The Prime Minister said the government had agreed to a proposal on the matter made by the Foreign Ministry.

“The ministry requested that there should not be any political appointments as ambassadors. We will no longer allow this.

“Of course, there are many members of the government who would like to enjoy life as a diplomat,” said Dr Mahathir at a press conference after chairing the fourth meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption.

He said politicians currently serving as ambassadors or high commissioners would have their contract terminated immediately.

However, when asked if the decision would affect DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai, who is the government’s special envoy to China, Dr Mahathir said Tan’s role was not the same as that of an ambassador.

“He is based in Malaysia and only goes over to China to do work,” said Dr Mahathir.

Hanoi – Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, a former police chief known as a tough politician with little tolerance for dissent, died Friday at age 61 after a serious illness, state media reported.

His death is not likely to dramatically alter politics in a country where the communist state oversees almost every facet of society — although the death of a sitting leader is rare.

Coverage on state media was sombre Friday, with a Vietnam Television anchor dressed in all black as she announced the news of the leader’s death, first reported by the official news agency.

He passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors”, the official Vietnam News Agency said.

A member of Quang’s staff confirmed his “very sad” death to AFP.

In office as president since April 2016 after more than four decades at the powerful Ministry of Public Security (MPS) — including five years as minister until 2016 — Quang had a reputation as a hardliner and dedicated communist party member.

Though he held one of the country’s top four positions and was officially the head of state, his role as president was seen as largely ceremonial, greeting visiting leaders and hosting diplomatic events in a bid to boost Vietnam’s profile on the world stage.

Quang, also a politburo member, had appeared thin and pale in public in recent months, and was unstable on his feet last week when he hosted a welcoming ceremony for Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Hanoi.

His last public appearance was just two days ago at a meeting with visiting Chinese politicians and foreign dignitaries in Hanoi.

– Checkered legacy –

State media celebrated Quang for his devotion to public service and commitment to the party, which he joined in 1980.

Born October 12, 1956 in northern Ninh Binh province, Quang joined the police academy as a young man and went on to study at the College of Foreign Language in the capital.

His long career in the security ministry — then known as the Interior Ministry — started in 1975 and Quang spent much of his tenure climbing the ranks of the shadowy yet powerful institution, which heads up the country’s secret police and intelligence.

As head of MPS, Quang had a reputation as tough and influential in the inner circles of the communist party, though he often appeared uncomfortable in the public eye and lacked the charisma of some of his peers in the party’s upper echelons.

In an interview with AFP in 2016 ahead of a visit by the former French leader Francois Hollande, Quang read from a prepared statement and was quickly escorted from the room by staff when questions went off-script.

His time in office was dominated by a simmering conflict with Beijing over the South China Sea, a long-running dispute between the communist neighbours that escalated on several occasions.

Vietnam cancelled at least one oil drilling project in the resource-rich region during Quang’s tenure in an apparent bid to quell tensions.

He was the administration’s most public face at a series of high-profile events, most notably at an APEC meeting in Danang in November last year where he hosted a bevy of world leaders — including US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping.

As president, he oversaw a crackdown on dissidents that rights groups have decried as a chokehold on free expression. Some 100 political prisoners were behind bars as of April with more than 40 jailed this year alone, according to Amnesty International.

It is a bruised reputation that is likely to resonate among critics outside Vietnam, even as his legacy will be celebrated — albeit tightly controlled — at home.

“He was basically at the top of the apparatus of repression that silences voices for human rights defenders, government critics, bloggers and members of civil society,” Andrea Giorgetta of the International Federation for Human Rights told AFP after his death Friday.

He is survived by his wife and two sons.

There was no immediate announcement about when his funeral will take place, though the government is certain to host a state service for him.

UN investigators this week released a scathing and meticulous report detailing why several Myanmar generals should be prosecuted for genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority who were driven out of Rakhine state beginning in August 2017.

The report called for Army chief Min Aung Hlaing and five other top military leaders to be investigated for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the crackdown.

Under their leadership the Myanmar military face allegations of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and that wholesale razing of Rohingya villages in Rakhine — the epicentre of the crisis from which more than 700,000 Rohingya fled.

Hunt, who arrived in Yangon on Wednesday, had said he wanted to see “first-hand” the humanitarian crisis faced by the Rohingya.

On Thursday, the foreign minister was taken on an army-chaperoned tour of Rakhine via helicopter.

He arrived in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw in the afternoon to have a one-on-one chat with Suu Kyi. They sat together for 15 minutes to speak privately, before their respective delegations joined them.

