Wednesday, 21 October 2015
Philippines starts post-storm rebuild
Residents of one of the towns hardest hit by Typhoon Koppu begin rebuilding their lives and homes.These were the scenes in Aurora province on the main Philippines island of Luzon after typhoon Koppu hit on Sunday. Homes were destroyed, and bridges and trees brought down by the storm, packing winds up to 175 kilometres an hour. There were few initial reports of casualties but the national disaster agency says 10, 000 people have been displaced. Residents and tourists were warned in advance to move away from coastal areas to safer ground.ASTRO AWANI
Perlukah saya undi usul tidak percaya?' - Ku Li
KUALA LUMPUR: Ahli Dewan Rakyat mempunyai hak untuk memberi pendapat mereka berkenaan hal kepimpinan negara.Ahli politik veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah berkata, Ahli Dewan Rakyat hanya merupakan alat untuk membela kepentingan rakyat.
"Apa yang disuarakan adalah suara bagi pihak rakyat," kata beliau ketika diminta memberi pandangan mengenai usul undi tidak percaya yang dirancang untuk dibentangkan oleh Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.Itu terpulang kepada mereka. Saya tidak terlibat dengan usul ini.
"Ahli Dewan Rakyat bebas memberi pendapat dalam soal ini kerana seorang yang diangkat menjadi Perdana Menteri melalui perlembagaan adalah individu yang mendapat keyakinan sebahagian besar mereka yang berada dalam Dewan Rakyat.
"Jadi kalau sokongannya sudah terhakis, maka dia gugur. Itu adalah semangat perlembagaan," kata Razaleigh, yang juga Ahli Parlimen Gua Musang.
Apabila ditanya sama ada beliau akan mengundi jika usul tersebut dibentangkan di Dewan Rakyat, Razaleigh memberi jawapan sinis.
SRC sangkal laporan Malaysiakini, gesa peguam siasat
KUALA LUMPUR: SRC International Sdn Bhd menyangkal laporan dua portal berita berhubung dakwaan kertas pertuduhan terhadap Perdana Menteri dan rajah kononnya aliran dana ke dalam akaun beliau, yang menyatakan pinjaman RM4 bilion diperoleh syarikat itu daripada Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) telah disalah guna.Dalam kenyataan di sini hari ini, syarikat itu berkata berdasarkan siasatan dalaman, dipercayai dakwaan itu berdasarkan dokumen yang telah dipalsukan dalam cubaan untuk sengaja mengelirukan orang ramai.Hakikatnya, semua RM4 bilion yang dipinjam daripada KWAP diambil kira di dalam kunci kira-kiranya, selaras dengan amalan piawaian perakaunan dan tadbir urus.
"Tiada satu sen pun daripadanya telah disalah guna seperti didakwa oleh mereka yang mempunyai niat jahat," katanya. Kenyataan itu merujuk kepada portal berita Sarawak Report dan Malaysiakini.
Syarikat itu berkata dakwaan palsu itu merupakan satu serangan yang serius terhadap SRC dan telah menyebabkan kesan kewangan yang negatif serta menjejaskan reputasi perniagaannya serta kerajaan dalam cubaan untuk memburuk-burukkannya dalam politik.
Mengenai aktiviti tanggungjawab sosial korporat (CSR) syarikat, kenyataanitu menyatakan sebarang perbelanjaan syarikat bagi program-program sosial diambil daripada pendapatan tunai yang dijana menerusi pelaburannya.Selepas bertahun-tahun, pendapatan yang diraih dianggarkan RM500 juta tidak termasuk item bukan tunai lain, menyediakan pendapatan yang kukuh untuk syarikat gunakan bagi tujuan itu, katanya.
"Kami mahu pihak yang bertanggungjawab terhadap pemalsuan ini dikenal pasti, berikutan ketulenannya telah dinafikan oleh Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia pada 3 Ogos 2015," kata SRC.
BERNAMA
Amir Ukays dibebaskan, akui pistol mainan untuk tembak cicak
KUALA LUMPUR: Bekas vokalis kumpulan Ukays, Amir atau nama sebenarnya Mohd Azmir Muhammad, 44 yang ditahan awal pagi Rabu kerana dipercayai memiliki senjata api dibebaskan dengan jaminan polis, pada jam 5 petang hari sama.Memetik laporan portal Berita Harian, Amir berkata, pistol berkenaan adalah pistol mainan yang digunakan untuk menembak cicak di rumahnya.
