1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) counsel Ong Chee Kwan confirmed the matter after meeting High Court (Admiralty Court) Judicial Commissioner Khadijah Idris in chambers Friday (Oct 26).

“Those who are interested to bid need to pay US$1mil as deposit,” he said.

Also present were counsel Jeremy Joseph and Senior Federal Counsel Alice Loke who acted for the government.

The judgment came after its registered owner failed to appear in court to claim the vessel.

Besides 1MDB and the government, the other two plaintiffs are MDB Energy Holdings Limited and 1MDB Global Investment Limited, which are 1MDB subsidiaries.

On Oct 5, the same court granted an application by the four plaintiffs to appoint a central broker and an international appraiser to handle the sale of the Equanimity, which purportedly belongs to fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.

This followed a decision on Aug 24 by the same court which granted an application by the four plaintiffs to sell the superyacht.

In the application filed on Aug 23, the four plaintiffs named the owner of the ship, Equanimity of Cayman Islands, as the defendant in a suit filed via the law firm of Jeremy Joseph and Partners.

In the notice of application, the four plaintiffs asked for the sale of the ship, bunkers, fuel, lubricants and other consumables on board to be conducted via public tender or private treaty by the Admiralty Court sheriff.

The superyacht was brought to Port Klang on Aug 7 after the Indonesian authorities handed it over to Malaysia and it was seized off Bali in February at the request of the US authorities as part of the corruption investigation launched by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) into 1MDB.

“We have no reports of injuries, or of someone being trapped under rubble… We advise people to remain calm,” Zante mayor Pavlos Kolokotsas told Real FM radio.

“Zakynthos has anti-seismic protection… There were only cracks inside homes and minor rockslides,” said Kolokotsas, using the island’s Greek name.

Electricity in the main town, also called Zante, was temporarily knocked out while officials reported damage to the road network caused by landslides.

    The island dock was also damaged, but marine access to the island has not been interrupted.

Many residents spent the early morning outside their homes as a precaution. Island schools would remain shut on Friday.

“We ran out of the house… The whole village was out on the square,” said Angelike Glava, an elderly local.

The earthquake hit off the southern part of the island, in the Ionian Sea at 1.50 am (2250 GMT Thursday), according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The Greek national observatory in Athens said the earthquake had a depth of just 10 kilometres.

“There has been no damage to houses, according to the first reports,” a spokesperson for the fire service told AFP.

A 12th-century Byzantine monument on a small island near Zante has been severely damaged, local media reported.

The tremor was followed by over a dozen aftershocks, the national observatory in Athens said.

The earthquake was also felt on mainland Greece, southern Italy and Malta.

USGS said the quake, which struck at a depth of 16.6 kilometres (10 miles), was preceded by a shake of 5.0 and followed by a series of smaller aftershocks.

Zante is a popular holiday destination with its own international airport.

Greece lies on major fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes, but they rarely cause casualties.

However, in July 2017 a magnitude 6.7 earthquake killed two people on the island of Kos in the Aegean sea, causing significant damage.

Zante island experienced a major earthquake in 1953 of 6.4, killing hundreds of victims and injuring thousands, leaving the island in ruins.

The three were arrested about six weeks after two Reuters reporters were each sentenced to seven years in prison in September, a high-profile case that provoked outrage around the world.

In this case the article, published earlier this month by Eleven Media, criticised the financial management of Yangon’s government run by Phyo Min Thein, the chief minister for the city and a staunch Suu Kyi ally.

Executive editors Kyaw Zaw Lin and Nayi Min and chief reporter Phyo Wai Win — who have spent the last two weeks in Myanmar’s notorious Insein prison — stand by the report, which raised questions about funding for the city’s bus network.

“My report was fair and right. I just pointed out that the (Yangon government’s budgeting) process was wrong, but they thought that I abused them,” Phyo Wai Win told AFP at the court.

