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- Kikis tanggapan semua kerajaan sama – Isa Samad
- MIC snubs Najib-Hindraf talk
- Salang: Be wary of anti-government NGOs
- The great green zone sell-off in Kota Kinabalu
- Umno sudah kehilangan hidayah
- PKR kesal Umno guna kem tentera
- Pro-govt mega NGO rally on Nov 24
- More flood victims in Selangor
- 7 ways to beat wrinkles
- Bigots, cronies, tyrants and thugs
- Why your boyfriend is bad news
- Mahabharata – Bahagian 6
- NFC will bring BN down
- Do away with natural life sentence
- China invests in Central America, but isn’t buying
- No social protection for India’s elderly
- Hernandez inspires United comeback win at Villa
- Comeback kings United revive memories of ’99 vintage
- Arsenal’s Wenger struggling for answers after new setback
- Murray came of age after Wimbledon heartache – Federer
- Federer loses to Del Potro, faces Murray in semis
- Gaza flares as Israel hits back killing five
- Spain’s politicians pledge to stop evictions after suicide
- BBC director general resigns over “shoddy journalism”
- US denies Russia request for convicted arms dealer
- China turns corner on economy as party chooses new leaders
- Fleeing fallen Syrian town, refugees fear Assad’s air power
- Ecuador’s Correa to seek re-election, clear favorite
- Wife of American jailed in Cuba pins hopes on Obama’s re-election
- Opinion poll shows Greek opposition pulling ahead
- Yemen tribal leader held under house arrest over al Qaeda ties
| Kikis tanggapan semua kerajaan sama – Isa Samad Posted: 11 Nov 2012 03:31 AM PST
Pengerusi Felda Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad berkata hanya kerajaan yang mempunyai pengalaman, wawasan dan program pembangunan yang realistik mampu membela nasib rakyat termasuk golongan muda. “Jangan ada pemikiran bahawa siapapun Perdana Menteri, siapapun kerajaan, semua keadaan akan sama, tidak boleh ada pemikiran ini,” katanya ketika berucap menutup Himpunan Generasi Baharu Felda di Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), di sini hari ini. Beliau berkata negara kini sedang berdepan dengan cabaran besar kerana ada “makhluk perosak” yang sentiasa mengkritik bagi menimbulkan kebencian dan kemarahan terhadap institusi berkaitan kerajaan. Katanya, golongan muda termasuk generasi baharu Felda perlu menjauhkan diri daripada golongan seumpama itu dan bersatu bagi menentang pihak berkenaan yang dilihat cuba memecah belah serta menggugat keharmonian dan kemajuan negara. Mohd Isa berkata golongan muda juga jangan terlalu mudah percaya dengan janji manis pihak tertentu yang cuba menarik perhatian dan sokongan, sedangkan apa yang dijanjikan tidak masuk akal. Selain itu, beliau mengingatkan generasi baharu Felda supaya sentiasa mempunyai minat untuk menyambung pengajian mereka demi masa depan yang lebih terjamin dan tidak diperdaya oleh pihak tidak bertanggungjawab. Beliau berkata kerajaan serius dalam memberi fokus kepada golongan muda termasuk menyediakan banyak peluang pekerjaan menerusi tranformasi ekonomi yang juga memanfaatkan generasi baharu Felda. Katanya melalui Unit Pengurusan Prestasi dan Pelaksanaan (Pemandu) sahaja sebanyak 3.3 juta peluang pekerjaan diwujudkan; 75,000 daripadanya adalah dalam sektor makanan yang boleh direbut oleh generasi baharu Felda. “Generasi baharu Felda perlu merebut peluang yang disediakan, sekali gus menjadi aset bukan sahaja kepada Felda tetapi juga agama, bangsa dan negara pada masa depan termasuk dalam usaha Malaysia menjadi negara maju pada 2020,” kata beliau. |
| Posted: 11 Nov 2012 12:51 AM PST
He also shunned the idea that such talk was a sign of the premier's deteriorating confidence on MIC. "Let it be within the PM and Hindraf. I don’t worry about (PM’s) confidence, MIC's support has increased a lot among the public. "I don't worry what the Hindraf and PM are talking about. I am not going to interfere," he said when met by reporters after a Deepavali celebration here today. Palanivel's comment came amid an announcement made by Minister of Prime Minister Department Nazri Abdul Aziz on Wednesday that Najib has invited Hindraf and other Indian groups for a discussion. Yesterday, Hindraf cast aspersions on the sincerity of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's invitation, saying that it could be related to the general election. However it was willing to talk to the government for the sake of the Indian community. Keeping mum on Batu Caves project Meanwhile, the MIC president dodged questions on the 29-storey condominium project near Batu Caves Hindu temple, two weeks after Pakatan Rakyat leaders showed evidence that MIC councillors were involved in approving the project in 2007. "No, we have already settled it now. Let me make no further comment on that. Now its Deepavali time, don't talk about Batu Caves at the moment," he said. When asked again about his earlier call for a nationwide protest against Pakatan-led Selangor government, he replied: "We will be settling it. You don't stir up a lot of things now." The Minister in Prime Minister Department also hit out at DAP for "talking rubbish" over its allegation that MIC has politicised the Deepavali celebration by using the Batu Caves temple to host its open house. "We have been doing (open house) for so many years, and most of the time it was the people and not party members who come. "DAP got no other works to do, they are jobless," he said. Palanivel also said that the Indian sentiment towards BN has greatly improved since 2008 as Najib was resolving many issues plaguing the community. |
| Salang: Be wary of anti-government NGOs Posted: 10 Nov 2012 11:58 PM PST
He said while the people could welcome those with the right objectives, they should be wary of those out to simply instigate them against the government. He said this when launching the state-level Komuniti 1Malaysia Himpunan Kasih Sayang gathering organised by the state Information Department at Rh.Jelian, Nanga Matop near here today. “Just yesterday, I was told a NGO group had came to Pakan where the organisers invited local longhouse chiefs to come for a gathering at a longhouse. “Towards the end of the gathering, they begun to talk about the perimeter survey initiative of the government which they alleged was just a ploy of the government to allow elected representatives to seize land of the people,” he said. Salang said the majority of the longhouse chiefs, disappointed with such blatant accusations, left the gathering. “These NGOs if they want to talk about politics, should not use their organisation to talk about politics. “It is better that you use the platform of political parties that you are aligned to so as not to confuse the people,”he said. Salang who has been re-nominated by state BN component party Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) to defend his Julau parliamentary seat for his fourth term, said the perimeter survey was to basically decide the boundaries between state and NCR (Native Customary Right) lands. “It is the intention of the government to later do the individual survey to give landowners the title to their lands,” he said. On the coming election, he said the people should not regard it as a cockfighting contest. “It is a very serious business. It is about electing the government of the day. It is about charting the path for the country’s future development and progress and the people’s wellbeing and prosperity,” he said. At the function Salang presented food items, wheelchairs and financial aid to selected rural folks. - Bernama |
| The great green zone sell-off in Kota Kinabalu Posted: 10 Nov 2012 11:37 PM PST
So far, so good. Your leaders are concerned. Their reassuring sentiments are in keeping with the global trends of conscientious living and respect for the surroundings. Is anyone following their advice? Over here in Sabah, they’re not so interested. It’s a passing fad. Environmental armageddon be damned. Balanced development for a better quality of life is not yet a priority here even if the prime minister and his cabinet endorse it. The Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) is besides itself with rage over the vapid response by the government to environmental offences. They show how hills have been levelled, protected forests razed and marine ecosystems destroyed without so much as a slap on the wrist by enforcement authorities. They’ve complained loudly, exposed projects as inherently hare-brained, launched campaigns and filed legal suits to stop the rot but the property development juggernaut is ploughing ahead and some are concerned about the direction local authorities are taking them. City authorities want growth and the city has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades, fed mainly by immigrants. But after initially sprawling outward, the focus now seems to be to allow the takeover of precious green areas within the city. Property prices are high, developers are making urgent demands and the local authorities are shortsighted. In their rush to urbanise this seaside city, they are pushing ahead with plans to turn the last few remaining untouched parkland-like areas in the city into a concrete jungle. Among those to be carved up by the developers’ bulldozers is the iconic Signal Hill overlooking the city’s seafront, much to the chagrin of its well-heeled residents. A 13-storey condominium has been approved on the hill notorious for landslips. Some of the properties there date back to the time of British colonial rule and among them is the Istana and the stately British governor’s residence which is now owned by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and houses its branch manager. Hills are going According to some, expensive high-rise condominium blocks are set to be built by some well-connected businessmen on what is now a forested hill and a haven for birds, insects and some small wildlife. But the haphazard urban planning that is eroding the quality of life in what used to be a naturally scenic seaside town is not limited to the largish green zones that have lost their protection. Children’s playgrounds in housing layouts have not been spared. Many are now the sites of public or private buildings in violation of local authorities’ regulations. The city’s once idyllic Tanjong Aru Beach has also not been spared. An iron-girder and glass-clad structure now takes up most of the main beachfront. Many of its famed casuarina or ‘aru’ trees that fringe the beach have been chopped down.
The iron bars over the drains that presumably are there to prevent strollers from stepping in are bent at a dangerous angle in some places and threaten to impale the unwary. All this is guarded by an automated gate at the entrance to the beachfront parking lot and as you exit you pay for the privilege at the parking toll booth. “If all this was put up to beautify this beach, its more like a facelift for Halloween,” joked an expatriate living close by. The beach development is just a stone’s throw from some expensive condominiums across the road and about 500 meters from a 5-star hotel. Other long-time residents lament that the city is losing its character due to poor planning. They say mistakes have been compounded by more mistakes and they are suspicious that town planners do not have a clue about how to develop the city into a pleasant place to live. They point to the bizarre, monster-size replicas of fish, prawns, flower, fruits and and similar objects as City Hall’s way of decorating roundabouts and other strategic places to give character to the city. “They look like toys strewn around by children. They don’t reflect anything about this state or city or have any decorative value or even make people think, opined a local artist. “It’s becoming like any other city and that’s a pity because KK has its own identity that has been painstakingly built up since the time of the colonial government,” commented Richard Nelson Sokial, an architect who helped found a pressure group hoping to preserve the remaining vestiges of Sabah’s ‘character’. Dubious re-zonings Buildings and structures dating back to Sabah’s pre-independence days are on their radar.
