Bukit Aman Director of Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department Datuk Seri Khaw Kok Chin shows confiscated illegal substances.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
BERNAMA – Malaysian police arrested a man and a foreign woman suspected of colluding with an international drug trafficking syndicate and seized drugs worth MYR3.3 million during a raid on a boarding house in Sekinchan, Sabak Bernam, last week.
Bukit Aman Director of Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (JSJN) Datuk Seri Khaw Kok Chin said during the 5pm raid, the couple were arrested along with three plastic packs of syabu weighing 83.15 grammes.
He said the suspects then led police to a house in Sungai Air Tawar where 91 plastic packages of syabu weighing 94.96 kilogrammes were found in the boot of a car.
“Police believe the couple, acting as transporters and ‘storekeeper’, obtained the drug supplies from the north of the country before sending it to Indonesia by sea with a payment of MYR140,000 per shipment.
“The couple, believed to have been active for the past three months, also tested positive for methamphetamine,” he said at a press conference yesterday.
Khaw said the male suspect, who is married and worked as a mechanic, has two criminal records and five drug offences.
He said the two suspects were remanded for six days under Section 117 from November 22 to 27 with the case being investigated under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
At the same time, he said JSJN will work closely with the Indonesian police in exchange of information to fight drug-related issues and crime.
“We always cooperate with the Indonesian police, whether in this case or other cases,” he said, adding that police will meet up with the country’s authorities to discuss related matters from tomorrow to November 30.
Bukit Aman Director of Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department Datuk Seri Khaw Kok Chin shows confiscated illegal substances. PHOTO: BERNAMA
ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show Invisible Cities guide Sonny Murray leading a walking tour with student Arthur Lyhne-Gold in Cannongate Kirk, Edinburgh. PHOTO: AFP
EDINBURGH (AFP) – Edinburgh, one the most visited cities in Europe, is offering tourists the chance to see it from a different angle – through the eyes of tour guides who have slept on its streets.
“When you’re homeless, people don’t look at you. They look through you,” the founder of the Invisible Cities initiative, Zakia Moulaoui Guery, told AFP.
Sonny Murray, 45, knows this only too well. He came to Invisible Cities after a spell being constantly in and out of prison.
“It was brutal, to be honest. Because I was addicted to drugs and stuff,” he said.
“I was shoplifting… when I wasn’t in prison, I was coming back out and I was homeless on the streets, just like a revolving door,” he said.
Now as Invisible Cities’ lead tour guide he trains others, helping them to turn their life around just as he did.
All the tours are unique and devised by the guide themselves, he said.
Murray’s tour, which starts at the site of a former gallows, focuses on crime and punishment.
ABOVE & BELOW: Photos show Invisible Cities guide Sonny Murray leading a walking tour with student Arthur Lyhne-Gold in Cannongate Kirk, Edinburgh. PHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFPPHOTO: AFP
One of the highlights of his itinerary, however, is the Edinburgh Support Hub run by Scotland’s leading homeless charity, The Simon Community.
When he was homeless, it was “literally the only place in Edinburgh where homeless people could come and have a shower or wash their clothes and stuff,” he said.
“It’s a horrible feeling going about and not being able to have a shower and wash your clothes and that after a couple of days. So I used to come here all the time,” he added.
Homelessness is on the rise in Scotland, with an eight per cent rise this year in those either assessed as homeless, who were in temporary accommodation or had made homelessness applications.
French-born Moulaoui Guery said she hoped Invisible Cities’ work was helping to tackle the sense of being unseen experienced by homeless people.
“All of a sudden, to empower people to be visible and the centre of attention and lead a tour, I think that’s really, really important,” she said.
There are currently 18 guides helping visitors discover aspects of the city they would not normally encounter.
Similar tours are also run in a number of other United Kingdom (UK) cities, including Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool.
Moulaoui Guery, who set up the initiative in 2016, said it was good for tourists to get a chance to scratch beneath the city’s picture-postcard surface.
“You can talk about the castle and Victoria Street and Harry Potter and all the different things that make it magical, but you can also talk about real topics,” she said.
With a lack of support networks and relationship breakdown among the leading causes of homelessness, Invisible Cities tries to “recreate community and a positive environment”, she said.
“It’s about training more people and having the current guides move on so we can create more opportunities for others to become guides,” she added.
So far, around 130 people have undergone the training which aims to act as a stepping stone to other training or employment opportunities.
But Murray said the benefits were not a one-way street.
Tourists benefit from a broader view of the place they were visiting, he said.
Not only that, he added, it also offered them the satisfaction that they were helping the city’s “homeless down the line”.
Philippe Gillet strokes Alli, one of the two alligators living in his house. PHOTO: AFP
COUËRON (AFP) – His neighbours have cats and dogs, but when 72-year-old Philippe Gillet settles down to watch television there is usually an alligator dozing beside him.
His bungalow in western France is also home to a venomous Gabonese viper, a spitting cobra, a python, alligator turtles that can bite off a finger, tarantulas and scorpions.
When someone unfamiliar enters Gillet’s living room, Gator, a two-metre-long alligator, growls from under a coffee table.
