Rabu, 16 Oktober 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Extensive underground network may be built to save space
Salesman and manager jailed for having sex with teen prostitutes
Man ‘without conscience’ gets 30 months for statutory rape

Extensive underground network may be built to save space

Posted:

SINGAPORE'S Central Business District, new Marina Bay Downtown and its future southern waterfront district may be linked by an extensive underground road network beyond 2030.

The plan being studied by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will see traffic zipping about unobtrusively beneath the surface in a series of subterranean ring roads.

Such roads, which free up surface space and improve the liveability of urban areas, are found in cities such as Brussels, Stockholm, Madrid, Paris, Hamburg and Boston.

Singapore's plan is seen as part of a larger one to accommodate a growing population, and it dates back to the 1980s.

Then in 1996, the LTA envisioned 30km of two- to four-lane roads forming a pair of concentric rings under the city centre.

It revisited the idea in the recently released 2013 Land Transport Masterplan, but added that the so-called Singapore Underground Road System (Surs) will now be more extensive.

"We are now studying how Surs can serve new developments in the Marina Bay area and the new southern waterfront city that will extend from Keppel Channel to Pasir Panjang Terminal," a spokesman said.

But until exact development plans for these two districts are clearer, he said, the scale and alignment of the underground roads remain conceptual.

Experts said going underground is inevitable.

Dr Park Byung Joon, head of the urban transport management programme at SIM University, said intense development is expected for the new downtown areas.

Thus, building roads on the surface "may not be desirable due to the limited supply of land".

Elevated roads may also mar the visual appeal and perceived prestige of a district, he said. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Salesman and manager jailed for having sex with teen prostitutes

Posted:

A SALESMAN who had commercial sex with a 17-year-old girl in the online vice ring case has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Sng Kok Wee, 31, is the 23rd man to be dealt with to-date. He was among 51 men charged last year with paid sex with the same girl.

A district court heard that Sng came across a website on escorts who provided sexual services.

The girl was among the escorts working for Tang Boon Thiew, 40, and was described as an 18-year-old polytechnic student on the website.

After seeing her details, Sng was keen to engage her services and sent text messages to Tang to find out if she was available on Oct 10, 2010. He was quoted S$450 (RM1,125) for an hour of the girl's sexual services and the location was Hotel 81 Bencoolen.

Tang was jailed six years last week.

Meanwhile, an engineering manager, who had commercial sex with a 17-year-old girl from China who was forced into prostitution in Singapore, has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Nordin Mohamed Noor, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of paying the girl S$100 (RM250) for her sexual services at a lodging house in Geylang Road on May 23.

So far, 24 men have been charged with engaging in commercial sex with the Shandong province girl.

Nordin is the 20th man to plead guilty and the 18th to be sentenced. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Man ‘without conscience’ gets 30 months for statutory rape

Posted:

A DISTRICT judge has ticked off a man for not only betraying the trust of a teenage girl and her family, but also his wife, after he committed multiple sexual offences with the girl, then 13.

"You have no conscience,'' judge Lee Poh Choo told Muhammad Zhafir Ahmad, 27, before packing him off to prison for 30 months yesterday.

The offences came to light in September last year when the victim's mother found pictures of her daughter and Zhafir kissing on her mobile phone.

Zhafir, a public servant, who faced 16 charges, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexually abusing the 13-year-old girl at her home and in his car between April and August last year. The other charges were taken into consideration.

A district court heard that Zhafir and his then-fiancee, whom he later married, knew the victim's mother. In September 2011, he invited the victim and her siblings to a movie but only the victim went.

After this meeting, they contacted each other regularly over the phone and through text messages. The victim told Zhafir that she saw him as a boyfriend. He accepted her as his girlfriend just one day before he got married, said Assistant Public Prosecutor Raja Mohan.

In April last year, after an outing, Zhafir had consensual sex with the girl at her home and told her to keep it a secret.

The following month, he picked her up from school in his car and drove her to a multi-storey carpark in Jurong West where they were intimate again. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Japan PM Abe makes third offering to war shrine but again stays away
U.S. Congress ends default threat, Obama vows to sign bill
U.S. government employees to return to work on Thursday

Japan PM Abe makes third offering to war shrine but again stays away

Posted:

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made his third ritual offering to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, but again he did not visit in person to avoid angering Asian victims of Japan's war-time aggression.

