FMT News |  |
- Italy’s Berlusconi sentenced to jail for tax fraud
- Shot Pakistani girl recovering fast in UK: Father
- Damascus car bomb shatters Syria truce
- Britain says opposed to strike on Iran ‘at this moment’
- Ex-Soviet summit postponed amid worries over Putin’s health
- China warns of strong steps in Japan island spat
- With rival jailed, Ukraine president seems set for election victory
- China starts formal criminal probe into Bo Xilai
- Myanmar revises down death toll in sectarian violence
- Belarussian opposition leader granted UK asylum
- Karpal renews pressure on one man-one seat policy
- Malay behaviour: Survival replaces greed
- Only 300 turn up for Bt Caves protest
- How to get through a bad day
- Muslims celebrate Aidiladha in moderation
- Let Federal Court decide status of M’sia
- 10 ways to slim without the gym
- Positively unfair, this conduct
- KKIA: Flights resume this morning, runway lights still out
- Before meddling with subsidies, ask why we need subsidies
- Dolphins of Pulau Ketam
- Is apple-polishing Zambry psychic?
- Lift the spirits and burn it bright
- Why can’t countries act like companies?
- Argentina gears up for River-Boca derby
- Celtic eager to bury Barcelona heartbreak
- Napoli to get angry in bid to catch Juventus
- Falcao and Atletico eye Barca in race for top
- Del Potro seals London spot, feels sorry for Nadal
- Mertesacker hopes for upbeat Arsenal weekend
- Milner warns City to shake off Euro blues
- Chelsea not finished article, says United’s Giggs
- Liverpool, Newcastle win as Spurs held again
- Pengorbanan menuju keredaan Allah SWT
- Obama votes, picks up Powell endorsement amid swing state push
- Pussy Riot got what they deserved: Putin
- Fake bomb threat shuts down part of Geneva airport
- First feathered dinosaur fossils found in North America
- US knew too little to deploy troops to Benghazi: Pentagon
- Assange says to stay in embassy until US backs off: CNN
- Damascus shelled hours before scheduled truce
- China’s year of political surprises not over yet
- Kremlin dismisses talk Putin has back trouble
- Algeria accepts last-resort Mali intervention
- Perkasa defends Syed Mokhtar
- KL shares end higher, CI hit new all-time high
- No surnames on voter rolls: SAPP cries foul
- Abolish death penalty for all, says Amnesty
- Nik Aziz: Umno gagal jaga Melayu, Islam
- In the land of ‘gangster-jihadists’
| Italy’s Berlusconi sentenced to jail for tax fraud Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:41 AM PDT
Berlusconi has the right to appeal the ruling two more times before the sentence becomes definitive and will not be jailed unless the final appeal is upheld. Prosecutors had asked for a jail sentence of three years and eight months. The court also ordered damages provisionally set at 10 million euros (US$12.96 million) to be paid by Berlusconi and his co-defendants to tax authorities. The ruling comes two days after Berlusconi, 76, confirmed he would not run in next year’s elections as the leader of his center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party. A separate trial over accusations that Berlusconi paid for sex with an underaged prostitute is currently being heard in Milan. He denies all charges against him. The four-time prime minister and other Mediaset executives stood accused of inflating the price paid for TV rights via offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi, and skimming off part of the money to create illegal slush funds. The investigation focused on television and cinema rights that Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest bought via offshore companies from US groups for 470 million euros between 1994 and 1999. Angelino Alfano, secretary of the PDL, said the ruling proved once again “judicial persecution” of the media-magnate, while political rival Antonio Di Pietro, a former magistrate, hailed the decision, saying “the truth has been exposed.” The court acquitted Mediaset chairman and long-term Berlusconi friend Fedele Confalonieri, for whom prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years and four months. Shares in Mediaset, Italy’s biggest private broadcaster, fell as much as 3 percent after the ruling. - Reuters |
| Shot Pakistani girl recovering fast in UK: Father Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:39 AM PDT
Malala Yousufzai, 15, was flown from Pakistan to Britain for specialist treatment after the October 9 attack, which drew widespread international condemnation. The father Ziauddin Yousufzai and other family members arrived in Britain on Thursday to help her recovery. “They wanted to kill her. But she fell temporarily. She will rise again. She will stand again,” he told reporters, his voice breaking with emotion. Malala has become a powerful symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts to deny women education. Public fury in Pakistan over her shooting has put pressure on the military to mount an offensive against the radical Islamist group. “When she fell, Pakistan stood … this is a turning point,” her father said. “(In) Pakistan for the first time … all political parties, the government, the children, the elders, they were crying and praying to God.” The Taliban have said they attacked her because she spoke out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama. A cheerful schoolgirl who wants to become a politician, Malala Yousufzai began speaking out against the Pakistani Taliban when she was 11, around the time when the government had effectively ceded control of the Swat Valley to the militants. She has been in critical condition since gunmen shot her in the head and neck as she left school in Swat, northwest of Islamabad. She could be at risk of further attack if she went back to Pakistan, where Taliban insurgents have issued more death threats against her and her father since she was shot. “It’s a miracle for us,” her father said. “She was in a very bad condition … She is improving with encouraging speed.” British doctors say Malala has every chance of making a good recovery at the special hospital unit, expert in dealing with complex trauma cases. It has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan. Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director, said she would be strong enough to travel back to Pakistan in a few months’ time but it was unclear whether the family would choose to do so. “She’s certainly showing every intention of keeping up with her studies,” Rosser added. Malala’s father said he and his family cried when they were finally reunited with her on Thursday. “I love her and of course last night when we met her there were tears in our eyes and they were out of happiness,” he said, adding that Malala had asked him to bring school textbooks from Pakistan so she could study. “She told me on the phone, please bring me my books of Class 9 and I will attempt my examination,” he said. “We are very happy … I pray for her.” - Reuters |
| Damascus car bomb shatters Syria truce Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:37 AM PDT
State television said the “terrorist car bomb” had killed five people and wounded 32, according to “preliminary figures”. Opposition activists said the bomb had gone off near a makeshift children’s playground built for the Eid al-Adha holiday in the southern Daf al-Shok district of the capital. Fighting erupted around Syria earlier as both sides violated the Eid al-Adha ceasefire arranged by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but violence was far less intense than usual. The Syrian military said it had responded to attacks by insurgents on army positions, in line with its announcement on Thursday that would cease military activity during the four-day holiday, but reserved the right to react to rebel actions. Brahimi’s ceasefire appeal had won widespread international support, including from Russia, China and Iran, President Bashar al-Assad’s main foreign allies. The UN-Arab League envoy had hoped to build on the truce to calm a 19-month-old conflict that has killed an estimated 32,000 people and worsened instability in the Middle East. Violence appeared to wane in some areas, but truce breaches by both sides swiftly marred Syrians’ hopes of celebrating Eid al-Adha, the climax of the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, in peace. “We are not celebrating Eid here,” said a woman in a besieged Syrian town near the Turkish border, speaking above the noise of incessant gunfire and shelling. “No one is in the mood to celebrate. Everyone is just glad they are alive.” Her husband, a portly, bearded man in his 50s, said they and their five children had just returned to the town after nine days camped out on a farm with other families to escape clashes. “We have no gifts for our children. We can’t even make phone calls to our families,” he said, a young daughter on his lap. The imam of Mecca’s Grand Mosque called on Arabs and Muslims to take “practical and urgent” steps to stop bloodshed in Syria. Painful disaster The Syrian conflict has aggravated divisions in the Islamic world, with Shi’ite Iran supporting Assad and U.S.-allied Sunni nations such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar backing his foes. “The world should bear responsibility for this prolonged and painful disaster (in Syria) and the responsibility is greater for the Arabs and Muslims who should call on each other to support the oppressed against the oppressor,” Sheikh Saleh Mohammed al-Taleb told worshippers during Eid prayers. For some in Syria, there was no respite from war, but by dusk the death toll was still significantly lower than in recent days, when often between 150 to 200 people have been killed. The heaviest fighting took place around the army base at Wadi al-Daif, near the Damascus-Aleppo highway, which rebels have been trying to seize from the army for two weeks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine soldiers were killed by rebel bombardment of the base, which completely destroyed one building, and four rebel fighters were killed in clashes around Wadi al-Daif. Four people were killed by tank fire and snipers in Harasta, a town near Damascus, activists said. Gunfire and explosions echoed over Douma, just east of the capital. Rockets killed one person in the besieged Khalidiya district of Homs. Clashes erupted at a checkpoint near the Mahlab army barracks in Aleppo. There was shooting at checkpoints near Tel Kelakh, on the Lebanese border, and clashes in the town itself. Heavy machinegun fire and mortar explosions were audible along the Turkey-Syrian border near the Syrian town of Haram, a Reuters witness in the Turkish border village of Besaslan said. Rebels in the northern town near the Turkish border said a sniper had killed one of their fighters early on Friday. “We don’t believe the ceasefire will work,” rebel commander Basel Eissa told Reuters. “There’s no Eid for us rebels on the front line. The only Eid we can celebrate will be liberation.” Assad himself, who has vowed to defeat what he says are Islamist fighters backed by Syria’s enemies abroad, was shown on state television attending Eid prayers at a Damascus mosque. The prime minister, information minister and foreign minister, as well as the mufti, Syria’s top Muslim official, were filmed praying alongside the 47-year-old president. Assad, smiling and apparently relaxed, shook hands and exchanging Eid greetings with other worshippers afterwards. Military stalemate Protests against him burst out in March last year, inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere, but repression by security forces led to an armed insurgency, plunging Syria into a civil war which neither side has proved able to win or willing to end. A commander from the rebel Free Syrian Army had said his fighters would honor the ceasefire but demanded Assad meet opposition demands for the release of thousands of detainees. Some Islamist militants, including the Nusra Front, rejected the truce. Many groups were skeptical that it would hold. “We do not care about this truce. We are cautious. If the tanks are still there and the checkpoints are still there then what is the truce?” asked Abu Moaz, spokesman for Ansar al-Islam, a group whose units fight in and around Damascus. The war in Syria pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, from the minority Alawite sect which is distantly related to Shi’ite Islam. Brahimi has warned that the conflict could suck in Sunni and Shi’ite powers across the Middle East. Brahimi’s predecessor, former UN chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan. - Reuters |
| Britain says opposed to strike on Iran ‘at this moment’ Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:34 AM PDT
The comments followed a report by Britain’s Guardian newspaper which said Britain had rebuffed US plans to use its bases to support the build-up of troops in the Gulf, due to legal advice warning that a pre-emptive strike would be illegal. The legal advice says Iran currently does not represent a “clear and present threat”, according to the Guardian, which cited unnamed sources. “The government does not believe military action against Iran is the right course of action at this moment, though no option is off the table,” Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokeswoman told reporters, declining to comment on the legal advice. “We want to see the sanctions, which are starting to have some impact, working, and also engaging with Iran,” she said. The Guardian said Britain had not received a formal US request to use its bases for a military build-up. Cameron and Western diplomats believe harsh sanctions imposed on Iran by the West are beginning to weaken Tehran’s resolve and to stoke public discontent, and that military action would reverse the trend and rally Iranians to the government. Israel and the West believe Iran is trying to achieve nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says its program is for purely civilian, energy purposes. Years of diplomacy and sanctions have failed to resolve the dispute, raising fears of Israeli military action against its arch foe and of a new Middle East war. Talks between the West and Iran could take place after the November 6 United States presidential election, following three inconclusive rounds this year. The appetite for conflict is low in cash-strapped Britain, as well as in the United States, after recent costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Israel, support for unilateral military action soon against Iran is by no means universal, and several prominent public figures have spoken out against such a move. - Reuters |
| Ex-Soviet summit postponed amid worries over Putin’s health Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:32 AM PDT
The Executive Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose group created as the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, said earlier this month the summit was due to take place in Turkmenistan on November 2. “The (new) dates are being confirmed. They are being agreed with all the presidents,” said CIS spokeswoman Vera Yakubovskaya. She declined to give any reason for the postponement. The Kremlin dismissed talk that Putin had been sidelined from foreign trips after government sources told Reuters he was suffering from back trouble that could require surgery. The sources said the Russian leader’s schedule was being cleared for early November, including the postponement until late December of a trip to India that had been expected soon. Putin, a judo black belt who is known for stunts that show off his physical prowess throughout his almost 13 years in power, was first seen limping in September when he hosted an Asia-Pacific summit in Russia’s Far East. Putin’s spokesman said at the time his boss had pulled a leg muscle. A recent documentary showed him swimming long distances, working out in a gym and eating raw quail eggs and cream cheese for breakfast. The former KGB officer could rule Russia until May 2024, according to the constitution. Life brings changes Speculation increased when Putin failed to travel to Pakistan for a four-nation summit on Afghanistan this month or to make an expected trip to Turkey. None of these trips had been officially announced by the Kremlin. “Many dates which the media reported as fixed were in fact not fixed. Life brings changes and it concerns plans for visits. A lot of information has been misinterpreted by the media,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters. Yesterday Putin sent a video message to participants of a Congress of Compatriots in St. Petersburg, attended by Russians who live abroad. Putin, who turned 60 this month, made ties with neighboring ex-Soviet states his priority when he returned to the Kremlin in May for a third presidential term. A decree issued hours after his swearing-in called for closer integration of the ex-Soviet space a “key foreign policy direction” and reiterated plans for a Eurasian Economic Union, based on a Customs Union with Kazakhstan and Belarus. Putin hosted CIS leaders in the Kremlin a week after his inauguration, making it the first major international event of his new term in office. He traveled to ex-Soviet Belarus before going to Europe. - Reuters |
| China warns of strong steps in Japan island spat Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:28 AM PDT
“We are watching very closely what action Japan might take regarding the Diaoyu islands and their adjacent waters,” Zhang Zhijun said at an unusual late night news briefing. “The action that Japan might take will shape China’s countermeasures.” Sino-Japanese relations took a dive after the Japanese government bought the islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, from a private Japanese owner in September, triggering violent protests and calls for boycotts of Japanese products across China. “If Japan continues down its current wrong path and takes more erroneous actions and creates incidents regarding the Diaoyu Islands and challenges China, China will definitely take strong measures to respond to that,” Zhang said. “There is no lack of countermeasures China might take in response,” he added. “We have the confidence and the ability to uphold the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. No amount of foreign threats or pressure will shake the resolve of the Chinese government and people.” Following Japan’s purchase of the islands, China sent fishery patrol and marine surveillance vessels to waters near the islets, raising concern that confrontation with Japanese patrol ships could escalate into a broader conflict. Senior Japanese and Chinese diplomats have met to discuss a dispute over East China Sea islets that both countries claim, the Japanese government said on Wednesday, underscoring willingness to talk despite a sharp deterioration in ties. Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura confirmed talks between Tokyo and Beijing after domestic media reported that Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai secretly met senior Chinese officials, including his counterpart, Zhang Zhijun, in Shanghai last week to discuss the dispute. Zhang did not indicate that those talks had made any progress. “In all levels of contact with the Japanese side, the Chinese side presented China’s stern position and steely resolve to uphold China’s sovereignty. We urge the Japanese side to give up its illusions and correct its mistakes,” he said. “Only this way can we return to normal relations.” China says the islands have been part of the country since ancient times. Taiwan also claims them. The row with China, the world’s second-largest economy and Japan’s largest trading partner, has prompted the Bank of Japan to cut its outlook for economies in the region. - Reuters |
| With rival jailed, Ukraine president seems set for election victory Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:24 AM PDT
Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions and a union of opposition forces backing Tymoshenko were scheduled to stage their final public rallies later on Friday in the capital Kiev ahead of Sunday’s poll for a new parliament. The election takes place with the government unpopular because of tax and pensions policies and failure to stamp out corruption, and the former Soviet republic looking isolated after rows with the United States and the European Union over Tymoshenko, and with Russia over gas. The export-oriented economy is vulnerable to external shocks such as falling demand for steel. The International Monetary Fund, whose loans could provide a financial cushion, froze lending in 2011 when Kiev balked at painful reform. There is also the question of what judgment international observers will hand down after monitoring the election. No opinion polls have been published since October 18, in line with an official information blackout. But ratings before then showed the Regions with a firm lead over the joint opposition, which includes Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, and a new liberal party headed by world heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko. Commentators expect Yanukovich’s pro-business Regions, which is bankrolled by wealthy industrialists and can draw on state and regional facilities and resources, to hold on to a majority in the 450-seat assembly. In campaigning, the Regions have promised to make Russian an official state language alongside Ukrainian – a move aimed at winning back disenchanted supporters in Russian-speaking areas of the east and south. Opposition warning The opposition warns that a Regions victory will usher in authoritarian rule and policies tailored to further enrich business ”oligarchs” and Yanukovich’s trusted inner circle of associates and relatives. Tymoshenko, 51, a political firebrand in her heyday, on Thursday called on voters to throw out the Regions, warning Yanukovich could “establish a dictatorship and will never again give up power by peaceful means”. Much interest lies in whether the opposition, weakened by Tymoshenko’s jailing, will be re-energized after the election. Two-meter-tall Klitschko has pledged to work to stamp out endemic corruption in the country of 46 million. He and his UDAR (Punch) party, which has surged in ratings, represent a wild card in the poll. He has turned his back on any alliance with the Regions and says he will side with the united opposition led by Arseny Yatsenyuk, a bespectacled, 38-year-old former economy minister. But the fact Klitschko declined to sign a pre-election coalition agreement with Yatsenyuk-led forces has bred suspicion among the opposition. Of the 450 seats in the single-chamber parliament, 225 will be filled through voting by party lists – where the voter casts a ballot for a party which presents a list of candidates. The other half will be decided by voting for individual candidates on a first-past-the-post basis – a feature re-introduced by the Regions which is assumed to favor the party. Soccer hero Other parties which have a chance of crossing the 5 per cent barrier to secure seats in parliament include Svoboda (Freedom), a nationalist party headed by Oleh Tyahnybok. The Ukraine-Forward! party of Natalia Korolevska, formerly a Tymoshenko loyalist, describes itself as an opposition party. Korolevska has enlisted to her ticket soccer hero Andriy Shevchenko – the feet of Ukrainian sport to Klitschko’s fists. But the main opposition leaders says she is funded by industrialists who also back the Regions. They regard Ukraine-Forward! as a phantom party aimed at taking votes from them. International monitors of the poll include a 700-member team from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE will deliver its verdict on Monday and Yanukovich will be eager to hear a positive assessment to improve his international image, if only because Ukraine takes over the chair of the human rights and security body in January. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, No. 1 candidate on the Regions ticket, said his government had worked hard to ensure that the election followed international standards in protecting the integrity of the vote and preventing systemic abuses. But some Western voices have expressed reservations. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said this week the West was concerned at Tymoshenko’s continued imprisonment, and at reports state resources were being used to promote Regions candidates. - Reuters |
| China starts formal criminal probe into Bo Xilai Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:21 AM PDT
“The Supreme People’s Procuratorate has decided to put Bo Xilai under investigation for alleged criminal offences,” Xinhua said in a brief English-language report. Bo’s wife Gu Kailai and his former police chief Wang Lijun have both been jailed over the scandal stemming from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. The government last month accused Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up that murder. - Reuters |
| Myanmar revises down death toll in sectarian violence Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:18 AM PDT
A spokesman for Rakhine State, where the fighting has taken place, had earlier put the death toll at 112, but later scaled that back, blaming “clerical errors”. Still, the United Nations warned that Myanmar’s fledgling democracy could be “irreparably damaged” by the clashes, which come just five months after communal unrest killed more than 80 people and displaced at least 75,000 in the same region. Buddhist ethnic Rakhines told Reuters they were shot by security forces struggling to impose order on Rakhine State, where violence with Rohingya Muslims has engulfed several districts, including Kyaukpyu where a multibillion-dollar China-Myanmar pipeline starts. The violence is testing the reformist government’s ability to contain ethnic and religious tensions suppressed during nearly a half century of military rule that ended last year. “The fabric of social order could be irreparably damaged and the reform and opening-up process being currently pursued by the government is likely to be jeopardized,” a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “The widening mistrust between the communities is being exploited by militant and criminal elements to cause large-scale loss of human lives.” At least 2,000 houses and eight religious buildings had been destroyed, according to state media. Nearly 100 people have been wounded, it said. A Reuters journalist spoke to Rakhine people treated for bullet wounds and other injuries at a tiny, ill-equipped hospital in Kyauktaw, a town north of the state capital, Sittwe. One man died soon after arriving. The military opened fire to prevent Rakhine villagers on two boats from storming a Rohingya Muslim community, said Aung Kyaw Min, a 28-year-old Rakhine from Taung Bwe with a bullet in his leg. “I don’t know why the military shot at us,” he said. Two people died and 10 were wounded, said the villagers. In a separate incident on Thursday, security forces shot at a crowd of Rakhine protesters on Kyauktaw’s outskirts, killing two and wounding four, said Hla Hla Myint, 17, whose forehead was grazed by a bullet. The shooting is a sign that the military, which has been accused in the past of siding with Buddhists, is getting tougher following international criticism that Myanmar’s new government was doing too little to protect Muslim Rohingyas. Chinese investment There were widespread unconfirmed reports of razed and burning homes, gunfights and Rohingya fleeing by boat, but access to Rakhine State was restricted and information hard to verify. The United States, which has been lifting sanctions on Myanmar as relations improve with its quasi-civilian government, said it was deeply concerned over the violence and urged all parties to show restraint and halt attacks. In Yathedaung, a town northwest of Sittwe, security forces opened fire in a Rohingya district and about 10 houses were burned, residents told Tun Min Thein of the Wan Lark foundation, which helps ethnic Rakhine Buddhists. Earlier in the week, about 800 houses were burned down around Kyaukpyu, 120 km south of Sittwe. The area is crucial to China’s most strategic investment in Myanmar: twin pipelines that will take oil and gas from Kyaukpyu on the Bay of Bengal to China’s energy-hungry western provinces. “China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors,” said Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei when asked on Friday about possible threats to the pipeline projects. “We hope that Myanmar can remain stable.” Rohingyas are officially stateless. Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s government regards the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas in the country as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992. It was unclear what set off the latest arson and killing that started on Sunday. In June, tension flared after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman that was blamed on Muslims, but there was no obvious spark this time. Rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on Myanmar to amend or repeal a 1982 citizenship law to end the Rohingyas’ stateless condition. In Washington, the State Department has urged Myanmar to grant full humanitarian access to the affected areas, launch a dialogue aimed at reconciliation, and open investigations into the violence. - Reuters |
| Belarussian opposition leader granted UK asylum Posted: 26 Oct 2012 10:15 AM PDT
Sannikov, 58, ran against Lukashenko in the 2010 presidential poll which Western observers said was fraudulent. The vote handed Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager, a fourth term in office. Sannikov was sentenced to five years in prison last year for taking part in a protest against Lukashenko’s re-election. He told Reuters in an interview after his release that the authorities had tried to push him to commit suicide while he was in jail. Lukashenko said soon after the release of Sannikov and one of his allies from jail in April: “If they blabber, they will go back there.” But Sannikov’s wife, Irina Khalip, said her husband had been granted political asylum in Britain. Khalip, a journalist who has herself been given a suspended sentence over the protests and is barred from leaving Belarus, declined to provide any other details. Sannikov, when contacted by Reuters, said he had been in Britain since August but declined to provide any details. British authorities made no immediate comment on the case. Lukashenko has run Belarus since 1994, tolerating little dissent and maintaining a welfare state thanks largely to Russian economic support. His crackdown on opposition after the 2010 election prompted the European Union to impose travel bans and asset freezes on Lukashenko himself and a number of other Belarussian officials and businessmen. - Reuters |
| Karpal renews pressure on one man-one seat policy Posted: 26 Oct 2012 01:24 AM PDT
National chairman Karpal Singh said this would spare the party supreme decision-making body, central executive committee (CEC), the trouble of dumping them eventually from either the parliamentary or state seat. He insisted said that in their declaration, the current double-seat holders should only declare that they would opt for one seat the next time. He said they however, shall not declare which seat, federal or state, they would decline, as it would be the CEC prerogative to decide on that. He insisted that it was not in the public interest for DAP candidates to continue to be silent on their stance or insist to contest both federal and state seats in the next polls. He said they got to declare their one-seat stance in the larger interest of the party and Pakatan Rakyat. "They should make way for new candidates and young leaders,” Karpal, the Bukit Gelugor MP, told a press conference in Bandar Baru Air Itam here today. He said the party had grown leaps and bounds over the last four years, thus not facing shortage of enthusiastic and energetic candidates. Nine double-hatters The most prominent double-seat holder is DAP secretary general and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. He is Bagan MP and Air Putih assemblyman. Lim however, may be excused from making such public declaration. When the CEC reached a consensus and endorsed the one person – one seat formula some time back, Karpal said it was decided that there would be some exemptions to the general rule. But he insisted that the exceptional rule shall be used in its "fullest import." One exemption proposed by Karpal is to allow the chief minister candidate to contest both federal and state seats. "We need the chief minister to be an MP to air the state issues at federal level," said Karpal, recalling that former state chief minister Lim Chong Eu was once both MP and a state assemblyman (1969 – 1974) However, Karpal admitted that from 1974 general electon until 1990, Chong Eu opted only for the state seat to focus on his chief minister job. But he still insisted on DAP's chief minister candidate to be given double seats to enable a chief minister to handle directly state-federal issues. Another exemption would be to allow double-seat contestants in Sabah and Sarawak due to shortage of credible candidates there. Penang DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow (Tanjung MP and Padang Kota assemblyman) and deputy chairman P Ramasamy (Batu Kawan MP and Prai assemblyman) are other two incumbents of both parliamentary and state seats in Penang. Others double-hat wearers in Peninsular are Beruas MP and Sitiawan assemblyman Ngeh Koo Ham and Taiping MP and Pantai Remis assemblyman Nga Kor Ming in Perak; Seputeh MP and Kinrara assemblyperson Teresa Kok Suh Sim in Selangor; and Rasah MP and Lobak assemblyman Anthony Loke Siew Fook in Negeri Sembilan. In Sarawak, double-hat politicians are Sibu MP and Bukit Assek assemblyman Wong Ho Leng and Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen. In the interest of the party In 1990 election, he recalled that many party top guns, including himself and Lim Kit Siang, gave up safe seats to contest in tough constituencies. Karpal gave up his then Bukit Gelugor safe state seat to contest in Sungai Pinang, which he lost. Kit Siang shifted from his Kampung Kolam seat to battle and win against Chong Eu in Padang Kota. Karpal explain that his call for public declaration was not to upset anyone but made in best interest of the party. "Their public declaration on the one seat issue is important," stressed Karpal. |
| Malay behaviour: Survival replaces greed Posted: 26 Oct 2012 01:02 AM PDT
Speaking at the Malay Economic Congress in Kuala Lumpur, the president of the Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia (MCCM), Syed Ali Alattas, denounced Malay leaders for their greed and corrupt practices and that their lack of a "clean heart", contributed to the failure of the Malay business community. Syed Ali did not reveal anything new; what he said has been known by most Malaysians, but ignored by Umno politicians, Umnoputras, Malays in denial and the non-Malay cronies of Umno. So, why is Syed Ali criticising the Malay leaders now? What prompted him to condemn these leaders, whom he cultivated for years? Syed Ali said that despite billions of ringgits being pumped into the Malay economy, the Malays have achieved little. He said: "What's gone wrong? That's what is being asked……There is a lot of carelessness and not enough responsibility among leaders which caused Malays to fall behind". "Corruption and greed caused the Malay agenda to fail," he added. For decades, many Malaysians, both Malays and non-Malays, tried to highlight the abuse of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which has enabled Umnoputras to become millionaires overnight, whilst the majority of the rakyat suffered. Many complained about the preferential educational opportunities, housing and job openings given to the Malays. Some of these outspoken people were detained under the ISA, considered a national threat and called public enemies. Families were broken up when parents encouraged their children to settle overseas for a brighter future. On a national level, the country lost a much valued resource – some of its best and brightest people. Whilst this was going on, was Syed Ali living off the fat of the land, enjoying the scraps thrown at him by Umno? The NEP experiment has been a failure, since its inception, so why did Syed Ali not admit this earlier? He claims that Malays are at a "crossroads" but cynics argue that it is the Malay leaders of industry and business, people like Syed Ali, and not the Malay community, who are at the "crossroads". With Umno lying in the gutter, and their own positions looking increasingly precarious and untenable, people like Syed Ali have finally chosen to be vocal. Switching sides In the near future, we will probably see an avalanche of Malays in positions of seniority, like Syed Ali coming forward to criticise Umno and other parts of the BN coalition. These people are cowards but sensing the failure of Umno, are cunning enough to ingratiate themselves with the rakyat and perhaps, try and align themselves with the new administration. The MCCM president admitted that less than 10% of the economy, in terms of equity, businesses and shops, is Malay owned. He declared: "I am brave enough to say that there is not one shop in the centre of Johor Baru that is owned by a Malay". Syed Ali may claim that he is "brave", but his "bravery" is just deceit. He is merely trying to ingratiate himself with the opposition. Perhaps, his open criticism is another 'play' for the benefit of the rakyat. Umno is known to be divided into many camps, so has someone needled Syed Ali to attack Najib? Last year, when Umno was in a stronger position than today, the Malay Mail carried a report, on Dec 19, 2011, in which Syed Ali demanded government projects, such as the RM3 billion Pudu Prison redevelopment, be given to bumiputera companies, "irrespective of whether they could deliver." Syed Ali told the Malay Mail, "The issue is not whether the contract should be given to a bumiputera or a non-bumiputera company. The bumiputera companies should be given such projects but we never get this kind of deals. Such projects should be given to us. Period." The link to this article, in the Malay Mail, is http://www.mmail.com.my/content/87577-only-bumi-companies-govt-projects. The article is widely cited on the internet but has since been removed from the paper. Today, Syed Ali sings a different tune. He castigates Malay leaders and asks "What's gone wrong?" Corrupt ones must resign immediately Malays, like him, continue to blame others for their failures and will not work hard to earn self-respect and the respect of others in the community. They prefer the easy way, and depend on handouts. They do not know how to invest in human capital. They refuse to learn from their mistakes, or learn how, to make a decent living. People like Syed Ali benefitted from the privileges given to them by the corrupt leaders of Malaysia. Perhaps, we should be grateful that they dare speak up now. If they had spoken earlier, Malaysia's economy and its social fabric would be stronger, today. It is not just Syed Ali and other Malay leaders like him who could, and should have spoken up sooner; the non-Malays who could have made a difference, but who chose to remain silent, are equally at fault. We welcome their criticisms now, but they cannot expect our support if they want an important and prominent role in Malaysia's new future. They are simply opportunists who only think of themselves. If Syed Ali, and people like him, want to make a difference, they should not just criticise the current leaders for being failures. They should demand that these corrupt and greedy leaders resign immediately. Only then will we know that Syed Ali really means business. Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT columnist. |
| Only 300 turn up for Bt Caves protest Posted: 26 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT
The two 29-storey condominium project, which was approved by the Barisan Nasional-led Selangor government in 2007, is slated to be built adjacent to the iconic temple. The temple committee said construction of the project would cause instability to the temple structures and also the world’s tallest Lord Murugan statue. The protesters held up banners that read “Stop” against the backdrop of the Lord Murugan statue this morning. They also inked their support for a signature drive organised by the temple committee. “The project was approved in 2007 by the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS). “We must know who sat in the council that time. Who approved this?” said temple committee chairman R Nadarajah in his speech. He said the same approach must also be used to determine the “culprit” who issued another building plan approval in June, 2008. Nadarajah also accused the Pakatan Rakyat state government of threatening the temple committee. Citing a press statement by exco Dr Xavier Jayakumar where the latter had said the state government should not give in to the temple committee’s demands, Nadarajah claimed that it seemed like the state government was indirectly pressuring the temple committee to withdraw the protest. “However, we will not budge,” he said. “It is our right and we will fight to save the temple at any cost,” he added. ‘I don’t know who to blame’ He said he would name MPS and the developer in the lawsuit. Meanwhile, he also defended the low turnout, considering the hot weather and Hari Raya Haji holiday. Asked who should be blamed for the saga, the temple chairman who sat beside ex-MIC president S Samy Vellu paused at answering, glaring at the journalist who asked the question. “You ask me who should be blamed, I also don't know I should blame who,” he said. NGO Malaysia Nature Society representative Teckwyn Lim then chipped in, saying that the Selangor government now had the power to stop the project. “If they don’t stop the project, then they should be blamed,” he added.
