patriotic front. the rebel army the fortress are present when they knew it was and will. need to reinforce them. the news good to us that when it was not for a. coup leader successors. want to try to start a beef it w. . this is d w news asia coming up on the program they'll sultan and sharia law a new penal code enters force in brunei it punishes adultery and gay sex with death by stoning we'll hear from a human rights group calling it barbaric to the core plus. malaysians disgraced former prime minister is in court over the multibillion dollar one m d b corruption

scandal where did the money go and can really get it back and. the chinese government kept them separated for years we look at how do you shock captured her sadness over the political imprisonment of her husband. i'm melissa chan welcome to the program it's good to have you with us we begin in brunei where new laws based on a strict interpretation of islam go into effect today the tiny country on the island of borneo has captured a lot of global attention not the good kind for the punishments it intends to carry out thieves will have their limbs amputated the new code would commit gay people caught having sex to death by stoning and it would send lesbians caught having sex

to one hundred whips of the lash the united nations has called these last recode anyone but the sultan defended them. the gust. as a small nation we always devote prayers to our laws. and yes this is driven by on national philosophy of malaysia islamic monarchy. that has existed here for hundreds of years. in the system this system preserves and guarantees the rights of all people regardless of their race and. the temple among europe was done on medicare. as you can imagine there's been global shock and outrage actor and activist george clooney leveraged his fame and called for a boycott of luxury hotels from the dorchester in london to the beverly hills hotel all owned by brunei's royal family itself is one of the richest men on earth the

multi-billionaire gets his money from the country's gas and oil sales and on social media tweets expressed outrage along with the new hash tag boycott to ny columnist for gay times mag tom knight tweeted people all over the world have condemned these barbaric laws but most world leaders appear to value gas oil luxury hotels and investment portfolios more than they value l g q lives and rights there is this from a local labor party councillor in the u.k. who did organize a protest over the weekend it's two thousand and nineteen and we're still having to protest against homophobic laws that belong in the dark ages and an amnesty campaign crisis manager who's worked in syria called the new law medieval but also part of the growing authoritarianism we see globally. joining us now is phil

robertson of human rights watch phil is there anybody any government or any organization that would be able to stop brunei from carrying out these punishments the reality is no there is nobody can do that i mean i think that route i is susceptible to international pressure i think that the boycott brunei effort will have some epic to see i do believe also that you know more hue and cry from the united nations and from other governments are going to certainly impact realize thinking about how to go forward with actually implementing this horrific law but if they decide to do it tomorrow if they line someone up they could certainly follow through and we would then face headlines across the world about someone being stoned to death and tell us a little bit more about this country put it in context put the penal code in context. well the sultan is an absolute monarchy he's

a dictator really i mean his family has run the country for more than five decades . no one can really quite figure out why now he's decided to move forward with this criminal shari'a code. but you know it's entirely up to him and he is the sole decision maker what we're seeing here is it's us it's a small country it's about maybe three hundred fifty thousand people it's primarily dependent on oil exports there's a little bit of tourism you know there are some smaller there's a small capital city but you know it is it is predominantly islamic probably better than ninety percent of the people are muslim faith in the country and. you know the question is are they going to be concerned about this and in fact will something happen that will then cause them some degree of discontent with their government well in many ways you have to question straight from my mouth which is do you have

a sense of whether people welcoming this new law at all. well if we have people who are defending brunei per se you know that brunei has the right to do what it wants and it's a sovereign country but we also have people who are from bernard that we know who are who are fleeing the country or of already fled to seek asylum in the west because they're because they're gay or because they're perhaps in gauge you know in a relationship that where someone who they're not married to you know there is also implications for people who are not muslim there and are involved with a muslim and doing activities that are against this code they can also be. analyzed show you know i mean if it's hard to say because it is again a think peter schiff people are afraid to speak up they've read it face retaliation if they did i think we'll have to let it play out for a while and see if they're actually serious about implementing this this this

horrific penal code and these medieval punishments still robertson thank you thank you. turning now to malaysia where former prime minister knowledge of rod stock is on trial for his alleged role in the giant one n.d.p. corruption scandal one m.t.b. is the country's sovereign wealth fund it's a fund meant to benefit the economy and the country's citizens and not just is accused of stealing billions of us dollars from that fund he faces multiple charges which he denies he's in court today for the theft of just one chunk of ten million dollars budget was malaysia's prime minister for a decade until losing last year's election he comes from a powerful political dynasty his father and grandfather both led to the country and now he might spend the rest of his life in prison. here's a bit more on one end or the one malaysia development bear hide it's now at the

