SINGAPORE — Mahadi Ab Latif, 45, agreed to aid a friend from a halfway house who wanted to manufacture fake $100 bills to buy illegal smokes. The amount of bogus $100 local notes the police seized from the two forgers was $18,500. When he was arrested, Mahadi was working as a driver when he discovered an empty warehouse and helped …

CHINA — According to government data released on Monday (Jul 18), China’s aluminum imports decreased 36.3% in June from the same month a year earlier, as domestic output increased and demand remained weak. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, the country imported 187,362 metric tons of unwrought aluminum and its products, including raw metal and unwrought, alloyed …

INDONESIA — Due to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the general’s bodyguard at the general’s residence, the Indonesian National Police has suspended a two-star general from active duty and placed him on administrative leave. As the authorities investigate the killing of Nopryansyah Yosua Hutabarat, age 27, the chief of the National Police, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, announced on Monday …

MALAYSIA — The police in Malaysia have made a significant seizure of illegally traded animal parts, including elephant tusks, rhino horns, pangolin scales, and tiger bones. The total value of the haul is approximately 80 million ringgit ($17.9 million). On Sunday, authorities made a discovery at the western port in the state of Selangor that involved almost six tonnes of …

PHILIPPINES — As the supremo of Philippine weightlifting, there will be no shortage of possible heirs or heiresses of Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz. With another world-class lifter in 15-year-old Angeline Colonia at the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Colombia’s champion weightlifting machine continues to grind like clockwork. Colonia, who originates from Zamboanga just like Diaz, …

JAPAN — On Thursday, at least 30 endangered green sea turtles were found with wounds around their necks in the vicinity of the remote island of Kumejima, which is located in the Okinawa prefecture of Japan. These turtles were found in the southernmost part of the prefecture. According to a police officer from the Naha Police Station in Okinawa, the …

CHINA: Saturday (16th of July) saw a US Navy destroyer sail near the disputed Spratly Islands, the second such “freedom of navigation” exercise in the South China Sea in a week, according to the US Navy. Chinese officials claimed to have “forced away” the USS Benfold, which was sailing near the disputed Paracel Islands, on Wednesday. In the South China …

US: A profession that lacks “basic human respect,” says Halima Aden—the first supermodel to model in a headscarf and appear for photos wearing a burkini—has forced her to abandon her lucrative contracts. It was a matter of protecting her self-worth and well-being in a fast and loose sector that gradually clashed with her Muslim principles for the Somali-American born in …

SRI LANKA: As he departed the country to avoid a popular uprising against his government, Sri Lanka’s ousted president declared he took “all conceivable means” to avert the island nation’s economic disaster. A vote in Parliament on Friday approved the resignation of Gotabhaye Rajapakse from office (Jul 15). After hundreds of thousands of anti-government protestors descended on Colombo a week …

US: All four of the United States’ men’s 100m sprinters advanced to the finals on Saturday, giving the Americans renewed hope of a clean sweep in the event for the first time since 1991. Toe-to-toe at 7:50 p.m. will be Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy, Trayvon Bromell, and Christian Coleman (0250 GMT). There have been no clean sweeps since Carl Lewis …