36 h. ago Uganda election: Bobi Wine under house arrest amid violence claims, Museveni nears 5th term

Uganda’s opposition said its leader Bobi Wine was under house arrest on Friday, after an election that also saw a member of parliament accuse security forces of killing 10 people at his home. President Yoweri Museveni, 81, is seeking to extend his 40-year rule of the east African country and has been accused of “brutal repression” of the opposition. Uganda’s Electoral Commission said on Friday that Museveni was on 75.4 per cent to Wine’s 20.7 with close to 60 per cent of votes counted. Final...

Events

39 h. ago Malaysia’s Umno chief denies he ‘sidelined’ Najib to secure his own legal freedom

The president of Malaysia’s Umno has denied abandoning disgraced ex-prime minister Najib Razak to save himself, as fissures emerge in the former ruling party over the mixed legal fortunes of two of its top leaders. Umno grass-roots members have urged President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to quit Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government in protest after the High Court blocked Najib’s bid to serve the remainder of his jail term under house arrest last month. It also handed the one-time party figurehead a...

Politics

50 h. ago Brazil judge orders ‘immediate’ transfer of Bolsonaro to a better

A Brazilian judge on Thursday ordered the immediate transfer of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro to a prison with “more favourable” conditions. The 70-year-old former leader will move to a special detention unit with a kitchen, private outdoor area and a double bed at a prison complex in the capital Brasilia, according to a ruling seen by Agence France-Presse. Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted Bolsonaro last year of plotting a coup to cling to power following his narrow 2022 re-election...

Events

6 d. ago Jimmy Lai’s health stable, solitary confinement by his own will, Hong Kong court hears

Former Hong Kong media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has returned to West Kowloon Court alongside eight co-defendants, as three judges hear mitigation arguments from defence lawyers in his high-profile national security case on Monday. The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily is the most prominent figure yet to be convicted under the national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020. Last month, he was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and a...

Events

6 d. ago Hong Kong surveyor’s undeclared role prompts rule review after deadly Tai Po fire

Hong Kong will tighten declaration-of-interest rules after discovering that a surveyor arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over a deadly fire had failed to disclose his role at the estate ravaged by the blaze to the Housing Department, for which he worked as a service provider, the Post has learned. The Housing Department’s move to strengthen supervision followed the arrest of 68-year-old Steve Wong Chung-kee in connection with the fatal blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po last...

Events

9 d. ago Independent committee probing Hong Kong fire to start hearings within first quarter

Hearings to be conducted by an independent committee investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades will begin within the first quarter, with Victor Dawes, former chairman of the city’s professional barristers’ group, appointed as lead counsel in the inquiry, the Post has learned. Six weeks after the conflagration claimed 161 lives in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court, the health authorities said on Thursday that ten residents remained in hospital in stable condition, while a district council working...

Events

1 week ago South Koreans puzzled over Busan airport backdrop in US warning to Maduro

A blunt White House social media post following the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has drawn unexpected attention among South Koreans online, where users quickly identified the photo’s background as a South Korean airport and began speculating about whether its use carried a hidden message. The post, uploaded on Saturday to the White House’s official social media accounts, featured a black-and-white image of US President Donald Trump walking up the stairs, stamped with the acronym...

Events

2 w. ago Bolsonaro denied house arrest by Brazil Supreme Court despite health plea

Brazil’s Supreme Court has rejected former president Jair Bolsonaro’s request to convert his prison sentence for plotting a coup to house arrest, according to a ruling published on Thursday. Bolsonaro’s lawyers submitted the request on Wednesday, citing a “real risk of a sudden worsening” in health for the far-right ex-leader as the reason to serve his 27-year sentence at home. Bolsonaro, 70, has been hospitalised for more than a week after undergoing surgery for a groin hernia and then a...

Events

2 w. ago Bolsonaro denied house arrest by Brazil's Supreme Court despite health plea

Brazil’s Supreme Court has rejected former president Jair Bolsonaro’s request to convert his prison sentence for plotting a coup to house arrest, according to a ruling published on Thursday. Bolsonaro’s lawyers submitted the request on Wednesday, citing a “real risk of a sudden worsening” in health for the far-right ex-leader as the reason to serve his 27-year sentence at home. Bolsonaro, 70, has been hospitalised for more than a week after undergoing surgery for a groin hernia and then a...

Events

3 w. ago Brazil judge puts coup plot convicts under house arrest after ex

A Brazilian judge on Saturday issued house arrest orders for 10 people who have been convicted and sentenced for taking part in a plot to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro in power after he lost the 2022 election. The decision by Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes comes just hours after authorities in neighbouring Paraguay arrested a former police commander who also had been convicted in the plot and returned him to Brazil. Silvinei Vasques, the former director of Brazil’s Federal...

Events

3 w. ago Najib’s children lament Malaysian court ruling – ‘we thought he was coming home’

The children of ex-Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak have been yearning for their father to leave prison and the family to spend the New Year together. But their hopes were dashed this week after a court ruled against Najib’s application to return home under house arrest. In a five-minute video posted online shortly after the decision on Monday, Najib’s eldest son, Mohd Nizar Najib, said the family had gone to court prepared for both outcomes, but had quietly believed the long fight – based...

Society

3 w. ago Why Malaysian court ruling against Najib is dividing Anwar’s coalition

A court’s decision to keep former Malaysian leader Najib Razak behind bars has reopened fault lines between Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s ruling coalition and Umno, the country’s once-dominant ruling party. The Kuala Lumpur High Court on Monday rejected Najib’s application to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, ruling that a purported addendum to a royal clemency order “had no legal effect because it was never deliberated by the Pardons Board”. The decision meant the...

Events

3 w. ago Malaysian court blocks Najib’s bid for house arrest ahead of key 1MDB verdict

A Malaysian court on Monday dismissed former prime minister Najib Razak’s bid to serve the remainder of his prison sentence under house arrest, dealing a setback to his attempt to secure early release from jail. Najib, 72, is serving a reduced six-year sentence after receiving partial royal clemency earlier this year in the SRC International case, a former subsidiary linked to the scandal-ridden Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, in which he was convicted of abuse of power, criminal breach of...

Events