BODIES OF FOREIGNERS FOUND AMONG 51 IN NEPAL QUAKE,100 STILL MISSING
KATHMANDU, Nepal - Nepali police and local volunteers found
the bodies of about 100 trekkers and villagers, including those of six
foreigners buried in an avalanche set off by last month’s devastating
earthquake and were digging through snow and ice for signs of dozens more missing,
officials said on Monday.
Another 100 foreign tourists are still feared to be missing in Langtang in the wake of the 7.8-magnitude-quake that struck on April 25 and claimed more than 7,000 lives.
The bodies were recovered on Saturday and Sunday at the Langtang village, 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Kathmandu, which is on a trekking route popular with Westerners.
The entire village, which includes 55 guesthouses for trekkers, was wiped out by the avalanche, officials said.
Source: AFP
2 GUNMEN SHOT DEAD IN TEXAS USA OVER FEATURING DEPICTIONS OF PROPHET MOHAMMAD
DALLAS, TX, United States - Two gunmen opened fire on Sunday
at an art exhibit in Garland, Texas, featuring depictions of the Prophet
Mohammad and were themselves shot dead by police, the city said in a statement.
The shooting, an echo of past attacks or threats in other
Western countries on art depicting the Prophet, was reported shortly before 7pm
at the Curtis Culwell Center.The centre is a special-events venue that hosts graduation ceremonies, concerts, trade shows, weddings and sporting events in Garland, northeast of Dallas.
The two armed suspects drove up to the front of the building
in a car as the event, called the "Muhammad Art Exhibit," was coming
to an end, and began shooting at a security officer, the city said in a message
posted online.Garland police officers then exchanged fire with the gunmen, and both suspects were shot dead. The security officer was wounded in the gunfire, but the guard's injuries were not considered life-threatening, according to the statement.
There was no immediate word from police or other authorities
about the identity or background of the two suspects.The Dallas Morning News reported that critics of the art exhibit, sponsored by a group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative.
They had condemned the event as an attack on Islam, but said they were merely exercising their right of free expression.
Western art depicting the Prophet has sometimes angered
Muslims and provoked threats from radicals. In January, Islamist gunmen
attacked the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in
revenge for its cartoons of the Prophet, killing 12 people.
Source:- Reuters
MAYWEATHER-PACQUINO WINNER DECIDED BY POLITICS?
Mayweather outscored Pacquiao in the super fight, 118-110,
116-112, and 116-112, to unify the WBA (Super), WBC, WBO and The RING Magazine
welterweight titles.Contrary to what the scorecards show, former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield thinks Manny Pacquiao is the
rightful winner of the super fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Holyfield sees it coming down to straight politics
unfortunately, and that’s kind of disappointing.
He said it was Pacquiao who brought the action to Mayweather, whom he accused of running for most part of the bout.
He said it was Pacquiao who brought the action to Mayweather, whom he accused of running for most part of the bout.
- According to Holyfield it was Pacquiao who brought the action to Mayweather, whom he accused of running for most part of the bout.
- From Holyfield’s perspective, the judges should have scored the bout in favor of the aggressor. And in the case of the “Fight of the Century” he thinks the aggressor is Pacquiao.
- “The fact of the matter, you're the more aggressive one, you hit him with the shots... Pacquiao seem to hit him (Mayweather) more times than he hit Pacquiao,” said the four-time heavyweight king.
- Holyfield dared Floyd Mayweather Jr. to face Manny Pacquiao in a rematch.
- Holyfield, best known for his showdowns with fellow stars Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis during the last glory days of the heavyweight division, warned Mayweather that not fighting Pacquiao would result in a big asterisk in his legacy.
- "If Floyd retires without doing the super fight with Manny Pacquiao then I wouldn't think of him as a champion. Champions accept any fight put in front of them. But if Mayweather does the fight – win or lose – he will be an all time great and a true champion in my book,” he recently wrote in a Facebook post, as reported by Scoop Malinowski of ringobserver.com.
