Thursday, 8 September 2016

Newly elected Hong Kong lawmaker reports 'death threats'

Posted by Unknown, on 02:12

A Hong Kong lawmaker advocating more autonomy from China who won a seat in landmark elections last weekend said Thursday he had received "death threats" before and since the polls as he reported them to police.
Eddie Chu was one of at least five candidates in the semi-autonomous city pushing for more distance or even an outright break from Beijing who took seats for the first time in the Legislative Council assembly Sunday amid fears of China tightening its grip.
Chu, 38, is also an environmentalist who has campaigned against the destruction of heritage properties to make way for newer developments.
He said he was unable to go home because he was being stalked and the safety of his family threatened.
"I received death threats...because of my political views," Chu told reporters."The threat to my personal safety is imminent...it has drastically worsened in the past two to three days," he said before going into the city's Wan Chai police station with his lawyer.
He did not give any detail on who had made the threats and how they reached him.
Michael Vidler, a lawyer assisting Chu, urged police to take the case seriously.
"Politically motivated threats or violence against elected representatives of the people is a direct attack on the rule of law and democracy," Vidler told reporters.
"The Hong Kong police are duty bound to uphold the rule of law and everybody's constitutional rights, including Mr. Chu's," he said.
Sunday's election saw a record turnout with more than two million residents casting their votes in the city of seven million.
It was the first major poll since the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" protests, with the anti-establishment camp increasing its share of the legislature, which is still weighted towards Beijing.
Chu, standing as an independent, emerged as winner in his constituency with more than 80,000 votes -- the most of any candidate in the polls.
His allegations mark the latest controversy to hit the election.
Several pro-independence activists were banned from standing and two say they will now appeal their disqualification, according to media reports.Pro-establishment candidate Ken Chow, of the Liberal Party, has also complained of interference, saying he was told to quit the race to make way for other pro-Beijing candidates.   AFP

Obama focuses on Asia security threats

Posted by Unknown, on 02:09

North Korea's defiant missile testing and the South China Sea territorial row were among a barrage of security threats in focus Thursday as US President Barack Obama gathered with East Asian leaders in Laos.
The annual event this year comes at a time of heightened tensions on a wide range of fronts across the region, with terrorism also a concern after deadly bomb blasts in Thailand and the Philippines in recent weeks.
Obama was due to meet on Thursday morning with the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc, pitting him against firebrand Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte who this week branded him a "son of a whore".
The expanded East Asia summit will then take place, which involves members of the long-running and increasingly fraught six-nation talks aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Defying the international community and UN sanctions, North Korea on Monday conducted the latest in a series of ballistic missile tests that have rattled nerves across the region.
Obama warned on Monday shortly after arriving in Laos that Kim Jong-Un's regime was dooming itself to further isolation, and the UN Security Council condemned the tests.
But North Korea responded in typically bellicose fashion, threatening on Wednesday to take "further significant measures".
- 'Serious concern' -
The 18 East Asia summit nations will voice "serious concern" over the latest North Korean tests, according to a draft of their end-of-meeting statement obtained by AFP."We reaffirmed the importance of peace and security in this region and reiterated support for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," the statement said.
The statement will also emphasise the importance of maintaining peace in the South China Sea, the other major regional flashpoint.
China came under pressure at ASEAN's standalone summit on Tuesday and Wednesday over its land reclamation efforts in the sea, which are aimed at cementing control over the strategically vital waters.
An international tribunal ruled in July that Beijing's claims to nearly all of the sea had no legal basis, and its artificial island-building activities were illegal.- Muted statement expected -
China insists it has sovereign rights to most of the sea -- through which $5 trillion in global shipping trade passes annually -- even waters close to Southeast Asian nations.
But it has vowed to ignore the ruling and the Philippines released photos on Wednesday claiming to show that Beijing was continuing with its island-building campaign.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has been in Laos this week and faced questioning over the issue, with ASEAN leaders voicing alarm.
"We remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments and took note of the concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamations," said a joint statement at the end of their summit on Wednesday.Nevertheless, intensive Chinese lobbying helped to ensure there was no mention of the July ruling in the ASEAN statement.
The East Asia bloc was expected to urge all parties to follow international law, but otherwise release a muted statement on the South China Sea.
"We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight in the South China Sea," the draft of its post-summit statement said.
A spectacular sideshow to this week's diplomacy in Laos has been the spat between the acid-tongued Duterte and Obama, leaders of nations that have been longtime allies.
Duterte launched a barrage of insults against Obama after being told the US president planned to raise concerns about a war on crime in the Philippines that has claimed 3,000 lives in just over two months.
"You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum," Duterte told reporters.
Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte scheduled for Tuesday because of the outburst.
They met briefly on Wednesday night before a leaders' dinner, but only exchanged "pleasantries", according to the White House.  AFP

