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A Malaysian high court acquitted a former deputy prime minister of 40 bribery charges, saying the prosecution had failed to provide enough evidence, state news agency Bernama reported on Friday.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was one of many high-ranking officials, including ex-premier Najib Razak, charged with corruption in 2018 when the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party was voted out from power due to widespread anger over graft.

Najib, in whose government Zahid served, started a 12-year jail term last month after being convicted of corruption and abuse of power over a multi-billion-dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Zahid had been accused of receiving about $11 million in bribes from a company to win government contracts over a foreign visa system. He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The prosecution can appeal the verdict in Zahid's case in higher courts following the acquittal by the Shah Alam High Court.

While he has no official position in the current government, Zahid remains highly influential as president of UMNO, which is the main component of the ruling coalition.

The UMNO party came back to power in 2020 after an alliance led by Mahathir Mohamad that won the 2018 election collapsed from infighting.

Zahid has been urging Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is also from the UMNO party, to call for early elections ahead of a September, 2023 deadline.

Zahid also faces another case involving 47 charges of bribery, money laundering and criminal breach of trust. The trial is ongoing. (Reuters)

 Japan will honour former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a rare state funeral on Tuesday, a ceremony that has become a flashpoint for public anger over political scandal and deepened opposition to successor Fumio Kishida.

Abe's assassination in July touched off a series of revelations about ties between lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) he once led and the Unification Church, an organisation critics call a cult.

Kishida has sought to control the damage, apologising and promising to sever the LDP's links to the church, which was founded in South Korea in the 1950s and is known for its mass weddings and aggressive fundraising. But the fallout for the party, and his government, has been immense.

Abe's suspected killer accused the church of impoverishing his family, according to police. In social media posts before the killing, he blamed Abe for supporting the group.

A church spokesperson has apologised for any trouble it may have caused the people of Japan or LDP lawmakers and said it would crack down on any excessive soliciting of excessive donations. The church has also promised a quick response to complaints or requests for donation refunds.

Disclosures that at least 179 LDP members, include several high-profile lawmakers, have had ties to the church have sent Kishida's ratings to their lowest since he took office about a year ago, raising the possibility his grip over the party could weaken, making it more difficult for him to deliver on his policy pledges.

Some 62% of respondents in a recent poll by the Mainichi newspaper said they opposed holding a state funeral for Abe. Among the reasons respondents gave were that the former premier was not worthy of the honour, and the high price tag. The government estimates the cost at $12 million - more than six times an earlier estimate - but comments on social media show most believe it will cost more.

Holding a state funeral "was a big miscalculation" for Kishida, said Tomoaki Iwai, an expert on Japanese politics and professor emeritus at Nihon University. "When he originally decided on the funeral there were a lot of people in favour, but then there were the reports of Abe's involvement with the Unification Church, and so opposition grew."

That public anger was gruesomely highlighted on Wednesday when a man in his 70s set himself on fire near the prime minister's residence in an apparent protest at the state funeral, Japanese media reported. The man was taken to hospital, conscious.

DIVISIVE FIGURE

Kishida has justified the ceremony by citing Abe's long tenure and achievements at home and abroad.

The opposition to the funeral reflects how divisive Abe remains in Japanese society. While loved by nationalists and many on the right for his muscular defence and pro-market policies, he was reviled by many who want to keep the country's pacifist constitution unchanged.

Japan's last fully state-funded funeral for an ex-premier was Shigeru Yoshida's in 1967. Ceremonies since have been paid for by the state and the LDP.

Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Eisaku Sato, who oversaw Okinawa's return to Japan from U.S. control 50 years ago and was the longest-serving premier before Abe, did not have a state funeral when he died in 1975. The government felt there was no legal basis for it.

A private funeral for Abe was held on July 12, four days after his killing. For the public commemoration, 6,000 guests are to gather at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan Hall, including over 190 foreign delegations. About 50 heads of state or government are expected, and media reports say Kishida may meet with around 30 of these.

Prime ministers Justin Trudeau of Canada, Narendra Modi of India and Anthony Albanese of Australia are expected to attend, as is U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. (Reuters)

Traffic into Finland over its border with Russia was heavy on Friday, with the number of Russians crossing rising steadily since President Vladimir Putin ordered a military mobilisation, as authorities mulled imposing fresh entry restrictions.

The number of Russians who had entered the previous day was more than double the amount who arrived the week before, the border guard said.

