Tradisional Sabah Borneo

KUALA LUMPUR: Investigation on the death of the Deputy Prime Minister’s son-in-law, Datuk Syed Alman Zain Syed Alwi who died following treatment at a dental clinic in Bangsar here yesterday is underway to determine the cause of death.

Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said it was still too early to ascertain the cause of death and hoped the public would not speculate on the matter.

“The investigation started yesterday and it is still too early to come to a conclusion,” he said after opening the 2016 Malaysia International Healthcare Exhibition and Conference here, today.

Syed Alman Zain, the husband of Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s eldest daughter, Datuk Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid, died while undergoing dental treatment in Bangsar here yesterday.

Syed Alman Zain, 44, was reported to have gone to the clinic at 6pm for dental treatment with a friend following which he became unconscious.

According to a family member, he was rushed to the University Malaya Medical Centre (PPUM) and was confirmed dead.Meanwhile, Dr Subramaniam said his ministry was looking for a formula towards improving health service at private hospitals nationwide including on the issue of monitoring and controlling the fee rates for patients.

He said the ministry was studying the implementation of the same audit system as in government hospital.

He said this was important so that only reasonable charges applicable to the diseases were imposed on patients.

“Some private hospitals use MRI on patients whilst the problem can be solved by only using the CT scan which is much cheaper,” he said. --Bernama

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

Hillary Clinton launched stinging criticism of Donald Trump on Friday, even suggesting her likely Republican presidential opponent wants to be America's "dictator," as she proclaimed she will be the Democratic flag bearer once California votes next week.

President Barack Obama lent his voice to the denunciation, saying Trump's aggressive posture towards immigrants, Muslims and women is "feeding resentments" among Americans and urging them to seek out scapegoats for their frustrations and problems.

Amid increasingly brazen attacks on both sides, Clinton and Trump are emerging as the two rivals who will do battle in the general election.

Trump is already the presumptive Republican nominee, while Clinton has begun talking as if she is the Democratic flag bearer.

"We need everybody to show up on June 7," she told a few hundred supporters at a college in Culver City, California.

"If all goes well, I will have the great honor as of Tuesday to be the Democratic nominee for president," she said to loud cheers.

Democrats in six states vote Tuesday, including California and New Jersey. Clinton is already on the cusp of securing enough delegates to defeat Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination and she is certain to surpass the threshold on June 7.

Sanders has been barnstorming California, hoping for a miracle in which he wins the remaining contests and many so-called super-delegates, senior party figures who can vote at the party convention for whomever they choose, switch alliances and support him.

But Clinton barely mentioned Sanders's name, opting instead for a full-on assault on Trump during her four stops Friday, in Culver City, Westminster, Santa Ana and San Bernardino.

"Donald Trump is not qualified to be president and commander in chief," she said.

Clinton added that she was appalled at the tenor of the political discourse, suggesting Trump was straying from democratic principles.

"We are trying to elect a president, not a dictator," she said in San Bernardino.

- 'Ready to lead' -

She battered Trump over his character and his lack of coherent foreign policies, branding him "temperamentally unfit" and otherwise unprepared to lead the United States."He just engages in rants and personal feuds and outright lies, something our nation cannot afford in our commander in chief," the former secretary of state said.

More than a dozen women -- Hollywood actresses, members of Congress, and civil servants -- joined her on stage in Culver City to offer their support.

"She is bad-ass, and she is ready to lead," US House Democrat Linda Sanchez boomed.

While Clinton has upped her attacks on Trump as a fraud, Trump has drilled into Clinton as dishonest and "crooked."

But Trump, who has faced repeated accusations of racism and xenophobia, waded deeper into controversy Friday after praising a black supporter as "my African American" at a rally in Redding, California.

"Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him," Trump said. "Are you the greatest?"

Campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said there was "no ill will intended, obviously."

- Clashes at Trump rally - Clashes at Trump rally -

Trump also hit out at the protesters -- he labeled them "thugs" -- who clashed with his supporters in California the previous evening, the latest in a string of his rallies to be marred by violence.

