Alice Guo, a former mayor from the Philippine who is thought to have ties to Chinese crime groups, was caught in Indonesia.

The Philippine Senate wants Guo, who is also Chinese and goes by the name Guo Hua Ping, because she refused to go to a congressional investigation into her alleged crime ties, according to the Ministry of Justice.

She has denied the claims, saying that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and that the charges are “malicious.”

Police in Indonesia have confirmed that Ms. Guo is currently in their custody, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

Guo was caught in Tangerang City in Jakarta at 11:58 p.m. on Tuesday. He used to be the mayor of Bamban town, which is about 100 km (62 miles) north of Manila. Asian media shared a video on X that showed police agents leading her up a white-walled staircase.

In the Philippines, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and other law enforcement agencies charged Guo and 35 others with money laundering multiple times with the Department of Justice last month.

The AMLC says that Guo and her crime partners laundered more than 100 million pesos ($1.8 million) in stolen money.

Lawyer Stephen David, who is officially Guo’s lawyer, did not reply right away to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.

Al Jazeera news said that Justice Secretary Boying Remulla said in a statement, “The arrest of Alice Guo is a testament to the tireless efforts of our law enforcement agencies and the strength of international cooperation in bringing fugitives to justice.”

People removed Guo from her job as mayor, and she left the country in July, using her Philippine visa to go to Malaysia, then Singapore, and finally Indonesia.

In May, two months after police raided a casino in Bamban town and found scams being run from a building on land partly owned by the mayor, the Senate began an investigation into her activities.

Public outrage followed the finding, and later, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. banned online gaming companies because he thought they had ties to organised crime.

Marcos also said she would go after those who “helped her escape.”

The government thinks that several hundred illegal online gambling businesses may be running scam sites right in front of them.

Related News:

Philippines Ferry Inferno Kills 31 Passengers, 230 Rescued, 7 Missing

Philippines Ferry Inferno Kills 31 Passengers, 230 Rescued, 7 Missing

A bronze statue from the Titanic, long considered to be gone forever, was unearthed during a recent trip by the corporation that owns salvage rights to the wreck site.

The journey to the desolate North Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic sank, coincided with the US Coast Guard’s inquiry into the Titan, a submersible owned by another business, which imploded in June 2023.

The Titan submarine catastrophe killed all five persons on board, including RMS Titanic’s director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

RMS Titanic Inc. described the results of this summer’s voyage as a “bittersweet mix of preservation and loss.”

The finding of the statue “Diana of Versailles,” which had been missing since 1986, was a major highlight. The firm has now provided a clear and updated image of the statue.

Part of the railing has fallen from the bow of the wreck of the Titanic where statue located

However, RMS Titanic reported that a major piece of the railing surrounding the ship’s bow’s forecastle deck had fallen. According to the company, the railing remained in place until 2022.

“Discovering the Diana statue was a thrilling time. However, the loss of the famous Bow railing and other degradation evidence has only increased our dedication to conserving Titanic’s heritage,” said Tomasina Ray, RMS Titanic’s director of collections.

The group spent 20 days at the location before returning to Providence, Rhode Island, on August 9. They took more than two million high-resolution photos of the wreck. The team also employed modern technology to properly map the crash and its debris field, which will help them better comprehend the site.

Meanwhile, a public hearing on the Coast Guard’s probe into the Titan submarine accident will take place later in September.

Nargeolet’s family has launched a wrongful death case against OceanGate, the Titan submarine’s operator, which has since ceased operations.

In the years since the Titanic fell after colliding with an iceberg in 1912, we have grown accustomed to eerie photos of the fatal passenger liner’s bow lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. New images shot this summer reveal that the view has changed drastically.

The most recent mission by RMS Titanic Inc., an American corporation with salvage rights to the wreck, discovered that a part of the formerly unbroken railing surrounding the front of the ship’s top deck had fallen off. The 15-foot-long portion is currently on the sea floor, exactly below where it originally was.

Titanic | CNN Image

New Titanic Photos Show Major Decay To Legendary Wreck

“We are saddened by this loss and the inevitable decay of the ship and its debris,” the business said on its website.

“Over the course of the next few weeks and months, we will conduct a more thorough review of Titanic’s condition and her changes over time,” she said.

“Although Titanic’s collapse is inevitable, this evidence strengthens our mission to preserve and document what we can before it is too late,” the statement read.

According to the company, the July expedition was the ninth since it first visited the wreck in 1987. Ocean imaging experts, oceanographers, scientists, and historians collaborated to capture new images of the wreck to review its condition, identify artifacts and areas at risk, and contribute to ongoing conservation efforts.

Over two million photographs were taken, and the crew looked for several relics.

This inquiry led to an exciting discovery.

On the last day of the journey, the team discovered and photographed a two-foot-tall bronze statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of nature and hunting.

According to the business, the statue, which previously sat on the fireplace mantle as a showpiece in the Titanic’s First Class lounge, was wrenched away and flung into the wreck’s debris field when the lounge tore open as the ship sank.

According to the business, the figure was shot during a 1986 excursion, but its position was unknown until this newest voyage due to a tradition of secrecy surrounding the Titanic’s wreck.

New Titanic Photos Show Major Decay To Legendary Wreck

The business said Sunday in an Instagram post about the statue that much of the art that adorned the ship’s halls and quarters “was made of organic materials, breaking down into the earth after many decades submerged in the hostile environment” of the water.

However, Diana “is still resting upright among miles of debris.” Like the ancient Roman deities, she is timeless—and she has been rediscovered thanks to Expedition 2024,” it added.

The renowned wreck is slowly fading as experts rush to preserve its history.

In 2019, footage from a series of dives conducted by Triton Submarines’ research crew revealed the impact of salt corrosion, metal-eating bacteria, and deep current action on the ship’s breakdown.

SOURCE | CNN