Bangladesh cleric arrested after woman caned to death

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• Bangladesh cleric arrested after woman caned to death
• South Korea holds live-fire drill as UN bickers
• Squabbling hits Iraq PM's plan to unveil Cabinet
• UK police arrest 12 men in counter-terrorism raids
• China says Korea conflict must be avoided
• MAS plans to resume flights to UK as Heathrow re-opens
• Teenage boy, stepfather held to assist in murder probe
• World's highest marine biodiversity found in Semporna
• Iran says 11 members of Sunni militant group hanged
• Huge hydro plant starts operation in Vietnam, says official
• MBAM hoping for relaxation of certain policies for construction workers
• Many Thai tourists among 26 killed in Cameron Highlands bus accident
• MAS aims 40% passenger growth for India sector in 2011
• No complaints on scam in 1Malaysia notebook distribution
• Etihad delays all flights to London
• Samy Vellu to help campaign in Tenang
• More entry point projects revealed in January - Mustapa
• Sun bear could have been protective of offspring, says wildlife dept
• China says Korea clash would be "national tragedy"
• Seoul goes ahead with firing drill despite war threat

Bangladesh cleric arrested after woman caned to death Posted: 19 Dec 2010 05:05 PM PST DHAKA: A Muslim cleric has been arrested in northwest Bangladesh following the death of a woman who was publicly caned as punishment by an Islamic court for an extra-martial affair, police said today. Sufia Begum, 50, was accused of having an affair with her stepson and was sentenced by a religious court in her village in Rajshahi district, the local police chief said. "Village elders tied 10 canes together and beat her legs," police chief Azizul Haq Sarker said. The woman who carried out the beating for the elders has also been arrested. Begum was whipped 40 times on Nov 12, local media reported. "She became seriously ill and was hospitalised after the caning, and she died last week," Sarker said, adding that police launched an investigation following a complaint from Begum's brother. In conservative, rural parts of Muslim-majority Bangladesh, rights groups say it is common for women to be publicly whipped for "crimes" like adultery despite a High Court ban on such religious punishments. In some documented cases, rape victims have been flogged for being a "participant" in their sexual assault. In July, Bangladesh's High Court outlawed punishments handed down by religious edict, or fatwa, following a series of public interest litigation cases lodged by local human rights groups. Some 90% of Bangladesh's 146 million people are Muslims and most live in rural areas. - AFP

South Korea holds live-fire drill as UN bickers Posted: 19 Dec 2010 04:48 PM PST By Kim Jae-Hwan SEOUL: South Korea held a live-fire military drill on a border island and scrambled fighter jets today, despite North Korean threats of deadly retaliation, as UN diplomacy on the crisis broke down. But in an apparent sign of compromise over its nuclear ambitions, CNN said North Korea had agreed with US troubleshooter Bill Richardson to permit the return of UN atomic inspectors to ease tensions. Defence ministry officials said the drill began at around 2.30pm (0530 GMT) and lasted less than two hours. An AFP photographer sheltering in a bunker on Yeonpyeong island heard the booming sound of artillery. "Our armed forces are now on alert and fighter jets are on airborne alert," a ministry spokesman said during the exercise. Yonhap news agency said two destroyers had also been deployed in forward positions in the Yellow Sea. An emergency UN Security Council meeting failed to agree on a statement on the crisis, and Russia warned that the international community was now left without "a game plan" to counter escalating tensions. China's deputy UN ambassador warned that bloodshed on the peninsula would be a "national tragedy of fratricide" for the Korean people, the Xinhua news agency reported. After a similar exercise by South Korean marines based on Yeonpyeong on Nov 23, the North fired some 170 shells onto or around the island, killing four people including civilians and damaging dozens of homes. North Korea said on Saturday the upcoming exercise "would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from exploding and escape its ensuing disaster". But the United States has stood by South Korea's right to self-defence, and Japan today urged North Korea not to take any "provocative action" in response to the exercise. Signs of deal-making The North disputes the Yellow Sea border drawn by United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War. It claims the waters around Yeonpyeong as its own. The North's military appears to be preparing for a counter-attack, removing covers from coastal artillery guns and forward-deploying some batteries, a military source told Yonhap. But CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer, who is travelling with Richardson in Pyongyang, said there were signs of deal-making. North Korea had agreed with Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN, to let inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency go back to its Yongbyon nuclear facility, Blitzer said. He said it had also agreed to allow 12,000 fuel rods for the enrichment of uranium to be shipped to an outside country, and to the creation of a military commission and hotline between the two Koreas and the United States. "Richardson says these are positive steps and he's hoping that it will ease the crisis somewhat," the CNN anchor reported. A veteran negotiator with the reclusive communist state, New Mexico Governor Richardson was due to brief reporters in Beijing later Monday after ending his five-day visit to Pyongyang. At the UN, China fended off Western demands that its ally North Korea be publicly condemned for the November 23 artillery assault, diplomats said. They said it even rejected a proposed statement which did not mention North Korea or the name of Yeonpyeong. "Now we have a situation with very serious political tension and no game plan on the diplomatic side," said Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin. Back-up The foreign ministers of China and Russia held telephone talks on Saturday and urged South Korea to cancel its military exercise. But Seoul's allies in Washington and Tokyo lined up behind it. Last month's bombardment was the first of civilian areas in South Korea since the war. It sparked outrage in the South, which rushed more troops and guns to frontline islands, and vowed a forceful response to any repetition. About 20 US soldiers – part of a 28,500-strong force stationed in the South – are on Yeonpyeong to provide back-up to the latest drill, the US military said. Pyongyang, deriding the US troops as a "human shield", threatened "decisive and merciless punishment" from its military. But South Korea had said the exercise was a routine defensive drill, with guns pointed away from the North and shells landing 10km (six miles) south of the maritime border. - AFP