Over in Kudat, about three hours drive from here, a bitumen road leading to a promontory heralded as the ‘Tip of North Borneo’ has unnecessarily disfigured a splendid beach beside it. It’s no better at the hill overlooking the northern most tip of Borneo island. A huge concrete parking lot radiating waves of heat seems to detract from the beauty of the spot. The ‘beautification’ blunders don’t end there. Many are still enraged by the idiocy of local authorities who chopped down a magnificent, century-old tree in the centre of an interior town to make way for a public toilet. The incident was carried prominently in local newspapers and elicited remarks of regret from senior government figures. The tree is now history and the public toilet has been sited elsewhere. Meanwhile, local authorities are attempting a kind of very clever two-step to avoid criticism and to show that they too are concerned about dwindling green spots in this seaside city. Earlier this year they launched a costly tree planting programme. |
| Posted: 10 Nov 2012 11:36 PM PST
Masalah UMNO ialah masalah yang diwujudkan olehnya sendiri. Tengku Adnan Mansor berkata, sebenarnya UMNO itu tidak ada masalah, hanya parti itu menghadapi masalah persepsi sahaja. Kata-kata Setiausaha Agong UMNO ini menampakkan satu fenomena, iaitu parti itu benar-benar terasa masalah-masalah yang dihadapi oleh parti itu. Menteri Dalam Negeri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein juga pernah berkata persepsi buruk itu telah berjaya ditempelkan pada UMNO dan semua sekutunya dalam BN oleh pihak-pihak yang berkepentingan. Komen saya senang sahaja. Untuk satu-satunya persepsi itu melekat kepada UMNO itu mesti ada sebabnya. Persepsi-persepsi buruk terhadap UMNO itu bukannya wujud dengan sekelip mata dan ia tidak wujud dengan senang sahaja. Ia tentunya wujud di atas isu yang 'real' dan nyata. Jika isu terhadap UMNO ini tidak 'real' bagaimana persepsi buruk itu boleh melekat dan menjadi 'stigma' yang tidak dapat ditanggalkan lagi dengan parti yang telah memerintah sejak merdeka dahulu. Dalam politik, persepsi rakyat itulah yang menjadi penentu samada parti itu kekal kukuh atau dilontarkan jauh-jauh oleh rakyat. Sebenarnya UMNO sememangnya sudah patut diketepikan lama dahulu kerana isu besar yang telah menyakitkan rakyat begitu banyak di hadapan mata kita. Tetapi semasa itu rakyat belum lagi menyedari yang perubahan itu adalah elemen penting untuk berlaku di dalam sesebuah negara yang telah matang dan lama bebas memerintah sendiri. UMNO kini sedang dikaitkan oleh rakyat dengan senarai-senarai negatif yang terlalu banyak sehinggakan parti itu telah dipersepsikan sebagai sebuah parti yang bermasalah besar. UMNO telah membiarkan segala perkara buruk untuk berlaku di dalamnya kerana pimpinan parti itu sejak 30 tahun dahulu tidak menghiraukan isu mempertahankan imej yang baik dengan serius. Pucuk pimpinan negara dalam tiga dekad yang lalu lebih mementingkan kehendak peribadi mereka sahaja dan tidak mengangkat jari untuk memperbetulkannya. Tetapi apabila masalah sudah menjadi besar barulah pimpinan UMNO bergegas untuk memperbaikinya dan usaha ini sudah terlalu lambat kerana yang hendak menyelesaikan masalah-masalah ini adalah di kalangan mereka yang terbabit dengan isu-isu yang besar di dalam negara sekarang ini. Persepsi buruk bukan datang dengan saja-saja. Misalnya bagaimana hendak menolak persepsi buruk terhadap kerajaan dalam isu NFC misalnya. Tidak payah kita melarutkan isu ini oleh kerana semua orang sudah memahami tentang isu ini. Bukankah isu pembinaan stesen LRT Ampang itu merupakan isu penyelewengan yang 'real'? Bagaimana rakyat tidak terbentuk persepsi buruk terhadap pimpinan kita kerana jelas-jelasnya harganya yang ditambah terhadap kontrak pembinaan stesen itu mencecah hampir RM1 billion? Isu PKFZ yang melibatkan RM12 billion, kerugian perdagangan wang antarabangsa yang dilakukan oleh Nor Mohamad Yakcop atas arahan Dr Mahathir Mohamad yang melibatkan kerugian RM30 billion dan banyak lagi isu yang sangat besar berlaku di hadapan mata kepala kita. Isu pembotakan hutan yang dilakukan oleh penyangak hutan di Negeri Sembilan yang melibatkan keluasan 8,616 ekar tanah hutan simpan yang ada di Negeri Sembilan. Isu perlakuan pemimpin-pemimpin Barisan Nasional (BN) yang bersikap seperti gangster seperti Nazri Aziz. Kalau dahulu Nazri diisukan dengan permit teksi yang beribu-ribu permit yang beliau ambil, sekarang timbul isu menggunakan kuasa melindungi Micheal Chia dan Musa Aman tentang wang misteri sebanyak RM40 million itu. Nazri mempunyai seorang anak yang hidup seperti 'anak maharaja Arab' dengan kereta besar yang begitu sombong dan anaknya ini telah dikaitkan dengan banyak isu-isu jenayah yang diketahui umum. Cakap-cakap takbur Nazri kita dengar selalu. Beliau seolah-olah seorang yang begitu besar dan kuat seperti dunia ini pun dia boleh alihkan. Sikap kesombongannya seolah-olah beliau mampu untuk menahan dunia ini daripada menghadapi kiamat. Apabila umum mengetahui isu-isu ini dan mereka lihat dilakukan oleh pemimpin dan keluarga yang berkuasa pula, maka dengan sendirinya persepsi buruk terhadap UMNO itu terbentuk kerana tidak ada contoh-contoh peribadi yang baik dalam pimpinan BN pada hari ini. Sikap mengaut kekayaan dengan menggunakan pengaruh keluarga dan pimpinan UMNO sudah menjadi budaya pada hari ini. Anak-anak Dr Mahathir kaya-raya dengan pengaruh Mahathir yang telah menjadi PM selama 22 tahun. Anak-anak Dr Mahathir berniaga dengan jalan mudah tanpa menggunakan kepakaran mereka kerana jika mengalami kerugian pun Mahathir telah menggunakan dana rakyat dalam jumlah yang berbillion untuk menyelamatkan perniagaan anak beliau (Mahathir). Satu persatu pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO ada isu peribadi bersama mereka. Tidak ada yang tidak melakukan jenayah 'kolar putih' di antara mereka. Rakyat sekarang sudah sampai ke tahap hilang sabar dan mereka sedar UMNO dan pimpinannya tidak mungkin boleh pulih daripada ketagih rasuah ni. Justeru orang Melayu dan rakyat keseluruhannya mahukan BN dibersarakan dari memimpin negara ini. Persepsi UMNO sudah terlalu buruk dan tidak mungkin mampu dipulihkan lagi. Jadi apa yang dikatakan oleh Setiausaha Agong UMNO yang UMNO hanya bermasalah dengan persepsi, kita nyatakan dengan jelas di sini yang persepsi-persepsi buruk itu semuanya terlandas di atas isu yang 'real' dan sahih. Di atas persepsi yang buruk inilah kita rakyat akan melakukan apa sahaja yang halal mengikut undang-undang untuk mengenepikan BN kali ini kerana isu-isu buruk yang real yang dilakukan oleh pimpinan BN pada hari ini. Kepada Hishamudin dan Tengku Adnan yang ramai menganggap masih seorang 'novice' dalam politik ini, elok memahami isu yang sebenar yang mereka sedang hadapi. Tetapi mereka tidak mungkin faham apa dia UMNO itu kerana mereka menyertai UMNO setelah UMNO dalam proses kehancuran yang sudah hilang segala-galanya, dari perjuangan sehinggalah ke identiti parti mereka sendiri. Mereka ini menganggap mentadbir UMNO dan negara ini serupa seperti mentadbir sebuah 'kilang padi' sahaja. UMNO sudah hilang pimpinan yang mempunyai pemikiran. Yang ada dalam UMNO hari ini hanyalah mereka yang tidak tahu atau tidak mahu berfikir atau tidak tahu apa yang hendak difikirkan. Mereka mentadbir hanya dengan menggunakan kaki, tendang orang ke sana ke mari kerana mereka tidak mengerti untuk berfikir dengan menggunakan otak anugerah Tuhan yang membezakan di antara manusia dan haiwan. Oleh kerana pimpinan UMNO kurang berkemampuan untuk berfikir, kali ini biar rakyat yang memikirkannya dan kita lihat apa yang mereka (rakyat) lakukan tidak lama lagi dalam pilihanraya nanti. Mungkin cara untuk membuatkan pimpinan UMNO ini untuk belajar berfikir ialah dengan meletakkan di sebelah pembangkang di setiap Dewan Legislatif, samada di Persekutuan atau di Negeri-Negeri yang terlindung di dalam Tanah Persekutuan ini. – http://aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com |
| PKR kesal Umno guna kem tentera Posted: 10 Nov 2012 11:34 PM PST
Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Sikamat dari PKR, Aminuddin Harun dalam sidang akhbar tengahari tadi, mendedahkan kepada media sepucuk surat pekeliling yang dipercayai ditandatangani dan dikirimkan oleh Ketua Bahagian Umno Seremban, Datuk Ishak Ismail kepada semua penduduk Sikamat. Beliau menjemput penduduk hadir ke 'Majlis Jamuan Mesra Rakyat bersama Warga Kem Sikamat' pada malam ini di Perkarangan Kem Rejimen Ke-4, Artileri DiRaja Malaysia, Sikamat (Kem Sikamat). "Saya kesal kerana Umno dibenarkan mengadakan program dalam kem tentera itu sendiri. Surat jemputan mempunyai kepala surat (letter head) berlambang Umno. "Apa yang mengejutkan Pegawai Pemerintah Kem Sikamat turut dijadualkan memberi ucapan pada program tersebut malam ini. Sikap kecuali 'apolitical' tentera sudah tidak ada lagi. "Selain itu Ketua Umno Bahagian Seremban juga dijadualkan berucap. Bagi pihak PKR dan Pakatan Rakyat, saya amat risau dengan cara kempen dalam kem tentera. Sepatutnya tentera bersikap berkecuali. "Saya mahu Menteri Pertahanan, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yang turut dijadualkan berucap pada malam ini memberi penjelasan apakah parti politik dibenarkan menganjurkan program dalam kem tentera. "Jika dibenarkan maka saya selaku ADUN di kawasan ini juga ingin mengadakan program mesra rakyat bersama warga Kem Sikamat dan semua penduduk Sikamat dalam perkarangan Kem Sikamat," kata Aminuddin dengan nada sinis. Aminuddin juga mempersoalkan apakah kem tentera yang sepatutnya menjadi kawasan larangan boleh membenarkan orang awam hadir. "Apakah rahsia dan keselamatan kem tentera tidak terdedah kepada umum? Saya harap Pegawai Pemerintah tentera memikirkan semula aspek ini," kata Aminuddin. |
| Pro-govt mega NGO rally on Nov 24 Posted: 10 Nov 2012 11:28 PM PST
Umno information chief and Deputy Minister of Prime Minister Department Ahmad Maslan will head a special secretariat comprising overseas Umno alumni members to hold the rally. So far invitations have been sent out to more than 1,500 NGOs to join the rally, dubbed as the largest NGO gathering in Malaysia. It will be held from 8am to 1pm at Dewan Merdeka, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur. Announcing the details of the rally today, Ahmad said the rally was a gathering between leaders and people who embrace the 1Malaysia spirit. He said each participating NGO would be given a feedback form to voice out their comments on various issues concerning the future of the country, and the secretariat would forward the constructive comments to the government. When asked about the organiser of the rally, Ahmad said that Umno, Barisan Nasional or the federal government did not play a role in the planned rally. "It is organised by the Secretariat Himpunan Barisan 1Malaysia," he said. ‘Not funded by Soros’ Asked whether the event was non-partisan, he said: "Do I look like I am non-partisan? Non-partisan or partisan, I leave it to the public to judge." He stressed that only the Barisan 1Malaysia logo and not BN or Umno logo that would be displayed in the rally. Commenting on Chinese educationist pressure group Dong Zong which plans to stage its own protest against the National Education Blueprint on Nov 25, Ahmad said the group was also invited to the Himpunan Barisan 1Malaysia rally. However, when asked whether Dong Zong should cancel its protest in light of the NGO gathering, Ahmad said it was Dong Zong’s right to hold a rally. "Dong Zong is only one of the 1,500 invited. Their importance is not above the other NGOs. They can do what they want to do. But we want to hear as many people as possible," he said. Apart from NGOs, the rally would also allocate 30 minutes for designated speakers such as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Yayasan 1Malaysia Chandra Muzaffar, social activist Lee Lam Thye, motivational speaker Mohd Fadzilah Kamsah, academic Sivamurugan Pandian and IIUM Rector Zaleha Kamaruddin to talk on issues ranging from economics, politics to crime. |
