Najib's stepson held on graft charges
KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysian anti-corruption officials yesterday arrested former prime minister Najib Razak's Hollywood producer stepson, whose film company has been linked to a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving a state fund.
Riza Aziz was a co-founder of Red Granite Pictures, which was behind the Oscar-nominated film The Wolf Of Wall Street. The Hollywood company has been linked to losses from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund.
Officials from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said Riza was arrested on charges of money laundering and will have to appear in court today to face the charges.
REUTERS
Pakistan prosecutes terror group's founder
ISLAMABAD • Under pressure from the United States and a global watchdog group, Pakistan is prosecuting the founder of the Islamist terrorist group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks on charges of terrorism financing, along with several of his close aides.
Officials said 23 cases had been registered against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and more than a dozen of his associates in Punjab province, after investigations into two charities that acted as a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba group he founded.
NYTIMES
Russian sub hit by fire was nuclear-powered
MOSCOW • Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed yesterday for the first time that a top-secret military submarine hit by a fatal fire three days ago was nuclear-powered.
The accident killed 14 sailors as they were carrying out what the Defence Ministry called a survey of the sea floor near the Arctic.
Mr Putin had asked Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu during a Kremlin meeting about the condition of the submarine's reactor after the fire, according to a Kremlin transcript of their meeting released yesterday.
Mr Shoigu said the fire erupted in the submarine's battery compartment. But he added that the nuclear reactor on the vessel is completely isolated and in "complete working order".
Officials have faced accusations of trying to cover up the full details of the accident, which took place on Monday. Russia says the details of the submarine involved are classified.
REUTERS