Squabbling hits Iraq PM's plan to unveil Cabinet Posted: 19 Dec 2010 04:31 PM PST By Salam Faraj BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plan to unveil a national unity Cabinet was in disarray today as the country's divided parties squabbled over government posts at the last minute. While Maliki had been expected to name his entire Cabinet except for three sensitive posts related to national security, politicians said as many as half the ministerial positions were not yet decided. The divisions come with no new Cabinet having been formed since elections in March, as a Saturday deadline loomed for a new government to be in place. "The problem is that many political blocs are all asking for the same post at the same time – because of this, there is still no agreement," said Khaled al-Assadi, an MP in Maliki's coalition who is seen as close to the premier. "I can say that only half the ministries have been decided so far," he added. "The three security ministries will not be presented today, and they may not present the deputy prime ministers either." As an indication of the differences between various groups, a Parliament official said today that the session of Parliament was expected to begin at 11am (0800 GMT), an aide to Maliki said it would not start until 4pm (1300 GMT), and one MP said it could even be postponed several days. "Nothing is settled for the moment," said the aide to Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Everything could change in the final minutes – they (political blocs) are still in discussions and negotiations," he said. Mahmud Othman, an independent Kurdish MP, said the pan-Kurdish alliance, which holds around 50 seats in the 325-member Parliament, had not yet decided on who its ministers would be. He said the Kurdish bloc, key to the formation of the Cabinet, would not participate in the government if Maliki did not approve deals the autonomous Kurdish region signed with oil companies without Baghdad's initial approval. The contracts were signed in 2004 but the central government in Baghdad has refused to recognise them primarily because they are based on profit-sharing, rather than the per-barrel service fees that it prefers. Interim control Earlier, politicians had said that any Cabinet proposed today would not include the naming of new ministers of interior, defence and national security, meaning Maliki would take interim control of Iraq's security forces. That is despite past criticism that the premier has steadily tightened his grip on power by grouping increasing responsibilities under the office of the prime minister. Including Maliki's own position and that of his three expected deputy prime ministers, the Cabinet will number 42, slightly larger than the previous one. Maliki's State of Law coalition won 89 seats in the elections, two fewer than the Iraqiya bloc of ex-premier Iyad Allawi. But neither won enough for a parliamentary majority, resulting in an impasse that is still being resolved. A power-sharing deal last month finally broke the deadlock, with Maliki being named prime minister-designate on Nov 25 and given 30 days to name his government. According to Assadi, the National Alliance, a Maliki-led pan-Shiite coalition, will control 17 ministries, while Iraqiya will hold nine. The Kurdish bloc will retain seven, with the remainder being divided among other smaller groupings. As a condition for agreeing to the deal, Allawi demanded that pre-election bans on several of his bloc's members for alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's regime be overturned, and a new statutory body be created to oversee security matters, with himself at the helm. - AFP

UK police arrest 12 men in counter-terrorism raids Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:57 AM PST LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - British police said on Monday they had arrested 12 men in a large-scale counter-terrorism operation.