| More flood victims in Selangor Posted: 10 Nov 2012 08:44 PM PST
According to the National Security Council’s flood portal, there was no change in the number of flood evacuees in Malacca, still at 90 people as of 10am today, while in Johor the number dropped to 235 people from 359 last night. The council said 12 relief centres still remained open in the three states and that no casualties had been reported thus far and neither had there been any road closures because of floods. Meanwhile, the Drainage and Irrigation Department’s website said the water levels of Sungai Langat at Bukit Changgang and Sungai Selangor at Rantau Panjang had exceeded the danger level while Sungai Selangor at Kuala Badong was above the warning level. The department said in Pahang, the water level at the Rempas Dam in Bentong was above the warning level. The department urged people living in the said areas to be on extra alert. - Bernama |
| Posted: 10 Nov 2012 07:51 PM PST
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| Bigots, cronies, tyrants and thugs Posted: 10 Nov 2012 07:44 PM PST
Religious bigots represented by the likes of Hasan Alis, Zulkifli Nordins and the racial bigots represented by the Ibrahim Alis. Their running dogs are now resorting to (i) attacks on the person, and (ii) patronising comments. A specter is indeed haunting our country — the specter of Malaysians reclaiming lost rights. All the powers of the corrupt government have entered into an unholy alliance to exorcise this specter. Religious bigots and feudalists, Umno and its business cronies, Malay supremacist and their secret spies and Trojan horses are all coming together. The specter that is coming back is the specter of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his ilk. It’s bulldozing over us. Post-independence, this country was tugging along on the road of democracy and was doing fine. It was a slow process as Malaysians underwent a period of growing pains. Frankly, we have just begun to learn the dynamics of democracy. Suffrage means people acquire rights to self-determination. Participatory democracy meant, they can define their being and determine their future instead of having their lives run by dictates and central command of a society structured on feudalism – a paramount master and his cabal at the top, enslaving the rest. Malays are beginning to free themselves from being defined and determined by their feudal masters. Power corrupts We are moving away from a central command society to a modern one embracing democracy. We could have matured into a better society faster save for the route being suddenly and rudely interrupted by the emergence of Mahathir. From then onwards, it wasn't tugging along but ‘thug-ging’ along. The thugs and the brown-shirts have taken over. At this stage, it was the general demand for quick and determined government action that became the dominating element. The democratic process is slow in allowing for such desired results. Then, it is the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough to get things done in a jiffy who exercises the greatest appeal. Mahathir furnished society with the qualities it demanded. Mahathir began with good intentions for he was admittedly a good man. But power corrupts and as the saying goes; absolute power corrupts absolutely. The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and is now a DAP man. He is a FMT columnist. |
| Why your boyfriend is bad news Posted: 10 Nov 2012 07:35 PM PST
Jealousy in a relationship is bad for your health Bad moods caused by a relationship is bad for your health Not fighting in a relationship is bad for your health Sleeplessness caused by a relationship is bad for your health Bigger meals and more alcohol in a relationship is bad for your health LINKS |
| Posted: 10 Nov 2012 07:23 PM PST
"Itukah sahaja syaratnya?" "Syarat utama adalah bahawa awak tidak boleh menghentikan penceritaan awak melalui nyanyian sepanjang proses penulisan ini." "Maksudnya?" Vyasa meminta kepastian daripada dewa berkepala gajah yang sedang duduk bersila di hadapannya. "Sebaik sahaja awak menyanyikan satu stanza, saya akan mula menulis kisah itu dalam bentuk tulisan bagi tujuan dokumentasi seperti yang awak impikan." "Benar. Itulah yang saya harapkan." Masih ada nada kemusykilan pada suara Vyasa. "Sebaik sahaja saya selesai mencatat stanza itu dalam bentuk bertulis, awak wajib menyanyikan stanza seterusnya. Boleh?" Vyasa memandang wajah gajah yang dimiliki Ganesha. "Kenapa syarat seperti itu yang diletakkan oleh Ganesha?" Hussain bertanya kepada datuk yang sedang menceritakan mengenai asal-usul teks epik Mahabharata. "Saya rasa syarat yang diletakkan Ganesha tidak patut menjadi masalah atau isu kepada Vyasa. Bukankah maharishyi itu sudah menghafaz keseluruhan kisah yang mahu disampaikannya?" Demikian Hassan pula mencelah. Datuk kepada pasangan kembar itu tersenyum sambil kedua-dua tangannya memegang erat teks Razmnameh yang merupakan terjemahan epik Mahabharata dalam Bahasa Parsi. "Tentulah ada sebab mengapa Dewa Ganesha meletakkan syarat itu. Pada masa yang sama," kata datuk sambil memandang Hassan dan Hussain silih berganti, "jangan lupa bahawa kisah mengenai syarat yang diletakkan itu itu juga dipercayai adalah sebahagian daripada kisah yang diceritakan oleh Vyasa dan direkodkan oleh Ganesha." "Oh, memang absurd," kata Hussain sementara matanya bercahaya merenung ke arah datuk. "Ya, sangat sureal," Hassan menambah. "Jadi, apa yang berlaku selepas itu, datuk?" Datuk meneruskan cerita bahawa Vyasa – maharishyi yang bijak dan berjaya memujuk Brahma dan Ganesha melalui pertapaan – bersetuju dengan syarat yang diletakkan oleh dewa berkepala gajah. "Saya bersetuju dan berjanji akan akur sepenuhnya pada syarat yang diletakkan. Akan tetapi, saya juga perlu mengemukakan syarat tambahan sebagai pelengkap kepada syarat yang anda letakkan itu," kata Vyasa dengan tegas tetapi penuh hormat. Ganesha ketawa sehingga belalainya terangkat dan perut buncit pula terhinggut-hinggut. "Syarat tambahan apa pula yang mahu awak letakkan untuk menguji saya?" Vyasa senyum kecil. Dia sedar bahawa dalam keadaan sekarang, dia tidak boleh meletakkan terlalu banyak syarat. Tambahan pula, dia yang memerlukan bantuan khidmat Dewa Ganesha untuk merakamkan kisah yang mahu diceritakannya dalam bentuk bertulis. Bukan Ganesha yang memerlukan saya, tetapi saya yang memerlukannya. Maka, saya perlu sangat berhati-hati. Demikian fikirnya. "Beginilah. Saya setuju dengan syarat bahawa sebaik sahaja anda selesai menulis satu stanza yang saaya nyanyikan, maka saya perlu segera menyanyikan stanza seterusnya," kata Vyasa dengan penuh diplomatik. "Ya, benar. Itulah syarat saya." "Syarat tambahan saya pula adalah bahawa selepas saya menyanyikan satu stanza, anda wajib memahami sepenuhnya makna kisah yang terkandung dalam stanza berkenaan sebelum mencatatkannya dalam bentuk tulisan." Dewa Ganesha tersenyum sambil mengangguk-angguk. "Saya suka akan permainan ini! Baik, saya setuju dengan syarat yang awak letakkan." – Bersambung minggu depan |
| Posted: 10 Nov 2012 07:06 PM PST
This will be the lesson that Umno and Barisan Nasional will learn in the 13th general election. The Pakatan Rakyat has done a gutsy and commendable job in bringing the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) findings to the forefront. Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's husband Mohd Salleh Ismail’s dealings have been a common gossip among a small circle but it was PKR’s strategy director Rafizi Ramli that crystallised the outrage, presented relevated documents and made it a topic of household discussion. Rafizi’s move led to an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Shahrizat. But MACC cleared her as it found "there was no case against her". Demanding an independent investigation into Shahrizat is futile. Afterall this was about friendships. It is not illegal to have friends. It is also not illegal to help a friend. In Shahrizat's husband case, he made a friend in business-consultant Shamsulbahrin Ismail. Shamsulbahrin was supposed to help "settle" the case. That's all the paper trail may reveal, despite exhaustive investigations. Ethically wrong Proximity and access to Umno are of huge value. If NFC ‘seniors’ were seen hanging out with the then prime minister and his son-in-law, it is seen as “acceptance”. As such would it not be natural for the then Minister of Agriculture and the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan to view favourably NFC’s many request. Neither NFC, Shahrizat’s family, the Minister of Agriculture nor the Negeri Sembilan government may ever sit down and spell out how each will help the other. They don't need to because they are friends. Friends held each other. There's nothing illegal about it, right? In fact, this lack of, or hard to prove illegality, is the cornerstone of the defence put forward by the Umnos' army of spokespersons and eager-beaver sycophants. 'It's a private matter' or 'prove give and take' or 'prove abuse of power' are often the arguments given. It is hard to fault them completely, for the legal bases are probably well covered, or at least very difficult to prove otherwise. Yet what happened is ethically wrong. Reputation lost At least that is the assumption the people had about politicians. People also assumed that they believed in simplicity and were above personal greed, but that doesn't seem to have been the case. What is the use of wearing a simple baju kurung, implying simplicity, when your family members are accumulating hundreds of millions by exploiting political power? There will be a huge price Umno and Barisan National will pay for this. The cost will also be in terms of reputation and esteem. Selvaraja Somiah is a geologist and freelance writer. He blogs at selvarajasomiah.wordpress.com |
| Do away with natural life sentence Posted: 10 Nov 2012 07:02 PM PST
He likened it with the much-loathed mandatory death penalty, which he opposes, and wants natural life sentence to be replaced by life imprisonment. The current life sentence extends up to 20 years, and Karpal, a senior lawyer, said abolishment of natural life sentence would give affected felons a fresh lease of life when he had left prison. "Natural life imprisonment is like living dead … cruel. "It should be abolished like mandatory death penalty," he told newsmen here yesterday. He was responding to Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s parliamentary statement that the government would not abolish the natural life imprisonment sentence. In his reply to Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal's parliamentary question, Hishammuddin said 81 prisoners were currently serving natural life sentence, which meant they would be languishing in prison until death. Natural life sentence is being imposed on criminals convicted under the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971. Meanwhile Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng has questioned on why Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s wife Betty Chew Gek Cheng was given the privilege of occupying a seat meant for government officers during the recent Penang legislative assembly sitting. Tan finds it strange, although he agreed it was not wrong, for Chew, Malacca's Kota Laksamana assemblyperson, to sit right behind Lim where civil servants would sit during assembly sessions. To this, Karpal advised Tan to be pro-active in bringing up constructive issues in the parliament rather than harping on trivial matters. "Betty issue is a petty issue.” "It's a non-issue and should be put to rest," said the DAP supremo. What if it was Rosmah? But he wondered on whether other DAP leaders, apart from Karpal, would be quiet if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor were to sit in government officers’ area during parliamentary session.
