as been interviewing the current malaysian prime minister mahathir mohamad and joins me live from kuala lumpur. when i was the world's oldest head of state he's now back for a second term as prime minister how worried is he about the malaysian economy and endemic corruption in the country. well down remember my head here is the person who's been credited with transforming malaysia when he was prime minister the first time around its entry making gets one of the asian tiger economies we saw a huge rise in the value of the currency massive projects the patrollers twin towers and the creation of or manufacturing of their own car is one of. several other developments in the industries obviously since he's left there has been a lot of corruption that has taken place in fact in his final years there was accusations as well he said that the reason why he's come back into politics is because that corruption has gone so far it's actually threaten the stability of the country and its future and we asked him about some of the accusations that have been leveled against him like interference in the

that was the message from malaysia's new dida mahathir mohamad off to his shock victory over the ruling coalition in may. mature who turns ninety three next week is the world's oldest head of states he opposed the political forces he was once a part of the united malaya national organization or i'm no which has ruled malaysia since its independence from britain in one nine hundred fifty seven. malaysia is a diverse nation with millions of muslims hindus buddhists and christians living side by side a contrasting place where the old and new come together. but many malaysians have been angry in recent years over high level government corruption and the rising cost of living prime minister mahathir has accused his predecessor najib result of steven conduits of millions of dollars and embezzling public funds. this week talked to al-jazeera travels to the malaysian capital to sit down with the man fighting against corruption and for a more united malaysia prime minister mahathir mohamad talks to al-jazeera. or minister thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera he welcomes you stepped asid

sure and the changes that mahathir intends to embark on his country that i think what we have seen today is beginnings of a first step but it is a large organization the rot that has happened in malaysia has happened for many decades it is going to treat their mendis effort to try and up through these things but i think there is an element of being hopeful because what that of the things that has come out from the new government appears to sure indication and willingness to embark on some of the serious reforms notwithstanding the fact that many of the activists themselves. implicate that or alleged to have governance or integrity issues themselves in the bus the a theory have amended and they have to fulfill this if they are to remain in power but it just impact this for us the next minute or so when when abraham is talking about serious reforms one of those reforms surely has to be the the system of patronage but it's very difficult. have nailed down and define who it's is when you go shifting political allegiances the go so far back sixty years we're talking about. well patronage here

recent years over high level government corruption and the rising cost of living prime minister mahathir has accused his predecessor najib result of steven conduits of millions of dollars on embezzling public funds. this week talked to al-jazeera travels to the malaysian capital to sit down with the man fighting against corruption and for a more united malaysia prime minister mahathir mohamad talks to al-jazeera. or minister thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera he welcomes you stepped aside as prime minister answer. thousand and three after serving for more than three decades in the top shop here in malaysia but you never really left politics you were still very much a dominant figure within the ruling united malays national organization or noise it's known locally and it's actually been the monopoly holder of government since malaysia gained independence in two thousand and sixteen though you resigned from knowing you set up your own party announcing that you would contest the next elections which you eventually ended up winning surprisingly what is it that made you decide to r

mahathir mohamad.not just that he has to prove he is guilty, he has to prove this is not politically charged, these accusations. >> it has been two months after najib lost power. mahathir -- it could look like political retribution if it is not done right. he wants to make sure this process is credible, and the allegations against him are legit. se,saw raids on najib's hou where they took designer handbags and sunglasses and all this cash. in the eye of the public, they were outraged by this all and got mahathir in any way. there is enough smoke there. has pledged to weed out corruption. what does this mean for others in his crosshairs? >> he has been adamant since he took office he won't stand for corruption. list,hwas first on the but there are many government officials he has put on notice. ,e is cleaning the government he likes to say, and he is trying to get malaysia on track. this scandal has tainted the country's image, and he is doing everything he come to assert the rule of law. there is a ris

the current prime minister mahathir mohamad and he has said he expects the several charges filed against. corruption bribery. not just in several of the charges not just his own has maintained his innocence all this was in the time when he was prime minister at the time when he had been in the general election and may have been tainted and if he says he hasn't done anything wrong given what was happening in one and even though he was even there the finance ministry which would have been tons of was also in charge of one entity because it was a state development fund not just says. the money in his bank account the old gifts and he's also said that they i ten police have seized his house and property linked in these won't get that he's been maintaining he has done nothing wrong and he has not sent then the charge of the boston court i guess we will be sharing all this in a lot more detail. indeed for the moment flawlessly lifeless on the line first there from kuala lumpur with that breaking news story the former malaysian prime minister najib razak arrested by anticorruption investigate h

