Iraq Crisis: Maliki Remains Defiant as President Masoum Names Abadi as New PM

Iraqi policemen stand guard during a rally in support of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in BaghdadAhmed Saad/Reuters

Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki continues to strike a defiant note in spite of the decision by President Fuad Masoum to install Haider al-Abadi as the new prime minister.

Stoking a new power struggle in Baghdad, Maliki has refused to step down, saying the move to replace him is a "dangerous violation" of the constitution.

"We will fix the mistake," Maliki said in a televised address, adding: "Look at the side which the American administration supported."

"I want to reassure everyone that don't worry, everything that happened today is meaningless and we will still be here. I urge all the Mujahedeen army fighters and volunteers not to worry."

Brushing aside Maliki's bid to cling to power, Masoum called on Abadi, who was nominated by the Shiite National Alliance, to form a new government in Baghdad.

Maliki, widely seen as a polarising figure even by Iraq's allies, has deployed troops and security forces loyal to him in Baghdad streets.

Maliki will remain caretaker prime minister until the new administration takes over within the next 30 days.

Welcoming the Iraqi president's move to name the new premier, US President Barack Obama, speaking from his holiday retreat in Martha's Vineyard, said: "The only lasting solution is for Iraqis to come together and form an inclusive government. This new leadership has a difficult task to regain the confidence of its citizens by governing inclusively and taking steps to demonstrate its resolve."

Obama said he had spoken to Abadi and urged him to form the new government quickly in order to address the growing threat posed by the advancing Sunni insurgents of the Islamic State.

The United Nations, France and Turkey have also hailed the latest move by Masoum to name Abadi as the new premier.

GlaxoSmithKline Faces Fresh Bribery Allegations in Syria

GSK LogoReuters

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline is facing fresh bribery allegations in Syria in a further blow to its reputation after China launched an investigation into the company on similar grounds.

Reuters, citing an anonymous email sent to the company's top managers, reported that GSK allegedly bribed Syrian doctors and officials to boost sales of its medicines. It comes after accusations that the company engaged in malpractices in its non-prescription business in the country.

The email dated 6 August claimed that GSK paid bribes to doctors and officials in the country in the form of cash, trips and free medical samples.

"GSK has been engaging in multiple corrupt and illegal practices in conducting its pharmaceutical business in Syria," according to the lengthy email addressed to Chief Executive Andrew Witty and Judy Lewent, chair of GSK's audit committee.

Following the allegations, GSK said it will launch a probe into the matter. The company has also suspended relations with its Syrian distributors pending results of the probe.

"All the claims in this email will be thoroughly investigated using internal and external resources as part of our ongoing investigation into operations in Syria," a spokesman for the drugmaker told Reuters.

"We are committed to taking any disciplinary actions resulting from the findings. We have suspended our relationship with our distributors in the country pending the outcome of our investigation."

The allegations of corruption in Syria involve relatively small sums of money, compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars the company allegedly paid to Chinese doctors and officials. GSK generates sales of less than £6m ($10m, €7.5m) per year in Syria, compared to its total sales of £26.5bn in 2013.

However, the growing number of bribery claims against the company in various countries is damaging the company's reputation.

In addition to the far reaching bribery scandal in China, GSK is facing similar allegations in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Poland.

The US Department of Justice is investigating the New York Stock Exchange-listed company for possible breaches of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Meanwhile Britain's Serious Fraud Office has launched a formal criminal investigation into its overseas activities.

Child Trapped in Rubble Pulled Out Alive after Syria Bombing Raids

Amateur video footage shows toddler being pulled alive from rubble.(YouTube)

Amateur video posted on YouTube shows the remarkable footage of a toddler escaping death after being pulled from rubble by a recovery team who dug out the child in Aleppo after a bombing raid.

After hearing cries, the men frantically removed chunks of plaster. The two-year-old girl wiped the dust from her eyes as she was pulled to safety. Speaking to ITV News, her relieved father said: "They dug unti they found her – thank God."

Shouts are heard on the video of of "Allahu akbar" – "God is great" - are chanted through the large crowd when the child is finally freed.

The footage, which has not been independently verified, was dated on Wednesday – the day after government air strikes on the rebel-held district.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ten people including two children were killed in the bombardment aimed at a bus garage.

Aleppo has been at the centre of some of the fiercest fighting between government and rebel forces in the three-year civil war. The airstrikes on Aleppo come after the Assad regime took strategic ground around the city last month.

