KUALA LUMPUR: A court yesterday sentenced a lawyer and three farm workers to death over the murder of a glamorous cosmetics tycoon and her three associates. The 2010 murder of Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, her driver, lawyer and bank officer dominated the headlines for weeks. The four were reported missing after going to discuss a land deal with the convicted lawyer and his brother on their farm near the Tanjung Sepat, 80km west of the capital Kuala Lumpur. Police said the victims were torched and the remains scattered in a stream. The convicts were lawyer N Pathmanabhan, 43, and the farm hands. Initially Pathmanabhan and his bother were detained, but only Pathmanabhan was charged. The brother was released. The four can appeal. A total of 138 witnesses testified in the trial. Pathmanabhan was accused of masterminding the killings in a land deal gone bad. Sosilawati founded Malaysia’s Nouvelles Visages line of cosmetics.
Five climbers feared dead
KATHMANDU: Five climbers, including the first Hungarian to scale Mount Everest, were missing and feared dead on Nepal’s treacherous Kangchenjunga mountain, tourism officials said yesterday. The climbers — two from Hungary, two from Nepal and one from South Korea — went missing on Monday afternoon as they attempted to climb the 8,586-metre peak.
Japan man, 80, scales Everest
KATHMANDU: An 80-year-old Japanese man who underwent heart surgery in January reached the summit of Mount Everest yesterday, becoming the oldest person to scale the world’s highest mountain. Yuichiro Miura and his party arrived at the summit at around 9am, according to Miura’s website, besting the previous age record by four years.
Blackout after crane error
HANOI: Over a third of Vietnam as well as the capital of neighbouring Cambodia suffered a blackout after a crane operator knocked a tree onto a key power line, electricity officials said yesterday. Twenty-two of Vietnam’s southern provinces lost power for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon.
Agencies