interrupted by a temporary walk out of the opposition the new government is led by prime minister mahathirmohamad who switched parties to lead a campaign against majeed razzak razzak is now facing corruption charges over the disappearance of billions of dollars from a national development firm floor so he has more from kuala lumpur. the first session of parliament more than two months optimal asians voted in a new government has seen quite a dramatic opening all but a handful of opposition m.p.'s staged a walkout before they were even sworn in they wanted to protest against the government's nomination of the speaker of the lower house they said procedure had not been followed and have asked for a fourteen day postponement of this parliament session that since walks back in but have indicated that this may be the subject of a legal action now the government's choice or candidate for speaker is significant he is a retired judge well regarded in legal circles and is not active in politics quite a refreshing departure from his pretty criticise that there's also a lot of hope riding on this new

sit down with the man fighting against corruption and for a more united malaysia prime minister mahathir mohamad talks to al-jazeera. thank you very much for talking to al jazeera you welcome your stepped aside as per minute. three thousand and three after serving for more than three decades in the top job here in malaysia but you never really left politics you are still very much a dominant figure within the ruling united malays national organization or menorahs it's known locally and it's actually been the monopoly holder of government since malaysia gained independence in two thousand and sixteen though you resigned from when you set up your own party announcing that you would contest the next elections which you eventually ended up winning surprisingly what is it that made you decide to run again for office at the age of ninety two. when they stepped down in two thousand and three i had no intention of being in politics till but after i stepped down then the new new leader takes over. a lot of people came to see me asking me to do something because they were not satisfied with the le

sure and the changes that mahathir intends to embark on his country that i think what we have seen today is beginnings of a first step but it is a large organization the rot that has happened in malaysia has happened for many decades it is going to treat their mendis effort to try and up through these things but i think there is an element of being hopeful because what that of the things that has come out from the new government appears to sure indication and willingness to embark on some of the serious reforms notwithstanding the fact that many of the activists themselves. indicate that or alleged to have governance or integrity issues themselves in the bus the a theory have amended and they have to fulfill this if they are to remain in power but it just impact this for us the next minute or so when when abraham is talking about serious reforms one of those reforms surely has to be the the system of patronage but it's very difficult. have nailed down and define who it's is when you go shifting political allegiances the go so far back sixty years we're talking about. well patronage here

administration is serious about clamping down on corruption in the imdb case and very publicly, mahathirpaigned on bringing back malaysia's reputation and did an interview with me he said thatis and did an interview with me he said that is why he was getting back into the thick of it. if you will. at the timei the thick of it. if you will. at the time i said to him many of the corruption issues that are endemic within malaysia's economy until today happened, flourished, during his time in office. he did not deny it, he acknowledged that corruption existed in malaysia even when he was in charge, at that it didn't exist at the scale that you have seen, or that he believes to have been evident, during najib razak‘s time. that is a sense many malaysians have as well so they will be looking at this court case very keenly to find out what happens next, what the next steps are. we will be getting the details of those charges in the next few hours. thank you. in other business news making headlines, shares in glencore have sunk more than 12% after it was ordered by us authorities to hand over do

sit down with the man fighting against corruption and for a more united malaysia prime minister mahathir mohamad talks to al-jazeera. thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera you're welcome. as prime minister in two thousand and three for more than two decades in the top job here in malaysia but you never really left politics you were still very much a dominant figure within the ruling. united malays national organization or noise it's known locally and it's actually been the monopoly holder of government since malaysia gained independence in two thousand and sixteen though you resigned from knowing you set up your own party announcing that you would contest the next elections which you eventually ended up winning surprisingly what is it that made you decide to run again for office at the age of ninety two. when they stepped down in two thousand and three i had no intention of being in politics still but after i stepped down and the new leader takes over. a lot of people came to see me asking me to do something because they were not satisfied with the leadership of the successes my

one year rule of the same political party came to an end in the elections in may prime minister mahathir mohamad than one thousand new members of parliament have been sworn in their switch parties to lead a campaign against the incumbent prime minister najib resign no job is now facing corruption charges over the disappearance of billions of dollars from the state fund. we have to show that to practice a constructive democracy previously when we were in government we got blamed a lot so now i had to mohammed's party has to show us the avenue for the opposition to raise concerns for example in today's parliament speaker issue. a community school in the occupied west bank is opening early for the new academic year as it faces the threat of israeli demolition the palestinian bedouin village of. jewel to be bulldozed to expand an illegal israeli settlement but earlier this month israel's supreme court issued a temporary injunction blocking the demolition the school's future remains uncertain as the israeli government pushes for villagers to relocate there a landfill site. the syrian governme

