Tradisional Sabah Borneo

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Expecting thousands for the much-touted #ShutdownSungaiBesi rally to pressure Putrajaya to reverse the recent slew of toll fare hikes across the Klang Valley, the police must have been taken aback when only about 100 people turned up last night.

Bracing for trouble with a street demonstration in the capital on New Year’s Eve, the police posted some 300 officers at the heavily-trafficked Sungai Besi toll plaza, and parked at least 20 police trucks nearby.

But the rally was very much a tame affair. Protesters held up placards demanding in Bahasa Malaysia for the government to “bring down toll fares” and “stop torturing the people”.

One quirky handmade sign read: “Happy New Fear 2016” and listed a number of items believed will burn a hole in their already thin wallets for the months ahead, including sugar, milk and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).At 9pm, some 20 protesters gathered at a Shell petrol station near the toll plaza but police moved swiftly to disperse them and blocked off the area.Protestors moving from the original protest location near the Shell petrol station up the road to the Sg Besi toll after cops cordoned off the Shell station. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

It kicked off a cat-and-mouse game as the rally leaders moved up and down the Sungai Besi highway delivering speeches from the back of a pick-up truck while attempting not to draw police attention.

The number of protesters swelled about 11pm and moved closer to the toll plaza after several federal opposition politicians arrived. Notable figures spotted were Parti Amanah Negara deputy president Salahuddin Ayub and its youth chief Shazlin Munir Mohd Ithin, and recent PKR recruit Fahmi Zainol.

DAP’s Syefura Othman also turned up though she stressed that she wasn’t representing her party. She said the toll fare hikes were the final straw and promised that Malaysia’s youths will rise to defend their rights in the new year.

“Malaysia belongs to the people,” she said in her speech.

“We have no other way. We must bring down BN. We must take Putrajaya. There must be reforms in the country’s administration.

THE  MALAY  MAIL  ONLINE

With temperatures above freezing at the North Pole, deadly tornadoes in Texas, extreme heat in Australia and floods in Britain and Missouri, the world is beset by extreme weather events as it welcomes 2016.

A powerful and destructive low-pressure system in the North Atlantic has pushed the mercury up to two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) at the pole, 20 degrees above the seasonal norm.

The Arctic has borne the brunt of global warming, with temperatures three degrees higher than the pre-industrial era.

But linking the current mild conditions to climate change is premature, warned Natalie Hasell, meteorologist at the Canadian Department of the Environment, saying that scientists do not base their conclusions "on one anomaly".The North Atlantic depression also brought eastern Canada an unusually warm holiday period, with temperatures hitting 15.9 degrees Celsius in Montreal on Christmas Eve, around 20 degrees above the seasonal average.

This was followed by heavy snowfall that covered the country's eastern half.

In the United States, tornadoes and floods left at least 49 dead.

The waters of the mighty Mississippi River have already exceeded overflow levels by four metres in some areas, claiming 13 lives.

In the south, spectacular tornadoes devastated parts of Texas.

The common cause of the unusual events is a particularly strong El Nino system, amplified by global warming, according to scientists.El Ninos, which emerge every four to seven years on average and run from October through January, are triggered by a shift in trade winds across the Pacific around the Equator.

However, the 2015 episode is "probably the strongest in the last 100 years," said Jerome Lecou, ​​forecaster at Meteo-France.

"There is no simple answer" to explain the exceptional conditions, he added.

- Strawberries at Christmas -

Although centered on the Pacific Ocean, El Nino "has an impact on a global scale," Jean Jouzel, former vice president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told AFP.

"Generally, El Nino years are warmer than average," he said.

In Australia, scorching heat has led to large forest fires and temperatures are forecast to soon hit 38 degrees Celsius in the south.

In France, the unseasonably warm weather has baffled Mother Nature with Perigord strawberries, Alsatian asparagus and mimosas all flourishing on the French Riviera.

In Spain, higher temperatures and low rainfall have led to an unusual outbreak of wildfires in the north.

Several Italian cities have introduced traffic restrictions to combat fine-particle pollution, which has been worsened by the dry and calm conditions.

