BPO -- a sunshine industry |
- BPO -- a sunshine industry
- Four held over Shanghai blaze that left 53 dead
- Amid the euphoria
- The pungent smell of corruption
- Desperate search after Delhi building collapse kills scores
- Myanmar's Suu Kyi 'ready to fight' for disbanded party
- One in 7 U.S. households hit by hunger issues in 2009
- British author sentenced to jail for death sentence book
- HRW: 'Nail torture' highlights maid abuse in Mideast
- Japan confirms space probe brought home asteroid dust
- China plans price controls to tackle food inflation
- Singapore jails British author for contempt
- China seen quietly opening sluice for mega hydro projects
- Russian arms suspect Bout leaves Thailand
- Japan frees coastguard officer who leaked video: reports
- China, Taiwan to talk trade again as early as 2011
- Thai PM agrees to send Russian arms suspect to U.S.
- Four detained after Shanghai apartment fire kills 53
- China wins orders for 100 homegrown passenger jets
- Japan jurors hand down first death sentence
| Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:51 AM PST The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, more popularly known as the call centre industry, has been in the Philippine news lately.
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| Four held over Shanghai blaze that left 53 dead Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:47 AM PST SHANGHAI, Tuesday 16 November 2010 (AFP) - Chinese police detained four people Tuesday for allegedly sparking a fire in a Shanghai high-rise that killed 53 people, as anxious relatives searched desperately for news of missing loved ones.
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| Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:43 AM PST The release of Aung San Suu Kyi was joyfully welcomed by her faithful followers and admirers in Burma, and also by many nations around the world. But amid the current euphoric mood we should remind ourselves that placing excessively high expectations on the pro-democracy icon could be a recipe for stinging disappointment.
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| The pungent smell of corruption Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:37 AM PST Following the exposure of the corruption scandal involving immigration officers, it seems that the highest income jobs in the country is not that of the big corporate CEOs but that of senior immigration officers.
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| Desperate search after Delhi building collapse kills scores Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:35 AM PST NEW DELHI, Tuesday 16 November 2010 (AFP) - As residents chanted prayers on Tuesday, rescuers carried the dusty bodies of small children and women in colourful sari dresses from the remains of the building that collapsed in New Delhi.
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| Myanmar's Suu Kyi 'ready to fight' for disbanded party Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:34 AM PST YANGON, Tuesday 16 November 2010 (AFP) - Myanmar's newly freed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is "ready to fight" for the existence of her political party, which was disbanded ahead of controversial elections, her lawyer said Tuesday.
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| One in 7 U.S. households hit by hunger issues in 2009 Posted: 16 Nov 2010 12:31 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. households that reported getting emergency food from a food pantry almost doubled between 2007 and 2009, at the height of the recession, a government report said on Monday. 
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| British author sentenced to jail for death sentence book Posted: 15 Nov 2010 03:52 PM PST By Philip Lim SINGAPORE: A Singapore court jailed a defiant 76-year-old British author for six weeks today for insulting the judiciary by publishing a book critical of executions in the city-state.In the stiffest sentence imposed in Singapore for contempt of court, Alan Shadrake was also fined S$20,000 (RM48,353) for the book based on the long career of a hangman who allegedly put over 1,000 convicts to death. The previous longest jail term for contempt of court was 15 days. High Court Judge Quentin Loh said he was imposing a deterrent sentence and dismissed a last-minute apology by Shadrake as a "tactical ploy" to obtain a reduced sentence. Shadrake, a freelance journalist based in Malaysia and Britain, must serve two extra weeks in prison if he fails to pay the fine. "I don't have that kind of money," he told reporters. In addition, he will have to pay legal costs of S$55,000, but was given a week's stay before the jail sentence is carried out while he decides whether to appeal. Human rights activists criticised the decision to jail Shadrake but Loh said the allegations of "judicial impropriety" were without precedent. "There is no doubt Mr Shadrake's personal culpability is of the highest order," Loh said during sentencing, noting that Shadrake had openly declared plans to add more chapters to the book. "A clearer intent to repeat his contempt there cannot be," Loh stated. The jail sentence was half the 12 weeks sought by the Attorney General's Chambers. Shadrake's lawyer M Ravi said Loh had been fair to his client "but I won't say (Singapore) justice is fair". A serious blow Shadrake, who lives in Malaysia and Britain, was arrested by Singapore police in July after visiting the city to launch the book, "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock". It includes a profile of Darshan Singh, the former chief executioner at Singapore's Changi Prison