International News

Malaysia finds mass graves of 24 

suspected human trafficking victims

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities have found mass
graves containing the remains of more than 20 people believed to be human
trafficking victims near the border with Thailand, police said on Sunday.

The heavily forested Thai-Malay border has been a transit point for smugglers
bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The migrants are often held for ransom in squalid detention camps and according
to some accounts face torture and starvation.

Police uncovered 24 bodies on Saturday in the Bukit Wang Burma area near the
Malaysian border with Thailand, close to where authorities in May had found
hundreds of bodies in illegal detention camps.

"Following on from the operation in which we found ... bodies of illegal immigrants,
24 more bodies have been found and dug up," police said in a statement, adding
that the remains had been handed over to medical experts.

It was not immediately clear if the bodies discovered were those of Rohingya, a
minority ethnic group in Myanmar, whose members have fled widespread
persecution in that country.

A crackdown by Thai authorities in May drove traffickers to abandon thousands of
migrants on rickety, overcrowded boats in Southeast Asian waters, triggering a
regional humanitarian crisis that saw them land in Malaysia and Indonesia after
being rescued by fishermen. (Reporting by Trinna Leong; Writing by Kanupriya
Kapoor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

World's richest people lose $182 billion as market rout deepens, but Nigeria's Dangote is smiling

Dangote is one of just eleven billionaires on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index who has made money this week, posting a $79.2 million gain from Thursday.

Dangote Group focuses on food processing (principally sugar and flour), cement manufacturing, and freight and is one of the world's few billionaires who has good reason to smile these days. (Photo: FILE)

THE world’s 400 richest people lost $182 billion this week from their collective fortunes as weak manufacturing data from China and a rout in commodities sent global markets plunging.

But Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote might well start teaching other billionaires a few things. He is one of just eleven billionaires on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index who has made money over the past week, and just one of six who have seen their fortunes increase in the past 24 hours, posting $79.2 million gain from yesterday (August 21).

Commodities tycoon Dangote is Africa’s richest man, with a net worth of $15.4 billion, according to the Index.

The other three Africans on the Index are South Africans: Nicky Oppenheimer formerly of the De Beers diamond company (net worth $6.7 billion) suffered a $27.9 million loss between Thursday and Friday, luxury goods magnate Johann Rupert (net worth $7 billion) saw his money shrink by $87million, and retailing baron Christo Wiese (net worth $7 billion), lost $220million over the same period.

The weekly drop for the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a group that includes Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, was the biggest since tracking of the expanded list began in September 2014.

The combined net worth of the index members fell by $76 billion on Friday alone, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks ended its worst week since 2011.

“For them that’s a fractional percentage, even though $182 billion is a big number,” said John Collins, director of investment advisory at Aspiriant, which oversees more than $8 billion for high net worth clients. “A week like this feels really bad, but when you take a step back, in a big picture view it’s not a disaster by any means.”

Friday’s losses put the world’s richest 400 into the red for the year to date. They’re now down $74 billion in 2015, with a collective net worth of $3.98 trillion.

The week’s largest setback in dollar terms was experienced by Warren Buffett, who saw his fortune drop by $3.6 billion as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slipped more than 5%. The investor is the world’s third-wealthiest person, with a fortune of $63.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The slump in oil, which had its longest weekly losing streak since 1986 amid signs of an extended supply glut, contributed to $15.2 billion in losses for the world’s wealthiest energy billionaires.

Continental Resources Inc. Chairman Harold Hamm saw $895 million, or 9% of his net worth, vanish this week. Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive officer of mining company Glencore Plc, lost $237 million during the week as commodity prices slid to their lowest levels in 13 years. 

Glencore reached a record low in London on Friday, down more than 8% from a week earlier, after the trading house reported its profit sank 56% in the first half of the year. Glasenberg’s fortune has decreased more than 40% in 2015, to $3.1 billion.

China’s 26 wealthiest people, pummeled by Hong Kong’s bear market and a weaker yen, lost $18.8 billion during the week. Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. was hit hardest, losing $3.5 billion.

Eleven billionaires added to their fortunes in spite of the market turmoil. The week’s biggest dollar gainer was Sun Pharmaceuticals’ Dilip Shanghvi. The world’s 39th-richest person became $467 million wealthier, elevating his net worth to $18.9 billion.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net-worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York and listed in US dollars.