If that scenario were to play out, Holyfield doesn't believe
Mayweather would call it quits on his career, which would mean another fight --
with millions upon millions of dollars at stake -- could potentially be on the
horizon.
According to Holyfield, that's just how the system is set
up.
Source: Agency
SABAH, MALAYSIAN BORNEO INVISIBLE CHILDREN
When security forces roll into town, people run in all directions, desperate to escape. In their haste, they knock over trays of fish for sale at the local market.
It is another raid by authorities seeking to flush out hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants in the Malaysian state of Sabah.
Hiding in the shadows are tiny figures, the children of migrants who are growing up stateless.
Born in Malaysia but citizens of no country, they cannot access public schools or healthcare.
Born in Malaysia but citizens of no country, they cannot access public schools or healthcare.
In this critical investigation, Al Jazeera’s 101 East exposes the hidden struggles of Sabah’s undocumented children.
Estimated to number at least 50,000, Sabah’s hidden children are among Malaysia’s most vulnerable.
They are at constant risk of being detained and deported. With their families struggling to earn enough to feed them, some resort to sniffing glue to stave off hunger.
Source: Al Jazeera
29 PEOPLE ARRESTED FOR THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN ANTI-GST RALLY IN KL MALAYSIA
Friday’s anti-GST (Goods
& Services Tax) rally in Kuala Lumpur ended with 29 people
arrested for their involvement in the rally.Among those arrested were Negara-ku patron Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) secretary-general S. Arutchelvan, PAS central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli, PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and social activist Hishamuddin Rais.
Police had applied for a remand order for Ambiga(photo), Loke,
Arutchelvan and Hatta on Saturday morning, but were denied by a magistrate’s
court.Rafizi and Hishamuddin’s lawyer Sivamalar Genapathy, meanwhile, said the pair are expected to be released after police record their statements.
Opposition party PKR vice-president Tian Chua(photo below) has reportedly been arrested over his involvement in Friday’s anti-GST rally.
- The Batu MP had earlier defied a police order for him to turn himself in at the Dang Wangi police headquarters on Friday night, claiming that he was already halfway to Penang at the time.
Source: The Star
6 USA BALTIMORE POLICE OFFICERS WILL FACE MURDER CHARGES
BALTIMORE, Maryland, USA - Six Baltimore police officers will face
criminal charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, in the death
of a black man who was arrested and suffered a fatal neck injury while riding
in a moving police van, the city’s chief prosecutor said on Friday.Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby said Freddie Gray, who died a week after his April 12 arrest, was in handcuffs, but otherwise was not restrained inside the van.
The officers failed to provide medical attention to Gray even
though he asked for help on at least two occasions.Gray’s death has become the latest flashpoint in a national outcry over the treatment of African-Americans and other minority groups by US law enforcement.
After a night of rioting in Baltimore on Monday, protests spread to other major cities in a reprise of demonstrations last year set off
by police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and
elsewhere.Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the officers charged, Mosby said at a dramatic news conference in front of a city office building across from Baltimore City Hall.
In addition to murder and manslaughter, charges include assault, misconduct and false imprisonment.
Mosby said the Maryland chief medical examiner ruled Gray’s death a homicide. The 25-year-old Gray was no longer breathing when he was finally removed from the van, Mosby said.
Mosby, a 35-year-old African-American who took office in January, is facing the biggest test of her short career in deciding to bring charges against the officers.
In Ferguson and New York, grand juries decided against charging officers who were involved in the deaths of 2 unarmed black men.
The news triggered rioting in the St. Louis suburb and days of protest marches in New York and other cities.
Source: Agency
MASS MIGRANT PRISON CAMP GRAVE FOUND IN MALAYSIAN-THAILAND BOARDER
Authorities in Thailand uncovered a mass grave in an abandoned jungle
camp Friday believed to contain the remains of migrants from Myanmar
and Bangladesh, a grisly find in a region notorious for people-smuggling
routes.
The discovery was made at a remote camp in Sadao district, in
Songkhla province bordering Malaysia, and comes as Thailand's junta
cracks down on human trafficking following accusations that officials
have been complicit in the trade.
