Missing: radioactive isotope in Malaysia, morals in Japanese basketballers
Malaysia is hunting for an industrial device containing radioactive material that is reported to have gone missing from a pickup truck. Photo: Facebook
Malaysian police are hunting for an industrial device containing radioactive material that went missing from the back of a pick-up truck earlier this month. The radiography device disappeared on August 10 as it was transported outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, the New Straits Times newspaper reported. Authorities fear the device, which contains the radioactive isotope iridium-192, could fall into the hands of militants and be used to make a dirty bomb, the paper said. Local police chief Mazlan Mansor said an investigation had been launched without giving further details. Deputy Home Minister Azis Jamman confirmed the incident had taken place but insisted "everything is under control". "There is nothing to be worried about at this moment," he was cited as saying in The Star newspaper.
Khaw Kim-sun is arrested on suspicion of murdering his daughter and wife with a poisoned yoga ball. Photo: Dickson Lee
An anaesthetist gassed his wife and daughter to death using a yoga ball filled with carbon monoxide, a Hong Kong court has heard. Prosecutors told the High Court that Khaw Kim-sun left the inflatable ball in the boot of a car where the gas leaked out and killed them, according to reports from court. His wife and 16-year-old daughter were found on a roadside in a locked yellow Mini Cooper in 2015, in a case which initially baffled police. The pair were certified dead at the same hospital where Khaw worked and a post-mortem concluded they had died from inhaling carbon monoxide. Police found a deflated yoga ball in the back of the car. Khaw cried as the pathologist who examined the bodies was called to testify and began to give details about the autopsy he carried out on his daughter. Khaw has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder. Prosecutors said Khaw, a 53-year-old Malaysian national, was having an affair with a student and his wife would not grant him a divorce.
Meiliana is charged in an Indonesian court with blasphemy for complaining her neighbourhood mosque's call to prayer was too loud. Photo: Reuters
Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation has criticised the blasphemy conviction and imprisonment of a Buddhist woman who complained that the call to prayer from her neighbourhood mosque was too loud. Officials from Nahdlatul Ulama, which claims 60 million members, said the woman's complaint about mosque loudspeakers doesn't constitute blasphemy under Indonesian law. The ethnic Chinese woman, Meiliana, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Tuesday by a court in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, providing new fuel to concerns that an intolerant brand of Islam is gaining ground in Indonesia. The country's constitution guarantees freedom of speech and religion, but minorities are frequently the target of blasphemy prosecutions that can result in five years in prison. The overwhelming majority of cases end with guilty verdicts.
Novelist Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians. Photo: AFP
The author of Crazy Rich Asians, which has been adapted into a hit Hollywood movie, is wanted in his native Singapore for allegedly dodging mandatory national service. Kevin Kwan, who has lived in the United States since he was 11 but is a Singapore citizen, faces three years in jail and a hefty fine if convicted. The movie adaptation of his bestseller, which focuses on the glamorous world of Singapore's super-rich, had its Singapore premiere on Tuesday, with some of its stars gracing the red carpet and hundreds of fans turning out - but Kwan was absent, The Straits Times reported. And in a twist worthy of a Hollywood thriller, the defence ministry said Kwan "failed to register for National Service in 1990, despite notices and letters sent to his overseas address".
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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