ALEX BLOG

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The procurement decisions of the Malaysian armed forces and ​the police linked to a corruption probed ‌will be temporarily frozen until they fully comply with related ‌rules, state media reported, citing Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The suspension comes following allegations of bribery linked to army procurement projects, with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption ⁠Commission (MACC) raiding several ‌firms suspected of involvement in a bribery scheme and freezing six bank ‍accounts belonging to a suspect and their family members.

A former army chief and four others were detained on ​January 8 in connection with the alleged ‌bribery. Local media reported that the former army chief was released from remand on Monday.

Former army chief Muhammad Hafizuddeain Jantan has been placed on leave since late December pending an investigation into ⁠the matter.

According to Bernama, Anwar ​said the government, through ​relevant ministries, will review and reorganise all procurement to ensure transparency in the existing ‍system.

"We will ⁠take note and await reports of any loopholes or weaknesses in the procurement system, so ⁠that we can review and restructure it to ensure ‌full compliance," he said.

(Reporting by Ashley Tang; ‌Editing by David Stanway)

LONDON (AP) — With one puff of a cigarette, a woman in Canada became a global symbol of defiance againstIran's bloody crackdown on dissent— and the world saw the flame.

Avideothat has gone viral in recent days shows the woman — who described herself as an Iranian refugee — snapping open a lighter and setting the flame to a photo she holds. It ignites, illuminating the visage of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest cleric. Then the woman dips a cigarette into the glow, takes a quick drag — and lets what remains of the image fall to the pavement.

Whether staged or a spontaneous act of defiance — and there'splenty of debate— the video has become one of the defining images of the protests in Iran againstthe Islamic Republic's ailing economy, as U.S. President Donald Trumpconsidersmilitary action in the countryagain.

The gesture has jumped from the virtual world to the real one, with opponents of the regime lighting cigarettes on photos of the ayatollah from Israel to Germany and Switzerland to the United States.

In the 34 seconds of footage, many across platforms like X, Instagram and Reddit saw one person defy a series of the theocracy's laws and norms in a riveting act of autonomy. She wears no hijab, three yearsafterthe"Women, Life, Freedom" protestsagainst the regime's required headscarves.

She burns an image of Iran's supreme leader, a crime in the Islamic republic punishable by death. Her curly hair cascades — yet another transgression in the Iranian government's eyes. She lights a cigarette from the flame — a gesture considered immodest in Iran.

And in those few seconds, circulated and amplified a million times over, she steps into history.

A battle for narrative control

In 2026, social media is a central battleground for narrative control over conflicts. Protesters in Iran say the unrest is a demonstration against the regime's strictures and competence. Iran has long cast it as a plot by outsiders like United States and Israel to destabilize the Islamic Republic.

And both sides are racing to tell the story of it that will endure.

Iranian state media announces wave after wave of arrests by authorities, targeting those it calls "terrorists" and also apparently looking forStarlink satellite internet dishes, the only way to get videos and images out to the internet. There was evidence on Thursday that the regime's bloody crackdown had somewhat smothered the dissent after activists said it had killed at least 2,615 people. That figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the mayhem of the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Social media has bloomed with photos of people lighting cigarettes from photos of Iran's leader. "Smoke 'em if you got 'em. #Iran," posted Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana.

In the age of AI, misinformation and disinformation, there's abundant reason to question emotionally and politically charged images. So when "the cigarette girl" appeared online this month, plenty of users did just that.

It wasn't immediately clear, for example, whether she was lighting up inside Iran or somewhere with free-speech protections as a sign of solidarity. Some spotted a background that seemed to be in Canada. She confirmed that in interviews. But did her collar line up correctly? Was the flame realistic? Would a real woman let her hair get so close to the fire?

Many wondered: Is the "cigarette girl" an example of "psyops?" That, too, is unclear. That's a feature of warfare and statecraft as old as human conflict, in which an image or sound is deliberately disseminated by someone with a stake in the outcome. From the allies' fake radio broadcasts during World War II to the Cold War's nuclear missile parades, history is rich with examples.

The U.S. Army doesn't even hide it. The 4th Psychological Operations Group out of Ft. Bragg in North Carolina last yearreleased a recruitment videocalled,"Ghost in the Machine 2that's peppered with references to "PSYWAR."And the Gaza war featureda ferocious battle of optics: Hamas forced Israeli hostages to publicly smile and pose before being released, and Israel broadcast their jubilant reunions with family and friends.

Whatever the answer, the symbolism of the Iranian woman's act was powerful enough to rocket around the world on social media — and inspire people at real-life protests to copy it.