“It was just an approval for them to carry out soil tests. It had not come to the stage when they announced it would be a 29-storey building,” he said. He blamed the Pakatan state government for the subsequent building approval issued in 2008 and the project marketing approval issued in August this year. Both Kohilan and Nadarajah said they were only informed about the launching of the project last week. MIC president G Palanivel, who yesterday called on the Indian community to stage nationwide protests with regard to this issue, was himself not present at Batu Caves today. Also missing were MIC deputy president Dr S Subramaniam, vice president SK Devamany and numerous central working committee (CWC) members. |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2012 12:32 AM PDT
Cut out and prioritise Don't take it out on other people Accept it Exercise Favourite song Pets Don't think of those who are less fortunate Don't overspend Put the kettle on Think of a good memory LINKS |
| Muslims celebrate Aidiladha in moderation Posted: 26 Oct 2012 12:19 AM PDT
Aidiladha is of great significance for Muslims worldwide and is celebrated in memory of the sacrifice made by the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail in obeying Allah. Fine weather in the morning enabled Muslims to perform their prayers comfortably, followed by the sacrificial offerings carried out at mosques, villages and housing estates. The Meteorological Department has, however, forecast isolated rain and thunderstorms in several states later in the day. This year, Aidiladha fell on the holy day of Friday and Muslims congregated again at mosques for the Friday prayers. Roads in the capital were mostly deserted, with many people having left for their hometowns and villages for the celebration. Major mosques around the Klang Valley saw crowds of Muslims performing the Aidiladha prayers. About 10,000 people, including foreigners, thronged the National Mosque, They came to perform the Aidiladha prayers and listen to the sermon. The Kampung Baru Mosque had about 4,000 people for the prayers this morning. At the Al-Amaniah Mosque, Batu Caves, about 1,000 people started congregating in the compound as early as 7.30 am, leading to the car park being turned into a space for prayers as well. Other mosques also carried out community sacrificial offerings of cows. These included the Khalid Al-Walid Mosque and Al-Iman Madrasah at the Defence Ministry, Jalan Semarak, and Taman Sri Gombak, Phase 7, respectively. Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Hajah Haminah joined millions of Muslims from around the world in performing the Haj this year. In his Aidiladha message, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said he hoped that the day would be celebrated in a peaceful, prosperous and blessed manner. He also urged Muslims to appreciate the concept of sacrifice taught by Islam, to be willing to sacrifice time, money and one’s self to attain the acceptance of Allah. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin called on Muslims in the country to renew their spirit and strengthen their determination to build true unity among the ‘ummah’. - Bernama |
| Let Federal Court decide status of M’sia Posted: 26 Oct 2012 12:02 AM PDT
The DAP national chairman urged the king to invoke his power under Article 130 of the Federal Constitution to refer the contentious issue to the highest court for its opinion and "clear the air once for all." He believed it was crucial for the king's intervention for a judicial pronouncement as to the status of the country in view of recent controversy on the secular – Islamic state issue and its impact on the country. Article 130 permits the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to refer to the Federal Court for its opinion on any question as to the effect of any provision of this constitution which has arisen or appears to him likely to arise, and the Federal Court shall pronounce in open court its opinion on any question so referred to it. Karpal was responding to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz's parliamentary reply on Monday, declaring that based on legal provisions in the country, Malaysia has never been declared nor endorsed as a secular nation. Nazri said that the situation in Malaysia was different than in the United States, India and Turkey, which clearly specify that those countries were secular in their constitutions. But Karpal countered that the constitution neither had declared Malaysia as "an Islamic state" unlike countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran. He said notwithstanding specific provisions on Islam and the lack of the word "secular" in the Federal Constitution, Malaysia had been officially declared as a secular state, including in judicial pronouncement. He said that Mohd Nazri's parliamentary statement was also in conflict with a 1988 judicial decision. Judicially pronounced to be secular The Supreme Court was equivalent of the current Federal Court which replaced the Privy Council. Karpal said given the official declaration of the nation's highest judicial authority, Malaysia has been "judicially pronounced to be a secular state". "A country having secular laws could not be an Islamic state," argued Karpal, also a senior lawyer. He recalled that two former prime ministers, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman and Hussien Onn, had also stated on record that "Malaysia was not an Islamic state". He rubbished political declaration by another ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamed in September, 2001 at the Gerakan general assembly that Malaysia was an Islamic state. "It does not have the stamp of legitimacy," Karpal told newsmen in Bandar Baru Air Itam during his Bukit Gelugor parliamentary constituency visit here today. |
| 10 ways to slim without the gym Posted: 25 Oct 2012 10:17 PM PDT
Don't cut the dairy Variety Join a club Have a treat in the week Fun equipment Shopping Stock up on the liquids Eat before you train Yoga Jumping rope LINKS |
| Positively unfair, this conduct Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:59 PM PDT
Two evenings after this "sighting" of mine, an Indian friend and his wife were fined 110 dirhams (roughly Indian Rs1,650) on a metro train, because she had food in her mouth. The couple's pleas that they had just finished their dinner outside the station where they had boarded the train did not cut ice with the cops, who have been implementing the "no-food-no-drink-on-the-metro" with almost dogmatic precision. Of course this helps to keep the Dubai Metro spotlessly clean. Nonetheless, the fact that my friends had to pay a fine which was not exactly fair merely goes to prove that Indians have created an image that is not exactly flattering for the community. The fallout of this can be manifold. Another friend working as a top executive with a leather firm in Chennai says that during one of his flights on Lufthansa, he got around talking to the captain who said that the India sector was the most difficult for them. The kind of demands Indians made could be unnerving. All this, however, does not give anybody the right to package Indians as one whole and treat them callously. For some years now I have been flying Emirates, mainly because they have three flights out of Chennai everyday with excellent connections to Europe, America and Africa. But, of late, the standard of Emirates that is reportedly as good as that of Singapore Airlines, seems to be falling. My flight from Chennai to Dubai last August was delayed by about 90 minutes, and there was not as much as an announcement – forget an apology – explaining why this was happening. The passengers were left fuming. What is more, I found the cabin crew particularly rude on that flight, the food positively bad and the seats too cramped. One hostess literally shook me out of my sleep to collect my blanket! I have never ever faced this during the 30 years I have flown across continents. During another Emirates flight from Dubai to Chennai a few days ago, I was appalled to find dinner being served a full two hours after the plane had taken off. And this was a flight which departed at 9.20 at night, covering the distance to Chennai in just about three-and-a-half hours. Now, would it now have made better sense to have served the dinner by 10 pm allowing the passengers to sleep for at least a couple of hours before landing. Obviously, India does not appear to be one of the Emirates' priorities. Admittedly, Indians themselves must take a part of the blame for the kind of treatment they face. Yet, yet, carriers like Emirates must realise that in today's fiercely competitive world, they cannot afford to get slack on hospitality. The Indian carrier, Indigo, for instance, is proving to be a formidable competitor on the India-Dubai sector, offering tickets which are far cheaper than those of Emirates. And Indigo, my friends say, has an impeccably courteous ground and cabin crew. Now what more do travellers want? Gautaman Bhaskaran is a Chennai-India based author, columnist and film critic, and can be contacted at gautamanbhaskaran@yahoo.in. He is an FMT columnist. |
| KKIA: Flights resume this morning, runway lights still out Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:38 PM PDT
Travel agents said thousands of passengers were left stranded and many missed connecting flights as some 30 flights in and out of the city were either cancelled or delayed and several local and international flights diverted to nearby airports. Budget airline AirAsia which operates out of Terminal Two but shares the same runway and Malaysia Airlines were among those airlines that cancelled their scheduled flights out of Kota Kinabalu last night. MAB officials were tight-lipped about the breakdown but some airport officials speaking on condition of anonymity suspect the power supply to the runway lights may have been affected by on-going work on the runway but were unable to either identify or locate the cause. According to them, the runway lights went out at about 6.20pm forcing many already preparing to land at the airport to divert to airports such as Labuan about half an hour’s flight time away. MAB officials told the press that they were servicing the runway lights and hoped to get them back on as soon as possible and morning repair work was still ongoing. An official said the airport can operate during daytime but was unable to say if the flights would be permitted to land or takeoff this evening. Tempers had flared on Thursday evening when passengers with connecting flights were left without an explanation for the flight delay and many blamed airport management for leaving them in the dark. "All they kept saying was that there was a technical problem at the runway,” said a travel agent who claimed his clients had phoned him for an explanation after failing to get any information from airport management about their flights. One passenger claimed that it was chaotic at the airport lounge with no one able to say what was the cause of the delay or for how long. According to officials, there was no work being done at the time the blackout occurred. The KKIA’s runway is being extended but the project has been riddled with delays. It is the nation’s second busiest airport. Malaysia Airlines, MASwings and AirAsia passengers on international and domestic routes were being put on alternative scheduled flights today. [main photo from tzywen.com] |
| Before meddling with subsidies, ask why we need subsidies Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:26 PM PDT
It is important that good judgement prevails. Much is at stake. But first, what is a subsidy? Why do we need it? Some believe subsidies are government money spent on primary healthcare, infrastructure, culture or the environment. But these are not subsidies. These are fundamental public provisions that a decent society would collectively provide for all its members in most ordinary circumstances. A subsidy is different. It is a special kind of public expenditure. A subsidy is designed to support a disadvantaged group that cannot secure the needs and necessities for survival because an underlying condition is persistently preventing their fulfillment. When we get a burn, we run cold water over it and bandage. It is lousy policy to do away with running water and bandages without properly attending to the cause, which is contact with fire. Similarly, subsidies may be essential to make life bearable for vulnerable groups and the needy as long as the root causes that provoke the subsidies are still there. Don’t like subsidies? Address the underlying structural faults. What necessitates subsidies? Now what are the underlying reasons that necessitate subsidies? There are of course sociological and behavioural factors. But a major reason is that we operate in an economic system that is systematically biased in favour of capitalist interests. In this pro-capitalist system, the lower income classes often do not get their fair share of the economic wealth that comes from economic growth. Business enterprises generate profits by shifting all sorts of hidden social costs onto society — an additional level of disenfranchisement. When a government allies itself with big businesses, it is all the more unfortunate. Creating "free markets" in this kind of political-economic condition will not remove the conditions that demand subsidies. It would aggravate them. That is why the Refsa-IDEAS proposal must be regarded with caution. Their motivation may be good, but their approach is narrow. IDEAS (Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs) is a free-market, neoliberal think-tank. Hence why neoliberals tend to maintain that subsidies ought to be reduced or eliminated. For them, subsidies are bad 'government interventions'. Neoliberals would propose that individual citizens keep the money instead and spend it themselves to best satisfy their wants or needs through 'efficient' free markets. But markets are neither magical nor self-correcting. Evidence-based CPI (Centre for Policy Initiatives) is a social democratic think-tank. It proposes that we be careful when trying to adjust subsidies. It holds that subsidies have a role to play (e.g. as a safety net for the vulnerable) given the unfair structural defects of our political economy. CPI says policy actions on subsidies should be evidence-based. We should inquire beforehand into the empirical facts, figures and the potential effect of changes in subsidy levels on the various actors. CPI's position is more reasonable. It suggests tackling the issue of subsidies logically and scientifically. The point is to analyse subsidies as well as their context prior to taking action. Subsidies may be required until we consciously create that better state of being in which subsidies become less pressing or necessary. We should be asking what are the alternative measures to take so we do not rely on subsidies. History tells us that becoming more and more market-oriented and capitalistic is not the solution. To tackle complex real-life problems, we need to take a holistic look and use all the tools available at our disposal. We do not swing the "free market" hammer at everything. Ask the right questions, see the underlying defects of ‘the system’, check out the figures, think creatively about alternatives, then talk about ‘reforming’ subsidies. First things first. This article first appeared in the Centre for Policy Initiatives website. |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2012 09:05 PM PDT
Click here to view the video on YouTube. Things are so different in Pulau Ketam today. This island, well known as a fishing haven and for its mangrove forest, is slowing losing all of its allure – all thanks to the rampant development and environment damage done by man. In an FMT video special, a second generation settler of Pulau Ketam, 58-year-old Ah Kang, remembers the good-ol-days of Pulau Ketam. He spoke to our video journalist Arvind Raj on issues of ongoing mangrove deforestation, alleged corruption that destroys the environment and other health related problems. He also remembers the days when dolphin sightings at Pulau Ketam were a common feature, and the impact on the island due to global climatic change.
"We use to see ikan lumba-lumba (dolphins) regularly here but now such sightings have become rare…it’s because these dolphins can no longer find their food here. "We also use to have many crocodiles here, but now they are all gone….all captured by people…," he lamented. Watch the FMT special video here. |
| Is apple-polishing Zambry psychic? Posted: 25 Oct 2012 08:36 PM PDT
It must be a sign of desperate times calling for desperate measures. The recent attempt by Perak Menteri Besar Zamry Kadir – the man who benefited from Umno's coup d'état of the legitimately elected Perak government – to canonise Najib is surely a naked unashamed display of sycophant-ism. Let us somberly remind Zamry that canonisation or the act of declaring a person as saint is done only on deceased persons. Perhaps Zamry already knows that after the 13th general election, Umno will be dead. Or maybe Zamry wishes to cement his candidacy by doing just what he knows Najib likes – to inflate the latter's ego. So, better declare Najib a saint before its too late. After all Najib has acted as Santa Claus for a number of years. At every budget, Najib has given out money to people in order to buy loyalty. Umno and Barisan Nasional has been doing that for more than 20 years in Kelantan, it hasn't succeeded. Loyalty earned from conviction and belief isn't as fragile as one earned by way of paying for it. Najib and Umno haven't learnt that. Najib and Umno haven't got what it takes to inspire loyalty. They poured tonnes of money into Bandar Tun Razak, yet the stuttering Khalid Ibrahim (Selangor MB) won handsomely. What Najib really is, is a master of subterfuge with an expiring shelf-life in an organisation dominated by life-time right-wingers. And Zamry in particular knows, that his leader who shouts loudly here and there, is a man shouted at, at home. A little panadol-like ego booster is a much needed calming remedy. Najib has to create a Kim Il Jung persona to overwhelm the right wingers in Umno. Najib, a cult figure? He is this and that without ever realising that what he is doing is mythifying impressions. How does ’1′ this and ’1′ that solve our economic productivity? How does ’1′ this and ’1′ that, answer the fact that 12% of the Malays lived below the poverty level? How does Najib fingering ’1′ this and ’1′ that explain that after 55 years of independence and rule by Umno, income disparity within the Malay community is greatest? Please explain to us, how can we promote economic growth, build our nation with a smorgasbord of acronyms that are stomach churning? His only solution to stay in power, prompted incessantly by his menagerie of sycophantic advisers all with predatory and scavenging instincts, is to accentuate the 19th century Great Man Theory of Thomas Carlyle. Our nation's future, so his minders tell us, depends on Najib. He is the son of Tun Razak. He is the great ‘transformer’. His advisers are outdoing each other in advising the boss, all the time bearing in mind their own personal agenda. So, Najib is turned into a cultish figure, around who, the destiny of this nation revolves and depends. His advisers pay close attention to Najib's popular rating and will do anything to ensure the personal rating of the Great Leader stays high. What are we to do? We must dispel this myth quickly. The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist. |
| Lift the spirits and burn it bright Posted: 25 Oct 2012 08:05 PM PDT
Lighting scented candles to fragrance the home works two ways. The scent scents your home like how a fragrance does the body and, depending on the scent you choose, it could work its aroma on you and dissolve your stress, blues and just simply lift the spirits. In the United States, mood-busting candles are big business. A survey by the National Candle Association (NCA) shows that 75 to 80 percent of candle users base their purchase foremost on fragrance rather than colour. Approximately 80 percent of all candles sold in the US are scented.
