MNA International Desk: Malaysia police have been granted 13 more days to question Bangladesh national Mohammad Rayhan Kabir, who was arrested for appearing in a documentary broadcast by Al Jazeera. A Malaysia court granted the remand on Thursday after police sought another 14-day to interrogate Rayhan. Therefore, Rayhan will be remanded till August 19. Raihan’s lawyer Sumita Shantini Krishna told to Brac migration programme that they came to know on Wednesday night that police would seek fresh remand for Rayhan. But, o representatives from Bangladesh High Commission was present in the court. “Raihan said as before that he had said ...
Read More »Tag Archives: Malaysia
BD open to raising palm oil imports from Malaysia
MNA Business Desk: In some good news for Malaysian palm oil sellers, Bangladesh is open to increasing palm oil imports from the Southeast Asian country if it offers competitive prices. “If they approach us we’ll welcome them,” Reuters reported quoting agriculture minister Abdur Razzak on Thursday. “We can raise imports from Malaysia if we get a better price from them.” When asked about India’s move to stop palm oil imports from Malaysia, the world’s second biggest producer and exporter of the commodity after Indonesia, he said, “It’s rather good, prices of palm oil are coming down.” Bangladesh mainly buys palm ...
Read More »Malaysia to continue work to recruit more Bangladeshi workers: Mahathir
MNA Editorial Desk: Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad has said his government will continue work to recruit more Bangladeshi workers. Terming Malaysia’s ties with Bangladesh as very deep, he assured that the Malaysian investment in Bangladesh will boost further. Mahathir also talked about safety and security of the Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia during a bilateral meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Baku Congress Centre on the sidelines of the 18th NAM Summit on Friday afternoon. After the meeting, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque briefed reporters. Demanding trial for the atrocities on Rohingyas in Myanmar, Mahathir said Malaysia ...
Read More »Malaysia to reform labour laws to cut ‘over-dependence’ on foreigners
MNA International Desk: Malaysia will review its labour laws to cut an ‘over-dependence’ on foreign labour and address other issues, its prime minister has said. The country’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has taken the decision amid simmering discontent against overseas workers who make up 46 per cent of the labour force of the country. The third biggest economy of the Southeast Asia had a labour force of 15.5 million in the first quarter of the year, reports Reuters. More than 7.0 million of them were foreigners, from countries such as Bangladesh, with many working in the construction and hotel industries. ...
Read More »Bangladesh to form body to negotiate FTA with Malaysia
MNA Business Desk: Bangladesh will form a committee to negotiate signing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Malaysia. The information was revealed at the ‘Showcase Bangladesh-Go Global’ at the Royale Chulan Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi inaugurated the showcase as the chief guest. State Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmed, Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry (MITI) of Malaysia Dr Ong Kian Ming, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Malaysia Shahidul Islam, Acting High Commissioner of Malaysia in Dhaka Amir Farid Abu Hasan, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) President Benjir Ahmed and ...
Read More »Four charged with murder for shooting down MH17 plane
MNA International Desk: Four men have been charged with murder over the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet in eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 passengers and crew. Dutch investigators have accused three Russians, Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko of involvement. Passenger flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over conflict-hit Ukraine. A court case is scheduled to begin in the Netherlands on 9 March 2020. International arrest warrants have been issued for the four men, reports BBC. On Wednesday, the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) ...
Read More »Bangladesh police prevents trafficking of dozens of Rohingyas to Malaysia
MNA Editorial Desk: Bangladeshi police prevented dozens of Rohingya Muslims, most of them women, about to be trafficked to Malaysia by boat, authorities said on Tuesday. Traffickers had picked up at least 69 Rohingyas from refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district, promising them work in Malaysia where many Rohingyas already live, police said. Scores of Rohingya Muslims have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, part of what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking. An estimated 25,000 Rohingyas crossed the Andaman Sea for Thailand, ...
