The LA Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel websites all displayed the same message saying they could not be accessed.

“Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries,” the message read.

“We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.”

The blocked websites are all owned by media company Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing.

Local US newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch and Arizona Daily Sun, were also out of reach.

“We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at this time,” its website said.

The EU says the so-called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will allow citizens to take back control of personal information held online.

Brussels insists that the laws will become a global benchmark for the protection of people’s online information, particularly in the wake of the Facebook data harvesting scandal.

But it has also been blamed for a flood of spam emails and messages in recent weeks as firms rush to request the explicit consent of users to contact them.

Even though the rules were officially adopted two years ago, with a grace period until now to adapt to them, companies have been slow to act, resulting in a last-minute scramble this week.//AFP

The Foreign Ministry (Wisma Putra) said in a statement on Friday that Malaysia remained resolute in the pursuit to prosecute those responsible for the act.

In this regard, it said, Malaysia appreciated the presentation by the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Thursday (May 24) on the latest report and the way forward on the criminal investigation as well as its related press statements.

“We will study the findings contained in the report carefully,” Wisma Putra said.

image: https://content.thestar.com.my/smg/settag/name=lotame/tags=all,Demo_AffluentAudience,Int_Business_Finance

In a statement published on its website, JIT said the team was convinced that a BUK TELAR was used to down MH17, and that it originated from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade (53rd Brigade), which is a unit of the Russian Army from Kursk in the Russian Federation.

Wisma Putra said that as a member of the JIT, Malaysia expressed its gratitude for all the hard work of the JIT members that had enabled critical information regarding the tragic incident to be established.

“Malaysia commends the progress on this,” it said.

Wisma Putra said Malaysia had consistently called for and supported a fully transparent, independent and exhaustive investigation process.

Hence, it said. Malaysia reiterated the JIT’s call for the public to come forward to assist in the investigation process and to provide additional supporting evidence against the people directly involved in order for justice to prevail.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving families and the loved ones of the passengers and crew of Flight MH17.

“We owe it to them to do everything possible to bring closure to this tragic incident,” Wisma Putra said.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine on that fateful day. All 298 people on board were killed.

The money was seized along with 284 boxes containing designer handbags, as well as watches and jewellery from a condominium in Kuala Lumpur, which was raided along with Najib’s home and other sites last week.

Najib’s coalition was thrown out of power for the first time in over six decades in the May 9 poll, defeated by a reformist alliance headed by his former mentor Mahathir Mohamad.

Public disgust at allegations of corruption swirling around Najib was a major factor for the loss, with the ex-leader, his family and cronies accused of looting billions of dollars from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

There has been much speculation about what the seized goods consisted of and their value after five trucks were reportedly brought in to help move the vast stash.

Giving an update, the police’s head of commercial crime Amar Singh said: “From the money found, there were 26 currencies, the total amount as of yesterday is 114 million (ringgit) ($28.6 million).”

The money was found in 35 bags while another 37 bags contained watches and jewellery, he told a press conference. The value of other items will be calculated later, he said.

The seizure of the luxury goods added to public scorn of Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor, long reviled by Malaysians for her perceived haughty demeanour and reported vast collection of designer bags, clothing and jewellery.

Her love of overseas shopping trips, as middle class Malaysians struggle with rising living costs, added to a sense of spreading, deeply-entrenched rot in the country’s long-ruling elite.

The couple’s fall from grace has been swift and hard.

They have been barred from leaving the country and the ex-premier has been questioned by anti-graft investigators over claims 1MDB money ended up in his bank accounts, and looks likely to be charged.

Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

But Swiss whistleblower Xavier Andre Justo says he met Jho Low not once, but twice, to discuss matters bet­ween 1MDB and PetroSaudi Inter­national.

It has been already revealed that from an initial US$1bil (RM3.9bil) that was wired to PetroSaudi, US$700mil (RM) was sent to an account owned by a company called Good Star, which investigation papers showed was controlled by Jho Low.

Justo, in an exclusive interview with The Star at a hotel here, said: “I met him twice. I have told the Swiss authorities the details.”

Justo, who broke open the can of worms that would become Malay­sia’s biggest ever scandal, said he first suspected something was amiss when he realised that large sums of money were being transacted and that PetroSaudi was making enormous commissions.