Record rainfall has brought unprecedented flooding to the north of England, leaving the historic city of York under feet of water and thousands evacuated over December.

Stormy weather buffeting the North Sea has brought havoc to oilfields on New Year's Eve, with one man reported killed by a giant wave hitting a rig, and hundreds of workers evacuated after a huge barge broke its moorings and began drifting.

"There is no doubt in my mind that climate change is partly responsible for the flooding across the north of England," said Piers Forster, professor of climate science at Leeds University.

Britain's mean December temperature was a record-breaking eight degrees Celsius, smashing the previous high of 6.9 degrees set in 1934, according to the Met Office.

It was also the wettest December on record for Scotland and Wales and one of the top 10 wettest in Britain as a whole.

Worldwide, temperatures between January and November have already broken records, suggesting that 2015 will be the hottest in modern history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"On a global level, we really are in an exceptional year as it is just over a tenth of a degree warmer than 2014, which itself was a record year,"said Jean Jouzel.

"This is a real leap, one tenth of a degree from one year to another," he added.

With El Nino showing little sign of running out of steam, he predicted that 2016 could be warmer still, but that following years may be less extreme.AFP

President Francois Hollande said in his New Year's Eve address to the nation Thursday that France "has not finished with terrorism yet".

Speaking six weeks after gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris, Hollande said the threat of another attack "remains at its highest level".

After a "terrible" year in which jihadists also attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket and a heavily armed man attacked passengers on a high-speed train in France, Hollande said his "first duty" was to protect the French people.

"That means attacking the root of the evil, in Syria and Iraq. That is why we have intensified our air strikes against Daesh," he said, using another name for the Islamic State (IS) group.

Hollande said IS was feeling the hit from the assault.The hits are taking their toll, the jihadists are in retreat, so we will continue as long as necessary," he added.

Hollande said he was "proud" of the French people for showing "solidarity and cool-headedness" after the attacks in January and in the wake of the carnage of November 13.

"Despite this tragedy, France did not give in," Hollande said. "Despite the tears, it remained upright. Confronted by hate, it showed the strength of its values, the values of the Republic."

The president was defiant on his plans to strip dual nationals who are convicted of terrorist offences of their French nationality.

He said while it was "legitimate" to have a debate about the proposal that has deeply divided his Socialist party, "when it comes to your protection, France must not be divided".

More than 100,000 police are on duty across France for the New Year's Eve celebrations, including 11,000 in Paris where the main fireworks display has been cancelled this year.

Far fewer people than normal are expected to gather on the Champs Elysees boulevard, the traditional focal point of celebrations in France. AFP

An explosion on Crimea's main electricity line from Ukraine has left parts of the peninsula annexed by Russia in the dark, authorities said Thursday, weeks after power lines were sabotaged by anti-Russian activists.

The only functional high-voltage wires providing electricity to Crimea was damaged after a nearby pylon fell following an explosion of an unknown cause, the Ukrainian police said.

The three other power lines supplying the peninsula had been damaged by explosions in November and left Crimeans without electricity for several days.

Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov denounced the incident as a "terrorist attack" and assured that New Year celebrations would not be disrupted, Russian news agencies reported.Russia's energy ministry said Thursday that more than one million residents of the peninsula of 1.9 million had been affected by power cuts.

Electricity was sporadic in different parts of the peninsula, according to AFP reporters in Crimea.

In Sevastopol -- home to Russia's Black Sea fleet -- authorities on Thursday were forced to cut electricity every three hours to save power.

Annexed by Moscow in March 2014, Crimea still heavily depends on Ukraine for its electricity and water supplies.

Russia announced in early December the launch of an undersea power cable that could reduce the peninsula's dependence on Ukraine, but the line almost immediately overheated and plunged Crimea into darkness.  AFP

Two independent studies have for the first time laid bare how many civilians died at the hands of US police over the course of a year: about three a day.

The tallies, carried out by The Washington Post and the Guardian newspapers, are likely to fuel simmering outrage in many US communities that feel police officers are too quick to use deadly force.

America has in recent years been shaken by a series of fatal police shootings that have prompted calls for reforms of law enforcement tactics.

