Man wanted by US with $7 million bounty on his head still in Singapore - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - A Singaporean businessman who has a US$5 million (S$7 million) bounty on his head is still in Singapore.

Kwek Kee Seng, 62, the owner of the Swanseas Port Services shipping company here, is accused of violating sanctions on North Korea.

He is wanted by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice programme offered a bounty for information on him on Thursday.

On Saturday, the Singapore Police Force said he is still in Singapore, and has been under investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department for offences under Singapore’s United Nations Act 2001.

His passport has been impounded since investigations began in April 2021.

The police said they shared information on investigations with US law enforcement authorities via a letter on April 30, 2021.

This was formally conveyed by Singapore to various US agencies through a third-party note on May 7, 2021.

The police said in a statement: “Since then, there were several more exchanges. Due to the nature and complexity of the case, investigations are still ongoing.”

They added that they wrote to their US counterparts on Friday to seek clarification, given that they have been in active communication regarding the case.

“Singapore will continue to assist the US authorities within the ambit of our laws and international obligations,” said the police.

US court records indicate that Kwek was known to be living in a flat in Choa Chu Kang North.

The US State Department said Kwek has engaged in an “extensive scheme” to evade sanctions by the US and the United Nations by covertly transporting fuel to North Korea.

“Kwek and his co-conspirators sought to obscure their identities and activities by conducting financial transactions through a series of shell companies,” it said.

“He directed payments in US dollars that were routed from his shell companies based in Panama, Singapore and elsewhere, and through US banks to pay for oil, the M/T Courageous, services and materials for the vessel, and salaries for crew members.”

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2022-11-05 13:50:46Z
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Malaysia GE15: BN confident of being dominant party in government, says Ismail Sabri as campaigning kicks off - CNA

“The decision for me to be prime minister after this election is decided by the UMNO supreme council and UMNO general assembly,” he said, adding that 156 out of the party’s 190 divisions also supported the decision.

“This nomination has not been reversed. There is no council that said otherwise, meaning, what is decided still stands.”

Mr Ismail Sabri said he would retable Malaysia’s budget for 2023 if he continues as prime minister after the election, although he stressed that his focus is on campaigning.

“The focus now is I win in Bera, and BN wins the election and forms the government. That’s more important,” he said.

“If I win but the party loses the election, there is no meaning. In the end, I will become the leader of the opposition.”

Mr Ismail Sabri also outlined what he planned to do for the people of Bera, including continuing to develop the area’s infrastructure and helping people in the rural villages.

Mr Ismail Sabri said he will tour the country, including a visit in Melaka, on the campaign trail. Polling takes place on Nov 19.

Mr Abas, the PH candidate in Bera, said he did not think of his candidacy as going up against the prime minister, but as a chance to work for the people.

“I have worked as a director in the Selangor state education administration,” he said, adding that he has worked as a principal in five schools across Malaysia.

“So with that experience, I feel I can do a good job for the people if given the opportunity.”

Mr Asmawi of PN said he is looking forward to a clean contest without candidates resorting to jibes.

“We just want the best for the people of Bera,” he said, adding that he is still studying the issues they face and will announce his areas of focus in due course.

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2022-11-05 06:25:00Z
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No nuclear wars, Chinese President Xi Jinping says, in clear message to Russia - South China Morning Post

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1. No nuclear wars, Chinese President Xi Jinping says, in clear message to Russia  South China Morning Post
2. Xi, Scholz warn against 'irresponsible' nuclear threats over Ukraine  CNA
3. Germany's Scholz treads carefully in China visit as Xi seeks legitimacy  Nikkei Asia
4. China, Germany should respect each other - Xi tells Scholz  Reuters
5. Germany ain’t decoupling from China anytime soon  The Hill
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2022-11-04 15:00:13Z
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Xi urges Germany to resist grip of ideology on ties with China - South China Morning Post

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1. Xi urges Germany to resist grip of ideology on ties with China  South China Morning Post
2. Xi, Scholz warn against 'irresponsible' nuclear threats over Ukraine  CNA
3. Xi calls for greater cooperation with Germany in meeting with Scholz  The Straits Times
4. Germany ain’t decoupling from China anytime soon  The Hill
5. China, Germany should respect each other - Xi tells Scholz  Reuters
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2022-11-04 12:18:48Z
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North Korea fired artillery barrage overnight, Seoul says - CNA

SEOUL: North Korea fired an artillery barrage into a maritime "buffer zone" overnight, Seoul's military said Friday (Nov 4), after a record-breaking blitz of launches that included a failed intercontinental ballistic missile test.