Visits by Japanese leaders to the shrine in central Tokyo have outraged China and South Korea, which suffered under Japanese occupation and colonisation in the 20th century, because war-time leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal are honoured there along with Japan's war dead.

Abe made the offering in the name of the prime minister to mark the shrine's autumn festival, which runs from Thursday until Sunday, a shrine official told Reuters. The official said the offering was made before Thursday, but gave no details.

A deputy government spokesman said Abe made the offering in his private capacity and that the government is in no position to comment, adding that it was not aware that the offering was disbursed from public funds.

"I believe it's natural to express homage to those who fought and sacrificed their precious lives for the sake of their country, and to pray for the repose of their souls," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.

It was the third time that Abe has sent an offering to the shrine since he returned to office after his December election victory. He has not visited the shrine in person because he wants to rebuild relationships with China and South Korea.

His previous offering was made in August.

Sino-Japanese ties have been troubled for months because of a sovereignty dispute over tiny islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Japan's relations with South Korea have also cooled over a separate territorial dispute.

Abe, an outspoken nationalist, has said he regretted not visiting the shrine while he was prime minister in 2006-2007.

Two ministers from Abe's cabinet are considering visiting the shrine during the autumn festival, Kyodo news agency reported.

Sino-Japanese ties have been overshadowed for years by what Beijing says has been Tokyo's refusal to admit to war-time atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in China between 1931 and 1945. Memories of a brutal Japanese occupation also run deep in South Korea.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry)

U.S. Congress ends default threat, Obama vows to sign bill

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Wednesday approved an 11th-hour deal to end a partial government shutdown and pull the world's biggest economy back from the brink of a historic debt default that could have threatened financial calamity.

Capping weeks of political brinkmanship that had unnerved global markets, the Senate and House of Representatives each passed the spending measure after Republicans dropped efforts to link the legislation to changes in President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

The White House said Obama would sign the bill on Wednesday night, and Obama vowed to begin reopening the government immediately. "Employees should expect to return to work in the morning," said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

The down-to-the-wire deal, however, offers only a temporary fix and does not resolve the fundamental issues of spending and deficits that divide Republicans and Democrats. It funds the government until January 15 and raises the debt ceiling until February 7, so Americans face the possibility of another government shutdown early next year.

With the deadlock broken just a day before the U.S. Treasury said it would exhaust its ability to borrow new funds, U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday, nearing an all-time high. Share markets in Asia also cheered in early Thursday trade.

Taking the podium in the White House briefing room after the Senate vote and just before the House took up the measure, Obama said that with final congressional passage, "We can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people."

"Hopefully next time it won't be in the 11th hour," Obama said. "We've got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis."

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said "the global economy dodged a potential catastrophe" with congressional approval of the deal to raise the $16.7 trillion U.S. debt ceiling.

The stand-off between Republicans and the White House over funding the government forced the temporary lay-off of hundreds of thousands of federal workers from October 1 and created concern that crisis-driven politics was the "new normal" in Washington.

While essential functions like defence and air traffic control continued during the crisis, national parks and agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency have been largely closed.

Senator John McCain, whose fellow Republicans triggered the crisis with demands that the Democratic president's "Obamacare" healthcare reform law be defunded, said earlier on Wednesday the deal marked the "end of an agonizing odyssey" for Americans.

"It is one of the most shameful chapters I have seen in the years I've spent in the Senate," said McCain, who had warned Republicans not to link their demands for Obamacare changes to the debt limit or government spending bill. Polls showed Republicans took a hit in public opinion over the standoff.

The Democratic-led Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure on a 81-18 vote, and the Republican-controlled House followed suit 285 to 144.

POLITICAL DYSFUNCTION

Although the deal would only extend U.S. borrowing authority until February 7, the Treasury Department would have tools to temporarily extend its borrowing capacity beyond that date if Congress failed to act early next year.

In addition to lifting the federal debt limit, the deal calls for creating a House-Senate bipartisan panel to try to come up with long-term deficit-reduction ideas that would have to be approved by the full Congress. Their work would have to be completed by December 13.

The agreement also includes some income verification procedures for those seeking subsidies under the 2010 healthcare law. But Republicans surrendered on their latest attempt to delay or gut the healthcare package or include major changes, including the elimination of a medical device tax.

