A Malaysian man pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling after his bag bursting with 95 live boa constrictors broke open on a luggage conveyer belt at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, an official said Friday. Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 52, who was previously convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States, was charged Wednesday in a district court with exporting the endangered boas without a permit, said Shamsuddin Osman, an official with Malaysia's wildlife department.
Earlier this week, I wrote about the BBC's decision to pull a planned Hardtalk interview with Raja Petra Kamarudin, a controversial Malaysian blogger, because of legal advice. The decision has been heavily criticised on independent Malaysian blogs and news websites with many accusing the British state broadcaster of caving in to pressure from the Malaysian government.
Malaysian prosecutors charged a newspaper editor Thursday with publishing false information in a satirical blog post that poked fun at the national electricity company. Irwan Abdul Rahman, editor of the Malay Mail newspaper's lifestyle section, pleaded innocent in a district court near Kuala Lumpur to a charge of transmitting content that is "obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with malicious intent," said the newspaper's editor, Ahirudin Attan.
The BBC's Hardtalk programme has dropped a planned interview with Raja Petra Kamarudin, a leading Malaysian blogger who fled to the UK, following advice from the broadcaster's lawyers.
A week is a long time in politics, as they say, but in this internet-centric age, a week in the the web can be even longer. To keep up with what's happening in Asia, every Monday I recap my pick of Asia's key tech/digital news and articles from the previous week, while also including a round-up of the week's posts from this blog too.
Well, the image of “travelling in tour groups” has taken a severe battering of late. First, there was the Hong Kong tour guide rant at a group of Chinese tourists for not shopping enough, which makes you wonder how long these zero-commission tours should be allowed to continue. Then, we watched in horror as a bungled attempt to rescue a group of tourists from the Hong Thai bus in Manila unfolded before our very eyes this week.
The empowerment of the customer in Asia is the biggest change that’s taken hold in the regional travel market in the last decade, said Kathleen Tan, group head of commercial for AirAsia. “There’s the empowerment to fly and there’s the empowerment to buy. Low cost airlines and the Internet have changed buying behaviour in Asia. There’s more virtual planning – people can do a lot more search – and they book instantly.
We've heard of falling housing markets, but this seems extreme, writes Asia Sentinel. The Sarawak Report, an NGO based in the east Malaysian state, has uncovered exhaustive evidence that the chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has looted Sarawak of hundreds of millions of US dollars and hidden the wealth in Canada, the UK, Australia and the United States.
One of the world's tiniest frogs — barely larger than a pea — has been found living in and around carnivorous plants on Borneo island, one of the scientists who made the accidental discovery said Thursday. Indraneil Das, a scientist at University Malaysia Sarawak, said he and another scientist from Germany were doing field research on frogs in Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island when they chanced on the tiny species on the edge of a road leading to the summit of a mountain in the Kubah National Park in 2006.
One of Mahathir's protégés evades charges, but his accusers are nearly capsized, writes Asia Sentinel. On June 4, 1995, Tajudin Ramli, then one of Malaysia's brightest bumiputera, or native Malay stars, was named a Tan Sri, the country's second highest honor, by the country's reigning sultan. At the time he had been the managing director of Malaysian Airline System, Malaysia's nationally owned flag carrier, since July 1, 1994.
A new Border Guard Force (BGF) program deadline for the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) also known as Mongla group has been scheduled. At an August 20 meeting, the Burmese junta instructed the two ceasefire groups to submit their agreement on transforming into BGF by the first week of September, said Shan Herald News.
Malaysian police Tuesday detained four ethnic Chinese teenagers who allegedly splashed red paint on a Muslim prayer hall, but denied the incident was linked to any religious dispute. The vandalism had earlier raised concerns about religious tensions in this Muslim-majority country after 11 churches, a Sikh temple, three mosques and two Muslim prayer rooms were hit by arson attacks and vandalism last January.
Malaysia