The woman behind the imagery

The woman did not respond to multiple efforts by The Associated Press to confirm her identity. But she has spoken to other outlets, and AP confirmed the authenticity of those interviews.

On X, she calls herself a "radical feminist" and uses the handle Morticia Addams —- after the exuberantly creepy matriarch of "The Addams Family" — sheerly out of her interest in "spooky things," the woman said in an interview with the nonprofit outlet The Objective.

She doesn't allow her real name to be published for safety reasons after what she describes as a harrowing journey from being a dissident in Iran — where she says she was arrested and abused — to safety in Turkey. There, she told The Objective, she obtained a student visa for Canada. Now, in her mid-20s, she said she has refugee status in and lives in Toronto.

It was there, on Jan. 7, that she filmed what's become known as "the cigarette girl" video a day before the Iranian regime imposed a near-total internet blackout.

"I just wanted to tell my friends that my heart, my soul was with them," she said in an interview on CNN-News18, a network affiliate in India.

In the interviews, the woman said she was arrested for the first time at 17 during the "bloody November"protests of 2019, demonstrations that erupted after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal that Iran had struck with world powers that imposed crushing sanctions.

"I was strongly opposed to the Islamic regime," she told The Objective. Security forces "arrested me with tasers and batons. I spent a night in a detention center without my family knowing where I was or what had happened to me." Her family eventually secured her release by offering a pay slip for bail. "I was under surveillance from that moment on."

In 2022 during the protests after the death ofMahsa Amini in custody, she said she participated in a YouTube program opposing the mandatory hijab and began receiving calls from blocked numbers threatening her. In 2024, after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisidied in a helicopter crash, she shared her story about it — and was arrested in her home in Isfahan.

The woman said she was questioned and "subjected to severe humiliation and physical abuse." Then without explanation, she was released on a high bail. She fled to Turkey and began her journey to Canada and, eventually, global notoriety.

"All my family members are still in Iran, and I haven't heard from them in a few days," she said in the interview, published Tuesday. "I'm truly worried that the Islamic regime might attack them."

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former PresidentYoon Suk Yeolto five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over themartial law debaclethat forced himout of officeand other allegations.

Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered hugepublic protestscalling for his ouster.

The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted toa rebellion,and the independent counsel has requestedthe death sentencein the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.

In Friday's case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts todetainhim, fabricating the martial law proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting.

Yoon has maintainedhe didn't intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon's decree as an attempt to bolster andprolong his rule,charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing "a grave punishment" was necessary because Yoon hasn't shown remorse and has only repeated "hard-to-comprehend excuses." The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon's action was necessary.

Yoon, who can appeal the ruling, hasn't immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when the independent counsel demandeda 10-year prison termin the case, Yoon's defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such "an excessive" sentence.

Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.

Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.

South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon's decree didn't cause casualties and didn't last long, although Yoon hasn't shown genuine remorse for his action.

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.

The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark's foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a "fundamental disagreement" remains with Trump over the island.

The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and "people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can't really understand it," Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain's Parliament this week.

Here's a look at what Greenlanders think:

Trump "undermining" Greenlandic culture

Trump has dismissed Denmark's defenses in Greenland, suggesting it's "two dog sleds."

By saying that, Trump is "undermining us as a people," Mari Laursen told AP.

Laursen said she used to work on a fishing trawler but is now studying law. She approached AP to say she thought previous examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and Americans are "often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sleds."

She said during World War II, Greenlandic hunters on their dog sleds worked in conjunction with the U.S. military to detect Nazi German forces on the island.

"The Arctic climate and environment is so different from maybe what they (Americans) are used to with the warships and helicopters and tanks. A dog sled is more efficient. It can go where no warship and helicopter can go," Laursen said.

Greenlanders don't believe Trump's claims

Trump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese ships are swarming the seas around Greenland. Plenty of Greenlanders who spoke to AP dismissed that claim.

"I think he (Trump) should mind his own business," said Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.

"What's he going to do with Greenland? He speaks of Russians and Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and we go hunting and I never saw Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland," he said.

Down at Nuuk's small harbor, Gerth Josefsen spoke to AP as he attached small fish as bait to his lines. He said, "I don't see them (the ships)" and said he had only seen "a Russian fishing boat ten years ago."

Trump is interested in Greenland's critical minerals

Maya Martinsen, 21, a shop worker, told AP she doesn't believe Trump wants Greenland to enhance America's security.

"I know it's not national security. I think it's for the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched," she said, suggesting the Americans are treating her home like a "business trade."

