DEADLY BLAST KILLED 5 THAI SOLDIERS IN THE SOUTH
Five paramilitary soldiers have been killed and one other has been
wounded by a roadside bomb in southern Thailand, local police say.
Police said on Friday that the soldiers were travelling in a
pick-up vehicle to meet Muslim community leaders in the Saiburi district
of Pattani, one of Thailand's southernmost provinces hit by a
near-decade long rebellion which has claimed more than 5,500 lives.
"Five rangers are dead, including the commander who was intially
severely wounded," Sergeant Montri Prommee of Saiburi police told AFP
news agency, adding the explosive device was buried in the road.
"They [the insurgents] want to create situations [unrest] on
important days," he added, referring to the timing of the attack on one
of the most important Buddhist holidays of the Thai calendar.
The Muslim-majority deep south has yet to curb violence against Thai security forces, or civilians, despite ongoing peace talks in neighbouring Malaysia.
Source: Al Jazeera...More...
2 POLITICIANS, 1 ACTIVIST ARRESTED UNDER MALAYSIA SEDITION ACT
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - The police today launched a crackdown against
opposition leaders and activists who had questioned the conduct of the
general election and the legitimacy of the Barisan Nasional government.
As of 5pm, the police had reportedly arrested five people. Initial
reports claimed that PKR leader and Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM)
founder Badrul Hisham Shaharin (right photo) was among those detained.
However, a text message to FMT via Badrul’s mobile phone read: “A few
men who in a Proton Waja who are believed to be policemen came looking
for him at his mother’s house. But he wasn’t there. He is in KL until
May 25… up to this point, he is fine.”
The arrests came after student activist Adam Ali was charged this
morning under the Sedition Act for calling for the toppling of the BN
government during a forum on May 13.
First to be arrested today was Anything But Umno (ABU) leader Haris
Ibrahim(right photo) who was nabbed while having his lunch, followed by PKR
vice-president Tian Chua at the LCCT and PAS member Thamrin Ghaffar,
arrested at a popular kopitiam restaurant in Bangsar.
And then at about 5pm, news filtered in to say that Badrul Hisham has
also been arrested. However at 6pm, apart from an SMS from his
handphone, a statement by SAMM said that Badrul Hisham was “still free”.
It could not be confirmed with the police if Badrul Hisham has been
arrested.
All those arrested have been detained under the Sedition Act.
Source: Free Malaysia Today...More...
MAN BEHEADED IN LONDON TERROR ATTACK
LONDON, U.K - British counter-terrorism police were Thursday investigating
the murder of a man thought to be a soldier, who was butchered and
beheaded on a busy London street by two men shouting Islamist slogans.
The attackers, wielding knives including a meat cleaver, carried out
the attack a few hundred metres (yards) from the Royal Artillery
Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London, then delivered an Islamist
tirade to passers-by.
Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "appalling crime",
adding: "There are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident."
He cut short a visit to Paris to fly back for a meeting of the
government's emergency response committee, COBRA, which had already met
in the hours following the attack.
- Media reports citing witnesses said the men first ran over their victim in a car before finishing him off with the knives.
- Eyewitnesses described how after the two men carried out their attack, they stayed at the scene, asking passers-by to photograph and film them.
- Armed police shot and wounded the two attackers after they ran at officers, said witnesses. Both were being treated in hospital, said police.
- Amateur footage of one of the men carrying a blood-stained knife and meat cleaver shows him saying: "We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you."
- The man, a black man dressed in a hooded jacket and black woolly hat, speaks in a London accent.
- "We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," he says.
Source: Reuters
CAR BOMBS KILLED NEARLY 70 PEOPLE IN IRAQI CITIES
BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 68 people have been killed and 195 injured in a series of car bombs across Iraqi cities, police and medics say.
pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 200 and
extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the
country has seen in years.
The bloodshed is still far shy of the pace, scale and brutality of
the dark days of 2006-2007, when armed groups carried out 
retaliatory
attacks against each other in a cycle of violence that left the country
awash in blood.
retaliatory
attacks against each other in a cycle of violence that left the country
awash in blood.
Still, Monday's attacks, some of which hit markets and
crowded bus stops during the morning rush hour, have heightened fears
that the country could be turning back down the path toward civil war.
Sectarian tensions have been worsening since Iraq's minority Sunnis
began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the
Shia-led government.