Seoul and Washington, which have warned Pyongyang's recent launches could culminate in a nuclear test, extended their largest joint air drills through Saturday in response to the flurry of projectiles.

Shortly after that decision was announced Thursday, Pyongyang launched three short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move "a very dangerous and wrong choice".

About 80 artillery rounds fired by the North followed at 11.28pm, landing in a maritime "buffer zone", Seoul's military said.

The barrage was a "clear violation" of the 2018 agreement that established the buffer zone in a bid to reduce tensions between the two sides, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin described Pyongyang's ICBM launch as "illegal and destabilising", and Seoul and Washington vowed to pursue new measures to demonstrate their "determination and capabilities" against the North's growing threats.

Pyongyang fired about 30 missiles throughout Wednesday and Thursday, including one that landed near South Korea's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol said it was "effectively a territorial invasion".

Experts and officials have said Pyongyang is ramping up its tests in protest over the US-South Korean drills and as it prepares to conduct another nuclear test, which would be its seventh.

Pyongyang has called the joint air drills, dubbed Vigilant Storm, "an aggressive and provocative military drill targeting" North Korea, and threatened that Washington and Seoul would "pay the most horrible price in history" if it continued.

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2022-11-04 04:14:00Z
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China Plans Easing Covid Restrictions, Canceling Flight Suspensions - Bloomberg

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1. China Plans Easing Covid Restrictions, Canceling Flight Suspensions  Bloomberg
2. China is preparing a plan to end Covid-19 flight suspensions  The Straits Times
3. China's COVID Policies Are Consistent and Clear - China Foreign Ministry  U.S. News & World Report
4. China is preparing a plan to lift COVID flight suspensions - Bloomberg News  Reuters
5. With Indian students returning to China, Chinese Consul seeks resumption of flights between two countries  The Hindu
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2022-11-04 06:45:00Z
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Russia signals retreat in southern Ukraine but Kyiv fears trap - CNA

KYIV: A Russian-installed official in southern Ukraine said Moscow will likely pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson and also urged civilians to leave, perhaps signalling a retreat that would be a blow to Russia's war.

There was silence from senior officials in Moscow. The Kyiv government and Western military analysts remained cautious, suggesting Russia could be setting a trap for advancing Ukrainian troops.

"Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left (eastern) bank," Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of the Kherson region, said in an interview on Thursday with Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.

The area includes Kherson city, capital of the region of the same name, and the only major city Russia has captured intact since its invasion in February. It also includes one side of a dam across the Dnipro which controls the water supply to irrigate Crimea, the peninsula Russia has occupied since 2014.

Previously, Russia had denied its forces were planning to withdraw from the area.

In lengthy comments on Thursday night on a programme organised by RT television, Stremousov was somewhat more equivocal, saying "we have to take some very difficult decisions now. Whatever our strategy might be. And some people might be afraid to recognise things.

"But for me it is very important to try to say at the moment - People, please go over to the east bank. You will be in a far safer position," Stremousov said.

At another point, Stremousov said he hoped "that we will not leave Kherson" and if that were to happen, "it will be a big blow not only in terms of the image of us all, but a big blow for people who could stay here".

Speculation swirled over whether Russia was indeed pulling out, after photos circulated on the Internet showing the main administrative building in Kherson city with Russia's flag no longer flying atop it. Ukraine said those images could be Russian disinformation.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine's southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap.

"This could be a manifestation of a particular provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they are preparing for street battles," she said in televised comments.

MORE ATTACKS, POWER CUTS

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have launched three missile and 16 air strikes on Ukrainian targets as well as more than 40 shelling episodes, the Ukrainian military said in a statement on Thursday night.

On the southern front, Russian fire hit more than 35 towns and there were more than 30 reconnaissance missions by drones, the statement said.

Ukrainian aircraft made 12 strikes on eight Russian-occupied areas where men and equipment were concentrated, hitting four anti-aircraft units, the military said. Ukrainian artillery also struck three areas with men and equipment and two ammunition depots, it said.

Reuters was not able to verify battlefield reports.

A Ukrainian foreign ministry statement on Thursday night accused the Russian authorities of carrying out "mass forced movement of residents" in Kherson and Zaporzhzhia provinces in the south and Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east "to the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea or to the Russian Federation".

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of war crimes during the eight-month-long war, charges that Moscow rejects. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, though the conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and destroyed cities and towns.

Its attacks in the past few weeks on Ukrainian energy and water supplies have hit civilians hard as winter approaches, the Kyiv government says. As of Thursday night, 4.5 million Ukrainians in the capital Kyiv and 10 other regions were temporarily without power, the latest outages caused by Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address.

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2022-11-03 21:47:00Z
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