who, according to the author, hanged around 1,000 men and women including foreigners from 1959 until he retired in 2006. Singapore executes murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a controversial method of punishment dating back to British colonial rule. The book also features interviews with human rights activists, lawyers and former police officers on cases involving capital punishment, and alleges that some cases may have been influenced by diplomatic and trade considerations. In a Nov 3 ruling that found Shadrake guilty, the judge said the author made his claims "against a dissembling and selective background of truths and half-truths, and sometimes outright falsehoods. "A casual and unwary reader, who does not subject the book to detailed scrutiny, might well believe his claims... and in so doing would have lost confidence in the administration of justice in Singapore." Shadrake's jail sentence was strongly condemned by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) group. "It's a serious blow and it will have a chilling effect on others who have differences or issues with the government," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia division. Shadrake was in a defiant mood at the entrance to the Supreme Court building before the hearing started. He unfurled an Amnesty International Malaysia poster with the words "Stop the Death Penalty" in front of the media. The poster bore a picture of a woman's head covered in a black hood with a noose around her neck. - AFP
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| HRW: 'Nail torture' highlights maid abuse in Mideast Posted: 15 Nov 2010 03:51 PM PST COLOMBO: Human Rights Watch today urged Middle Eastern states to protect migrant workers after two Sri Lankan maids returned from the region with shocking stories of torture by their employers. The New York-based rights group said accusations by three Sri Lankan maids that they were forced to swallow nails or had nails driven into their bodies highlighted a broad pattern of abuse of migrant domestic workers. "The wanton brutality alleged in these cases is shocking, but reports of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and labour exploitation such as non-payment of wages are nothing new," said Nisha Varia, HRW's senior women's rights researcher. "The governments of Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia need to show they take such allegations seriously, and create accessible ways for domestic workers to report abuse as soon as it happens." In August, a Sri Lankan housemaid gained worldwide attention after she complained that her Saudi employer drove 24 nails into her arms, legs and forehead as punishment. Most of them were removed by surgeons at Sri Lanka's Kamburupitiya hospital. The Saudi government and private sector officials in Riyadh have questioned the credibility of the woman's allegations. Surgeons yesterday removed the last five wire nails from another Sri Lankan housemaid who accused her Kuwaiti employer of hammering 14 nails into her body when she asked for her salary after working for six months. The authorities in Colombo are investigating another claim from a third Sri Lankan maid in Jordan who has alleged that she was forced to swallow six nails when she demanded her salary. Sri Lanka's Foreign Employment Bureau chief, Kingsley Ranawaka, said they were awaiting a medical report to decide on action regarding the woman who is said to have been admitted to a hospital in Amman. Some 1.8 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad, of whom 70% are women. Most work as housemaids in the Middle East while smaller numbers work in Singapore and Hong Kong, seeking higher salaries than they would get at home. - AFP
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| Japan confirms space probe brought home asteroid dust Posted: 15 Nov 2010 03:45 PM PST
The news crowns with success the journey of the unmanned Hayabusa probe, which five years ago made a pinpoint landing on an asteroid 300 million kilometres (186 million miles) from Earth – about twice as far as the sun. Since the probe's return in June, scientists had carried out a lengthy analysis of the samples it brought back to confirm they were genuinely extraterrestrial after technical problems during the mission. "It's a world first and a remarkable accomplishment that it brought home material from a celestial body other than the moon," Japan's science and technology minister, Yoshiaki Takagi, told a news conference in Tokyo. The team was "unbelievably lucky," said Junichiro Kawaguchi, the manager of the Hayabusa project, telling reporters: "I don't know how to describe what has been beyond our dreams, but I'm overwhelmed by emotion." Hayabusa, which means falcon, blasted off in 2003 for its lonely odyssey, which at times appeared doomed. At one stage the probe lost contact with Earth for seven weeks, a glitch that added three years to its space voyage. It made a pinpoint landing in 2005 on the potato-shaped, revolving asteroid Itokawa, but an attempt to fire a pellet to whirl up dust failed, casting doubt on whether the probe had collected any extraterrestrial material. The car-sized probe left on Itokawa a plastic-wrapped metal ball bearing the names of 880,000 people from 149 countries, among them US filmmaker Steven Spielberg and British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. Japan cheered when Hayabusa ended its voyage in June, completing the longest ever space journey, which the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is seeking to have listed as a Guinness World Record. Minute particles The Hayabusa probe burnt