account was a donation despite not tips arrest the investigation into one and continues his successor mahathir mohamad has said police have an almost perfect case against not and his allies anticorruption officers have questioned stepson. his alleged just spent some of the misappropriated one m.t.b. funds to produce a hollywood film more arrests could take place florence al jazeera. well you want to know it's your life and on that coming up on the program an uphill battle the warning is that humanitarian help alone will not solve the crisis one group calls for a political solution. and it will come up with the final laws sixteen much gets underway in less than an hour as england face colombia. hello there the weather is generally quite quiet across many parts of the middle east at the moment quiet but very hot particularly in the western parts of i'm up baghdad about forty seven degrees before the east you can see a keen wind working down from the north that's picking up a little bit of haze at times it's not quite as hot here is it might be and then you can see some showers still over the nor

mahathir mohamad has said police have an almost perfect case against you and his allies well joining us now live from kuala lumpur florence give us some indication first of all what's going to be happening in court. well not just is going to be brought here he had spent the night at the headquarters of the anti corruption agency and he's going to be brought to court here this is the call of them full court that's the sessions court below it sessions court and the high court in this building that you see behind me and then he's going to be charged at the lower sessions court and then the case will likely be transferred to a high to a high court that's what we've been told we're not sure yet whether he is going to be entering a plea today but then when the case is brought to the high court he will be able to apply for bail we're not also not sure what the charges that will be laid against him are going to be very likely that they could include criminal breach of trust well possibly corruption abuse of power perhaps even obstruction of justice now this is an investigation that started s

new government is made up of a coalition of opposition parties headed by the former prime minister mahathir mohamad the government says its priority to find out what's happened to the millions of dollars that went missing it's discovered the taxpayer money has been used to fund one m.t.b.f. debt obligations so far one point eight billion dollars of state money has been spent to bailout the fund and hundreds of millions more will have to be paid out by the end of the year in interest payments. the lavish lifestyle of najib and his luxury loving wife had been under the microscope for years but until recently there was little evidence to link them to the embezzled money analysts say now it's just a matter of time until the true extent of the scandal will be revealed and more former government officials will likely face charges. of kuala lumpur. a second man has been shot and killed in the philippines in as many days for them both it was leaving a government office in the way the province when going to approach this very clean shot him. from monday mare and tell you how he was shot and killed a

twenty one lawmakers were sworn in on monday including the new ninety three year old prime minister mahathir mohamad made his return to parliament. international pressure is growing on nicaragua as government after the deaths of ten more protesters on sunday at least three hundred mostly on arms demonstrators have been killed since april by armed groups linked to the government according to human rights groups mariana sanchez reports from the capital managua. a caravan of paramilitary forces operating in the open the masked men are backed by the government rights groups have accused them of carrying out attacks on people in the cities get another and the surrounding area. it's a situation without precedent we are submitted to a terror war where there's no rule of law where anyone kills you or kidnapped you we've never lived something like this before and despite this nicaraguans are showing their ability to resist. the government says it's fighting against opponents plotting against it but international organizations say the government is condoning the disproportionate use of force against c

the sixty one year rule of the same political party came to an end and elections it may promise to mahathir mohamad and nineteen new members of parliament have been sworn in. to lead a campaign against. rajiv is now facing corruption charges over the disappearance of billions of dollars from the state fund. we have to show that to practice a constructive democracy previously when we were in government we got blamed a lot so now to muhammad's past he has to show us the avenue for the opposition to raise concerns for example in today's parliament speaker issue florence louis has more from kuala lumpur. the first session of parliament more than two months optimal asians voted in a new government has seen quite a dramatic opening all but a handful of opposition m.p.'s staged a walkout before they were even sworn in they wanted to protest against the government's nomination of speaker of the lower house they said procedure had not been followed and have asked for a fourteen day postponement of this parliament session since walks back in but have indicate that this may be the subject of a legal a

sesson mahathir mohamad has said police have an almost perfect case against him and his allies anticorruption officers have questioned not just stepson. is alleged to have spent some of the misappropriated one m.t.b. funds to produce a hollywood film more arrests could take place florence to the al-jazeera. you're watching news there live from london coming up on the program the head of poland's supreme court vows to resist what she calls a government purge forcing a third of the court's judges to retire. and we're in kenya where thousands left with nothing by floods are still waiting for a place to call home. hello there we've got lots of hot weather still across year up still completely dry for us though we have one area of low pressure hey you can see all the cloud spiraling around it that's giving us a few outbreaks of rain i'm also seeing plenty of thunderstorms across parts of france actually those are spreading further eastwards now so more across the alps there for wednesday and down the side of the adriatic as well and some of these downpours are likely to be pretty lively as we head