The congressional vote signalled a temporary ceasefire between Republicans and the White House in the latest struggle over spending and deficits that has at times paralyzed both decision-making and basic functions of government.

The political dysfunction has worried U.S. allies and creditors such as China, the biggest foreign holder of U.S. debt, and raised questions about the impact on America's prestige. The Treasury has said it risks hurting the country's reputation as a safe haven and stable financial centre.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced the fiscal agreement on the Senate floor earlier in the day, and its passage was eased when the main Republican critic of the deal, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, said he would not use procedural moves to delay a vote.

The agreement is a victory for Obama, who held firm and refused to negotiate on changes to the healthcare law, and a defeat for Republicans who have suffered a backlash from the American public, according to public opinion polls.

There was no immediate sign that House Speaker John Boehner's leadership position was at risk. Several Republican lawmakers suggested he may have strengthened his standing among the rank-and-file, who gave him a standing ovation at an afternoon meeting.

The fight over Obamacare rapidly grew into a brawl over the debt ceiling, threatening a default that global financial organizations warned could throw the United States back into recession and cause a global economic disaster.

Fitch Ratings had warned on Tuesday that it could cut the U.S. sovereign credit rating from AAA, citing the political brinkmanship over raising the debt ceiling.

A resolution to the crisis cannot come soon enough for many companies. American consumers have put away their wallets, at least temporarily, instead of spending on big-ticket items like cars and recreational vehicles.

"We're sort of 'crises-ed' out," said Tammy Darvish, vice president of DARCARS Automotive Group, a family-run company that owns 21 auto dealerships in the greater Washington area.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Steve Holland, Roberta Rampton and Mark Felsenthal, Amanda Becker, Patricia Zengerle, Susan Heavey, David Lawder and Jason Lange; Writing by Matt Spetalnick, Claudia Parsons and Ross Colvin; Editing by Grant McCool and Tim Dobbyn)

U.S. government employees to return to work on Thursday

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to sign legislation on Wednesday night ending the fiscal crisis, and federal government employees should expect to return to work on Thursday morning, Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a statement.

Congress passed a bill late Wednesday that reopens the federal government and avoids a damaging default on government debt.

(Reporting by Karey Van Hall; editing by Jackie Frank)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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I-Bhd partners Best Western for hotel venture
Sumatec shares, warrants surge while rights go ex
KLCI nears 1,800 after US debt deal reached

I-Bhd partners Best Western for hotel venture

Posted:

SHAH ALAM: I-Bhd has partnered with Best Western International, the world's biggest hotel chain, to develop the first hotel in the 29ha i-City project, scheduled to open in September 2014.

The three-star hotel, Best Western@i-City, has a gross development value of RM50mil, and represents the first of two hotels planned for the international park.

At the signing ceremony between the two parties, I-Bhd deputy chairman Datuk Eu Hong Chew said the hotel would probably have one of the shortest gestation periods due to the attractions based in the park.

Meanwhile, Best Western will also manage its first Best Western Service Suite in the country by providing hospitality and building management services for a period of 5+5 years.

"It is a standard arrangement with all our hotel owners. After that period, it is an automatic renewal unless there is an issue," said Best Western vice president of international operations for Asia and the Middle East Glenn de Souza.

He added that the hotel would be an addition to its international portfolio and would be promoted overseas. "i-City is pretty self-contained, it's like a one-stop shop. We would work with the tourism organisation to promote i-City.

It would attract a lot of foreigners because it provides everything for families and businesses," he said.

Best Western Service Suite@i-City will comprise 826 units of serviced residences.

It will be the first hotel-branded residential development in Shah Alam and is expected to be completed in 2016. Eu added that the project would be launched by the end of this year. I-Bhd expects the hotel to enhance the number of visitors to the theme park attractions, as visitors now have the option of staying within i-City.

"The rooms would be comfortable and trendy. Rather than compete with the other facilities within i-City, we would complement and support them," de Souza said.

The hotel is part of the third building block in the development of i-City as a tourism destination, said Eu.

"The three tourism components are i-City's theme park attractions, a 1.5-million-square-feet super regional shopping mall and hotels," he said.

To-date, the company has invested RM70mil in various rides and attractions.

Eu added that I-Bhd planned to invest an additional RM30mil in the theme park in the next few years.

