TELUK INTAN MALAYS DENOUNCE BIKINI SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST DYANA
TELUK INTAN, Perak, Malaysia — The dissemination of posters
featuring DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud alongside a bikini-clad actress with whom
she shares a striking facial resemblance has drawn outrage from several Malay
residents in this usually placid town, recently.
The photograph of Filipina actress Pauleen Luna, which was
passed off as an image of the DAP hopeful, first emerged on the Internet when
the 26-year-old lawyer was named for the May 31 race.
The A4-sized poster sighted by the Malay Mail Online was
printed in colour and did not bear any party logo or emblem.
Two days ago, physical copies appeared in two Malay villages
here, local PAS leaders said.
- “It’s not good; it’s akin to character assassination,” Abdul Muin Basukey, a 42-year-old welder who lives in Kampung Selabak, told the Malay Mail Online.
- “Even if you don’t support her, you shouldn’t run her down like that,” he added.
PAS’ Teluk Intan campaign deputy director Salman Saleh, who
is helping the DAP (oposition party)on its blitz coverage in the Malay-majority
Changkat Jong area, said dozens of copies of the posters were found strewn on
the roads in Kampung Selabak and Batak Rabit on last Thursday and yesterday.
Teluk Intan PAS campaign deputy director Salman Saleh holds
up an A4-sized poster showing DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election,
Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, (left) next to Filipina actress, Pauleen Luna.
Source: Yahoo News
BIRD EGGS FOUND IN THE CROTCH OF ALLEGED SMUGGLER IN AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY - Australians call tiny swimming trunks “budgie smugglers”, but
the term might have new meaning after customs officials at Sydney’s
airport said on Wednesday that they found 16 wild-bird eggs in the
crotch of a passenger’s pants.
The 39-year-old Czech man arrived on Tuesday on a flight from the
Middle East when customs officials selected him for a baggage
examination, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service said in a
statement.
Officers conducted a frisk search of the man and allegedly found 16
small eggs concealed in his groin area, the statement said.
There was no word on whether it was budgies of small parrots also known
as budgerigars that were allegedly smuggled.
The species has yet to be
identified.
The man, whose name has not been released, was to appear in a Sydney
court on Wednesday.
He will be charged under environmental protection laws with
attempting to import regulated live specimens without a permit. The
charge carries maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and a fine of
A$170,000.
Source: Agency
SUSPECTED MUSLIM SEPARATIST LAUNCH S.THAILAND ATTACKS, 3 DEAD
In the midst of Army seized
control of the Thailand's government to push through
reforms after six months of political turmoil, suspected Muslim separatists in southern Thailand launched a string
of gun and bomb attacks on Saturday killing three people and wounding
more than 50, government officials said.
The three southern most provinces of predominantly Buddhist Thailand
are majority Muslim and have been plagued by resistance to central
government rule for decades.
The bombs exploded outside five convenience stores, two petrol
stations and a hotel, officials in the region said. A bomb went off at
an electricity station, cutting power in one district for up to 40
minutes, they said.
Gunmen also opened fire on a navy ship a short distance off-shore, the officials said.
The attacks came two days after the Thai army overthrew the central
government in a coup, but the Muslim separatists’ campaign is not
directly linked to a power struggle in Bangkok that precipitated the
coup.
More than 5,700 people have been killed in the south since January
2004 when the separatists stepped up their campaign. More than 40 have
been killed this year.
The main demands of various shadowy rebel factions behind the
violence is greater autonomy for their poor, long-neglected region on
the border with Muslim-majority Malaysia.
Peace talks with some of the rebels began last year, but have
stalled, largely because authorities in Bangkok have been preoccupied
with the political crisis there.
Source: Reuters.
INSULTING UMNO DOESN'T MEANS INSULTING MALAY?
Insulting Umno does not mean insulting the Malays, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim(pic) said today."While we appreciate the struggle of previous Umno leaders, it does not mean we acknowledge the current leaders who are robbing the rakyat," Anwar said.
"What is this nonsense that insulting Umno means insulting Malays? Umno is Umno. The Malays are Malays. They are separate.
"Brothers, who apparently rob the Malays, are idolised as defenders of the Malays."
He said Umno leaders who defended the actions of Umno Youth members who
barged into the Penang legislative assembly were irrational."If a DAP lawmaker is accused of insulting Umno and justifies the action of barging into the Penang assembly, then we would have stormed Parliament on numerous occasions.