Hundreds of demonstrators insulted Trump supporters as they tried to leave the event in San Jose. People hurled eggs, and according to the Los Angeles Times a dozen or more people were punched.

Crowds had earlier chanted "No hate in our state" and carried signs that read "Dump Trump" as they marched near the convention center.

Hispanics outnumber whites in California, the most populous US state, and many have been shocked by Trump's characterization of Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and his pledge to build a wall along the southern US border.

Trump stepped up attacks Friday against the judge handling a class action lawsuit of former students against the now defunct Trump University. The students claim the program was a scam.Trump insists the jurist's Mexican heritage prevents him from being impartial. AFP

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was fighting for his life in an Arizona hospital on Friday, with a source close to his family describing his condition as "very grave" as he battled a respiratory problem.

"The condition is very grave," a source close to Ali's family told AFP on condition on anonymity as concern mounted for the beloved sporting icon.

The 74-year-old former heavyweight world champion was hospitalized on Thursday. US media reported his respiratory trouble was complicated by his Parkinson's disease.

Ali spokesman Bob Gunnell earlier told the Courier-Journal in Ali's hometown of Louisville that the fighter remained in fair condition and that a brief stay was still expected.

Gunnell noted the "media frenzy" touched off each time the iconic fighter is hospitalized, but multiple media reports that Ali's condition was deteriorating triggered widespread concern on Friday evening.

One source suggested to the Los Angeles Times that Ali could be hours from death.

US celebrity news website radaronline.com quoted an anonymous source as saying Ali required help breathing and that worried family members had gathered at his bedside.

Ali, known globally not only for his storied ring career but also for his civil rights activism, has been hospitalized multiple times in recent years.

He spent time in hospital in 2014 after suffering a mild case of pneumonia and again in 2015 for a urinary tract infection.

His Parkinson's, thought to be linked to the thousands of punches he took during a career that spanned three decades, has limited his public speaking for years.

But he has continued to make appearances and offer opinions through his family members and spokespeople.

- Prayers for an idol -

In April, he attended a Celebrity Fight Night Dinner in Phoenix that raised funds for treatment of Parkinson's.

In December, he issued a statement rebuking US presidential hopeful Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

News of his latest health setback sparked concern among admirers."Prayers & blessings to my idol," boxer Sugar Ray Leonard tweeted.

British boxer Amir Khan also offered support via Twitter, saying "Our Prayers and thoughts are with Muhammad Ali and his family".

Khan added the hashtag "AliBomaye" a reference to the chant supporting Ali in the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman in Zaire.

Ali -- whose legendary boxing career stretched from 1960 to 1981 -- dazzled fans with slick moves in the ring, and with his wit and engaging persona outside it.

His opposition to the Vietnam War saw him banned from the sport for years, but the US Supreme Court overturned his conviction for draft dodging in 1971.

Once vilified in some quarters for his conversion to Islam and his outspoken stance on civil rights issues, Ali held firm to earn dozens of tributes, lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta and being named a UN messenger of peace in 1998.

He received the highest US civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2005.AFP

Peru's presidential race is tightening on the eve of Sunday's elections, with one poll showing a virtual tie between Keiko Fujimori, daughter of an ex-leader jailed for massacres, and former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

A divisive conservative figure, the 41-year-old Fujimori remains the favorite to win the runoff vote despite her father Alberto Fujimori's dark legacy.

But three last-minute polls showed her earlier estimated lead of more than five percentage points had narrowed.

Part of the large chunk of previously undecided voters appeared to be opting for Kuczynski, 77, a former economy minister and World Bank executive.

Pollster GfK said Friday its latest survey indicated Fujimori had 50.3 percent of the vote to 49.7 percent for Kuczynski.

"That is clearly a technical tie," GfK director Hernan Chaparro told foreign media in a news conference.

Another pollster, Datum, said Fujimori had 52.1 percent of the vote to 47.9 percent for Kuczynski, known as "PPK."

"PPK is gaining support from undecided voters," said Datum's director Urpi Torrado.

