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Thousands of demonstrators, including members of the Roman Catholic church clergy, protested in the Philippines on Sunday, calling for the swift prosecution of top legislators and officials implicated in a corruption scandal that has buffeted the Asian democracy. Left-wing groups led a separate protest in Manila's main park with a blunt demand for all implicated government officials to immediately resign and face prosecution. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been scrambling to quell public outrage over the massive corruption blamed for substandard, defective or non-existent flood control projects across an archipelago long prone to deadly flooding and extreme weather in tropical Asia. More than 17,000 police officers were deployed in metropolitan Manila to secure the separate protests. The Malacanang presidential palace complex in Manila was in a security lockdown with key access roads and bridges blocked by anti-riot police forces, trucks and barbed wire railings. In a deeply ..
A Bangladesh court on Thursday sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to 21 years of imprisonment in three corruption cases, local media reported. The three cases were lodged over alleged irregularities in allocating plots in the Rajuk New Town Project in Purbachol, state-run BSS news agency said. The judge pronounced the judgment in absence of the convict as she is yet to be arrested and was tried in absentia. Hasina was sentenced to seven years in each case, totalling 21 years in prison. "The plot was allotted to Sheikh Hasina without any application and in a manner that exceeded the legally authorised jurisdiction," the court observed in its judgment.
Pressure is mounting on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to take stronger action to show accountability in the face of a corruption scandal presenting the greatest threat to his government since Russia's full-scale invasion. Last week, Zelenskyy dismissed two top officials and imposed sanctions on close associates after government investigators revealed that USD 100 million had been embezzled from the country's energy sector through kickbacks paid by contractors. But that hasn't quieted the political storm. After more than three years of war in which Ukrainians face regular power outages as a result of Russia's fierce bombardment, corruption in the energy sector isn't sitting well with the public. Calls are growing for Zelenskyy to remove his longtime chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, who many consider to be Ukraine's de facto vice president. Neither Zelenskyy nor Yermak have been accused of any wrongdoing by those leading the corruption investigation. Yet Zelenskyy's political
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that as long as elections are "stolen", unemployment and corruption will continue to rise, and asserted that young people will no longer tolerate "job theft" and "vote theft". In a post on X in Hindi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said unemployment is the biggest problem facing youth in India and it is directly linked to "vote chori". When a government wins public trust and comes to power, its first duty is to provide employment and opportunities to the youth, he said. "But the BJP doesn't win elections honestly -- they stay in power by stealing votes and controlling institutions," Gandhi alleged. That's why unemployment has reached a 45-year high, he said. "That's why jobs are declining, recruitment processes have collapsed, and the future of youth is being jeopardised. That's why every exam paper leak and every recruitment is linked to stories of corruption," Gandhi said. "The country's youth work hard, dream, and figh
Philippine police arrested 49 people suspected of hurling rocks, bottles and fire bombs at officers and blocking heavily guarded roads and bridges leading to the presidential palace Sunday while a peaceful anti-corruption rally took place in the capital, officials and witnesses said. The melee outside the country's seat of power unfolded while more than 33,000 other protesters rallied in a historic park and a democracy monument in Manila. They expressed outrage over a corruption scandal involving lawmakers, officials and construction company owners who allegedly pocketed huge kickbacks from flood-control projects in the impoverished Southeast Asian country that is regularly buffeted by storms and typhoons. The hourslong rampage by about 100 mostly club-wielding people, some of whom waved Philippine flags and displayed carton posters with anti-corruption slogans, wounded about 70 Manila law enforcers, according to the Manila police. Schools were cancelled due to the violence. Police
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Philippine capital on Sunday to express their outrage over a corruption scandal involving lawmakers, officials and businesspeople who allegedly pocketed huge kickbacks from flood-control projects in the poverty-stricken and storm-prone Southeast Asian country. Police forces and troops were put on alert to prevent any outbreak of violence. Thousands of police officers were deployed to secure separate protests in a historic Manila park and near a democracy monument along the main EDSA highway, also in the capital region, where organisers hoped to draw one of the largest turnouts of anti-corruption protesters in the country in recent years. The United States and Australian embassies issued travel advisories asking their citizens to stay away from the protests as a safety precaution. A group of protesters waved Philippine flags and displayed a banner that read: No more, too much, jail them, as they marched in the Manila protest and ...
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches against the B C Jindal Group of companies on charges of violation of the foreign exchange law, official sources said. They said at least 13 premises of the directors and officials of the group located in Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad are being searched under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The ED is investigating suspected FEMA violations by the group entities of the company such as Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd. and Jindal India Powertech Ltd. for its overseas investments and parking of funds in their overseas entities, the sources said. The company could not be contacted immediately for comment on the ED action. The business conglomerate has recorded an annual turnover of over Rs 18,000 crore and is a major player in the power sector.
The wife of South Korea's jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested as investigators seek to charge her over various suspected crimes, including bribery, stock manipulation and meddling in the selection of a candidate. In granting a special prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant late Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court said Kim Keon Hee posed a risk of destroying evidence. The investigation into Kim is one of three special prosecutor probes launched under Seoul's new liberal government targeting the presidency of Yoon, a conservative who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law in December. While Yoon's self-inflicted downfall extended a decades-long run of South Korean presidencies ending badly, he and Kim are the first former presidential couple to be jailed simultaneously over criminal allegations. Yoon's surprising yet poorly planned power grab on December 3 came amid a seemingly routine standoff
Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to accord urgent hearing on his plea seeking to invalidate a report by an in-house inquiry panel, which found him guilty of misconduct in the cash discovery row. "I will have to constitute a bench," Chief Justice B R Gavai told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who mentioned the matter for Varma. The CJI was heading a bench which also comprised Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi. Sibal requested the bench to list the matter as early as possible, saying they have raised some constitutional issues in the plea. Varma has also sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna urging Parliament to initiate impeachment against him. The three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court conducted the inquiry for 10 days, examined 55 witnesses and visited the scene of the accidental fire that started at around 11.35 pm o
The Odisha Vigilance on Monday launched simultaneous raids on the properties and office of a joint director-rank officer at eight locations in three districts in connection with its probe into his alleged disproportionate assets. The Vigilance Department launched the search operations on the properties of the Soil Conservation and Watershed Development joint director, following allegations that he amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The official was a former project director (PD) of the Watershed Department in Rayagada. "Simultaneous searches are being conducted by Odisha Vigilance officials led by 10 deputy superintendents of police, eight inspectors, 10 ASIs, and other supporting staffers on the strength of search warrants issued by the Special Judge, Vigilance, Bhawanipatna," an officer said. The raids are being carried out at three places in Bhubaneswar, two locations in Kalahandi district and three places in Nabarangpur, the Vigilance officer ...