The plane disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people — mostly from China — on board, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Amid a heavy police presence, about a dozen relatives gathered outside the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing where they handed over a letter addressed to the Malaysian government.

“We ask that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir, or other representatives (of the Malaysian government) meet with Chinese relatives of those on board MH370 during the official visit,” the letter read.

Mahathir, who became Malaysia’s premier for a second time after a shock election victory in May, will arrive in China Friday for a five-day visit, including a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday.

Other requests include resuming the search, a monthly meeting with airline and Malaysian officials, as well as for investigators to thoroughly explain the recent investigation report.

A similar letter was also given to the foreign ministry.

“We’re holding out hope that on this visit to China, (Mahathir) can quickly resolve the issue with MH370,” said Gu Xiu Fang, whose son and his family were on the plane.

“We don’t know anything about the situation. Our lives have stopped at March 8, 2014,” she said.

Relatives had earlier this month expressed frustration that the long-awaited official report — totalling some 1,500 pages — had no new clues about the missing airliner and had not been translated into Chinese.

The investigation team wrote that it was unable to determine the real cause for the disappearance of the plane.

The vanished airliner sparked the largest hunt in aviation history but no sign of the jet was found in a 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led hunt was suspended in January 2017.

US exploration firm Ocean Infinity resumed the search in a different location at the start of this year on a “no find, no fee” basis, using high-tech drones to scour the seabed.

The private search was called off after failing to find a trace of the plane but Mahathir had said the search could resume if new evidence shows up.

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them washed up on shores in the western Indian Ocean.

Justice Azmi Ariffin ruled that the prosecution had proven a prima facie case against Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 26, and Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong, 29.

He said the prosecution had proven all elements in their case.

“Thus, I now order both to enter their defence,” he said after delivering the two-and-a-half hour judgment which began at 10am.

Siti Aisyah and Doan were charged with four others still at large with killing Kim Chol, 45, by smearing his face with a poison-laced cloth.

The offence was allegedly committed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) departure hall at 9am on Feb 13 last year.

Kim Chol is the alias used by Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, when he travelled.

Four other North Korean men were jointly charged with them, but they left the country before they could be detained.

The MoU signing marked the 70th Anniversary of Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Thailand and Myanmar. On behalf of the Thai government, the Director General of Thailand International Cooperation Agency and Khin Maung Maw, Director of Fisheries Department from Myanmar side signed the MoU.

“According to the MoU signing, Thailand International Cooperation Agency will assist 34 million baht to renovate Yaychanpyin prawn breeding farm in Rakhine State and the project will continue up to 2020,” said Director Khin Maung Maw.

“Today [Tuesday], Myanmar and Thailand sign MoU. Thailand International Cooperation Agency provides financial assistance of 34 million baht to be spent on renovating Yaychanpyin prawn breeding farm. The aim of TICA is to develop socio-economic life in Rakhine State. This project can provide technical assistance. The cooperation of the two countries will result in the transfer of technical assistance in time of breeding prawns,” said Director Khin Maung Maw.

The financial assistance provided by the Thai government will be also used in giving training on seawater prawns breeding in addition to the renovation of Yaychanpyin prawn breeding farm.

Rakhine State will see a progress in prawn breeding farm due to the technical and financial assistance, said Director Khin Maung Maw.

The helicopter with call sign 9N-ALR had sustained minor damages after it skidded off the helipad and fell down to the lower floor and there was no casualty. The hospital building has a helipad on its rooftop.

The helicopter had fallen some 10 feet below the helipad when it was approaching from the East. The chopper flown by Captain Hareram Thapa had arrived to ferry a medical team to Bharatpur in Chitwan.

Director of the province’s Information, Culture and Tourism Department, Mrs Bounnan Bounnaseng, said on Wednesday that access to the main town in Sanamxay district was very difficult.

“The road here from the provincial capital Samakhixay district, which is about 30 kilometres long, has been cut into three sections,” she said.

Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Mr Savankhone Razmountry, who was visiting the area for the second time, talked to Mrs Bounnan and official media agencies working in the flood-hit region.

