Bus bomb in Philippine south kills nine |
- Bus bomb in Philippine south kills nine
- Obama may skip temple over headscarf concerns
- China's Mengniu denies trying to smear competitor
- Haze from Indonesia disturbs neighbouring countries
- Consensus on leadership, not reforms
- Umno membership reaches 3.53 million nationwide
- Three phases of recovery for Umno: Najib
- Court rejects Nube members' judicial review over dismissal
- Defend Umno and BN: Najib
- Hong Kong health chief tells lawmakers to lose weight
- US citizen faces caning after overstaying in Singapore
- Nobel laureate: World turning blind eye to Myanmar
- Philippines sets panel to restart talks with Maoists
- Indonesia tackles rabies on resort island of Bali
- US$60b - cost of Saudi arms purchase from US
- Umno and transformation
- Sumo in eastern Europe
- Obama to bypass Pakistan on Asia trip next month
- Australian girl barred from school bus over hijab row
- Bomb threat halts trading at Philippine stock exchange
| Bus bomb in Philippine south kills nine Posted: 21 Oct 2010 01:10 AM PDT MANILA (Reuters) - A home-made bomb killed at least nine people on a bus on the troubled southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Thursday, security officials said.
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| Obama may skip temple over headscarf concerns Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:57 AM PDT Should US President Barack Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, wear a headscarf during his visit to India early month that may convey the impression that he is Muslim, when he is not?
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| China's Mengniu denies trying to smear competitor Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:54 AM PDT BEIJING, Thursday 21 october 2010 (AFP) - Mengniu Dairy, one of China's top dairy firms, has rejected claims that it fabricated a milk safety scandal to smear a major competitor and demanded that the rumour-mongers be held accountable.
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| Haze from Indonesia disturbs neighbouring countries Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:47 AM PDT Forest fires burning in Indonesia began to affect neighbouring countries, spreading thick clouds of smoke and haze to Malaysia and Singapore, news agencies reported Thursday.
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| Consensus on leadership, not reforms Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:47 AM PDT The line of succession in China is fairly clear with Monday's (19 October 2010) elevation of the Vice-President Xi Jinping to a key post in the Communist Party of China's (CPC) omnipotent Central Military Commission (CMC). Though he ranks sixth in the party hierarchy, as CMC vice-chairman Xi seems set to succeed President Hu Jintao as the party chief when he retires next year.
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| Umno membership reaches 3.53 million nationwide Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:47 AM PDT Up until Wednesday, Umno has a total of 3,528,925 members through its 20,342 branches nationwide.
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| Three phases of recovery for Umno: Najib Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:46 AM PDT Umno will have to undergo three phases of recovery in order to continue shouldering the responsibility of building the future and empowering the Malay, Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
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| Court rejects Nube members' judicial review over dismissal Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:44 AM PDT Nine members of the National Union of Bank Employees (Nube), including its secretary-general J. Solomon, today failed in their attempt to quash the Industrial Court's ruling over their dismissal by Bank Bumiputra Commerce Berhad for picketing seven years ago.
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| Hong Kong health chief tells lawmakers to lose weight Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:39 AM PDT HONG KONG, Thursday 21 october 2010 (AFP) - Hong Kong's health chief has told some of city's plumper legislators to lose weight amid concerns about rising obesity rates in the southern Chinese territory.
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| US citizen faces caning after overstaying in Singapore Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:38 AM PDT SINGAPORE, Thursday 21 october 2010 (AFP) - An American businessman is facing the prospect of being caned in Singapore after overstaying his visa by almost half a year, court documents and his lawyer said Thursday.
