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Court orders ex-king to pay debt

A Malaysian court ordered yesterday the country's former king to settle a $1 million debt to a bank in a landmark verdict that ended a centuries-old tradition shielding the country's royal sultans from legal prosecution.

The case brought by Standard Chartered Bank against Tuanku Jaafar Tuanku Abdul Rahman was the first trial involving a Malaysian monarch since a 1993 constitutional amendment dissolved the immunity of state rulers from criminal and civil lawsuits.