Section: Free Malaysia Today (Malaysia)
France warns Russia against meddling in election
PARIS: France on Wednesday issued a stern warning to Russia against meddling in its upcoming presidential elections, after US intelligence accused Moscow of interfering in that country’s vote to boost Donald Trump. “We will not accept any interference whatsoever in our electoral process, whether by Russia or any other state,” said Foreign...
Germany to elect ‘anti-Trump’ Steinmeier as new president
BERLIN: Billed as Germany’s “anti-Trump”, centre-left former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to be elected Sunday as the new ceremonial head of state. The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany’s most popular politician, will represent the EU’s top economy abroad and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the...
Singapore mandatory army training to stay in troubled world
SINGAPORE: Singapore will keep its mandatory military service because it cannot depend on help from others in an uncertain world, the city-state’s defence minister said Tuesday. Ng Eng Hen said conscription was crucial, especially for smaller countries like Singapore, and those who had abolished it ended up regretting their decision. One...
Trump under fire for saying he respects ‘killer’ Putin
PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump drew fire from Republicans and Democrats alike Sunday, after he defended a softer stance on Russia, playing down political assassinations and Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump — now two weeks into his four-year term — showed no signs of yielding to demands from within his own Republican Party to distance...
Fears grow over jihadist cyber threat
LILLE: Jihadists have yet to shut down a power grid, paralyse a transport network or banking system or take over a key industrial site from afar, but experts say the threat of such a cyber attack should be taken seriously. Analysts fear that while extremist groups may not have the necessary skills themselves, they could hire someone else to wreak...
Trump vows ‘new vetting’ to weed out Islamic radicals
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed a sweeping new executive order Friday to suspend refugee arrivals and impose tough new controls on travellers from seven Muslim countries. Making good on one of his most controversial campaign promises, and to the horror of human rights groups, Trump said he was making America safe from “radical...
Putin and Trump to speak by phone on Saturday: Kremlin
US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will on Saturday hold their first phone conversation since the American leader’s inauguration, the Kremlin said. “I can confirm that a telephone conversation is planned. It will be Saturday evening Moscow time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday....
Nazi hunter says hundreds could still be at large
JERUSALEM: Hundreds or even thousands of Nazi war crimes suspects could still be at large, one of the world’s leading experts on the matter said Thursday, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Efraim Zuroff said he expected a spike in convictions in the coming years despite most suspects being in their 90s, but admitted most...
In Trump We Trust: Inauguration prompts celebration in Russia
MOSCOW: The Kremlin may have spent years reviling America, but Russians hoping Donald Trump will usher in a new era of detente marked his inauguration on Friday with parties and trinkets from commemorative coins to “matryoshka” nesting dolls in his image. Washington was turned into a virtual fortress with an estimated 900,000 people — backers and...
Indonesia can do business with ‘pragmatic’ Trump, says minister
JAKARTA: Indonesia, the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population, can do business with a “pragmatic” US President-elect Donald Trump, a senior minister close to President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said outgoing President Barack Obama’s “ideological” foreign...