"After all, Pakatan Rakyat has been insulted on numerous occasions in the Dewan Rakyat," Anwar said.
The controversy began last week when DAP Penang's Seri Delima state
assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer uttered “Umno celaka” (Umno be damned) in a
sitting.Following Rayer's remarks, a group of people claiming to represent Umno Youth barged into the Penang state assembly in search of Rayer.
Twelve people were arrested although they were later released on police bail.
The following day, another group of Umno Youth members demonstrated in front of the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Source: TMI
CANADIAN MAYOR IN REHAB FOR ALCOHOL PROBLEM
TORONTO, Ont, Canada - A rehab facility in a small Ontario
town confirmed on Friday that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford(pic) is undergoing
treatment at its clinic.
GreenStone Clinic Muskoka in Bala, Ontario, said in a press release that Ford consented to having the facility confirm his stay.
Ford announced late last
month that he was seeking treatment for an alcohol problem after a new
video surfaced that appeared to show Ford smoking a crack pipe late last
month.
It was only the latest twist in the ongoing saga of Ford, whose
notorious and frequently filmed behaviour led the city council to strip
him of most of his powers after he admitted last year that he had smoked
crack in a “drunken stupor” and was depicted on video threatening to
“murder” someone.
There was speculation about
whether the embattled mayor of Canada’s largest city was in rehab after
he was spotted taking photos with residents of a small town neighbouring
Bala last week. A few days later, the mayor’s car was impounded after a
Muskoka resident was arrested behind the wheel and charged with
impaired driving.
- “We ask that the public and the media respect the privacy of all the patients at GreenStone, to ensure they receive the most comprehensive and effective treatment,” the statement read. “We take our patient care and confidentiality very seriously and as a result will not be commenting further on this matter.”
- Last week marked a year since the Toronto Star and the US website Gawker first reported seeing a video that appeared to show the mayor smoking crack cocaine.
- Months later, Ford admitted to trying the drug while drunk and to using drugs while in office.
- The mayor has previously publicly sworn off alcohol, saying he had cleaned up his act and was working out.
- However, he was forced to admit to drinking after another videotaped incident in which he used obscene Jamaican slang words and criticised Toronto’s chief of police.
- The Globe and Mail said last month a drug dealer had shown two of its reporters video of Ford allegedly smoking what was said to be crack in the basement of his sister’s home. The paper said it paid $10,000 for frame grabs showing Ford holding a copper pipe.
The Toronto Star also published details of “two nights of utter debauchery” involving Ford at a Toronto nightclub.
Police began investigating
Ford after a guns and gangs probe turned up wiretaps that allegedly
captured conversations about the first “crack” video.
A friend of Ford’s has been charged with extortion related to attempts to retrieve the video.
Despite Ford’s ongoing erratic behaviour, he says he’s running for re-election in October.
Source: Agencies
THAI MILITARY DETAINS FORMER PM
Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and dozens of prominent politicians have been detained by the military a day after it took control of government.
Yingluck and Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, her temporary replacement, were among the 39 prominent figures who on Friday reported to a military facility in Bangkok.
A Thai military spokesman, who gave his name as Colonel Veerachon, told Al Jazeera that all those who had reported to the base had been taken into detention.
"We are looking after them very well. They are all under detention. We want them to talk and give them some time to relax. They are not together at the moment," he said.
However, he could not confirm their locations.
The Reuters news agency quoted another senior military official as saying Yingluck's sister and brother-in-law were among those being held.
The two relatives have held top political posts.
"We will do so for not more than week, that would be too long. We just need to organise matters in the country first," said the officer.
Thailand's army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, seized control of the government on Thursday, two days after he declared martial law. He said the military had to restore order and push through reforms after six months of political turmoil.
Source: Al Jazeera
THIRD FILIPINO JOURNALIST KILLED IN DIGOS CITY SINCE 2006
DAVAO, Philippines - Another broadcast journalist was
shot and killed on Thursday in Digos City, southern Philippines, as the
toll on scribes continues to mount in the country.
Reports said Sammy Oliverio
was shot in a manner typical of assassinations carried out on
high-profile targets in the mass media — by gunmen riding pillion on a
motorcycle.
Oliverio, 54, worked as a
commentator for the Davao City-based dxUM Radyo Ukay. He was rushed to
the hospital by witnesses, but was declared dead on arrival early on
Friday morning.
- The motive for the killing was still being investigated by authorities, but Oliverio’s slaying is the carried out on a journalist in Digos since 2006.
