Compiled by CHOW HOW BAN, CHAN MAY THENG and R. ARAVINTHAN

       THE man accused of murdering Malaysian student Irene Chung (pic) in Taiwan, has been sentenced to death by a Kaohsiung court, reported Oriental Daily.

       The Ciaotou district court found the unemployed man surnamed Liang guilty of forcing the victim to have sex with him and eventually killing her.

       Liang had reportedly written to his family that he was willing to “trade his own life for another life”.

       Prosecutors said the accused had abducted the 24-year-old Chung who was later strangled and beaten up, adding that the accused had showed no mercy when the victim screamed for help and pleaded for her life.

       They also said Liang did not apologise to the victim’s family or show any remorse, adding that although he confessed to killing Chung, all he cared about was that he would not be tried in Malaysia.

       The court stated that there was a possibility that Liang could repeat his offence and thus posed a threat to society.

       Chung, a business management student of Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan, was found dead in Kaohsiung’s mountainous Alian district on Oct 29, 2020, a day after the university reported her disappearance.

       > China Press reported that more than 40 investigators spent one whole day tabulating money and 1,588 items including jewellery, luxury watches and paintings at the house of disgraced former Kweichow Moutai Group chairman Yuan Renguo.

       The details of the investigation were highlighted in a video produced by the People’s Prosecutors’ Office of Guiyang, the capital of China’s Guizhou province.

       Yuan, 66, was sentenced to life imprisonment in September last year for taking bribes amounting to about 112.9 million yuan (RM74.7mil).

       The investigators said Yuan’s case was complicated as he had received bribes over a long period even though he was charged with one count of corruption, adding they had spent more than two months gathering evidence and compiling documents and reports of about 400,000 words.

       The court found Yuan guilty of taking advantage of his position in the company to help others in obtaining the rights to the distribution of the moutai liquor, among others.

       > Taiwanese-American singer Wang Leehom and his wife Lee Jinglei have reached a mutual understanding to not make public the mediation details in the custody battle of their three children, Sin Chew Daily reported.

       Although their sensational breakup took place last year, the custody fight only began in the Taipei district family court on Thursday.

       During the mediation process, both parties had reportedly complained about each other.

       Lee said that Wang had been given the chance to speak to their children via video calls and that she had hoped that he would settle their divorce but Wang did not do so as initially agreed.

       After nine hours of hearing, the court said it would fix another date to continue the mediation process.

       The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.