Sunday, 20 December 2015
Number of missing in China landslide climbs to 91 - state TV
BEIJING: The number of people missing from a landslide in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has climbed to 91 from the 59 people reported earlier, state television said on Monday.State media has said the landslide happened when a huge mound of construction waste collapsed on Sunday REUTERS
Nearly 80 still missing in Indonesian ferry accident
SIWA: Nearly 80 people are still missing nearly 24 hours after a ferry ran into trouble in rough seas off the coast of Indonesia's Sulawesi, with authorities not ruling out the possibility of a sinking.The transport ministry has confirmed three people, including two children, have been found dead, while 39 others have been pulled from the water alivesome after desperately clinging to fishing buoys for hours in the huge swell until help arrived.
Search and rescue teams have still not found the stricken vessel, police told AFP, which was ferrying 118 people around Sulawesi island when it sent out a distress signal late Saturday afternoon.
The whereabouts of the remaining 76 people is also still unclear, with search and rescue teams being hampered by rough conditions and waves up to five metres (16 feet) high as daylight hours dwindle.
When asked whether the boat had sank, South Sulawesi police spokesman Frans Barung told AFP: "Maybe yes, maybe no".
"The boat has not been found, because the weather has not been good," he added, saying the boat was constructed from fibre glass and was therefore difficult to sink.
Authorities lost contact with the ferry late Saturday afternoon, and it failed to arrive at its destination in Siwa across the Bay of Bone as scheduled.
Officials dismissed initial reports the boat had sunk, instead claiming it was adrift, having lost engine power.Police, national search and rescue teams and the navy have been scouring the seas for survivors ever since but have been battling harsh elements.
Local search and rescue head Roki Asikin said powerful waves meant it took three hours to evacuate some survivors to shore.
"These waves were very high," he said.
The Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is heavily dependent on ferry services but the industry has a poor safety record and fatal accidents are common.
Just this week a Danish cargo ship collided with a tanker and sank in Indonesia's west, with some crew still missing. AFP
Azman Mokhtar terajui Khazanah hingga Mei 2019
KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd telah memperbaharui kontrak pekerjaan Pengarah Urusannya, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, untuk tempoh tiga tahun berkuat kuasa 1 Jun, 2016 hingga 31 Mei, 2019.Azman, 54, memegang jawatan itu pada 1 Jun, 2004, katanya dalam kenyataan di sini hari ini.Khazanah adalah dana pelaburan strategik kerajaan yang diamanahkan untuk memegang dan menguruskan aset komersial kerajaan dan menjalankan pelaburan strategik.
Dana pelaburan strategik itu terlibat dalam pelbagai sektor seperti tenaga, telekomunikasi, institusi kewangan, penjagaan kesihatan, penerbangan, infrastruktur, riadah dan pelancongan, hartanah, media dan kreatif, pendidikan serta teknologi dan inovasi.
Pesawat Tentera Udara Indonesia jatuh ketika pertunjukan udara, dua juruterbang maut
JAKARTA: Sebuah pesawat latihan supersonik milik Tentera Udara Indonesia (TNI AU) jatuh ketika sedang membuat pertunjukan aerobatik di Lapangan Terbang Adi Sucipto di Jogjakarta pagi tadi.Dua juruterbang pesawat itu disahkan terkorban dalam nahas berkenaan.
Media-media tempatan memetik Ketua Bahagian Penerangan TNI AU Marsma Dwi Badarmanto sebagai berkata, dalam kejadian 10 pagi waktu tempatan, pesawat T-50 Golden Eagle milik TNI AU jatuh ketika melakukan aksi terbang menjunam rendah dalam pertunjukan Gebyar Dirgantara itu.
Laporan televisyen tempatan Metronews memetik seorang saksi yang dikenali sebagai Wina berkata, beliau terlihat kepulan asap keluar dari pesawat itu sebelum ia terjunam tajam dan jatuh ke bumi.
Ekoran kemalangan itu, pertunjukan udara berkenaan dibatalkan dan pihak berkuasa belum mengeluarkan kenyataan mengenai punca nahas.
Ekoran kemalangan itu, pertunjukan udara berkenaan dibatalkan dan pihak berkuasa belum mengeluarkan kenyataan mengenai punca nahas. - Foto AP
Pada perkembangan lain, usaha mencari dan menyelamat 122 penumpang dan anak kapal sebuah feri Marina yang dilaporkan tenggelam di laut Sulawesi semalam masih dijalankan.
Setakat ini, Badan SAR Nasional (Basarnas) masih belum mengeluarkan sebarang kenyataan berhubung penemuan mangsa feri terbabit.
Menurut laporan Basarnas, feri itu disahkan karam di perairan Siwa di Sulawesi akibat dipukul ombak dan taufan pada kira-kira pukul 3 petang semalam.Media tempatan memetik Ketua Basarnas Sulawei Selatan, Roky Asikin sebagai berkata, feri yang diperbuat daripada fiber itu belayar dari Kolaka, Sulawesi Tenggara untuk ke Siwa, daerah Wajo.