“Chew is just an ordinary person in the Penang legislative assembly and she is not deemed to have any privileges when it comes to the state assembly,” he said. He urged the Pakatan Rakyat state government to answer on why the officers were forced to give way for her. He is also curious as to why Speaker Abdul Halim Hussain had not noticed the seating arrangement. |
| China invests in Central America, but isn’t buying Posted: 10 Nov 2012 06:58 PM PST
But Central America is failing to convert China's major expansion in trade and industry here into increased exports to that giant market. "China's interests have grown, and like any world power, what it has to sell is more than it wants to buy," Jesús Garza told IPS. The cooperative he belongs to forms part of the Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Honduras, which promotes sustainable business development. In eastern Honduras, for example, the Chinese state-owned dam builder Sinohydro is building the Patuca III hydropower plant at a cost of US$350 million dollars. And Honduran President Porfirio Lobo met in September with executives of the China Development Bank to explore further investment in energy and communications. But China's presence is much more ambitious in Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega signed a memorandum of understanding in September with the recently created Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co to finance and build a canal linking the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean – a dream long cherished by Managua. According to Nicaragua's estimates, the canal will cost US$30 billion dollars, and will take 10 years to build. HK Nicaragua, headed by Chinese telecom mogul Wang Jing who is chairman of the Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group, is to build a waterway that will serve larger ships than the Panama Canal, as well as a "dry canal" railroad for freight. It will also construct a deep-water port at Monkey Point, on the Caribbean, and upgrade Corinto, the country's main Pacific Ocean port. Managua is also negotiating with the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) for the development and purchase of Nicasat-1, a US$300-million-dollar third-generation satellite that will offer modern telecom, internet and digital TV services to Nicaragua and other countries in the sub-region as of 2016. An agreement for that could be reached before the end of the year in Beijing between the Instituto Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones and the CGWIC, which has manufactured satellites for several countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala, China has invested in different industries, including solar energy, oil and telecoms, through companies such as Huawei, Suzhou Guoxin Group and the China National Petroleum Corporation. Garza said that despite the positive economic effects of this investment flow, it was necessary to monitor "what conditions it takes place in – whether labour rights and environmental standards are respected, because that is the area where negative impacts could be seen." In Honduras, for example, the non-governmental Patuca Association denounced irregularities in the environmental permit granted to the Patuca III dam construction project by the Secretariat of Natural Resources and the Environment in 2011. Trade balance Most of what Central America produces is in agriculture. "But it is not cost-effective for China to buy beans or fruit here because of the distances and costs involved," given that volumes are relatively small, Garza pointed out. Nor has Central America managed to establish a customs union, which would bring a single tariff and common trade, customs and sanitary regulations and laws, facilitating foreign trade and competitiveness, according to the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA). And although Central America's sales to China have increased, the trade balance is still heavily skewed in favour of China. Five of the sub-region's seven countries – Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua – sold US$196 million dollars in goods to China in 2004. The total went up to US$220 million dollars from January to May 2012, according to SIECA figures. But imports from China by those five countries amounted to nearly US$1.44 billion dollars in that same period. "In the area of trade, China cannot be denied," economist Paulo De León, with the Guatemala-based consultancy Central American Business Intelligence, told IPS. But the benefits to the region "are not as obvious as the benefits seen by Chile, which is the world's largest producer of copper, with China its biggest buyer." Because of the distance and cost of transport, it is not convenient for China to buy commodities from Central America because "the cost would be too high," De León said. In his view, the region should focus on the much closer US market. "We have to look more towards the United States," he said. "We have a big market one and a half hours away by plane; we also have Mexico and Colombia, with which we have free trade agreements." On the other hand, China can benefit the region with investment, because of Central America's "big needs for energy, for which Guatemala, for example, does not have the necessary capital," he added. Central America is also constrained because it has chosen diplomatic relations with Taiwan over mainland China. US still attractive market In agribusiness, "we're talking about coffee, sugar and one or two other agricultural products," Gilbert Ramírez, a member of a farming cooperative, told IPS. In Costa Rica, the establishment of formal relations with China in 2007 "has not had a big impact on trade." Nor has the free trade agreement signed by San José and Beijing in 2010. "We have talked to Chinese companies about selling coffee and sugar, and about microcredit or credit, to consolidate our business model through Costa Rica's export promotion agency. But even though some time has passed, we haven't reached an agreement on any specific project," Ramírez said. He also said the US market is still the most attractive because "it is closer, and it understands us better," he said, referring to cultural barriers between Central America and China. But Central America continues to seek trade opportunities in China. Pedro Barnoya, a businessman with the China-Guatemala Chamber of Cooperation and Trade, told IPS that on Oct 19 a trade office opened in Shanghai, China's financial and commercial hub and the world's largest cargo port, "to look for buyers for our products." He also said "we are working with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and with private institutions, to create a permanent committee for negotiations with this region." In addition, a Guatemalan delegation was at the sixth China-Latin America and Caribbean Business Summit, held Oct 17-18 in Hangzhou, 180 kilometres from Shanghai in eastern China. Barnoya said "the most important thing is to make headway in Asia, because that is where the purchasing power is." - IPS |
| No social protection for India’s elderly Posted: 10 Nov 2012 06:50 PM PST
The nonagenarian wandered the streets of his village for hours before he reached a shelter in Pathanapuram with the help of neighbours. Police said the son had often beaten and harassed the old man, who was financially dependent on his son. For many people like George, the sunset years of life turn out to be a traumatic period, in which they find themselves entirely dependent on families or friends due to the absence of a good social security system or government pension plan in India. Expressing concern over the increasing insecurity of elders in the country, Dr Irudaya Rajan, a prominent demographer and chair professor of the research unit on international migration under the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs, told IPS that income security is one of the most urgent needs of India's aging population. Years ago, "traditional values and religious beliefs were quite supportive of elderly people", he said. Today, economic hardships and the faltering nuclear family system are "drastically eroding the support base of aged people". "The majority of the elderly tend to work even after the age of retirement due to inadequate social security and financial resources," Rajan added. A report on the aging population in India, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) in New Delhi, said that the country had 90 million elderly people in 2011, with the number expected to grow to 173 million by 2026. Of the 90 million seniors, 30 million are living alone, and 90 percent work for a living. Experts estimate that only eight percent of the labour force of about 460 million receives social security from an employer. 'Informal' labourers left out in the cold Gopal Krishnan, an economist in Chennai, told IPS "There is no social safety coverage for people in the unorganised sector, which accounts for half of the GDP (gross domestic product) of India". According to the World Bank, India's GDP in 2011 was 1,848 billion dollars. Until now, the government has not been able to compile a comprehensive policy to address the issues of elderly people. The ministry of social justice and empowerment drafted a National Policy on Older Persons in 1999, which was never implemented. Hardships abound Dr Udaya Shankar Mishra, a senior demographer at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, believes the current "profile" of the aging population of India can change. "The (perception) of the elderly as a burden can, with suitable policies, be turned into an opportunity to realise active and healthy aging," he told IPS. "With limited resources, we need to adopt viable policy changes to manage the crisis of the aged. This calls for a detailed auditing of (all) the affairs of the elderly, primarily health, morbidity and mortality in addition to economic and emotional wellbeing. "Research on geriatric health needs to (shift) towards ensuring a better quality of life among future elderly persons. Considering the demographic inversion and its associated challenges, it (is clear) that investments into healthy aging are necessary," he added. Data from the 2011 National Census revealed that the percentage of aged living alone or with spouse is as high as 45 percent in Tamil Nadu, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala. Healthcare experts have found that the elderly are highly prone to heart diseases, respiratory disorders, renal diseases, diabetes, hypertension, neurological problems and prostate issues. The National Sample Survey Organisation calculates that one out of two elderly people in India suffers from at least one chronic disease, which requires lifelong medication. The most recent data available, taken for the period 1995-96, revealed that 75 percent of aged individuals are affected by at least one disability relating to sight, hearing, speech, walking, and senility. Dr Shanti Johnson, professor at the faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the Canada-based University of Regina, estimates that nearly eight percent of the elderly are immobile, while a disproportionately higher percentage of women are immobile compared to men. "The average hospitalisation rate in the country per 100,000 aged persons is 7,633. There is considerable gender difference in the rate of hospitalisation, as a much greater proportion of men are hospitalised compared to their female counterparts," she added. Non-governmental organisations are advocating for more old-age homes, day-care centers, physiotherapy clinics and temporary shelters for the rehabilitation of older persons, with government funds allocated to the running and maintaining of such projects. - IPS |
| Hernandez inspires United comeback win at Villa Posted: 10 Nov 2012 05:22 PM PST