I-Bhd is working with Thailand's Central Retail group to develop the RM580mil CentralPlaza@i-City, which has been slated for completion in 2016.

Best Western has more than 4,100 hotels in more than 100 countries worldwide. In Malaysia, it currently operates in KL Sentral, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Pulau Pangkor and Port Dickson. It plans to have 15 hotels in the country by end-2015.

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, who officiated the signing ceremony, said there were still opportunities for international-class hotels within the capital city. "I hope this project would be an eye opener for other international hotel operators," he said.

Sumatec shares, warrants surge while rights go ex

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Sumatec Bhd shares and its warrants surged early Thursday as its renounceable rights issue of up to 2.72 billion new shares went ex under its corporate exercise to exit the Practice Note 17.

At 9.42am, shares of the oil and gas company surged 11 sen to 33.5 sen with 25.93 million shares done. Its warrants jumped six sen to 22 sen to 21.69 million units done.

The FBM KLCI was up 8.79 points to 1,800.16. Turnover was 410.79 million shares valued at RM193.40mil. There were 320 gainers, 93 losers and 211 counters unchanged.

Under the exercise, the company will raise RM453mil to fund its oil and gas production activities at the Rakushechnoye oil field in Kazakhstan.

Sumatec said its corporate exercise involved a renounceable rights issue of up to 2.72 billion new shares of 14 sen each together with 680.55 million free detachable warrants.

This was on the basis of 41 rights shares for every 10 existing ordinary shares of 14 sen each in Sumatec together with one warrant for every four rights shares subscribed at an issue price of 17.5 sen per rights share .

The rights will start trading on Oct 22 and cease quotation on Oct 29.

KLCI nears 1,800 after US debt deal reached

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's FBM KLCI advanced early Thursday as investor sentiment was given a lift by news that a US debt deal had been reached in the 11^th hour to avert a default.

At 9.02am, the FBM KLCI was up 7.41 points to 1,798.78. Turnover was 49.10mil shares valued at RM28.95mil. There were 120 gainers, 20 losers and 113 counters unchanged.

Petronas Gas rose 30 sen to RM23 and Petronas Dagangan six sen to RM29.70. UMW rose six sen to RM12.18.

Hong Leong Bank gained 10 sen to RM14.40 but AmBank slipped four sen to RM7.42.

Among plantations, PPB Group rose 10 sen to RM14.50 and KL Kepong six sen to RM22.96.

Among the consumer stocks, BAT was the top gainer, adding 40 sen to RM63.30.

However, Carlsberg fell 10 sen to RM12.58 and Nestle four sen to RM67.98.

As for property stocks, Mah Sing shed three sen to RM2.41, SP Setia two sen to RM3.21 and Plenitude one sen to RM2.30.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

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Two cops among seven remanded over debt collector's death
SapuraKencana thankful to Venezuela for crew’s release
Declare Umno wings’ polls illegal, DAP tells ROS

Two cops among seven remanded over debt collector's death

Posted:

GEORGE TOWN: Two policemen – a lance-corporal and a sergeant – and five other people have been remanded over the death of a debt collector.

Their remand is until Oct 19 for investigation under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

The lance-corporal, in his early 30s, is based at the Kulim police station while the 55-year-old sergeant is from the Johor police contingent.

It is learnt that the other five – a 34-year-old woman said to be the policemen's friend and four men in their 30s and 40s – were friends of the deceased, Kang Seak Xiong, 38.

They were produced at the Bukit Mertajam Sessions Court yesterday where senior registrar Mohd Faiz Md Zain issued the remand order.

It was reported that the two policemen were arrested in connection with the shooting of the victim on Monday at about 2.30am at an entertainment outlet in Auto City in Juru.

The woman, 34, is remanded to help in the investigation of a shooting of a 38-year-old debt collector at an entertainment outlet in Auto City, Bukit Mertajam. (Charles Mariasoosay - 15/10/2013)

The 34-year-old woman covering her face as she is being escorted out of the court.

Police confiscated the lance-corporal's pistol at a house in Kulim while a 9mm Luger bullet magazine and one round of ammunition were recovered from the scene.

At a Hari Raya Haji celebration at the Patani Road police station here, Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said it was believed that a fight among the three men led to the shooting.

He added that he had checked with Kulim OCPD Supt Ghuzlan Salleh that the lance-corporal was permitted to carry his pistol while off duty.