politically motivated to my show ya'll is in kuala lumpur where he's been speaking with the jeep successor mahathir mohamad. dr martineau hammered is the person who was credited for transforming malaysia's economy making it a powerhouse in the region essentially reinventing good to become one of the asian tigers in the one nine hundred ninety s. when he was first prime minister but since then so now the economy in the markets here have struggled to say the least a big part of that has been the endemic corruption which has plagued not only the political scene but also the economy here for several years and it was that level of corruption reached new heights with hundreds of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars going missing in terms of public funds that convinced him to reenter politics at the age of ninety two he turns ninety three in just a few days time when we asked him about whether he was using the corruption case to try and get back into politics or sideline his opponents or whether there was a genuine attempt to ensure that the judiciary would take its course and the justice syste

in the united states the russian which aren't the first malaysian parliament under prime minister mahathir mohamad has been sworn in he ended sixty one years of control by the national front coalition it was led by now who's now set to face trial on corruption charges two reuters journalists arrested him in amman last year going on trial the pair was investigating the killing of ten ranger men and boys when they were arrested if being charged with violating nehemiah's official secrets act and could face up to fourteen years in jail. iraqi security forces have killed two people at a protest against corruption and poor public services there's been six days of protests across the southern provinces a curfew is now in place a ceasefire between hamas and israel and girls are is largely holding following a surge of violence on saturday the un special envoy latin off says war was narrowly averted and he's urging all sides to deescalate the situation egypt's government has been accused of exploiting state of emergency laws to crackdown on opposition a report by human rights watch found the laws we

new government is made up of a coalition of opposition parties headed by the former prime minister mahathir mohamad the government says it's priority to find out what's happened to the millions of dollars that went missing it's discovered the taxpayer money has been used to fund one m.t.b.f. debt obligations so far one point eight billion dollars of state money has been spent to bailout the fund and hundreds of millions more will have to be paid out by the end of the year in interest payments. the lavish lifestyle of najib and his luxury loving wife had been under the microscope for years but until recently there was little evidence to link them to the embezzled money analysts say now it's just a matter of time until the true extent of the scandal will be revealed and more former government officials will likely face charges. will of course we'll bring you more on this story later with another of our correspondents will be live with us from kuala lumpur now jordan's foreign minister is heading to moscow as a humanitarian crisis builds on the border with syria around two hundred seventy thou

this story has been moving at pace since mahathir mohamad won the election in may.se responsible for the scandal around this fund, which is called 1 mdb. and even before the arrest, he'd said there's a "perfect case" against najib razak. michael bristow has more. malaysia's former prime minister najib was arrested at home earlier today and brought here to this building behind me. the anti—corruption agency. officers here have been investigating mr najib for several weeks, ever since his surprise to see in the general election. the allegation is that mr najib, while in power, stole billions of dollars from a government investment fund known as 1mdb. a fund which was supposed to fund economic development,. these are charges he denies. the new government here in the malaysia has been in malaysia has been saying for several weeks that it has almost a perfect case against mr najib so his arrest hardly comes as a surprise. but when news started to filter out, there was some shock in malaysia. people expressed their support but a number are angry and their supporters, mr n

momentum which could change the lives of many women and goals with somalia's deputy prime minister mahathir mohamad delayed says the case is a developing one divine one for the country. the prosecutor has no appointed and sort of new to investigate this case together with the criminally perspicacious the facts and says there if you can seize collecting information and leave this is really a defining moment for so much. but joining me in the studio is a jerk our time she's the head of global advocacy at forward an african human rights organization thanks very much for coming into al-jazeera described there as a defining moment does the how it is how it feels in this battle against f.e.m. it definitely is a defining moment particularly as the prevalence in somalia is so high and we are please forward them other activists are very pleased to see this move being taken we hope it goes to its logical conclusion i.e. there's a conviction at the end of it but it shouldn't at the moment it's only the parents who've been arrested but we want to see not only the demand side but we want the supply side