Hunt said the day before that he planned to bring up the Rohingya humanitarian crisis to the civilian leader, a former pro-democracy icon who has seen a sharp fall from grace internationally due to her failure to address the crisis unfolding in Rakhine.

Suu Kyi is in a power-sharing agreement with the army, which controls a quarter of parliament’s seats and three ministries.

While UN investigators did not call for her to face prosecution for the atrocities committed against the Rohingya, they condemned her government for “acts and omissions” that “contributed to the commission of atrocity crimes”.

Hunt will head to New York next week for the UN General Assembly.

Myanmar and its handling of the crisis is on the agenda for a foreign ministers meeting at the UN on Monday.

Suu Kyi will not be in attendance.

Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Adnan Mohd Ikhsan said businesses which are still found to be using plastic straws in 2019 risk having their business licences terminated.

“Business owners may also be fined, lose their deposits, have their trading items confiscated or even be imprisoned.

“The ban on plastic straws is in addition to the ban on plastics bags and polystyrene food packaging, which started in September last year (2017).

“The requirements are clearly stated in their business licences, so there is no excuse for the business owners to claim ignorance.

“Local authorities will not hesitate to take action according to its by-laws,” he said.

Adnan said he hoped all business owners would cooperate and strictly adhere to requirements for the greater good of the environment.

The Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods made 22 recommendations in all, including enacting legislation, urging technology companies to take proactive steps to tackle fake content on their platforms and creating a national framework to guide public education on falsehoods.

It submitted a 176-page report to Parliament on Wednesday (Sept 19), about five months after it held public hearings over eight days in March to listen to oral representations from 65 individuals and organisations.

The 10-member committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Charles Chong, was appointed in January to examine the phenomenon of deliberate online falsehoods and study what measures Singapore should take to prevent and combat the problem.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday (Sept 20), committee member and Senior Minister of State for Transport and Communications and Information Janil Puthucheary said deliberate online falsehoods are “a live and serious threat for Singapore that threatens our national security”.

“There is no one silver bullet to combat this complex problem, and a multi-pronged approach is necessary,” the committee said in its report, which included its observations on the hearings.

It proposed a suite of short- and long-term measures, grouped in five broad areas, that would involve a range of parties, including technology companies, media organisations, community leaders and volunteers, as well as the Government.

Its recommendations are aimed at disrupting online falsehoods, nurturing an informed public, reinforcing social cohesion and trust, promoting fact checking and dealing with threats to national security and sovereignty.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the Law Ministry and Ministry of Communications and Information said the Government will study the report closely and work with stakeholders to roll out the non-legislative and legislative measures recommended by the committee over the next few months.

The Government acknowledged the “serious challenges and real risks” posed by deliberate online falsehoods, which include harming national security and inciting public unrest and violence. It also noted that the committee has made clear Singapore is not immune from this grave threat.

On disrupting online falsehoods, the committee said the Government should have the powers to limit or block the spread of fake news, and discredit the sources of such falsehoods.

Legislation will be needed to effectively disrupt the spread and influence of fake news, it stressed.

In recommending new laws – a move that observers had expected following the hearings – the committee did not go into the specifics of what form the new laws would take. Rather, it set out the principles that any new legislation should follow.

For instance, the measures will need to be effective in a matter of hours, to achieve the aim of stopping the falsehoods going viral. These measures could include take-down powers, blocking access, and tagging corrections and notifications.

The committee also urged the Government to consider laws that could cut off digital advertising revenue to those who spread online falsehoods, and impose criminal sanctions in serious cases, for instance, when falsehoods cause public disorder or election interference.

In a nod to concerns about legislative over-reach and stifling free speech, the committee noted the new laws should be calibrated, taking into account the context and circumstances of each case.

“It is also important that they be accompanied by checks and balances,” the committee said, adding that adequate safeguards need to be put in place to ensure due process and the proper exercise of power.

It acknowledged that legislation has its limitations and needs to be accompanied by other measures.

To bring about a more informed public, the committee recommended creating a framework to guide efforts to improve media literacy among Singaporeans, as well as expanding the curriculum in schools to include the topic of disinformation.

It suggested that media organisations and industry partners consider establishing a fact-checking coalition to swiftly debunk fake news, and gave several ideas on ways to ensure accurate journalism.

Meanwhile, technology companies need to be more transparent and accountable, the committee said.

It recommended several steps they can take, including closing accounts that are designed to amplify online falsehoods, and banning the placement of ads on sites that spread fake news.

They should also disclose when content is sponsored, and by whom, as well as undertake regular voluntary reporting and independent audits, the committee said.

