News of the decision came with word that Facebook is cracking down on efforts to use the leading social network to meddle with elections in the US or elsewhere.

“It is a new challenge for internet communities to have to deal with nation states attempting to subvert elections,” Zuckerberg said in a live video presentation streamed on his Facebook page.

“But, we are committed to rising to the occasion.”

Zuckerberg announced a series of steps that would help prevent the manipulation of the social network including more transparency on political ads appearing on Facebook.

The huge social network enables any advertiser, including political operatives, to target specific groups of Facebook users based on demographics, hobbies, age or other characteristics shared at the social network.

Some analysts have argued that so-called “dark ads,” the contents of which are not available to the public, could have inflamed tensions and potentially impacted the 2016 election.

Zuckerberg said the new steps would address these concerns.

“We’re going to bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency,” he said.

“Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser’s page and see the ads they’re currently running to any audience on Facebook.”

Facebook earlier this month agreed to hand over information about the ads from Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the 2016 election and on Thursday decided to turn over the information to congressional investigators.

“We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election,” Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said in a blog post.

– Questions –

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An internal Facebook review showed that Russia-linked fake accounts were used to buy ads aimed at exacerbating political clashes ahead of and following the 2016 US presidential election.

Some 470 accounts spent a total of approximately $100,000 between June 2015 to May 2017 on ads that touted fake or misleading news or drove traffic to pages with such messages, a Facebook official said.

While the amount of money involved was relatively small, enough to buy roughly 3,000 ads, the accounts or pages violated Facebook policies and were shut down, according to Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos.

Most of the ads run by the accounts didn’t directly reference the US presidential election, voting, or particular candidates but instead appeared focused on “amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum,” according to Stamos.

A core question in the congressional investigation is the extent to which online social networks were manipulated by Russian interests to covertly influence the US election, according to Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat and the ranking member of the House permanent select committee on intelligence.

“The data Facebook will now turn over to the Committee should help us better understand what happened, beyond the preliminary briefings we already received,” Schiff said in a released statement.

The committee will also scrutinize how rigorous Facebook’s internal investigation and why it took as long as it did to discover the Russian sponsored advertisements, according to Schiff.

Schiff express belief that the committee will want to hear directly from tech companies including Facebook, Google, and Twitter in open hearings.

– Keeping watch –

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Along with letting people visit the pages of advertisers to see what kinds of messages they are aiming at others on platform, Facebook will strengthen its ad review process, Zuckerberg said.

Facebook is also ramping up its team devoted to election integrity, and looking to expand partnerships with elections officials and candidates around the world.

Facebook also wants to figure out ways that internet companies can share more information about attempts to interfere with elections, according to Zuckerberg.

“It is important that technology companies collaborate on this because it is almost certain that any actor trying to abuse Facebook will try to abuse other online platforms too,” Zuckerberg said.

The pirates tried to hijack the Thai-flagged tanker, which was carrying seven million ringgit ($1.7 million) worth of diesel, off the coast of Terengganu state on peninsular Malaysia in early September.

They succeeded in boarding the vessel but Malaysian coastguard commandos rushed to the vessel’s last known location by helicopter after it disappeared off tracking systems.

The commandos descended by rope onto the vessel, and managed to detain the pirates. Fourteen Thai sailors on the tanker were unharmed.

A Malaysian court on Wednesday jailed the ten pirates who seized the tanker, and an 11th who masterminded the failed operation from land, said prosecutor Nurul Farahah Mohamad Suah.

Seven of the pirates who were aged below 50 were also sentenced to five strokes of the cane, she said.

Nurul told AFP authorities wanted to send “a clear message that we do not tolerate piracy.

“The pirates, who were armed with machetes, planned the robbery and targeted helpless seafarers.”

Meanwhile, Zulkifli Abu Bakar, director-general of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, hailed the court decision as a “good deterrent”.

A report by the International Maritime Bureau said there were three attacks by pirates in Malaysian waters in the first half of this year.

The seven men, aged between 22 and 38, were working as private security guards in and around the capital Kuala Lumpur, said national police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun.

One had fought Filipino troops and was previously involved in abductions in the southern Philippines. Police did not give details about the other suspects.

The arrests last week bring to 41 the number of foreigners suspected of being “terrorist fighters” who have been detained in Malaysia this year, he said.