The border area with Malaysia is notorious for its network of secret
camps where smuggled migrants are held, usually against their will until
relatives pay up hefty ransoms.
"There are 32 graves, four bodies have now been exhumed and are on
their way... to hospital for an autopsy," Sathit Thamsuwan, a rescue
worker who was at the scene soon after the site was found, told AFP,
saying it was unclear how they had died.
"The bodies were all decayed," he said, adding a single emaciated man
from Bangladesh survived and was being treated at a hospital in nearby
Padang Besar.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Myanmar, mainly from the Rohingya
Muslim minority but also increasingly from Bangladesh, make the
dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a well-worn trafficking
route often on the way south to Malaysia and beyond.
Last week U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the condition of such camps as “untenable,” adding that their existence should “remain a matter of profound concern for the international community.”
Thailand has been criticized in the past for pushing boatloads of Rohingya entering Thai waters back out to sea, and for holding migrants in overcrowded facilities.
Source: Agency
Last week U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the condition of such camps as “untenable,” adding that their existence should “remain a matter of profound concern for the international community.”
Thailand has been criticized in the past for pushing boatloads of Rohingya entering Thai waters back out to sea, and for holding migrants in overcrowded facilities.
- The ruling junta says it has taken significant steps to combat trafficking since June, when the United States dumped Thailand to the bottom of its list of countries accused of failing to tackle modern-day slavery.
MAS TO SELL OR LEAST A380 FLEET?
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PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - A day before Christoph Mueller took over as
managing director/group chief executive officer of Malaysia Airlines (MAS),
unconfirmed reports has surfaced that the airline had put several of its
aircraft, including its six A380 super-jumbos, on sale or lease.
According to an aviation industry site, Leeham News, MAS is
offering for sale or lease all six of its Airbus A380s, its two Boeing
747-400Fs, four Airbus A330-200Fs and four Boeing 777-200ERs, as it seeks to
restructure following a disastrous 2014. Another site, Flightglobal, added that an official from the airline had said that the airline intends to “approach the market to dispose some assets”, but would not be drawn into which types would be sold.
The site said MAS had four A330 freighters, as well as 13 passenger A330s plus 13 777-200ERs.
Although not verified, the news has sent jitters across the
airline’s crew and pilots, as they see it as the first signs of downsizing the
workforce.MAS. in a restructuring mode, will downsize its workforce to 14,000 people, thereby letting go of about 6,000 employees. The migration will take place on Sept 1.
The sale could mean that 250 pilots and 300 crew members might be made redundant.
MAS took delivery of its first A380 in May 2013 and flies the aircraft on the London and Paris routes.
It had earlier used the aircraft for the Hong Kong route, but found it difficult to fill the plane since it seats more than 450 people.
Source: The Star
AUSTRALIA RECALLED AMBASSADOR, REMOVES JOKOWI POTRAIT AFTER EXECUTIONS
Australian, Indonesia relationship is in jeopardy. Australia
has recalled its ambassador to Indonesia for consultations after two
Australians were among eight drug smugglers executed by firing squad early
Wednesday.Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called the executions "cruel and unnecessary" because both men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, had been "fully rehabilitated" during a decade in prison.
Canberra’s National Portrait Gallery has taken down an image
of Indonesian President Joko Widodo following the execution of two Australian
drug smugglers, saying it feared for the artwork’s safety.Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 34, were shot by firing squad in Indonesia on Wednesday over their role in the so-called “Bali Nine” heroin smuggling ring.
The executions of the two Australians, along with five other foreigners and one Indonesian, went ahead despite international criticism and calls for mercy from Canberra.
National Portrait Gallery director Angus Trumble said in a
statement late yesterday that he had removed the portrait of Jokowi, as he is
popularly known, given the strength of feeling about the executions.“My feeling yesterday, on Wednesday morning, was that in view of the circumstances and our operations, and my best assessment of the risk of damage to the work of art, it was necessary to remove it from
public display,” he said in a statement.
Source:, CNN, The Malaysian Insider
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