- The mass demonstrations, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23.
- Iraq's Shia majority, which was oppressed under the late dictator Saddam Hussein, now holds the levers of power in the country. Wishing to rebuild the nation rather than revert to open warfare, they have largely restrained their armed groups over the past five years or so as Sunni extremist groups such as al-Qaeda have targeted them with occasional large-scale attacks.
- But the renewed violence in both Shia and Sunni areas since late last month has fuelled concerns of a return to sectarian warfare.
The worst of Monday's violence took place in Baghdad, where ten car
bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas of Shia
neighbourhoods, killing at least 47 people and wounding more than 150,
police officials said.In the bloodiest attack, a parked car bomb blew up in a busy market in the northern Shia neighbourhood of Shaab, killing 14 and wounding 24, police and health officials said.
The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with the fear and uncertainty bred of random violence.
AFGHAN LEGISLATORS BLOCK LAW PROTECTING WOMEN
KABUL, Afghanistan - Conservative religious lawmakers in
Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions
for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and
encourage disobedience.
The fierce opposition highlights how
tenuous women's rights remain a dozen years after the ouster of the hard-line
Taliban regime, whose strict interpretation of Islam once kept Afghan women
virtual prisoners in their homes.
Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a
conservative lawmaker for Herat province, said the legislation was withdrawn
shortly after being introduced in parliament because of an uproar by religious
parties who said parts of the law are un-Islamic.
"Whatever is against Islamic
law, we don't even need to speak about it," Shaheedzada said.
The Law on Elimination of Violence
Against 
Women has been in effect since 2009, but only by presidential decree.
Women has been in effect since 2009, but only by presidential decree.
It is being brought before parliament now because lawmaker Fawzia Kofi, a
women's rights activist, wants to cement it with a parliamentary vote to prevent
its potential reversal by any future president who might be tempted to repeal
it to satisfy hard-line religious parties.
The law criminalizes, among other
things, child marriage and forced marriage, and bans "baad," the
traditional practice of exchanging girls and women to settle disputes.
It makes domestic violence a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and specifies that rape victims should not face criminal charges for fornication or adultery.
It makes domestic violence a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and specifies that rape victims should not face criminal charges for fornication or adultery.
Source: CBC...More...
PRO-ASSAD HACKERS ATTACK UK NEWSPAPER FT’S WEBSITE
The website of British newspaper the Financial Times was hacked
today, apparently by the "Syrian Electronic Army", a group of hackers
and on-line activists who say they support Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad.Stories on the FT's website have had their headlines replaced by "Hacked By Syrian Electronic Army" and messages on its Twitter feed read: "Do you want to know the reality of the Syrian 'Rebels?'" followed by a link to a video.
The group has previously targeted the Twitter account belonging to the BBC's weather service, and the accounts of rights group Human Rights Watch and of French news service France 24.
FT publisher Pearson and Twitter were not immediately available for comment.
Source: Herald
PHILIPPINES WATCHDOG DECRIES RAMPANT VOTE-BUYING?
MANILA, Philippines - A Catholic church-backed poll
watchdog, the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV),
decried what it described as “rampant” vote-buying during the recent
mid-term polls.
Henrietta de Villa, chair of
the volunteer group, said the May 13 elections hold the dubious
distinction as a political exercise “with the most rampant incidence of
vote buying.”
- She blamed politicians for engaging in the wrong practice which results in corrupting the electorate.Vote-buying had been a standard fixture of Philippine elections but, De Villa says, “vote buying this time was bolder and on a bigger scale,” adding that politicians “did everything just to entice people to vote for them.”
- De Villa said other than handing out cash to voters, politicians gave food packages, mobile phones and even scholarships.
- PPCRV is the only officially accredited vote count body aside from the state Commission on Elections (Comelec).
- De Villa blamed the worsening culture of money politics to the growing disparity between the rich and the poor in the country.
- “Because of poverty, they are forced to buy the bullet,” she said.
- Despite common knowledge on vote buying, especially in depressed areas of the country only a few people get arrested for engaging in this illegal activity.
- According to Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Alan Purisima, they were able to arrest 94 people for vote buying during the mid-term polls.
- “These incidents were witnessed by our policemen themselves,” he said adding that police need to review guidelines on what constitute “vote buying.”