Pollster CPI on Thursday gave Fujimori 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent for Kuczynski.CPI director Manuel Saavedra estimated some five percent of voters are still undecided. That is enough to swing the result against the populist conservative Fujimori.

- Crimes against humanity -

Fujimori is popular among poor rural communities but also has a high disapproval rating nationwide.

Many Peruvians associate Fujimori with her father's authoritarian rule. He is in jail for corruption and for crimes against humanity, for massacres of opponents he alleged were terrorists in the 1990s.

Some 23 million Peruvians are obliged to vote on Sunday in the election to replace outgoing leftist President Ollanta Humala.

Both candidates have vowed to fight crime and create jobs in the South American mineral exporter, one of the region's strongest economies.

"I want to be president of Peru to work for change... to build a great, prosperous country that is united and reconciled," Fujimori told supporters at her closing campaign rally.

"With the support of all of you, I will have the honor of becoming Peru's first woman president."

Kuczynski stressed his long experience as a financier and minister.

"We are going to hit the ground running," he told supporters of his Peruvians for Change party.

"We will not have to read the instruction manual, because we know what must be done."

- Corruption allegations -

The election campaigns have been stained by allegations of corruption and irregularities.

Ahead of the first round, opponents tried to get Keiko Fujimori excluded for alleged vote-buying.

The electoral board dismissed the case against her but expelled several other candidates.

A corruption scandal struck the secretary general of her Popular Force party, Joaquin Ramirez.

He resigned after media revealed the US Drug Enforcement Agency was investigating him over suspected money-laundering.Kuczynski has vowed to stamp out corruption and violence by drug gangs, promising to stop Peru becoming a "narco-state."

Fujimori criticized him as an ally of big business, out of touch with ordinary citizens.

"For many people, it is surprising that she enjoys such popularity. But many of Keiko's supporters remember her father's tough line on terrorism and think that she can be similarly tough on crime," Maria Luisa Puig, an analyst at the Eurasia group consultancy, told AFP.

"Peruvian elections are always quite unpredictable."

A poll by Ipsos a week ahead of the vote had given Fujimori a lead of 5.3 percentage points.

Since then, she has faced a tough televised debate with Kuczynski and a mass rally against her in Lima on May 31.

The third-place candidate from the first round, leftist Veronika Mendoza, threw her support behind Kuczynski.

Both runoff candidates are seen as pro-market in their policy plans to further Peru's economic growth.

The Lima stock exchange closed 2.2 percent higher on Friday. AFP

Syrian troops pushed into the Islamic State group's bastion province Raqa on Saturday for the first time since 2014, in an advance towards the country's largest dam, a monitor said.

The Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River, 40 kilometres (25 miles) upstream from Raqa city, is also the target of a separate offensive launched by US-backed Kurdish-led forces advancing from the north late last month.

"Regime troops backed by Russian air strikes and Russian-trained militia entered Raqa province on Saturday morning for the first time since August 2014,", Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The lightning advance from the southwest brought government troops to within less than 40 kilometres (25 miles) of Tabqa, which is also the site of an airbase, Abdel Rahman said.

"It seems there has been an undeclared coordination between Washington and Moscow," he added, referring to the pincer movement by the two governments' respective Syria allies.

At least 26 jihadists and nine government troops and militia were killed in the advance, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on reports from medics and activists on the ground.Tabqa dam has a huge reservoir named Lake Assad after President Bashar al-Assad's late father and predecessor Hafez.

When IS overran the area in 2014, it summarily executed 160 captured regime troops.

The jihadists are facing counter-attacks on multiple fronts.

Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by Washington have launched an assault on the strategic Manbij pocket further up the Euphrates on the Turkish border, regarded as a key entry point for foreign jihadists.

Hundreds of kilometres (miles) downstream in neighbouring Iraq, elite Iraq troops have launched an assault on the emblematic IS bastion of Fallujah.  AFP

The rain-swollen River Seine in Paris receded Saturday for the first time in a week after nearing its highest level in three decades, triggering a scramble to save artworks in riverside museums.

The Seine stood at 6.06 metres (just under 20 feet) above normal levels at 8:00am (0400 GMT), down from a high of 6.10 metres overnight, the environment ministry's Vigicrues flood watch website said.