“(PetroSaudi’s top officials) Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony had access to the real numbers, but I knew something was wrong.

“There are commissions in the oil business. That’s the way it is and there is no need to be naive. Oil business means corruption.

“It is something to take 1% or 5%, but it is something else to take more than 80% of the amount in commission. I knew that something was wrong, but I wasn’t expecting this madness,” Justo said.

He added that he was shocked at how the scandal had grown.

From PetroSaudi, the scandal spread to other companies in the Middle East.

“It is unbelievable how greedy, how insane, how mad those people are. They really thought that whatever was in the central bank of Malaysia was theirs.

“‘So, we need a billion. Just open the safe. We need three more billion. Let’s issue a bond against some fake collateral. We need more. Let’s do that.’ They really thought that this Malaysian money was their own money,” he said.

Justo said he held the files from PetroSaudi that were given to him because he wanted money that was owed to him by the company.

Those files, when released, sparked an investigation into the largest corruption scandal in the world.

Justo said he gave the files to the owner of The Edge Communica­tions Tong Kooi Ong through Clare Rewcastle Brown after being convinced of their sincerity and motivation of wanting to reveal the 1MDB scandal.

“They explained to me how this 1MDB corruption machine was working.

“At the beginning, of course I said I wanted money. I could have sold these files for a lot of money. I just wanted the money owed to me by PetroSaudi.

“I just want all of them, starting from the first to the last, to be punished for their crimes.

“It’s not only about the money they stole. Yes, it’s very bad because this money was supposed to go to (things like) children’s education and healthcare instead of luxury bags, boats, jets and prostitutes. This is a financial crime.

“They also did worse than that. They killed people. They threatened people. They sent me to jail. They threatened my wife with arrest.

“They warned my wife that my son would end up in a Thai orphanage. They have to pay for that,” he said.

Justo said the only thing he knew about the Najib administration was that it was complicit in sending him to a Thai jail for three years.

“Mr Patrick Mahony, on the authorisation or the direction of people of your government, and with the collaboration of your government, went to see me inside the prison,” he said.

“I’ve never been convicted of anything. I was a banker and quite a successful one. I didn’t need this, but it happened, so if people think I am a bad guy, so be it.

“If people think I am a hero, I am not a hero. The real heroes are the people of Malaysia.”

Today, Justo says he is in a better place but the experience has changed his life.

“Everything is fine. Believe me, I was used to having a high standard of living. Now I just don’t care. I just want to be with my friends and family.

“Before, I only wanted to drink French wine. Now I don’t care if you give me the worst wine on earth.

“I need to be close to the people I love. I’m 52. I have an interesting life. I don’t care about material things anymore,” he added.

“The abrupt announcement of the cancellation of the meeting is unexpected for us and we cannot but find it extremely regrettable,” Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister, said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.

“We again state to the US our willingness to sit face-to-face at any time in any form to resolve the problem,” Kim added.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday called off his planned June summit with Kim Jong Un, blaming “open hostility” from the North Korean regime and warning Pyongyang against committing any “foolish or reckless acts”.

In a letter to Kim, Trump announced he would not go ahead with the high-stakes meeting set for June 12 in Singapore, following what the White House called a “trail of broken promises” by the North.

In his Friday statement, First Vice Foreign Minister Kim said the North Korean leader had been preparing for the summit to go ahead.

“Our Chairman (Kim Jong Un) had also said a meeting with President Trump would create a good beginning and had been putting effort into prepartions for it,” Kim said.

Just before Trump announced the cancellation of the talks, North Korea declared it had “completely” dismantled its nuclear test site, in a carefully choreographed move portrayed as a goodwill gesture ahead of the summit.

But the chances of success for the unprecedented face-to-face had recently been thrown into doubt.

On Thursday Pyongyang hardened its rhetoric by attacking US Vice President Mike Pence as “ignorant and stupid”.

That broadside appeared to hit a nerve with Trump, leading to him abruptly pulling out of the talks.

“Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” read Trump’s letter to Kim, which was dictated word-for-word by the US leader, according to a senior White House official.

Dear Mr Chairman:

We greatly appreciate your time, patience and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant. I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting. Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.

