Showing 1 - 10 of 141
China issues 73 life bans, punishes top football clubs for match-fixing
AFP, Published on 29/01/2026
» BEIJING - China's football association issued lifetime bans to 73 people, including former national team head coach Li Tie, and punished 13 top professional clubs for match-fixing and corruption, it said Thursday.
Fraudsters flee Cambodia's 'scam city' after accused boss taken down
AFP, Published on 16/01/2026
» SIHANOUKVILLE (CAMBODIA) - Hundreds of people dragged away suitcases, computer monitors, pets and furniture as they fled a suspected Cambodian cyberfraud centre, after the country's most wanted alleged scam kingpin was arrested and deported.
Twenty-six charged in latest basketball gambling scandal
AFP, Published on 16/01/2026
» LOS ANGELES - Twenty-six people have been charged with fixing US college and Chinese professional basketball games in an alleged transnational criminal conspiracy, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.
Vietnamese caught in Japan's illegal worker crackdown
AFP, Published on 07/01/2026
» TOKYO — For a decade, Vietnamese worker Minh did tough jobs like sandblasting ships and welding steel, helping address rapidly ageing Japan's dire labour needs.
Upstart gangsters shake Japan's yakuza
AFP, Published on 19/12/2025
» TOKYO - When Takanori Kuzuoka began climbing the criminal career ladder, he didn't fancy joining Japan's old-school yakuza, with their tattoos, rigid hierarchy and codes of honour.
Myanmar junta says seized 30 Starlink receivers in scam centre raid
AFP, Published on 20/10/2025
» YANGON - Myanmar's junta raided one of the country's most notorious cyberscam centres and seized Starlink satellite internet devices, it said Monday, after an AFP investigation revealed an explosion in their use in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry.
Rare woman yakuza on path to redemption in Japan
AFP, Published on 16/10/2025
» GIFU — A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura's criminal past as one of Japan's few women yakuza. But after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society.
Myanmar scam cities booming despite crackdown -- using Musk's Starlink
AFP, Published on 14/10/2025
» BEIJING - They said they had smashed them. But fraud factories in Myanmar blamed for scamming Chinese and American victims out of billions of dollars are still in business and bigger than ever, an AFP investigation can reveal.
NBA back in China after six-year absence sparked by democracy tweet
AFP, Published on 08/10/2025
» MACAU — The National Basketball Association (NBA) returns to the lucrative China market this week with two pre-season games following a six-year absence after a team official tweeted his support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
'It was bananas': Colin Farrell shoots new movie in Macau casinos
AFP, Published on 10/09/2025
» TORONTO — Colin Farrell plunges into an intoxicating fever dream among the high-stakes baccarat tables of Macau casinos with "Ballad of a Small Player," a rare major Western film shot on location in Asia's gambling capital.