Austrian Andreas Weimann had stunned United with two well-taken goals for lowly Villa either side of the break but Mexico striker Hernandez showed his killer instincts by netting on 58 minutes and seeing a second shot deflect in off Ron Vlaar. He sealed the remarkable comeback with a diving header three minutes from time as Alex Ferguson’s men yet again plucked victory from the jaws of the defeat thanks to their incessant pressure and clinical finishing. “The only thing in my mind is to do my best and do what the gaffer told me to do. He told me to do the things I do in training, to run in behind, to move the defenders,” Hernandez told Sky before claiming a hat-trick despite a debatable second. “Yes of course (I’ll claim it). I hit the target and the defender touched the ball.” United stretched their lead to four points after 11 games ahead of second-placed Chelsea with champions Manchester City a further point back in third. Chelsea host Liverpool and City entertain Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. Arsenal’s season took another turn for the worse when they let slip a two-goal lead and Mikel Arteta missed a late penalty as a Dimitar Berbatov-inspired Fulham grabbed a 3-3 away draw. Olivier Giroud’s double – his first home league goals – could not prevent Arsenal staying seventh, sliding four points behind fourth-placed Everton who beat visiting Sunderland 2-1. Surprise packages West Bromwich Albion, in fifth, are level on points with Everton following a 2-1 victory at Wigan Athletic thanks to James Morrison’s header and a Gary Caldwell own goal. Former Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam’s first goal for Stoke City sealed a 1-0 home win over Queens Park Rangers who plunged to the bottom of the table after Southampton leapfrogged the Londoners with a 1-1 draw against Swansea City. Reading and Norwich City drew 0-0 in a dour game. ARCH GOALPOACHER Proceedings at the late game at Villa Park were far from bland with 21-year-old Weimann making United pay for a lacklustre first half when he slammed in from the edge of the area to beat goalkeeper David de Gea above his head. He slotted in a second five minutes after the restart to further upset the form book with Villa languishing in 17th spot. Memories of the long ago days when they would often compete with United started to drift back into the minds of the Villa faithful but the sight of Hernandez ready to come on at the start of the second period should have rung alarm bells. The arch goalpoacher latched on to Paul Scholes’ lobbed pass to score and was soon celebrating again even if replays suggested his expert finish after a good move might have gone wide without hitting Vlaar. Robin van Persie struck the woodwork twice in succession as United poured forward for the winner and the Dutchman supplied the cross from a free kick for Hernandez to head home. Arsenal have stuttered all season but got off to the perfect start against Fulham when close-season signing Giroud finally began to show some of the might which helped him win the French title last term with Montpellier. The tall striker netted with a powerful header on 11 minutes after a corner from the recalled Theo Walcott and the hosts were soon 2-0 up and cruising when Arteta set up Germany’s Lukas Podolski for an easy finish midway through the first half. The unmarked Berbatov pulled one back on the half hour when he headed in a corner and the laidback Bulgarian set up substitute Alex Kacaniklic as Fulham equalised five minutes before the break. Berbatov put Fulham 3-2 when he converted the coolest of penalties after a foul by Arteta in the 67th minute. Giroud then took another small step in his quest to replace ex-Arsenal talisman Van Persie by netting another header before Mark Schwarzer saved Arteta’s stoppage-time spot kick. Everton have been in great form but looked to be heading for defeat against Sunderland when Adam Johnson netted on the stroke of halftime to become the first player other than Steven Fletcher to score for the visitors in the league this term. No one has epitomised Everton’s drive this season more than Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini and he fittingly grabbed the equaliser by drilling the ball home on 76 minutes. Three minutes later Fellaini played in Nikica Jelavic for the winner in manager David Moyes’s 400th Premier League match. - Reuters |
| Comeback kings United revive memories of ’99 vintage Posted: 10 Nov 2012 05:21 PM PST
The reverse in August 1995, when United boss Alex Ferguson decided to throw in fresh-faced youngsters including Scholes, David Beckham and Gary Neville, was famously derided at the time by television pundit Alan Hansen. His taunt that “you can’t win anything with kids” came back to haunt him as United’s new generation formed a major part of their 1999 European Cup and treble-winning team. Though Scholes, 37, and Ryan Giggs, 38, are the only players still around from that time, the current squad is beginning to resemble the 1999 version. Mexican substitute Javier Hernandez scored two and claimed a deflected third in the 3-2 win at Villa, where United fought back from conceding two Andreas Weimann goals to top the Premier League table by four points. “I think he’ll be playing next week,” Ferguson told Sky Sports after ‘Chicharito’ came on at halftime to turn the game. “He is fantastic in the penalty box, his movement, his quickness and being in space.” Hernandez’s goal-poaching ability and “super sub” tag mirror the traits of Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who scored the winning goal in the last-gasp 1999 Champions League final win over Bayern Munich. United have also arguably not boasted four strikers as strong as Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Hernandez since the 1999 quartet of Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and Solskjaer. The other big similarity to 1999 is their current penchant for comebacks, with eight already this season. “We put pressure on ourselves today but we got through it,” Ferguson added. “I admire (the comebacks), I admire the tenacity of the performance and when they need to do it, they do it. Our attacking play is terrific at times.” - Reuters |
| Arsenal’s Wenger struggling for answers after new setback Posted: 10 Nov 2012 05:20 PM PST
Olivier Giroud, a marquee close-season signing, has taken until mid-November to score his first home league goals but even two excellent headers were not enough to ease Arsenal’s continued pain as they wallow in seventh in the Premier League. The loss of leading scorer Robin van Persie to Manchester United in August, following on from the departure of creative fulcrum Cesc Fabregas last year, spooked supporters who were already perturbed by a lack of trophies since 2005. Now the lack of true world-class replacements and inconsistent defensive displays have exposed Arsenal as possible for a top-four finish rather than probable after 15 successive Champions League campaigns. Normally Wenger, appointed in 1996, would have answers. Lose Nicolas Anelka and buy Thierry Henry. Sell Patrick Vieira and groom Fabregas. It worked in winning Premier League titles in 1998, 2002 and unbeaten in 2004 as well as bagging a European Cup runners-up spot in 2006 but now his position is being questioned by some – if social media websites are to believed. His responses after letting slip a 2-0 lead and Mikel Arteta missing a stoppage-time penalty against Fulham were much more curt and terse than usual, if there were answers at all. Asked if he even thought Arsenal deserved the spot-kick for a harsh handball, Wenger told Sky Sports: “I don’t think so no.” When cheekily prompted about whether he had considered signing Fulham’s two-goal hero Dimitar Berbatov when the languid but often brilliant Bulgarian quit Manchester United in August, Wenger replied: “I didn’t know that he was leaving Man United.” Arsenal lost 2-1 at league leaders United last weekend when they barely troubled the opposition goal and fans’ enthusiasm at seeing long-term injury victim Jack Wilshere impressing was curtailed by a red card. The Londoners lost at home to Schalke 04 and drew away at the Germans following a two-goal head start in their last two Champions League outings while they were 4-0 down at Reading in the Capital One Cup last month before prevailing 7-5. Wenger, also embroiled in a contract impasse with Theo Walcott, is struggling for answers and Berbatov’s first goal when he nodded in unmarked from a corner sums up their woes. “Both teams were good going forward. Where we are most guilty is on the corner… nobody jumped for the ball at all,” Wenger said. “I don’t think there is self-doubt. Some players were a bit jaded before the game and Fulham are good going forward.” - Reuters |
| Murray came of age after Wimbledon heartache – Federer Posted: 10 Nov 2012 05:18 PM PST
Federer’s ruthless display on Centre Court to win a seventh Wimbledon title was a massive blow for Murray for whom it was his fourth defeat in a grand slam final. Inevitable questions were raised about Murray’s ability to get over the final hurdle yet the 25-year-old rebounded a few weeks later to beat Federer in the Olympic singles final and in September he won the U.S. Open by defeating world number one Novak Djokovic in a five-set epic. Federer and Murray will clash for the third time in London this year on Sunday in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals with the Swiss two wins away from a seventh title. The 31-year-old said his victory over the British favourite at Wimbledon may have been a watershed moment for Murray whose first two grand slam final defeats came at the hands of Federer in the 2008 U.S. Open and 2010 Australian Open. Discussing Murray’s coming of age since Wimbledon, 17-times grand slam champion Federer said: “Andy did great. I always hoped he would have a reaction like this, to be quite honest, even though it cost me maybe a gold medal. “I was a bit disappointed in his reaction after the Australian Open finals, when I beat him there, then he went on a bad spell I think through Rotterdam, Indian Wells, Miami. He didn’t really play so well. “Instead of taking positives out of a great tournament, because he was playing great tennis, he took the negatives out of it. I don’t think he did that mistake again after Wimbledon. That’s the sign of a champion. “So yes, you can say it sort of started for him at the Olympics. He did put himself in positions time and time again in the past and I think he’s learned from his mistakes now. Now he’s up there and he will be for a very long time.” Similar fate Despite being humbled by Murray in the Olympic final, Federer is the master of indoor tennis and will be determined not to suffer a similar fate on Sunday. “I think he played a bit better (at the Olympics) than maybe in the Wimbledon finals,” Federer told reporters. “Maybe I allowed him to play a little bit better. I just think he set himself a goal, as well, like I did, that we hoped we could win either one, Wimbledon or the Olympics. “I think his drive was so strong at the end that carried him through. Whereas maybe I already got Wimbledon, I already had the silver, so maybe that last thing was missing, even though I gave it everything I had. “Maybe deep down somewhere that does affect you. It maybe prevents you playing your absolute best.” Murray has faced Federer four times indoors, the last two occasions coming in the ATP World Tour Finals in London where Federer triumphed. “He’s played great indoors the last few years, that’s for sure,” Murray, who leads 10-8 overall against Federer, said. “I played him quite a few times indoors, had decent success against him early on. The last few times I played him haven’t done so well indoors. “But, yeah, his record speaks for itself.” - Reuters |
| Federer loses to Del Potro, faces Murray in semis Posted: 10 Nov 2012 05:16 PM PST