Read More »Malaysia named Sultan Abdullah new king
MNA International Desk: Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah was named Malaysia’s new king on Thursday, replacing Sultan Muhammad V who abdicated unexpectedly after just two years on the throne, according to AP. Sultan Muhammad V, 49, resigned Jan. 6 as Malaysia’s 15th king, cutting short his five-year term in the first abdication in the nation’s history. No reason was given, but it came after he reportedly married a 25-year-old former Russian beauty queen in November. The keeper of the ruler’s seal, Syed Danial Syed Ahmad, said the Conference of Rulers elected Sultan Abdullah on Thursday under a unique rotating monarchy ...
Read More »Goldman Sachs chief apologizes to Malaysia over 1MDB scandal
MNA Business Desk: Goldman Sachs new boss has apologised to Malaysia for the role an ex-partner played in the corruption scandal at one of the country’s wealth funds. However, chief executive David Solomon also distanced the bank from the scheme, which saw billions embezzled from the state development fund, 1MDB. He said Goldman, which had helped to raise money for the fund, had been deceived about details of the deals. Malaysia filed criminal charges against Goldman last month. It accused the investment bank of helping to misappropriate money intended for the fund. The US and other countries are also investigating ...
Read More »Myanmar seizes boat with 93 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
MNA Exclusive Desk: Authorities in Myanmar have seized a boat carrying 93 people, apparently Rohingya Muslims, fleeing displacement camps in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State and hoping to reach Malaysia, reported news agency. The boat is believed to be the third bound for Malaysia stopped in Myanmar waters since monsoon rains began to subside last month, bringing calmer weather, raising fears of a fresh wave of hazardous voyages after a 2015 crackdown on people smugglers. Moe Zaw Latt, director of the government office in Dawei, a coastal town in southern Myanmar, said fishermen had reported a “suspicious” boat to authorities. The ...
Read More »Malaysia reopens labour market for Bangladeshis
MNA Business Desk: All the licensed recruiting agencies of the country from now on can send workers to Malaysia under the G2G Plus system. The decision was taken at a meeting of expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment minister Nurul Islam with Malaysian human resources minister M Kulasegaran in Putrajaya on Tuesday. Nurul Islam led a five-member Bangladesh side to the meeting, said a handout of the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry. As per the decision, the job market of Malaysia will remain open to the workers who are waiting to go there. Meanwhile, the joint working group of Bangladesh ...
Read More »Najib Razak charged over money laundering
MNA International Desk: Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak was hit with new charges Wednesday linked to a multi-billion-dollar financial scandal that contributed to his shock election defeat in May, reported news agency. Appearing at a court in Kuala Lumpur, Najib was charged with three counts of money-laundering over claims he pocketed 42 million ringgit ($10.3 million), and pleaded not guilty. He faces up to 15 years in jail for each charge. These are in addition to the charges he faced last month after he was first arrested — three for criminal breach of trust and a separate count that ...
Read More »Democratic leadership & responsibility: Learning from Mahathir
MNA Editorial Desk: In the global political arena, several interesting events took place recently and one of the most important of those is Dr. Mahathir Mohamad getting elected as the 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia at the age of 92. He seemed to take a new challenge after all these years as he won the election against a party from which he first became the Prime Minister of Malaysia in 1981 and held the chair continuously till 2003. It was very unusual that a single person remained in power for such a long time in a democratic country but Mahathir ...
Read More »Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim released from jail
MNA International Desk: Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim was freed from jail after receiving a royal pardon. Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sought a pardon for Anwar, which was granted on Wednesday morning. Once seen as a potential future leader, he had been jailed on charges of sodomy and corruption after falling out with the government. Mahathir has promised to step aside for Anwar to become prime minister within two years. The politician was jailed for a second time three years ago on what he said were trumped-up sodomy charges, reports news agency. For years he had been heading Malaysia’s ...