- A report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer said broadcast journalist Armando Pace was killed in the city in 2006, while in 2010, three gun-wielding assassins murdered Nestor Bedolido.
- In his broadcasts, Oliverio had lashed out at government officials for their inability to curb illegal gambling and drug peddling.
- The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), said that Oliverio had already gone on leave from anchoring his radio programmes for Radyo Ukay and Supreme Radio, following a stroke he suffered in February.
- “He was on his way home from market with his wife when the all too familiar motorcycle-riding killers drove up and shot him in the head,” Rowena Caranza-Paraan chair of the NUJP said.
- Paraan said what is expected to follow after the assassination is chillingly all too familiar.
- “We can almost predict what comes next: police setting up another of those useless task forces that have so far failed to nail any of the masterminds in the 163 media murders before Oliverio’s, and the government vowing to bring his case to justice just as it has failed to do with all the other cases,” she said.
- The killing of Oliverio came 19 days after Richard Najid, 35-year-old manager of dxNN in Tawi-Tawi was shot and killed by assassins in the village of Tubig Boh, also in the southern Philippines.
In April, Rubylita Garcia, a
52-year-old reporter for the Manila-based tabloid “Remate” and a radio
programme block timer for dwAD, was shot after arriving home from work
in Bacoor City.
Following her assassination,
international journalists urged the government to take definitive action
to put an end to the killings by bringing the perpetrators to justice.
“The murders reaffirm the
Philippines’ reputation as one of the deadliest places in the world to
be a journalist,” according to Bob Dietz, Asia programme coordinator of
the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
“Until the perpetrators of
Garcia’s murder and those of other journalists in the country are
brought to justice, the deadly cycle of impunity will inevitably
continue,” he said.
Source: Agency
MEN CATCHES FALLING BABY FROM BUILDING IN CHINA
BEIJING - Dramatic images of two Chinese men catching a young child after he fell from a second storey window were released on Friday by Chinese state media.
A man walking past a building during a thunderstorm in the southern province of Guangdong spotted a baby who had climbed dangerously onto the window sill, provincial broadcaster Guangdong TV said.
In the video footage he was joined by another bystander, and both threw up their arms in anticipation of the child’s fall.
Finally the infant tumbled down into the pair’s arms.
Source: Agency
TRIBUTES FLOW FOR MALAYSIAN NUN KILLED IN ROBBERY ATTACK
Sister Juliana Lim, who died following an attack in an apparent
robbery outside a church in Seremban last week, has been described as
having devoted her life to teaching children from impoverished and
broken families.
This was among the many tributes paid to the Catholic nun at the wake
held at the Visitation Centre in Seremban today, which was attended by
almost 100 mourners.
Lim (pic) died at the Seremban Hospital on Tuesday, six days after she
and another nun, were assaulted by an assailant with a helmet outside
the Church of Visitation. She was 68.
Undeterred by a light drizzle, children accompanied by adults made
their way to the centre to offer their condolences to Lim's family.
Church of Visitation assistant parish priest Father Gregory Chan led
the tributes, describing Lim as someone who was strict but kind with the
children.
Church of Visitation parish priest John Gnanapiragasam also paid
tribute to Lim, whom he described as someone who gave freely of herself.
- On Wednesday last week, Sisters Juliana Lim and Mary-Rose, 80, were believed to have been attacked by an assailant.
- Lim is believed to have suffered the brunt of the assault after using her body as a shield to protect Sister Mary-Rose.
- The assailant then snatched the women’s bags, which contained a Bible, prayer book, rosary and a small amount of cash.
- Both the nuns had arrived at the church on Jalan Yam Tuan at about 6.15am in a car with two other nuns for the morning mass.
- The two other nuns went to the grotto to pray while Juliana and Mary-Rose went to the main entrance where they were believed to have been attacked.
- Both nuns were found sprawled on the stairs at the main entrance by the church caretaker who opened the doors a few minutes later.
- According to the biodata provided by the Infant Jesus Convent, Lim joined the IJ Novitiate in 1964 and took her final vows as a nun eight years later.
She started teaching in 1968 and her postings included the IJ Convent
schools in Alor Star, Batu Pahat and Malacca, where she taught until she
retired.
She was then involved in non-formal education and tuition in Sentul, Port Dickson and Seremban from 2001 until two years ago.
The funeral service will be held at the Church of the Visitation at 1pm on Friday.
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