because he thought it was and by the fraction scandal surrounding russia but not refused and said mahathir had returned to power to secure a legacy it's children so they're scared. to have said that malaysia is not the only country investigating as you mentioned that used you mentioned three countries that there is six countries that are investigating this find one and to be on suspicion of money laundering and malaysian cases themselves started looking into this several years ago but that stalls we still find it gets attention general and then the tell you generals with names and yet not to go wrong doing so there are allegations that there has been a cover of the scandal while not just mr. all right correspondent florence lou we thank you so much for joining us turning now to india or social media rumors have been fueling deadly mob attacks over the past three months false messages and videos about child kidnappers on the loose have triggered lynchings across the country the rumors are circulating on what's app which is widely used in india where a people are being fooled by a video it's

of parliament since malaysians voted in a new government in may it's led by ninety three year old mahathir mohamad the former prime minister who made a return to politics several years ago it's also the first time that m.p.'s from. the former ruling coalition that govern this country from more than sixty independents find themselves on the opposition. among them is former prime minister . who was arrested earlier this month and charged with several counts of corruption . ten million dollars from a government company this. is the people i want to serve the people i want to. talk to. in a way to help to democracy his party's shock defeat in the last election is widely thought to be due in part to his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal surrounding the state investment fund set up called. the new administration has promised to prosecute all those involved and recover the billions of stolen dollars many will be looking to the government to repeal laws such as the. act widely seen as an attempt to stifle discussion on one end. also be expected to deliver on its promise to implement inst

just two months ago, he lost elections to mahathir bin mohamad.mise to reopen an investigation into a massive corruption scandal of state—fund known as imdb. it was set up in 2009 to turn kuala lumpur into a financial hub. it's now at the centre of money laundering allegations. a number of countries, including the us, are investigating. funds skimmed were allegedly used to buy luxury assets and propety. this was some of what police seized from properties linked to mr najib. jewellery worth millions. he still has support, though. this was taken outside of court today. that hashtag, #freenajib. more now from karishma vaswani. this really underlines the current administration's focus on clamping down on corruption in malaysia. all of this relating to a subsidiary unit of the state—run investment fund, one in db, which he remember set up. in particular to develop kuala lumpur, the malaysian capital into a financial hub. that never happened, what happened instead was that the fund racked up billions of dollars worth of debt, there were allegations that

mahathir mohamad has said police have an almost perfect case against life anticorruption officers have questioned stepson. is the let's just spend some of the misappropriated one. could use a hollywood film more arrests could take place florence al jazeera puts it. at least eleven people have been killed in an airstrike on a wedding in yemen's northern province the saudi a morality coalition bombed the town of call for the casualties were mostly women and children the un has verified that two thousand two hundred children have been killed and more than three thousand have been injured since the conflict began more than three years ago the u.n. says a number of yemeni prisoners have been tortured and sexually abused by soldiers from the united arab emirates it comes after witnesses provided the associated press news agency with the drawings smuggled out of amorality run prisoners in prisons in yemen last month the pictures describe a system of sexual torture and abuse the u.n. says it's requested access to the prisons but it's not yet been allowed in ok let's bring in yemen analyst ibra

continues his successor mahathir mohamad has said police have an almost perfect case against and his allies anticorruption officers have questioned stepson. is the let's just spend some of the misappropriated one m.t.b. funds to produce a hollywood film more arrests could take place florence lee al jazeera. coming up announcer this news are the mounting toll in the mediterranean more bodies are discovered on the beaches migrants and refugees attend the perilous journey from libya. the head of parents corvallis to resist what she calls a government forcing a third of the court's judges to retire on wednesday. a small coming out of rafael nadal continues his quest for a night wimbledon title tachyon and we'll have the details a little bit later. the head of the european commission says his legal team will look into the migration deal that germany's angela merkel has agreed with her very own coalition partners to ensure it's in line with the laws the deal would seize so called transit camps set up along germany's border with austria to screen refugees and see if they've already applied

that people are having so that the first year saying imagine someone telling you a year ago that mahathir would be pm on war would be pardoned and would be heading for the slammer well with the recent developments many people are using their tweets to highlight this unusual turn of events in malaysian politics another post here saying that before the ink dried that's referring to the ink that people dip their fingers into when they vote and as she was arrested and this user concludes by saying what a time to be alive another tweet expressing surprise there and another user here reminds people that was arrested on a tuesday on the third anniversary of the day that the one story also broke which was on a tuesday followed by an image with the caption ding dong the witch is dead watch out for big news in malaysia on tuesdays i guess so lastly many people are also wondering about response or that's why wondering where she is and discussing her possible fate this user decided to share an image of some of the luxury handbags and jewelry that was confiscated by police from several of the couple's