center of international investigations by a bunch of countries from singapore to switzerland to the united states investigators say more than four point five billion u.s. dollars were stolen from one end between two thousand and nine and two thousand and fourteen they say the money was used to finance hollywood films including leonardo di caprio the wolf of wall street no irony there and to buy hotels art jewelry and other expensive items this super yacht was also allegedly bought with stolen money it was seized and returned to malaysia where it was recently sold to recoup one hundred twenty six million dollars keep in mind that not set up one m. d. for the people of malaysia prosecutors now say that seven hundred million dollars from the fund ended up in his personal bank account he has been charged with forty

two counts of criminal breach of trust graft abuse of power and money laundering southeast asia correspondent boston hartig is following the story. this is only the first of several trials that malaysia's former prime minister najib razak will have to face he's being charged with money laundering abuse of power and breach of trust if he's convicted on only one of those charges the sixty five year old could face up to twenty years in prison the wanted to be scandal sparked outrage among malaysians leading to the historic election results of last year that unseated the both unless you know the coalition that had left the country for sixty one years now the pressure is on for malaysia's new government under former prime minister martir mohammed to bring to justice those who are responsible for the scandal and to recover the embezzled funds altogether some four point five billion u.s. dollars but malaysia's finance minister has already admitted that realistically two

thirds of that money is gone for good and you share the wife of chinese nobel peace laureate michelle what was freed after eight years of house arrest last year she then left china and these days lives here in berlin she's kept a low profile she has not been taking any interviews and so she's let her pictures do the talking as econ reports from taipei. pictures without color faces without happiness these photographs were taken by lucia as the wife of a prominent political dissident in china the couple was often separated by prison bars this collection in black and white was created during the period her husband was jailed in the late one nine hundred ninety s. many were captured at their home. i feel like is the most ironical way because they also supposed to bring you joy to evoke something as

powerful as a political movement as the horrors of our world i think was what really stood out i think it's the most touching for me because you can see the. sad and angry but she cannot do anything she cannot go out from this. as an artist meeting the usual bore changed her entire life her husband died in prison while serving an eleven year sentence for inciting subversion of state power a charge often used by chinese authorities against dissidents baling is a close friend he recalled the tough time lucia endured during her husband's persecution of despair perfected and her works we can talk to the feeling you feel children. are never happy if we use more imagination we can feel. no not

just sad. apart from these twenty six pictures several poems of lucia are also shown in this exhibition the latest piece was written less than one year before her husband's death revealing how exhausted she felt. she wasn't freed from heavy state surveillance until last year when she moved to berlin to start a new life she had poverty is the knowledge part of the cold person shown in the home though she was people think her it's a drive her. mother was was not the only two shovels. bailing said lucia is still grappling with depression despite being physically free she still faces a long battle dealing with the psychological trauma from her experience. that story end war on our website that dot com for slash asia and you can check us out on facebook as well that's our show we'll leave you with pictures from

northeastern china where workers are blasting up parts of the frozen river they say to reduce the chance of flooding when the weather of one stuff see you next time. what secrets lie behind these moves. find most of experience and exploring fascinating cultural heritage sites. d.w. world heritage for sixty years.

have been a glimpse of british. tour link to choose from africa the world. your link to assumptions stories and discussions for anyone. welcome to news actually program tonight from bernie germany from the news of the z. and i would say debbie that comes to africa join us andres book d.w. africa. it's a slowdown but there's still going to be a whopping five percent of growth across asia this year that's what the asian development bank is forecasting with india and china being the main engines behind that growth bost what about their wrists. and dima opens a new factory in moscow as russia's car market gets moving again after years of

stagnation and german carmakers jostle to get in on the action. also on the shoulder trouble is brewing between fishing communities and the government as seychelles tries to boost revenues with more aquaculture and tourism. this is the w. business. model for us as western economies are struggling to maintain growth asia is powering ahead in its latest economic outlook the asian development bank is forecasting konami growth rates of more than five percent for the near future driven largely by india and china but analysts say where there's growth there's also risk the red flags might have been waving bravely at the beginning of march in beijing but the people's congress that took place then focused at first on risks and problems chinese premier league kick young blames the united states for slowing growth around half of all his country's exports to the u.s.

have now been slapped with tear ups. china is the largest economy on the continent growth there is now hovering around.