She said she thought it was good that American, Greenlandic and Danish officials met in the White House Wednesday and said she believes that "the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side," despite some Greenlanders wanting independence.

"It is nerve-wrecking, that the Americans aren't changing their mind," she said, adding that she welcomed the news that Denmark and its allies would be sending troops to Greenland because "it's important that the people we work closest with, that they send support."

Greenlanders get support from Denmark

Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told AP that she hopes the U.S. got the message from Danish and Greenlandic officials to "back off."

She said she didn't want to join the United States because in Greenland "there are laws and stuff, and health insurance .. .we can go to the doctors and nurses ... we don't have to pay anything," she said adding "I don't want the U.S. to take that away from us."

Greenland is at the center of a media storm

In Greenland's parliament, Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament told AP that he has done multiple media interviews every day for the last two weeks.

When asked by AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President JD Vance if he had the chance, Berthelsen said:

"I would tell them, of course, that — as we've seen — a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats are not in favor of having such an aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention, invasion. So we would tell them to move beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and making sure that the Greenlandic people are the ones who are at the very center of this conversation."

"It is our country," he said. "Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people."

Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this report.

Actor Timothy Busfield has made his first court appearance after turning himself in on criminal charges that he allegedly sexually abused two boys on the set of a TV series filmed in New Mexico, prosecutors say.

The Emmy-winning actor, who starred in Thirtysomething and The West Wing, was taken into custody in Albuquerque on two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and one count of child abuse that police allege happened on the set of Fox's crime drama The Cleaning Lady.

Busfield, 68, strenuously denied the allegations through his lawyer.

"The claims being made against Tim are completely false, and we will fight this to the end until the truth prevails," the lawyer, Stanton "Larry" Stein, said.

Stein said the actor, who is also known for his roles in the baseball film Field of Dreams and the comedy thriller Revenge of the Nerds, was being accused as an act of revenge after the children had been terminated from the series, which angered their mother.

During a media conference on Thursday, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said that Busfield made an initial court appearance on Wednesday and a judge ordered that he remain in custody.

The case is now being transferred to district court and a hearing has been set for 20 January to determine whether Busfield should be released on bail pending trial.

"Our priority is to protect the rights of everyone involved," Bregman said at the news conference, urging anyone with information to contact law enforcement.

In a warrant for Busfield's arrest, prosecutors say the parents of boys allege that Busfield groomed and sexually abused the youngsters while working on set for The Cleaning Lady, which Busfield both directs and executive produces. It airs on Fox in the US.

In an affidavit supporting his arrest warrant, authorities claim the boys referred to Busfield as "Uncle Tim" and alleged that he "would tickle them on the stomach and legs". Both boys told authorities they were touched inappropriately for years, the arrest affidavit states.

One of the boys alleged that Busfield touched his private areas, according to court documents. The boy told authorities that the alleged inappropriate touching started when he was 7 years old and he was scared to speak out because he "feared" that Busfield would "get mad at him".

The documents state that the boy had suffered nightmares and was having troubles wetting the bed since the alleged encounters. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety, authorities say in the court documents.

Before he turned himself in, Busfield appeared in a video provided to TMZ saying that he was contacted on Friday night about getting a lawyer. The next day he drove 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to surrender to authorities.

"They're all lies and I did not do anything to those little boys and I'm gonna fight it. I'm gonna fight it with a great team, and I'm gonna be exonerated, I know I am, because this is all so wrong and all lies," he said in the video.

His lawyer says the case stems from wanting revenge. Busfield told authorities that the boys' mother had threatened revenge when they were replaced on the series, the arrest affidavit states.

"As reflected in the criminal complaint, after her son was terminated from the show, the boy's mother vowed to 'get her revenge against Timothy Busfield.' What followed appears to be a calculated effort to construct a case, driven by animus not fact, despite prior investigations finding no evidence of wrongdoing," Stein said.

Stein added that an investigation opened by Warner Bros about the allegations was closed after they could not find "corroborating evidence that Mr Busfield engaged in inappropriate conduct or that he was ever alone" with the boys.

Court documents show that after authorities got a warrant for his arrest, another accusation surfaced alleging Busfield kissed and groped a 16-year-old girl.

Prosecutors noted the new allegation in a motion asking that a judge keep Busfield from being released from jail immediately, alleging the actor has a "documented pattern of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority and grooming behavior".

In that court document, prosecutors said the girl's father had come forward on Tuesday with allegations that the teen had been sexually abused by Busfield in California "several years ago" at the B-Street Theatre, which the actor co-founded in Sacramento.

The father alleged to authorities that the encounter happened when the girl was auditioning at the theatre and the actor allegedly kissed her and touched her sexually, the court document states.