They were charged under article 505 (b), which criminalises published or circulated information that causes “fear or alarm to the public”.

It is one of many broadly worded provisions in the penal code that have been used against journalists in the country.

The trio could face up to two years in jail, if convicted.

In a rare move, Myanmar’s president intervened last week to urge the prosecutor to withdraw the charges and resolve the conflict through press council arbitration.

But the prosecutor did not turn up to Friday’s hearing due to a “health problem”, the judge told defence lawyer Kyee Myint, and so the case must continue.

The next hearing is set for 9 November.

Rights groups have long called for an overhaul of an array of Myanmar’s vague laws governing freedom of expression, and the case comes as journalism advocates decry shrinking space for independent reporting.

Dozens of reporters have been ensnared since Suu Kyi’s government came to power two years ago.

The harsh sentences for Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo came at the end of what was widely seen as a sham trial after they exposed the extrajudicial killing of 10 Muslims last year.

The cases have further tarnished the reputation of Suu Kyi, once lauded internationally for her commitment to the fight for human rights.

“In reality it is attacks on the media that cause public fear and alarm as they undermine hard-fought democratic gains in Myanmar,” Sean Bain, legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), told AFP.

In 2016, Eleven Media’s then editors were briefly jailed over a column that accused Phyo Min Thein of corruption, for which the paper later apologised.

President Rodrigo Duterte shuttered the tiny white-sand island in April, declaring it a “cesspool” where businesses flushed raw sewage into the once pristine turquoise waters and trash soiled in beaches.

Among the first to land after the government threw open the doors just past dawn were first-timers attracted by the prospect of a spruced up, less crowded island.

“When I saw pictures of tourists in Boracay lying like sardines in a can, I didn’t want to come here,” German visitor Josef Fuchs, 61, told AFP. “Now I expect to have a few good days here.”

Tourists like him were greeted with new restrictions that cap the number of visitors as well as a beachside boozing ban and efforts to build up island infrastructure.

Once a quiet hideaway favoured by backpackers, the tiny island was transformed by overdevelopment into a mass destination seeing some two million visitors per year.

Under the new regime, the beachfront is cleared of the masseuses, vendors, bonfires and even the builders of its famous photo-op sandcastles it was once crowded with.

All water sports save for swimming are also banned for the time being, while Boracay’s three casinos have been permanently shut down in line with Duterte’s wishes.

Buildings were bulldozed and businesses pushed back to create a 30-metre (98-foot) buffer zone from the waterline.

Away from the water the sound of machinery and hammering echoed in the air as resorts made improvements to meet new requirements and crews toiled away on a widened main road.

Boracay, which major tourist magazines consistently rate as among the world’s best beaches, measures a mere 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres).

Yet it was seeing up to 40,000 sun worshippers at peak times, with tourists spending $1 billion a year but also leaving mountains of garbage and an overflowing sewer system.

End of ‘ghost town’ Boracay

The new rules say 19,200 tourists will be allowed on the island at any one time, with the government aiming to enforce that by controlling the number of available hotel rooms.

Scores of hotels and restaurants were ordered to close because they did not meet standards, while just under 160 tourism-related businesses have been approved to re-open.

Drinking and smoking are banned and the huge multi-day beach parties dubbed “LaBoracay” that drew tens of thousands of tourists during the May 1 Labour Day weekend will be a thing of the past.

The Boracay Foundation, the main business industry group on the island, said the sector supports the new regulations aimed at cleaning up the resort.

“The rules and ordinances are really perfect… it’s just a matter of implementation,” its executive director Pia Miraflores told AFP.

“For a long time we’ve been asking for the political will to implement the rules and regulations,” she added.

Tens of thousands of workers were left unemployed when the island’s tourism machine was deprived of visitors. They cheered as the guests began to arrive.

“Life will go back to normal. We will have money and work again,” said Jorge Flores, 45, a hotel worker. “In the past six months, hotels here were like… a ghost town.”