Where previously scented candles rarely used to have enough essential oils in them to promote aromatherapy, the new generation of mood lifting candles is, thankfully, designed differently. Case in point: Neom. They do a wonderfully modern and luxurious take on candles, making theirs ideal for beauty and home treatments. The company uses the best organic ingredients and an unusually high proportion of essential oils to produce powerful, indulgent treats for every sense. They're also soot and synthetic-free, made purely of vegetable wax. Kiss My Face does soy wax candles that are both environmentally-friendly, with unbleached cotton wick, and delicious scents such as Lavender Mandarin and Lemongrass Clary Sage to give you that feel good factor. So the next time you need some spirits lifting, turn off your Barry White and light a wick instead. |
| Why can’t countries act like companies? Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:55 PM PDT
First world finances are so topsy-turvy that the US's fiscal deficit is practically equal to its total collections of Federal Income Tax. So why don't countries act like companies? Why can't they stay in the black? After all, the laws of economics are the same for them as for any other enterprise. The countries concerned are monopolies, so they always have an income. At least in recent years, there's been no one to take them over or break them up. However in the face of financial trouble however, sadly, they act like all corporate monopolies; abusing 'customers' and jacking up prices of services. If European nations and the US were companies, what would each company have to do to get its 'business' back into the black? First off, the 'nation as company' would fire all its dead weights, to stem loss-making. Out would go anything that wasn't front and centre necessary, including all the frills and fancies that you'd typically find at a large, profitable corporation. Simplifying its offerings to focus on its most popular 'merchandise,' and the delivery of 'key products' its customers valued the most, the country-as-company would cut the inert overhead supporting everything non-essential. It would then flatten its 'head office' – the one stuffed with people with non-jobs, large salaries and nothing better to do than play politics. This new, leaner enterprise would next look for ways to make core processes leaner. The goal would be to do more with fewer employees. It would then need to refinance. Refinancing is supposed to be the core crisis-solving solution right now for developed nations strapped for cash, yet the restructuring of enterprise is not really happening. The best they seem able to do – rather than cut the waste - is to ask employees to take a pay cut, at least in inflation-adjusted terms. Meaningful spending cuts are just not happening – although there is plenty of talk about it taking place. However you wish to measure state austerity, it is certainly not on the scale a corporation would suffer to get it back on the rails. Consequently, the strapped sovereign government must borrow even more money. A weak company will do likewise until it dies, but it doesn't have the borrowing power of a first world economy – a sovereign can keep this spending façade up for far longer. Rather than restructure, the developed world is simply borrowing more on the bond market. A company would do this, too. However, it would also issue equity (in layman's language, sell new shares for cash). But what is sovereign equity? Are its citizens the equity holders? They should be, but they aren't, they are merely 'the customers'. Who are the shareholders of a country? An answer to this question might lead to a solution for many of the Western world's problems. It would certainly give these hard-up sovereigns a chance to recapitalise. Clem Chambers is CEO of leading investment site ADVFN.com and author of Amazon best-selling investment guides '101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners' and 'A Beginner's Guide to Value Investing' and the new financial thriller, 'The First Horseman'. |
| Argentina gears up for River-Boca derby Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:43 PM PDT  BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s Superclasico between Boca Juniors and River Plate takes place on Sunday, an historic and tragedy-tinged match once described as the world’s most intense sporting experience.More is riding on the game at River’s Monumental Stadium than usual as fans have had to be patient for this one — they have waited 17 months for a derby owing to River’s first ever relegation from the top flight the season before last. Argentinian football grew from locals watching British migrant workers play the game in their spare time more than a century ago. And although the homeland of football has no shortage of big derbies of its own from the Manchester and north London versions to Liverpool versus Everton and Newcastle against Sunderland, even British media agree that emotions run even higher when it comes to Boca and River. The Observer newspaper once opined that a match between the pair was a ‘must do before you die’ while tabloid The Sun dubbed a game between the two as “the world’s most intense sporting experience”. The British dock workers of decades ago were dubbed “those crazy English” as they organised makeshift but hard-fought matches in a gritty part of Buenos Aires where Boca and River have their roots, having been founded by Italian immigrants, though River moved in the 1920s to a more upmarket area. “Argentinians are generally passionate by nature — for good or for bad,” says writer Eduardo Sacheri, who co-scripted with Juan Jose Campanella the Oscar-winning film “El secreto de sus ojos” (the secret in their eyes). “Football is a powerful, basic ingredient — very visible in our lives, a deeply-ingrained habit. “The day Boca-River meet the country seems to come to a halt to watch it on TV and few wholly escape its influence — not even those who support other teams.” Both sets of fans pin their hopes on the outcome heading for the ground decked out in their respective colours and all kinds of paraphernalia from tickertape to flags and flares, chanting undying loyalty to their side. Another literary football fanatic, the late writer Roberto Fontanarrosa, hailed not from Buenos Aires but Rosario, yet he too was bewitched by a Boca-River derby. “I used to ask myself: Why am I nervous if I am a fan of Rosario Central? It’s difficult not to be. There is an electrical charge, a dynamic energy charge — regardless of whether the game is good, bad or just ordinary,” he once said. Real Madrid fans will say their tussles with Barcelona top even a Boca-River game, while supporters of the Milan clubs will make their own claim, as will fans of Rangers and Celtic or Brazilian rivals Flamengo and Fluminense or Palmeiras and Corinthians. Yet World Soccer Magazine proffers the judgment that a Boca-River meeting is “rivalled by nothing else in the world when it comes to its passion and intensity”. Passion, intensity — and tragedy. The latter came after a dour 0-0 draw in 1968, when 90,000 poured into the Monumental and 71 were crushed to death in the worst tragedy to hit Argentinian football. Going down in the annals for a happier reason was a legendary strike by Diego Maradona in a 3-0 win for Boca at their Bombonera cauldron of a ground. Boca, standing fifth in the table currently to River’s ninth, are seen as the working class side with River traditionally identified with the middle class — yet the latter have in recent years earned brickbats for the emergence of their own “barrabrava” or hooligan element. A study by pollsters Gallup say some 40 percent of Argentinians are fans of Boca and 30 of River — but the remaining 30 are likely to be glued to their screens as well. - AFP |
| Celtic eager to bury Barcelona heartbreak Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:40 PM PDT  GLASGOW: Celtic return to Scottish Premier League action against Kilmarnock on Saturday after their European heartbreak against Barcelona in midweek.The Hoops suffered a shattering defeat in Camp Nou when they conceded a stoppage time winner to the 2011 champions after Pedro scored with virtually the last kick of the ball in their Champions League Group G match. Neil Lennon’s side must now pick themselves up from that disappointment as their focus shifts back to domestic duty, where they sit three points clear at the top of the SPL. It is a world away from this time last year when the Hoops dropped 10 points behind then leaders Rangers after struggling to a 3-3 draw against Killie that had Lennon considering his own position. While their morale may have been temporarily dented by the defeat against Barcelona, midfielder Beram Kayal says he is amazed at the difference a year has made to the Parkhead side. “There is a big difference in this team from one year ago — we have gelled now. Most of us have been together for two years. Actually, it’s almost three years and there is a lot of power in the team today,” the Israeli international said. “We have a lot of confidence and we feel anything is possible, so it’s a big difference to that game at Kilmarnock last year. “We can feel that. We’re now playing at the highest level you can as a footballer in the Champions League and we are having a good campaign. “We’re also doing everything right in the league, so there are many things for us to be happy about. “We always believe we can do something. Months ago when we said we wanted to play in the Champions League, people were saying that was not possible. All they spoke about was the fact it was four years since we’d been in it but now a lot of people and other teams will be giving us great respect.” Kilmarnock claimed the League Cup last season with a historic win over Celtic at Hampden but haven’t defeated the Hoops at Parkhead in over 55 years. But manager Kenny Shiels is determined to overcome that curse and rewrite the history books on Saturday. “I wasn’t even born the last time Kilmarnock won at Parkhead so let’s not say any more on that,” Shiels said. “It’s been a long time and it will be good to try to do something about that. We’ve set a few records during my time at Kilmarnock. “We beat Celtic last season in the League Cup Final — that was Kilmarnock’s first win over them in Glasgow since a cup victory in 1957. “But 1955 was the last time Kilmarnock beat Celtic in the league in Glasgow. “You can keep using that as a motivation but it doesn’t always work. However, if we get back to performing well then I’d be happy that we can achieve something from the game. “We’ve been poor in our last couple of matches but want to get back to playing the way we can.” Elsewhere, second place St Johnstone are away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, bottom place Dundee take on Aberdeen to Pittodrie, St Mirren host Dundee United and Hearts take on Ross County. Friday Motherwell v Hibernian Saturday Aberdeen v Dundee, Celtic v Kilmarnock, Hearts v Ross County, Inverness CT v St Johnstone, St Mirren v Dundee United - AFP |
| Napoli to get angry in bid to catch Juventus Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:38 PM PDT  MILAN: Serie A contenders Napoli said the anger of last week’s defeat to Juventus will be used to relaunch their bid to stay in touch with the champions on Saturday when they host struggling Chievo.Until last week Napoli, arguably one of the flair teams of the season in Italy so far this campaign, had been the only other team along with Juventus to stay unbeaten. However it was a comparatively tame Napoli side that turned up at Juventus Stadium, and they paid for their lack of bite with a 2-0 defeat that allowed Juve to finally open up a three-point gap at the top of the table. On paper, Walter Mazzarri’s side, which boasts the goalscoring talents of the league’s top scorer Edinson Cavani and fellow forwards Marek Hamsik and Goran Pandev, look too strong for visiting Chievo. Although they have not dominated the Verona side in recent seasons they won the corresponding fixture 2-0 last year although they will head into the match on the back of a 3-1 Europa League loss to Dnipropetrovsk on Thursday. Chievo visit the San Paolo stadium without the injured quartet of Lorenzo Squizzi, Gennaro Sardo, Alberto Paloschi and Paul Papp while Napoli will be at full strength. Hamsik said last week’s defeat will not be forgotten. “This defeat will only channel our anger for the games to come,” said the Czech, who is known for his lively style as much for his distinctive Mohican-style haircut. “We start against Chievo, that will be important.” A slip-up by Napoli, who are second on 19 points, would inevitably spread joy to Lazio, who are only one point behind and travel to Fiorentina on the back of a four-game winning streak in all competitions. Fiorentina at home, however, is not an easy task for any visiting team and La Viola will be doubly determined following a draw away to a physical Chievo side last week. Juventus, meanwhile, had little chance to savour taking over sole charge of the league in the wake of the win against Napoli. The Old Lady of Turin may be a giant in Italy, but the team were held in the Champions League by Danish champions Nordsjaelland 1-1 in midweek. So far, Juve are without a win in Europe’s premier club competition. Antonio Conte’s side remain, however, unbeaten after 47 games — a run which goes all the way back to May 2011. Ahead of their trip to Catania, who sit seventh with three wins in eight games, captain and keeper Gianluigi Buffon believes Juve are flying given the turbulence at the club in the run-up to last season. “It’s a magnificent run, especially considering the question mark hanging over all of our heads 14 months ago,” Buffon toldjuventus.com. “Instead, we’ve been able to build something unique in this period of time. I don’t think that any team has managed to do the same as we have after two seventh-placed finishes.” AC Milan meanwhile host Genoa at the San Siro Saturday knowing they must turn their fortunes around if they are to have any hopes at all in Serie A this season. Milan’s 1-0 Champions League defeat to Malaga Wednesday was their sixth defeat in 11 games in all competitions, and the rumour mill already claims the club have contacted former player Frank Rijkaard to replace coach Massimiliano Allegri. Allegri — who led Milan to the league title in 2011 and a runner-up place behind Juventus last year — said he is not throwing in the towel. “I’m not quitting, absolutely not,” said Allegri. “It’s not my style to quit, and I have a lot of the faith in this squad. I think we can get back into the Serie A and the Champions League for us isn’t over yet.” Fixtures (times GMT) Saturday Siena v Palermo (1600), Milan v Genoa (1845) Sunday Catania v Juventus (1030), Bologna v Inter, Fiorentina v Lazio, Pescara v Atalanta, Sampdoria v Cagliari, Torino v Parma (all 1300), Napoli v Chievo (1845), Roma v Udinese (1845) - AFP |
| Falcao and Atletico eye Barca in race for top Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:33 PM PDT  MADRID: The leadership of La Liga is in play over two consecutive nights in the Spanish capital this weekend, but without the involvement of Real Madrid.The defending champions are at Mallorca on Sunday and currently sit in fourth position. They are eight points behind joint leaders Barcelona, who visit Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, and city rivals Atletico Madrid who host Osasuna on Sunday. Atletico, level on 22 points with Barcelona, have won seven straight league games since the opening day of the season and are full of confidence. Radamel Falcao is in stunning form after scoring in each of his last 10 matches, with a total of 16 strikes in that period, including four in three games for the Colombian national side. After being rested from the Europa League on Thursday, he will be looking to add to his league tally of 10 goals, that includes the last minute free-kick he hit for an important 1-0 victory at Real Sociedad last weekend. Atletico coach Diego Simeone has no doubts when placing Falcao at the very top of the world game at the moment. “He is currently amongst the three best players in the world, he has been top scorer in the last two Europa Leagues and won them, he has won the European Supercup and although (Lionel) Messi and Cristiano (Ronaldo) have had other successes he really is right up with them and their high standards,” said Simeone. “There are few finishers like him around and he is getting better in every match. He knows the penalty area is his natural habitat and he is becoming more aggressive and decisive in there.” One player who could be rejoining Falcao in Atletico’s side on Sunday is Turkish winger Arda Turan, whose presence was missed during the win at Sociedad. “Arda gives us something different, he shapes our attacking play so we hope to have him back soon, but it’s a long league and we need him back in the best shape possible, so we’ll see if he makes it in time for Sunday,” Simeone added. Barcelona have also been amongst the goals in recent weeks, having shared 18 with the opposition in their last three league games. The surprise is that they have conceded eight in those games, and although they dropped the only points of the season so far in the recent 2-2 draw with Real Madrid, they did manage to outscore Sevilla and Deportivo La Coruna, 3-2 and 5-4 respectively, both away from home. However, with injuries keeping out a full back-four of Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Dani Alves and Jordi Alba in that time, it is little wonder the Catalans have suffered at the back. With Alba already back and Alves in contention to play at Rayo on Saturday, the worst of their defensive problems may be over, but stand-in centre-back Javier Mascherano will not be available through suspension after being sent-off at Deportivo. Third place Malaga, five points behind the leaders, and fresh from their third straight Champions League win over AC Milan on Wednesday, travel to Espanyol who are joint bottom with Osasuna. Madrid go to Mallorca with more injury problems after Sami Khedira limped out of Wednesday’s Champions League defeat at Borussia Dortmund with a recurrence of a thigh injury. The German international was one of seven Madrid players who came back with injury from international duty recently and sat out of last weekend’s win over Celta Vigo. Coach Jose Mourinho will have to choose between Luka Modric or Kaka, who both started against Celta, as a replacement if the German does not recover in time. Saturday Espanyol v Malaga (1400 GMT), Betis v Valencia (1600 GMT), Celta v Deportivo (1800 GMT), Rayo Vallecano v Barcelona (2000 GMT) Sunday Zaragoza v Sevilla (1100 GMT), Levante v Granada (1500 GMT), Athletic Bilbao v Getafe (1650 GMT), Atletico Madrid v Osasuna (1845 GMT), Mallorca v Real Madrid (2030 GMT) Monday Valladolid v Real Sociedad (2030 GMT) - AFP |
| Del Potro seals London spot, feels sorry for Nadal Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:31 PM PDT  BASEL, (Switzerland): Juan Martin del Potro secured his place in the ATP World Tour Finals yesterday after Rafael Nadal’s injury-enforced withdrawal from the eight-man season-ender opened up another vacancy.The Argentine, who had already increased his qualification hopes for London by winning the Vienna title last weekend, was delighted to make it into the finals for the third time. But he was also sympathetic to the plight of Nadal who had to pull out of the London showpiece, which begins a week from Monday, as he continues to battle back from the knee injury which has kept him off tour since June. Del Potro said he knows exactly how Nadal feels after his own wrist injury absence in 2010 saw his career suffer a worrying setback. “I’m sad for Rafa, he’s really trying in his comeback. But it’s not easy after such a long time away. I had the same feeling with my wrist,” said del Potro, who made the Swiss Indoors quarter-finals Thursday with a 7-5, 6-1 defeat of American Brian Baker. “We miss Rafa a lot on the Tour. He is one of the best players in history, he will come back strong. “I’m sure it will be very soon. He will be ready to win a big event again, I know that he can play better than me when he makes his comeback, I wish all the best to him.” On reaching the World Tour Finals, del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, added: “For me it’s a gift for my effort during the year. “It’s only eight players fighting for one tournament. It’s the best eight players of the year, so it’s very important to me. I’m so glad to be there once again. I will be fighting against the big names and maybe I’ll have a chance to make another final.” Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych have already booked their places in London, leaving just two singles berths up for grabs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Janko Tipsarevic, Richard Gasquet and Nicolas Almagro are among those in contention for the last two places. Elsewhere in the second round at the St Jakobshalle, where hometown star Roger Federer is bidding for his sixth title from seven editions, Russian sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny defeated Australian Matthew Ebden 6-3, 6-1. Two Frenchmen also celebrated wins, with Paul-Henri Mathieu overcoming Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4 and Benoit Paire lining up a Friday quarter-final date with Federer through his defeat of Lukasz Kubot 6-4, 6-4. The 23-year-old Paire is buoyed by being at his highest ranking of 46 and fresh from an upset of fifth seed Andreas Seppi in the first round. Paire nudged his 2012 record to 25 wins against 24 losses as he took down Kubot. The Frenchman overcame the Pole in just under 90 minutes with six aces and three breaks of serve. “It’s great to be in a quarter-final and to be playing Roger Federer,” added the Frenchman. “I had a good match against Kubot which gives me confidence. And of course beating Seppi may have been a surprise. “Federer had a tough time playing (Thomaz) Bellucci in the second round, it went to three sets. Anything is possible in tennis and I have my chances if things go well for me.” - AFP |