Del Potro, fresh from beating the Swiss in the Basel final a fortnight ago, claimed a 7-6 4-6 6-3 victory at the O2 Arena to guarantee himself runner-up spot in Group B with a 2-1 record, the same as defending champion Federer who will meet Andy Murray for third time in London this year in the other semi-final. Federer won his seventh Wimbledon title this year when he beat Murray in the final but a few weeks later the Briton gained revenge in the Olympic gold medal match. The Swiss 31-year-old, winner of 12 consecutive matches at the tournament since a semi-final defeat by Nikolay Davydenko in 2009, had already qualified for the semis before walking on court to face del Potro and produced a patchy display. David Ferrer beat Janko Tipsarevic 4-6 6-3 6-1 in the last round-robin match in the evening to also end with two wins and one defeat but the Spaniard missed out on sets countback. The final day of group play began with seven scenarios still possible in Group B. Del Potro’s three-set win ended Ferrer’s semi-final hopes but muddied the waters as far Sunday’s schedule was concerned because the outcome of the Ferrer v Tipsarevic clash would bizarrely decide whether Federer or del Potro won the group. Victory for Tipsarevic would have seen Del Potro top the group because of a better head-to-head record against Federer but Ferrer’s victory and a three-way tie meant Federer 5-2 sets tally earned him the group winners’ spot. Del Potro ended 5-3 with Ferrer 4-4. Spain’s Ferrer had been relying on a Federer victory to keep his hopes of a semi-final place alive. “I was actually thinking more about David than I was thinking about whether I play Andy (Murray) or Novak (Djokovic), to be honest,” Federer, who will contest a 10th semi-final in 11 appearances at the tournament, told reporters. “I really wanted to give him a chance and give myself the best possible preparation for the semis. “I really hoped I could win. I’m more disappointed for him than about losing today, to be quite honest.” Big guy Del Potro’s defeat of Federer was reminiscent of 2009 when he also beat the Swiss in the final round of group play before going on to reach the final. “Now you have three big names in the semi-finals and one big guy,” the 1.98m Del Potro told reporters after his second indoor victory over Federer in as many weeks. Federer looked untroubled on his serve in the opening set against the 24-year-old but paid the price for failing to convert two break points that would have given him a 5-3 lead. The 17-times grand slam champion then played an error-strewn tiebreak which Del Potro took 7-3. Federer was immaculate in the second set, breaking to love in the opening game and dropping just five points on his own delivery as he set up a decider. Just when it seemed a 13th consecutive victory was looming, however, Federer was broken out of the blue to trail 2-0 in the decider and Del Potro was rock solid thereafter. “It’s indoor tennis, he has a big serve and all those things. But still the surface plays somewhat slow so I expect myself to get more returns into play,” Federer said of a rather toothless showing in the deciding set. “But it’s important to move on right now. Mentally, it’s important to look ahead and rest because it’s a quick turnaround till tomorrow.” Despite an impressive performance Del Potro played down his chances of landing his biggest title since winning the US Open in 2009, also against Federer. “I don’t know who is the favorite,” Del Potro, a finalist here three years ago, said. “Djokovic, Murray or Federer can win the tournament. I can tell you I’m the No. 4 for sure.” In doubles play, top seeds and three-times former champions Bob and Mike Bryan lost to India’s Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, meaning the Americans missed out on the semi-finals. Paes and Stepanek won a match tiebreak 10-7 and will face Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna in the semi-finals. In the other semi-final Britain’s Jonathan Marray and Dane Frederik Nielson wil play Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez. - Reuters |
| Gaza flares as Israel hits back killing five Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:59 PM PST
Palestinian fighters retaliated by firing rockets into southern Israel and an Israeli air strike targeted a rocket crew, killing a Palestinian militant, the Israeli army said. The flareup carried the risk of further escalation. Explosions were audible and projectiles lit up the sky over Gaza shortly before midnight, but no further details were immediately available. Palestinian militants vowed to take revenge for the deaths of the four civilians and the 25 wounded. Israel warned residents of communities near the Gaza border to stay within 15 seconds of their blast shelters in case of a rocket salvo. Saturday’s casualty toll was one of the highest in a single incident in Gaza in recent months. Palestinians said a crowded mourning tent in the Shijaia neighborhood was full of people paying respects to a bereaved family man when the tank shell exploded. Ambulances, private vehicles and motorbikes rushed the wounded to hospital, eyewitnesses said. Among those killed was an 18-year-old youth. “The occupation’s targeting of civilians was a grave escalation that must not pass in silence,” said Fawzi Barhoum of the Islamic movement Hamas which rules Gaza. “Resistance must be reinforced in order to block the aggression.” Israel denies targeting civilians. The Israeli military said an anti-tank missile was fired at an army patrol along the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip. “Four soldiers were injured as a result,” a statement said. Just before midnight, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed an air strike in the north of the narrow coastal enclave. “A short while ago, the IDF targeted a rocket launching squad in the northern Gaza Strip moments after it fired rockets towards southern Israel. A direct hit was confirmed. “Over the past few hours, 25 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel,” the IDF statement said. Gaza’s armed Islamic Jihad movement identified the dead man as a local commander named Mohammed Shkokani. It was the second Israeli air strike of the day. In a separate incident at another location, four people were wounded by airforce fire in the town of Khan Younis. Saturday’s clashes come at a time of renewed tension along the Israel-Gaza frontier, only some two weeks after Egyptian mediation calmed an earlier flare-up. In an attack on Thursday, a 12-year-old Gaza boy was killed by Israeli gunfire as troops fought a gun battle with Palestinian militants. Shortly afterwards, militants blew up a tunnel packed with explosives near the border. The Gaza Strip, a coastal territory crowded with more than 1.5 million people, many of them refugees, is controlled by Hamas Islamists who reject Israel’s right to exist. It is also the base for a number of other Islamic militant groups. One of these, called the Popular Resistance Committees, said it had fired rockets at communities close to the border and the towns of Sderot and Netivot in southern Israel, in what it called “the revenge invoice” for the deaths in Gaza. There was no report of casualties on the Israeli side. In December 2008, Israel responded to repeated rocket attacks from Gaza by bombing the enclave for a week then invading with ground forces in a three-week war in which over 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 13 Israelis died. Israel says it holds Hamas solely responsible for any violence emanating from the Gaza Strip, regardless of which group actually fires rockets or mortars. - Reuters |
| Spain’s politicians pledge to stop evictions after suicide Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:58 PM PST
“No one should be without a home for not being able to pay,” Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, leader of the opposition Socialist Party said on Saturday. Northern Spanish mortgage lender Kutxabank said it was suspending repossessions after 53-year-old former Socialist councillor Amaia Egana threw herself out of her fourth-storey apartment window in Barakaldo in the Basque Country as court officials came up the stairs to evict her on Friday. Egana’s death, the second eviction-related suicide in Spain in recent weeks, added urgency to an agreement reached on Wednesday between the ruling conservative People’s Party and the Socialists to seek a bipartisan deal over repossessions. Graffiti accusing bankers of murder and calling for an end to evictions appeared on some bank branches in the Basque Country on Saturday, Spanish media reported. “We are living through things that no one likes to see, situations that are competely inhumane,” Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told a political meeting hours after Egana’s death. “I hope that on Monday we’ll be able to talk about a temporary suspension of evictions for the most vulnerable families.” One measure would be to grant grace periods, Spanish media reported. Rajoy said the rules would not be retroactive, while Rubalcaba called for previous evictions to be included. There have been nearly 400,000 evictions in Spain since a property bubble burst in 2008. Unemployment hit 25 percent in the third quarter, a record high and the European Commission expects the economy to contract 1.4 percent this year and next as the second recession since the end of 2009 drags on. Last week, European Union Advocate General Juliane Kokott issued a non-binding report concluding that Spanish legislation on evictions contradicts European norms for protecting consumer rights. Europe’s highest court will now have to deliver an opinion. Jose Miguel Domingo, a newsstand owner in Granada, in southern Spain, hung himself on October 25, before he was due to lose his home, local media reported. The same week an unemployed man in Burjassot, a town in the eastern region of Valencia, threw himself off a balcony on the day his family was to be evicted from their apartment. Reports said the man survived the fall. - Reuters |
| BBC director general resigns over “shoddy journalism” Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:56 PM PST
The BBC, reeling from revelations that one of its former stars was a paedophile, brought further problems on its head when a flagship news program aired a mistaken allegation that a former senior politician sexually abused children. The BBC had already issued a full apology on Friday, but on Saturday its director general had to admit under questioning from his own journalists that he had not known in advance about the Newsnight report, weeks after being accused of being too hands-off over the previous scandal on the same program. Accepting Entwistle’s resignation, BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten said: “This is undoubtedly one of the saddest evenings of my public life. “At the heart of the BBC is its role as a trusted global news organization. “As the editor-in-chief of that organization, George has very honorably offered us his resignation because of the unacceptable mistakes – the unacceptable shoddy journalism – which has caused us so much controversy.” Entwistle quit after strong criticism over the Newsnight program. “I listened to the director general with increasing disbelief,” John Whittingdale, chairman of parliament’s powerful media committee, told Reuters. “The level of failure of management at every level within the BBC, up to and including the director general, is just extraordinary.” The BBC and its bosses have been under huge pressure since a rival broadcaster carried charges last month that the late Jimmy Savile, one of the most recognizable personalities on British television in the 1970s and 80s, was a prolific sex offender. Expose withdrawn Suggestions have surfaced of a paedophile ring inside the broadcaster at the time and a BBC cover-up. To complicate matters for Entwistle, Newsnight pulled a planned expose of Savile shortly after his death last year, and the BBC went ahead with tribute shows. Having been widely criticized for not broadcasting that expose, which led to its editor stepping aside, Newsnight is now being lambasted for its November 2 report on sexual abuse at children’s care homes in North Wales during the 1970s. Steve Messham, a witness, told Newsnight that a senior Conservative had raped him when he was a child in one of the homes. Newsnight did not identify the politician, but the name of Alistair McAlpine, Conservative Party treasurer from 1975 to 1990 during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, quickly appeared on the Internet and social media sites. On Friday, McAlpine went public to rigorously deny the allegations and threaten legal action. Hours later, Messham said he had misidentified McAlpine to Newsnight. The program admitted it had not approached McAlpine for a comment, or shown Messham a picture of McAlpine, before airing the report. Castigated for what he agreed was a slow response to the Savile disclosures, Entwistle demanded a report on the incident by Sunday and suspended all Newsnight investigations. The erroneous Newsnight report had been cleared by senior managers and lawyers, and commentators queried why Entwistle had been kept in the dark in the wake of the furore over Savile. - Reuters |
