U.N. says secured more Pakistan flood relief funds

U.N. says secured more Pakistan flood relief funds

U.N. says secured more Pakistan flood relief funds

Posted: 18 Aug 2010 12:52 AM PDT

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Nearly half the $459 million needed for initial relief in Pakistan's worst ever floods has been secured after days of lobbying donors and warnings that the country faces a spiralling humanitarian catastrophe, the United Nations said on Wednesday.


Prospering on the sweat and blood of foreign workers

Posted: 18 Aug 2010 12:36 AM PDT

While chasing our dream of becoming an advanced country, trying to enter the era of high-income and create economic miracles, should we forget about social fairness and justice? And how can we step on the vulnerable group of workers from foreign countries and leave a page of bloody and tearful history of oppressing foreign workers?

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Disease hovers over Pakistan's flood-stricken children

Posted: 18 Aug 2010 12:32 AM PDT

CHARSADDA, Pakistan (Reuters) - As Pakistan's floodwaters rushed into Bakhmina Said's mud-brick home, she grabbed medical records of her daughter's heart condition, put them in a metal trunk and headed to high ground.


Australia's Labor to scrape back into power

Posted: 18 Aug 2010 12:32 AM PDT

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Labor government will narrowly win Saturday's election, a Reuters Poll Trend showed on Wednesday, paving the way for a controversial mining tax and a possible carbon trading scheme.


American-Filipino tenor's rise from rock to opera

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 04:15 PM PDT

By Cecil Morella

FEATURE MANILA: Fifteen years ago the future opera singer Arthur Espiritu was fronting a US high-school rock band, belting out covers of Bon Jovi's odes to modern-day hard men and motorcycle-riding outlaws.

"'Wanted, Dead or Alive' was my favourite," the Philippine-American tenor laughs, referring to the Bon Jovi song as he recalls a dizzying decade or so that brought him to the cusp of global stardom in the field of musical drama.

By 2007 Espiritu was thoroughly transformed as the triumphant tenor Ferrando, singing the soldier's delicate "Un'aura Amorosa" aria in the Mozart opera "Cosi fan tutte" at the world-famous La Scala of Italy.

"It gave me a barometer of where I am in my career," says Espiritu, the first tenor of Philippine descent to perform at the Milan opera theatre.

"The Italians are very passionate about what they do and they're very serious about their opera there. To be able to survive that, to me, is an accomplishment."

On a brief visit back to the country of his birth for a one-off concert in Manila, Espiritu spoke of his unlikely rise from rock balladeer to a promising international operatic talent.

Espiritu left his Philippine hometown of Morong, near Manila, to join his parents abroad when he was 15.

After high school in the United States, Espiritu realised his voice was worth a lot more than a few beers and prom nights, and he decided to push his musical boundaries at college.

"It was not a very easy transition, actually," Espiritu said ahead of the concert last weekend -- in which the full house gave him rapturous applause.

"I knew how to sing but not this way, so it was a bit of a struggle in the early years."

It did not help that his father, then a US-based male nurse who has since returned to the Philippines after retirement, pushed him to become a doctor.

"When I started to go to music, my dad asked me: 'Are you gay?'," he said, doubling up in laughter.

Effortless singing

Espiritu eventually earned a Masters of Music degree in 2002 from the University of New Orleans, then took up an artist diploma course at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Over the past nine years he has been in 23 US and European productions, including the title role in Francesco Cavalli's L'Ormindo at the Pittsburgh Opera and as Don Ottavio in Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Opera Fuoco in Paris.

Last year he was one of six winners of the George London Award for young North American singers.

Philippine soprano Rachelle Gerodias described Espiritu's singing as effortless.

"He's an ordinary guy with an extraordinary voice," said Gerodias, Espiritu's main collaborator at the Manila concert, his first appearance on stage in his country of birth.

Last year Espiritu moved to Europe on a two-year contract to assume the lead roles at Theater Saint Gallen in Switzerland, rejecting a rival offer from London's Royal Opera House, where he was to have been assigned cover roles.