Man finds dead rat in mutton soup

Posted by Unknown, on 02:00
A diner at Kong Kee Mutton Soup got a nasty surprise when he found a dead rat in a bowl of soup he ordered on Monday (5 Sept).
Quek Yong Pheng took to Facebook to share his bad experience, posting multiple pictures of the rat he found and the bowl of mutton soup. The post has since gone viral with many commenters asking Quek to report the case to the National Environmental Agency (NEA). As of Wednesday, the post had been shared almost 900 times. 
Located at Sin Yew Huat Eating House in Jalan Besar, the stall is known for its Chinese-style mutton soup.    

Tuesday, 6 September 2016

Sabah minister extols Ranau Muslims as among most tolerant in state

Posted by Unknown, on 06:31
Sabah minister extols Ranau Muslims as among most tolerant in state
KOTA KINABALU, Sept 6 — In Ranau, at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu, Muslims and Christians live side by side and are gentler and more tolerant due to their unconventional roots and cultural upbringing, according to Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Masidi who grew up in the region said that the Dusun Muslims in Ranau have over the decades evolved a culture of its own and credited an Indonesian estate supervisor who was also a traditional healer of sorts as having shaped much of this change.
“The process of Islamisation in Ranau varies greatly from that in the rest of Sabah, and I believe it has resulted in a gentler, non-violent and very tolerant way of Islam that places a lot of emphasis on mutual respect,” he said.Masidi said this during the launching of a book, Islamisation in Sabah, where he extolled the virtues of multiracial and multireligious Sabah, in particular Ranau where Christianity and Islam flourished side by side.
Masidi said his own family’s Muslim roots started when some villagers would look for extra income by rubber tapping in other districts in Sabah, including the British-owned Lobou rubber estate, some three hours by road away near the State capital.
There, post-Japanese Occupation in the 1940s and under the Javanese estate supervisor, known as “Mandur Syarif” villagers who were pagans or had Dusun ancient beliefs, gradually learnt more about Islam through his “rituals”.
“He was known for his healing powers, and it was a way for villagers to move past witchcraft beliefs. Although Mandur Syarif was not a full time preacher, the villagers bought into the rituals as this was standard beliefs then and was greatly influenced by him and it eventually evolved into its own culture,” he said.
One of the examples he gave was that newborn babies were not allowed to touch the ground for the first nine months, or for a certain time period.
Other rituals practiced by the Dusuns of Ranau, of all religions, was the sacrificing of livestock like chickens, for the spirit of Mount Kinabalu to protect climbers and villagers.
“We may be different due to our approach and the history, but we are grateful that it’s made us very tolerant and graceful, and retained a lot of our culture as well. Our spirit is there, although some may say we are lacking in certain knowledgeable aspects of the religion,” said Masidi.Ranau, a district some 2.5 hours drive from the state capital, is known by tourists for being host to Malaysia’s highest peak, Mount Kinabalu, and the Poring Hot Springs. It’s known for its temperate highland weather and vegetation and an almost homogenous Dusun community.
Masidi, who is also Karanaan state assemblyman, said that Ranau was the epitome of harmonious multi-belief community for its high tolerance of its half Muslim and half Christians, with some families of different faiths.
According to him, Christianity also grew during the same time, through a vastly different approach.
“An English priest was stationed in Bundu Tuhan, and there villagers went to him to learn about modern farming techniques which the British taught. Gradually the interest in Christianity also grew in tandem and there was never any friction between believers of the two faiths,” he said.
Although still hailed as one of the most tolerant and harmonious states in the country, Sabah has begun seeing signs of religious tension.
Recent cases include the surreptitious mass conversion of Christians in rural Pitas to Islam, the seizure of Christian materials brought into the state, and pressure to remove a cross from the facade of a mission school in Sandakan.
Christian religious leaders in Sabah have also stepped up their calls for the government to defend and safeguard religious freedom in the state.According to a state census in 2010, Sabah’s Christian population currently stands at 27 per cent while Muslims make up 65.4 per cent of Sabah’s population compared to 37.9 per cent in 1960, three years before it became part of the Malaysian federation together with Sarawak and Malaya.  THE  MALAY  MAIL ONLINE