In Syria, Islamic State fighters continue to make rapid gains against pro-Assad forces and tribal fighters following their capture of northern Iraq's largest city Mosul on Sunday.

The Islamic militants, formerly known as Isis – is believed to control around a third of Syria - mostly rural areas in the north and east.

Estimates of the total death toll so far range between 98,000 and 130,000 in Syria's civil war, which began in March 2011.

Iraq Crisis: Yazidi Refugees Fleeing ISIS Make Perilous Journey To Escape Mount Sinjar

More than 30,000 Iraqi Yazidis, mainly from Sinjar, have crossed into an area of northern Iraq controlled by Kurdish security forces after a week-long journey that took them through Syria.

The harsh conditions of the Sinjar mountain range in mid-summer have taken scores of lives. Children who died of thirst were left behind; some exhausted mothers abandoned living babies, as thousands of Yazidis trekked across a rocky mountain chain in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), crossing into neighbouring Syria, and then looping back into Iraq to reach safety at the Bajid Kandala camp near the Iraq-Syria border.

Other Yazidis have settled in refugee camps in Syria: so desperate is their situation, they have sought safety in a country aflame in a civil war.

A Yazidi man and his children, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State, ride a donkey towards the Syrian border(Rodi Said/Reuters)

People covered in dust sit in the boot of a car as they flee the violence in Iraq and make their way towards the Syrian border(Rodi Said/Reuters)

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the Islamic State in Sinjar, ride on a truck towards the Syrian border(Rodi Said/Reuters)

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the Islamic State in Sinjar, walk towards the Syrian border(Rodi Said/Reuters)

An Iraqi Yazidi child, whose family fled their home a week ago when Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the town of Sinjar, looks on at a makeshift shelter in the Kurdish city of Dohuk.(Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)

The Yazidis who left the Sinjar mountains made the journey to Iraqi Kurdistan, in the fear of kidnap and death at the hands of the Islamic State who has already reportedly killed 500 Yazidi, burying them in mass graves.

Their safe passage, assisted by the YPG Syrian Kurdish rebel faction and US airstrikes, was secured on the northern side of the 60-mile ridge of Mount Sinjar. But thousands are still believed to be trapped on the southern side, unable to reach the safe area.

Islamic State extremists continue their sweep of Iraq, seizing territory. They have already forced the expulsion of Iraqi Christians, Shiite Muslims and adherents of the tiny Shabak faith.

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community cross the Fishkhabur bridge over the Tigris River into Syria.(Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)

Displaced Yazidi Iraqis cross the Iraqi-Syrian border along the Fishkhabur bridge over the Tigris River.(Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)

Members of the Kurdish Red Cresent help a woman in a wheelchair near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh.(Rodi Said/Reuters)

A child rests near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh.(Rodi Said/Reuters)

Children who fled from the violence in the province of Nineveh arrive in Sulaimaniya province, near the border with Iran.(Reuters)

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Catholic Missionary Who Worked Alongside Miguel Pajares Dies of Ebola

Health workers in protective gear wheel a stretcher into a hospital with one of two Spaniards who were repatriated from Liberia, shortly after their arrival in Madrid on August 7, 2014.(Reuters)

A Catholic missionary who worked alongisde Spanish priest Father Miguel Pajares – the first patient evacuated to Europe with the deadly ebola virus – has died of ebola, Spanish press reports.

George Combey died today at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia after contracting the virus responsible for more than 1,000 deaths in West Africa, say the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God, the religious order for which Pajares also worked.

The order says Combey was unaware he was infected when Pajares was evacuated from the region for Madrid, and so remained in Liberia.

Few details are known about the death of George Combey, but the ELWA Hospital has received worldwide press attention in recent weeks for the huge numbers of ebola deaths on its wards.

Father Pajares, 75, is the first European patient to be treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, that has helped a number of American citizens with ebola avoid death. He was transported on Thursday from Liberia to Carlos III Hospital in Madrid in a specially equipped military plane, and remains there in a stable condition on an isolation ward.

Also evacuated was a Spanish nun, Sister Juliana Bonoha Bohe, 65, who initially tested negative for ebola but is being held in isolation at the same hospital, according to Spanish media reports.

Spanish media reported on Sunday that two African nuns infected with ebola who worked with the Spanish missionaries were denied permission to join them on the flight to Madrid. One of the African nuns, Sister Chantal Pascaline, died on Saturday at San Jose Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.

