Today's news: Pakistani court suspends sentence against former premier Imran Khan; Southeast Asians would rather side with China than the US; Pyongyang launches another missile towards the coast; King of Malaysia signals the end of 'honeymoon' for head of Anti-Corruption Commission; In Kazakhstan this year's floods were the most disastrous in three decades.
After waiting in vain for asylum in Malaysia where she converted to Christianity, Laleh Saati, 45, returned to Iran. A local court found her guilty of acting "against national security” based on alleged links to " Zionist Christian organisations". The video of her baptism was entered as “evidence” of her “crime”.
A group of 17 Christians took part in the gesture promoted by the diocesan office for human development. In Chow Kit they lived together with street people, sleeping next to them on cardboard boxes. "We experienced their love for their neighbour," one of the participants tells Herald Malaysia. The contact with poverty in one of the largest eononomies in South East Asia.
The decision by the KK Supermart chain to sell the offensive time has become a national cause célèbre. Wading into the controversy, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim calls for accountability without going “overboard”. For Michael Kong, a non-Muslim politician from Sarawak, in multiethnic Malaysia, “it is important for us to show understanding towards other races and beliefs.”
A gesture by a car dealership saleswoman mirrors a society divided between tolerance and fundamentalism. Internet users divided between those who appreciate the acceptance of the Hindu blessing and those who attack her for committing a grave sin for a Muslim. The case of the team consisting of a Hindu surgeon, a Buddhist anaesthetist and Muslim nurses who operated on a Catholic priest.
The Malaysian cabinet is sending one of its ministers to China to propose investments in a rare-earth refinery. It is unclear whether Beijing will make an exception to its ban on the export of technologies for the extraction and separation of rare earths. A local plant is also designed to cut a thriving illegal trade in critical minerals.
