Tradisional Sabah Borneo

"We want to see more progress, but that cannot happen while there are unanswered questions about the $700 million that made its way into the prime minister's personal bank account," Ugaz said at the opening of a three-day international anti-corruption conference in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya.

"These are not the actions of a government that is fighting corruption," Ugaz said.

If Najib fails to fully explain the money, an independent investigation free from political interference is needed to uncover the truth, Ugaz said.

"Until that happens, no claim from the government on anti-corruption will be credible," he said.

Tens of thousands of Malaysians held a mass rally in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend to demand Najib's resignation over the financial scandal.

A nation of 30 million, Malaysia is predominantly Malay Muslim, who form the core of the ruling party's support. The country also has significant Chinese and Indian minorities that have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the government in recent years. Malaysia's ambitions to rise to a developed nation this decade have been stymied by slow-paced reforms and Najib's increasing authoritarianism.

Support for Najib's National Front has eroded in the last two general elections. The party won in 2013, but lost the popular vote for the first time to an opposition alliance.

Party central committee member Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker said Najib was needed to steer Malaysia's economy, as the nation struggles against a plunging ringgit amid a worsening global outlook.

"MCA's stand is clear. We will focus on supporting the PM who had proven himself in steering Malaysia out of the 2008 to 2009 global economic recession which hit Malaysia badly then.

"Today, Malaysia should focus on our economic gain in light of global uncertainties and the new challenges ahead.

"We need to pull together our resources and stabilise our economy as well as political stability," he told The Malaysian Insider in a brief WhatsApp message today.

Despite assurances from Putrajaya that Malaysia's fundamentals were strong, concerns have been mounting over the economy as the ringgit, Asia's worst performing currency in the past one year, slid beyond the RM4 mark against the US dollar.

This had been attributed to worsening global outlook, China's surprise devaluation of the yuan, plunging commodity prices and the current political scandal linked to Najib over the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) "donation" from a Middle Eastern country deposited into his personal accounts while his brainchild, state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), is facing multiple probes into its alleged financial irregularities.The Malaysian Insider reported today that two of MCA's veteran leaders urged the senior BN party MPs to pile on pressure for Najib to step down.

Tan Foong Luen, a Negri Sembilan MCA leader who heads the party's Seremban division legal bureau, said MCA lawmakers, including the three ministers, should place the people and the nation above Najib.

The three MCA ministers are Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (Bentong), Datuk Ong Ka Chuan (Tanjong Malim) and Datuk Wee Ka Siong (Ayer Hitam).

Another MCA veteran leader, Kluang division chief Gan Ping Sieu had said the constitutional process should take its due course for MPs to perform their duty, adding that people would be able to judge their MPs if a vote on Najib was taken in Parliament.

The two veteran MCA call were the latest among Najib's detractors who urged him to resign.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also called for BN parliamentarians to support a motion of no-confidence against Najib's leadership, saying that a successful no-confidence vote would only result in Najib’s ouster, but BN would remain in power since it has the majority in the Dewan Rakyat. – September 2, 2015.

THE MALAYSIAN  INSIDER

Both Swiss and Malaysian authorities are conducting inquiries concerning the fund, whose advisory board is chaired by Prime Minister Najib Razak. The fund has been dogged by controversy over its $11 billion debt and alleged financial mismanagement.

"The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has frozen assets amounting to several tens of millions of U.S. dollars on Swiss bank accounts," an OAG spokeswoman said by email in response to an enquiry.

"At this early stage of the procedure, the OAG is analysing and consolidating evidence. The OAG is already in contact with the Malaysian authorities. International cooperation with foreign countries, in particular with Malaysia, will probably be necessary to establish the facts," she said.

In Malaysia, 1MDB noted the report and said in a statement: "As far as 1MDB is aware, none of the company's bank accounts have been frozen. 1MDB is in the process of developing a better understanding of the on-going investigations in Switzerland so the company can cooperate to its fullest extent."

Swiss financial regulator FINMA has also said it was checking with some Swiss banks on whether they have done business with 1MDB.

Malaysia's attorney general last month denied reports that a new task force would investigate 1MDB, saying the new body was just a "rebranding" of an existing team that focuses on crimes such as tax evasion and illegal fund flows.

The OAG last month opened criminal proceedings against two executives of 1MDB as well as against unknown persons on suspicion of corruption of foreign officials, misconduct in public office and money laundering.

"The proceedings are based on two notifications of suspicious transaction reports by the Swiss financial intelligence unit MROS," the OAG statement said.

FINMA declined comment on the status of its inquiries.

Obama visited the Kenai Fjords National Park in southern Alaska, where he stood against the backdrop of the vast, but receding, Exit Glacier.

He pointed to signposts marking the glacier's retreat since 1815.

"This is as good of a signpost of what we're dealing with when it comes to climate change as just about anything," Obama said.

"This place has lost about a mile and a half over the last couple hundred years. The reduction in glaciers has accelerated each and every year" thanks to a changing climate that has brought less snow and longer, hotter summers, he said.

That in turn, the president noted, has had an impact on flora and fauna in the spectacular park, as well as melting glacier ice, that has raised sea levels.