Premier Li Keqiang greeted Abe as Japan’s flag flew outside the opulent Great Hall of the People across from Tiananmen Square, and they reviewed an honour guard before going inside for talks.

Relations between Asia’s two biggest economies have improved in recent years after they sunk to new lows in 2012 when Tokyo “nationalised” disputed islands claimed by Beijing.

Addressing a joint press conference, Abe said that the two leaders had agreed to “play a constructive role for the sake of this region’s peace and prosperity”.

“I believe active trade will deepen ties between Japanese and Chinese peoples further,” he said.

“Now, international conditions are unstable, and uncertainties have increased,” Li said, adding that the countries’ economic cooperation would “benefit the development of global free trade”.

The relationship has rapidly warmed up as Trump has slapped massive tariffs on China while also targeting Japanese exports in his effort to cut US trade deficits, despite touting his personal bonds with Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Abe travelled with nearly 1,000 delegates from Japanese companies, who struck 500 deals worth a total of $2.6 billion, Li said, without providing details.

The companies are eager for increased access to China’s massive market, while Beijing is interested in Japanese technology and corporate know-how.

“Though the US is quite an influential factor in China-Japan ties, the effect is limited,” China’s nationalistic Global Times said in an editorial.

“If Beijing and Tokyo intend to plan their future bilateral relationship based on Washington’s attitude, they will only get lost,” the state-run daily said.

The two leaders also oversaw the signing of several political agreements, including a currency swap deal and a mechanism to avoid accidental clashes between their militaries which often come in contact in the disputed East China Sea.

‘Safeguard free trade’

The last official visit to Beijing by a Japanese prime minister was in 2011.

Since an awkward 2014 encounter between Abe and Xi on the sidelines of a summit, there have been ministerial visits by both sides and a softening of rhetoric. Li visited Tokyo in May.

Abe’s three-day trip, which began Thursday, sets up the possibility that Xi will visit Japan next year.

Abe and Li already met on Thursday during a reception to celebrate the signing of the treaty that put Japanese and Chinese relations back on track after World War II.

But territorial disputes continue to cause frictions.

Just days before Abe’s trip, Tokyo lodged an official complaint after Chinese ships cruised around the disputed islands that Tokyo calls the Senkaku and Beijing labels the Diaoyu islands.

China has long denounced Japan for what it says is an insufficiently contrite attitude towards its role in World War II.

But ahead of the trip, Beijing has taken a more cordial stance than it has in the past.

Japanese media have reported Abe is hoping the visit will produce a soft power win in the form of some panda diplomacy, with zoos in Sendai and Kobe apparently angling for new additions.

Malaysia Airlines said flight MH4, from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow, was preparing to land when instructions were given by the air traffic controller (ATC) to commence a go-around as the runway was occupied by another aircraft.

“ATC gave an assigned heading towards the north of the airfield, which would place the aircraft at the base position for Runway 27R.

“The pilots in charge followed standard operating procedures (SOP) for such instances and gave ATC a read-back to the assigned heading,” MAS said in a statement on Friday (Oct 26).

It added that there was no Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) that was triggered in the cockpit.

“Before reaching the assigned position, ATC then asked MH4 to head in a different direction, which the pilots duly did.

“To reiterate: safety is of the utmost importance to Malaysia Airlines, and all our pilots go through a very strict and comprehensive training and are required to complete 4,500 hours before being accorded captain status, well above the industry norms,” it said.

According to UK Aviation News, the Virgin Atlantic aircraft, VS251, was flying from Shanghai to London Heathrow when the MAS airplane came into its flight path.

The report said Virgin was “aware that an aircraft came within three miles of the VS251”.

It also said that the airline was working with the relevant authorities to understand how the incident could have happened.

The report also quoted NATS, UK’s air traffic control services, where its spokesperson confirmed that there was a loss of separation between two aircraft on approach to Heathrow Airport.