“Calm down,” said Gillet and Gator went back to his snooze near Alli, another dozing alligator.
“When there is a storm he comes to sleep in my bed,” said Gillet. “People think I am mad.”
Videos of such episodes and other everyday tales of his deadly menagerie of 400 animals have made Gillet a social media star. They also promote his Inf’Faune charity which aims to educate people about the animals he is so passionate about.
Gillet lived in Africa for 20 years, working as a hunting guide. He said he would often catch crocodiles there to keep them away from villages.
Back in France, he became a herpetologist – a specialist on reptiles and amphibians. He made his base in Coueron, west of Nantes, with his partner, their children, and the animals.
In the garden is Nilo, a Nile crocodile, who Gillet said was “one of the most dangerous species”. Chickens wandered by scratching for food.
Most of the animals were bought or given to him by people who could no longer care for them. France’s customs department has sometimes turned to him.
“You cannot just free them,” said Gillet. “With global warming, freed cobras could reproduce and spread. Is that what we are going to leave our kids?”
Financing his passion has become a problem since the Coronavirus epidemic however.
His association could no longer organise fund-raising open days to show off the animals to the public. That used to bring in EUR100,000 a year.
Now his social media videos are the main way he gets the conservation message across.
He chooses a different animal for each video, mixing education and humour “to demystify the legends and preconceptions about wild animals”.
Inf’Faune built up 100,000 YouTube followers in its first four months and now has 200,000. Gillet also has 700,000 TikTok followers. The revenues allow Gillet and the 20 volunteers who help him feed the animals.
Philippe Gillet strokes Alli, one of the two alligators living in his house. PHOTO: AFP
India’s opposition Congress party members during a protest against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in New Delhi, India. PHOTO: AP
NEW DELHI (AP) – Hundreds of supporters of India’s main opposition party protested yesterday against billionaire Gautam Adani, who was recently indicted in the United States (US) for alleged fraud and bribery, and accused the government of protecting the Indian coal magnate whose companies’ shares have plunged since the charges last week.
Activists belonging to the Congress party demonstrated near Parliament in New Delhi to demand the immediate arrest of Adani Several were detained by police.
Also yesterday, opposition parties chanted “Adani” over and over as Parliament opened.
They called for a joint committee to investigate his companies, which include agriculture, renewable energy, coal and infrastructure. But the parliamentary session was adjourned over the disruptions.
Adani, 62, one of Asia’s richest men, was thrust into the spotlight last week when US prosecutors in New York charged him and seven of his associates with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, alleging that Adani duped investors in a massive solar project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by bribes.
The indictment outlines an alleged scheme to pay about USD265 million in bribes to government officials in India. The government has not officially commented on the charges, which the Adani group has denied as baseless.
On Saturday, the group’s chief finance officer said the indictment was linked to one contract of Adani Green, its renewable energy arm, that comprised 10 per cent of its business, adding that none of the group’s other companies was accused of wrongdoing.
India’s opposition Congress party members during a protest against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in New Delhi, India. PHOTO: AP
Rescuers rope off an area around a dead pilot whale on Ruakākā Beach in northland, New Zealand. PHOTO: AP
WELLINGTON (AP) – More than 30 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand were safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets.
Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand’s conservation agency said.
New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders.
A team was monitoring Ruakākā Beach near the city of Whangārei in New Zealand’s north yesterday to ensure there were no signs of the whales saved on Sunday stranding again, the Department of Conservation told The Associated Press.
The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod.
“It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” Department of Conservation spokesperson Joel Lauterbach said in a statement.
“This response demonstrates the deep connection we all share with our marine environment.”
A Māori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place yesterday. New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance. New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840.
Rescuers rope off an area around a dead pilot whale on Ruakākā Beach in northland, New Zealand. PHOTO: AP
People row a canoe at the flooded Mirabel RV Park and Campground after a major storm in California, United States. PHOTO: AP
AP – Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel leading up to the upcoming holiday, according to forecasts across the United States (US), while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages.
In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm.
The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, California, issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 88 kilometres per hour (kph). Total snowfall of roughly 1.2 metres was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected today. The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow and the East Coast will be the most impacted this weekend, forecasters said.
A low pressure system is forecast to bring rain to the Southeast early on Thursday before heading to the Northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and breezy conditions, with snowfall possible in parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the system tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said.
“The system doesn’t look like a powerhouse right now,” meteorologist with the weather service in Massachusetts Hayden Frank said on Sunday. “Basically, this is going to bring rain to the I-95 corridor so travellers should prepare for wet weather. Unless the system trends a lot colder, it looks like rain.”
People row a canoe at the flooded Mirabel RV Park and Campground after a major storm in California, United States. PHOTO: AP
A union ballot drop box at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in the United States. PHOTO: AP
AP – Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in the United States (US) have gone on strike during a busy week of holiday travel to protest what they said are unliveable wages.
Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots on Friday to authorise the work stoppage in North Carolina, which a spokesperson said began yesterday morning.
Officials with Service Employees International Union announced the impending strike in a statement early yesterday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season”.