| Mertesacker hopes for upbeat Arsenal weekend Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:29 PM PDT  LONDON: Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker is hoping for a happy ending to a troublesome week when QPR visit the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.A dispiriting few days for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger began with a 1-0 defeat at struggling Norwich last weekend that left his side 10 points behind leaders Chelsea. Then on Wednesday the Gunners were beaten 2-0 at home by Schalke in the Champions League, with Wenger watching helplessly from the stands as he served out a European touchline ban. The following day saw Wenger take the stage at the club’s annual meeting and suffer criticism from supporters who are upset that a club that sold star forward Robin van Persie in pre-season and hasn’t won a trophy since 2005 nevertheless charges the highest ticket prices in England and refuses to spend big transfer fees on star signings. QPR would appear to be the ideal opponents for a quick change of fortunes as they are currently rock bottom of the table and have yet to record a league victory this season. Yet, as Germany centre-back Mertesacker admitted, that had also been the case for Norwich until they broke their duck with last week’s win over the Gunners. “We have great players with great potential but at the moment you cannot feel we are a strong squad,” Mertesacker said. “We have to learn quickly from what happened in the last two matches. “If we do not find these solutions, it is going to be difficult both in the Premier League and in the Champions League as well. “The international break was a bit of a killer for us and we have to find our strength again quickly. “We have the potential in us but first we have to fight. We are playing QPR on Saturday but it will be the same as at Norwich. “They were at the bottom of the table as well and we did not find solutions against a defensive side. “We’ve had a difficult week and our results were kind of an accident, so now we have to find our game again. “We have to be positive ahead of the QPR match. Sometimes you need one game to find your qualities again, so let’s make sure it’s Saturday.” Arsenal’s Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta agrees with Mertesacker’s assessment of the situation. “The way we are giving the points away is not good enough,” he said. “We are controlling most of the games but then make mistakes which are costing us points and we cannot allow that to happen. “When we face teams such as QPR and Norwich, they make it hard for us but we have to bounce back. “We have only two days now to put the Schalke defeat behind us and hopefully we can get a win on Saturday.” QPR could claim they have exactly the same problem as their hosts as manager Mark Hughes has spent heavily on assembling a squad of experienced campaigners who have yet to come close to gelling as a unit. However, one recent recruit, the former Real Madrid midfielder Esteban Granero is confident QPR will soon start to move up the table. “When we win that first game everything will fall into place for us,” he said. “Saturday presents us with another opportunity. We don’t feel as though we are too far away. “We want the first three points of the season, so we’ll work hard and, hopefully, cause them problems.” Granero conceded that a wounded Arsenal might not be the ideal opponents this weekend however. “Arsenal are a great team with very high-class, quality players,” he said. “They are one of the best teams in the league. “They wouldn’t have expected to lose to Norwich last weekend, so they will want to respond. Arsenal won’t want to lose two league games in a row.” - Reuters |
| Milner warns City to shake off Euro blues Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:27 PM PDT  MANCHESTER: Manchester City midfielder James Milner admits the champions must bounce back from their latest disastrous European outing when they return to Premier League action at home to Swansea on Saturday.Milner believes it is not only City’s much-maligned defenders who deserve criticism following the midweek debacle in Amsterdam where a 3-1 defeat to Ajax left Roberto Mancini’s team on the brink of Champions League elimination. “Although the score was 3-1 we had enough chances to score more goals, but we weren’t clinical enough,” said Milner, after City competed their third Champions League group game with just one point to their name. “We need to make sure there is not pressure on the strikers to score in every game. Goals have got to come from all over the park. “When you are playing in the Champions League and you get chances you have to take them.” Despite Milner manfully taking his share of the blame, major criticism was reserved for City’s defence and, more specifically, the shifting tactics employed by boss Mancini. City right-back Micah Richards added fuel to suggestions that all is not well between Mancini and his senior players by suggesting they were confused by instructions passed on by the manager. The poor result in Amsterdam and apparent disquiet in the City ranks have added to the growing belief that Mancini is under intense pressure after what appears likely to be a second successive season of failure in Europe. The Italian himself did little to silence the growing rumours about his job security by suggesting there was a lack of team spirit in the City ranks. “If you have spirit you have the quality to play Champions League,” he said. “If not, you can’t. This is the problem. The tactics are not important. “When you play this game you should have good spirit. We are a young club for the Champions League. This is the second time that we play. I think we need to work more for the Champions League.” City, who are unbeaten at home in the Premier League since December 2010, should be far too strong for Swansea, despite their problems in Holland, with Arsenal the only team to have taken a point from Eastlands this season. However, Spanish playmaker David Silva remains out with a hamstring problem collected on international duty, while influential midfielder Yaya Toure suffered a shin injury against Ajax which may rule him out of the Swansea game. Meanwhile, the Welsh club expect to give a far better showing than they did on their last visit to Eastlands on the opening day of last season when they were swept aside 4-0 on their first appearance in the Premier League. This term, under new manager Michael Laudrup, Swansea are rebuilding after the departure of the Dane’s predecessor Brendan Rodgers to Liverpool. “Last year going to Manchester City was a bit like a cup final for us,” said midfielder Leon Britton. “I wouldn’t say we were like a rabbit in the headlights – we played well for 60 minutes to be fair. “But it was our first game in the Premier League, it was Monday Night Football and all of a sudden you are standing in the tunnel and Yaya Toure is next to you. “This time a lot of us have played a season in the Premier League. A lot of us have played 40 or 45 games at this level now and we will not be overawed. “We know it will be tough, but we will treat it as just another game.” Laudrup has a fully-fit squad from which to select for the game, apart from long-term absentees Kyle Bartley and Neil Taylor. - AFP |
| Chelsea not finished article, says United’s Giggs Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:24 PM PDT  LONDON: Ryan Giggs lit the fuse on Manchester United’s potentially explosive clash with Chelsea by claiming the Premier League leaders aren’t the finished article yet.While Chelsea have made a flying start to their title challenge with seven wins from eight matches to open up a four-point lead over second-placed United, Giggs believes it is too early to crown the west London club as champions elect. Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Tuesday underlined Giggs’ belief that the rebuilding job undertaken by Blues boss Roberto Di Matteo after the departure of several senior stars is still a work in progress. “Chelsea are a talented team. They have changed the personnel a bit with Oscar, Hazard and Mata, who play in those little pockets and are so hard to pick up,” Giggs said ahead of Sunday’s clash between the top two at Stamford Bridge. “Only time will tell if they are better. But it doesn’t really matter because you know you are up against a very good team when you play Chelsea, and it will always be tough at Stamford Bridge.” United would dearly love to win a league game at the Bridge for the first time since 2002 as they try to close the gap on Chelsea, but to do that Giggs knows they must find a way to cure their defensive woes. Alex Ferguson’s team have conceded the first goal in eight matches out of 12 this term and they were at it again on Tuesday when Braga stunned Old Trafford by taking a 2-0 lead in the Champions League before United hit back to win 3-2. “There are two ways of looking at it,” Giggs said. “Obviously we are pleased that we are able to come back and have shown great character in those eight games. “But you cannot keep relying on the lads up front to score the goals. It has happened again against Braga but against Chelsea if we go behind it will be tough to come back.” Meanwhile, Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech is confident his team’s slip-up in Donetsk will prove a valuable lesson ahead of the United match. The Blues have lost four of their last five meetings with United, but Cech expects a strong response after the European setback. “It is good that this happened now because Manchester United is a similar team who play on the counter-attack away from home,” Cech said. “We will play more or less the same kind of side as Shakhtar. We didn’t deal with it well so hopefully this will serve as a lesson for the weekend.” Third-placed Manchester City will also look to get back on track after a 3-1 defeat at Ajax in midweek left their Champions League challenge hanging by a thread. The English champions have spluttered so far this season and City midfielder James Milner wants his team to be more ruthless against Swansea at Eastlands on Saturday. “We weren’t clinical enough against Ajax,” Milner said. “We need to make sure there is not pressure on the strikers to score in every game. Goals have got to come from all over the park.” Like City, Arsenal, who host bottom of the table QPR, are in need of a morale-boosting win following successive defeats against Norwich and Schalke. “We have great players with great potential but at the moment you cannot feel we are a strong squad,” Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker said. “We have to learn quickly from what happened in the last two matches. “If we do not find these solutions, it is going to be difficult both in the Premier League and in the Champions League as well.” On Sunday, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers gets his first taste of the Merseyside derby as the Reds make the short trip to Goodison Park to face Everton. Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini hopes to recover from a knee injury in time to feature and his team-mate Kevin Mirallas said: “It’s good to have Marouane available because he is scary for the other team. People in the opposition fear him.” Fixtures: Saturday Arsenal v QPR, Aston Villa v Norwich (1145GMT), Man City v Swansea (1630GMT), Reading v Fulham, Stoke v Sunderland, Wigan v West Ham Sunday Chelsea v Man Utd (1500GMT), Everton v Liverpool (1230GMT), Newcastle v West Brom, Southampton v Tottenham - AFP |
| Liverpool, Newcastle win as Spurs held again Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:22 PM PDT  PARIS: A second half goal from Stewart Downing ensured Liverpool avoided an unwanted record yesterday as the English Premier League outfit edged Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala 1-0 at Anfield to bolster their Europa League hopes.Downing’s well taken 53rd-minute strike means Liverpool avoided two straight European home losses for the first time in their history after their recent hiccup against Italy’s Udinese and they now lead Group A with six points from three matches. Better still for the Merseysiders, who now lead the Russians and the Italians by two points, Udinese went down to a shock 3-1 loss at unheralded Swiss side Young Boys, throwing away a chance to go top of the section. Anzhi came to Liverpool boasting former Barcelona and Inter Milan Champions League winner and Cameroon international star Samuel Eto’o in their ranks but he had a quiet night. “Stewart Downing scored a brilliant goal. He has had a rough ride here, it’s been a tough time, but he is a good guy,” said Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers. “He’s an important member of our team and he got a good reception from the Kop.” Also flying the flag for England are Newcastle, who thanked a goal from French winger Gabriel Obertan just after the restart for a second straight home win which keeps the Magpies in charge of Group D. Alan Pardew’s men now lead Bordeaux, already dismissed emphatically at Saint James’ Park, by three points after the Girondins – Obertan’s former club – could only draw at Portugal’s Maritimo. But there was frustration for another English side, Tottenham, who had to settle for a third straight draw in Group J, held 1-1 at Slovenia’s Maribor. Midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson rescued a point to keep the Londoners in touch with Group J leaders Lazio, who produced the same scoreline at Panathinaikos. Spurs trail the Italians by two points after a poor showing at the Stadion Ljudski, where last season Maribor were not good enough to see off second tier English Championship side Birmingham. Robert Beric fired in from close range for Maribor while Spaniard Iago Falque crossed after the break for Sigurdsson to convert in a goalmouth melee. Of some consolation to Spurs was Jose Verdu Nicolas’s last-gasp leveller for Panathinaikos which denied Lazio a win that looked likely after Georgios Seitaridis had put through his own goal in the first half. Spurs’ boss Andre Villas-Boas insisted afterwards Spurs were still set fair to advance to the last 32. “The second half was extremely good, the first half was not so good,” Villas-Boas opined “The group is completely open. What we face now is two games at home and I think we are in a good position in the group.” Elsewhere, holders Atletico Madrid thanked goals from Diego Costa and Turkish midfielder Emre Belozoglu for a third straight Group B triumph over Portugal’s Coimbra Turkey’s Fenerbache top Group C after a 1-0 success at Cypriot side Limassol while Germany’s Borussia Moenchengladbach moved level second with Marseille after defeating the French 2-0. A surprise in Group F saw Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk beat Serie A’s Napoli 3-1 for a third win on a roll while the Italians are now third behind PSV Eindhoven after the Dutch drew at home to AIK Solna of Sweden. Former European champions Inter Milan lead Group H after Rodrigo Palacio netted the only goal against Partizan Belgrade but Russia’s Rubin Kazan edged Neftci of Azerbaijan by the same score to stay level on points with seven from three games. French side Lyon thanked a Jimmy Briand goal four minutes from time for a third straight success — 2-1 over Group I tailenders Athletic Bilbao and Sparta Prague are second after a 3-1 win over Israel’s Hapoel Kiryat Shmona. - AFP |
| Pengorbanan menuju keredaan Allah SWT Posted: 25 Oct 2012 07:06 PM PDT
Oleh Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat Dalam agama kita sendiri, diminta orang Islam meraikan hari raya dua kali setahun, sebutan raya ini menimbulkan rasa gembira, suka dan meriah di kalangan anak-anak dan orang-orang tua sekali pun. Hatta bila kita raya, kita tidak dibenarkan puasa, kalau kita puasa ertinya kita tidak sudi menerima 'rukhsah' dari Allah. Apabila tidak boleh puasa kita dikehendaki makan dan minum. Di samping itu juga kita diminta untuk memberi makan kepada fakir miskin. Ketika menyambut Raya Puasa, sebelumnya kita ada zakat fitrah untuk diberi kepada orang yang layak menerimanya. Sementara pada Hari Raya Haji ini pula, kita diminta untuk melakukan korban. Firman Allah SWT bermaksud: "Dan Kami jadikan unta (yang dihadiahkan kepada fakir miskin Makkah itu) sebahagian dari syiar agama Allah untuk kamu; pada menyembelih unta yang tersebut ada kebaikan bagi kamu; oleh itu sebutlah nama Allah (semasa menyembelihnya) ketika ia berdiri di atas tiga kakinya maka apabila ia tumbang (serta putus nyawanya), makanlah sebahagian daripadanya, dan berilah (bahagian yang lain) kepada orang-orang yang tidak meminta dan yang meminta. Demikianlah Kami mudahkan dia untuk kamu (menguasainya dan menyembelihnya) supaya kamu bersyukur." (Surah Al-Hajj ayat 36). Bermakna kita boleh makan, tetapi kita diminta untuk bagi-bagikan daging tersebut kepada fakir miskin. Tradisi kita di Kelantan, kita buat gulai atau bagi mentah-mentah sahaja akan daging korban itu. Apa pun, ada kelebihan bila kita bagi-bagikan daging mentah kerana orang yang menerima itu akan makan seisi keluarga atau semua anak beranak boleh merasai. Walaupun daging yang kita bagi itu boleh jadi sekeping dua sahaja, tetapi sebuah rumah (seisi keluarga) boleh menikmati dengan pelbagai masakan yang digemari. Mimpi Nabi Ibrahim Ketiganya, bila Hari Raya Korban, kita diingatkan balik dengan cerita Nabi Ibrahim AS, iaitu orang pertama melakukan korban. Sebagaimana firman-Nya bermaksud: "Maka ketika anaknya itu sampai (ke peringkat umur yang membolehkan dia) berusaha bersama-sama dengannya, Nabi Ibrahim berkata: "Wahai anak kesayanganku! Sesungguhnya aku melihat dalam mimpi bahawa aku akan menyembelihmu; maka fikirkanlah apa pendapatmu?". Anaknya menjawab: "Wahai ayah, jalankanlah apa yang diperintahkan kepadamu; Insya Allah, ayah akan mendapati daku dari orang-orang yang sabar".(Surah Al-Soffat ayat 102) Kisahnya ialah suatu hari Allah SWT beri mimpi kepada Nabi Ibrahim untuk menyembelih anaknya. Suatu tugas yang amat susah, kerana sembelih anak bukan seperti menyembelih ayam atau lembu-kambing. Namun apabila Allah suruh sesuatu, maka bagaimana susah sekalipun kita kena lakukan. Kemudian atas kesediaan (ketaatan) Nabi Ibrahim itu, maka Allah telah menggantikannya dengan seekor binatang (kibas). "Dan Kami tebus anaknya itu dengan seekor binatang sembelihan yang besar." (Surah Al-Asoffat 107). Pengajaran besar di sebalik peristiwa terebut ialah ketaatan yang tinggi terhadap perintah Allah, meskipun ia berlaku menerusi mimpi. Nilai ketaatan itu boleh dilihat atas kerana perintah menyembelih anak bukannya sembelihan kambing-biri-biri atau lembu-kerbau. Justeru kita kena ingat balik bahawa Nabi Ibrahim disuruh sembelih anak hanya dalam mimpi sahaja, bukan melalui wahyu yang diturun khusus untuk Nabi Ibrahim berkorban. Atas sebab ketaatan itulah, lalu Nabi Ibrahim bawa Nabi Ismail dari Mekkah menuju ke Mina, boleh jadi sambil berjalan, sambil menghiburkan hati mengenangkan kasih sayangnya terhadap anaknya. Apa pun Allah SWT Maha Mengetahui atas perasaan itu. Sebagaimana firman-Nya bermaksud: "Engkau telah menyempurnakan maksud mimpi yang engkau lihat itu". Demikianlah sebenarnya Kami membalas orang-orang yang berusaha mengerjakan kebaikan."