Court documents state that the father alleged that the actor "begged the family to not report to law enforcement" and agreed to go to therapy.

Busfield's lawyer told the BBC that the actor denies all the allegations and "maintains that they are completely false". When asked about the additional accusation surfacing, Stein said Busfield had volunteered to do a polygraph test and had passed it. The lawyer did not provide further details on the test.

Busfield has previously been accused of sexual assault by two women in the 1990s and in 2012, which prosecutors pointed to in court documents.

The Cleaning Lady producer Warner Bros Television and Fox said that they were aware of the charges against Busfield and would work with law enforcement. They told the Los Angeles Times that they prioritise the health and safety of their cast and crew.

A spokesperson for Busfield's wife Melissa Gilbert, who starred in the series Little House on the Prairie, told the BBC that she would not make public statements and pushed back against fake comments circulating online that claim to have come from her.

"She is honoring the request of Tim's lawyers not to speak publicly while the legal process unfolds," her publicist Ame Van Iden said.

"During this period, her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family, as they navigate this moment. Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time. We ask that their privacy be respected."

• Little House is still a place like home

(Corrects Tuesday story and an earlier version of it to add context about decision to disinvite Abdel-Fattah in paragraphs 4-5, her previous statements about Israel in paragraphs 7-8)

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY, Jan 13 (Reuters) - One of Australia's top writers' festivals was cancelled on ​Tuesday, after 180 authors boycotted the event and its director resigned, saying she could not be party to silencing a Palestinian author ‌and warned moves to ban protests and slogans after the Bondi Beach mass shooting threatened free speech.

Louise Adler, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, said on Tuesday she was quitting ‌her role at the Adelaide Writers' Week in February, following a decision by the festival's board to disinvite a Palestinian-Australian author.

The novelist and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah said the move to bar her was "a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship".

The Adelaide Festival Board said on Tuesday it had disinvited Abdel-Fattah, because "given her past statements" it would not be culturally sensitive to include her in the event "so soon after Bondi", a reference to last month's shooting ⁠rampage on a Jewish event that killed 15.

The board ‌did not cite any specific statement made by Abdel-Fattah that led to the decision.

Disinviting Abdel-Fattah was done "out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event", the board said in a statement. "Instead, this decision has ‍created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies."

Abdel-Fattah's past comments about Israel have been criticised by some Jewish and pro-Israel groups, and the Jewish Community Council of South Australia had lobbied against her participation at the Adelaide festival.

In March 2024 she wrote on social media platform X: "Armed struggle is a moral and legal ​right of the colonised and brutalised... Western governments which use the blood of Palestinians as the ink to write international law have zero authority ‌to define genocide, terrorist, self-defence, resistance, proportionality."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced a national day of mourning would be held on January 22 to remember the 15 people killed in last month's shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.

Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group, and the incident sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism, and prompted state and federal government moves to tighten hate speech laws.

The event would not go ahead and remaining board members will step down, it added.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, British author Zadie Smith, ⁠Australian author Kathy Lette, Pulitzer Prize-winning American Percival Everett and former Greek finance minister ​Yanis Varoufakis are among the authors who said they would no longer appear at the ​festival in South Australia state, Australian media reported.

The festival board on Tuesday apologised to Abdel-Fattah for "how the decision was represented".

"This is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of ‍freedom of expression in our nation ⁠following Australia's worst terror attack in history," it added.

Abdel-Fattah wrote on social media that she did not accept the apology, saying she had nothing to do with the Bondi attack, "nor did any Palestinian".

Adler earlier wrote in The Guardian that the board's decision to disinvite ⁠Abdel-Fattah "weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation, where lobbying and political pressure determine who gets to speak and who doesn't".

The South Australian state government ‌has appointed a new festival board, saying this was to "safeguard the festival for the future", after the previous board resigned.

(Reporting by ‌Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates, Michael Perry and William Mallard)

BEIJING (AP) — Faced with new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to improve relations between their two nations afteryears of acrimony.

Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two heldan initial meetingin October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.

"It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement," China's top leader said.

Carney, the first Canadian prime ministerto visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as "under great strain."

He called for a new relationship "adapted to new global realities" and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.

Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who hasmet with several leading Chinese companiesin Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called "a time of global trade disruption."

No announcement was made on tariffs between China and Canada, which is a sticking point in the relationship.

Canada followed the U.S. in puttingtariffs of 100%on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney's predecessor.

China responded byimposing dutiesof 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said.

China is hoping Trump's pressure tactics on allies such as Canada willdrive them to pursuea foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America's 51st state.