SapuraKencana thankful to Venezuela for crew’s release

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd has thanked the Venezuelan government for releasing the 36-member crew of SapuraKencana research vessel Teknik Perdana.

Its president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Shahril Samsuddin said the crew members were picked up by Venezuela's navy and taken to Margarita Island for checks while working in disputed waters last Thursday.

"We wish to express our gratitude to the Venezuelan government for taking care of the safety and welfare of the crew, which comprises multiple nationalities.

"Our thanks also to the Malaysian Foreign Affairs Ministry for rendering timely assistance in the matter which has resulted in a positive outcome for our staff and company," he said in a statement yesterday.

Teknik Perdana was conducting a seabed survey for its customer Anadarko Petroleum USA, which was working for the Guyana government, when it was boarded by Venezuelan navy personnel and sailed to Margarita Island.

It has been reported that the area where the survey work was being conducted was being disputed by the governments of Guyana and Venezuela. — Bernama

Declare Umno wings’ polls illegal, DAP tells ROS

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: The Registrar of Societies (ROS) should declare Umno's Youth, Wanita and Puteri wing elections last Saturday as illegitimate in view of allegations about missing ballot papers and rejection of recounting, said DAP assistant national publicity secretary Teo Nie Ching.

In a statement yesterday, she cited allegations about divisions getting more ballot papers than the legitimate number of delegates and that six Umno Youth branches in Seremban were qualified for voting despite being revoked six months ago.

"Voting for the women's wing in Baling and Puteri in Sabak Bernam was postponed due to missing ballot papers. Meanwhile, the official results were not released more than 24 hours after the voting was done on Saturday," she claimed.

She noted that DAP's fresh elections on Sept 29 had shown almost similar results from the initial polls whereby the same CEC members had been elected.

DAP's CEC elections in December last year was hit by what its leaders explained was a technical glitch in the tabulation of the results.

This led to several unhappay DAP members lodging complaints to the ROS, which held a probe and subsequently told the party to hold its polls again.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: Central

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

Singapore-based super model murdered in Pakistan

Posted:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani super model Fehmina Chaudhry, who recently came from Singapore, has been found dead in a ditch from Bara Kahu area Islamabad on Monday.

The 27-year-old model and beauty queen went missing last Thursday while visiting Islamabad to buy property, police said.

ASP Yasir Afridi said the dead body of a woman has been identified as Fehmina Chaudhry, who was also a mother of two and was a successful model in Singapore with numerous awards on her credit.

Fehmina, a Singapore-based model originally from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, was settled in Singapore and wanted to open a fashion school in Pakistan.
The real estate broker named Muaz Waqar lured her and brought her to Pakistan, she went missing on October 12 and the accused had demanded Rs2 crore against her release.

Police officials told that the accused Muaz Waqar was traced out with the help of the phone record and during investigation he confessed told that he had murdered the model and dumped her body in a stream at the outskirts of the city.

After the confession by the accused, police took him to the crime scene and discovered the dead body of Fehmina Chaudhry.

Her promoter in Pakistan, Asif Hashmi confirmed Chaudhry's death, and said she was married with a son and a daughter.

"She was a dedicated philanthropist and she was planning to set up a fashion school in Pakistan," Hashmi said, adding that she had won several beauty contests.

The officer leading the investigation, Yasir Afridi, said Chaudhry's mother had contacted her for the last time on the evening of October 10, after which she received a text message saying her daughter had been kidnapped.

"She used to visit Pakistan often to see her mother and was staying at a private hotel in Islamabad where she came to buy real estate for her mother," Yasir said. - AFP

Death of puppy draws online flak

Posted:

"JUSTICE for Tammy" is what a group of indignant animal lovers in Singapore is calling for.

As a show of support for the seven-month-old mongrel which was put down for aggression, there was a flurry of activity on social media platform Facebook on Sunday night, when supporters updated their profile pictures with Tammy's photo and the slogan.

Netizens were reacting to news that the dog had been put to sleep by its adopter of four months, Alison McElwee, on Oct 7.

McElwee had said the animal was aggressive and had bitten her and her two children. Tammy was put down at a veterinary clinic in Sunset Way.