(Surah Al-Asoffat 105) Ini bezanya kita orang kampung (orang awam) dibandingkan dengan seorang nabi. Bagi Nabi Ibrahim, mimpinya adalah wahyu. Sementara kita orang kampung bila bermimpi, kita kena tapis dahulu baik atau tidak. Kalau bermimpi benda baik, kita sebut 'Alhamdullah' dan kalau boleh kita ambil air sembahyang atau bertakbir pada ketika itu supaya Allah benarkan mimpi tersebut. Kuasa Allah Apa yang perlu kita ambil pengajaran dan pegangan ialah pengorbanan yang ditunjukkan oleh Nabi Ibrahim ini sangat perlu dituruti sampai khiamat sekalipun. Begitu juga dalam masa kita berhari raya, kita diminta bertakbir dan antaranya ada perkataan "wahazamal ahzab bawahdah" yang menunjukkan kekuasaan Allah yang memporak-perandakan askar Ahzab. Ahzab adalah nama satu peperangan yang berlaku di antara kafir Quraisy Mekah pada tahun kelima Hijrah. Makna Ahzab ialah gandingan parti-parti, atau group-group, atau kumpulan-kumpulan daripada pemimpin puak kafir Quraisy termasuk Abu Suffian yang di kerah untuk melawan Nabi Muhammad bagi menghalang pengaruh Nabi Muhammad yang semakin berkembang sehingga membimbangkan mereka. Askar Ahzab tadi berkumpul untuk berperang di sebuah tempat di tepi Madinah. Sementara pihak Nabi Muhammad bersama sahabat- sahabat bermesyuarat untuk mencari jalan bagaimana untuk menghadapi askar Ahzab itu. Takdir Allah SWT, seorang sahabat bernama Salman Al Farisi (asalnya orang Iran bukan orang Arab) telah memberi pandangan: "Ya Rasulullah orang kami Parsi di Iran kalau ada masalah perang satu cara yang kami lakukan adalah gali parit." Lalu diterima oleh Nabi Muhammad. Maka perang itu dinamai Ahzab dan ada pula menyebutnya Perang Khandak mengambil sempena peristiwa Nabi sendiri yang gali parit. Sementara ketika peristiwa gali parit itu ada sahabat menemui seketul batu besar yang tidak boleh dicakul, maka sahabat Nabi pergi jumpa Nabi: "Ya Rasulullah ada batu besar, tidak boleh digali." Maka Nabi pegang cangkul sambil bertakbir memukul batu itu, lalu keluar percikan api dari batu itu, bercahaya. Pada ketika menggali itu, pengorbanan dan kesungguhan yang ditunjukkan oleh sahabat-sahabat Nabi amat hebat sehingga ada yang tidak makan. Apa pun, ceritanya cukup panjang dan boleh mengalir air mata apabila kita hayati balik cerita itu. Satu lagi peristiwa daripada sejarah peperangan, ada seorang sahabat bernama Mas'ud Abu Naim Asjaim yang pada awalnya dikerah oleh Abu Suffian (puak kafir Quraisy) untuk berperang dengan Nabi Muhammad. Apa pun, Mas'ud bertanya balik apa salahnya Muhammad, sedangkan Muhamad seorang yang baik dan dikenali sebagai "Al-Amin"––orang yang penuh amanah. Atas persoalan itu, terlintas difikirannya untuk berjumpa dengan Rasulullah seorang diri, lalu dia membuat pengakuan: "Ya Rasulullah aku bersalah, benda apa yang boleh aku lakukan. Aku baru sahaja masuk Islam dan orang kampung aku belum tahu lagi. Aku dikerah, tetapi tiada alasan untuk bersama mereka yang mahu menyerang Rasulullah. Sedangkan di Mekah, Rasulullah adalah di kalangan orang yang baik-baik, kerana orang Mekah sering meletakan barang emas di rumah Rasulullah." Lalu Mas'ud memohon maaf kepada Rasulullah dan bertanya benda apa yang dapat aku lakukan untuk menebus dosa yang aku lakukan. Rasa syukur Atas pengakuan jujur Mas'ud itu, Nabi Muhammad SAW telah beri mandat kepadanya supaya menggunakan akal fikiran untuk memusnahkan musuh dari Mekah. Mandat itu dilaksanakan oleh Mas'ud dengan penuh kebijaksanaan. Lalu Mas'ud telah pergi seorang diri dan melaga-lagakan puak-puak Yahudi yang dahulunya berjanji setia dengan Nabi Muhammad–– kalau kamu kena serangan kami akan tolong, dan kalau kami kena serangan kamu kena tolong. Akhirnya puak askar Abu Suffian telah berpecah-belah dan Allah kirimkan angin yang kencang, malam yang gelap pekat, udara yang sangat sejuk sehingga semua khemah terbalik. Kemudian Abu Suffian telah mengarahkan askarnya balik dan tidak jadi berperang. Ketika itu Nabi ambil tindakan kepada puak Yahudi kerana mengkhianati perjanjian dan menghalau mereka dari Madinah. Di atas pengajaran dari sejarah yang dipaparkan ini, maka sambutlah Hari Raya Haji ini dengan rasa syukur, dan janganlah kita terlalu gembira. Kita kena ingat akan kegigihan (pengorbanan) Nabi Ibrahim AS dan Nabi Muhammad SAW itu dan jadikanlah pedoman untuk kita menjadi insan yang bernar-benar taat dan patuh kepada-Nya. Semoga kita mencapai keredaan Allah di akhirat kelak di atas kegigihan, keikhlasan, serta integriti kita mengambil dan mengamalkan segala kebaikan daripadanya, demi mencari keredaan Allah dan mendapat layanan baik di dalam kubur dan di padang Mahsyar kelak. *Perutusan Menteri Besar Kelantan ini disesuaikan dari rakaman RTV Kelantan pada 23 Oktober 2012 bersempena Sambutan Aidil Adha pada 10 Zulhijah 1443 bersamaan 26 Oktober 2012. |
| Obama votes, picks up Powell endorsement amid swing state push Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:59 PM PDT
Hoping to encourage other Democrats to vote ahead of the November 6 election, Obama cast his ballot early in his home town of Chicago. Romney portrayed himself as an agent of change during a day campaigning in Ohio with 12 days to go until the election. There was little movement in the overall state of the race – which is essentially tied. Romney was clinging to a one percentage point lead over Obama in yesterday’s Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll, up 47 percent to 46 percent for Obama. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll showed how Romney has made up ground since defeating Obama in the first of their three presidential debates on October 3. The poll had Romney up by 50 percent to 47 percent among likely voters. Romney charged that electing Obama would return Washington to a “status-quo path,” a path that “doesn’t have an answer about how to get the economy going.” “The path we’re on does not have new answers,” said Romney, whose campaign has been centered around ways to create jobs in the sputtering economy. Powell boost Powell’s endorsement was a milestone for the president in his re-election bid but since he had backed Obama four years ago, it did not have the same impact this time around. Powell was a secretary of state during the presidency of Obama’s Republican predecessor, George W Bush. He told CBS he is sticking with Obama because the economy is improving. “The unemployment rate is too high. People are still hurting in housing. But I see that we are starting to rise up,” he said. Obama has generated large crowds during a two-day, eight-state tour that is taking him to Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Ohio, California, Illinois and Virginia. Some 8,500 people showed up for an early morning rally in Tampa, Florida yesterday and some 15,000 came out for the president in Richmond, Virginia. The president has sought to rev up enthusiasm and momentum in those crowds by talking about his cross-country trip. “We are right in the middle of our 48-hour fly-around campaign extravaganza,” he said to applause in Florida. “We pulled an all-nighter last night!” The election will likely be decided in a handful of swing states where the candidates are spending just about all of their time, with none of them more important than Ohio. The two campaigns squabbled over who has the upper hand in Ohio, where the race is close. Democrats believe they have the edge in early voting and turn-out operation, but Republicans disagree. “A steady upward trajectory among key voting blocs indicates a close race, but one that is unmistakably moving in Mitt Romney’s direction,” said Romney national political director Rich Beeson in an e-mailed memo. The Romney campaign made clear it would have enough money to fund television advertising in the swing states by announcing his campaign had brought in more than US$111 million from October 1 to October 17. The Romney campaign and its Republican allies reported having US$169 million cash on hand for the final push. - Reuters |
| Pussy Riot got what they deserved: Putin Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:54 PM PDT
During a two-hour dinner conversation with a group of foreign Russia experts, Putin spent most of his time carefully explaining how his country was trying to improve the business climate and diversify the economy away from its heavy dependence on oil and gas by promoting high-tech industries. The Kremlin chief said he had “mixed feelings” about a US$55 billion state-sponsored takeover of the country’s number three private oil producer TNK-BP last week because it increased state-controlled Rosneft’s domination of the energy sector. But Putin said he acted to help BP and put an end to “fistfights” between the British oil major and its four Soviet-born oligarch partners. “We tried not to get involved, but when BP managers came to me and the government and said we want to cooperate with Rosneft, we could not say no,” said Putin. Rosneft is run by a longtime close Putin ally, Igor Sechin, and the deal will give BP a stake of nearly 20 percent. Putin said he was implementing new laws and reforming the courts to reach a target of moving Russia up from its 112th place in the annual World Bank rankings for ease of doing business – below Pakistan- to a top 20 place by 2018. Pussy riot But the president, now in his 13th year running Russia, became animated only when asked about Pussy Riot during the seven-course meal with the Valdai Club of foreign journalists and academics at his Stalin-era residence in a wooded compound outside Moscow. The Valdai members were kept waiting in a separate room for an hour and a half for the meeting, while Putin met a group of factory workers and teachers from the Volga region to discuss religious cults. Two young women from Pussy Riot received two-year prison sentences for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after performing a crude anti-Putin protest song in Moscow’s main cathedral. A third band member was released on a suspended sentence. At Thursday’s dinner Putin raised his voice, looked straight at the questioner and asked why Westerners who criticized Russia for sending two of the young women to labor camps far from Moscow had not come out in support of a jailed American who made an anti-Muslim hate film. “Do you want to support people with such views? If you do, then why do you not support the guy who is sitting in prison for the film about the Muslims?” the president shot back. This was an apparent reference to “The Innocence of Muslims”, a crude hate video that triggered violent protests across the Islamic world when it was aired on the Internet. An actress in the film has identified an Egyptian-born Californian, Mark Basseley Youssef, as its author. Youssef is currently detained on suspicion of violating his probation terms for a bank fraud conviction. “We have red lines beyond which starts the destruction of the moral foundations of our society,” Putin went on. “If people cross this line they should be made responsible in line with the law.” He described Pussy Riot’s protest as “an act of group sex aimed at hurting religious feelings”. Lampdown on dissent Putin’s comments came amid a wider clampdown on dissent in Russia, which has included arrests of opposition leaders on criminal charges and tighter controls on media. This has led to fears that the political system, which is highly centralized under the Kremlin, is becoming increasingly ossified and intolerant. Putin deflected a question about the possible stagnation of the system by saying Russia was re-introducing direct elections for state governors, making it easier for political parties to register and allowing citizens to petition the state Duma (parliament) directly with proposals. Many of the same faces who worked with Putin when he was deputy mayor of St Petersburg in the early 1990s are still in senior positions in Moscow in the government and in state companies. But Putin said around two-thirds of the members of the government had been changed when he returned to the Kremlin earlier this year, swapping places with his protégé Dmitry Medvedev, who is now prime minister. “I prefer to choose qualified, experienced people who have proved they can do well,” the president explained. He rejected suggestions that there were any disputes inside the government in the wake of the departure just over a year ago of long-time Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Trade goals Putin insisted that Russia would continue to give a high priority to growing its trade with its top business partner China, aiming to boost bilateral business to US$100 billion a year from current levels of US$83.5 billion. Beijing and Moscow were also keen to do as much trade as possible in their national currencies, he said, noting that the rouble was fully convertible and that it was a “matter of time” until the yuanwas, too. By contrast, he berated the European Union for its “ridiculous” slowness in agreeing a visa-free regime for Russia and attacked Brussels for not taking him up on an offer of cooperation on a new satellite navigation system between the European Galileo system and Russia’s GLONASS project. “The EU has a visa-free regime with certain Latin American countries, and I don’t think their crime levels are any less than ours,” he said. “I don’t understand this approach.” Putin also had a ready answer for a questioner who enquired how he would stop an exodus of talented, qualified young people to the West. It was entirely normal, he said, for young people to study and work in other countries where there was more money or a good education on offer. And what would the president want historians to highlight as the greatest achievement of his third term in the Kremlin? “You know, I am never guided by a possible assessment of my work,” Putin said, before highlighting how the economy had doubled in size under his stewardship, average incomes had soared, gold reserves were the world’s fourth biggest, the birth rate had increased – all what he termed “modest, positive changes … but not enough”. “We need to create a democratic, effective system of governance so that people feel they are participating,” he said. “We need to create an effective economy which is looking forward and to guarantee the country’s security. I am sure we are capable of solving all these problems.” - Reuters |
| Fake bomb threat shuts down part of Geneva airport Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:49 PM PDT
“This was a very concrete (threat), not just a suspicious package,” Bertrand Staempfli, a spokesman for the Cointrin airport, told the Tribune de Geneve daily’s online edition. It was around 7:30 pm (1730 GMT) that the alarm was sounded after “a person broke through the security controls and said he had parked a vehicle in front of the airport full of explosives,” he explained. A special bomb squad came to defuse any explosives, but when they opened the vehicle in question “they did not find explosives inside,” Staempfli said. The man who made the threat has been handed over to the police, and the airport’s registration and departure areas were reopened at around 8:45 pm (1845 GMT), the paper reported. - AFP |
| First feathered dinosaur fossils found in North America Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:47 PM PDT  WASHINGTON: Scientists in Canada have unearthed the first fossils of a feathered dinosaur ever found in the Americas, the journal Science reported yesterday.The 75 million year old fossil specimens, uncovered in the badlands of Alberta, Canada, include remains of a juvenile and two adult ostrich-like creatures known as ornithomimids. Until now feathered dinosaurs have been found mostly in China and in Germany. “This is a really exciting discovery, as it represents the first feathered dinosaur specimens found in the Western Hemisphere,” said Darla Zelenitsky, an assistant professor at the University of Calgary and lead author of the study. “These specimens are also the first to reveal that ornithomimids were covered in feathers, like several other groups of theropod dinosaurs,” Zelenitsky said. She said the find “suggests that all ornithomimid dinosaurs would have had feathers.” The creatures had a cameo screen appearance in the original Jurassic Park movie in which they were shown being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the movie however they were portrayed as having scales rather than plumage – which researchers say they now know was not the case. Francois Therrien, curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta and the co-author of the study, said the discovery revealed another fascinating fact – the existence of early wings in dinosaurs that were too big to fly. “The fact that wing-like forelimbs developed in more mature individuals suggests they were used only later in life, perhaps associated with reproductive behaviors like display or egg brooding,” he said. - AFP |
| US knew too little to deploy troops to Benghazi: Pentagon Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:45 PM PDT
President Barack Obama’s response to the attacks in Libya has been a contentious issue in the hard-fought US presidential race, with Republican opponents raising questions about his administration’s truthfulness and competence. Obama supporters have in turn accused Republicans of making unfounded accusations in an effort to score political points from the death of a US ambassador and the three others killed in the Benghazi attack. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican John Boehner, asked in a letter to Obama yesterday about whether military options and assets were offered “during and in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack.” “Can you explain what options were presented to you or your staff, and why it appears assets were not allowed to be pre-positioned, let alone utilized?” Boehner asked. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Pentagon reporters that US forces were on a heightened state of alert already because of the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by al Qaeda. But he said there simply wasn’t enough information to responsibly deploy forces to Libya at the time of the attack. “You don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on, without having some real-time information about what’s taking place,” Panetta said. Lacking that information, Panetta said he, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Carter Ham, head of the US military’s Africa Command, felt they couldn’t “put forces at risk in that situation.” “This happened within a few hours and it was really over before, you know, we had the opportunity to really know what was happening,” Panetta said. In the aftermath of the attack, Panetta reminded reporters that the Pentagon deployed a Marine fleet anti-terrorist security team to Tripoli and had Navy ships off the coast. “And we were prepared to respond to any contingency. And certainly had forces in place to do that,” he said. The administration initially attributed the violence to protests over an anti-Islam film and said it was not premeditated. Obama and other officials have since said the incident was a deliberate terrorist attack. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has attributed the shifting explanation to “the fog of war.” A State Department email made public this week showed that two hours after the attack on the US diplomatic mission compound in Benghazi, the Department’s Operations Center advised officials at various US agencies that a militant group called Ansar al-Sharia had claimed credit on Twitter and Facebook for the attacks. US officials, including Clinton, on Wednesday said that such Internet postings did not constitute hard evidence of who was responsible for the attacks. The State Department has set up an independent review board to investigate the background and response to the attacks. The US Senate intelligence committee yesterday said it will hold hearings in November – after the November 6 presidential election – on security and intelligence issues raised by the September 11 attack in Libya. - Reuters |
| Assange says to stay in embassy until US backs off: CNN Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:42 PM PDT
Assange has been sheltering in the embassy since June to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations. Britain says it is obliged to send him to Sweden and will not let him to go to Ecuador, which has given him asylum. His lawyers and the Ecuador government fear that travelling to Sweden could lead to the 41-year-old Australian’s extradition to the United States, where he could face charges stemming from Wikileaks’ publication of thousands of US diplomatic cables. Challenged in a CNN interview in the embassy that he could not stay there forever, Assange said: “I think we need the US government to drop its investigation … It’s an immoral investigation. It breaches the First Amendment. It breaches all the principles that the United States government says that it stands for and it absolutely breaches the principles that the US founding fathers stood for and which most of the US people believe in.” Ecuador wants Britain to give Assange written guarantees that he would not be extradited from Sweden to any third country. Assange fears he could face inhumane treatment in the United States. “There’s an attempt to extradite me without charge and without evidence, allegedly for the purpose of questioning,” he said. “All meanwhile, the FBI has been engaged in building this tremendous case.” In the interview, Assange likened life in the embassy to “living on a space station”. “There’s no natural light,” he said. “You have got to make all your own stuff. You can’t go out to the shops.” “But I’ve been in solitary confinement. I know what life is like for prisoners – it’s a lot better than it is for prisoners.” Earlier yesterday, Wikileaks began publishing what it said were more than 100 US Defense Department files detailing military detention policies in camps in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay in the years after the September 11 attacks on US targets. - Reuters |
| Damascus shelled hours before scheduled truce Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:39 PM PDT
