Malaysia detains hundreds of migrants arriving on boats
At least 1,000 migrants, including many Rohingya Muslims, sent to detention centres after landing on island of Langkawi.
| Humanitarian crises, Malaysia, Myanmar-Bangladesh, Asia Pacific, Migrants
Malaysian police say more than 1,000 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found "illegally" trying to enter the country at the popular resort island of Langkawi.
The 1,018 migrants, many thought to be members of Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community, landed on Langkawi late on Sunday night.
"The first capture by the police was made when a boat with the illegal immigrants was stranded at the beach in Langkawi, [and] the second capture was at Tanjung Biawak, Kuala Temonyong," said Mohd Yusof Abdullah, commander of the Langkawi marine police.
"All the illegal immigrants that have been arrested will be sent to detention centres," he added in a statement.
Fears that North Korea could have submarines with ballistic missiles in three years
South Korean officials warn of threat posed by recent successful test firing of missiles
North Korea’s recent test-firing of a ballistic missile from a submarine was “very serious and concerning”, South Korea said on Monday, with one defence official suggesting Pyongyang could have a fully operational platform in two or three years.
Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency said on Saturday North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, oversaw the test-launch of the missile from an offshore location. Such a development could pose a new threat to the isolated country’s neighbours and the United States.
“We urge North Korea to immediately stop developing SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles), which hinder the stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia,” Kim Min-seok, spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry, told reporters on Monday.
Brazil plans to ‘nationalise’ rainforest in pioneering plan to protect Amazon
India court acquits politician Jayalalithaa of corruption
A high court in Indian city Bengaluru has acquitted Tamil politician Jayalalithaa Jayaram of corruption. The leader was accused of amassing assets disproportionate to her income nearly two decades ago.
A High Court judge in southern India's Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) overturned all charges of corruption against Tamil leader Jayalalithaa Jayaram on Monday.
Judge C. R. Kumaraswamy's bench dismissed all accusations in the final hearing of her case, which lasted a very short time. Jayalaithaa's close aide Sasikala Natarajan and two other relatives were also acquitted, the Press Trust of India reported.
Initial accusations against the 67-year-old politician were leveled in 1997, but a lower court found her guilty only last year, sentencing her to four years jail and forcing her to resign as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Her acquittal meant she could resume her ministerial office, the Times of India reported.
Syria's Assad regime arrests spy chief over suspected coup
May 11, 2015 - 11:57AMRuth Sherlock
Beirut: The Assad regime has placed Syria's intelligence chief under house arrest after suspecting he was plotting a coup, in a sign that battlefield losses are setting off increasing paranoia in Damascus.
Ali Mamlouk, head of the national security bureau and one of the few officials to have maintained access to President Bashar al-Assad, was accused of holding secret talks with countries backing rebel groups and exiled regime members.
Mr Assad is struggling to keep together the regime's "inner circle", who are increasingly turning on each other, sources inside the presidential palace said.
Even before Mr Mamlouk's arrest, the web of intelligence agencies with which the regime has enforced its authority for four decades was in turmoil, with two other leaders killed or removed.
China Says U.S. ‘Hyping Up’ Its Military Threat, Damaging Trust
China started to reclaim land in the South China Sea in 2014 in an effort to assert its territorial claims to more than 80 percent of the sea. Once completed the facilities could include harbors, surveillance systems and at least one airfield, the Pentagon said in its annual report on China’s military strategy. The effort has been accelerating in recent months, with 2,000 acres of reclaimed land currently, up from 500 at the end of December, a defense official said.
“The U.S. report makes willful speculations and comments on China’s military growth in defiance of the facts,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Sunday according to a statement on the ministry’s website.
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