China says Korea conflict must be avoided Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:57 AM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - China renewed its call for talks to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula on Monday after South Korea held live-firing drills near its disputed maritime border with North Korea.

MAS plans to resume flights to UK as Heathrow re-opens Posted: 20 Dec 2010 01:04 AM PST Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plans to resume flights to the United Kingdom as London's Heathrow Airport re-opened for operations. read more

Teenage boy, stepfather held to assist in murder probe Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:52 AM PST Police arrested a teenage boy and his stepfather yesterday to help in the murder investigation involving a schoolgirl whose body was found in oil palm plantation in Parit Ju Darat, Tongkang Pecah, near Batu Pahat last Friday. read more

World's highest marine biodiversity found in Semporna Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:52 AM PST Semporna in the east coast of Sabah may have the highest marine diversity in the world, concluded a team of 18 scientists involved in the just-concluded Semporna Marine Ecological Expedition (SMEE) 2010. read more

Iran says 11 members of Sunni militant group hanged Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:48 AM PST TEHRAN, Monday 20 December 2010 (AFP) - Iran on Monday hanged 11 members of Sunni militant group Jundallah which claimed last week's devastating suicide bombing of a Shiite mourning procession, a judiciary official said. read more

Huge hydro plant starts operation in Vietnam, says official Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:47 AM PST HANOI, Monday 20 December 2010 (AFP) - Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric power station has begun operating to help ease an electricity shortage in fast-growing Vietnam, an official said Monday. read more

MBAM hoping for relaxation of certain policies for construction workers Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:30 AM PST The Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) is hoping for a relaxation of certain policies for construction workers, as, recently announced mass projects need a big workforce. read more

Many Thai tourists among 26 killed in Cameron Highlands bus accident Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:28 AM PST Twenty-six people, many of them tourists from Thailand, were killed when a tour bus hit a divider and overturned on the way down from Cameron Highlands south of here today. read more

MAS aims 40% passenger growth for India sector in 2011 Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:27 AM PST Spurred by the healthy rise in air traffic this year, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plans to revamp its fleet and scale up operations to achieve 30 to 40% passenger growth in the Indian sector next year. read more

No complaints on scam in 1Malaysia notebook distribution Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:26 AM PST The Information Communication and Culture Minister has not received any official complaint on misappropriation in the distribution of 1Malaysia notebooks. read more

Etihad delays all flights to London Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:25 AM PST Etihad Airways has delayed all flights to London until further notice, due to the closure of Heathrow airport, as a result of severe weather conditions. read more

Samy Vellu to help campaign in Tenang Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:24 AM PST ALOR GAJAH, Monday 20 December 2010 (Bernama) -- Former MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is to help campaign for the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the by-election in the Tenang state constituency in Johor. read more

More entry point projects revealed in January - Mustapa Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:24 AM PST More entry point projects (EPPs) are expected to be disclosed in the second week of January 2011, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said today. read more

Sun bear could have been protective of offspring, says wildlife dept Posted: 20 Dec 2010 12:23 AM PST The Kelantan Wildlife and National Parks Department said today a Malayan sun bear attacked a rubber smallholder here on Tuesday probably because it might have been protective of its offspring which could have been nearby. read more

China says Korea clash would be "national tragedy" Posted: 19 Dec 2010 11:46 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - A clash on the Korean peninsula could be a "national tragedy" that would imperil regional stability, a Chinese diplomat said at the U.N. Security Council meeting that failed to agree on defusing the Korean standoff.

Seoul goes ahead with firing drill despite war threat Posted: 19 Dec 2010 11:46 PM PST YEONPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea launched live firing drills in a disputed area on Monday despite threats of war from Pyongyang after an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting failed to agree on how to defuse the crisis.

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