They said that yesterday night troops stationed on a mountain overlooking the Syrian capital targeted Hajar al-Aswad, a poor neighborhood inhabited by refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. There were no immediate reports of casualties. “Consecutive artillery volleys from Qasioun shook my home,” said Omar, an engineer who lives in al-Muhajereen district on a foothill of the mountain. Yesterday a Free Syrian Army commander gave qualified backing to the truce, proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but he demanded that President Bashar al-Assad free detainees. An Islamist group said it was not committed to the truce, but may halt operations if the army did. Brahimi proposed the temporary truce to stem, however briefly, the bloodshed in a conflict which erupted as popular protests in March last year and has escalated into a civil war which activists say has killed more than 32,000 people. The fighting pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad, from the Alawite faith which is linked to Shi’ite Islam, and threatens to draw in regional Sunni Muslim and Shi’ite powers and engulf the whole Middle East, Brahimi has warned. “On the occasion of the blessed Eid al-Adha, the general command of the army and armed forces announces a halt to military operations on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, from Friday morning … until Monday,” an army statement read on state television said. It reserved the right to respond if “the armed terrorist groups open fire on civilians and government forces, attack public and private properties, or use car bombs and explosives”. It would also respond to any reinforcement or re-supplying of rebel units, or smuggling of fighters from neighboring countries “in violation of their international commitments to combat terrorism”. Qassem Saadeddine, head of the military council in Homs province and spokesman for the FSA joint command, said his fighters were committed to the truce. “But we not allow the regime to reinforce its posts. We demand the release of the detainees, the regime should release them by tomorrow morning,” he said. Abu Moaz, spokesman for Ansar al-Islam, said the Islamist group doubted Assad’s forces would observe the truce, though it might suspend operations if they did. “We do not care about this truce. We are cautious. If the tanks are still there and the checkpoints are still there then what is the truce?” he said of the organization, which includes several brigades fighting in the capital and Damascus province. Brahimi’s predecessor, former UN chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan. Violence has intensified since then, with daily death tolls compiled by opposition monitoring groups often exceeding 200. UN sees aid window UN aid agencies have geared up to take advantage of any window of opportunity provided by a ceasefire to go to areas that have been difficult to reach due to fighting, a UN official in Geneva said. “UN agencies have been preparing rapidly to scale up especially in areas that have been difficult to reach due to active conflict and which may become accessible as a result of these developments,” he told Reuters. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said that it had prepared emergency kits for distribution for up to 13,000 families – an estimated 65,000 people – in previously inaccessible areas including Homs and the northeastern city of Hassaka. “We and our partners want to be in a position to move quickly if security allows over the next few days,” UNHCR Syria Representative Tarik Kurdi in Damascus said in a statement. The UN World Food Programme has identified 90,000 people in 21 hotspots from Aleppo to Homs and Latakia in need food parcels and will try to reach them through local agencies, the U.N. official said. Aleppo fighting Yesterday rebels seized two northern districts in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, activists said. “We have just liberated Ashrafiyeh and the Syriac quarter,” a rebel fighter said, referring to areas which had been held by Kurdish militias and troops loyal to Assad. Rebels were still fighting around the Rahman Mosque district and trying to besiege a security building, he added. Activists said at least 14 people were killed. It was not clear if the dead were fighters or civilians. Later on Thursday activists reported that the Aleppo districts of al-Shaar, Bani Zeid and Saladin had come under army bombardment. They also said there had been heavy fighting in the last few hours near Tel Kalakh, situated near the Lebanese border west of Homs where the army had used heavy artillery to hit the Sunni rebel stronghold. In Geneva, Carla del Ponte, a former United Nations war crimes prosecutor, vowed on Thursday to bring to justice high-level Syrian political or military figures who may have ordered or committed war crimes. Del Ponte, who has joined a team of UN human rights investigators on Syria, said she would help compile evidence which could be used in an international tribunal or Syrian national court. - Reuters |
| China’s year of political surprises not over yet Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:36 PM PDT
Just weeks away from the once-in-a-decade succession, the full make-up of China’s next leadership and its agenda are unknown and still being negotiated in secret – in contrast to the very public leadership battle underway in the United States. One of the few things known with almost total certainty is that Vice President Xi Jinping will take over as party leader at the congress which opens November 8, leaving dozens of senior positions to be fought over in the political backrooms. Xi then becomes president in March at the annual meeting of parliament. China’s three most powerful men – former President Jiang Zemin, current President Hu Jintao and Hu’s anointed successor, Xi – have tried to minimize any factional in-fighting over the new line-up by coming together to agree a preferred list of candidates for the party’s top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, sources said. But China experts say their plan could still be thwarted. “I think we will have surprises this time … Negotiation is a very complicated process,” said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution think-tank in Washington. “Outsiders have no idea. We probably have only 20 percent of an idea of what’s going on. There will be some last-minute changes, possibly even to the Standing Committee.” The preferred list drawn up by Jiang, Hu and Xi has already delivered a major surprise, with the omission of a top contender, Wang Yang, 57, party boss of southern Guangdong province and viewed by many in the West as a political reformer. His omission could, in turn, have been linked indirectly to the earlier fall of another one-time contender for the Standing Committee, Bo Xilai, a high-flying politician who was ousted this year in China’s biggest political scandal in two decades. Bo was purged after allegations emerged that his wife had murdered a British businessman – she was given a suspended death sentence in August – but he remains a favorite among party leftists who want to slow the pace of market-based reforms. China experts suspect Jiang, Hu and Xi did not want to further provoke the left by backing Wang. “Some people say he’s Bo Xilai on the right – Bo Xilai is on the left and he’s the counterparty on the right – and that the party is equally worried of this person,” said Wang Zhengxu, a senior research fellow at the University of Nottingham’s School of Contemporary Chinese Studies in Britain. However, the process of choosing the standing committee means Jiang, Hu and Xi may not get their way entirely. Backroom deals Front-runners can fall at the final hurdle if, during the congress, delegates fail to elect them as one of the 200-odd full members of the Central Committee, the largest of the party’s elite power-making bodies, or if party elders and current Standing Committee members veto them. The Central Committee has never voted down a Standing Committee front-runner but it famously shot down a candidate to the wider Politburo in 1987, when Deng Liqun, an unpopular conservative ideologue, failed to win a Central Committee seat. The new Standing Committee – which sources say will be cut to seven from nine currently – is hammered out in horse-trading between past, present and future leaders anxious to preserve political power and protect their networks. To avoid surprises, the party held a straw poll earlier this year to informally measure the popularity of the candidates for the Politburo and Standing Committee. The results are unknown. About 70 percent of the current leadership will be replaced at the congress, involving the party, the military and the state, said Cheng of the Brookings Institution. Other key roles, such as the central bank governor, will also likely be decided. The new Standing Committee will not be made public until the end of the congress, when the members will file out from behind a screen in Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People. The backroom politicking can be ruthless, and some experts still rate Wang Yang a chance to join Xi’s top table, and take up the reformist mantle of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao. “I do think Wen Jiabao might want to support him,” said Wang of the University of Nottingham. If he does not get in this time, Wang Yang could move to Beijing to serve as a vice-premier, Wang Zhengxu added. Wang Yang, 57, is young enough to make another run at the Standing Committee at the 2017 congress, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. Dirty politics At this point, among the greatest possible upsets at next month’s congress would be the failure of Vice Premier Wang Qishan, 64, a darling of foreign investors who runs the finance portfolio, and Li Yuanchao, 61, who heads the party’s powerful organization department, to make the Standing Committee. Both men appear on the list backed by Jiang, Hu and Xi, as well as nearly all the lists that have circulated on Chinese websites speculating about the final line-up. Outgoing Standing Committee members can nominate their successors while party elders such as ex-premier and parliament chief Li Peng have veto power over candidates. However, Nottingham’s Wang said one committee member may be decided by election at next month’s congress, possibly for the first time. That would be in keeping with the party’s tentative steps toward more internal democracy since the late 1980s. For the Central Committee, ballots will contain at least 5 percent more names of candidates than seats. Those who fail to get elected can run for election the next day as alternate Central Committee members, who have no voting rights and are not eligible to join the Standing Committee. More than 2,000 delegates to the congress will elect 200-odd full members of the Central Committee. The Central Committee then holds elections to choose the Politburo, Standing Committee, Central Military Commission and the party’s anti-corruption body, though the outcomes have already been decided at this point by the party’s power-brokers. The real threat for a candidate is not in the internal elections, but in the dirty politics that can precede them. In September, Ling Jihua, a close ally of Hu who had been eyeing a promotion to the Politburo and to become head of the party’s organization department, was demoted after press reports that his son was involved in a fatal crash involving a luxury sports car in Beijing. - Reuters |
| Kremlin dismisses talk Putin has back trouble Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:33 PM PDT
Putin, who began a six-year presidential term in May and turned 60 on October 7, was seen to be limping at an Asia-Pacific summit in the Pacific port of Vladivostok in early September. Putin, a former KGB officer who enjoys vast authority at the head of Russia’s so-called ‘vertical’ power structure, has long cultivated a tough-guy image that wouldn’t sit well with a lengthy period on sick leave. Three government sources have told Reuters in recent days that Putin was suffering from back trouble. One said it would require surgery in the near future. Sources said the Russian leader’s schedule was being cleared for early November, including through postponement until late December of a trip to India that had been expected soon. “This does not correspond to reality,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. He said Putin did not have a back problem and did not plan to take time off. “You can see that he is having daily meetings,” Peskov said. He said the earlier limp had been a “sports injury”. Putin did not travel to Pakistan for a planned four-nation summit on Afghanistan earlier this month and did not make an expected trip to Turkey. One source said Medvedev was expected to travel to Turkmenistan in Putin’s stead next week. “The chief is not well,” said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Another said Putin had been seen recently wearing a back brace. “No one has announced this formally, but everyone knows that foreign visits are being canceled because of his illness,” one said. Peskov denied the visits had been canceled. He said the visit to India would take place on the set date in late December and “no other dates have been officially announced”. Healthy image A judo black belt, Putin has in recent years been filmed riding bare-chested on a horse, diving in the Black Sea, skiing in the Caucasus and fighting wildfires from an airplane. His apparent fitness helped bring him early popularity because of the stark contrast with predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, who was sometimes drunk in public and had heart surgery when president in 1996. Putin’s formal role as head of state and his position at the pinnacle of power in Russia, where his blessing is seen as indispensable for everything from legislation to oil deals, makes any illness or medical treatment highly sensitive. At a meeting with foreign analysts and journalists at his residence outside Moscow yesterday, he did not appear to be in pain but, as in other recent public appearances, leant forward in his seat, putting weight on his right forearm. At the Asia-Pacific summit in Vladivostok in September, he was also caught by TV cameras complaining to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that he was on restricted diet. The summit followed an episode in which Putin flew in a delta-winged light aircraft with a flock of cranes that had been bred in captivity, in an attempt to train them to migrate. At the time, Peskov said that Putin had pulled a leg muscle but that he had not sustained the injury in the crane flight. In power as Russia’s president or prime minister since 1999, Putin could remain in the Kremlin until May of 2024, when he would be 71 years old, if he seeks and wins re-election in 2018. His election to a new term in March after four years as prime minister followed the biggest opposition protests of his rule, prompted by suspicions of fraud in a December 2011 parliamentary election won by his ruling United Party. - Reuters |
| Algeria accepts last-resort Mali intervention Posted: 25 Oct 2012 06:29 PM PDT
Africa’s biggest country and a top oil and gas exporter shares a 2,000 km border with Mali and sees itself as the major regional power, wary of any outside interference. It fears military action in Mali could push al Qaeda militants back into southern Algeria as well as triggering a refugee and political crisis, especially among displaced Malian Tuaregs heading north to join tribes in Algeria. Although Algiers would not be able to veto an operation, it would be diplomatically risky for African countries backed by Western powers to intervene in Mali without Algeria’s consent, especially as the conflict could drag on for many months. However, after weeks of diplomatic cajoling led by former colonial power France, Algiers has now reluctantly agreed that foreign troops will be needed to eradicate the Islamist threat. It continues to rule out any direct support to the mission. “At the end of the day, we won’t oppose a military intervention in Mali as long as foreign troops are not stationed on our soil,” said an Algerian source informed about discussions on Mali. With six hostages held by the Islamists and fearful of an attack on home soil, France is eager for swift action. “Algeria now accepts the principle of a military intervention, which wasn’t the case before,” a senior French diplomat said. He said the change in position came after a high-level meeting in the Malian capital Bamako on October 19 that brought regional and international players to the negotiating table. A French defense ministry source said there was “tacit” agreement and that Paris did not expect more from Algiers. Algeria has repeatedly advocated a diplomatic solution in Mali since Tuareg rebels and Islamists captured two thirds of the country after an army coup in Bamako in March. The Islamist militants, some linked to al Qaeda, later hijacked the revolt. The Bamako meeting followed a French-drafted UN Security Council resolution urging Mali to engage in dialogue with Tuareg Islamist rebels Ansar Dine if they cut links with radical groups, a move that satisfied Algiers’ calls for dialogue. Paris had until now considered Ansar Dine among the al Qaeda-linked groups and refused to negotiate with them. The resolution also asked African states and the United Nation for a Mali military intervention plan within 45 days. A second Algerian official said Algiers would do its best to find a diplomatic solution, but could also potentially support Malian troops by providing weapons for a future operation. Terrorist Dens In Washington, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta voiced concern about the presence of al Qaeda’s North African arm, AQIM, in Mali, but stressed the need to work with countries in the region to address it. “We need to work with the nations in the region. They all agree that we’re facing the same threat there from AQIM,” Panetta said, adding any future operations would have to be developed and executed “on a regional basis.” “And so our goal right now is to try to do everything we can to bring those countries together in a common effort to go after AQIM.” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to visit Algeria early next week before a trip to the Balkans, and is expected to press her hosts on Mali. “Mali is one of the subjects that the secretary does want to talk to Algerian officials about,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “So we look forward to continuing that discussion when we’re there on Tuesday.” Diplomats say any intervention in northern Mali is still some months away with a three-phased plan likely to consolidate the south first, followed by an operation to re-take northern cities and finally a mission to go after militants. In anticipation, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told lawmakers extra troops had been sent to secure Algeria’s borders. “We won’t allow any threat to harm our nation,” he said. “Algeria wants to avoid having terrorist dens at its frontiers.” The change in Algeria’s position comes amid an improvement in ties with France 50 years after it gained its independence. In a symbolic gesture before a state visit to Algeria in December, President Francois Hollande acknowledged for the first time last week that Algerians were massacred at a 1961 pro-independence rally in Paris. Historians say more than 200 may have been killed in the police action. Four French ministers, including the foreign and interior ministers, have traveled to Algiers in recent weeks to pave the way for the trip aimed at normalizing relations and ensuring the visit is not clouded by differences over the Mali crisis. “This changes things considerably for Hollande’s trip. We are no longer at risk of a discord over Mali,” said a French diplomatic source. “It’s no longer the idea of a bellicose France demanding intervention and the Algerians saying never.” Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa analyst at Eurasia Group, said there was still a clear red line for Algeria which was that it would not intervene or commit troops. “They are adopting a sort of benevolent neutrality. The Algerians are going to stand by and watch. I can’t see collaboration at any level other than intelligence sharing.” - Reuters |
| Posted: 25 Oct 2012 04:09 AM PDT
Ibrahim Ali, president of the Malay rights group, said Syed Mokhtar's capabilities as a businessmen made him deserving of the government contracts he had won. Bung, an Umno member, said in Parliament this week that the government favoured Syed Mokhtar above other businessmen in dishing out major contracts. He alleged that the tycoon was attempting to control major businesses in the country. "He wants Keretapi Tanah Melayu, he wants Mass Rapid Transit. He wants everything on land, sea and air. Given a chance, he will even do business in the graveyard," Bung said. Ibrahim told a press conference that Bung’s speech gave the wrong impression that the government was interested only in helping one particular person to succeed. "The statement made by Bung has no basis," he said. "The government has helped many other Malay businessmen to succeed." Citing the tycoon’s flagship business, Port Tanjung Pelepas (PTP), Ibrahim said Syed Mokhtar had managed to turn the Johor port into a success story in the face of many hurdles. "Even Singapore is feeling the pinch of losing some of their port based businesses due to PTP. If he’s doing a good job, what’s wrong with giving more business to him?" He added that Syed Mokhtar was also a charitable man, unlike many other business tycoons in Malaysia.