Sunday, 4 September 2016

Libya pro-govt forces attack last IS bastion in Sirte

Posted by Unknown, on 02:36


Libya pro-govt forces attack last IS bastion in Sirte

Mahmud Turkia
AFP News
View photos
Members of the forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) fire their weapons at enemy positions in the coastal city of Sirte
Forces loyal to Libya's unity government launched a new attack Saturday on diehards of the Islamic State jihadist group pinned down in the coastal city of Sirte.
Backed by weeks of US air strikes, fighters loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA) have recaptured nearly all of what had been the jihadists' main stronghold in North Africa.
The city's fall would be a huge setback to IS's efforts to expand its self-proclaimed "caliphate" beyond Syria and Iraq where the jihadists have also suffered losses.
"The fighting has begun. We are attacking the last Daesh positions in district three" where the jihadists are cornered, a GNA fighter told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
The GNA forces media centre said the new push had begun to retake Sirte, located 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.
"Our forces are advancing inside the areas where Daesh is, in district three, and so far have taken control of" two banks and a hotel, the media centre said on its Facebook page.It also said they had thwarted an attempted suicide bombing.
Ten members of the GNA forces were killed and 60 wounded in Saturday's clashes, said a doctor at hospital in Misrata, a city half-way between the Sirte and Tripoli where the casualties are taken.
The loyalists used tanks and heavy artillery to dislodge snipers posted in apartment blocks before troops advanced on foot, said an AFP journalist in the city.
Ambulances earlier streamed out of Sirte -- hometown of dead dictator Moamer Kadhafi -- headed for Misrata.
The fighting eased after sunset, the journalist said, with sporadic gunfire on the ground and military aircraft heard overhead.Since the offensive against Sirte began on May 12, more than 400 fighters loyal to the government have been killed and about 2,500 wounded.
It is not yet known how many IS militants have been killed, but the GNA media centre said the bodies of 10 jihadists had been found in a school in district one, which was being combed after being retaken on Monday.
The forces loyal to the UN-backed GNA had said last weekend they were preparing to "liberate" the entire city after seizing several IS positions, including its headquarters.
On Wednesday, GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj visited Sirte for the first time since loyalist forces launched their offensive more than three months ago.
- US air raids -Sarraj and some of his ministers toured former front lines as well as the Ouagadougou conference centre which IS had used as its base.
"We will continue to chase, with the help of God, the Daesh remnants and strike them wherever they may be in our country," Sarraj said this week.
The capture of Sirte by IS last year sparked fears the jihadists would use it as a springboard for attacks on Europe.
The Sunni extremists took advantage of the chaos in oil-rich Libya after the 2011 uprising to seize Sirte in June 2015, hoisting their black flag above the city.
The offensive on the ground has been backed by US air power.On Friday, the United States Africa Command said that since the US campaign began on August 1, US drones, helicopters and bombers had carried out a total of 108 air strikes against the jihadists in Sirte.
It said that on August 31, targets including five "enemy fighting positions" and a vehicle bomb were hit.
Fewer than 200 IS jihadists remain in Sirte, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Thursday, and they are essentially surrounded by GNA forces and the sea.
The GNA has been struggling to assert its control over all of Libya.
France on Friday urged Sarraj to find a compromise with the Tobruk-based parliament in the far east of the country, which does not recognise the unity government."He must find a compromise with the Tobruk parliament and General (Khalifa) Haftar," who controls the armed forces in the east, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in Paris.  AFP

