December 8, 2021

*) Malaysian court upholds Najib Razak's conviction A Malaysian appeals court upheld former PM Najib Razak's guilty verdict in a case linked to a corruption scandal at state fund 1MDB. Najib was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $50 million last year. He was found guilty of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering for illegally receiving about $10 million from a former unit of the now-defunct 1MDB. *) Saudi say France arrested wrong suspect Saudi Arabia is refuting French police assertions that they caught a Saudi man suspected of being involved in the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Riyadh says it's a case of mistaken identity. French officials say they are now preparing to extradite the man to Turkey. *) Australia impose diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics Australia has followed US and New Zealand by imposing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. PM Scott Morrison says Canberra is struggling to reopen diplomatic channels with Beijing, to discuss China's suspected human rights abuses. China has condemned the move. *) Rohingya refugees sue Facebook Rohingya refugees are suing Facebook for $150 billion for not doing enough to stop hate speech against them. Lawyers filing the class-action suit say the way Facebook is designed, contributes to real-world violence against the Rohingya. UN's human rights investigators said Facebook played a significant role in fanning hate speech that fuelled the violence in 2018. And finally… *) US returns stolen artifacts to Mali The US has returned over 900 stolen artefacts to Mali. Some of the artefacts date back at least 6,000 years. Many were discovered in 2009, and had been trafficked in the US, labeled as replicas. They were later certified as genuine by anthropologists and will soon be on display in Mali's museums