Menurutnya, pistol berkenaan seakan-akan pistol betul dan selalunya diletakkan di rumah.Namun pada tengah hari Selasa, anak beliau membawa turun dan tertinggal pistol itu di dalam keretanya.
"Saya tidak sempat membawa naik semula kerana bergegas ke studio untuk latihan vokal program Gegar Vaganza2.
"Bagaimanapun, saya kurang bernasib baik apabila ditahan sepasukan polis ketika berada dalam kereta di kawasan letak kereta di rumah selepas pulang latihan," katanya kepada portal BH berkenaan malam tadi.
Beliau turut bekerjsama dengan pihak polis ketika dibawa ke Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Sentul untuk disoal siasat.
"Alhamdulillah, saya dibebaskan tidak sampai 24 jam selepas disoal siasat. Berita saya ditahan reman tidak benar.Saya memberi kerjasama kepada polis kerana saya tahu saya tidak bersalah, saya bukan perompak atau penjenayah. Tiada apa yang harus saya takutkan," katanya.
Sementara itu, Ketua Polis Daerah Sentul, Asisten Komisioner R Munusamy, berkata Amir dibebaskan sementara menunggu kertas laporan kes disiapkan untuk dihantar ke Jabatan Peguam Negara.
Polis sebelum ini melaporkan penyanyi berkenaan ditahan pasukan peronda ketika berada di dalam kenderaan jenis Proton Gen-2, di susur masuk ke Kampung Chubadak.Pemeriksaan lanjut dilakukan anggota preman yang melakukan rondaan dan kemudiannya menemui sepucuk pistol berwarna hitam yang tertera tulisan 'Walther CP99 Compact' dengan nombor siri 12L20520.
ASTRO AWANI
Anggota renjer Thai maut dalam letupan disyaki perbuatan balas dendam
Polis percaya motif pengeboman adalah balas dendam kerana mangsa, Ismail Cherna, 54, pernah menembak mati seorang anggota militan pada 2013. - Gambar hiasan
NARATHIWAT: Balas dendam disyaki sebagai motif kematian seorang anggota renjer dalam satu letupan bom di sini pada Selasa.
Polis percaya motif pengeboman adalah balas dendam kerana mangsa, Ismail Cherna, 54, pernah menembak mati seorang anggota militan pada 20 Oktober 2013, kata Ketua Polis Daerah Takbai Kolonel Polis Jiradej Praswang.
Ismail terkorban apabila sebutir bom yang diletakkan pada keretanya meletup ketika beliau sedang memandunya dalam kejadian pukul 4 petpetang semalam.
Polis percaya motif pengeboman adalah balas dendam kerana mangsa, Ismail Cherna, 54, pernah menembak mati seorang anggota militan pada 20 Oktober 2013, kata Ketua Polis Daerah Takbai Kolonel Polis Jiradej Praswang.
Ismail terkorban apabila sebutir bom yang diletakkan pada keretanya meletup ketika beliau sedang memandunya dalam kejadian pukul 4 petpetang semalam.
Kejadian berlaku di Pekan Takbai, yang bersempadan dengan Pengkalan Kubor, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Jiradej berkata bom buatan sendiri seberat 10 kg dilekatkan di bawah kereta mangsa dan diletup dengan menggunakan walkie talkie.
Letupan bom itu telah memusnahkan bahagian hadapan kereta berkenaan dan mayat mangsa terhimpit dalam kereta, kata beliau.
Mangsa bekerja di Pejabat Daerah Takbai dan ketika kejadian beliau sedang memandu kereta untuk pulang ke rumahnya yang terletak hanya 200 meter daripada tempat kerjanya.
BERNAMA
Police: Handyman arrested in couple's killing, stole cash
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A handyman kidnapped and strangled a couple he worked for and stole tens of thousands of dollars from a safe in their home, Baton Rouge police said Wednesday.
Ernesto Llerena Alonso, 42, of Baton Rouge, was arrested about 8 a.m. Wednesday in Hollywood, Florida, and will be extradited and booked with kidnapping and murder in the deaths of Denis Duplantier, 71, and Suzanne Duplantier, 70, Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie said in a news release.