After speaking to Mrs Bounnan in the provincial capital, Mr Savankhone set off for Sanamxay and encountered a flooded road at Beb Bridge, about 9km into the journey.

At this bridge, people can only cross the flooded area using small wooden ferries, which can carry only four or five people.

One passenger told Vientiane Times that six bridges along this road were flooded, and it was likely that other bridges would soon be too.

There are about 11 river bridges on the road to Sanamxay from the provincial capital. At present, people can still leave Sanamxay, but all vehicles must be moved to higher ground.

Mrs Bounnan said renewed flooding began on Tuesday following torrential rain. Vehicles could use the road when the water level dropped, she noted, but yesterday the rain continued to fall.

Sanamxay can be accessed by boat or helicopter but helicopters cannot fly if the weather is bad, while a boat trip takes about three hours.

With the rains persisting, the Xekhaman 1 Power Co., Ltd. announced on Tuesday the dam would release water on Thursday (today) at 2pm.

This means water levels will rise again and central Sanamxay district may be flooded.

Most people in Sanamxay are storing their possessions in upper rooms and on higher ground, while many families in the provincial capital are doing likewise.

In the letter, His Majesty referred to the incident, in which the boys and their coach from the Wild Boar Academy went missing in Tham Luang in the Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park, Chiang Rai province, on June 23.

“The rescue mission would not have been successful without the kindness and assistance of all those involved, including important cooperation from your country, particularly the Foundation for Assisting Poor People of the Lao PDR which sent its rescue team to join Thai rescue personnel in planning and supplying rescue equipment,” His Majesty’s letter said.

“I therefore would like to extend thanks to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic for this assistance, and for the concern and strong interest shown by the Lao people in this matter,” His Majesty added.

The social network’s move affected the personal account of Jones, who operates the Infowars website, which has disputed the veracity of the September 11 attacks, the Sandy Hook school massacre and other events.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey told NBC News that “we put him in a timeout,” which resulted in “removing his ability to tweet for a time period.”

Dorsey, who had previously rejected calls to ban Jones and Infowars, said the move was “consistent” with Twitter’s policies and that a suspension “makes someone think about their actions.”

Media reports said Jones’s account was in read-only mode for seven days, allowing him to browse but not to tweet or retweet.

Dorsey told the Washington Post in a separate interview that Twitter was looking at a broader review of how it handles misinformation and abusive conduct on the platform, possibly including the labeling of automated accounts or “bots.”

“The most important thing that we can do is we look at the incentives that we’re building into our product,” Dorsey told the newspaper.

“Because they do express a point of view of what we want people to do — and I don’t think they are correct anymore.”

Jones claims ‘censorship’

Jones said in a video message late Tuesday that Twitter was “suspending, and may shut down completely” his account.

Jones claimed that the move came “because I violated rules in a video that I shot last night saying that Trump should do something about the censorship of the internet.”

In a video on Monday on Twitter-owned Periscope, Jones told his supporters “it’s time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag… So, people need to have their battle rifles and everything ready at their bedsides and you got to be ready because the media is so disciplined in their deception.”

His Infowars account on Twitter was not affected, and was actively tweeting about the move on Wednesday.

Infowars tweeted that the suspension “comes after an intense and obsessive campaign by a CNN reporter who appears to be spending every waking hour trying to get Jones banned.”

Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube have all banned Jones on the grounds that he engages in hate speech.

Dorsey drew criticism last week for continuing to allow Jones to use the platform, arguing that he had not broken Twitter’s rules.

Among the conspiracy theories Jones has peddled are charges that the US government was behind numerous terrorist attacks, including the September 11, 2001 strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Several days ago, Facebook removed four videos Jones posted that the group said violated its policy on hate speech.

Jones responded by posting more content on other pages, prompting the social media giant to suspend his four main pages.

Facebook stressed that it was the violent language used by Jones, rather than his conspiracy theories, that prompted the move.

The strongman has been in power for 33 years but the vote late last month was widely decried as a sham after a crackdown on the rival Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was dissolved by the Supreme Court in November.