Katanya, kesemua penumpang dan anak kapal dipercayai tenggelam bersama-sama feri berkenaan dan pihaknya belum dapat mengesahkan nasib kesemua penumpang dan anak kapal terbabit. BERNAMA
Ai Tinju cries ‘extreme’ over disciplinary warning from military vets
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Former soldier Mohd Ali Baharom, better known as Ali Tinju, has cried foul over the disciplinary action caution from the Malaysian Armed Forces Veterans Association (PVATM).
The leader of the “red shirt” movement that purports to champion Malay, Muslim rights insisted all his actions using the military association’s name were in the interest of the race and country, after a rap on the knuckles from the PVATM central leadership yesterday.The allegations made are too extreme. During Bersih, we saw them invite the rakyat to rise against the government. At that time, no one could stop Bersih from demonstrating in the streets, making chaos in business areas,” he told ProjekMMO, the sister publication of Malay Mail Online in Bahasa Malaysia.
“I and my colleagues in the veteran Malay military gave Ambiga warnings until she finally issued a statement that there would be no Bersih 3 and 4,” he added, referring to Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, former co-chairman of electoral reforms pressure group Bersih 2.0 and the 2011 protest that saw tens of thousands that flooded the streets in the federal capital.Mohd Ali has courted controversies previously with his “butt dance” outside Ambiga’s home in the wake of the Bersih 2 rally. Earlier this year, he was investigated for racial provocation outside popular tech mall Low Yat Plaza but escaped prosecution, ostensibly due to lack of evidence.
Last Friday, he demonstrated outside the Kotaraya shopping centre, calling for a boycott and urging the government to teach ethnic Chinese not to cheat.
Yesterday, the PVATM executive leadership accused Mohd Ali of making racial sentiments and warned the former soldier with the Royal Malay Regiment that disciplinary action would be taken if he continued holding activities that tarnished its image.
In response, Mohd Ali accused PVATM president Tan Sri Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor of failing to take care of the welfare of military veterans even though he has been a senator for a year.
According to Mohd Ali, Mohd Anwar was more focused in guarding his own interests and did not raise military welfare in Parliament.
“Tan Sri, though a former general [sic], is still new in the association. He has never contested. He was given power to govern the association but still failed,” he said, referring to Mohd Anwar by his title.
Mohd Anwar was formerly admiral of the Royal Malaysian Navy who was later promoted to chief of the armed forces before his subsequent retirement from defence. Previous heads of the country’s three military forces were from the army.
Mohd Ali further claimed Mohd Anwar had never raised the welfare of pensioned military veterans in Parliament and was instead just sitting on the job, despite being appointed to the Dewan Negara.“Tan Sri Anwar’s knowledge is shallow and he is inexperienced in the NGO journey and struggle after retiring from the military,” Mohd Ali added, without elaborating.
The one time head of the Federal Territory and Selangor chapter of PVATM is also appealing to the Registrar of Societies against its dissolution.
“Since its establishment in 2009 till today, I have only received RM100,000 from the defence minister as allocation for the association. The remainder, I used my own money.From 2012 to 2015, not one sen in assistance was given by the Defence Ministry. Different from the PVATM, they get millions from the warrior’s fund every year. They also get taxi permits and various government projects,” Mohd Ali claimed. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE
Monday, 16 November 2015
UK to double cyber spending to prevent militant attacks via web - Osborne
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will nearly double its spending on cyber security to prevent Islamic militants from launching online attacks on the country, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said on Tuesday.
Osborne said Friday's attacks in Paris, which killed more than 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State (ISIL), underscored the need to improve Britain's protections against electronic attack.
"ISIL are already using the Internet for hideous propaganda purposes; for radicalization, for operational planning too," he said in excerpts of a speech he was due to give at Britain's main intelligence-gathering centre.
"They have not been able to use it to kill people yet by attacking our infrastructure through cyber attack," he said.
"But we know they want it and are doing their best to build it. So when we talk about tackling ISIL, that means tackling their cyber threat as well as the threat of their guns, bombs and knives."
Osborne said public spending on cyber security would be almost doubled to a total of 1.9 billion pounds over the period to 2020 even as he prepares to announce fresh overall spending cuts next week in a bid to return Britain to a budget surplus by the end of the decade.
"It is right that we choose to invest in our cyber defences even at a time when we must cut other budgets," he said. "The Internet represents a critical axis of potential vulnerability."
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that the size of Britain's intelligence agency staff would be increased by 15 percent.
Osborne said the decision to ramp up cyber defence funding had been taken before Friday's bloodshed in Paris.
"The stakes could hardly be higher – if our electricity supply, or our air traffic control, or our hospitals were successfully attacked online, the impact could be measured not just in terms of economic damage but of lives lost."