Max, a 21-year-old Russian student who declined to give his last name, said he was going to Finland to catch a flight to Germany to visit relatives.

"Technically, I'm a student so I should not be afraid of being drafted but we have seen that things are changing very quickly so I assume there is a chance," he told Reuters after crossing the border at Vaalimaa.

"I just wanted to be safe," he said.

Finland is considering barring most Russians from entering, with an announcement expected by government officials later on Friday.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday the government was assessing risks posed by people travelling through Finland and was considering ways to sharply reduce transit from Russia.

About 7,000 people entered from Russia on Thursday, some 6,000 of them Russian, meaning a 107% increase compared with the same day a week earlier, according to the border guards.

Three people had sought asylum on Thursday. None had the week before, it said.

A Russian couple, 29-year-old Slava and 35-year-old Evgeniy, also left because of the uncertainty of being called up in the military at some point.

They had decided to leave the moment Putin announced the partial mobilisation on Wednesday, they said. They had left their dog Moby behind with friends. Their families cried when they left, they said.

"At the current stage, we are not in demand, but we do not know what is going to happen tomorrow," Slava told Reuters. "We don't support what is happening now. We don't want to be a part of it."

"It was a difficult decision (to leave). We have plans, we have careers. The best scenario is to go back. On the other hand, (saving our) life is essential."

Finnish land border crossings have remained among the few entry points into Europe for Russians after a string of countries shut both physical frontiers and their air space to Russian planes in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

At Vaalimaa, the busiest crossing point, cars lined up for up to 400 metres (440 yards) on Friday, a longer queue than the day before, a border official said.

"Compared to Friday last week, we have more traffic," Vaalimaa station deputy chief Elias Laine told Reuters. "We expect the traffic to remain busy over the weekend."

Those arriving by car or bus left their vehicles to have their paperwork checked before continuing on with their journeys. Border guards searched some vehicles.

Lines were also "longer than normal" at the second-biggest Nuijamaa crossing.

Finland opted to keep its frontier with Russia open following Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine although it has cut back the number of consular appointments available to Russian travellers seeking visas. (Reuters)

 War crimes including rape, torture, executions and confinement of children were committed by Russia in areas it occupied in Ukraine, the head of a U.N.-mandated investigation body said on Friday.

The commission is one of the first international bodies to reach the conclusion on the basis of field evidence. Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian soldiers of a litany of abuses since the Feb. 24 invasion, but Moscow has regularly dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign.

"Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine," Erik Mose, who heads the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He did not give an estimate of how many crimes had taken place but said in a later interview that "a large number" had been committed by Russia and only two cases by Ukraine involving the ill-treatment of Russian soldiers.

Russia denies deliberately attacking civilians during what it calls its "special military operation".

Russia was called on to respond to the accusations at the council meeting but its seat was left empty. There was no immediate official reaction from Moscow.

The Ukrainian prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Investigators from the commission, created by the rights council in March, visited 27 places and interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses in areas of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumyformerly held by Russia.

They found evidence of a large number of executions including bodies with tied hands, slit throats and gunshot wounds to the head, Mose said.

He said investigators had identified victims of sexual violence aged between four and 82. While some Russian soldiers had used sexual violence as a strategy, the commission "has not established any general pattern to that effect", Mose added.

In reaction to the speech, several countries suggested that the abuses amouted to crimes against humanity. "So far we have not concluded that there are crimes against humanity," Mose said, adding that these were preliminary findings and evidence-gathering and analysis continued.

'DARK WORLD'

The commission will next turn its attention to allegations of "filtration" camps in Russian-occupied areas for processing Ukrainian prisoners as well as claims of forced transfers of people and adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia.

Ukraine and some other nations urged the commission to also investigate a mass burial site near the city of Izium, in eastern Ukraine, where hundreds of bodies have been found. read more

"If left unanswered, (Russia's violations) will drag us into a dark world of impunity and permissiveness," Ukraine's envoy Anton Korynevych told the council by video link. Mose later said they intended to investigate the Izium graves.

Sometimes probes launched by the council can be used before national and international courts, such as in the case of a former Syrian intelligence officer jailed for state-backed torture in Germany in january.

Mose said he was in touch with the International Criminal Court about the commission's findings. The body is due to submit a complete report to the council at the end of its mandate in March 2023, including a possible list of perpetrators and recommendations on how to hold them to account. (Reuters)