A spokesman for the National Election Committee told AFP Wednesday as official results were released that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won all 125 seats up for grabs and took nearly 77 percent of the vote.

In a post on his Facebook page later Wednesday Hun Sen said the election was “free, fair and just.”

Cambodia’s new government will be formed next month but problems of credibility could dog the regime as experts believe Hun Sen will try to bolster popular support at home.

“It’s like pushing a cart uphill,” said independent political analyst Meas Ny. “From now on the new government will be under attack and defending itself.”

The results were in line with preliminary tallies and Hun Sen said in a speech earlier in the day that he would take suggestions from parties who contested the election on ideas to “build the country.”

Nineteen other political parties took part in the sixth national vote since UN-backed polls in 1993 but many are new or obscure and posed no challenge.

The dissolved opposition is planning on ramping up efforts with governments abroad to put more pressure on Hun Sen.

“We will not abandon more than half of the country who voted for change but were excluded from exercising their choice,” Mu Sochua, deputy CNRP leader, told AFP from self-exile.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Washington would expand its restrictions on granting visas to include Cambodians “responsible for the most notable anti-democratic actions taken in the run-up to the flawed July 29 election”.

Nauert said Wednesday the visa sanctions would apply to people in and outside the government as well as their immediate family members in some cases.

The CPP pointed to 83 percent voter turnout as evidence that a boycott by the opposition failed, but allegations of voter intimidation and some 600,000 spoiled ballots undermined the claims.

‘Outright dictatorship’

Hun Sen has held onto power for decades through a complex mix of development dollars and alliances in the police, army and courts.

The 66-year-old helped bring roads and mega-malls to a country ravaged by decades of civil war and the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed a quarter of the Cambodian population from 1975 to 1979.

A former commander in the group, he defected and was installed as prime minister in 1985 at the age of 32, later presenting himself as saviour while warning of conflict if his regime falls.

The message has resonated with segments of society.

“I don’t care about having a one-party parliament. What I want is calm after the election,” a tuk-tuk driver named Nhem Ry told AFP ahead of the results.

“We had demonstrations during previous elections which I do not like.”

Western governments pulled funding for the vote and condemned it as not credible, but China, which has showered the country with loans and stayed silent on human rights issues, maintained support.

Independent election monitors also steered clear but representatives of populist parties in Europe and Asia filled the void.

The CPP has long dominated Cambodia but the CNRP, which was founded in 2012, capitalised on discontent with corruption and inequality.

It earned 44 percent of the vote in 2013 and took home a similar amount in local 2017 elections.

Analysts say the threat to Hun Sen prompted a rewind of democratic freedoms as civil society, NGOs and the press were squeezed in the run-up to this year’s ballot.

Sam Rainsy, a co-founder of the CNRP, said in a statement after the official results were released that the election was “fake” and compared the victory to polls in communist and authoritarian states.

John Cavanaugh, who was serving as Cambodia country director for the National Democratic Institute when Hun Sen expelled the group during the sweeping crackdown last year, told AFP that hardline regimes often get tough on dissent before voting.

“But rarely to the degree and with the focused intensity… (of) the Cambodian government’s methodical campaign to entirely shut-down the space for true democratic participation, and unfortunately move the country towards outright dictatorship.”

The attack will compromise banks or payment card processors with malware which would give the hackers access to the banks’ network and customer card details which will enable funds to be withdrawn from ATMs.

The blog posted that the FBI had sent an alert to banks saying, “The FBI has obtained unspecified reporting indicating cyber criminals are planning to conduct a global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash-out scheme in the coming days, likely associated with an unknown card issuer breach and commonly referred to as an ‘unlimited operation’.”

The blog by veteran cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs explains that in an “unlimited operation” attack, the hackers typically remove limits such as withdrawal amount and number of transactions.

“Historic compromises have included small-to-medium size financial institutions, likely due to less robust implementation of cybersecurity controls, budgets, or third-party vendor vulnerabilities. The FBI expects the ubiquity of this activity to continue or possibly increase in the near future,” adds the alert.

It also warns that the info will be sent out to other cybercriminals who will then be able to create clone cards to continue withdrawing money at different ATMs.

