KUALA LUMPUR - Police have arrested a 27-year-old man for allegedly posting seditious remarks on Facebook about the royal family of a southern Malaysian state, his brother said yesterday. Ahmad Abd Jalil was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night but handed to police in Johor where he may have to beg forgiveness from the sultan, his brother said. The government has announced plans to repeal the controversial Sedition Act, but authorities have continued to invoke it. AFP
COLOMBO - A court in the Maldives has ordered the suspension of a hearing on charges against the country's former president. Mohamed Nasheed is accused of illegally ordering the detention of a senior judge, a move that led to his overthrow earlier this year. Nasheed was to appear in court for a second time yesterday, nearly a month after he was arrested for twice ignoring a summons and breaching an order prohibiting him from leaving the capital, Male. AP
TOKYO - Thousands of people rallied against the American deployment of Osprey military aircraft on a southern Japanese island amid escalating anti-US military sentiment following recent crimes. Ospreys were deployed in October despite local opposition over safety concerns following two crashes elsewhere. Anger was running high days after a US airman allegedly assaulted a teenage boy on Okinawa, just two weeks after a curfew was imposed on all 52,000 US troops in Japan over the arrest of two navy sailors for the alleged rape of a local woman. AP