| US denies Russia request for convicted arms dealer Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:54 PM PST
Bout, 54, was sentenced in April after a Manhattan federal court trial jury convicted him on charges that he agreed to sell arms to people he thought were militants intent on attacking American soldiers in Colombia. He was the subject of a book called “Merchant of Death” and inspiration for a film “Lord of War” starring Nicolas Cage. Bout’s case has strained ties between Moscow and Washington – he said he was a legitimate businessman and the Russian Foreign Ministry argued he was convicted on unreliable evidence. Konstantin Dolgov, Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law at the Foreign Ministry told the Russian Interfax agency on Saturday that Russia’s bid to have Bout extradited had failed. “We have received with concern the decision by the US Department of Justice in relation to Viktor Bout,” Dolgov told Interfax. Dolgov said that Moscow “will continue to use all diplomatic and legal options to send Viktor Bout to Russia.” In August, the Russian Justice Ministry said it had filed a formal request to the United States asking its counterpart to provide it with a copy of Bout’s verdict, which would allow it to start the transfer process if the American side agreed. Albert Dayan, Bout’s New York lawyer, could not immediately be reached for comment. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice did not return requests for comment. Bout, who Amnesty International says has been involved in embargo-busting arms deals to human rights abusers in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 after a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting operation and later extradited to New York to face trial. US informants posed as arms buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, and met Bout in Thailand to buy an arsenal of military weaponry, which prosecutors said he agreed to provide. Bout had lived untroubled in Russia, frustrating US officials seeking his prosecution, until he was lured to Bangkok. Russia fought unsuccessfully for his repatriation from Thailand after his arrest. - Reuters |
| China turns corner on economy as party chooses new leaders Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:50 PM PST
The world’s second-biggest economy had halted a slowing trend, the chief of the economic planning agency said, adding that he was confident GDP growth would exceed 7.5 percent in 2012 though at the same time warning against complacency. Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 18th Party Congress at which outgoing President Hu Jintao said China should double its 2010 GDP and per capita income by 2020, as previous targets have implied. Hu said China’s development should be “much more balanced, coordinated and sustainable”. The party, which has constantly stressed the need for continued one-party rule, has in recent years tied its legitimacy to economic growth and lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. “Signs of stabilization in the economy were getting more obvious in October,” Zhang said. “We are fully confident that we can achieve the economic growth target for this year. In other words, we are able to maintain economic growth of above 7.5 percent. “But we dare not lower our vigilance. The foundation of the economic stabilization is not solid enough… Under the backdrop of a persistent global financial crisis as well as a new situation and problems in the economy, we must make preparations for dealing with difficulties and challenges over the long term.” More than 2,200 delegates to the congress took a day off on Saturday, two days after Hu’s opening speech. They spent Friday holding public debates on the speech at which they read out bits they particularly liked. Reuters reporters heard no contrary opinion. Hu will hand over his post as party chief to anointed successor Vice President Xi Jinping. The congress ends on Wednesday, after which the party’s new Standing Committee, at the apex of power, will be unveiled. Only Xi and his deputy, Li Keqiang, are certain to be on what is likely to be a seven-member committee, and about eight other candidates are vying for the other places. China’s economy strode further along the road of recovery from its slowest growth in three years, data for October showed on Friday, as infrastructure investment accelerated and output from factories ran at its fastest in five months. Data yesterday showed the trade surplus ballooned to its biggest in 45 months in October as export growth darted to a five-month high above 11 percent, surpassing expectations and adding to other data that suggest a less urgent need for new economic stimulus measures. Annual economic growth slowed to 7.4 percent in the third quarter – its weakest since early 2009 – leaving the economy on track to mark its most sluggish year since 1999. But central bank head Zhou Xiaochuan cautioned on Thursday that external risks still loomed large and the People’s Bank of China had policy room to respond if necessary. Critical reform Zhang said China’s economic slowdown this year had been caused by both weak global demand and government steps to adjust economic structures to put the economy on a more sustainable footing for the future. Government officials have said repeatedly that they intend to use a period of slowing growth to make a series of adjustments to economic policy settings, particularly around prices administered by the state, that might otherwise risk fuelling inflation. Such reforms are regarded as crucial, both by foreign analysts and government think-tanks, if China is to maintain robust growth needed to close a yawning wealth gap and support an urbanization drive core to Beijing’s development plans. Zhang said that inflation was stable in China. Official data on Friday showed consumer price inflation eased to its slowest pace in nearly three years in October, with the 1.7 percent rise from a year ago slower than the 1.9 percent posted in September. Economists polled by Reuters had expected it to hold steady. Investors, though, have been concerned that efforts to cool the economy had been mistimed, unintentionally coinciding with a sharp slowdown in external demand, with recovery in the United States remaining tepid and Europe still unable to escape its sovereign debt crisis. Beijing has responded by fine-tuning economic policy for a year to support growth. China has cut benchmark interest rates twice this year, lowered bank reserve ratios three times since late 2011 and made repeated, large-scale liquidity injections into the financial system. It also said in September it had fast-tracked approvals on infrastructure projects worth about US$157 billion. - Reuters |
| Fleeing fallen Syrian town, refugees fear Assad’s air power Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:38 PM PST
Laden with what possessions they could carry, Syrians continued to cross the border into Turkey, some saying they were scared the fighting was not over and Assad’s fighter planes and helicopters would be back. Some 9,000 fled the fighting on Thursday and Friday, the United Nations said, swelling to over 120,000 the registered refugees Turkey is sheltering in camps, testing the country’s resources and patience. “We will stay here until the fighting has completely stopped and all has calmed down,” said 40-year-old Gasan Alun, who fled to the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar several days ago with 23 members of his family. “I hope to God they don’t bring the planes,” he said. “It’s the planes we’re scared of.” The rebel flag flew above the town, a Reuters reporter on the Turkish side of the border said, and early on Saturday rebels could be seen driving freely in open pick-up trucks, guns slung across their shoulders. But as dusk fell, several mortars landed near Ras al-Ain and gunfire grew more intense, according to a Reuters witness in Ceylanpinar, just across the border. Rebels of the Free Syrian Army have claimed towns before in the 19-month civil war, only to be pounded again by Assad’s air force or shelled by his army. “The fighting has stopped but only for now,” said Ahmad, a Syrian teenager who had just crossed into the Turkish border town from Ras al-Ain through a hole in the barbed wire fence marking the border. “They (Assad’s soldiers) will be back,” he said. “Assad’s helicopters have been circling, identifying where the Free Syrian Army soldiers are based.” Ahmad’s friend, Mahdi, said: “We will try and stay in Ceylanpinar but if we can’t we will have to go back. But we are scared of the helicopters coming.” Spillover of violence With winter setting in, the refugee influx is causing alarm in Turkey, and could spur calls for a buffer zone to be set up inside Syria to house refugees and aid the rebels in a war that opposition activists say has killed 38,000 people. Increasingly critical of world powers for failing to act, Turkey says it is considering lodging a request with its NATO allies to deploy Patriot surface-to-air missiles to its border to guard against a spillover of violence. Such a move could be a step towards enforcing a no-fly zone within Syria. The refugee crisis and the threat of spillover risks stretching Turkey’s military and resources in a region where it is also fighting an emboldened Kurdish insurgency. On Saturday, 17 Turkish soldiers were killed when their Sikorsky helicopter crashed due to bad weather conditions on Herekol mountain in the Pervari area of southeastern Siirt province, Siirt Governor Ahmet Aydin said. The victims were members of the country’s gendarmerie special forces and there were no survivors on board, he said. There has been an upsurge in attacks since the summer in southeast Turkey by the outlawed separatist group the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which launched an insurgency in 1984 with the aim of carving out a separate state. On Friday, authorities said Turkish jets and helicopters had killed 42 militants along the border with Iraq and Iran. Ankara has accused Syria, where 1 million Kurds also live, of arming the PKK. “I would like to remind once again, the ones who think that they can subdue our state, our nation through terror, and see instability, and political developments in our region and our neighbors as an opportunity, are greatly mistaken and will regret,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a statement. Kurds in Syria have largely tried to steer clear of the violence triggered by the uprising against Assad. But over the last three months, the mainly Sunni Muslim Arabs of the Free Syrian Army have captured outposts on the Turkish border, moving towards the northeastern heartland of the Syrian Kurds. - Reuters |
| Ecuador’s Correa to seek re-election, clear favorite Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:35 PM PST