Some of the highest-profile incidents have involved white officers killing unarmed black men or youths, with many of the deaths caught on video camera.The shootings have galvanized the Black Lives Matter national movement, which has helped raise awareness around the disproportionate rate at which unarmed black men are killed by police.

Because the Federal Bureau of Investigation only tallies "justifiable homicides" of felons by police officers, and not the overall number killed, the US edition of the Guardian and the Post set about keeping their own counts.

The FBI's official tally of justifiable homicides in 2014 was 444 (2015 is not yet available.)

The agency's national tally is also incomplete because reporting is voluntary, and not all police departments submit data.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has announced plans to improve data collecting for use-of-force incidents involving police, calling it "vital for transparency and accountability."

- Three a day -

According to The Counted, at the Guardian's site, 1,130 people had as of Thursday been killed by police in 2015 -- more than three a day, on average.

The Post, which only counted people killed by gunshot, put the number at 979.

The Post found most of those were either armed, had mental troubles, or were fleeing officers who had told them to stop.

In the bulk of cases where officers killed an armed suspect, the individual was white, the newspaper notes, adding that 36 officers have been shot and killed in 2015.

However, when it comes to unarmed suspects, black men are disproportionately affected.

The Post found that though black men make up only six percent of the US population, they made up 40 percent of the cases in which police killed an unarmed man in 2015.

Yet another high-profile case unfolded Saturday in Chicago, when police fatally shot Bettie Jones, 55, a mother of five, and Quintonio LeGrier, a 19-year-old engineering student.

Both died after police came to a private residence in response to a domestic-violence call.

The city's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said more police should be armed with Taser stun guns and given additional training.

"There's a difference between whether someone can use a gun and when they should use a gun," Emanuel said, after cutting short his vacation and returning to the city. 'Public-health concern' -

The shootings come with Chicago's police already under federal investigation over a video that shows a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shooting a black teen 16 times, with most of the gunshots fired as the boy was lying motionless on the ground.

Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The shooting of 17-year old Laquan McDonald, which took place in 2014, has triggered a federal civil-rights probe into the police and calls in some corners for the resignation of Emanuel -- a former top White House aide to President Barack Obama.

In the rare cases where police are charged with wrongdoing in shootings, they are often cleared, as they only need to show they felt their lives were in danger at the time of the incident.

Because so many people in America have guns, officers are trained to assume every suspect could be armed.In a recent study in the Public Library of Science (PLOS), researchers from Harvard University urged better national counting of police killings.

"Law-enforcement-related deaths, of both persons killed by law-enforcement agents and also law-enforcement agents killed in the line of duty, are a public-health concern," the study notes.

On the Web: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/counted-us-police-killings

On the Web: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/  AFP

Chinese regional carrier China Express Airlines has placed an order for 10 Bombardier CRJ900 jets worth $462 million, the Canadian aircraft builder said Thursday.

The order will eventually increase the China Express' all-Bombardier fleet to 38, according to a Bombardier statement.

Based in the southwest city of Chongqing, the nine year old carrier serves 62 cities in China.

The CRJ900 is a regional jet that seats up to 90 passengers, and with the China express deal, Bombardier has racked up 409 firm orders for the aircraft.

"The CRJ900 is the right aircraft for our cooperation with major airlines on code sharing and connecting flights, as well as cooperation with cities. It offers excellent economics and reliability and is well liked by our passengers," China Express president Wu Longjiang said in a statement.  AFP

The body of a kayaker who went missing during Storm Frank was recovered from a river on Thursday as Britain's battle with localised flooding stretched into the New Year.

The body of the man in his 50s was recovered from the River Findhorn in Moray, northeastern Scotland. He got into difficulties on the water around midday Wednesday.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the town of Newton Stewart in southwest Scotland to see the damage to shops and businesses affected by flooding there.

"The impact is devastating for people, it's absolutely heart-breaking," she said.

"There's a long recovery road ahead for some of the people I've been speaking to."Meanwhile Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and his wife Camilla, visited locals from flood-hit Ballater, which is near Balmoral Castle, the Queen's summer residence.

Some 96 people spent the night in a barracks, having been evacuated from their homes.

Going into Friday, the Environment Agency (EA) for England and Wales had 16 flood warnings in place, meaning flooding was expected and "immediate action required".