“This was resolved by the approach controller and both aircraft landed safely.

“Almost 2.5 million aircraft safely fly though the UK every year, and these types of incidents are extremely rare.

“The incident has been reported to the UK Airprox Board which will investigate the circumstances and publish its findings in due course,” it said.

The report also pointed out that both airlines would be filing report to the UK AirProx Board, an organisation that looks at air proximity incidents in the UK airspace.

The palace revoked the Darjah Seri Utama Negeri Sembilan or S.P.N.S. award, which carries the title Dato’ Seri Utama. The Pekan MP was awarded the title in 2005.

However, it is understood that he still holds Datuk Seri titles from other states, including Pahang, Melaka, Sabah, Sarawak, Penang, Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis.

This is the palace of the state ruler Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir. The palace has also decided to revoke the Dato’ Seri title of Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor

Her Darjah Seri Paduka Tuanku Ja’afar Yang Amat Terpuji (S.P.T.J) title was conferred on her in 2006.

However, Rosmah is understood to still hold Datuk Seri titles from Pahang, Melaka, Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah and Selangor.

The decision, said Dr Razali, was made to safeguard the honour and dignity of the Negri Sembilan royal institution.

The European Commission, the 28-nation EU’s executive arm, proposed banning such items that it said account for 70 percent of the waste in the oceans and beaches.

“Today we are one step closer to eliminating the most problematic single-use plastic products in Europe,” the EU’s environment commissioner Karmenu Vella said.

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, voted for the ban on single-use plastic by 571 votes for, 53 against and 34 abstentions.

The legislation which supporters want to take effect by 2021 must still be approved in negotiations involving the member states, parliament and the commission.

The WWF said the vote put “the EU on track as a global leader in reducing plastic pollution and pioneering stronger circular economies.”

However, it said the parliament missed an opportunity to close a legal loophole on the definition of single-use plastics, adding it allows products to be labelled re-usable when they may not be.

The manufacturers associations PlasticsEurope said the measures are “disproportionate,” adding bans discourage investment needed to develop ways to recycle plastics.

Like WWF, it said single-use plastics definitions remain “ambiguous.”

The parliament said its ban across the EU targets single-use cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers, which were on the commission’s original list of 10 items.

MEPs added polystyrenes used to wrap fast-food and oxo-plastics, such as bags that have been touted as biodegradable but which break up into tiny particles.

The legislation calls for plastic items where no alternatives are available to be reduced by at least 25 percent by 2025.

– ‘Most ambitious legislation’ –

Under the ban, drinks bottles and other plastics will have to be collected separately and recycled at a rate of 90 percent by 2025.

The legislation calls for reducing waste from tobacco products, especially cigarette filters containing plastic, by 50 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2030.

Cigarette butts can take up to 12 years to disintegrate when thrown on a road, the parliament said.

It calls for member states to ensure that tobacco firms cover the costs of waste collection for those products.

The bill calls on member countries to ensure that at least 50 percent of lost or abandoned fishing gear containing plastic is collected annually.

It calls for recylcing at least 15 percent of fishing gear — which accounts for 27 percent of the litter on Europe’s beaches — by 2025.

Producers of fishing gear containing plastic will also need to assume the cost of collecting litter and help meet the recycling target.

Frederique Ries, member of the liberal ALDE party, said the bill he steered through parliament is “the most ambitious legislation against single-use plastics.”

He added “it is up to us now to stay the course in the upcoming negotiations with” the EU member states, which could start next month.

He said the legislation is needed to protect the environment and cut damage from plastics that will rise to an estimated 22 billion euros by 2030.

The European Commission has said businesses will benefit from one set of rules for an EU market of around 500 million people.

It said it will encourage EU companies to develop economies of scale and become more competitive in the “booming” global market for sustainable products.

The EU push to crack down on plastic use follows China’s decision to ban imports of foreign waste products for recycling.