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DOJ seizes $15 billion bitcoin in SE Asia crypto scam bust

DOJ seizes $15 billion bitcoin in SE Asia crypto scam bust

On October 14, 2025, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in coordination with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), took action against cryptocurrency-enabled scam networks operating in Southeast Asia. The designation includes the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) and its vast […] The post DOJ seizes $15 billion bitcoin in SE Asia crypto scam bust appeared first on Asia Times .

Government plans legal changes to tackle overloaded lorry problem

Government plans legal changes to tackle overloaded lorry problem

KUALA LUMPUR : The government is drafting legal amendments to extend enforcement against overloaded lorries beyond drivers and transport companies to include consignors and consignees. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the move aims to ensure the entire logistics ecosystem is held accountable and complies with legal load limits. “We will be taking stricter action moving forward,“ Loke told a press conference. He emphasised that the entire ecosystem must comply to ensure road safety. Loke highlighted that overloaded lorries pose significant road safety risks and accelerate damage to public infrastructure. “People often complain about potholes on Malaysian roads,“ he said. “One major cause is overloaded lorries.” He noted that road deterioration increases maintenance costs and safety risks, particularly for motorcyclists. Loke explained that lorry drivers and transport companies often face pressure from quarry or factory owners to carry excess loads. This pressure comes from efforts to cut operational costs and remain competitive. The Road Transport Department will enforce stricter measures, including meetings with quarry and sand operators. Final warnings will be issued before enforcement is stepped up. The government is also promoting a “road-to-rail” policy to shift heavy and high-risk cargo transport from roads to railways. “We want heavy cargo to be moved by rail, not roads,“ Loke added. This policy aims to reduce accidents and protect road infrastructure. – Bernama

PRN Sabah: 80 Peratus Calon Baharu, Bukti UMNO/BN Dengar Suara Rakyat – Samasuddin

PRN Sabah: 80 Peratus Calon Baharu, Bukti UMNO/BN Dengar Suara Rakyat – Samasuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, 15 Okt – Ketua UMNO Bahagian Kalabakan, Samasuddin Yusop menyifatkan masa depan Sabah bakal menjadi lebih cerah dengan langkah Barisan Nasional (BN) yang bakal menampilkan calon-calon baharu pada Pilihan Raya Negeri (PRN) Sabah ke-17. Menurutnya, pendekatan itu bukan sekadar memenuhi kehendak politik semasa, tetapi satu usaha menyeluruh untuk memperkukuh keyakinan rakyat terhadap kepimpinan UMNO dan BN di negeri [...]

DOE launches water sustainability book to safeguard Malaysia’s water resources

DOE launches water sustainability book to safeguard Malaysia’s water resources

KUALA LUMPUR : The Department of Environment has reinforced its commitment to water resource sustainability with the launch of a new publication. The book ‘Safeguarding Water Quality for a Sustainable Malaysia’ was produced in collaboration with PSTW Sdn Bhd. Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability deputy minister Datuk Seri Huang Tiong Sii launched the publication at IGEM 2025. Huang described the book as reflecting Malaysia’s ongoing efforts to protect water resources from pollution and climate change threats. “The book provides a comprehensive approach to water management, highlighting national strategies, policy implementation, inter-state collaborations, community-driven initiatives, and innovations in local technology,“ he said. He emphasised the critical role of education, public communication, and awareness in preserving water quality. The publication results from collaboration between government agencies, academic institutions, and industry stakeholders. “Through this book, we not only celebrate our achievements but also call for collective action,“ Huang added. The DOE emphasised that enforcement of environmental laws remains a key strategy for water management. Adoption of innovative technologies and cross-sector cooperation also enhance the country’s water management approach. This approach aims to ensure Malaysia’s water resources remain sustainable, clean, and climate-resilient. The book launch serves as a unifying platform for knowledge, policy, and action aligned with Malaysia MADANI goals. It balances economic progress, public welfare, and environmental sustainability according to the department. The publication showcases research findings, field experiences, and policies for water quality preservation. These efforts align with Sustainable Development Goals emphasising universal access to clean water. The book provides a comprehensive overview of Malaysia’s initiatives to protect water quality. It covers national strategies, state-level actions, and active community involvement in water conservation. Education and public awareness are stressed as crucial for shared responsibility in water management. The department hopes the book will serve as an invaluable reference for policymakers and researchers. Industry professionals and the general public can also benefit from the coordinated approach documentation. By documenting knowledge and best practices, the book aims to ensure clean water for future generations. The publication represents a collaborative effort toward sustainable water resource management in Malaysia. – Bernama