"We want to make sure that our grandkids can see this," Obama said.Obama is in Alaska to build support for domestic carbon reduction rules and a global pact to cap global temperature increases by two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

In December, representatives from around the world will gather in Paris to try to thrash out the deal.

On Monday, Obama warned that climate change is no longer a problem of the future, but rather a challenge for now and one that will define the next century.

Describing the "urgent and growing" threat that he said was not being addressed quickly enough, he sketched the problems already facing people living in one of America's last wilderness frontiers.

The challenge "will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other," Obama told a conference in Anchorage.

"Human activity is disrupting the climate, in many ways faster than we thought," he said, with one eye on Republicans who reject humans' role in heating the planet.

"The deniers are increasingly alone, on their own shrinking island."

AFP

Former premier Alexis Tsipras of Syriza resigned in August to seek a new mandate for a bailout deal he clinched with the country's international creditors, but Syriza's slipping poll lead suggests the decision could backfire.

Tsipras came to power in January promising to end austerity in a country battered by recession and unemployment but eventually accepted stringent conditions for a new 86-billion-euro bailout after months of difficult negotiations with Greece's lenders.

Worryingly perhaps for Tsipras, more than two-thirds of the poll respondents disapproved of his government's performance in its seven months in office. Previously, polls had suggested Tsipras remained popular with voters because he had at least put up a fight in the negotiations for a bailout.

The leftist Syriza party led the New Democracy party by as much as 15 percentage points in May, but its lead has dropped sharply over the summer, opinion polls suggest.The new poll also said the Golden Dawn party was on course to win 6 percent of votes, while 10.5 percent of Greeks were undecided.

"We've made a tough choice to not lead the country to a national disaster," Tsipras told a crowd during a speech on the campaign trail on the island of Crete.

"We are proud we gave this battle all these months, defending Greek people's rights."

The poll showed that Independent Greeks will not win enough votes to pass the 3 percent threshold to enter parliament, while the Popular Unity party, a hard-left splinter group that broke from Syriza last month, will get 4 percent.

A quarter of the people polled would like to see a coalition government made up of Syriza, New Democracy and other parties.

Here is a breakdown of opinion poll results published since Friday:

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor accused the Palestinians in letters to the United Nations secretary-general and General Assembly president of "attempting to swiftly change longstanding U.N. tradition in order to score political points."

The flags of all 193 U.N. member states fly outside U.N. headquarters in New York and other U.N. offices — but not the flags of the two non-member observer states, Palestine and the Vatican.The Palestinians are seeking General Assembly approval of a draft resolution that would allow non-member observer states to raise their flags.

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press that he expects a revised draft to be circulated on Thursday and a vote on Sept. 10, though a General Assembly spokeswoman said no date had been set.

He said he expects an "overwhelming majority" of states to support the resolution.

It states that "observer states maintaining permanent observer missions will raise their flags after member states," Mansour said. And it gives Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon 20 days to implement the flag-raising provision.

Mansour said he would like to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas raise the flag after he addresses the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders on Sept. 30. He said if the Holy See wants to raise its flag in time for Pope Francis' visit to the U.N. on Sept. 25, "by all means — we'll be there!"

Several nations have shown support for the Palestinians' pursuit of statehood, including the Vatican. In May, the Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine with a bilateral treaty.Mansour said the Holy See had expressed support for the flag-raising idea in principle early last month. But last week, the Vatican's mission to the U.N. circulated a note among member states saying it was not co-sponsoring the draft.

Then on Friday, the Vatican issued a statement noting that by tradition only member states have displayed their flags, but adding that it would accept whatever U.N. decision is taken on the issue.

Prosor's letter called the flag-raising effort a "blatant attempt to hijack the U.N.," adding, "As the gatekeeper of this institution, I call on you to reject this aggressive behavior."

The United States, Israel's closest ally, opposed the Palestinian move.

"We continue to believe that Palestinian efforts to pursue statehood or endorsements of statehood claims through the U.N. system that are outside of a negotiated settlement ... (are) counterproductive," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, adding that this includes raising the flag.

Mansour called Prosor's letter "full of distortion and fabrications" and said the matter is up to member states to decide.

The flags could be up quickly, Mansour said.We did our homework. We inspected everything needed. There are holes for additional poles. There are poles," he said. "Everything's ready to go."

A spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters Tuesday that the U.N. will abide by whatever the General Assembly decides.

"We're moving into somewhat uncharted territory here," he said.

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The rally, which gathered some 500 people, had begun peacefully at Istiklal Street in the centre of the European side of the city.

Police intervened as demonstrators attempted to form a human chain and shouted slogans against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and its offensive against Kurdish militants.

Jets from a water cannon were fired down the middle of the street -- a busy shopping area -- and police used tear gas as demonstrators ran for cover.

Among those detained was Yasin Akgul, a Turkish freelance photographer who works as a stringer for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He was pinned to the ground by several police as he tried to take pictures of the arrests.

Akgul was taken to a waiting police van before being released after colleagues remonstrated that he was a media photographer.

Akgul was given hospital treatment for an arm injury but was later allowed to go home.

Reports said a cameraman from the state-run Anatolia news agency was also injured.

Anatolia reported that a total of 14 people had been arrested.

Turkish cities are tense as the government presses a controversial campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, with security forces clamping down on any signs of large scale protest.

AFP