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| Nobel laureate: World turning blind eye to Myanmar Posted: 20 Oct 2010 04:18 PM PDT
The renowned academic, who spent part of his childhood in Myanmar, criticised what he saw as a lack of attention worldwide over the vote and reserved his sharpest words for the stance of his native India. The military regime of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, plans its first election in 20 years on Nov 7. It has banned foreign observers and media, and has kept opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. "Nothing perhaps is more important right now as the day of the phony electoral event approaches than global public discussion of the real nature of the forthcoming electoral fraud," the Harvard University professor said. "The expressions of pious hope that things can change after the election are totally contrary to reasoned analysis about what's going on in Burma," Sen said in a lecture at Johns Hopkins University. "A propaganda victory for the regime, by muddying the water for democracy in Burma now, can put things hugely back," Sen said. Sen called for the immediate launch of a UN investigation into alleged crimes against humanity by the junta, which is accused of destroying thousands of villages and using rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women. "It is not adequate for the Asian leaders to announce cheerfully that they gave the Burmese leader 'an earful.' The military was just happy to have that earful so that their hands remain free," Sen said. General support US President Barack Obama's administration has voiced general support for a UN probe but stood by a policy launched last year of engaging the regime, saying that longtime efforts to isolate the regime were fruitless. Sen criticised Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for welcoming Myanmar's military leader Than Shwe in July. Sen said the nation of Mahatma Gandhi, motivated by concerns over China's outsized role in Myanmar, had wound up emulating the communist nation and losing its own values. "It breaks my heart to see the prime minister of my democratic country -- and one of the most humane and sympathetic political leaders in the world -- engage in welcoming the butchers from Myanmar and to be photographed in a state of cordial proximity," Sen said. "When our power to influence the world was zero, we spent our time lecturing the world on morality. And when we get a bit of power, although not as much as China, then we completely abdicated that responsibility." India has sought economic cooperation with Myanmar, while the United States has dangled the possibility of lifting sanctions in return for progress on democracy. David Steinberg, a professor at Georgetown University, said that the Obama administration was facing pressure within the United States to help initiate a UN probe into alleged crimes against humanity. Steinberg, while stressing that he supports human rights, countered that a probe would be counter-productive at a time of transition in Myanmar. "You're going to have a new government coming in sometime in early 2011. Wait and see what happens. You're going to have to have some sort of dialogue with them," he said. Steinberg said that the junta had diverse players and that the United States should appeal to their sense of patriotism. "Pressure to me implies a kind of arrogance, that we think we have the right answers for these people," he said. - AFP
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| Philippines sets panel to restart talks with Maoists Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:19 AM PDT MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has named a human rights lawyer to head peace talks in the Philippines with Maoists to end more than 40 years of conflict that has killed about 40,000 people and hampered investment and development.
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| Indonesia tackles rabies on resort island of Bali Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:19 AM PDT JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities aim to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of dogs on the resort island of Bali in an effort to stem an outbreak of rabies that has killed 100 people since 2008, a government official said on Thursday.
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| US$60b - cost of Saudi arms purchase from US Posted: 21 Oct 2010 12:12 AM PDT WASHINGTON, Oct 21: The Obama administration has notified Congress that it plans to sell advanced weaponry including fighter aircraft worth $60 billion to Saudi Arabia in one of the largest-ever single US arms deals, Al Arabiya channel reported on Wednesday.
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| Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:54 PM PDT Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's "new political model" should have such confidence, too. Malays are competitive now, so stop drawing an equal mark between Malays and Umno. If Umno is able to do that, its reform will succeed.
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| Posted: 20 Oct 2010 11:32 PM PDT Junior sumo wrestlers train at a sports club in Falenica near Warsaw, Poland. Hundreds of young Poles practise amateur sumo wrestling which is gaining popularity in eastern Europe, with Warsaw just hosting the Sumo World Championships lately.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Obama to bypass Pakistan on Asia trip next month Posted: 20 Oct 2010 03:17 PM PDT
