Comment on Vietnam Court Sentences Former Government Accountant to Death for Embezzlement

A Hanoi court sentenced the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology’s former chief accountant to death after Nguyen Hoang was convicted of embezzling more than 152 billion dong ($6.2 million), according to a posting on the Vietnam government’s website. Hoang was found guilty of committing theft between March 2009 and February 2023, the statement said.

Singapore’s former transport minister pleaded guilty bribery and obstruction of justice after the city-state’s prosecution amended the indictment against him, a surprising twist to the biggest political scandal in nearly four decades. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] S. Iswaran, 62, was convicted on Tuesday after the amended charges were read out to him. It was unexpected as the former politician had vowed to defend himself against a raft of charges including corruption.

Asif Merchant was arrested on July 12. He had just loaded his luggage into his ride to the airport, commencing a journey either to his wife and children in Iran or to a different wife and children in his native Pakistan. In weeks of secretly recorded conversations with a federal informant, Merchant had confided that he had families in both countries.

More than perhaps any other material, cement is the glue that holds the globalized world together—especially our cities. But producing it requires huge amounts of fossil fuels, and the industry is responsible for up to 8% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a 2023 study in Nature. Efforts to tackle the issue have historically centered on things like fuel and efficiency.

LONDON — Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties. Kate and her husband, Prince William, were seen Sunday attending church with King Charles III and Queen Camilla near their royal Balmoral estate in Scotland. Kate, 42, announced on Sept.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s president on Monday after an election that saw voters reject an old guard accused of leading the country into economic crisis. Dissanayake, 55, who ran as head of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday’s election. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902. In a brief speech, the new president pledged to work with others to take on the country’s challenges. “We have deeply understood that we are going to get a challenging country,” Dissanayake said.