“The cyber criminals typically create fraudulent copies of legitimate cards by sending stolen card data to co-conspirators who imprint the data on reusable magnetic strip cards, such as gift cards purchased at retail stores. At a pre-determined time, the co-conspirators withdraw account funds from ATMs using these cards,” says the FBI alert.

Krebs says almost all ATM cashout operations are done over the weekend, just after financial institutions begin closing for business on Saturday.

He gave the example of how hackers cashed out US$2.4mil (RM9.84mil) over two weekends in May 2016 and January 2017 from the National Bank of Blacksburg, a Virginia-based small bank.

The FBI is urging banks to review how they handle security by implementing strong password requirements and two-factor authentication using a physical or digital token when possible for local administrators and business critical roles.

Some other suggestions for banks include implementing application whitelisting to block the execution of malware; auditing and limiting administrator and business critical accounts with the authority to modify other account; and monitoring for encrypted traffic (SSL or TLS) travelling over non-standard ports.

The two-day meeting, officially launched Tuesday by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abdul Mokti bin Haji Mohd Daud, saw delegates holding discussions focussing on the sharing of best practices to address the challenges emerging from the prevalence of cybercrime.

Initiating discussions, Attorney General of Brunei Darussalam Dato Paduka Haji Hairol Arni bin Haji Abdul Majid as Chairperson of the conference, informed the meeting that the conference’s theme ‘Enhancing Capabilities and Cooperation in Addressing Cybercrime’ was selected due to cybercrime’s increasing negative effects on society.

“I hope that the deliberations and discussions during the conference would allow the participating countries and their prosecutors to derive best practices from each other, as part of an overall effort to constantly improve existing mechanisms as well as to advocate and formulate new measures which are practical and efficient to address transnational crime,” he said.

Following up on the Attorney General’s statements, Prosecutor General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Jun as conference co-chair, expressed his gratitude to the Government of Brunei Darussalam for hosting the conference.

“The year 2018 marks the 15th anniversary of the ‘Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity’ joint declaration between China and ASEAN, where both sides have agreed to work together for mutual benefit, adhering to the themes of cooperation and development,” he said.

“The China-ASEAN Prosecutor-General conference mechanism had brought ASEAN member states and China closer together.

“Together we’ve also achieved milestones such as the setting up of an official website for the ‘China-ASEAN Prosecutor General Conference’ and the establishment of a training base for China-ASEAN prosecutors in Guangxi Province in China.”

He added that he hoped to see the continued convening of the conference to foster high-level exchange visits, judiciary assistance in criminal cases, as well as direct cooperation among prosecutorial organs in border regions to stamp out transnational crime so as to contribute to regional peace, stability and common prosperity.

Commenting on the conference’s theme, Zhang stated that cybercrime remains “an arduous challenge for all countries in the world”, and that it is the “obligatory social responsibility” for prosecutorial organs to crack down on cybercrime and protect information security.

He urged his fellow conference delegates to continue working to break through traditional modes of legal cooperation in order to more effectively fight cybercrime.

The first day of the conference yesterday saw several keynote speeches being delivered by heads of delegations from the China-ASEAN region as well as representatives from Hong Kong and Macau.

Brunei Darussalam’s keynote speech was delivered by Solicitor General and Head of the delegation of Brunei Darussalam Zuraini binti Haji Sharbawi.

Zuraini highlighted the pressing need to “formulate appropriate and innovative ways to combat cybercrime and to ensure that perpetrators do not get away with circumventing the laws and regulations”, especially in light of the rise in cyber-attacks on institutions and businesses, as well as the increased use of social media to breed extremism and terrorism.

In addition to the various initiatives taken by the Brunei government – in particular the Attorney General’s Chambers – in addressing cybercrime, she also informed the conference that countries need to better combat the problem, through effective legislation concerning data preservation, the use of informal networks in order to facilitate international cooperation, as well as increasing information sharing amongst each other.

A gala dinner, which included traditional performances showcasing the cultural heritage of Brunei Darussalam, was hosted in the evening for the conference delegates by Dato Paduka Haji Hairol Arni.