The Animal Clinic's managing director Lennie Lee said that "the dog exhibited escalating aggression" during four visits made to the vet from June 6 for routine vaccinations and treatments for skin problems, and that "professional judgment" was used when the vet "agreed with the owner's request to put the dog to sleep". — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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Singapore-based super model murdered in Pakistan
Death of puppy draws online flak
Search for Philippine quake survivors as death toll hits 107 (Updated)

Singapore-based super model murdered in Pakistan

Posted:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani super model Fehmina Chaudhry, who recently came from Singapore, has been found dead in a ditch from Bara Kahu area Islamabad on Monday.

The 27-year-old model and beauty queen went missing last Thursday while visiting Islamabad to buy property, police said.

ASP Yasir Afridi said the dead body of a woman has been identified as Fehmina Chaudhry, who was also a mother of two and was a successful model in Singapore with numerous awards on her credit.

After the confession by the accused, police took him to the crime scene and discovered the dead body of Fehmina Chaudhry.

Her promoter in Pakistan, Asif Hashmi confirmed Chaudhry's death, and said she was married with a son and a daughter.

"She was a dedicated philanthropist and she was planning to set up a fashion school in Pakistan," Hashmi said, adding that she had won several beauty contests.

"She used to visit Pakistan often to see her mother and was staying at a private hotel in Islamabad where she came to buy real estate for her mother," Yasir said. - AFP

Death of puppy draws online flak

Posted:

"JUSTICE for Tammy" is what a group of indignant animal lovers in Singapore is calling for.

Netizens were reacting to news that the dog had been put to sleep by its adopter of four months, Alison McElwee, on Oct 7.

McElwee had said the animal was aggressive and had bitten her and her two children. Tammy was put down at a veterinary clinic in Sunset Way.

Search for Philippine quake survivors as death toll hits 107 (Updated)

Posted:

Loon (Philippines) (AFP) - Rescue workers raced Wednesday to reach isolated communities on a popular Philippine tourist island that was devastated by a huge earthquake, as aftershocks tormented survivors and the death toll climbed to 107.

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake smashed the central island of Bohol on Tuesday morning, triggering landslides that engulfed entridges and tearing down centuries-old churcheire homes, ripping apart bs.

The national disaster agency said the number of people confirmed killed on Bohol and neighbouring islands had climbed from 93 to 107, and more bad news was expected as rescue workers were yet to reach some villages and towns.

"Our efforts today are focused on reaching isolated areas. We suspect individuals are trapped out there and we have to conduct search and rescue," National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokesman Reynaldo Balido told AFP.

With destroyed bridges, ripped-open roads and power outages fragmenting the island of about one million people, Balido said authorities were struggling to reach isolated communities and had no idea how bad the damage was in some areas.

"We don't even have an estimate... we are just assuming that since there were collapsed buildings, we must search for them," Balido said, when asked how many people remained missing.

At Loon, a small coastal town of about 40,000 people just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the epicentre of the earthquake, shocked survivors wandered around the rubble of collapsed buildings looking for relatives.

Farmer Serafin Megallen said he dug with his hands, brick-by-brick, to retrieve his mother-in-law and cousin from the rubble of their home on Tuesday.

"They were alive but they died of their injuries three hours later. There was no rescue that came, we had to rely on neighbours for help," he told AFP.

Megallen said a neighbour with a truck tried to drive the bodies to Loon's funeral parlour, only to find out the bridge across a river on the way was destroyed.

The bodies were then taken across the river aboard a boat.

"But no one will give them last rites because the church was also destroyed," he said.

Ten churches, many of them dating back centuries to Spanish colonial rule of the Philippines, were destroyed or badly damaged on Bohol and the neighbouring island of Cebu.

Loon's limestone Our Lady of Light church was reduced to mounds of crushed rocks.

'Nothing much we can do'

In front of the rubble an improvised altar had been erected with a lone statue of the Virgin Mary, where teary residents stopped by to make the sign of the cross.

"We're trying our best to keep hopes up, but in this desperate situation there is nothing much we can do beyond giving comforting words," local priest Father Tomas Balakayo told AFP.

"I try to be strong but this is terrible, what have these people done to deserve this?"

Meanwhile, the only people involved in the search and rescue efforts on Wednesday morning at Loon were residents and local police, who themselves had lost their homes or relatives.