Click here to view the video on YouTube. "Through the Al-Bukhary Foundation, he has built many schools and mosques in the country, but he doesn’t publicise them like some business tycoons who like to just pose with big mock cheques." Ibrahim also used the press conference to criticise Kelantan PAS for insisting on having Nik Aziz Nik Mat continue as chief executive of the state despite his poor health. "It’s shameful statement," he said in reference to an Utusan Malaysia report quoting Kelantan exco Takiyuddin Hassan as saying that Kelantan PAS wanted Nik Aziz to contest in the 13th general election. "They are only thinking of riding on Nik Aziz’s popularity to the general election," Ibrahim said. "They are not thinking about how to develop Kelantan." He said a menteri besar should be physically fit. "How is Nik Aziz going to perform if he is going in and out of hospital all the time?" Also read: Bung Mokhtar hits out at Syed Mokhtar, Zeti |
| KL shares end higher, CI hit new all-time high Posted: 25 Oct 2012 03:18 AM PDT
The benchmark index rose 3.9 points to 1,671.89 after opening at 1,668.52, up 0.53 of a point. Its previous all-time high was at 1,670.16 recorded Friday last week. Mercury Securities head of research Edmund Tham said buying interest was seen in telecommunications, banking and construction stocks. “Bursa Malaysia reacted positively to the news that the United Kingdom’s economy grew 1.0% in the third quarter, lifting the country out of recession,” he told Bernama. He also said the market was higher in line with regional peers, despite negative leads from the US after the Federal Open Market Committee did not say anything new after its meeting ended last night. On the broader market, gainers led losers 391 to 306, with 327 counters unchanged, 614 counters untraded while 25 were suspended. Volume rose to 1.44 billion shares valued at RM1.28 billion from 1.13 billion shares worth RM1.46 billion yesterday. The Finance Index rose 75.42 points to 14,966.77 and the FBM Ace Index was 19.6 points higher at 4,272.33. The FBM Emas Index advanced 19.82 points to 11,356.48, the FBMT100 added 18.14 points to 11,191.75 and the Industrial Index added 9.52 points to 2,907.26. However, the Plantation Index declined 12.04 points to 8,201.71 and the FBM Mid 70 Index fell 17.99 points to 12,231.42. Of the actives, Tiger Synergy gained 6.5 sen to 28.5 sen, TH Heavy Engineering rose one sen to 60.5 sen and Green Packet added five sen to 67 sen. Among heavyweights, Maybank increased three sen to RM9.03, Sime Darby was flat at RM9.80 and CIMB lost two sen to RM7.62. Volume on the Main Market increased to 1.19 billion shares valued at RM1.25 billion from 948.52 million shares worth RM1.43 billion yesterday. Turnover on the ACE Market rose to 119.61 million shares worth RM21.19 million from 97.73 million shares valued at RM19.6 million yesterday. Warrants rose to 125 million shares valued at RM21.19 million from 83.33 million shares worth RM5.61 million previously. Consumer products accounted for 69.47 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 392.29 million, construction 65.2 million, trade and services 438.93 million, technology 97.51 million, infrastructure 12.7 million, finance 26.9 million, hotels 1.18 million, properties 55.11 million, plantations 11.7 million, mining 38,000, REITs 23.05 million and closed/fund 86,600. - Bernama |
| No surnames on voter rolls: SAPP cries foul Posted: 25 Oct 2012 02:19 AM PDT
SAPP Deputy President Eric Majimbum told FMT today that his party recently made a random check of the latest electoral rolls and found that 75 voters in Sepanggar, 55 in Kota Marudu and 12 in Penampang did not have surnames or patronyms. He said this was a new development and SAPP was now checking the rolls for other parliament and state constituencies to see how widespread the trend is. "Without the surnames or the fathers' names, it is impossible to determine the true identities of the voters," he said. "With just 'Abidin' listed, for example, even the village head will not be able to tell whether he is a local or an illegal immigrant." He gave these examples of single names found on the Sepanggar roll: Asiusin, Nurisma, Deezey, Athomas, Sulen, Sanjiv and Heppi. The Penampang roll had Ajammal, Jerry, Munira, Regan and Rohani, and Kota Marudu had Ken, Nunongkapan, Suriawati, Paina and Manika. He said he had been informed that the Election Commission (EC) was aware of the abnormality but could not do anything because these people were registered as voters on the strength of documents confirmed to have been issued by the National Registration Department (NRD). Majimbun, who is the MP for Sepanggar, accused both the EC and NRD of refusing to accept responsibility for irregularities in voter registration. “To whom can this matter be forwarded in order to verify that these voters are citizens and not people who have obtained MyKads illegally?” he asked. Majimbun, who was Kota Kinabalu District Chief and Native Court Chief Judge for about 20 years, said he had never come across names like Kinsui and Rosdiana. "They are supposed to be staying in the village near my Kampung Pomotodan, and yet I do not know them because their fathers' names are not recorded." He said it was against the tradition of the people of Sabah to discard surnames or patronyms. Dubious backgrounds He called on the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants to include the issue in its deliberations. He said the commission must find out how people of dubious backgrounds could be identified as citizens by the NRD and registered as voters by the EC. Majimbun recently made a police report about the theft of his own identity and brought up the matter in Parliament. He said he discovered that the NRD had issued a Mykad bearing his surname and address to a Filipino. The suspect MyKad carried the name Jerome Majimbon and gave his address as Kampung Pomotodon, Jalan Kionsom, Inanam, where Majimbun lives. Many Sabah natives, though related, register their surnames with slight alterations in spelling, such as in this case. “I was surprised because we don’t have a relative with such a name and the people in Kampung Pomotodon are unaware of the existence of such a person in the village,” he said. He later identified the man in question as a Filipino illegal immigrant whose real name is Jerom Maguil. Majimbun also cited the case of one of his constituents who was given "permanent resident" status despite being born in Sabah long before it had joined the Federation of Malaysia. “How is it possible that a Malaysian who has been here for years and years is denied a MyKad and citizenship and yet there are many cases of foreigners who have obtained MyKads?” The state and federal governments have established committees to look into the issue but critics say they have not been able to resolve it. |
| Abolish death penalty for all, says Amnesty Posted: 25 Oct 2012 02:11 AM PDT
In a press statement, the human rights group’s Southeast Asia campaigner Hazel Galang said that the government needed to review all crimes that came with the mandatory death penalty. She said: “Mandatory death sentences prevent judges from exercising their discretion and from considering all factors in a case, including extenuating circumstances.” On top of that, she denounced capital punishment as “cruel and harsh”, contrary to international human rights standards. Hazel was referring to a recent statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz, who said that he would notify Cabinet of a moratorium of all those convicted of drug-trafficking offences in Malaysia. This, he said, was because the Attorney-General’s Chambers was studying the removal of the death penalty for drug crimes. Those found guilty of drug trafficking in Malaysia are sentenced to death. According to Nazri, about 86 Indonesians and nearly 900 Malaysians were on death row here; many of whom were connected with drugs. To this, Hazel said that those caught with more illegal drugs than specified by the law were automatically presumed guilty, which she said was a setback for fair trials. Nazri previously admitted that the death penalty did not actually reduce drug crimes. He said that it punished only the drug mules and not the masterminds, and that it sometimes led reluctant judges to grant acquittals to suspects. |
| Nik Aziz: Umno gagal jaga Melayu, Islam Posted: 25 Oct 2012 02:05 AM PDT
“DAP berani bidas MCA, tetapi Umno takut. Tak boleh harap kepada Umno untuk jaga Islam, jaga Melayu pun tak ke mana,” kata Nik Aziz yang juga merupakan Mursyidul Am PAS dalam suratnya kepada Ahli Parlimen Rasah Anthony Loke. Dua hari lalu semasa sidang Dewan Rakyat Ahli Parlimen Rasah yang juga Ketua Pemuda DAP, Anthony Loke mempertahankan Nik Aziz. “Chua Soi Lek ialah presiden MCA yang paling biadap,” kata Loke sambil menepuk meja. Ketika Perhimpunan Agung MCA minggu lalu, Naib Pengerusi Wanita MCA Datuk Heng Seai Kie telah mendakwa bahawa Nik Aziz membenarkan wanita bukan Islam dirogol. Kenyataan Heng turut disokong oleh presiden MCA, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek. Surat tersebut yang dikeluarkan oleh pejabat Menteri Besar Kelantan dan ditandatangani oleh Setiausaha Politik Nik Aziz, Wan Nik Wan Yusoff turut merakamkan rasa terharu dan terima kasih di atas keberanian Loke mempertahankan Nik Aziz. |
| In the land of ‘gangster-jihadists’ Posted: 25 Oct 2012 01:37 AM PDT
A general from neighboring Burkina Faso and a Swiss government aid worker emerged and joined an Islamist leader sheltering in a tent; they exchanged pleasantries over roast goat and cans of fruit juice. About an hour later, after the Swiss official and Islamist leader had spent five minutes alone in the helicopter, a pick-up truck arrived carrying Beatrice Stockly, a Swiss missionary who had been kidnapped nine days earlier. “I don’t know what they talked about, but soon after the Islamist left the helicopter, the hostage arrived,” said a witness who was on the helicopter that whisked Stockly, who arrived wearing a veil, to freedom. “The first thing that she did was remove the veil and eat a bar of Swiss chocolate.” Such exchanges – usually secret – lie at the heart of a multi-million dollar kidnap and ransom industry in West Africa’s dry north. Governments, including the Swiss, deny paying ransoms, but deals are done, according to U.S. officials and Swiss government reports. Alongside networks smuggling everything from cigarettes to guns, people and drugs, they form a lucrative criminal economy that has helped drive this year’s implosion in Mali, a state that has lost control of an area in its north bigger than France. Flush with cash, Al Qaeda-linked gunmen – dubbed “gangster-jihadists” by French parliamentarians – are now key players in a web of Islamists and criminal networks recruiting hundreds of locals, including children, and a trickle of foreign fighters. Among the shifting alliances, Al Qaeda’s North Africa wing, known as AQIM, has forged links with Malian Tuareg Islamists, and MUJWA, a group that splintered off from AQIM but still operates loosely with it. Islamic rule The Islamists, who advocate a political ideology based on Islam, are trying to impose a strict form of sharia law. At least three suspected criminals have been stoned to death or executed by firing squad in Mali while several others have had hands and feet amputated. Almahamoud, a man from Ansongo who was accused – wrongly, he says – of stealing cattle, suffered an amputation in August. “They cut off my hand to make an example of me,” he said. “They will continue mutilating people to impose their authority. I don’t know how I will live with just one hand.” Traditional, moderate Islamic customs have been crushed. Music is banned, women cover themselves with veils and residents are flogged for smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. Ancient religious shrines central to the Sufi Islam practiced by many Malians have been smashed because they are deemed illegal by the hardliners. The Islamists say they have been helped by the criminal economy – including payments from the West. “It is the Western countries that are financing terrorism and jihad through their ransom payments,” said Oumar Ould Hamaha, who said he spoke on behalf of MUJWA. Referring to the various Islamist groups, he added: “We are separate but we all have the same aim, to fight for Islam.” For the region and the West, the challenge is to wrest back control of a vast desert area that, for now, is a safe haven for extremists and criminals. The stakes are high. With large airplane runways in Gao, Timbuktu, Kidal and Tessalit under Islamist control, Mali’s north threatens to become a free-for-all for traffickers and terrorists. “Their common interest is the lack of a state,” said a former senior Malian intelligence official when asked to explain the relationships between AQIM, which has moved from peripheral to powerful force in the region, and other Islamist groups and criminal networks. “Fundamentally that is what links these people.” Ransom millions The Sahara’s modern-day ransom industry has its roots in February 2003, when a group of 32 European tourists were snatched in Algeria by the Salafist Group of Preaching and Combat, known as the GSPC. Some of the hostages were rescued by Algerian security forces, but the rest were freed after US$5 million was paid by at least one European government, according to Stephen Ellis, an expert on organized crime and professor at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, who has followed the Islamist group over the past decade. “It set a precedent,” said Ellis. The GSPC later declared allegiance to al Qaeda, changed its name to AQIM and turned its southern wing into a money-making operation. “They were back in business with that first round of payments,” Ellis said. In the years that followed, more than 20 other Westerners were kidnapped across the Sahel-Sahara band. Leaked cables from 2008 and 2009 from the US embassy in Mali’s capital, Bamako, record sources telling diplomats that AQIM had offered to pay as much as US$100,000 for captured Westerners, so long as they were not American, in the hope of extracting even higher ransoms. The gangster-jihadists knew Washington did not pay ransoms – but that other countries did. Western and regional security officials say kidnapping subsequently earned AQIM tens of millions of dollars, although no figures have ever been confirmed. Switzerland has come closest to indicating the sums involved, though still officially denying it has paid any ransoms. A Swiss government report in 2010 confirmed the country had spent 5.5 million Swiss francs (US$5.9 million) the previous year to free two hostages held in Mali. A separate parliamentary statement revealed that about two million francs went on paying Swiss staff involved in the operation. A spokesman for the department of external affairs declined to say where the rest of the money had gone. “There is no hostage that has been released without a ransom. You have to be realistic,” a senior West African official who has direct knowledge of hostage negotiations told Reuters. “The West has financed AQIM by paying ransoms for hostages.” The money has allowed the group to buy food, fuel, weapons and favor among local populations in remote zones of Mali’s north. Fees have risen, too – AQIM is currently demanding 90 million euros (US$117 million) for the release of four French workers seized from a uranium mine in Niger in late 2010. In Mali’s north, residents have little doubt they are seeing the results of ransom payments. In August, rank-and-file members of MUJWA in the town of Gao were given large wads of cash soon after an Italian and two Spanish hostages were freed, according to two residents, both of whom had friends or contacts within the organization. One resident said the minimum payment was about $300. Djibril Yalga, who repairs mobile and satellite telephones on a dusty street corner in Gao, said business was booming under Islamist rule and fighters with cash were ready to spend it to keep locals happy. “Lots of people – mostly gunmen – come to charge their phones,” he said, as Islamists perched nearby on pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns. “They pay well and seldom try and bargain. They let me keep the change.” Following the money When a coup in March removed President Amadou Toumani Toure, it revealed a deep rot in a country once seen as a model of democracy for the region. Bamako had tried to run Mali’s north through alliances with a local elite involved in criminality – rather than by tackling long-standing issues – and that accelerated the collapse as a power vacuum persisted. AQIM’s Sahara wing, led by two Algerians, Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Abou Zeid, has extended its influence partly through loose alliances. Its partners include Ansar Dine, a group of Tuareg-led rebels seeking to impose sharia, and the Arab-dominated MUJWA, say both local and Western officials. Money from criminal enterprises has enabled the Islamists to outgun rival rebel groups. “(The Islamists) can afford to pay people but we cannot,” said Mohamed Attaher, a senior official with MNLA, a rebel group that kicked off an uprising in January but in June was pushed out of areas it controlled by MUJWA. The United Nations has evidence that Islamists enlisting children in Mali’s north are paying their families a one-off fee of about $600 for each new young fighter, plus monthly payments of about US$400, according to Ivan Simonovic, the UN’s Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. Reuters journalists travelling in Islamist-held zones saw a handful of children in the ranks of the armed groups, some working as drivers while others, clad in khaki boubous (flowing robes) and black headbands, showed off how quickly they could take apart and re-assemble their AK47s. US-based Human Rights Watch estimates hundreds of children, some as young as 12, have been recruited into the Islamists’ ranks. “There are young fighters – our doors are open to everyone,” said Ould Hamaha, the MUJWA spokesman. “If they are very young we will be able to train them. It is not a problem.” The drug connection As well as ransoms, drug money is funding the rebels and terrorists. The Sahara has become a transit point not just for hashish but also for some of the Latin American cocaine and Afghan heroin destined for Europe. For those who know the desert, such as Mohamed, a young Arab-Tuareg from Timbuktu, the trade has been a bonanza. Having ferried subsidized fuel from Algeria to sell at a profit in Mali’s north, he was approached to switch to a more lucrative alternative: becoming a driver on cocaine runs. Mohamed said loads of cocaine would be dropped in the desert and he would collect $3,000 per trip to ferry drugs to a given location. After several successful deliveries, he sometimes even got to keep the car. “With this money I was able to organize three wedding ceremonies – how could I have done this with the other job?” he said, speaking to Reuters in Timbuktu. “As for the security – if you smuggle fuel and are arrested you face a fine and lose your product. With drugs, as we say in the trade 'someone else takes care of that.’” Mohamed, who had shifted between smugglers and rebel groups, was referring to the common suspicions of complicity between some traffickers and civilian and military authorities in the north. Similar accounts were repeated by others in the north, where new buildings, expensive cars and other ostentation hint at the money being made from drugs. In Gao, the biggest town in Mali’s north, multi-storey Mediterranean-style villas surrounded by high, whitewashed walls and ornate gates have popped up amid the grinding poverty. Ben Essayouti, secretary general of Timbuktu’s branch of the Malian Human Rights League and a teacher, said: “People came in from the desert with suitcases full of cash. Sometimes the bank opened on holidays just for them.” Links between drug smugglers and Islamists, and the way in which funds are generated for AQIM, are more nuanced than in the ransom business. Hilary Renner, a spokeswoman for the US Department of State, said of AQIM’s role in the drugs trade: “They do not control the means of production but they do provide ‘protection’ and permissions for traffickers moving product through areas they control.” Traffickers arrested in Mauritania last year told authorities there that a convoy of hashish would have to pay US$50,000 to pass through AQIM-controlled territory, according to a Western law enforcement official in the region. But few people in Gao or Timbuktu now differentiate between criminals and jihadists. Essayouti said he had witnessed how the two cooperate. “When AQIM came into Timbuktu, we saw that they were together. The drug traffickers and AQIM look after each other.” Bamako-based diplomats and local residents in Gao say ties between traffickers and Islamists are even stronger in that town; they cited names of businessmen and local politicians allegedly connected to the drugs trade and now seen as cooperating with MUJWA. Ould Hamaha, who said he spoke for MUJWA, said the group had no links with drug traffickers. The west’s dilemma Reflecting frustrations with the ransoms that help finance terrorist groups, David Cohen, US undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, toured Europe in October to try and forge a common position on dealing with kidnappings. For many observers, however, the damage has already been done. Regional and Western nations scrambling to resolve Mali’s crisis are caught between mounting a hurried, and potentially ill-prepared, military operation, and the danger of giving the Islamists and their allies time to dig in. As diplomats prepare a UN resolution to back military intervention, there is also talk of negotiations. The task is complicated by the array of allied players – Islamists, traffickers and some opportunistic youth – who, for now, see no advantage in bowing to Mali government control. “It makes it more difficult as it is not clear how you have to approach them,” said Pierre Lapaque, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for West Africa. To persuade groups to distance themselves from terrorism and organized crime, unsavory bargains may have to be made. “In the short term, if the Malian government wants to win back the north, it will have to strike deals with some of these groups,” said Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “The difficult question is how you stop … their positions being strengthened.” - Reuters |
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