Merkel's party faces voters' anger, a year after opening borders

Posted by Unknown, on 02:25

Chancellor Angela Merkel's party braced for a backlash at state polls Sunday, while anti-migrant populists are poised for major gains a year after the German leader opened the borders to refugees.
Around 1.33 million voters are electing a new regional parliament for the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is also home to Merkel's constituency Stralsund.
The polls come exactly a year after the German leader made the momentous decision to let in tens of thousands of Syrian and other migrants marooned in eastern European countries.
Although she won praise at first, the mood has since turned, giving way to fears over how Europe's biggest economy will manage to integrate the million people who arrived last year alone.
Her decision has left her increasingly isolated in Europe, and exposed her to heavy criticism at home, including from her own conservative allies.
Right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has campaigned heavily against Merkel's liberal refugee policy, is expected to record strong support at the polls.
Opinion polls suggest that it might even unseat the German leader's party CDU from second place after the Social Democrats.
In the sprawling farming and coastal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania -- Germany's poorest and least populous -- the issue of refugees and integration has also become the deciding factor for one in three voters."I am voting AfD. The main reason is the question over asylum-seekers," said a pensioner and former teacher who declined to be named.
"A million refugees have come here. There is money for them, but no money to bring pensions in the east to the same levels as those of the west," he said, referring to the lower retirement payments that residents of former Communist states receive compared to those in the west.
- No solution -
Illustrating the political damage to Merkel over her policy, a survey published Thursday show her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) expected to garner 22 percent at the polls -- only as much as the anti-migrant upstart party AfD.The Social Democrats (SDP) -- which had topped the vote in the last polls in 2011 -- meanwhile were predicted to win around 28 percent at the elections, two weeks before capital Berlin holds its state polls.
Compared to other states across Germany, the northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania hosts just a small proportion of migrants under a quota system based on states' income and population -- having taken in 25,000 asylum seekers last year.
Most of them have already decided to abandon the state, preferring to head "where there are jobs, people and shops," said Frieder Weinhold, CDU candidate.
But he acknowledged that the "migration policy has sparked a feeling of insecurity among the people."We tell them 'we will manage this' but they want to know how," he said, in reference to Merkel's "We can do it" rallying cry.
After a series of attacks by asylum-seekers in July -- including two claimed by the Islamic State organisation -- the mood has also darkened.
Political analyst Hajo Funke estimates that the AfD will win 25 percent of the vote and become the second biggest party in the state, after the SPD.
The neo-Nazi NPD could garner five percent, he said, even if he did not expect Merkel to change course over the vote given the relatively small weight of the state.
Yet this would mean that the AfD, which was founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party before morphing into a xenophobic party, would enter yet another regional parliament.After scoring strong results in three key state elections this year, AfD is now represented on the opposition benches of half of Germany's 16 regional parliaments.
Leading members of the party have sparked outrage over insulting remarks, including one disparaging footballer Jerome Boateng, who is of mixed German and Ghanian descent, as the neighbour no German wants.
Days ahead of Sunday's vote, Merkel urged the population to reject AfD.
"The more the people who go to vote, the less the percentage won by some parties that, in my view, have no solution for problems and which are built mainly around a protest -- often with hate," she told broadcaster NDR in an interview.Polls will close at 1600 GMT and first result estimates will be published shortly after.
The chancellor, who arrived Sunday in the Chinese city of Hangzhou to attend the G20 summit, is not voting in the polls as her main residence is in Berlin.  AFP

Selfies and silence as China shuts down G20 host city

Posted by Unknown, on 02:10

The tranquil waters of Hangzhou's West Lake have inspired Chinese poets and painters for centuries. On Sunday the serenity was imposed by force as authorities deployed a vast security operation for the G20 summit.
The throngs of tourists who usually crowd the shores of the island-dotted lake were absent and the surrounding roads closed off -- except for police vehicles and the occasional motorcade of black luxury cars emblazoned with national flags.
But when a handful of locals living in the immediate area were allowed past the cordon, they took advantage of the empty streets to embrace an untraditional pursuit: road-top selfies.
Young people sat on the tarmac taking pictures of themselves, while others made star-shaped poses with their arms and legs for friends to snap them.The streets spruced up for the benefit of leaders, trees glowing with artificial lights, made an ideal backdrop.
State media say that more than two million people out of a population of some nine million have left Hangzhou, taking advantage of a paid holidays which local firms have been ordered to give employees.
Local reports said so many people visited Huangshan, a mountain range in the next province where Hangzhou residents were given free tickets, that hillside passes turned into human traffic jams.
Wealthier residents of apartments near the G20 venue were offered sizeable cash incentives to leave their homes.But treatment was apparently harsher for Hangzhou's vast population of migrant workers, with several saying they were ordered to shut their small businesses without compensation.
"We were ordered to close our restaurant, so I've gone back to my hometown in Sichuan," said a woman surnamed Zhou whom AFP reached by telephone. "We are losing money."
"At the beginning we were told about compensation but it didn't happen," she added.
Security is generally tight for G20 summits wherever they are held, as they are a magnet for protesters seeking a global audience for their cause.
State media say that since December one million people have been mobilised as "volunteers".Red-armbanded personnel stand, squat or sit on street corners and inside apartment compounds throughout Hangzhou, apparently with little to do.
A policeman prevented an AFP reporter from taking photos of the guards in one compound, and several volunteers said they needed authorisation to speak to foreign media.
"I work for a state-owned enterprise, who have organised this volunteer work," said one armbanded worker surnamed Wang, sitting on a stool near a bus stop.
"My job is to look our for people who get off the bus with dangerous items such as knives. AFP

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