"I had to choose between the two and think about being in London, a big market. I still think about it now," said Espiritu, who is aged in his early 30s but did not want to give his exact date of birth.

Espiritu said he believed he made the right choice in choosing Switzerland. "It gave me a lot of flexibility with my career."

Reflecting on the Philippines, which is a desert in opera terms with just one production every two years, Espiritu has only sympathy for fellow Filipinos who have to go abroad or see their talent go to waste.

He said he eventually hoped to offer more to his home country than just a one-off concert.

"I would love to do an opera here. I would even do it for free," he said.

- AFP

Royal rainmakers take to skies to ease Thai drought

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 04:05 PM PDT

By Kelly Macnamara

FEATURE HUA HIN: High above Thailand's parched landscape the kingdom's fleet of intrepid royal rainmakers work their meteorological wizardry.

A squadron of 20 aircraft plunges through the clouds firing a cocktail of chemicals that they hope will provoke a downpour to alleviate the effects of drought on the country's crucial agriculture sector.

The annual cloud seeding operation is something of a personal crusade for Thailand's King Bhumibol, who has earned the title "Father of the Royal Rainmaking" for his half-century project to persuade clouds to rain on cue.

Not content to leave the weather in the hands of nature, the octogenarian monarch developed the programme to support the country's farmers and has even patented his own cloud seeding technique.

In a manoeuvre known as the "sandwich", the king's rainmakers fire chemicals at different altitudes -- such as sodium chloride above and dry ice below -- to induce rainfall from warm clouds.

The "super sandwich" adds another aircraft to the operation, releasing silver iodide from about 20,000 feet -- around 6,000 metres -- to initiate rain from formations of varying temperatures.

Pilot Major Phumintorn Undhisote flies from the rainmaking centre in Hua Hin, where the king has his holiday home.

Seeding in this narrow strip of the country between the Gulf of Thailand and the Myanmar border takes a high level of precision.

And while Major Phumintorn believes in the effectiveness of his missions, they are not without risk.

"According to the flying textbook, in bad weather pilots have to fly away... or land, but rainmaking means we have to fly into the clouds," he said.

He is one of 522 people -- including scientists, engineers, pilots and technicians -- involved in the Bureau of the Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation's efforts to manipulate Mother Nature.

Critical levels

More than 5,500 cloud seeding flights were made from eight centres in 2008 and around 870 million baht (RM85 million) was spent on the project.

This year the rainy season -- normally from about May to October depending on the region -- got off to a weak start.

While Thailand has a tropical climate and suffers floods as well as drought, the size of the agriculture sector and growing consumer demand for water makes the country particularly sensitive to the vagaries of the wet season.

Figures from the country's central bank suggest agriculture accounted for almost 10% of the economy last year and nearly 40% of the labour force.

Wathana Sukarnjanaset, director of the Hua Hin cloud-seeding centre, said there had been "quite a crisis" this year, with water in some of the country's biggest dams falling to critical levels, although the situation is improving.

In the most recent dry season, from November through April, 6.4 million people in 52 provinces were affected by drought, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.

In the past, cloud seeding was dismissed by some as little more than meteorological alchemy as scientists struggled to assess whether rainfall would have happened regardless of chemical assistance.

But it has gained a mainstream following in many countries, including the United States and China, while Thailand recently gave Australia permission to use the king's techniques.

Wathana said Thailand's own research suggested cloud seeding can increase precipitation by 109 percent.

He said there was usually "quite a change in the weather" after the flights, which operate from February to October.

"Farmers come to ask us to make rain in that area so we tell them 'go back and wait' and it is raining in the afternoon (or) in a short time, one or two days mostly," he added.

One of those who relies on the cloud seeders is Siriwan Boonngarm, whose farm nestles deep in the Phetchaburi countryside.

She started out in 2005 after retiring as a teacher and now focuses on growing pineapples, bananas and rubber trees, which require less water than Thailand's thirstier rice crops.

