Former Malaysia PM Najib Razak banned from leaving country
Ex-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been banned from leaving the country, immigration officials say.
This comes after Mr Najib said that he and his wife were planning to go on an overseas holiday on Saturday.
Earlier this week, Mr Najib's long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition suffered a shock electoral defeat.
Mr Najib has been accused of diverting $700m (£517m) from a state investment fund in 2015, but has since been cleared by the authorities.
On Thursday, Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia's new prime minister, becoming the world's oldest elected leader at 92.
Iraq elections become a battleground for Iranian influence
Debate over role of party formed from Iraqi militias highlights impact of Iran-US fallout
In militia bases across Iraq, leaders who spent the past four years in military fatigues are wearing clean-cut suits and welcoming guests. Posters of martyrs lost in the fight against Islamic State adorn meeting room walls, but the photos of the living on the streets outside have taken on a new prominence.
Among banners of candidates’ faces lining every main road in the Iraqi capital are the main protagonists of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an organisation widely credited with defeating the terror group and which is determined to parlay its battlefield wins into electoral gains in Iraq’s first national election since 2014.
Of all the candidates, party lists and organisations contesting the poll, the PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi as they are known locally, stand to gain, or lose, most. Its leader, Haidar al-Ameri, and the incumbent prime minister, Haider al-Abadi are viewed as the preferred candidates of Iran and the US respectively. The PMF itself has become a microcosm of the tussle for influence between both powers.
IAEA nuclear inspector Tero Varjoranta steps down after US quits Iran deal
Tero Varjoranta, the chief of inspections at the UN nuclear watchdog has resigned suddenly, just days after US President Donald Trump quit the Iran accord. No reason was given by the IAEA for his departure.
The UN agency charged with checking Iran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord said that following Tero Varjoranta's departure its activities would "continue to be carried out in a highly professional manner."
The 61-year-old Finn became chief inspector of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in late 2013 after previously heading Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority.
"Mr Tero Varjoranta has resigned effective 11 May 2018," the IAEA announced. "The director general has appointed Mr Massimo Aparo, acting director, Office for Verification in Iran, as acting deputy director general and head of the Department of Safeguards, effective immediately."
19 dead in fighting between Myanmar army, rebels: military
At least 19 people were killed Saturday in northern Myanmar when ethnic rebels attacked security force posts in restive Shan State, army and local sources told AFP, the most deadly flare-up in recent years as fighting in the borderlands intensifies.
Rights defenders say clashes in the north near the China border have ramped up since January as the international community focuses on the Rohingya crisis in the west of the country.
The military stands accused of carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the stateless minority in Rakhine.
Hundreds of people in Mexico are kidnapped every year. And the problem’s getting worse.
It’s part of a trend experts refer to as the “democratization” of kidnapping.
By
David Ramirez, a 19-year-old college student from Mexico City, and his best friend Miguel Angel Rivera, 20, were on their way to celebrate Miguel’s birthday in Zihuatanejo, a coastal village in the Mexican state of Guerrero. They never made it.
Instead, they were nabbed en route by armed gunmen, making them just two of the thousands of Mexicans — rich and poor, young and old — kidnapped each year.
Ramirez was taken first, according to a text message that Rivera frantically sent to a friend. “Call David’s mom! They are putting David in a vehicle,” the message said.
U.S. MOVES FORWARD WITH MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR “SMART BOMB” SALE TO SAUDI ARABIA AND UAE DESPITE CIVILIAN DEATHS IN YEMEN
LAST MONTH, WARPLANES belonging to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen repeatedly bombed a wedding party in the northern part of the country, killing more than 20 people, including the bride, and injuring dozens of others. In the days that followed, local media published a photograph of a bomb fragment with a serial number tying it to the U.S.-based weapons manufacturer Raytheon.
Now the State Department is taking preliminary steps toward a massive, multibillion-dollar sale of similar weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three congressional aides, a State Department official, and two other people familiar with the sales told The Intercept.
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