PAKISTANI WOMAN SET ON FIRE FOR REFUSING MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
Pakistan – A young Pakistani woman was recovering in
hospital Friday after she was burned over nearly half her body by a man she had
refused to marry, police said.
Sonia Bibi, 20, told police from her hospital bed that her
former lover Latif Ahmed sprinkled her with petrol and set her alight after she
turned down his proposal.
- A doctor in Multan’s main Nishtar hospital confirmed to AFP that 45 to 50 percent of Bibi’s body had been burnt in the attack, but said she was out of danger.
- The incident took place in a remote village of Multan district in central Punjab province, and police have arrested the 24-year-old Ahmed, local police official Jamshid Hayat told AFP.
- “Police arrested the man after recording the statement of Sonia Bibi in the presence of her parents,” Hayat said.
- “The girl told us that she was in love with Latif, whom she accused of dousing her in gasoline and setting her alight,” Hayat said.
Police have launched a probe, he said, but preliminary
investigations suggested Latif had set Bibi on fire “after she refused to marry
him”.
Mukhtar Cheema, another police official in Multan confirmed
the incident, saying that Bibi had told police she had turned Ahmed down as she
was no longer in love with him.
Source:– AFP
MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION MPs HOLD UP WHERE IS THE RM2.6 BILLION PLACARDS AS PM ENDS BUDGET SPEECH
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Opposition lawmakers held up
placards demanding to know what has happened to the RM2.6 billion
"donation" received by Datuk Seri Najib Razak as soon as the prime
minister wrapped up his Budget 2016 speech today.
The lawmakers stood up, holding placards with the wordings,
"Mana RM2.6 billion?" (Where is the RM2.6 billion), with the amount
written in red.
This led to an uproar from Barisan Nasional MPs who were
enraged by the opposition bloc's action.
Najib has come under fire over the RM2.6 billion, which was
credited into his personal accounts prior to the 2013 general election. This
was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report.
The prime minister had denied the allegations at first,
insisting that he had never taken money for personal gain but later said that
the money was given by a Middle East donor for Malaysia's effort in combating
terror group Isis.
This has become a subject of investigations by authorities,
including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Responding to this, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin
Hussein(photo) said it was "childish" of the opposition to show up with the
placards.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri
Azalina Othman(photo) Said also expressed similar sentiments but said the opposition
had a right to their views.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin also weighed in
on the incident, saying although it was not wrong to ask questions, but holding
up placards was not the way.
Source: The Malaysian Insider
MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION DAP PARLIMENTARY LEADER SUSPENDED FROM PARLIMENT FOR 6 MONTHS
DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has been suspended
from Parliament for six months for insulting speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin
Mulia, in a proceeding marred by protests and heckling.
The motion to suspend the Gelang Patah MP was tabled by
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said amid
protests from opposition MPs.
It was passed in a bloc vote, with the final result of 107
yeas versus 77 nays. This came after a voice vote was taken.
This was the first time since the start of the current
sitting, the last for this year, that a motion was moved to suspend a Member of
Parliament.
The motion noted that Lim had accused Pandikar of abusing
his power and "sabotaging" the investigations into 1Malaysia
Development Berhad (1MDB) on Monday during the debate on the appointment of the
new Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman.
- The motion also said Lim had called Pandikar a "dictator" and that he had politicised his position as the chair of the lower house of Parliament.
- "The accusations by The Honourable Gelang Patah is very serious and is an insult to the speaker of Dewan Rakyat and it is also an insult to the Dewan Rakyat proceedings," read the motion.
- Despite the suspension, Lim's pay and allowances will not be frozen.
Source: The Malaysian Insider...More...
TWO CHINESE DIPLOMATS SHOT DEAD IN PHILIPPINES
MANILA, Philippines – Two Chinese diplomats were killed and
a third was injured in a gun attack at a restaurant in the central Philippine
city of Cebu on Wednesday, police said.
The deputy consul and the finance officer for the Chinese
consulate in Cebu were killed, and the consul general was wounded, national
police spokesman Wilben Mayor told AFP in a text message.
Two Chinese were arrested following the attack, a man and a
woman, Mayor said. The woman worked at the consulate, according to Mayor.
He said police retrieved a semi-automatic .45 Colt pistol
from the scene.
The attack occurred at 1.30pm (same time in Malaysia) at
Lighthouse, a popular restaurant that serves Filipino food, police said.
Lighthouse manager, Stephen John Patero, said the shooting
occurred in a private room of the upmarket restaurant, which is a favourite for
local politicians.
“We did not really see the actual shooting. They were inside
a private function room. There was
a series of gunshots,” Patero told
AFP by
phone.
- But he said waiters who served them beforehand had heard the guests shouting at each other.
- “They are all friends who apparently figured in an argument,” he said, citing the waiters.
- The condition of the consul general, Song Ronghua, was not immediately known.
A spokeswoman at the Chinese embassy in Manila, Li Lingxiao,
said she could not yet comment.
“Our embassy is still verifying the facts. We’ll update you
as soon as I have anything new,” Li said in a text message to AFP.
Philippine foreign ministry spokesman Charles Jose also said
he had no comment, as authorities were still determining what happened.
Source: – AFP
LIBERALS WIN CANADIAN ELECTION OUSTING PM HARPER
Canada's Liberal leader Justin Trudeau rode a late surge to
a stunning majority election victory on Monday, toppling Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's Conservatives with a promise of change and returning a touch of glamor,
youth and charisma to Ottawa.
