Nicaragua hands 26-year jail term to bishop who refused exile

A NICARAGUAN court yesterday sentenced Catholic bishop Rolando Alvarez to 26 years in jail, a day after he refused to board a US-bound plane carrying 222 political prisoners into exile. A sentence read by an appeals court judge declared Alvarez, bishop of Matagalpa, to be “a traitor to the fatherland” and said he would not […]

Rejecting GTA is rejecting me, Dr Mahathir tells Pejuang

PEJUANG’S decision to leave Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) is a sign that it has rejected him, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. “Pejuang rejecting GTA is like rejecting me. This is because I am in GTA, but Pejuang does not want to be with us,” the Pejuang founder told reporters at the Perdana Leadership Foundation today.

No problem with Malay domination in civil service, says PM

THE government will not heed calls for reform of Malay monopoly in the civil service, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said today.  He said the government does not consider the dominance of the Malays in the public service sector to be a problem at the moment.   

Long-term air pollution exposure raises depression risk, studies find

LONG-TERM exposure to air pollution raises the risk of depression, according to a pair of new studies published in the Jama network of scientific journals. A study published yesterday in Jama Network Open found that long-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollution increases the risk of late-onset depression among the elderly.

Dr Mahathir to discuss with Muafakat on Malay group’s direction

GERAKAN Tanah Air (GTA) pro-tem chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad will meet Muafakat Nasional (MN) president Annuar Musa next week to discuss the direction the civil society group should take. MN supreme council member Khairuddin Abu Hassan said the meeting was arranged on the understanding that MN was set up based on the same fundamentals as […]

Sarawak to scrap sales tax on tyres

THE Sarawak government has agreed to abolish its 2.5% state sales tax imposed on tyres, Premier Abang Johari Openg said. Revenue from the tax, which was first introduced in January 2020, is being used to defray the expenses incurred by the state to dispose of used tyres.

Peru president calls for multiparty dialogue to end crisis

PERUVIAN President Dina Boluarte yesterday called for a multiparty dialogue to help resolve her country’s political crisis, saying two months of sometimes deadly anti-government protests had left the nation a “fragile democracy”. Boluarte became president on December 7 last year, after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and […]

Don’t be hasty, wait for immigration contract investigation, PM tells Muhyiddin

MUHYIDDIN Yassin must not be too hasty in claiming that investigations over allegations that he was involved in the awarding of the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) contract to a company linked to his son-in-law while he was prime minister were malicious, Anwar Ibrahim said. The prime minister said Muhyiddin should not be overplaying the […]