Read More »Najib Razak banned from leaving country
MNA International Desk: Malaysia’s scandal-hit former prime minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor were Saturday banned from leaving the country, the immigration chief said, after the shock election loss of Najib’s coalition. “The immigration department has just now blacklisted Najib and Rosmah from leaving the country,” Mustafar Ali, director-general of the immigration department, told news agency. Najib said in a tweet: “I have just been informed by the immigration department of Malaysia that my family and I are not allowed to go abroad. I respect the decision and I will remain in the country with my family.” The ...
Read More »Mahathir to become world’s oldest elected leader
MNA International Desk: Mahathir Mohamad will become the world’s oldest elected leader, after a shock victory in Malaysia’s election. The former PM, 92, came out of retirement and switched to the opposition to challenge his former protege Najib Razak, who has been beset by corruption allegations. His historic win has ousted the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957. Mr Mahathir said his coalition would “restore the rule of law”. Mr Najib has not yet commented on his dramatic loss. Official results showed the opposition Pakatan Harapan – the Alliance of Hope – had ...
Read More »Malaysia intercepts boat carrying Rohingyas
MNA Exclusive Desk: Malaysia has intercepted a boat carrying 56 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar off its northern island of Langkawi, authorities said on Tuesday, with rights groups expecting further perilous journeys by sea after last year’s surge in violence in Myanmar, reported news agency. The boat had stopped at an island in southern Thailand on Saturday after a storm, with officials there saying the refugees were heading to Malaysia. It had set sail from central Rakhine state in Myanmar, the U.N. refugee agency said. According to UN and other rights groups, some 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya fled their homes in ...
Read More »School fire kills 25 people in Malaysia
MNA International Desk: A fire at an Islamic boarding school killed at least 25 people, most of them students, in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur after breaking out in a dormitory early on Thursday morning, reported news agency. The fire at Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, a “tahfiz” boarding school where students learn to memorise the Koran, was reported around 5.40 a.m. local time (2140 GMT Wednesday), according to a statement from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department. The blaze began in the sleeping quarters on the top floor of the three-storey school building, the statement said. Two wardens and 23 ...
Read More »Malaysia detained Odhikar secretary Adilur
MNA National Desk: Malaysia has detained Adilur Rahman Khan, a prominent Bangladesh activist, describing the government action as ‘harassment’ against human rights defenders. Adilur Rahman, secretary of the rights group Odhikar, was detained after arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport early Thursday, reported news agency. He was due to speak at a two-day conference organized by the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network. Rights group Voice of the Malaysian People (Suaram) said Khan was being kept incommunicado at the airport’s immigration lock-up and appealed for his release. Immigration authorities could not be reached for comment. Malaysia often denies foreign pro-democracy activists entry ...
Read More »2 Bangladeshis held in Malaysia for suspected links to IS
MNA Editorial Desk: Malaysian police said on Monday they had arrested four people, including two Bangladeshis, with suspected links to an Islamic State cell based out of the southern Philippines. Muslim-majority Malaysia has been on high alert since an attack last January by Islamic State-linked militants in Jakarta, the capital of neighbouring Indonesia. The four were arrested in a series of raids between 13-19 January in Kuala Lumpur and Sabar, reports Malaysian English news service New Straits Times. The cell, operating out of the province of Mindanao, was led by a former university lecturer, Mahmud Ahmad, who is known to ...
Read More »Malaysia lifting a freeze on hiring foreign workers
MNA Business Desk: Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysian Transport Minister, has said yesterday, Malaysia is partially lifting a freeze on hiring foreign workers in view of what a minister described as ‘acute shortage’ of manpower. The Star said that the decision came after ‘appeals’ from the sectors to allow labor imports, just two months after halting their intake. “In view of the acute shortage, we have to lift the suspension to allow these sectors to bring in foreign workers,” Liow quoted to report. The decision taken in the cabinet, reports Malaysian based online The Star. Workers will be hired ...
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