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A plainclothes policeman catches a woman during a police crackdown on prostitution in Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 29, 2011. China should remove criminal and administrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 14, 2013. The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report. Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978. REUTERS/Stringer

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Malaysians arrested in Lebanon for Al Qaeda links

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KUALA LUMPUR | Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:58am EDT

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Two Malaysians, suspected of links to al Qaeda, have been arrested in Lebanon, Malaysia's foreign minister Anifah Aman said on Sunday.

Local newspapers said the two were believed to have been trying to make their way to Syria to join the 19-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, where Islamist militants are taking an increasingly prominent role.

The two, aged 28 and 21, were arrested on October 18 and were expected to appear in court on Monday, the foreign minister said in a statement.

In Beirut, a Lebanese judiciary official confirmed that two Malaysian nationals had been arrested on charges of terrorism and links to al Qaeda.

Anifah said Malaysian officials would meet the pair and provide consular services. "The case is still being investigated by the Lebanese authorities and the ministry of foreign affairs is closely monitoring the case," he said.

(Reporting By Siva Sithraputhran; Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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Comments (2)
CONCERNCITIZEN wrote:
Malaysian must quickly ensure this kind of trend is not followed by other religious fanatic for violent killing of the innocent people in the name of martyrdom..and most important is to really serious in crack down and clean up this kind of disease in Malaysian society before someone is kill in suicide bombing in Malaysian town itself!!

Oct 28, 2012 5:26pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
Free_Pacific wrote:
Let us hope this is the exception and not the rule for Malaysia. The sun is shining brightly on Malaysia and the rest of South East Asia/Pacific, it would be a terrible loss if extremists began to frustrate or reverse all our hard work.

Oct 29, 2012 3:28am EDT  --  Report as abuse
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