Harper conceded defeat and the Conservative party announced
his resignation, ending a nine-year run in power and the 56-year-old's brand of
fiscal and cultural conservatism that voters appeared to sour on.
The Liberals seized a Parliamentary majority, a turn in political
fortunes that smashed the record for the number of seats gained from one
election to the next. The center-left Liberals had been a distant third place
party before this election.
"My friends, we beat fear with hope. We beat cynicism
with hard work. We beat negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that
brings Canadians together," Trudeau, 43, told a crowd of cheering
supporters in Montreal.
"This is what positive politics can do."
The photogenic son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
pledged to run a C$10 billion annual budget deficit for three years to invest
in infrastructure and help stimulate Canada's anemic economic growth.
This rattled financial markets ahead of the vote and the
Canadian dollar weakened on news of his victory.
Trudeau thanked his two closest friends and advisers for
shaping his campaign to show "that you can appeal to the better angels of
our nature. And you can win doing it."
- Trudeau has said he will repair Canada's cool relations with the Obama administration, withdraw Canada from the combat mission against Islamic State militants in favor of humanitarian aid and training, and tackle climate change.
Source: Reuters...More...
PEOPLE SMUGGLERS EXPLORE NEW ROUTE TO MALAYSIA?
People smugglers are exploring new routes to Malaysia after
a crackdown on trafficking in Thailand with no large migrant boat departures
from Myanmar and Bangladesh in nearly six months, aid agencies said.
Rising numbers of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution were
setting off from Myanmar's northern Rakhine state and Bangladesh in small boats
and transferring to larger boats that could carry more than 1,000 people each.
But a Thai crackdown on human traffickers in May halted
journeys by large smuggling boats across the Bay of Bengal to Thailand and
Malaysia with activists only hearing unconfirmed rumours of a few small boats.
Aid agencies, however, fear the halt in sea crossings does
not indicate an end to people trafficking but means smuggling gangs are
exploring new routes.
"We don't see new ones, but we know different routes
are being studied so they don't have to be moved by boat," said Chris
Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project, a rights project focusing on the Rohingya.
"Some boats may leave, but there is definitely a strong
impact of the Thai crackdown ... The kind of movement and recruitment happening
last year is not happening this year. It's a lot more clandestine." Lewa
said new routes could be by air or overland and aid workers were now monitoring
the area to identify the shift.
- The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) had warned that "the number of people leaving on smugglers' boats in the Bay of Bengal has increased in recent years, and that trend is likely to continue unless the root causes are addressed".
Source: The Star...More...
THOUSANDS OF DOCTOR RALLY IN LONDON OVER PAY
LONDON, U.K. – Thousands of doctors protested over pay and
working conditions in London on Saturday in a growing row between Britain’s
medical profession and the government.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt plans to reclassify the normal
working week of junior doctors to include Saturdays and late evenings, a move
critics say would mean pay cuts of up to 30 percent due to the loss of extra
payments for working unsociable hours.
Huge crowds gathered in Whitehall, where government offices
are located, to listen to speakers decry the move.
Protesters dressed in medical scrubs chanted “Hunt must go”
and “Not safe, not fair, Jeremy doesn’t care”.
“The outpouring of anger and frustration we have seen from
thousands of junior doctors across the UK, culminating in today’s unprecedented
gathering in London, must be a wake-up call for ministers,” said Johann
Malawana, the head of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors’ committee,
said in a statement.
“If they thought that junior doctors would simply accept
their threats of imposition they have been proved very wrong.”
Neither the BMA nor London police could a provide a figure
for the number of people at the rally, although media reports said 20,000 people
attended the demonstration.
Hunt says the changes, which would only apply to doctors in
England, would boost patient care by making it affordable for hospitals to put
more doctors on weekend rosters and would benefit doctors by reducing their
weekly working hours.
Doctors would be compensated for losing extra pay for
working unsociable hours by an increase in basic pay.
“I think it is incredibly disappointing, the way that the
BMA has misrepresented the government’s position,” Hunt told the BBC.
The BMA is preparing to ballot its members for a potential
strike on the issue, while Hunt has urged doctors to return to the
negotiating table.
negotiating table.
Source:– AFP
BRITISH WOMAN FOUND HANGED IN TURKEY AIRPORT AFTER MISSING FLIGHT
ISTANBUL, Turkey – A British woman apparently killed herself after missing a connection flight in Turkey.
Local media reported that the woman did this as she couldn’t
afford a replacement ticket, RT.com reported.
The 50-year-old was identified as Jacqueline Anne Sutton.
She was traveling from London to the Kurdish Iraqi capital
Erbil but arrived at the Ataturk Airport here on Saturday and was due to depart
two hours later, but missed her flight, according to Turkey’s Dogan News
Agency.
Her body was discovered by three Russian passengers, hanging
from her shoe laces in the restroom.
Source:AFP
PHILIPPINES TO HOLD LARGEST FESTIVAL
The Philippines Department of Tourism said that the Higantes
Festival, one of the largest in the Philippines, will be held in Angono City,
Rizal for two days beginning Nov. 22.
This year's festival feature events such as singing
competitions, art exhibitions, and water wars amongst participants in
traditional costumes.
At the same time, banderitas, meaning "small
flags" in Spanish, will be set up around the festival grounds. These small
flags add to the exotic flavor of the festival, and underscore Angono as an
eco-friendly city as the flags are made with recyclable material.
The most unique part of the Higantes Festival, which is held
every November, are the paper giants (higantes) that can stand as tall as 4.5
meters. The giants depict specific people, personalities and individualities.
Source: AsiaOne
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