Fears have been growing in Malaysia that Muslim militants are ramping up their activities, inspired by the Islamic State group and a conflict in the Philippine city of Marawi between followers of the jihadists and authorities.

“The police will continue to launch operations to detect and catch foreign terrorist elements that infiltrate Malaysia,” Mohamad Fuzi said in a statement.

The men caught in the latest arrests had entered Malaysia via Sabah state on Borneo island in September 2015 before heading to the capital city using fake documents, the police chief said.

Royal Malaysia Police officers hold evidence bags from the suspects during a press conference at Kuala Lumpur Police Headquarters, Malaysia, 16 September 2017.// EPA-EFE

The Abu Sayyaf are Islamist militants engaged mainly in kidnappings for ransom who have operated out of the southern Philippines for years.

They have raided Malaysian parts of Borneo, not far from the southern Philippines, and abducted foreign tourists.

One faction has pledged allegiance to IS and joined militants battling security forces since May in Marawi, the main Muslim city in the mostly Catholic Philippines.

Malaysian police earlier this month said they had arrested 19 suspects including 11 foreigners who had been plotting to disrupt the 2017 Southeast Asian Games and the country’s independence day celebrations.

The social network is a key tool in the information war taking place over violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has driven more than 420,000 Rohingya Muslims from the country and sparked UN accusations of military-led “ethnic cleansing”.

Rohingya activists have used the platform to post alleged scenes of brutality from the conflict zone, where humanitarian and media access is severely restricted, while the army and government deliver near-daily updates on the crisis.

A Facebook spokeswoman told AFP late Wednesday it was not requested by the government to bar the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which remains active on Twitter.

The spokeswoman added that the move was in line with its policy of prohibiting violent groups from its site.

The latest violence in Rahkine erupted after a series of deadly ARSA attacks on military posts in August.

The army has been blamed for launching a crackdown in response that has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, along with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus, into neighbouring Bangladesh.

The spokeswoman said Facebook was aware that Rohingya activists were using the site to draw attention to the violence, and that it intended to allow non-graphic content to remain online.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has played down claims of atrocities and blamed “a huge iceberg of misinformation” for complicating the conflict.

She has faced mounting criticism from global leaders over what the United Nations has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” against Rohingya Muslims.

Britain sent back five Myanmar army officers from a training session this week, “on account of the current situation in Rakhine”, Myanmar’s army said on Facebook late Wednesday.

The move comes amid a mounting diplomatic spat between the two countries, with Britain saying Wednesday it had suspended all educational training courses for the Myanmar military over concerns of rights abuses in Rakhine state.

Rohingyas are widely reviled in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are considered illegal ‘Bengali’ immigrants brought in from modern-day Bangladesh during British colonial rule.

There were an estimated 1.1 million Rohingyas in Rakhine state before the current crisis, though nearly half have fled into Bangladesh where they are cramped into ill-equipped camps.//AFP

The resolution suggests enhancing multinational cooperation to narrow the development gap and ensure sustainable poverty reduction and effective implementation of social welfare.

It calls for considering a common institutional framework for the AEC to be established.

Vietnam also proposed modifications to a resolution from Indonesia on combating marine plastic debris and micro-plastic.

It suggested mentioning the United Nations’ sustainable-development goal of enhancing conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources.

Vietnam urged fellow member-countries’ governments to promote campaigns to wean consumers away from using plastic bags.

France will work with other members of the UN Security Council for a condemnation of “this genocide which is unfolding, this ethnic cleansing”, Macron said in an interview with the French TV channel TMC.

Macron’s use of the word “genocide” marks his strongest verbal attack yet on the military drive against the Rohingya.

More than 420,000 members of the Muslim minority have fled Myanmar for the safety of neighbouring Bangladesh.

“We must condemn the ethnic purification which is under way and act,” Macron said.

“Asking for the violence to end, asking for humanitarian access… progressively enables an escalation” under UN auspices, Macron said.

“When the UN issues a condemnation, there are consequences which can provide a framework for intervention under the UN,” Macron said.

Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are reviled by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The UN human rights chief has described the systematic attacks against the Rohingya minority by the security forces as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.//AFP

Myanmar’s second vice president Henry Van Thio addressed the annual UN General Assembly in the place of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who a day earlier delivered a speech calling for patience.