Ebola is spread by contact with bodily fluids, including blood, urine and saliva, but the virus is not airborne. The incubation period is two to 21 days, and the infection can only be contracted from patients who exhibit symptoms.

Iraq's Deputy Speaker Haider Al-Abadi Tipped for Prime Minister Post

Shiite deputy speaker of Iraq's parliament Haider al-Abadi.(Reuters)

Iraq's main Shiite coalition, the National Alliance, has nominated the deputy speaker of parliament, Haider al-Abadi, for the role of the country's next prime minister.

The senior Iraqi politician, who has as PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Manchester, has received the backing from 128 MPs to replace incumbent prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The move will likely foster a political crisis in the country at a time in which it is facing a Sunni jihadist insurgency. In a fierce speech, Maliki attacked Iraqi president Fuad Masum after he did not intervene when parliament did not to give him a third term as prime minister.

Unpopular and increasingly sectarian, Maliki is facing calls to step down amid the Islamic State insurgency in the north. The United States has long called for the country to form an inclusive government and issued a statement supporting Masum.

"The government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining stability and calm in Iraq, and our hope is that Mr Maliki will not stir those waters," Kerry told reporters in Sydney ahead of annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN). "One thing all Iraqis need to know, that there will be little international support of any kind whatsoever, for anything that deviates from the legitimate constitution process that is in place and being worked on now."

But Maliki has not given any sign to back down and accused the Iraqi president of "committing a clear constitutional violation for the sake of political calculations and… giving priority to the interests of some groups at the expense of the higher interests of the Iraqi people".

Security forces were deployed across the capital Baghdad raising fears over a possible coup. US officials said they were worried about Maliki's speech, in particular to his call for the Iraqi army to defend the country's constitution.

Hot Shots Photos of the Day: Lego Aircraft Carrier, Kenya Circumcision, Rio Supermoon

The supermoon is pictured behind the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro(Reuters)

A competitor takes part in the first international waterfall jumping competition held in the old town of Jajce, Bosnia(Reuters)

Rory McIlroy hugs his father Gerry after winning the 2014 PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky(Reuters)

Loyalists shout insults as they protest against the annual Republican anti-internment parade in Belfast, Northern Ireland(Getty)

A view of the site where a German couple died during a hiking tour at Nigardsbreen glacier when it broke up, in Luster, Norway(Reuters)

People look at a replica of Chinese aircraft carrier "Liaoning" made of toy building blocks, on display at a shopping mall in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China(Reuters)

A boy dressed as a holy cow participates in a parade to mark the Gaijatra festival also known as "cow festival," in Kathmandu, Nepal(Reuters)

A boy who underwent circumcision rests inside a house after undergoing a rite of passage ritual in Kenya's western region of Bungoma. The Bukusu tribe from western Kenya has stuck to their ritual where young boys must face the circumciser's knife without flinching(Reuters)

An Iraqi Yazidi child, whose family fled their home a week ago when Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the town of Sinjar, looks on at a makeshift shelter in the city of Dohuk in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region(Reuters)

Bundles of halal meals destined for a humanitarian airdrop mission over Iraq sit aboard a C-17 Globemaster III plane. US military aircraft have delivered more than 52,000 meals and more than 10,600 gallons of fresh drinking water to the displaced Yazidis, who urgently require emergency assistance(Reuters)

A member of the security forces watches as Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses followers in Ankara. Erdogan secured his place in history as Turkey's first directly elected president(Reuters)

Palestinian boys are evacuated from their family home, following a raid on the house of Zakaria al-Aqra by Israeli troops near the West Bank city of Nablus(Reuters)

Palestinian firefighters extinguish a blaze at a soap factory after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike(AFP)

People in Gaza City react during an Israeli air strike as the explosion from a missile illuminates a building in the background(Reuters)

A Palestinian man reacts in front of the remains of a mosque, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike before a 72-hour truce, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip(Reuters)

Israeli soldiers stand over a hole in the ground they suspect is connected to a tunnel, outside the Gaza Strip(Reuters)

Thousands of protesters march down Regent Street from BBC Broadcasting House in London during a demonstration against military action in Gaza(Getty)

Damage to a house is seen following clashes between rival militias in the Wershavana district of Tripoli, Libya(Reuters)

An injured man reacts at a site hit by what activists said were two barrel bombs dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Qadi Askar district of Aleppo(Reuters)

Korean Consortium Close to Buying $540m Stake in US Shale Gas Firm

A natural gas rig operated by Chesapeake in Pennsylvania.(Reuters)

A consortium including South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) and gas seller E1 has been chosen as the preferred bidder to buy a $540m (£321.7m/€403.3m) stake in US-based shale gas transport company Cardinal Gas Services.