Bunyi ‘hantu’ dari sempadan Thailand ganggu emosi kanak-kanak Kemboja

Bunyi ‘hantu’ dari sempadan Thailand ganggu emosi kanak-kanak Kemboja

PHNOM PENH: Aktivis hak kanak-kanak di Kemboja memberi amaran taktik perang psikologi yang datang dari arah sempadan Thailand memberi kesan serius terhadap kesihatan mental dan kesejahteraan kanak-kanak di negara itu. Sejak malam 10 Oktober lalu, penduduk di dua perkampungan sempadan, Prey Chan dan Chouk Chey di wilayah Banteay Meanchey, dilaporkan terganggu dengan bunyi menyeramkan seakan-akan ... Read more The post Bunyi ‘hantu’ dari sempadan Thailand ganggu emosi kanak-kanak Kemboja appeared first on Utusan Malaysia .

When religion clouds our world view

When religion clouds our world view

A youth leader from an Islamist political party in Penang was recently reported to have said that leadership of Muslims should be reserved for Muslims. He was referring to a particular constituency in which the majority of voters are Malays. Has he perhaps wandered into a fog of confusion? Is he suggesting that a leader from a minority group cannot lead the majority in a nation? If so, Britain offers a clear counterexample. Rishi Sunak, a Hindu and leader of the Conservative Party, served as prime minister of the United Kingdom – a predominantly Christian nation – from October 2022 to July 2024. A week ago, the Anglo-Saxon whites elected a black woman to lead the Conservative Party. Clearly, the British people recognise that a leader’s empathy with the common person’s basic concerns, his or her knowledge of practical economics and experience in creating job opportunities for youths count as far more important than race or religion. Or is he implying that Islam holds a higher position than other faiths, which are seen as less relevant or less true? Such a view of religious superiority can be tempered by recognising that diversity in faith – much like diversity in nature – reflects the divine will to ensure that every community, from remote tribes to advanced nations, is guided by beliefs suited to their circumstances. Forest tribes are served by the religion of nature – love for and abiding with the natural ecosystem in their midst. This has been their religion for 300,000 years, which is the age of humanity. Civilisations only began 12,000 years ago, with the invention of large-scale or commercial agriculture that led to the growth of towns and cities. All the living faiths that we have today are less than 6,000 years old and they serve the purpose of keeping a civilisation going by acting as an anchor, securing it to a bedrock. Each religion serves the context of its civilisation to the best of its ability. For instance, Hinduism – the world’s oldest living religion – used myriad images to depict multifarious aspects of God 3,000 or 3,500 years ago when there were no books and no schools. Stone images served as books. Images are still used to this day by Hindus because of their legacy value, just as many traditional families preserve grandpa’s rocking chair. Buddhists depict the Buddha as sitting in a lotus posture with his eyes closed. This represents equanimity and being fully present in each moment of your life. Only when you are fully present can you sense the omnipresence, the divine presence everywhere at all times. Only through being fully present can you sense the presence of God or the ultimate reality, as the Buddhists prefer to call it. Let’s highlight a religion indigenous to China. Taoism was developed by sages in mountains and valleys and, hence, it emphasised complementarity – that life’s experiences will always be a duality of yin and yang. The yin-yang duality is represented by a circle formed by two halves that each look like a stomach. Without male-female complementarity and cohabitation, there can be no animal or human birth. You reach God only when you can surpass the complementarity and become the whole, embracing the two halves. To reach God, you have to go beyond all pairs of opposites. You have to achieve perfect equanimity, perfect mental balance in times of good fortune and misfortune, gain and loss, joy and suffering. The principle of complementarity extends to every aspect of human endeavour. Global trade itself illustrates this well – our nation sells what we produce but others may not need while we buy what we desire but do not produce. Arabs, on the other hand, were nurtured in a bland desert environment with the occasional rest and recreation area in the form of an oasis, with a handful of succulent palm trees. Hence, they eventually developed a vastly different approach to God, an approach completely devoid of statues or art showing human forms. What is the key teaching of Christianity? It is servant leadership wherein the primary goal of the leader is to serve others. Servant leadership is a selfless type of leadership that focuses on the well-being and long-term growth of all. In contrast to traditional leadership styles that focus on authoritative rank to stand above others, the servant leader views leadership as an opportunity to serve and to put others above self. The Garden of Gethsemane incident described in the Gospel offers a profound insight of the end days of Jesus Christ that brings out the meaning of servant leadership. Jesus is praying in the garden with his close disciples when Roman soldiers come to arrest him at the instigation of his enemies. The Pharisees and Saducees are notorious for abusing the local area, with authority granted to them by oppressing the poor. They hate Jesus for trying to correct their ways. Jesus’ close disciples, led by Peter, want to fight the Romans to buy time for Jesus to escape but Peter and the other disciples would have been no match for these Roman soldiers trained for combat. Jesus instructs Peter to sheath his sword. A bloody fight is averted. Jesus is arrested, tried before Pontius Pilate, found guilty and sentenced to death by crucifixion. Jesus could have escaped if he had let his disciples fight to buy time for himself to run but he would not sacrifice others for himself. That is servant leadership – just as a maidservant in your home will stop you from mopping the floor if you spill soup. The servant will do it for you. Since each religion displays unique qualities based on the circumstances of its formation and growth, every religion offers us a lesson. Our lives get all the richer when we pick what is suitable from other religions to incorporate into our lives. Continued failure to appreciate and make use of each religion’s unique qualities will shackle any possibility we may have of saving Malaysia in a time of climate change. Alas, a toxic reason for our failure to appreciate and incorporate into our lives each religion’s unique qualities is the game of one-upmanship. We gain an advantage by having more adherents than your religion. We doom ourselves when the device to guide us on the way is mistaken for the way. Religion is a device, a guidepost. If we get stuck on religion, we will pass by God and fail to see him because thinking about religion all the time has pushed our brains into a fog. Instead of inviting God into our lives and living God-centred lives, we keep thinking about religion. Trapped in brain-fog thinking, we ignore the question: What is God’s plan? Is it that He allows many religions to crop up so as to confuse us? To see who is smart enough to separate the true religion from all the false ones? Is God playing a devil’s game with us, his creatures? No. It is obvious that the God who has given us planet Earth, which is able to host a huge diversity of life forms, wants life to go on. But there is a human-induced threat to life – the threat of global climate change, the greatest threat to humanity in at least 5,000 years. This is not only a threat in Malaysia; it is also a threat to all nations and humanity. Hence, all nations must bundle together as one. This is what it should ultimately mean to have a United Nations. If each race and each religion looks for its own solution, it is likely all will perish in the growing heat. Never in the past 10,000 years has there been such a challenge to leadership at every level of authority as now. Malaysians have evidence that the climate is worsening as daytime temperatures in hot weather are hitting 37°C and 38°C. At 40°C, frail oldies may collapse and die. How did we humans bring about global warming? We stoked the dark side of complementarity. Positive effects and negative effects are also a complementary pair. We cannot have one without the other. In the mid-18th century, oil under the ground was discovered and pumped out. Bonanza! Oil enabled a breakthrough as it could generate enormous power to run bigger and more sophisticated machines. Industrialisation got underway. But there was a dark side. Although oil created myriad jobs by way of the cascading effect – one type of job spawned another and more jobs meant bigger populations could be fed – we have seen a never-before population explosion. We now have 8.2 billion in the world generating carbon dioxide emissions that hit a record 37.4 billion tonnes in 2023. Each tonne of carbon dioxide traps more heat in the atmosphere, intensifying floods and droughts. With most nations also enlarging their populations, global warming has become unavoidable. With the population of most nations still growing, more forests will continue to be chopped down to create farmlands, towns and factories. This will release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, warming the air further. Perhaps Malaysia can boldly advance a proposal at the United Nations, proposing a global law requiring all nations to reform their tax systems – imposing high taxes on products that generate carbon dioxide, and low or no taxes on those that do not. Joachim Ng champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