But the former maths tutor said she still finds herself calling on the king's rainmakers -- sometimes as often as every four or five days.

"This year is the worst drought. The rains did not come on time. The weather was hot and there was not enough water," she said.

Siriwan, whose rural home is festooned with royal flags, has no doubt who she has to thank when the clouds darken and the rain falls.

"Humans cannot survive without water," she said. "His Majesty helps us with everything, gives us love, gives us life."

- AFP

Africa's ambitious return of ancient rice

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:33 PM PDT

By Fiacre Vidjingninou

FEATURE ATAKPAMEY: One by one, Ali Kassim pulls out the weeds that have grown in his rice paddy. It's surprisingly rare in Africa, but he is cultivating African rice -- once close to extinction after it was pushed aside centuries ago for a higher-yield imported Asian variety.

Researchers hope to see more and more farmers like Kassim, who is 32 and among about 100 people in Togo's central Atakpamey region to take part in an experimental programme led by the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice), based in neighbouring Benin.

In the small west African country, experts are seeking to change the farming habits of a whole continent by reintroducing African rice, or Oryza glaberrima, in the hope of scaling down food crises.

Cultivated for about 3,500 years and then close to extinction, African rice was abandoned by most farmers in favour of the Asian variety, Oryza sativa, which has a higher yield and has been imported for about 450 years.

But the local rice is more nutritious and researchers are currently working on ways of producing a strain with a higher yield that could enable an increase in production across the continent, which imports most of its rice.

"The principal objective (...) is to achieve self-suffiency in Africa in the matter. We are therefore giving priority to the yield, so that the new African rice can be more competitive against its Asian kin," said Moussa Sie, head of the research programme.

With production largely outdone by growing demand, Africa imports 40% of the rice it consumes, at the cost of US$3.6 billion (RM11.4 billion) in 2008, according to the Africa Rice Centre report for that year.

Africa's dependency poses risks such as during the global food crisis of 2008, when a hike in the prices of basic commodities caused food shortages and riots all over the world.

"The basic ingredients exist for another episode like the one in 2008," warned Papa Abdoulaye Seck, director general of AfricaRice, in an interview last April. "Global rice stocks are low, and El Nino threatens rice production in countries like Thailand and the Philippines."

"Moreover, despite significant increases in domestic cereal production in many countries during 2008 and 2009, Africa continues to depend heavily on food aid and global cereal markets for its leading food staples, rice and maize," he added.

'A revolution for our agriculture'

Nevertheless, according to AfricaRice, this cereal is now the main source of food in west Africa, where its consumption has grown annually by 4.5% from 1961 to 2006.

The new African rice, which researchers are now testing in experimental paddies, is a mixture of the two, with a majority of African genes, according to Moussa Sie.

"The main complaints that were made against African rice were laying, which is a tendency of the plants to lie down when the grains were ripe, and shedding, when ripe grains fall off at maturity," explains Marie Noelle Ndjiondjop, a geneticist at AfricaRice.

"The idea of these experimental fields is to try out different cultures in order to assess the successes and limits of our research in the field," she added.

According to Moussa Sie, "only spreading the culture of the new African rice can provide an appropriate response to the famine which is raging in our region."

Niger is currently hit very hard by a food crisis, with millions of people struck by drought, who have lost their harvests and their cattle, according to agencies of the United Nations.

The Africa Rice Centre pays farmers for taking part in its programme and gives them seed.

For rice-grower Ali Kassim, the first results already seem satisfactory.

"What we see is that this gives a great deal," he said. "The rice that comes out after the harvest, when it's sent to the mill to be husked, it doesn't break.

"That's the reason why we think this is a revolution for our agriculture," he said.

- AFP

Singapore accidents put focus on foreign worker safety

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:28 PM PDT

By Bernice Han

FEATURE SINGAPORE: Alam Khali can still remember vividly how he feared for his safety whenever he squatted on the back of an open-topped lorry while being ferried to construction sites in Singapore.