The level was the same as that recorded on Friday afternoon, when the river rose to levels last seen in 1982, prompting emergency measures.

The famed Louvre and Orsay museums shut their doors in a race to move art treasures from their basements, some metro stations were closed and Parisians were advised to stay away from the Seine.

But by Saturday, as authorities were counting the cost of over a week of flooding in central and northern France, the spectre of devastating floods in the city had begun to ebb.

"We're now in the stabilisation phase, even if we could still get one or two centimetres "We're now in the stabilisation phase, even if we could still get one or two centimetres more," said Bruno Janet, head of modelling at Vigicrues.

The environment ministry on Friday forecast that the Seine would remain high throughout the weekend -- but still far off a 1910 record of 8.62 metres -- before starting to subside.

Across Europe, at least 17 people have been killed in floods that have trapped people in their homes and forced rescuers to row lifeboats down streets turned into rivers.

- Metro stations sandbagged -

The City of Paris said it had opened two gyms to provide shelter for the homeless.

On Saturday, pieces of driftwood, plastic bags and other flotsam swirled in the muddy waters which had inundated the city's famous tree-lined riverside walkways, a popular haunt of strolling couples.

Firefighters warned people to keep away from dangerous parts of the river, but crowds gathered undeterred on Pont Neuf and other iconic bridges to snap pictures of the fast-flowing waters."It is a reminder that nature is more powerful than man and we cannot do anything, only wait," said Gabriel Riboulet, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, as he took in the scene.

A small number of basement flats in the capital were flooded on Friday and a campsite in the Bois de Boulogne forest in the west of the capital was cleared but there was no order yet for any Parisians to evacuate.

Several metro stations were closed and workers piled sandbags on platforms to hold back the water.

Boat traffic has been suspended in the capital, as has a regional train line that runs along the Seine.

- 'Catastrophic' damage -

French President Francois Hollande said a state of "natural catastrophe" would be declared when the cabinet meets next Wednesday, a necessary step to trigger compensation payments.

Losses across France could reach more than 600 million euros ($680 million), said Bernard Spitz of France's association of insurers.

The head of national railways operator SNCF said the rail network had suffered "catastrophic" damage which would run to tens of millions of euros.

Persistently heavy rainfall across western and central Europe has swollen rivers and claimed victims from at least four countries.

Eleven people have been killed in the German states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, and two in Romania, while a beekeeper died in Belgium while trying to save his hives.

In France, a man on horseback drowned on Thursday after being swept away by a swollen river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerres, southeast of Paris.

At Montargis in the north-central Loiret region, police also said they had found the body of a woman in her sixties who had apparently drowned.

Environment Minister Segolene Royal said she feared more bodies would be found as waters receded in villages in central France, some of which have suffered their worst floods in a century.

More than 20,000 people have been evacuated since the weekend and around 18,000 homes are without power.

- 38,000 artworks at risk -On opposite banks of the river, the Louvre and Orsay museums, which receive a combined total of 12.5 million visitors a year, closed their doors Friday so that artworks could be moved to higher floors.

Hollande paid a visit Friday to the Louvre, where dozens of volunteers were working to move some of the 38,000 artworks thought to be at risk to higher floors. AFP

France has disciplined five soldiers accused of physical abuse in Central African Republic, where Paris had sent peacekeepers to quell bloody sectarian violence, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

There are currently three investigations under way into allegations that French troops in the country sexually abused children, but the latest case does not relate to sexual acts, a ministry source said, without giving further details.

The five are accused of physically abusing two Central Africans at a military outpost in the capital Bangui in 2014, according to the Ouest-France newspaper.

"In view of the gravity of the facts, the five soldiers have been suspended," the ministry said, adding: "Simultaneously disciplinary action has been launched... as a precursor to their eviction from the military."

France launched the Sangaris military operation in 2013 in its desperately poor and chronically restive former colony after the outbreak of inter-communal violence between Muslim and Christian militias that has killed thousands.

The mission is due to end in December this year, after a progressive draw-down. AFP