According to Purisima, policemen were able to confiscate some P1.64 million from the arrested individuals.Vote buying is widespread but, according to the PNP, the most number of arrested vote buyers were in Central Luzon as well as Ilocos and Western Mindanao regions.
Five days before the May 13 elections, the Comelec imposed restrictions on cash withdrawals as part of measures to prevent candidates from engaging in vote buying.
Source: Agency
DEFORESTATION IN MALAYSIAN BORNEO, CONDEMNED?
Both Chief Ministers of Sabah and Sarawak (Taib Mahmud and Musa Aman) in Malaysia, have
been making a torrent of ridiculous claims about their excellent Eco-credentials and insisting there has been little deforestation in East
Malaysia.
However, One of Britain’s most popular TV personalities, the bird expert
Bill Oddie who is a genuine and respected environment expert on the other hand
had this to say to the Independent
Newspaper who also featured his video:
“Last autumn, I visited the Sabah area of Borneo …..Having experienced
unspoilt forest and encountered Pygmy elephants, Proboscis monkeys, Orang-utans
and several canoes full of appreciative tourists, I suddenly found myself
face-to-face with a green wall of spikey fronged oil palms. Of course, I had
heard of how destructive oil palm plantations are before – haven’t we all – but
few things really 
register till you see them up close…..Despite what the palm
oil lobbyists will tell you, oil palm plantations virtually wipe out the
biodiversity found in rainforests. Just 20 species of birds are found in oil
palm plantations, whilst other rainforests support over 200.”
Oddie, who is a well-known bird lover, also speaks about the desecration of
Sarawak by Taib Mahmud’s system of ‘money politics’. He points out:
“Deforestation is not only threatening not only the lives of those in
Malaysia but also the very survival of every man, beast or banker on the
planet.
In fact, he may not know it yet, but the banker is in fact the
most self-destructive creature that has ever lived and he may well sow the
seeds of his own extinction”
Oddie is referring, of course, to the disastrous environmental consequences
for the whole planet of destroying the three remaining great jungles, of which
Borneo is one.
- Taib maintains one answer to such vitally important protests, which is that a thousand years ago many northern forests were already destroyed, so why shouldn’t he destroy Sarawak’s jungle now?
- It is like saying Hitler killed several million, so why shouldn’t I kill everyone else? Oddie’s film is funny, so watch the following video.
- Sadly, however the message is very far from funny in the wake of another rigged election in Sarawak that has allowed Taib Mahmud to continue his demented destruction.
- Next week’s International Hydropower Conference is also set to go ahead in Kuching, in the face of widespread and informed protests.
- After this film none of its delegates will be able to pretend that they are unaware of what their host is up to or the consequences of the SCORE project to wreck Sarawak’s remaining forests and rivers with more dams.
Source: Agency
TAIWAN REJECTS MANILA APOLOGY FOR FISHERMAN DEATH
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan slammed Manila's apology for the shooting
death of a Taiwanese fisherman as informal and insincere, and said
Wednesday it is recalling its representative and will discourage travel
to the Philippines.
The shooting has focused renewed attention on fishing disputes in and
around the South China Sea, which have turned the area into one of the
region's most tense.
- It has also brought to the fore China's efforts to make common cause with Taiwan, which split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949.
- The Philippine apology was made Tuesday to the Taiwanese people, but not the Taiwanese government, with which Manila maintains only quasi-official relations. Like all but a handful of countries, it maintains full diplomatic ties with the communist government in Beijing.
- The Taiwan foreign ministry did not release the precise language of the Philippines statement on the fisherman's death, except to say it expressed "deep regret and apology to the Taiwanese people for the unfortunate incident."
- Philippine coast guard personnel opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing vessel in disputed waters in the Bashi Strait off the northern Philippines last Thursday, killing the 65-year old fisherman.
- The Philippines has acknowledged that its coast guard personnel were responsible, but said they were acting in self-defense because the Taiwanese fishing vessel was about the ram a Philippines fisheries department ship that was carrying coast guard personnel.
- Premier Jiang Yi-huah said Taiwan was displeased with the apology delivered by the Philippine representative office in Taipei, citing language that he claimed reflected a desire by the Philippines government to distance itself from the affair.
- Jiang also professed unhappiness with the source of compensation money the family of the fisherman will receive— the Filipino people rather than the Philippines government itself.
Source: Philstar...More...
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