Squashed in with other foreign labourers, the 40-year-old Bangladeshi said he clung on to whatever part of the lorry he could get his hands on as the vehicle made its way around the wealthy city-state.

"Of course scared, but boss says take lorry, we take," Khali, who has been working in Singapore since 2003, shrugged in an interview at a hotel construction site while having a lunch of plain vegetables and white rice.

Thanks to a new boss, Khali now gets a stipend to travel by subway to work, but most of the estimated 245,000 foreign construction workers from poorer Asian countries are not so lucky.

Transported around like cattle even under pouring rain, the workers are a daily reminder to Singaporeans of how tough it is to be at the bottom of the economic ladder, but attitudes are changing.

Lee Kitt Anya, an 11-year-old schoolgirl, won a national book-writing competition last year for a story she wrote about a fictional Indian worker after being shocked by the sight of a group of labourers on a lorry.

"It's quite a horrifying sight because it was raining very heavily and they were so wet," she recalled. "I felt quite appalled."

Lee donated part of the proceeds from her book to a welfare group for migrant workers called HOME.

"I don't mind and I don't really need the money, they need it more," she said.

New safety rules

The death of three Chinese workers in road accidents in June has prompted Singapore to accelerate the implementation of new safety rules, including fitting lorries with canopies and higher side railings.

"Singaporeans are generally used to seeing workers transported in this way, but even so, more and more feel that it is wrong," said John Gee, president of Transient Workers Count 2 (TWC2), a local advocacy group for migrant workers.

"Their sympathy with the workers rises every time there is an accident, or when they find themselves in heavy traffic during a downpour and see workers crouched in the back of a lorry, holding what they can over their heads to offer some protection," he said.

Since the start of the year, all new lorries to be used for ferrying workers have to be fitted with canopies and side railings before they go on the road.

Older vehicles will be fitted with safety and comfort equipment over the next 12 months.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim, who announced the measures in parliament, ruled out immediate moves to make it compulsory for employers to use buses to ferry workers.

"We should allow the measures to improve workers' safety on lorries to take effect and study their effectiveness before concluding that they are insufficient and going for a ban," he said.

Social worker Gee from TWC2 says the new lorry safety measures are a step forward but "they are no substitute for transport in enclosed vehicles such as buses or minivans."

"We'd like the government to indicate that, in the longer run, it would prefer that people are transported in enclosed vehicles and then to make a declaration of intent that it intends to pursue this goal, preferably with a timescale."

Construction is again reaching fever pitch in Singapore as the economy roars back from recession.

Two massive casino complexes have powered the current building boom, and economic growth forecasts of 13% to 15% this year are spurring new residential and office property projects requiring even more foreign labour.

An estimated 100,000 new foreign workers will be hired by Singapore this year.

"The government has asserted that migrant workers make a vital contribution to the economy," said Gee.

"But this still leaves the workers evaluated on the basis of their usefulness to Singapore, and too little focus is given to the rights and aspirations of the workers themselves," he added.

- AFP

Cabinet approves guarded community guidelines proposal

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:48 PM PDT

The Cabinet has approved a proposal to streamline guidelines for gated communities and guarded neighbourhoods which have been mushrooming lately, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said here.

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Extended date for takeover offer of NSTP

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:48 PM PDT

Media Prima Bhd (MPB) announced that the closing date for its unconditional takeover offer of The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd (NSTP) shares, has been extended to 5pm on Sept 14, 2010.

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Pornthip maintains Beng Hock did not kill himself

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:47 PM PDT

Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand today maintained that political aide Teoh Beng Hock did not commit suicide.

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US astronauts to be first twins in space

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 06:47 PM PDT

Two US astronauts may become the first twins to be flying in space at the same time.


Dozens missing after landslide in southwest China

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:59 PM PDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - At least 67 people were missing after mudslides hit a remote southwest Chinese town near Myanmar, state media reported on Wednesday, adding to the thousands killed or missing in floods and landslides this year.