It added that the Government should consider both legislation and other forms of regulation to get tech companies to comply.

“Legislation would be needed particularly for measures to be taken in response to an online falsehood, since Facebook, Google and Twitter have a policy of generally not acting against content on the basis that it is false,” it said.

The committee, which received 170 written representations, devoted the first half of its report to outlining the serious harm of deliberate online falsehoods, which can and have wreaked havoc.

Such falsehoods are a “unique phenomenon of an unprecedented scale”, and can damage the social fabric of a nation and violate national sovereignty, it added.

Deliberate online falsehoods are a real and serious problem for the world, and Singapore, it concluded.

Mr Chong said the report was unanimously agreed upon by all 10 members of the committee.

Besides Mr Chong and Dr Janil, the other eight members are: Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam, Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Health Edwin Tong, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and National Development Sun Xueling, Mr Seah Kian Peng, Ms Rahayu Mazam, Mr Pritam Singh from the Workers’ Party, and Nominated MP Chia Yong Yong.

Police nationwide have received reports of more than 100 alleged incidents of pins and needles being found in fruit since the scare began in Queensland state earlier this month.

Most are thought to be pranks or jokes on social media, but at least two minors have been questioned by police for carrying out hoaxes.

Woolworths, one of the country’s big two supermarkets, announced that it had “taken the precautionary step” of temporarily withdrawing needles from sale, as police struggled to find the original culprit amid a spate of copycat episodes.

“The safety of our customers is our top priority,” the retailer said, without discussing further the reasons behind its decision.

The fruit scare has been given a national and international profile by new Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has addressed it publicly several times in the last few days.

His government has successfully raised the maximum prison sentence for fruit tampering from 10 to 15 years, with parliament passing the legislation on Thursday.

Australian politicians of all stripes have been quick to appear in front of a camera eating, cutting up and picking strawberries to show their support for farmers.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten appeared in parliament to ask Australians to buy “a punnet for yourself and a punnet for the nation”.

The prime minister also shared a recipe for strawberry pavlova used by his wife, which he declared “the best pav I’ve ever had.”

“As we all know, the RM2.6 billion issue was used relentlessly to criticise and tarnish my name all this while.

“All the charges today will give me a chance to clear my name – that I am not a thief.

“I hope my journey in court will uphold the truth and put to rest this RM2.6bil issue once and for all,” he said to reporters right before leaving the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Sept 20.

“I don’t want to make any statements that can be deemed as sub judice. But for me and my team of lawyers, God willing, we have facts that are on our side.

“We hope that the (eventual) verdict will show that the rule of law does indeed exist in this country.”

Najib also downplayed the latest charges against him, saying that once the public comprehends the facts and figures behind the case, they will realise that it is not such an “explosive” accusation.

“Once we understand the facts and we do some calculations, we will come to the conclusion that I returned a large sum of money right after the 13th General Election.

“I want to thank the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police for treating me well.

“I have no problems going through the legal process as long as I’m given justice and a chance to clear my name,” he said.

Najib was granted bail of RM3.5mil with two sureties in his latest court case after he was slapped with 25 graft and money-laundering charges involving RM2.3bil.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah requested for bail to be paid in staggered payments, with RM1mil to be paid on Friday (Sept 21) and another RM500,000 next week.

“Our bank downstairs (in court) takes half a day to count RM500,000, unlike our Indian money changers,” he said on Thursday (Sept 20).

Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi allowed the bail payments be made over a period, as long as it was settled by Sept 28.

Earlier, Najib, 64, pleaded not guilty to four graft charges. He also claimed trial to 21 charges under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001 (Amlafta).

According to the charge sheet, the offences occurred at the AmIslamic Bank Berhad branch on Jalan Raja Chulan here while in his position as a civil servant when he was prime minister, finance minister and the adviser emeritus of 1MDB.

Previously Najib was charged with receiving RM42mil bribe as an inducement to come to a decision on behalf of the Malaysian government to provide a sovereign guarantee for a loan of RM4bil from the KWAP to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

He also faces three other charges of criminal breach of trust in his capacity as then prime minister, finance minister and adviser emeritus of SRC International, in which he was entrusted with RM4bil.

He is alleged to have misappropriated funds through various banks here on three occasions between Dec 24, 2014 and March 2, 2015, amounting to RM27mil, RM10mil and RM5mil.

He was later hit with another three counts of money-laundering amounting to RM42mil under Section 4(1)(b) of Amlafta.

The High Court released Najib on bail of RM1mil with two sureties, and the additional condition that Najib surrender both his normal and diplomatic passports.