Section: Free Malaysia Today (Malaysia)
Rights abuses fuelled rise of Islamic militants: HRW
BEIRUT: Governments increasingly view human rights as “a luxury” they can ill afford, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, warning that abuses fuel crises in world trouble spots like Syria and Ukraine. Western powers, including the United States, are far from blameless and in some cases their wrongdoing has fed the very climate in which serial...
Malaysia to release interim report on MH370 on March 7
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation will release an interim report on the investigation into the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on March 7, a day before the one-year anniversary of the disappearance, deputy transport minister Aziz Kaprawi said on Wednesday. “It will have details on the technical investigation,”...
Elderly Auschwitz survivors urge world never to forget
OSWIECIM: For what may be the last time, elderly Holocaust survivors returned Tuesday to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp 70 years after its liberation, to urge the world never to forget one of history’s worst atrocities. Around 300 survivors, some wearing scarves in the blue-and-white stripes of their death camp uniforms, joined...
Inquiry begins into Russian ex-spy’s radiation death
LONDON: The most sensational spy tale since the Cold War lands in a London court on Tuesday as an inquiry begins to examine alleged Russian state involvement in the radiation poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. The former agent with Russia’s FSB security service, who was doing work for Britain’s MI6, was killed with Polonium-210...
Dutch to collect more remains from MH17 Ukraine crash
THE HAGUE: A Dutch team is to return to the MH17 crash site in war-torn Ukraine to collect more remains of the 298 people killed when the Malaysia Airlines Boeing crashed in July, officials said Friday. “A small team including defence ministry employees will return to Kharkiv in Ukraine at the end of next week,” the Dutch security and justice...
US to back new system warning airlines in conflict zones
TORONTO/MONTREAL: The United States will throw its support behind a proposal by the UN’s aviation agency to share information about risks to commercial aircraft over conflict zones after the downing of a Malaysian jet in Ukraine last year, according to a senior US official. The UN agency’s plan falls short of what airlines sought in...
China ‘never paid businessman’ who bought aircraft carrier: report
BEIJING: The Chinese businessman who bought an unfinished Soviet-era vessel that became his country’s first aircraft carrier was never paid back the $120 million it cost him by Beijing, he was quoted as saying Tuesday. Entrepreneur Xu Zengping paid Ukraine a $20 million fee for the Varyag, which was eventually commissioned into the...
World leaders link arms in historic Paris march against extremism
PARIS: World leaders, including some who are normally implacable foes, on Sunday linked arms in unprecedented scenes of solidarity during an historic march against terrorism in Paris. Walking arm in arm alongside President Francois Hollande were a string of leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela...
Russia bans transvestites and transsexuals from driving
MOSCOW: Russia has passed a controversial law banning transvestites and transsexuals from driving, prompting sharp criticism from rights activists, including a prominent Kremlin advisor. The legislation that entered into force this week bans anyone diagnosed with a range of personality and gender identity disorders, including transvestites and...
Dutch probe secret service role ahead of MH17 crash
THE HAGUE: The Netherlands wants to know whether its intelligence services warned airlines of danger about flying over war-torn Ukraine prior to the downing of flight MH17 in July, officials said Tuesday. Dutch officials are leading the probe into what brought down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 over Ukraine and killed 298 people aboard, most...
