PUTRAJAYA, June 13 — Gombak Setia assemblyman Muhammad Hilman Idham lodged reports with the police and religious authorities today to formally trigger their investigations into sex videos implicating Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and an aide to a deputy minister.

Hilman, who is also Azmin’s political secretary, filed the reports separately this morning over the video clips that began circulating on the WhatsApp messaging service at 1.30am on Tuesday morning.

“I have lodged my report with the police and they have recorded my statement as a police witness. We will give our full cooperation to the police and the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) on all investigations.

“I am confident that these are false and evil accusations designed to tarnish the good name of Datuk Seri Azmin and I firmly state that this is an evil conspiracy to halt Azmin’s political career and his success as economic affairs minister,” said Hilman.

The PKR Youth deputy chief explained that he lodged the reports in his capacity as Azmin’s political secretary.

The qazf report was filed at the Jawi office in Putrajaya at around 11.45am while the police report was lodged with the Putrajaya police headquarter’s Criminal Investigations Department earlier.

Qazf is an Islamic term for when a person accuses another of adultery without the support of four male Muslim witnesses of impeccable character. It is considered a Shariah offence in Malaysia.

When asked if the reports were over the videos or Mohd Haziq Abdul Aziz’s confession to being the other person in the clips, Hilman said it was for the former.

Hilman added that the authorities should now be given space to investigate the videos and related allegations.

Aside from the two reports lodged today, Umno leader Datuk Lokman Noor Adam also filed a related complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday, although his report was aimed at Azmin.

The videos were first spread to journalists on a WhatsApp group created just for it and where several screenshots of purported bank transactions with Azmin’s name were also attached.

Later the same day, Haziq, the senior private secretary to Primary Industries Deputy Minister Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, allegedly admitted on his Facebook page to being the other person in the video.

Yesterday, Azmin rejected the videos as fake and an attempt to assassinate his career and character while Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also dismissed their authenticity last night.

Touching on Haziq’s membership in PKR, Hilman said it was up to the party’s secretary-general to decide.

BEIJING: Encrypted messaging service Telegram suffered a major cyber-attack that appeared to originate from China, the company’s CEO said Thursday, linking it to the ongoing political unrest in Hong Kong.

Many protesters in the city have used Telegram to evade electronic surveillance and coordinate their demonstrations against a controversial Beijing-backed plan that would allow extraditions from the semi-autonomous territory to the mainland.

Demonstrations descended into violence Wednesday as police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to storm the city’s parliament – the worst political crisis Hong Kong has seen since its 1997 handover from Britain to China.

Telegram announced late Wednesday that it was suffering a “powerful” Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which involves a hacker overwhelming a target’s servers by making a massive number of junk requests.

It warned users in many regions may face connection issues.

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, said the junk requests came mostly from China.

“Historically, all state actor-sized DDoS (200-400 Gb/s of junk) we experienced coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong (coordinated on @telegram),” he tweeted.

“This case was not an exception.”

Telegram later announced on Twitter that its service had stabilised. It also posted a series of tweets explaining the nature of the attack.

“Imagine that an army of lemmings just jumped the queue at McDonald’s in front of you – and each is ordering a whopper,” it said, referring to the flagship product of Burger King.

“The server is busy telling the whopper lemmings they came to the wrong place – but there are so many of them that the server can’t even see you to try and take your order.”

China’s foreign ministry and cyberspace administration did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

Telegram allows users to exchange encrypted text messages, photos and videos, and also create “channels” for as many as 200,000 people. It also supports encrypted voice calls. It announced last year that it had crossed 200 million monthly active users.

Encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp are preferred around the world by a wide variety of people trying to avoid surveillance by authorities – from Islamic State jihadists and drug dealers to human rights activists and journalists.

Governments in recent years have devoted significant resources to breaching the security features of these apps, according to tech firms and researchers.

Hong Kong is not behind China’s Great Firewall, which heavily restricts internet access in the mainland – where Telegram is blocked.