The Duplantiers' bodies were found in their pickup at a truck stop in Hammond, about 45 miles east of Baton Rouge and 860 miles from Hollywood.
Alonso's white pickup was on surveillance video pulling into the truck stop at the same time as the Duplantiers' red truck, said Cpl. L'Jean McKneely, a Baton Rouge police spokesman. A large sum of money has also been found, he said.
Police said relatives called late Monday saying they had been unable to get in touch with the Duplantiers. OnStar tracked their pickup to a truck stop to Hammond, where police found their bodies in the truck's back seat.Both had been strangled, authorities said.
McKneely said he did not know whether they were killed in the truck or killed and then put into the back seat.
Police said Tuesday they were searching for a second, unidentified, person in the case.
AP
UN chief pushes Palestinians to calm spiralling unrest
UN chief Ban Ki-moon called Wednesday for an end to spiralling Israeli-Palestinian violence as he met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a bid for calm after three weeks of deadly unrest.
Ban later told the Security Council by video conference from Amman that he was "not optimistic" about prospects for quelling the bloodshed, according to a diplomat at the closed-door emergency meeting in New York.
The UN secretary-general traveled to the region this week to urge the Israelis and Palestinians to pull back from a "dangerous escalation" that could lead to a full-scale Palestinian uprising.
Ban offered no public proposals to end the unrest, but spoke of returning to "meaningful negotiations," after more than a year of frozen peace efforts and seething frustration with Israel's occupation.
"We will continue to support all efforts to create the conditions to make meaningful negotiations possible," Ban said after meeting Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"Our most urgent challenge is to stop the current wave of violence and avoid any further loss of life."Abbas called on Israel to strictly respect rules governing Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters at the compound in September sparked the current wave of violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly accused Abbas of incitement by suggesting Israel wants to change the status quo of the compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Muslims fear Israel will seek to change rules governing the site, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray to avoid provoking tensions.
Netanyahu says he has no intention of changing the rules.
"The continued occupation and aggression against Christian and Muslim holy sites in east Jerusalem, particularly against Al-Aqsa, opens the door to a religious conflict, which has unfortunately started," said Abbas.
We don't want it and we are warning over its consequences."
- 'Not optimistic' -
In his behind-closed-doors report to the Security Council, Ban delivered a sobering assessment of prospects for a return to calm, according to a diplomat.
Stating bluntly that he had emerged from his meetings "not optimistic," he said there was no time to waste to press for a de-escalation and pull the sides back from the brink.
The UN chief presented a report prepared by his legal experts on international protection after the Palestinians called for the deployment of an observer force in east Jerusalem.
The report, seen by AFP, outlines 17 cases -- from Trieste after World War II to Kosovo in 1999 -- when the Security Council stepped in and set up special regimes to guarantee the protection of civilians.
In a letter to the council, Ban said the report should not be seen as an "options paper" for addressing the crisis but added that it could be useful in "informing future work on this subject."
At least 47 Palestinians and one Arab Israeli have been killed in the upsurge in violence that began at the start of the month, including alleged attackers. Eight Israelis have died.Violent protests have also erupted in east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
- Netanyahu to meet Kerry -
Netanyahu showed little appetite for compromise when meeting Ban on Tuesday, harshly criticising Abbas for "fanning the flames" and rejecting allegations that Israel has used excessive force.
He repeated the assertion in Berlin on Wednesday.
"If we want to have peace we have to stop terror. And to stop terror we have to stop incitement," he said after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on the eve of a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry hopes talks this week with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders will provide some "political breathing space," the State Department said.
He is also due to meet Jordan's King Abdullah II.
The unrest continued even during Ban's visit.
On Wednesday, a woman was shot and wounded after allegedly approaching an Israeli settlement with a knife.Later in the day, an Israeli soldier was severely wounded in a stabbing near a West Bank settlement and her attacker shot dead.
And in the evening, a Palestinian drove his car into a group of Israelis in the West Bank, injuring five of them, before being shot and seriously wounded by soldiers.
Ban also met families of victims of the latest wave of violence before travelling to Amman, where he is due to meet the Jordanian king.
A meeting of the Middle East peace quartet is to be held on Friday in Vienna. The group comprises Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations
AFP
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