Van Thio’s remarks are even less likely than Suu Kyi’s to mollify global concerns as he questioned the reasons for the flight of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.

“I am happy to inform you that the situation has improved,” Van Thio said in his address, saying there have been no clashes since September 5.

“Accordingly, we are concerned by reports that the numbers of Muslims crossing into Bangladesh remain unabated. We would need to find out the reason for this exodus,” he said.

The United Nations says more than 420,000 Rohingya have fled for safety to Bangladesh in the face of an army campaign that includes the burning of villages and rape.

French President Emmanuel Macron earlier Wednesday described the campaign as genocide.

Van Thio did not use the term Rohingya, referring to them simply as Muslims. The Rohingya are widely reviled in the Buddhist-majority country.

Van Thio noted that the army campaign came in response to a rebel attack and said that non-Muslims have also suffered.

But Myanmar’s third-in-command thanked foreign countries for support, not referring directly to their criticism.

“Humanitarian assistance is our first priority. We are committed to ensuring that aid is received by all those in need, without discrimination,” Van Thio said.

Suu Kyi’s stance has disheartened human rights groups who had campaigned for her freedom during the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s 15 years under house arrest by a military junta.

But analysts say that Suu Kyi, while now the country’s leader, may not be able to curb the army even if she took the political risk of speaking out.//AFP

China tops the list of Asian countries with the maximum proven natural gas resources. The country has 49,45,000 million cubic metres of natural gas, surpassing other Asian countries by a huge margin and claiming the tenth spot globally.

Indonesia, India and Malaysia are the other Asian countries which have large reserves of natural gas. While Indonesia has 28,75,000 million cubic metres,  India and Malaysia have 14,89,000 and 11,83,000 million cubic metres of natural gas, as per the data compiled by the CIA World Factbook.

Indonesia is also at the 13th spot globally when it comes to holding natural gas reserves, while India and Malaysia hold the 22nd and 23rd spot respectively.

Vietnam (6,99,400million cubic metres) Pakistan (6,69,000 million cubic metres) and Brunei (3,90,800 million cubic metres) also have sizeable reserves of natural gas, which can provide energy for heating, electricity generation and can be used as fuel for vehicles.

Other Asian countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand have natural gas reserves of 2,83,200 million cubic metres, 2,33,000 million cubic metres and 2,19,500 million cubic metres respectively.

Although the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also have natural gas reserves they are tiny in comparison with the other Asian countries.

Increased use of natural gas can prove useful in dropping the over reliance on coal, which is a leading contributor to air pollution. Natural gas emits much less carbon dioxide and air pollutants compared to coal. It is also useful in almost all sectors of the global economy.

To increase dependence on natural gas, Asian countries need to invest in gas infrastructure as well as liberalise gas markets.

Unison, the country’s second largest trade union, came up with the move as a number of British institutions say they are reviewing or removing honours bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi during her campaign for democracy under Myanmar’s oppressive military junta, the report said.

This suspension comes as many British institutions say they are reviewing or removing honours bestowed on Aung San Suu Kyi during her campaign for democracy under Myanmar’s oppressive military junta, reports The Guardian.

“The situation facing the Rohingya of Myanmar is appalling,” The Guardian reports quoting Margaret McKee, Unison’s president.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary membership of Unison has been suspended, and we hope that she responds to international pressure,” McKee added according to the report.

“The university shares the growing concern with the ongoing situation in Myanmar,” a spokesperson for Bristol University said, according to The Guardian.

“In 1998 we awarded an honorary degree of doctor of laws to Dr Aung San Suu Kyi, who at the time was leading the struggle for human rights and democracy in the then Burma.”

“In terms of this award it would be wrong to make any decision at this time to consider revoking such an honour but we will continue to monitor and review the situation as necessary.”

The London School of Economics student union said it would be stripping the former political prisoner of her honorary presidency.

“We will be actively removing Aung San Suu Kyi’s honorary presidency as a symbol of our opposition to her current position and inaction in the face of genocide,” said Mahatir Pasha, the union’s general secretary.

Over the last 3 decades Aung San Suu Kyi has been awarded with honorary degrees from several UK universities including Glasgow, Bath and Cambridge, as well as the freedom of several cities, and other honours.

Oxford councillors announced that they might reconsider the freedom of the city of Oxford awarded to Suu Kyi in 1997 at next month’s council meeting, the report said.