But the White House said the president had committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011 and added that he looked forward to welcoming Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington, though no dates were specified. Obama smoothly scotched speculation he would make a surprise visit to Islamabad on his trip, which begins in just over two weeks, in a meeting with a Pakistani delegation taking part in a strategic dialogue with US officials. "The president explained that he would not be stopping in Pakistan during his trip to Asia next month, and committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011," a White House statement said. Any trip to Pakistan by Obama would have been fraught with political sensitivity and security concerns, and may have been seen as a distraction from the symbolism of his three-day visit to Pakistan's arch-nuclear rival India. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was part of the Pakistani delegation, said Obama's statement was evidence of the high level of US-Pakistani ties. "The fact that he has agreed to visit Pakistan next year, the fact that he has decided to invite the president of Pakistan to the United States of America, that is the level of engagement that is taking place," Qureshi said. The United States and Pakistan have been going through another rocky patch in their tense, nine-year marriage of convenience, which emerged from the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. In a recent report to Congress, the White House said bluntly that though Pakistan had made sacrifices in the US anti-terror campaign, it could do more to crack down on extremist safe-havens in lawless tribal areas. In the meeting with Pakistani delegates to the three-day US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, Obama said it was important to move the mutual relationship to a "true partnership based on mutual respect and common interests." "The president and the Pakistani delegation agreed on the need for regional stability, and specifically on the importance of cooperating toward a peaceful and stable outcome in Afghanistan," the statement said. Fraud concerns Earlier, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates held a 30-minute meeting with powerful Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, about the aftermath of a cross-border Nato raid that severely strained relations. Cooperation between military commanders had improved, "but this incident clearly indicates that there's more work to be done," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, referring to the helicopter raid that left two Pakistani soldiers dead. Obama also touched on the situation in Pakistan during his latest regular monthly meeting with his Afghanistan war cabinet. The 90-minute session included a briefing on talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government and what a New York Times report said yesterday were Taliban leaders at the "highest levels." The meeting also covered the Afghan parliamentary elections last month, in which 1.3 million votes -- nearly a quarter of the total -- were thrown out yesterday over fraud concerns. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Taliban leaders involved in the talks with the Afghan government were being offered safe passage by Nato troops from sanctuaries in Pakistan. In one case, Taliban leaders crossed the border and boarded a Nato aircraft bound for Kabul, the paper said, though it added that most of the discussions had taken place outside the Afghan capital. The White House has backed talks, though US officials insist Taliban fighters seeking reconciliation must renounce violence and lay down their arms. US officials have also played down the potential for what are still described as "preliminary" contacts. But the Times suggested that some officials hoped it might be possible to "split" the Taliban movement, and get large numbers of fighters to defect to the Afghan government. The Taliban has denied a claim by Karzai that it is taking part in the talks, more than nine years after it was driven from power by a US-led invasion after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. During his visit to Asia in November, Obama is also due to make a twice-postponed visit to Indonesia and attend the APEC summit in Japan and G20 summit in South Korea. - AFP
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| Australian girl barred from school bus over hijab row Posted: 20 Oct 2010 03:16 PM PDT  SYDNEY: A six-year-old Muslim girl in Australia has been suspended from using her school bus for "bullying" after reacting angrily to being teased about her hijab, or headscarf, a report said. The Northern Territory News said the girl retaliated by pulling down the trousers of her tormentor, aged seven, after he repeatedly told her to take off her traditional headscarf. The girl, whose father is an Iranian immigrant, has been banned from the bus for 10 days, meaning she will be unable to make the 60-km (40 miles) round-trip to her school in the northern Outback region. "She is only six years old. It is a bit harsh," the girl's mother, Lorraine Gerassimopoulos, told the newspaper. "We would have preferred a warning so we could have sat down and talked about this incident but they are stopping her from going to school." Bus company Buslink defended the ban, for "bullying and harassment of other passengers", saying it complied with the Northern Territory's code of conduct for school transport. The little girl said the teasing "made me sad and angry at the same time", explaining her actions. The incident comes after New South Wales lawmakers in Sydney rejected a bar on the all-encompassing burqa, which was recently banned in France. - AFP
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| Bomb threat halts trading at Philippine stock exchange Posted: 20 Oct 2010 03:14 PM PDT  MANILA: A bomb threat forced a halt to trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange today, officials said. Police bomb disposal teams and sniffer dogs were dispatched to an office tower housing the exchange's trading floor in the financial district of Makati while hundreds of office workers filed out of the building. Exchange president Val Antonio Suarez said trading would resume once police gave the all clear. "We halted trading for security reasons. We implemented evacuation measures immediately for the safety of the employees and trading participants," he said in a statement. Suarez did not say where the threat came from nor how it was sent. Makati police desk officer Rolito Pelayo said employees called the police to report the bomb threat. But he said he did not know how the threat was sent to the building. Pelayo said police did not immediately find any evidence of a bomb. The Philippine stock market has been on a rally this year amid bullish business prospects under new President Benigno Aquino. - AFP
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