I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.

If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write. The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.

Sincerely yours,

Donald J. Trump

President of the United States of America

Trump and Kim had been due to hold high-stakes talks on June 12 aimed at ridding the reclusive state of nuclear weapons, but the meeting was recently thrown into doubt as both sides raised the prospect of scrapping the discussions and traded threats.

Trump’s letter came a day after North Korea attacked US Vice President Mike Pence as “ignorant and stupid.”

“Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote in a letter to Kim released by the White House.

“Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place.”

Trump also brandished the threat of America’s nuclear might in his letter, writing: “You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.”

The US leader’s letter appeared to leave the door open to a future meeting with Kim, however, stressing that he had been “very much looking forward to being there.”

“We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions” relative to the summit, he told Kim.

“I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters,” Trump said. “If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write.

“The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.”

The decision came as North Korea said it had “completely” dismantled its nuclear test site, in a carefully choreographed move portrayed by the isolated regime as a goodwill gesture ahead of the Singapore summit.

    Pyongyang announced its plan to “completely” dismantle the Punggye-ri facility in the country’s northeast, inviting some foreign journalists to witness the destruction.//AFP

Maria Elvira Pinto Exposto was arrested in December 2014 while in transit at Kuala Lumpur airport with 1.1 kilos (2.4 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine stitched into the compartment of a backpack she was carrying.

The 54-year-old was cleared in December of trafficking after a High Court judge ruled she did not know she was transporting the drugs.

But prosecutors challenged the decision and an appeals court overturned the acquittal Thursday, and found her guilty, her lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told AFP.

Anyone caught with at least 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of crystal meth is considered a trafficker in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and death by hanging is mandatory in the case of a conviction.

Shafee slammed the ruling as “perverse” and said Exposto would make a final appeal to the country’s top court.

“I thought there was an overwhelming case for the defence. I am shocked with the decision,” he said.

The mother of four argued she did not know about the hidden stash of “ice”. She said she had been fooled into carrying the bag after travelling to China to see someone she met online called “Captain Daniel Smith”, who had claimed to be a US serviceman.

After engaging in a long online romance, Exposto had travelled to Shanghai to see “Smith”.

But she did not succeed in meeting her supposed love interest while there and ended up being given a bag by a stranger, who asked her to take it to Melbourne.

When she arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport to change flights, she mistakenly went through immigration as she was unfamiliar with the airport.

She voluntarily offered her bags for customs inspection and the drugs were discovered.

There are at least 900 people on death row in Malaysia, officials have said, but executions have been rare in recent years.

Malaysian lawmakers have voted to amend legislation so that capital punishment is no longer mandatory in drug-trafficking cases.

But the changes have not yet come into force as they must be passed by the upper house.

Two Australians were hanged in Malaysia in 1986 for heroin trafficking — the first Westerners to be executed in the country — in a case that strained relations.

In 2013 Dominic Bird, a former truck driver from Perth, was acquitted of drug trafficking charges after he was allegedly caught with 167 grams of crystal methamphetamine.

“Ash exposure on the temple is thin, near the stupa. It’s evenly [covering] the entire surface of the temple,” Hari Setyawan, a staff member at the Borobudur Conservation Association told tempo.co.

The conservation team continues to observe the situation to anticipate any follow up eruption. The team is assessing the volcanic ash, with samples being analyzed at the conservation’s laboratory.

Additionally, the team has also prepared a cover for the stupa and floors of the temple. “We are following disaster response procedures and continue to monitor Merapi’s condition,” Hari said.

Mt Merapi erupted again at 2:56 a.m. on Thursday for four minutes. The eruption resulted in volcanic ash spewing at a height of 6,000 meters heading westward and could be heard from the Mt. Merapi observation post in Srumbung district, Magelang regency. The regency is also partially covered in ash following the eruption.

According to the Magelang Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), other areas affected include Tegalrandu village, Sumber, Dukun, Ngadipuro, Banyubiru, Muntilan, Menayu, Kalibening, Salaman, Tempuran, Sedayu, Sawangan and Mungkid.

Magelang BPBD head Edy Susanto has urged residents to remain calm and stay alert. “Use masks and glasses when outdoors,” he said.