KUALA LUMPUR: Japan yesterday offered Malaysia technology to build a multi-million-dollar high-speed railway and other infrastructure, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a regional tour. Abe’s visit to Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines is the latest of trips since coming to power in December, to drum up infrastructure deals. Singapore and Malaysia announced plans in February to build the rail link, which would cut travel time for the 350km between the city-state and Kuala Lumpur by more than half to 90 minutes. Malaysian media in 2009 estimated the cost at $2.5bn-$3.5bn. No new estimates have been provided.
Garment town mayor arrested
DHAKA: The mayor of Savar town where a garment factory block collapsed, killing 1,129 people, was arrested for his role in approving the structure, police said yesterday. Mohammad Refayet Ullah was arrested in Dhaka three months after the Rana Plaza building collapsed. Ullah, suspended after the tragedy, had been wanted for questioning over the nine-storey structure, housing garment factories, that flouted building codes. Police said his office allowed three extra floors in the building, which had permission for six and failed to take action when cracks appeared one day before the tragedy.
Court quashes conversion
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian high court yesterday ruled against the 2009 conversion of three Hindu children to Islam without their mother’s knowledge. The court in the northern city of Ipoh declared the conversion of Indira Gandhi’s children, now aged five, 15 and 16, by their father as unconstitutional, said Indira’s lawyer K Shanmuga. The judge ruled that the father had failed to take the mother and children to Islamic authorities for their consent to conversion. Indira, a KG teacher in her late 30s, faced losing custody of the children after her husband converted himself and them without her knowledge.
$277bn to fight air pollution
BEIJING: China plans to spend 1,700bn yuan ($277bn) to tackle air pollution over the next five years, state media reported yesterday, after smog became a major source of social discontent. The money will be spent on reducing concentrations of damaging particles known as PM2.5 in the air, the state-run China Daily said, citing official sources.
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