The city’s special status under its handover agreement allows freedoms unseen in mainland China, but many fear they are under threat as Beijing exerts increasing influence on Hong Kong.

The current protests were sparked by fears that the proposed law would allow extraditions to China and leave people exposed to the mainland’s politicised and opaque justice system.

BEIJING: Encrypted messaging service Telegram suffered a major cyber-attack that appeared to originate from China, the company’s CEO said Thursday, linking it to the ongoing political unrest in Hong Kong.

Many protesters in the city have used Telegram to evade electronic surveillance and coordinate their demonstrations against a controversial Beijing-backed plan that would allow extraditions from the semi-autonomous territory to the mainland.

Demonstrations descended into violence Wednesday as police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to storm the city’s parliament – the worst political crisis Hong Kong has seen since its 1997 handover from Britain to China.

Telegram announced late Wednesday that it was suffering a “powerful” Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which involves a hacker overwhelming a target’s servers by making a massive number of junk requests.

It warned users in many regions may face connection issues.

Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, said the junk requests came mostly from China.

“Historically, all state actor-sized DDoS (200-400 Gb/s of junk) we experienced coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong (coordinated on @telegram),” he tweeted.

“This case was not an exception.”

Telegram later announced on Twitter that its service had stabilised. It also posted a series of tweets explaining the nature of the attack.

“Imagine that an army of lemmings just jumped the queue at McDonald’s in front of you – and each is ordering a whopper,” it said, referring to the flagship product of Burger King.

“The server is busy telling the whopper lemmings they came to the wrong place – but there are so many of them that the server can’t even see you to try and take your order.”

China’s foreign ministry and cyberspace administration did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

Telegram allows users to exchange encrypted text messages, photos and videos, and also create “channels” for as many as 200,000 people. It also supports encrypted voice calls. It announced last year that it had crossed 200 million monthly active users.

Encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp are preferred around the world by a wide variety of people trying to avoid surveillance by authorities – from Islamic State jihadists and drug dealers to human rights activists and journalists.

Governments in recent years have devoted significant resources to breaching the security features of these apps, according to tech firms and researchers.

Hong Kong is not behind China’s Great Firewall, which heavily restricts internet access in the mainland – where Telegram is blocked.

The city’s special status under its handover agreement allows freedoms unseen in mainland China, but many fear they are under threat as Beijing exerts increasing influence on Hong Kong.

The current protests were sparked by fears that the proposed law would allow extraditions to China and leave people exposed to the mainland’s politicised and opaque justice system.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Teary-eyed, Malaysia’s number one badminton player Datuk Lee Chong Wei formally announced his retirement from the game today.

Hailed a national hero, his sports career spanned 19 years.

Also present at the news conference were Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman and his deputy Steven Sim.

MORE TO COME

PETALING JAYA: A think tank warns that it will be difficult to change the eating habits of Malaysians, as Putrajaya prepares to impose an excise tax of 40 sen per litre on sweetened beverages.

The Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy said tackling obesity and other health-related woes effectively would require a better programme that would teach people to make informed decisions.

“Changing behaviour is really difficult. This sugar tax may not be enough, but it is an excellent start. However, we should set targets to gauge its effectiveness,” said CEO Azrul Mohd Khalib.

Azrul said a practical aim would be to see at least half of all soft drinks reformulated to ensure lower sugar content.

“Children and young people need healthy diets, and adults in Malaysia are getting increasingly obese, even morbidly obese,” he told FMT.

The so-called sugar tax, to be imposed next month, will see an excise tax of 40 sen per litre on sweetened beverages with more than five grams of sugar or sugar-based sweetener per 100ml.

This includes carbonated drinks as well as flavoured and other non-alcoholic beverages.

The tax will also be imposed on juice or vegetable-based drinks with over 12g of sugar per 100ml.

While the health ministry and other related agencies have welcomed the tax as a step towards addressing issues such as obesity, critics say it will not be enough to make a difference.

The sugar tax was expected to begin on April 1 but was postponed to July 1 to give manufacturers and the Customs Department time to make preparations.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the sugar tax is limited to manufacturers for the time being, and that there are no plans to extend it to eateries and restaurants selling sugary drinks.