up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over the Australian Outback – but not before releasing its heat-proof and sealed pod, which was picked up from the desert sand. JAXA had confirmed that the pod did indeed contain minute particles, but it did not know for sure whether these were the valued bits of asteroid, or simply contaminants. Today, after analysis using electron microscopes, JAXA said it had confirmed that about 1,500 particles were indeed material from a rock and that "almost all of them are extra-terrestrial and come from Itokawa". Scientists believe asteroids can help reveal secrets about the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. The celestial bodies are believed to retain materials from the solar system's earliest days, unlike scorched remains such as meteorites or materials on Earth which have been transformed through high pressure and heat. "This is really an amazing achievement for the Hayabusa team," said Paul Abell, lead research scientist into planetary small bodies at the NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. "After all the hard work and the many years of patiently waiting, we now can say that we have returned samples from an asteroid to the Earth for the very first time," said Abell, who was a member of the team which recovered the pod from the Outback. "The science that we will obtain from these particles over the next few years will be invaluable for understanding the nature of near-Earth asteroids and the materials that existed during the formation of the early Solar System." - AFP
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| China plans price controls to tackle food inflation Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:57 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - China will unveil food price controls and crack down on speculation in agricultural commodities to contain inflationary pressure that its central bank governor highlighted as a risk on Tuesday. 
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| Singapore jails British author for contempt Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:57 PM PST SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's High Court jailed a 76-year-old British writer for six weeks on Tuesday, finding him guilty of contempt of court in a book questioning the independence of the judiciary. 
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| China seen quietly opening sluice for mega hydro projects Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:57 PM PST BEIJING (Reuters) - China may have quietly opened the floodgates to build new massive hydropower projects after a near halt due to environmental, immigration and other concerns, as Beijing steps up efforts to achieve clean energy and emissions targets. 
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| Russian arms suspect Bout leaves Thailand Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:08 PM PST BANGKOK, Nov 16 — Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was flown out of Thailand on a charter flight to the United States today, an airport official said, following the government's decision to extradite him. "He has left on a small charter flight a moment ago," the airport official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised ...
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| Japan frees coastguard officer who leaked video: reports Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:47 PM PST TOKYO, Tuesday 16 November 2010 (AFP) - Japanese authorities have decided not to arrest for now a coastguard officer who leaked a video of two ship collisions that sparked the worst Japan-China row in years, news reports said Tuesday.
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| China, Taiwan to talk trade again as early as 2011 Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:23 PM PST TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan and China aim to hold trade talks on an additional 5,000 items as early as next year following a landmark framework accord signed in June, an island official said on Tuesday, a possible sign of more tariff cuts. 
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| Thai PM agrees to send Russian arms suspect to U.S. Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:23 PM PST BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout could be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges later on Tuesday, a few days before his detention is due to expire. 
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| Four detained after Shanghai apartment fire kills 53 Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:23 PM PST SHANGHAI (Reuters)- Chinese police held four suspects on Tuesday after a Shanghai apartment fire that killed at least 53 people was blamed on unlicensed welding, official media said. 
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| China wins orders for 100 homegrown passenger jets Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:20 PM PST BEIJING, Tuesday 16 November 2010 (AFP) - China on Tuesday won orders for 100 of its large, domestically built passenger jets, challenging industry giants Airbus and Boeing in what will soon become the world's largest aviation market.
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| Japan jurors hand down first death sentence Posted: 15 Nov 2010 11:02 PM PST TOKYO, Tuesday 16 November 2010 (AFP) - A Japanese jury trial Tuesday sent a man to the gallows for a double murder -- which included the killing of a man by sawing off his head -- in the country's first death penalty ruling by jurors.
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