They struggled as aftershocks continued to rattle the area. More than 800 aftershocks had been recorded, including one on Wednesday morning with a magnitude of 5.1, according to national disaster authorities.

Most of the confirmed deaths were on Bohol, which is one of the most popular tourist islands in the Philippines because of its beautiful beaches, rolling "Chocolate Hills" and tiny "tarsier" primates.

Nine people died on neighbouring Cebu island, home to the Philippines' second-biggest city of the same name.

No foreign tourists were reported killed.

The Philippines lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many of Earth's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

The deadliest recorded natural disaster in the Philippines occurred in 1976, when a tsunami triggered by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake devastated the Moro Gulf on the southern island of Mindanao.

Between 5,000 and 8,000 people were killed, according to official estimates.

Earlier reports:

Philippine quake death toll reaches 99

MANILA, Oct 16, 2013 (AFP) - The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck the central Philippines rose to 99 on Wednesday and would likely climb further as rescuers reached isolated areas, authorities said.

A 7.1-magnitude quake struck the island of Bohol on Tuesday morning, destroying centuries-old churches and triggering landslides that engulfed homes alongside coastal highways.

The confirmed death toll rose from 93 on Tuesday night to 99 as authorities gained a clearer picture of the destruction, the civil defence chief for the central islands, Minda Morante, told AFP.

"We expect the number to increase considering there are still areas that need search and rescue (personnel) and there are areas where they need more aid," she said.

Bohol and the neighbouring island of Cebu, which are both popular tourist attractions because of their pristine beaches and historic churches, bore the brunt of the quake. Most of the confirmed casualties were on Bohol.

Earlier report:

93 dead as quake hits Philippines

CEBU: A powerful earthquake killed at least 93 people in the Philippines as it generated landslides that buried homes, triggered terrified stampedes and destroyed historic churches.

Fifteen of the confirmed fatalities were in Cebu, the country's second most important city and a gateway to some of its most beautiful beaches, the national disaster agency reported.

The 7.1-magnitude quake killed another 77 people in the neighbouring island of Bohol, famed for its rolling "Chocolate Hills", while one other person died on nearby Siquijor, which attracts tourists with its pristine white sands.

"I was thrown to the ground by the strength of the quake. Broken glass rained on me," Elmo Alinsunorin, who was on duty as a guard for a government tax office in Cebu, said.

"I thought I was going to die."

Authorities said the death toll could still climb, with officials struggling to assess the extent of the damage in the worst-hit areas of Bohol where roads remained impassable and power was cut at nightfall.

Bohol police chief Senior Superintendent Dennis Agustin said one of the worst affected areas was the coastal town of Loon, where at least 18 people were killed by landslides that buried houses along large stretches of highway.

Loon is about 20km from where the epicentre of the quake struck at just after 8am. It faces a narrow strait of water, with Cebu about 25km away on the other side.

Cebu, with a population of 2.5 million people, is the political, economic, educational and cultural centre of the central Philippines.

It hosts the country's busiest port and the largest airport outside of the capital of Manila, which is about 600 kilometres to the north.

A university, a school, shopping malls, public markets and many small buildings in Cebu sustained damage in the quake.

Three of the people who died in Cebu were crushed to death in a stampede at a sports complex, according to the provincial disaster council chief, Neil Sanchez.

"There was panic when the quake happened and there was a rush toward the exit," said Sanchez.

He said two other people were killed when part of a school collapsed on a car they had parked in, while four others died at a fish market that crumbled.

Ten churches, some of which have crucial links to the earliest moments of Spanish colonial and Catholic conquest in the 1500s, were also badly damaged on Cebu and Bohol.

The limestone bell tower of the Philippines' oldest church, Cebu's Basilica Minore del Santo Nino, was in ruins.

Other limestone churches that were built in the 1700s and 1800s on Bohol had crumbled completely, prompting grieving for the loss of some of the Philippines' most important cultural treasures.

"It is like part of the body of our country has been destroyed," said Michael Charleston "Xiao" Chua, a history lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila.

Aside from its beaches, Bohol is famous for its more than 1,000 small limestone "Chocolate Hills" that turn brown during the dry season.

There were no reports of foreign tourists being killed anywhere in the disaster zone.

Yesterday's quake was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, at least four aftershocks of which measured more than 5.0 in magnitude. — AFP

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Rabu, 16 Oktober 2013