“We are now at the stage of educating consumers to drink less coloured, sugary drinks. That is the only way at the moment that we can discourage consumers from these drinks,” he said.

Azrul said taxing at the manufacturing level rather than at retail increased the tax system’s effectiveness, noting that it was similar to the system employed in the UK.

“This would have the intended result of manufacturers taking the initiative and being incentivised to reformulate, reduce the sugar content, reduce portion sizes and even introduce healthier alternatives to avoid being taxed.

“This is by far a better and sustainable approach,” he said.

Entrepreneur Anas Lutfi Norman, who recently designed an alternative to traditional condensed milk-based creamers that has no white sugar, said manufacturers usually cut corners to make a profit.

He said this is the reason for sugary products and the use of unhealthy ingredients in many products.

Therefore, he said, it is the manufacturers who need to be educated on the matter so that they incorporate healthier ingredients and reduce the amount of sugar used in their products.

Anas agreed that it would be difficult to get consumers to change their ways. “We can educate them but to what extent? They still want to enjoy their food and any reduction or removal of sugar will compromise its taste.”

He suggested that Putrajaya spearhead efforts to encourage budding entrepreneurs and businesses to come up with food products that would taste the same even when low in sugar and calories.

“When they are easily available to the masses, it will mean that manufacturing costs can go down for these entrepreneurs as with an increase in demand, they can reduce the cost with a higher volume of production.”

He proposed extending the sugar tax to ingredients and other food products if it will not be imposed at eateries or restaurants any time soon.

He noted that these were among the more popular places for Malaysians to grab a bite. Singling out coffee shops, ice-cream parlours, dessert bars and pastry stands, Anas said these outlets should be subject to the sugar tax as it was their products that had a lot of sugar.

“A regular bubble tea, for example, can contain 20 teaspoons of sugar per 500ml, which exceeds the maximum amount of daily sugar intake per day,” he said, referring to the popular Taiwanese tea-based drink.

He said if that could not be achieved in the short term, then the health ministry could task officials with monitoring the amount of sugar used in these products to see if the content is safe for consumers.

If this does not work, he said, “they should be taxed and forced to sell the products with a safe and acceptable level of sugar per menu item”.

CARACAS: At least 30 Venezuelan migrants are missing after the speedboat they were traveling in sank on its way to Curacao, an opposition lawmaker said on Tuesday.

The vessel left from a village in the northwest on Friday with 30 to 35 people on board, deputy Luis Stefanelli told AFP, quoting family members.

“No one has been in touch with their families, which makes us fear the worst,” said Stefanelli.

Authorities have not commented on the report.

The body of a man wearing a life jacket was found near Bullenbaai bay in Curacao, according to a coast guard statement published by media on the Caribbean island.

However, it was not clear if he had been aboard the speedboat that left clandestinely from the Venezuelan village of Aguide in Falcon state.

It’s the third such boat carrying Venezuelan migrants to capsize in the last month, with a total of 80 people now missing.

The previous two boats were heading for Trinidad and Tobago.

Another opposition lawmaker, Robert Alcala said on May 19 that 29 people had gone missing when their boat sank in open water on its journey to Trinidad and Tobago from northwestern Venezuela.

It was Alcala as well who reported on April 25 that a boat carrying 33 migrants taking the same route disappeared, although nine people were rescued that time.

“These are desperate people who sell all their belongings and leave with nothing,” Stefanelli told AFP.

He said that according to the families, the migrants had paid US$400 each for the crossing – in a country where the minimum wage is now around US$6.50 a month because of hyperinflation.

Venezuela is suffering from an economic crisis and has been in recession for five years, with its people suffering from shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicines.

The United Nations says a quarter of its 30 million population are in need of humanitarian aid.

Last week, the UN said more than 3.3 million people have fled the country in the last three and a half years.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, a close ally of President Nicolas Maduro, has accused the UN of “inflating figures.”