NPS, the world's fourth-largest pension fund, could invest around $250m, or the biggest portion of the funds required, for a 34% stake in Cardinal Gas Services, Reuters reported.

The division of stakes within the Korean consortium has yet to be finalised, the report added.

Cardinal Gas Services, a joint venture between Access Midstream Partners, a US-based Total unit, and EnerVest Energy Partners, manages gathering, compression and dehydration for oil and wet gas in the Utica shale region in Ohio.

E1's stock jumped on the news and finished up 4.61% in Seoul.

Earlier in the month, Austrian petrochemical firm Borealis signed a 10-year contract to buy ethane coming from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations, in Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively.

The US has become the world's largest producer of oil and gas, beating Russia or Saudi Arabia, as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has helped producers extract resources confined in shale rock formations.

Japan and South Korea are the world's leading importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and both nations struck deals in 2013 to buy gas from US terminals, in some cases paying for some of the development costs.

US is Top Destination For China's Corruption Fugitives

China's President Xi Jinping has cracked down on graft and corruption(Reuters)

More than 150 Chinese fugitives are at large in the United States, according to Chinese state media.

China's Ministry of Public Security wants to establish a high-level meeting with US judicial authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security, according to reports in the China Daily.

China President Xi Jinping's aggressive campaign against graft has seen the state go after corrupt officials amid concerns that graft scandals could threaten the future of the party.

China's has struggled to rein in abuses by government workers with families and connections overseas that have shifted assets abroad illegally.

Experts have estimated that more than a million officials could have shifted their assets abroad in the past five years.

The United States "has become the top destination for Chinese fugitives fleeing the law," Liao Jinrong, director general at the International Cooperation Bureau said, as cited by the China Daily.

"We face practical difficulties in getting fugitives who fled to the United States back to face trial due to the lack of an extradition treaty and the complex and lengthy procedures," he added.

However, the number of fugitive officials returned to China in the past decade remains at two, the newspaper reported.

Australian Tweets Photo of Seven-Year-Old Son Holding Severed Head of Syrian Soldier

The photo of the seven-year-old son of an Islamic State fighter was accompanied by the caption: "that's my boy".Twitter

An Australian man has tweeted a picture of his seven-year-old son holding what appears to be the severed head of a Syrian soldier.

The photo was posted alongside the caption: "that's my boy".

It's reported that the boy is the son of 33-year-old Khaled Sharrouf, a jihadi fighter who left his hometown of Sydney for Syria last year along with his family, using his brother's passport to flee to the war-torn country.

It is thought the photograph was taken in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, reports The Australian, who published the photo first on Monday.

Australian politicians have already widely and publicly condemned the shocking photo that has attracted worldwide news coverage.

Defence Minister David Johnston warned against allowing such images to "colour" public opinion about Islam, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the images emerging from the Middle East demonstrated the brutality of Islamic State terrorists.

The Twitter account belonging to Khaled Sharrouf has now been suspended.

China Growth Boom to Last Another 20 Years

A man casts a net by the side of a river next to a construction site of new residential buildings in Wuhan, Hubei province.Reuters

China's economy has the potential to grow at a pace of 7% to 8% for another two decades, according to former World Bank chief economist, Justin Yifu Lin.

Lin, China's most influential economist who has unparalleled access to China's top economic policymakers including Premier Li Keqiang, expressed his bullish view on the economy during an interview with Business Spectator.

China is presently the world's fastest-growing major economy with annual gross domestic product growth rates averaging 10% for the last 30 years.

However, its economic growth has slowed down recently due to increasing exposure to foreign markets. In 2013, the economy expanded 7.7%, the lowest pace in more than a decade.

It is also projecting a 7.5% growth for 2015 with its ever-growing problem of debt, both government and corporate.

Despite the negatives, Lin believes that "China's boom has not yet run its full course". His view is based on the observations of the development history of four major Asian economies in the last half century and underpinned by the so-called "late developing advantage theory".