Government spending on roads, hospitals and schools has made the 49-year-old US-educated economist very popular with the poor majority, and he is well ahead of rivals in opinion polls. The opposition is divided and lacks a charismatic leader. Victory in the February 17 vote would give the socialist Correa a mandate for rolling out more reforms to increase state revenues from the oil and mining sectors. But dependency on oil exports in OPEC’s smallest member is his Achilles heel, and he may be forced to reduce state spending should oil prices fall. “We’ve done a lot but there’s a lot more to be done, to turn this bourgeois state into a truly popular state that would serve everyone, especially the poor … that’s why we accept this nomination,” Correa said in front of thousands of supporters after the ruling Alianza Pais coalition endorsed his candidacy at a raucous meeting in a Quito football stadium. “We’ve got a president, we’ve got Rafael,” chanted his supporters, many of whom were wearing neon-green shirts, the color of the party. In power since 2007 and a member of a Latin American leftist bloc led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Correa has given the state a key role in a small economy very dependent on oil and bananas. Casting his movement as a “Citizens’ Revolution,” Correa has viciously battled political adversaries whom he disparages as an elite that monopolized power for decades. Critics say Correa has grabbed too much power and clamped down on media freedom. They accuse him of scaring off foreign investors with a 2008 debt default, and failing to diversify the economy from its dependence on oil exports. Correa chose strategic sectors minister Jorge Glas as his running mate, because vice president Lenin Moreno, who is in a wheelchair, declined to run again for health reasons. Correa infuriated Washington this year by granting asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who published hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables. Assange, who is wanted for questioning over sexual assault and rape allegations in Sweden, has been in Ecuador’s embassy in London since June. High oil prices have fueled economic growth since 2010, and Correa has brought stability to the politically volatile nation. Three presidents were forced to resign due to widespread protests during the decade before he took office. Fractured opposition A survey by pollster Cedatos shows Correa winning 55 percent of votes, 32 percentage points more than his closest rival, Guillermo Lasso, a banker from the coastal city Guayaquil. Lasso, who is running on a platform of lower taxes and incentives to private investors to boost job creation, will have difficulty in denting Correa’s support among the poor. “Lasso is seriously stigmatized because he’s a banker, that’s the main thing he’ll have to struggle with,” said Paulina Recalde, head of local pollster Perfiles de Opinion. Ecuadoreans blame banks for a 1999 financial crisis that forced Ecuador to adopt the dollar as its currency the following year and meant thousands of account holders lost their savings. But Lasso has plenty of funds to finance a flashy campaign, and his marketing team has put him in the media spotlight. “Lasso has credibility, inspires sympathy and has a low rejection rate,” Recalde said. Other candidates are former president Lucio Gutierrez; Alberto Acosta, a former Correa ally; and Alvaro Noboa, a banana magnate who will run for the presidency for the fifth time. Some of them had discussed choosing a single candidate in the style of Venezuela’s opposition, which staged a united though unsuccessful challenge to Chavez by rallying behind Henrique Capriles. But the plan never took off because none of them wanted to step out of the race. Correa’s strongarm governing style is popular among people in rural areas in the Andean highlands and sprawling shanty towns in the outskirts of Guayaquil and Quito. He has more than doubled state spending as a percentage of gross domestic product and uses media broadcasts to attack rivals and berate officials for dragging behind schedule on public works, be it an airport or sewage system in a small town. “I want all the public works to continue, and he needs another term in office to do that … My grandparents say that in their lifetime, he’s the only president that has worked exclusively for the poor,” said Elma Lincango, a 36-year-old nurse outside a hospital in northern Quito. - Reuters |
| Wife of American jailed in Cuba pins hopes on Obama’s re-election Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:33 PM PST
Gross, 63, has been locked up in Cuba since December 2009 for his work on behalf of a semi-covert US program aimed at promoting political change on the island. He is serving a 15-year sentence for setting up Internet networks in Cuba, work that a judge said was a crime against the Cuban state, and his imprisonment halted efforts by Obama to improve long-hostile relations between the United States and Cuba, which began soon after his first election in 2008. “The US government sent him there, they sent him on a project, and they need to take responsibility for getting this man home,” Judy Gross told Reuters in an interview late on Friday. Calling her husband a “pawn” in an unfortunate game between two countries just 90 miles apart, she said she believed Obama’s re-election could now help his administration push harder for Gross’s freedom, even if it means making possible concessions to Cuba that are opposed by conservative Cuban-American lawmakers. “Nobody has ever come and said ‘oh well, we’re not doing this because of the election.’ But obviously that’s what we think was going on, and we’ll find out,” Judy Gross said. “It’s going to take a few more weeks and we’ll be in contact with the administration, and we’ll hope for the best,” she added. She did not elaborate on exactly what Washington could do to win Gross’s freedom. But she said he has had considerable weight loss since his arrest, as well as having degenerative arthritis and an untreated potentially cancerous mass behind his shoulder. She has been pressing for his release on humanitarian grounds. “He’s a pawn in the sense that Cuba wants something for him and the United States is unwilling to give that up,” Gross said in the phone interview. She spoke as she prepared to travel from Washington to Florida for a rally on Sunday in West Palm Beach to press for her husband’s release. They can’t leave them Cuba has said it proposed talks with the United States about resolving the Gross case but has received no answer. It has hinted that it was prepared to swap Gross for five Cuban government agents who received lengthy US prison sentences in a 2001 trial in Miami. Washington has insisted that such a deal is out of the question though US officials said last year they had suggested a swap of Gross for one agent, Rene Gonzalez, who is out on parole in Florida. Judy Gross said there was no question that Havana wants the agents, known as the “Cuban Five,” freed in exchange for her husband. Cuba maintains that they were unjustly convicted of espionage and has made their freedom a national cause. “The fact is, what the Cubans are saying right now is that that’s what they want,” she said. She added that she doubted Washington would ever agree to the prisoner exchange. But Obama’s election to a new term opened the door to many possibilities. Some analysts have suggested that a further easing by the president of some restrictive regulations on Cuba could help in Gross’s release. But any major changes in the long-standing US trade embargo against the island nation seem unlikely in the next Congress. Cuban-born Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the powerful chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a fierce critic of Cuban President Raul Castro, handily won re-election in Florida on Nov 6. “The United States needs to sit down with Cuba, even if they’re saying ‘we only want the Cuban Five,’” Gross said. “They can’t leave him there. They have to keep trying, and we’ll keep pushing them,” she said. Gross and her lawyer, Jared Genser, have been demanding that Cuba allow an independent medical expert to examine her husband. Cuban doctors have diagnosed the mass behind his right shoulder as a “hematoma” and told Gross in May that it would disappear in a few months, according to Genser. “The proper kinds of tests were not taken, so there’s no way for sure anybody knows what it is,” said Judy Gross, who visited her husband just last month. “This has been months and months now and it’s quite frightening,” she said. “We don’t know why they haven’t responded to our requests to have an independent doctor come in from an independent country. We’re quite frustrated with that,” she said. - Reuters |
| Opinion poll shows Greek opposition pulling ahead Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:30 PM PST
According to the KAPA Research poll, SYRIZA, which opposes the government’s austerity policies, is the most popular party with 23.1 percent support, up from 20.7 percent in June. Golden Dawn had 10.4 percent support, up from 7.5 percent in June. The survey showed that unemployment was the biggest concern for Greeks. According to official figures released on Thursday, Greece’s unemployment rate rose to a record 25.4 percent in August, more than double the euro zone average. Support for the conservative New Democracy party, part of a pro-austerity coalition, fell to 20.6 percent from 23.6. Only 3 percent of Greeks trusted politicians and two-thirds had a negative view of both the government and opposition-leading SYRIZA, according to the survey released on Friday. Over two-thirds of the population expect the situation in Greece to deteriorate in the next five years. However, most people in the Mediterranean state of 10 million people think the present government should be given more time to address the country’s problems, the poll showed. Euro zone finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss whether to release a new tranche of loans to the near-bankrupt country. - Reuters |
| Yemen tribal leader held under house arrest over al Qaeda ties Posted: 10 Nov 2012 04:27 PM PST
Yemen has stepped up a campaign to defeat Islamist militants this year. It is an arena for US drone strikes because al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has used its Yemen base to target Saudi Arabia and the United States. Tarek al-Fadli, who was raised in Saudi Arabia and fought in Afghanistan, heads a major tribe in Abyan province. He disappeared several months ago when the Yemeni army, backed by US drones, fought to clear al Qaeda militants from southern Yemeni towns they had occupied during an uprising last year against veteran ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. Fadli reappeared last week in his home in the port city of Zinjibar, one of the towns the army took back from al Qaeda, leading to a stand-off between his supporters and troops. On Tuesday, he was given an ultimatum to surrender as the government sought to avoid a clash with the tribal leader. Fadli agreed on Saturday to move to the southern capital of Aden where he was placed under house arrest. “We managed to move Fadli out of his home in Abyan and now he’s under house arrest in Aden,” said an official from Abyan. “Now Fadli will remain under house arrest until the people of Abyan present evidence that would lead to his trial.” The stand-off, which lasted nearly a week, highlighted the challenges facing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi – who took power after Saleh stepped down in February – in trying to assert state authority following the uprising. Impoverished Yemen adjoins the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia. Its wealthier Gulf neighbours and Washington are concerned al Qaeda and other Islamist fighters could pose a threat to Saudi Arabia and nearby oil shipping channels. - Reuters |
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