In the historic tourist city of York, northern England, the flood barrier on the River Foss, which was knocked out by high water, has been repaired and flooding in the city has receded.

However, the city is being warned to be vigilant as the River Ouse it flows into will remain high over the coming days.

"Thankfully it is now an improving weather picture across most of the country," said EA incident management director Craig Woolhouse.

"We will continue to work closely with local authorities in the coming weeks to support their recovery efforts and still have teams working around the clock to protect communities and pump away flood water."

Earlier Thursday, the Met Office national weather service said Britain had experienced its warmest December since records began in 1910, smashing the previous high.

"The UK mean temperature (1-29 December) is a record-breaking 8.0 degrees Celsius. The previous record was 6.9 degrees Celsius in 1934," it said.AFP

German police said Thursday that they had "indications that a terror attack" was being planned for New Year's Eve in the southern city of Munich, as they called on the public to avoid large gatherings and two key train stations.

"Current indications show that a terror attack is being planned in Munich. Please avoid gatherings of people and the Munich and Pasing train stations," police said in a tweet.

Both stations have been evacuated, they said, and train services were no longer running at the two stations.

A police spokeswoman told AFP that they had "reliable information" that a group was planning to act as festivities were well under way on New Year's Eve.

Although the train stations have been evacuated, the spokeswoman said it could not be ruled out that the attackers could seek another target.European capitals are on high security alert, with Brussels and Paris both scrapping fireworks for New Year's celebrations.

In Berlin, the police presence has been stepped up at the Brandenburg Gate, where hundreds of thousands of people have gathered for festivities. All large bags and backpacks have been banned from the site of the huge street party.

AFP

UN troops stood guard over the main vote-counting centre in Bangui on Thursday after a peaceful election in the Central African Republic aimed at turning the page on years of inter-religious violence.

While initial reaction to the voting process was positive, there were some reports of minor irregularities and the national electoral commission, admitting a number of "logistical difficulties", urged candidates to use legal means to address any grievances.

How the country dealt with any contentious issues "would be particularly important for the credibility of the elections", the European Union said in a statement.

In a sign of the ongoing tense security situation, the government issued a statement banning fireworks and celebratory gunfire in the capital Bangui on New Year's Eve.

Voters had turned out in large numbbers for Wednesday's oft-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections, which went off without major incident and were hailed as "a success" by the head of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSCA, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga.

UN forces operating in the deeply poor country alongside French troops helped to ensure that polling stations stayed open late into the night so people could vote.

The EU noted that the bloodless voting "bore testament to Central Africans' determination to take charge of the destiny of their country".

But the country may have to wait at least a week to learn the outcome of the election, which residents hope will restore stability after more than two years of brutal conflict.

Three men who have all held high political office in previous governments are considered the frontrunners in the 30-strong presidential race,including ex-premiers Martin Ziguele and Anicet Georges Dologuele.

The mostly Christian country has been rocked by violence since veteran leader Francois Bozize was ousted in a March 2013 coup by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel alliance, which installed Michel Djotodia, the first Muslim head of state.

Both now face international sanctions over the fighting that pitted mainly Islamic rebels against vigilantes from the Christian majority.When Djotodia quit in January 2014 under international pressure, his disbanded Seleka rebels were running amok even as new president Catherine Samba-Panza was sworn in to oversee a transition to the new elections.

- Organisational problems -

The savagery unleashed by the mainly Christian "anti-balaka" (anti-machete) vigilantes in response to Seleka atrocities has cost thousands of lives and driven a tenth of the 4.8 million population to flee their homes.

As the National Elections Authority (ANE) began the count Thursday, cement barriers were placed outside the main tallying centre in Bangui along with a UN armoured vehicle to prevent any attacks by supporters of disgruntled politicians.

Although there were no reports of major violence or widespread fraud, ANE spokesman Julius Ngouade Baba told reporters Thursday the commission had noted a number of organisational problems.

"There have also been printing errors on ballots in certain constituencies," he said, while "some ballots never arrived at the counting centres".

He added that candidates in the affected constituencies could take any possible complaints to the Constitutional Court and that some parliamentary by-elections may needed to be held.

A second round of voting is set for January 31.

Prominent candidates have already declared themselves pleased with Wednesday's polls.

"The results are very, very satisfying," one-time prime minister Ziguele told AFP. "My party (the Central African People's Liberation Movement) is getting high scores in zones where we're not deeply rooted, while in 'our' regions, the scores are Soviet-style!"Aides to Dologuele, who also served as prime minister, said he was "largely ahead" in most constituencies in Bangui and in several key provincial towns.

The last of the three favourites, Karim Meckassoua, a Muslim former foreign minister, could not be reached for comment.

Archange Touadera, a prime minister under Bozize, is now also said to have emerged as a possible contender for the top job.

The CAR, a former French colony, possesses considerable mineral wealth -- notably diamonds -- but after years of misrule studded with coups, army mutinies, rebellions and general strikes, the economy is in ruins, propped up by international donors.AFP

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani denounced Thursday possible new US sanctions on his country which, if enacted, could jeopardise a hard-won nuclear deal due to be finally implemented within weeks.

In a letter to his defence minister Rouhani said reports that the US Treasury planned to blacklist companies and individuals with ties to Iran's ballistic missile programme constituted "hostile and illegal interventions" that justified a response.

His comments came as relations worsened days after US officials said an Iranian vessel had test-fired several rockets near three Western warships, including the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier, in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, who are responsible for protecting Iranian interests in the Strait and regularly patrol and conduct exercises in the area where much of the world's oil passes, denied its ships were involved.

Spokesman General Ramezan Sharif accused the US of fabricating the alleged December 26 incident as part of a "psychological operation".

"The Guards' naval force had no exercise in the past week when the Americans claim that a missile or rocket was fired in the Hormuz Strait area," he said.

Though the rockets were not fired toward any warship, their proximity to them and several commercial vessels -- reportedly around 1,500 yards (metres) -- was "highly provocative", said a US officiaA French frigate and the USS Bulkeley destroyer were also in the area at the time.

Rouhani, whose government negotiated the nuclear deal with the US and five other world powers, warned of reprisals.

Should individuals and companies be added to "the previously unjustified sanctions list, it is necessary that the production of various missiles required by the armed forces move forward with increased speed and seriousness," Rouhani wrote to Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan.

"If such wrong and interventionist actions are repeated by the US the ministry of defence should use all its capabilities to come up with new plans to expand Iran's missile capabilities," he added.

The comments were also posted on Rouhani's official Twitter account.

- Hardliners opposed nuclear deal -

In the five months since the nuclear deal was struck, US officials say Iran has conducted two ballistic missile tests, one of which state media reported at the time, on October 11.

Iran also recently aired television footage of an underground missile base.

A United Nations panel found earlier this month that the missile tests breached previous UN resolutions aimed at stopping Iran from developing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Tehran has always denied seeking an atomic weapon and thus its missiles would not be designed to, nor ever carry, a bomb.

The nuclear deal was heralded by moderates such as Rouhani, who staked his reputation on the negotiations, but hardliners in Tehran said it damaged Iran's national interests.

Republican lawmakers in the US Congress poured scorn on the agreement and tried to stop it. Several Republicans candidates for the presidency have pledged to rip it up if they are elected next November.The Wall Street Journal originally reported Wednesday that the US was preparing fresh sanctions against companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates over alleged links to Tehran's ballistic missile programme.

Such a step by the US Treasury Department could present a major barrier to the nuclear deal's implementation, let alone its durability.

Although Iran's ultimate authority, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, explicitly endorsed the nuclear accord in October, he warned that new sanctions, under any pretext, would constitute a violation.

The deal is due to come into effect on "Implementation Day", expected in January, or soon after, when UN monitors sign off that Iran has fulfilled its obligations and applied major curbs to its nuclear programme.

Rouhani further criticised the apparent US Treasury plans, stating that Iran's domestic defence had never been within the remit of the nuclear talks and its missiles would never be used to carry an atomic bomb.

"Iran's missile programme is in no way part of the JCPOA," he said, giving the deal its official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "Officials of the United States have also admitted this."  AFP