"The theory says that late developing countries can grow much faster than developed economies during the catch-up stage of their development by absorbing and importing advanced technology and know-how, but the pace of growth will slow down as the gap between developed and developing countries becomes narrower," Business Spectator writes.

Lin noted that China's per capita income level is only 21% of the US back in 2008, which roughly reflects Japan's position in 1951, Singapore in 1967, Taiwan in 1975 and South Korea in 1977. These countries had all grew between 7.6 and 9.2% for two decades.

If China follows the growth pattern of these four advanced East Asian economies, it has a good chance deliver a yearly growth rate of 8% for another 20 years, given the large gap currently exists between China and the US, according to him.

"China has the potential but it does not necessarily mean it can fully utilise that potential. However, if you don't have that potential, there is no way for you to achieve anything regardless of how hard you may try," Lin told Business Spectator.

"Once we transition from an industrial economy to a post-industrial economic society, our emission and consumption of energy will decline," he said referring to China's growing pollution problem.

Speaking about small and medium sized firms' inability to access finance, he noted that China still has a relatively under-developed capital market to support such companies.

Lin noted that privatisation of state-owned companies is not a necessity for China.

"The most important thing for state-owned enterprise reform is competition and creation of a level playing field," he said.

Iraq Crisis: US Mulls Full-Scale Mountain Rescue Mission for Trapped Yazidi Kurds

Tech. Sgt. Lynn Morelly watches bundles of halal meals parachute to the ground during a humanitarian airdrop mission over Iraq.(Reuters)

The United States is considering the option of launching a full-scale evacuation of thousands of Yazidi Kurds trapped on Mount Sinjar by Islamic State militants, Washington officials have said.

After four nights of consecutive humanitarian relief airdrops, approximately half of the 40,000 Yazidis have escaped the mountainside after protection was offered by Kurdish rebels from Syria.

The airdrops were authorised by US President Barack Obama with the aim of preventing the deaths of the religious minority members from dehydration or starvation.

However, the humanitarian efforts are a short-term measure and the Islamic State is still in proximity to the positions of the Yazidi Kurds, meaning that further action is required to ensure their safety.

"We're reviewing options for removing the remaining civilians off the mountain," deputy US national security adviser Ben Rhodes told Reuters.

"Kurdish forces are helping, and we're talking to the (United Nations) and other international partners about how to bring them to a safe space."

Displaced families from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence, walk on the outskirts of Sinjar, west of MosulReuters

The Yazidis that have left the Sinjar mountains have mostly made the journey to Iraqi Kurdistan in fear of kidnap and death at the hands of the Islamic State who have already reportedly killed 500 members, burying them in mass graves.

Their safe passage, helped by the YPG Syrian Kurdish rebel faction and US airstrikes, was secured on the northern side of the 60-mile ridge of Mount Sinjar but thousands are still believed to be trapped on the southern side, unable to reach the safe area.

Unicef has said that at least 40 children have died of dehydration and disease while many Yazidis who have been unable to flee the Islamic State face the choice of conversion to a radical form of Sunni Islam or death.

"It's beyond a catastrophe," said Barakat Issa, a Yazidi who managed to escape the Islamist group and reach Iraqi Kurdistan.

"We were escaping death and heading to another death. There was a three-year-old child with me that had to walk eight hours non-stop in very rough terrain."

The President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, has called on the international community to arm the Kurds with additional weaponry to aid the fight against the Islamic State as the group set their sights on the regional capital of Erbil.

Gaza Strip Crisis: Israeli Delegates Back in Cairo as Three-Day Ceasefire Holds

Smoke rises from the northern Gaza Strip after an Israeli strike as seen from the Israeli border before both sides agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire.Reuters

Shortly after the 72-hour ceasefire came into force, Israeli delegates returned to Cairo to hold further talks on finding a long-term solution to the conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier rounds of talks failed to yield anything concrete prompting Israel and the Palestine-based Hamas to blame each other.

Hamas has warned this is likely to be the last time it is participating in the Egypt-brokered discussions. The group said if there is another deadlock in the talks before the three-day truce ends, there will be no ceasefire after that.

"If we don't reach an agreement within 72 hours, it is likely we'll quit the negotiations and there won't be another ceasefire," said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Palestinian delegation taking part in the Cairo talks.

The pause in the fighting has come as a relief for the negotiators a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned there will not be any talks as long as the fighting is on.