One dead, several injured in explosion at Ecuador shopping centre

One dead, several injured in explosion at Ecuador shopping centre

GUAYAQUIL : One person was killed and several more were injured in an explosion on Tuesday at a busy shopping centre in this port city. Local authorities confirmed the casualties as Ecuador continues to grapple with a surge of violence linked to the Latin American drug trade. Police stated they are still investigating the cause of the explosion, which rattled local businesses, restaurants, and hotels in a middle-class area. Samantha Vera told AFP she was just a few metres away from the blast around 6 pm local time. “We ran away out of fear that something else might happen,“ the 40-year-old said. Claudia Quimi, who owns a nearby salon, reported that the glass windows shook from the terrible and horrifying blast. Ecuador has become an epicentre of the global cocaine trade as cartels and mafias shed blood to gain turf. Violent and chaotic scenes like Tuesday’s explosion are rising in Guayaquil, where homicides, extortion, and robberies are increasing. The city struggles with its prime coastal location, which is exploited for drug trafficking and other illegal enterprises. Last month, an explosion occurred outside a prison in Guayaquil shortly after a riot at a different prison left 13 inmates and a guard dead elsewhere in Ecuador. As of August, more than 5,200 homicides have been recorded in Ecuador this year alone. Roughly a third of those homicides occurred in Guayaquil, a city of 2.8 million people that serves as the nation’s commercial hub. – AFP