ABM and Prospect Airport Services contract with American Airlines to provide services including cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.
Workers said they previously raised the alarm about their growing inability to afford basic necessities, including food and housing. They described living paycheck to paycheck, unable to cover expenses like car repairs while performing jobs that keep countless planes running on schedule. “We’re on strike today because this is our last resort. We can’t keep living like this,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said in a statement. “We’re taking action because our families can’t survive.”
Most of them earn between USD12.50 and USD19 an hour, which is well below the living wage for a single person with no children in the Charlotte area, union officials said.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport officials have said this holiday travel season is expected to be the busiest on record, with an estimated 1.02 million passengers departing the airport.
“Airport service workers make holiday travel possible by keeping airports safe, clean, and running,” the union said. “Despite their critical role in the profits that major corporations enjoy, many airport service workers must work two to three jobs to make ends meet.” ABM said it would take steps to minimise disruptions from any demonstrations.
“At ABM, we appreciate the hard work our team members put in every day to support our clients and help keep spaces clean and people healthy,” the company said in a statement last week. Prospect Airport Services said last week that the company recognises the seriousness of the potential for a strike during the busy holiday travel season.
A union ballot drop box at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in the United States. PHOTO: AP
Defendant Susan Lorincz takes notes during her trial. PHOTO: AP
AP – A white woman in Florida, United States (US) who fatally shot a Black neighbour through her front door during an ongoing dispute over the neighbour’s boisterous children faces sentencing for her manslaughter conviction.
Susan Lorincz, 60, was convicted in August of killing 35-year-old Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens by firing a single shot from her .380-caliber handgun in June 2023. Lorincz faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in state prison because a firearm was used.
The shooting was the culmination of a long-running argument between the two neighbours over Owens’ children playing in a grassy area at both of their houses in Ocala, about 130 kilometres northwest of Orlando.Prosecutors said Owens had come to Lorincz’s home after her children complained that she had thrown roller skates and an umbrella at them, which Lorincz denied. Trial testimony showed Owens, a mother of four young children, was pounding on Lorincz’s door and yelling, leading Lorincz to claim self-defence in shooting her neighbour.
Lorincz told detectives in a videotaped interview that she feared for her life. She also said she had been harassed for most of the three years she lived in the neighbourhood.
“I thought I was in imminent danger,” she said.
But jurors did not agree with her self-defence claim.
Owens’ family pushed for the maximum prison sentence after Lorincz was convicted by an all-white jury.
Defendant Susan Lorincz takes notes during her trial. PHOTO: AP
Lithuanian Emergency Ministry employees work at the site where a DHL cargo plane crashed into a house near Vilnius, Lithuania. PHOTO: AP
AFP – A DHL cargo plane crashed early yesterday near the airport in Lithuania’s capital, killing one person, authorities said as they searched for clues to what caused the tragedy.
“It is premature to associate it with anything or to make any attributions,” State Security Department chief Darius Jauniskis told reporters.
Images from the crash site in the capital Vilnius showed debris from the plane and packages on fire scattered across the residential area cordoned off by the emergency services.
“We cannot rule out the case of terrorism. We have warned that such things are possible.
But we cannot make any attributions or point fingers yet,” Jauniskis said.
According to the Lithuanian police, the plane, flying from the eastern German city of Leipzig, skidded several hundred metres, hitting the residential house which was set on fire, smaller buildings, and a car.Head of the firefighting and rescue department Renatas Pozela said one person from the plane’s four-member crew died in the crash that happened as the plane was due to land in Vilnius.
Head of National Crisis Management Centre Vilmantas Vitkauskas said the residential building was successfully evacuated, with its 12 residents moved to safety.
German logistics company DHL said the cargo aircraft was operated by its partner SwiftAir and had made an “emergency landing” in Lithuania.
“We can confirm that today, at approximately 4.30am CET, a Swiftair aircraft, operated by a service partner on behalf of DHL, performed an emergency landing about one kilometre from VNO Airport (Vilnius, Lithuania) while en route from LEJ Airport (Leipzig, Germany) to VNO Airport,” it said in a statement.
Lithuanian police Chief Arunas Paulauskas said investigators had gone to the hospital to talk to the pilots.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
Lithuanian Emergency Ministry employees work at the site where a DHL cargo plane crashed into a house near Vilnius, Lithuania. PHOTO: AP
ATHENS (AFP) – Eight migrants, six of them minors, died yesterday after a boat sank in the Aegean Sea, the Greek coastguard said.
The coastguard said nearly 40 people had been rescued and a search for survivors was ongoing amid strong winds.
The incident occurred north of the island of Samos, a route frequently chosen by people smugglers. Greece has seen a 25-per-cent increase this year in the number of people fleeing war and poverty, with a 30-per-cent increase alone to Rhodes and the south-east Aegean, according to the Migration Ministry.
Several similar accidents have occurred in past weeks, the last in early November when four people died near the island of Rhodes.
In late October, two people died near the island of Samos. Four more, including two infants, were lost near the island of Kos a few days earlier.