A new national cyber security plan drawn up by the government would feature a dedicated force to ensure faster and more effective responses to major online attacks. The force would be based at Britain's GCHQ eaves-dropping centre in Cheltenham, southwest England, where Osborne was due to speak on Tuesday.
Other elements of the plan included possible cooperation between Internet service providers, with help from the government, to fend off malware attacks and block bad addresses used against British Internet users, as well as a new institute to train coders, Osborne said.
British broadband provider TalkTalk suffered a cyber attack in October which affected 157,000 customers. This month, Britain and U.S. authorities carried out a drill with leading banks to test their response to a cyber incident in the financial sector.
REUTERS
The Paris assailants: what we know
Investigators probing the deadly Paris attacks have so far identified five of seven gunmen and suicide bombers whose bodies were found at three sites across the city, while the hunt is on for others.
Here is a look at the men behind France's worst-ever terror attacks, which struck a concert venue, bars, restaurants, and a stadium.
- Omar Ismail Mostefai -
The 29-year-old French national blew himself up at the Bataclan music venue, one of three attackers who killed 89 people there in the bloodiest scene of Friday night's violence.
His identity was confirmed using a severed fingertip found at the site.
Born on November 21, 1985 in the poor Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, Mostefai was known to police as a petty criminal with eight convictions between 2004 and 2010 but spent no time in jail.Between 2005-2012, he lived in Chartres, some 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of Paris, his former neighbours told AFP, and regularly attended a mosque a few kilometres away in Luce, a source close to the investigation said.
He had been identified by the authorities in 2010 as having been radicalised but had never been previously "implicated in a terrorist network or plot", the Paris prosecutor said.
One of six children, he is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2014, slipping under the authorities' radar.
The father of a daughter born in 2010, Mostefai was understood to have moved to Algeria with his family, his brother told AFP, saying the two had cut ties several years ago. The brother was one of six relatives arrested by police as part of their inquiries.
Turkish police had twice warned their French counterparts about Mostefai in December 2014 and June 2015 but had "never heard back from France on the matter," a Turkish official said
Samy Amimour -
The second Bataclan suicide bomber to be identified was 28-year-old Samy Amimour from Drancy, a northeastern suburb of Paris.
He was known to anti-terror investigators after being charged on October 19, 2012 with "conspiracy to commit terrorism" over an attempt to travel to Yemen but was released on bail.
He left for Syria on September 11, 2013, violating the terms of his bail, and prompting judges to issue an international warrant for his arrest.
In summer 2014 he was still in Syria and his family told AFP their hopes of seeing him again faded because he had married there.
Three of his family members were taken into custody early on Monday.
- Brahim Abdeslam -The 31-year-old French national living in Belgium blew himself up outside a bar on Boulevard Voltaire, seriously wounding one person.
Born on July 30, 1984, he is one of three brothers linked to the probe.
He is suspected of hiring a black Seat car, registered in Belgium, that was seen by witnesses at several attack sites and found late Saturday in Montreuil, east of Paris. Inside were three Kalashnikov assault rifles, 11 empty magazines and five which were full.
Dutch media reports say his name appears in police files alongside that of leading Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud in relation to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011. Abaaoud is believed to head a Belgian Islamic State cell, which was dismantled in January.
Local media reported that Abdeslam used to run a bar in Brussels' impoverished Molenbeek district, which is known as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism. A police document obtained by AFP suggests it was shut down because police believed customers were smoking marijuana there. Salah Abdeslam, wanted -
His younger brother, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, is currently being sought by French investigators who have issued a photograph of him -- describing him as "dangerous" -- while Belgium has issued international warrant for his arrest.
He hired a black Polo, also registered in Belgium, which was found near the Bataclan concert venue.
Brussels police on Monday surrounded a property in Molenbeek, but did not find him.
The third brother, Mohamed Abdeslam was arrested in Molenbeek on Saturday, but released "without charge" on Monday with his lawyer saying her client had an alibi and was not in Paris on Friday evening.
- Bilal Hadfi -
The 20-year-old was one of three assailants who blew themselves up outside the French national stadium, killing one person, as France was playing Germany in a football friendly attended by 80,000 fans, including French President Francois Hollande.
Investigators say Hadfi was a French national who was living in Belgium and had spent time in Syria.
- Ahmad al-Mohammad? -Close to the body of a second bomber outside the Stade de France, investigators found a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, who was born on September 10, 1990, in the Syrian city of Idlib.
A passport bearing that name had been registered on the Greek island of Leros on October 3, with the attacker's fingerprints matching those taken during the registration process. The holder of the passport was later registered as crossing from Macedonia into Serbia where he formally applied for asylum, Serbian officials said.
But investigators are still trying to verify if the passport is indeed genuine and the name is not known to French anti-terror police. Serbia detained a migrant on Monday whose passport contained the same data.
AFP
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