Author: Daud Ishak

ASTANA – Kazakhstan will continue cutting oil output by 78,000 barrels per day through the end of 2024, following the latest agreement reached by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on June 4, announced by the Ministry of Energy.  During the 35th OPEC and OPEC+ ministerial meeting in Vienna, participating countries, including Kazakhstan, decided to extend oil output restrictions through 2024, reaching 40.4 million barrels per day, 1.4 million barrels less than presently. The voluntary reduction will continue until December 2024 to achieve and sustain market stability and ensure long-term predictability. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, will cut…

Johor Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar has been declared the highest bidder of the FF1 number plate. In a Facebook post on Sunday, he said he granted an audience to Transport Minister Anthony Loke, who handed over the plate. Mr Loke posted on Facebook that the Sultan paid RM1.2 million (S$348,000). The Sultan, an avid car collector, is no stranger to paying for unique licence plates. In July 2016, he bought the F1 plate for RM836,660 before splashing out another RM990,000 on the V1 plate a month later. In May, Mr Loke said the special FF number plate series generated over RM34…

Malaysia’s leading securities regulator, the Securities Commission (SC), announced that it has ordered Seychelles-based crypto exchange Huobi to shutter operations in the country. It appears Huobi has fallen foul of Malaysian regulators for operating a digital asset exchange without registration, according to the announcement. Running a crypto exchange without a Recognised Market Operator (RMO) license is an offense under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007. A public reprimand has also been issued against the exchange and its founder Leon Li. As the company’s chief executive, Li has been ordered to oversee the process of winding down local operations, ceasing communications with…

Seremban is the only area in the country still experiencing unhealthy air levels.According to the air pollutant index (API), the air quality in Seremban was 102 as of 10am, an improvement from the 151 reading recorded yesterday. An API of zero to 50 indicates good air quality; 51 to 100 moderate; 101 to 200 unhealthy; 201 to 300 very unhealthy; and 300 and above hazardous. Seremban has been recording unhealthy air levels since Wednesday because of a slight haze. Meanwhile, the air quality in several areas in the Klang Valley, Johor, Negeri Sembilan and the East Coast remain at moderate…

Seat allocations between Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional in PH-controlled Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang for the coming state elections are “90% complete”, says Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub. Salahuddin also said negotiations between the two coalitions for PAS-controlled Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah are going smoothly. He said PH state leaders were given the freedom to negotiate seats with their BN counterparts. “Some states are just starting negotiations. Usually, several rounds of negotiations will be held before an agreement is reached,” Harian Metro quoted him as saying. Salahuddin said Amanah had no issue collaborating with other parties in the state…

Global military spending rose to a record last year as Russia’s war in Ukraine drove the biggest annual increase in expenditure in Europe since the end of the Cold War three decades ago, a leading conflict and armaments think tank said on Monday. World military expenditure rose by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022 to US$2.24 trillion (RM9.94 trillion), the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February last year following years of growing tensions, has prompted European countries to rush to bolster their defences. Moscow says its…

Johor recorded a 496% increase in dengue cases during the 15th epidemiological week (ME15) (April 10-15) this year, with 2,229 cases reported compared to 34 cases in the same period last year. Johor health and unity committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said that of the 2,229 cases, 784 were in epidemic localities and 1,445 were in non-epidemic localities. “We have also recorded 156 cases of dengue fever in ME15, a drop of 6% compared to the ME14 (April 3-8) with 166 cases. “No deaths were recorded in ME15; two deaths have been recorded from January to ME15 this year compared…

In the years ahead, Bosnia and Herzegovina will face serious challenges regarding the sustainability of the pension and health system – said demographer Aleksandar Čavić. From the last population census in 2013 to today, BiH has about 100,000 fewer inhabitants based only on the natural population movement. When it comes to migration, at least 25 thousand people leave our country every year, which is an optimistic estimate. “Given that we do not have statistics on external migration, we obtain these data through Eurostat data on the number of immigrants to the countries of the European Union, then through data from…

KUNDASANG : The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment will consider the requests made by organisers of the just-concluded Global Expedition Club (GEC) 12th Malaysia-Asean Kinabalu Climb 2023 High Altitude Training Programme at the Kinabalu Park here. Its minister, Datuk Christina Liew, said the requests were conveyed to her by T. Ravichandran (who holds two records as the first Malaysian to conquer Mount Everest, and the only Malaysian to have scaled K2 in Pakistan, the second highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest), after she had officiated at the Seminar on High Altitude Training recently. “GEC Malaysia and Global…

MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday told Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that ASEAN should consider new approaches in resolving the drawn-out crisis in Myanmar. Anwar, who came to office in November, has advocated for a tougher stance on dealing with the Myanmar military regime, which has presided over a deadly crackdown of activists since seizing power in February 2021. The regime’s leader, Min Aung Hlaing, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that year agreed on a Five-Point Consensus, which called for an immediate end to violence, dialogue and access for a special ASEAN envoy…