Disease hovers over Pakistan's flood-stricken children

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:59 PM PDT

CHARSADDA, Pakistan (Reuters) - As Pakistan's floodwaters rushed into Bakhmina Said's mud-brick home, she grabbed medical records of her daughter's heart condition, put them in a metal trunk and headed to high ground.


Chavez signs law barring Venezuela brokers from fx, govt debt

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:59 PM PDT

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a new law into effect on Tuesday that formalizes the exclusion of private brokerages from trading the local bolivar currency or public sector dollar-denominated debt.


Australian leaders to face voters in pre-election showdown

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:09 PM PDT

SYDNEY: Australia's first woman prime minister and her conservative challenger prepared to face voters in a town hall forum today, as a new poll predicted a narrow government win in weekend elections.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who deposed elected leader Kevin Rudd in a party coup just eight weeks ago, agreed to the showdown in Brisbane after lengthy squabbling over its format.

Gillard and opposition chief Tony Abbott will be grilled separately by voters at the Brisbane Broncos rugby league club's headquarters after the prime minister backed down on her demand for a head-to-head debate on the economy.

"He's going missing tonight. He doesn't want to give Australians the debate on the economy that they deserve," Gillard told reporters during a campaign stop in Western Australia.

Some commentators said the Welsh-born former lawyer was taking a risk by agreeing to the town hall format after being seen as losing out to Abbott in a similar event in Sydney last week, dubbed the "Battle of Rooty Hill".

"Julia Gillard is beginning to show signs of desperation and fear of losing the election after caving in to Tony Abbott's demands for a people's forum in Brisbane tonight," said a front-page commentary from The Australian newspaper.

"Gillard now appears to be the one desperate to force a mistake from her surprisingly disciplined opponent in front of a Brisbane audience, which still appears hostile to (Gillard's) Labor," it added.

A survey of 28,000 voters compiled from automated phone calls showed Labor scraping home with a four-seat majority, just avoiding becoming the first single-term government since World War II.

The JWS Research poll, published by the Sydney Morning Herald, found Labor would have lost 15 seats and gained six if polls were held last weekend, giving it 79 of the lower house's 150 seats. Abbott's Coalition was put at 68 seats.

Gillard is promising an economic boost through better education and training, along with improved healthcare helped by Labor's planned national broadband network, which is intended to wire 93 percent of homes.

Abbott has played heavily on Labor's perceived disunity and accuses the government of overspending during the financial crisis, when massive stimulus helped Australia avoid a recession.

The opposition needs a swing of 2.3% to drive Labor from power in Saturday's polls, less than three years after Rudd ended right-winger John Howard's 11 years in office.

Both sides are targeting marginal seats in resource-rich Queensland and Western Australia, and New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

- AFP

Foxconn holds morale-boosting exercise in China

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:01 PM PDT

HONG KONG: Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn plans to hold a morale-boosting "employee rally" today after a string of suicides at its Chinese factories turned a spotlight on working conditions.

"Foxconn feels it's perhaps time to look back and to learn from the tragedies and to send an important message to their employees that they are not alone, and that the Foxconn family is there to support them and to help them through their challenges," it said in a statement.

The march today afternoon is aimed at promoting "unity among employees of Foxconn and to extend moral support and resources to help employees deal with personal and work challenges", it added.

It follows the suicides of 13 workers at Foxconn, which assembles Apple's iPhone and other well-known products, which highlighted working conditions for about 200 million migrant workers who are helping drive China's stunning economic rise.

The rally -- themed "Treasure your life, love your family, care for each other to build a wonderful future" -- will be held at Foxconn facilities across China, including a giant campus in the southern city of Shenzhen, it said.

Ten of the deaths happened at Foxconn's Shenzhen facility, which employs an estimated 400,000 workers and is fitted with spotless factories, bakeries, banks, employee apartments, acupuncture clinics and fast-food shops.