Israel pessimistic

Israeli authorities remain pessimistic about any imminent deal with Hamas in this round of talks.

"There is a slim chance an agreement [will be reached], but to my understanding after 72 hours the fire will resume and we will have to turn to the next stage, which is the decisive stage," Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told Ynet news, apparently referring to calls within the Israeli establishment for total uprooting of Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

The international community has urged both sides to seize the humanitarian window to create an enduring way out of the conflict.

A statement from UN Chief Ban Ki-moon's office read: "The Secretary-General welcomes today's announcement by Egypt that the Israelis and the Palestinians have accepted another 72 hours' unconditional humanitarian ceasefire to commence at midnight local time."

"He expresses his strong hope that this will give the two sides, under Egyptian auspices, another chance to agree on a durable ceasefire for the benefit of all civilian populations and as a starting point to address the underlying grievances on both sides. He continues to urge all concerned to work constructively to this end and avoid any steps which would lead to a return violence."

Malaysia Airlines Shares Surge 10% on State-Funded Buyout Plan

Shares in Malaysia Airlines rose more than 10% on 11 August after state fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd announced its plans to fully acquire the disaster-hit company and delist it from the stock exchange.

Khazanah Nasional, which owns 69% of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), submitted a formal request to the carrier's board of directors to undertake a selective capital reduction and repayment programme.

As per the plan, Khazanah Nasional will take over minority shares for 1.38bn ringitt ($429m, €321m, £255m) to become the sole owner of the airline, leading to the delisting of the company from the country's stock exchange.

Minority shareholders would receive 0.27 ringgit a share, representing a 29% premium to the airline's average share price over the previous three months.

At opening, the shares rose to 0.265 ringgit on 11 August, up 10.4% from 0.24 ringgit on 8 August, when the stock was suspended from trading. The shares are trading up 6.25% at 0.255 ringgit as at 5:30 am GMT.

In June, Khazanah had announced that it was in the midst of undertaking a comprehensive review of MAS, and would announce a restructuring scheme within a period of six to 12 months.

"We reiterate that the proposed restructuring will critically require all parties to work closely together to undertake what will be a complete overhaul of the national carrier on all relevant aspects of, inter alia, the airline's operations, business model, finances, human capital and regulatory environment," Khazanah said in a statement.

"Nothing less will be required in order to revive our national airline to be profitable as a commercial entity and to serve its function as a critical national development entity."

Khazanah noted that the proposal for delisting represents the first stage of a restructuring scheme for the airline.

Adding to its longstanding financial problems, MAS was hit by two major disasters in 2014.

In March, its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared with 239 people on board. A search is under way in the Indian Ocean for the missing plane.

In July, another MAS flight heading to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot down in eastern Ukraine, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists, killing 298 people.

McDonald's and Yum Reveal China Supplier Details After Shanghai Watchdog Request

KFC ChinaReuters

Food retailers McDonald's and Yum Brands, which have been hit by the recent rotten meat scandal in China, have released details of their suppliers in China upon request from Shanghai authorities.

The companies along with Burger King, Dicos and Carl's Jr have published the details, according to the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration. The watchdog had requested the chains to reveal the information, which is generally not disclosed to the public.

Following the scandal involving Shanghai Husi, which allegedly sold expired meat to food chains including McDonald's and Yum's KFC, the authorities have been taking various steps to ensure food safety in the country.

The Chinese local media earlier reported that Shanghai Husi Food, owned by US-based OSI Group, sold chicken and beef past their expiry dates to a number of international food chains.

Shanghai's Food and Drug Administration raided the suppliers' facilities and seized more than 5,000 boxes of expired meat. Police also detained five employees of the firm, including its quality manager.

Nine companies including KFC, McDonald's, Burger King and Papa John's reportedly used products ranging from beef, chicken and pork from Shanghai Husi.

Following the outbreak of the scandal, the companies apologised to Chinese customers and said they were taking the products concerned off the shelves.

On 21 July, operations at Shanghai Husi were suspended and all of its meat products were ordered to be removed.

The scandal has taken its toll on the reputations of food retailers like McDonald's and Yum hitting their bottom lines.

McDonald's has said its global comparable sales declined 2.5% in July, partly due to the rotten meat scandal. Sales in the Asia/Pacific, the Middle East and Africa region plunged by 7.3% during the month.

Yum said earlier in August that the scandal had caused "significant, negative" damage to sales at its KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants.