Tradisional Sabah Borneo

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has given Democrats a partial victory in the presidential battleground of Florida, extending the state's voter registration deadline one day and agreeing to consider a longer extension in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

The initial deadline was Tuesday, but Florida Democrats, with the support of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, argued that would-be voters deserved more time. Republican Gov. Rick Scott last week urged 1.5 million residents to evacuate as the storm approached the southeastern United States.

District Judge Mark Walker issued a temporary order Monday afternoon extending the deadline through the close of business Wednesday. He set a hearing Wednesday at 10 a.m. for arguments for a longer extension. Judges grant temporary restraining orders in cases where a petitioner demonstrates irreparable harm would occur if the court took naction. The orders often portend victory once a judge considers the merits of the case.

Clinton had called on Scott, before the suit was filed, to extend the deadline himself using his emergency authority. The governor declined, saying Floridians "had enough time to register" before the Oct. 6 evacuation orders.

Though the case involves the highest stakes in a perennial presidential battleground, the judge called it "poppycock" to claim that "the issue of extending the voter registration deadline is about politics." The case, he wrote, "is about the right of aspiring eligible voters to register to have their votes counted."

The case comes as the two presidential campaigns try to resume their full activities in Florida and North Carolina, the two battlegrounds where Matthew left fatalities and wracked widespread damage.Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence was in western North Carolina on Monday, while Clinton was planning to visit south Florida on Tuesday alongside former Vice President Al Gore. GOP hopeful Donald Trump was also to campaign in Florida the next two days with stops in three cities that are usually GOP strongholds. And former President Bill Clinton has his own Florida schedule Tuesday on his wife's behalf.

The voter registration dispute is key since both campaigns acknowledge that the storm's interruptions could yield even marginal effects on voter turnout efforts. North Carolina and Florida remain close, even as Clinton appears to be taking a commanding national lead. Going days without door-knocking and phone-banking around Fayetteville, North Carolina, or registering voters around Jacksonville, Florida, is enough to make Republican and Democratic aides nervous.The time for politics will come back, and it will just have to take care of itself," said Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, which together with the Republican National Committee leads voter turnout efforts for Trump and the rest of the GOP slate.

Woodhouse said GOP campaign offices remained closed in Fayetteville, Greenville and Wilmington.

In his first public campaign appearance since Sunday's second presidential debate, Pence told a Charlotte crowd that eastern North Carolinians are "inspiring" for their handling of the hurricane. Pence also praised Trump for apologizing after the Friday disclosure of a 2005 NBC video that captured the real estate billionaire making predatory comments about women.Florida's voter registration deadline applies to both in-person registration and postmarks for mailed forms.

The initial petition argued that Matthew constituted a "daunting" and "life-threatening obstacle" to registration. Scott's office said earlier Monday that the governor's legal advisers were reviewing the suit.

In 2004, then-Gov. Jeb Bush used emergency authority to allow several Florida counties to delay the start of early voting after Hurricane Charley.

Clinton aides declined comment on the suit earlier Monday, but maintain that under normal circumstances, they would have registered tens of thousands of Florida residents in the final five days of registration. President Barack Obama won the state in 2012 by fewer than 75,000 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast. Both Republicans and Democrats have intensified their voter registration efforts since.

The office, called the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will have 50-60 people working on about 10 different projects by the end of the next year, Murat Sonmez, a one-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur who will lead the effort, said in an interview.

The goal is to develop policy approaches to address the novel issues raised by new technologies, said the member of the forum's managing board. Many "policies and regulations were written before the Internet was invented. Policy-makers don't know what to do," he said.

About half of the new center's staff will be full-timers and the rest will include fellows and others from industry, academia and government, Sonmez said.

"Given the accelerating change brought on by innovation, continuous public-private cooperation on a global level is needed more than ever," Klaus Schwab, founder and chief executive of the forum, said in a statement.

The Word Economic Forum holds regional events around the world and publishes research on the global economy.  REUTERS

PUTRAJAYA, Oct 11 — Despite her name, Rosliza Ibrahim is a Buddhist. She was born 35 years ago to a Buddhist mother, who raised her as a Buddhist, and continues to practise Buddhism today.

Yet, the state religious authorities in Selangor, where she currently resides, regard her as a Muslim and subject to Shariah law because she was born to a Muslim father, although out of wedlock.

“Her Constitutional right to religious freedom and disposition of property are all adversely affected. She cannot go to the Shariah court as, by law, she is not even a Muslim in the first place. Thus there is no question of leaving Islam.

“She won’t be able to get married to a person of her choice,” Rosliza’s lawyer, Aston Paiva, told Malay Mail Online yesterday.

Like her name, Rosliza inherited her religious status from her father. But according to her, her parents were never married, while her late mother never even converted to Islam.

“It’s about application of state Islamic law on an illegitimate child born to a Buddhist mother. Selangor says her father is a Muslim and that’s that,” Aston said.

In the Court of Appeal today, Rosliza contends that under English common law and substantive Islamic law, an illegitimate child’s natural father has no rights over the child, and therefore her religion should follow her mother’s wishes.

The appellant, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, had last year filed a summons in a Shah Alam High Court, seeking a legal declaration that Islamic laws enacted by Selangor do not apply to her and that Shariah courts do not have jurisdiction over her.

She had provided evidence from Selangor and Federal Territories religious authorities that both she and her mother had never converted into Islam, and there was no record from both authorities that her parents had a Muslim marriage.

Her mother had also provided a statutory declaration confirming that she had never married the appellant’s father.

The whereabouts of her father is currently unknown, according to Aston.

Despite that, the High Court rejected the summons in March this year, speculating that her parents could have entered a Muslim marriage in any other state in Malaysia, or even outside the country.

“The High Court did not request for evidence of this from the appellant during the hearing. She was not given an opportunity to be heard on this,” Aston said.In today’s hearing against the Selangor state government, the appellant will ask for her declaration to be allowed, or for the High Court to resolve their speculation.

“A failure by the Malaysian courts to conclusively determine this dispute would affirm that the religion of Islam can be imposed on the Buddhist appellant against her will; violating guaranteed Constitutional rights and human rights in Malaysia,” Aston explained.

Malaysia regularly grapples with long-drawn cases of unilateral conversions into Islam, with minister in charge of Islamic affairs Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom insisting in May that such conversions were lawful and guaranteed under the Federal Constitution, even as the Cabinet is seeking ways to address the matter.

Buddhists make up 19.8 per cent of Malaysians based on the latest census in 2010, the biggest religious minority in the Muslim majority country. MALAY  MAIL  ONLINE

French President Francois Hollande has not yet decided whether to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Paris next week, after the Kremlin blocked a UN bid to end the bombing of Aleppo, Paris said Monday.

Putin is due in Paris on October 19 to inaugurate a new Orthodox church near the Eiffel Tower in a visit that is fast turning into a diplomatic headache for France.

On Sunday, Hollande left open the question of whether he would receive Putin, describing the scorched-earth campaign in the Syrian city of Aleppo as a war crime."I asked myself the question... Is it useful? Is it necessary? Can it be a way of exerting pressure? Can we get him to stop what he is doing with the Syrian regime?" Hollande told the TMC channel.

The Kremlin however said preparations for Putin's visit were continuing.

"There are plans for talks with the Elysee Palace (seat of the French presidency) and Putin will take part in the inauguration of the Russian spiritual centre," his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Paris had not informed Moscow of any changes to their plans, he added.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told France Inter radio on Monday that Hollande would decide whether to meet with Putin "in light of the situation in Aleppo and Syria".If Hollande agrees to meet Putin, "it will not be for pleasantries, it will be to speak the truth," he said, calling the Syrian and Russian bombardments of Aleppo a "gift to terrorists".

Ayrault was given short shrift in Moscow on Friday as he tried in vain to persuade his opposite number Sergei Lavrov to implement the Aleppo ceasefire plan.

But Ayrault said Russia was still "a partner" of France and there might also be talks to try to resolve the nearly three-year-old conflict in eastern Ukraine.

- 'Heavy symbolism' -

He did not give details but France and Germany have for weeks been trying to organise a meeting between Hollande, Putin, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko.

During a visit Monday to Istanbul, Putin outlined a potential first step toward getting badly needed aid into Aleppo, where some 250,000 residents live in the rebel-held east.

"We have a common position which is to do everything to get humanitarian aid to Aleppo... The problem is ensuring the safety of these deliveries," Putin said.

On Saturday, Russia blocked a draft French UN resolution calling for an end to the barrage of air strikes on the city's rebel-held east that have escalated in the last month, leaving hundreds of people dead, including dozens of children.

It was the fifth time that Russia used its veto to block UN action to end the five-year war in Syria, which has claimed 300,000 lives.Hollande told TMC the scorched-earth campaign in Aleppo constituted a "war crime".

"Those who commit these acts will have to pay for their involvement, including at the International Criminal Court," he said.

Thomas Gomart, head of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), said Putin's visit left the French government in "an extremely delicate situation".

France does not want to be seen to be hosting a president "who is opening a place of worship while his army is bombing Aleppo", and the visit also has "heavy symbolism" for the Russians, he said.

"His visit would be a major success for Russian diplomacy, which wants to present Putin as a major player, even a central player, on the international scene."It is not the first time in recent years that Moscow's foreign policy has left Paris in an awkward situation.

The outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 eventually prompted France to cancel the delivery to Russia of two Mistral assault ships and repay almost 950 million euros ($1.1 billion).

Egypt eventually bought the ships.  AFP

NEW YORK (AP) — Worries about the safety of Samsung's replacement Galaxy Note 7 smartphones have consumers fretting about what to do.

U.S. regulators ordered a recall of the original Note 7, a huge phone-bordering-on-tablet with a huge battery, in late September after the devices demonstrated an unwelcome tendency to catch fire. Now, following reports that the company's replacement versions have also overheated or caught fire , Samsung has halted Note 7 sales and advised customers to power down their devices or replace them.

Officials from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission echoed that advice in their own statement, adding that they are continuing to investigate at least five incidents of fire or overheating reported since a formal recall was announced Sept. 15.

The four major U.S. mobile carriers, meanwhile, have all suspended trade-ins for the replacement phones; so have major retailers such as Best Buy. Instead, these companies are offering to swap Note 7s out for any other smartphone of the customer's choice.

Here's a look at the options for Note 7 owners.SWAP FOR A DIFERENT SAMSUNG PHONE

Samsung's equivalent phones are mostly, well, old. If you just dropped several hundred dollars on the latest Samsung device, do you really want to trade it for last year's model?

One option is Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone, which is slightly smaller and cheaper than the Note. While it has many of the same features of the Note, it lacks a stylus and the Note 7's iris scanner. The phone also came out in March, which might render it perilously close to middle-aged where cutting-edge types are concerned.

An older version of the Note is also an option, though also a disappointing one, given that the Note 5 (there was no Note 6) launched more than a year ago. Many Note 7 owners may already own one, or recently traded theirs in to get the Note 7.

Corey Nahman, a 56-year-old salesman for a drug company in Long Island, anxiously awaited the arrival of the Note 7 and excitedly bought $150 worth of accessories to go with it.

The Samsung loyalist also owns a Samsung tablet, TV and washer and dryer. Now he has a replacement Note 7 but isn't sure what he's supposed to do with it."I'm not angry at them," he says. "I'm more annoyed that nobody knows what's going on."

Nahman says he loves the Note 7, but he's getting a lot of pressure from his wife to swap out his phone, maybe for the Google Pixel XL. In the meantime he's being careful not to charge his phone overnight. He turns it off completely before bed.

___

SWAP FOR A PHONE MADE BY SOMEONE ELSE

Google's new Pixel phones are coming out later this month, while LG and HTC also have large Android smartphones of varying ages on the market.

Apple's iPhone 7 also recently launched, and has been fairly well received even though it no longer features the standard headphone jack. That means Note 7 owners would need adapters for their old earbuds; they might also find it jarring to switch from an Android phone to the iPhone.

John Blackshear, an academic dean at Duke University, was a Samsung loyalist. He swapped his Note 7 — the third Galaxy Note he's had — for the replacement version in September. But after hearing reports of problems with the replacement Note 7s, he traded in that phone for an iPhone 7 Plus on Friday.

But his wife, who also has a replacement Note 7, hasn't swapped hers because she likes it so much and relies on it for her job at Duke, he says.

"I don't know if it's a big deal or not," Blackshear says. "We haven't gotten anything from Verizon or Samsung. There haven't been emails or calls. I want to get something official."In the meantime, he says he and his wife are keeping the phone stored in high places where his three young children can't grab it.The obvious downside: Potential overheating and fire for those who insist on using their Note 7s. If you have an older phone lying around that you could reactivate for a while, this might not be a bad choice. Just make sure to power the Note 7 down before tossing it in a drawer.

It's possible that company and government investigations will determine that the fires, at least those involving the replacement phones, were just isolated incidents. Or Samsung might release another replacement phone that's actually safe before long.

It's too early to tell. In the meantime, better safe than sorry.  AP

Donald Trump's presidential aspirations took more tough hits Monday as the nation's top elected Republican all but conceded the race to Hillary Clinton, who returned to the campaign trail invigorated by polls showing her lead expanding.

With Trump's campaign already teetering on the precipice after revelations of his lewd comments about women, House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republican lawmakers that he could no longer "defend" Trump, and that the priority now was maintaining the party's control of Congress.

As Trump and Clinton headed Monday to key swing states after their fiery debate clash, with 29 days to go until Election Day, Ryan said he would not campaign with or for the provocative New York real estate mogul for the remainder of the race."He will spend his entire energy making sure that Hillary Clinton does not get a blank check with a Democrat-controlled Congress," said a source on Ryan's conference call with lawmakers.

"You all need to do what's best for you in your district," Ryan said, effectively giving cover to lawmakers considering severing ties with the controversial GOP flagbearer.

Trump quickly fired back on Twitter, saying Ryan "should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee."

Ryan's move sent the already unprecedented 2016 race into uncharted waters, as Trump grapples with the fallout from his own remarks and the wave of Republican lawmakers who have already abandoned him, including some who have urged him to step aside.

Trump's candidacy suffered a crippling blow after a 2005 tape was released Friday in which he made lewd comments about women, including his ability to grab them by the crotch with impunity because, as a celebrity, "you can do anything."

A new NBC News - Wall Street Journal poll, conducted after the video was released but before Sunday's debate, showed Clinton with an 11-point lead in a four-way election -- 46 percent to 35 percent -- and a 14-point lead in a head-to-head match-up.

- Pence stands tall -

Trump's running mate Mike Pence, who earlier condemned Trump's remarks as offensive, was one of the few Republicans who offered his full-throated support on Monday, saying the nominee was a "big man" to apologize.

"I'm honored to be standing shoulder to shoulder with him," Pence said.

Clinton and Trump sparred in Sunday's town hall-style debate, which was a study in heated personal attacks and a stark reminder of the divisiveness that has come to mark the presidential race.

Before an estimated 66.5 million television viewers and a live audience including Bill Clinton and three women who have accused the former president of sexual misconduct, Trump threatened to jail his Democratic rival and lobbed incendiary allegations against her husband.

The 70-year-old real estate mogul apologized for "locker room talk" in which he bragged about groping women. But he stated baldly that "Bill Clinton was abusive to women."

Asked repeatedly and directly if he had ever kissed or groped women without their consent, Trump finally answered: "No, I have not."

Shattering the last vestiges of political decorum, Trump threatened the 68-year-old former secretary of state -- whom he accused of having "hate in her heart" -- with imprisonment if he wins the presidency.

On Monday, Trump doubled down on his pledge to investigate his rival if he wins, despite the suggestion being roundly denounced when he uttered it in the debate.

"Special prosecutor here we come," Trump sneered at a rally in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

Trump also took his assault on Bill Clinton a step further, branding him a "predator" and threatening to stay on the attack if more damning video about Trump emerges.

"If they want to release more tapes... we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary doing inappropriate things," Trump said.

He also sent a dark warning about the November 8 election, telling supporters it was "so important that you watch other communities, because we do not want this election stolen from us."

- Attacking, not apologizing -

Clinton meanwhile visited Detroit, Michigan, where she criticized Trump for deflecting responsibility for his past misogynistic statementsDuring the debate, "Donald Trump spent his time attacking when he should have been apologizing," she said.

Meanwhile, as Trump's campaign was scrambling to avoid a full-on implosion, Ryan's move triggered exasperation among some conservatives.

"We can't even unify around the concept of defeating Democrats? What good are we?" Rush Limbaugh, a leading conservative talk radio host, said Monday. AFP

The day after running mate Mike Pence appeared to break ranks with Trump during a vice presidential debate and called Putin "a small and bullying leader," Trump adjusted his own previously warm rhetoric toward the Russian.

"I don't love (Putin), I don't hate. We'll see how it works. We'll see," Trump told supporters during a campaign stop in the swing state of Nevada. "Maybe we’ll have a good relationship. Maybe we’ll have a horrible relationship. Maybe we’ll have a relationship right in the middle."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has criticized Trump, who often praises Putin, as being too cozy with the Russian leader and questioned the Republican's business interests in Russia. Those charges were repeated by her vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine during a debate with Pence on Tuesday.

In response, Pence denounced Putin for his interference in Syria's civil war and support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"The small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the United States,” Pence said. "The greatest nation on earth just withdraws from talks about a ceasefire, while Vladimir Putin puts a missile defence system in Syria."

The vice presidential encounter set the table for a second presidential debate on Sunday in St. Louis between Clinton and Trump, who needs to rebound from a rocky performance in his first debate, one that gave Clinton a boost in national opinion polls with the Nov. 8 Election Day only five weeks away.

In Nevada, Trump suggested Russia could be a valuable ally in the fight against Islamic State, also known by the acronym ISIS.

"I will say if we get along with Russia and Russia went out with us and knocked the hell out of ISIS, that’s okay with me, folks,” he said.

Trump celebrated a strong debate performance by Pence, the governor of Indiana, and said his running mate had won on style and on the issues.

"He's getting tremendous reviews from me and everybody," Trump told a group of pastors and leaders gathered at a Christian academy in Las Vegas.

DEBATE ATTACKS

The encounter between Pence and Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia, was the only such debate between the vice presidential contenders, and the two spent most of their time attacking each other's running mates.

For more than 90 minutes at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, Pence sought to project an image as a reassuring presence, in contrast with the bombastic Trump, while Kaine tried to frighten voters away from Trump and make Clinton seem more trustworthy.

A CNN/ORC snap poll declared Pence the winner with 48 percent support, compared with 42 percent for Kaine, who frequently interrupted his opponent.The television audience for the debate was 35.6 million viewers, according to preliminary data, about half the number who watched the first encounter between Trump and Clinton.

Republican strategists said Pence's strong debate performance could provide lessons for Trump on how to approach the second debate - if he was willing or able to learn.

"Trump should hopefully learn a lesson - don't get angry, don't lose your cool, answer the question you want to answer," Republican strategist John Feehery said. "The biggest thing is to not get rattled and be able to smile when you are attacked."

Clinton met with advisers at her Washington, D.C., home on Wednesday and did not appear on the campaign trail. An aide said she spoke by phone with Kaine and congratulated him on his debate performance."Mike Pence didn't want to defend Donald Trump, and as Senator Kaine said, if you can't defend the person at the top of the ticket, how can you ask people to vote for you," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told reporters outside her house.  REUTERS

Syria's military announced it was scaling back its bombardment of rebels in devastated Aleppo, in a surprise move nearly two weeks after declaring an all-out assault to capture the city.

Once Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided by rebel groups in the east and regime forces in the west since violence erupted there in 2012.

The military announced the offensive to capture the whole city on September 22, ushering in a ferocious bombing campaign on opposition-held quarters that a monitor says has killed 270 people, including 53 children.

But Wednesday it said the bombardment would be reduced "after the success of our armed forces in Aleppo and cutting off all terrorist supply routes into the eastern districts"The military command has decided to reduce the number of air strikes and artillery on terrorist positions to allow civilians that want to leave to reach safe areas," said a statement.

It was not immediately clear what was behind the move, or if Russian air strikes would also be reduced.

The announcement came as Russia's TASS news agency said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US counterpart John Kerry discussed Syria by phone on Wednesday.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been waging their offensive on the city with the backing of Russian air power.

But the onslaught has come under intense international scrutiny amid accusations it was indiscriminate and devastating civilian infrastructure.

Air strikes were still taking place on Wednesday but were focused on the southern edges of Aleppo city, according to Rami Abdel Rahman of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"Syrian regime forces advanced from the city centre north into (rebel-held) Bustan al-Basha, and seized a large athletic complex there," Rahman said.

This was the first time the regime had entered the district since 2013 and there had been fierce clashes, he added.

On Monday, bombardment destroyed the largest hospital in rebel-held quarters, where an estimated 250,000 people live under government siege.Hours later, Washington announced it would halt bilateral efforts with Moscow aimed at reviving a ceasefire, accusing Russia of trying to bomb civilians "into submission".

- 'Deeply shocking and shameful' -

But Moscow said Wednesday the "responsibility for the collapse of the truce lies with the US" given its decision to suspend contacts.

In another sign of increasing tensions, Russia said it was suspending joint research with the United States on nuclear energy projects.

Moscow and Washington's top diplomats had been working together since early this year to reach a solution to Syria's bloodshed, which has killed more than 300,000 people since 2011.An agreement in September had envisioned an end to hostilities, increased aid deliveries, and eventual coordination between the two world powers against jihadists -- but it collapsed after a week.

Since then, France has stepped into the diplomatic vacuum with a draft UN resolution on a truce in Aleppo that it will submit to the Security Council this week.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will travel to Moscow on Thursday and Washington on Friday to try to garner support for the draft, his office said.

"I'm going to Moscow to give the view of France: this is unacceptable, it is deeply shocking and shameful", Ayrault said. "We must stop this massacre."His ministry said the resolution calls for aid deliveries to the city's east, as well as the grounding of all Syrian and Russian planes in the area.

- Strike kills 19 civilians -

The United Nations concluded an air strike was responsible for the devastating attack on an aid convoy in northern Syria last month that killed nearly 20 people.

Lars Bromley, a researcher at the UN satellite collection and analysis agency, said his group's analysis "determined it was an air strike".

US officials have said Russian planes carried out the strikes on September 19 that hit the 31-truck convoy bringing aid to a town west of Aleppo.

Moscow has denied the accusation, and its military is carrying out its own investigation ofthe bombing, which destroyed 18 trucks and damaged a warehouse.

Russia and the US back opposing sides of Syria's war, with Washington lending support to some rebel groups and Moscow bolstering Assad both militarily and diplomatically.

Both countries are waging separate bombing campaigns against jihadist groups in Syria.

On Wednesday, unidentified raids on a northern village held by the Islamic State group killed 19 civilians including three children, according to the Observatory.

The monitor said it was unclear whether the strike on the village of Thalthana was carried out by the US-led coalition fighting IS, or Turkey, which is leading an operation against IS territory nearby.

AFP