The high-profile suicides this year sparked an investigation and prompted Foxconn founder Terry Gou to lead media on a tour of the Shenzhen campus in May.

Labour rights activists have blamed suicides at Foxconn -- the world's largest maker of computer components and a supplier to leading brands such as Dell and Nokia -- on tough working conditions in its factories.

Gou has said none of the suicides was directly work-related and that he was cleared by Chinese authorities of any wrongdoing in the lead up to the incidents.

In May, Foxconn urged workers to sign contracts promising not to kill themselves -- hours before the 11th worker this year fell to his death -- prompting widespread criticism.

The firm responded by installing a suicide hotline, hired Buddhist monks and counsellors to help at-risk employees, pledging to retrain its supervisors and install safety nets outside buildings to thwart future suicide bids.

It also gave employees a pay rise of 67%, to 2,000 yuan a month, effective from Oct 1.

- AFP

British author denies intention to insult Singapore courts

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:52 PM PDT

SINGAPORE: A British author facing charges for publishing a book on the death penalty in Singapore said it was never his intention to scandalise the judiciary, a court document showed today.

Freelance journalist Alan Shadrake, 75, who penned "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock", described himself in an affidavit filed with the High Court as a "strong believer in the need to abolish the death penalty".

But he said "it was never and is not my intention to scandalise the judiciary in Singapore", according to the affidavit obtained by AFP.

The document was filed last week and forms part of Shadrake's defence in a contempt of court case.

Shadrake, who divides his time between neighbouring Malaysia and Britain, is also facing a separate charge of criminal defamation.

Both offences are punishable by jail and fines.

His 219-page book contains a profile of Darshan Singh, the former chief executioner at Singapore's Changi Prison who, according to the author, executed around 1,000 men and women from 1959 until he retired in 2006.

It also features interviews with local human rights activists, lawyers and former police officers on various cases involving capital punishment.

Shadrake is out on bail but his passport has been impounded to prevent him from leaving the country.

He appeared in court for the first time on July 30, and the case will be heard again on August 30.

- AFP

Singapore court extends jail term for Swiss train vandal

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 02:45 PM PDT

SINGAPORE: A Singapore court today increased the prison term for a Swiss vandal from five to seven months after prosecutors appealed for a stiffer penalty for breaking into a high-security train depot.

Oliver Fricker, a 32-year-old software consultant, will now serve four months for trespass -- double the original sentence -- in addition to three months' jail and three strokes of a cane for vandalism.

A judge at Singapore's Court of Appeal said the original trespass sentence was "manifestly inadequate" and a tougher penalty was needed to act as a deterrent to others.

Fricker and a British friend who is still at large cut into a depot in May and spray-painted graffiti onto two train carriages.

Arrested after a holiday with the other suspect in Hong Kong, Fricker pleaded guilty to taking part in the daring stunt and began serving his prison term on June 25.

A clip of the vandalised trains leaving a station is still circulating on video-sharing site YouTube, with more than 163,000 views logged so far.

Trespass and vandalism are considered serious offences in the tightly governed city-state.

Increasing the sentence, Judge VK Rajah deplored the stunt, which he said was "calculated to bring its authors instant international notoriety".

"It was perversely intended to make and leave a sensational indelible mark on the general public's consciousness," Rajah said.

Rajah said Fricker "should count himself fortunate that he has not received his just desserts in full."

The judge said he would have been inclined to increase the Swiss man's jail term for vandalism had the prosecution appealed.

A Swiss embassy representative was present at the hearing.

"We observe the process and take note of the judgment," the diplomat said after the hearing.

- AFP

China's culture minister to visit Taiwan

Posted: 17 Aug 2010 10:41 PM PDT

TAIPEI, Wednesday 18 August 2010 (AFP) - China's Culture Minister Cai Wu will visit Taiwan next month, becoming the highest-ranking mainland government official to travel to the island in 12 years, officials said Wednesday.

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