawmaker was “attacked” on a street in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam district on Thursday by an unidentified assailant, Yonhap news agency reported. Bae Hyun-jin, 40, was struck with an “object believed to be a blunt instrument” and was taken to hospital, the report said, adding her condition was “not life threatening”. The attack comes just about a month after the country’s opposition party leader Lee […]
By Hiroshi HIYAMA KYOTO, Japan, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced to death the perpetrator of a 2019 arson attack on an animation studio that killed 36 people, local media reported. The blaze that ripped through the studios of Kyoto Animation four-and-a-half years ago was Japan’s deadliest crime in decades, stunning the anime industry and its fans around the world. Shinji Aoba, now 45, broke into the building, spread […]
By Hiroshi HIYAMA KYOTO, Japan, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – A Japanese court found guilty on Thursday the perpetrator of a 2019 arson attack on an animation studio that killed 36 people, with a death sentence widely expected later in the day, local media reported. The arson attack four-and-a-half years ago at the studios of Kyoto Animation was Japan’s deadliest crime in decades, stunning the anime industry and its fans around the world. Shinji Aoba, […]
SINGAPORE, Jan 24, 2024 (AFP) – More than 6,300 people fell prey to “fake friend” scams in Singapore last year and collectively lost an equivalent of nearly $16 million, according to police. Such scams involve contacting victims, pretending to be someone they know, and asking for financial assistance. The wealthy city-state has been hit with a surge in scams in recent years, with authorities issuing frequent warnings to the public against fresh schemes from criminals. […]
HANOI, Jan 22, 2024 (AFP) – Vietnam sentenced nine people to death and two others to life in prison on Monday for their involvement in a cross-border drug trafficking ring, state media reported. The Southeast Asian country has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, and is notoriously secretive about its executions. At the end of a three-day trial, a court in central Nghe An province sentenced ringleader Tran Thi Mau, 56, and eight accomplices […]
QUITO, Jan 17, 2024 (AFP) – The prosecutor investigating a dramatic armed assault by gangsters last week on an Ecuadoran television station during a live broadcast was shot dead Wednesday, the attorney general said. A prosecution source told AFP that Cesar Suarez had been in charge of finding the gang responsible for the terror-inspiring attack on state-owned TC Television in the port city of Guayaquil by hooded assailants armed with guns and explosives. AFP obtained […]
MALINDI, Kenya, Jan 17, 2024 (AFP) – A Kenyan court on Wednesday gave prosecutors two weeks to conduct mental health assessments of a cult leader and suspected accomplices before charging them with murder over the deaths of more than 400 followers. Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in a case that shocked the world. Mackenzie was arrested last April after […]
MANILA (AFP) – The mother of a Filipino drug trafficker on death row in Indonesia begged the country’s president to free her daughter on Wednesday. The plea came a day after the Philippines made a fresh appeal for clemency for Mary Jane Veloso, who was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin and later sentenced to death. The mother-of-two won a last-minute reprieve from the firing […]
PORT MORESBY, Jan 11, 2024 (AFP) – Papua New Guinea’s prime minister pledged to crack down on “lawlessness” Thursday, following riots in which 15 people were killed as angry crowds torched buildings and ransacked shops. Violence erupted in the capital Port Moresby on Wednesday evening after a group of soldiers, police officers and prison guards launched protests against the government. Within hours riots had also taken root in the city of Lae, some 300 kilometres […]
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 5, 2024 (AFP) – South Africa’s ex-Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was released from jail on parole Friday and “is now at home”, authorities said, almost 11 years after he shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in a crime that gripped the world. Having served more than half his sentence, the 37-year-old double-amputee was quietly whisked out from the Atteridgeville prison on the outskirts of the capital Pretoria, avoiding the hordes of media gathered […]
