Sabtu, 7 Disember 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Pakistan turns to China for development

Posted:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's launch of work on its largest nuclear power plant last week is the latest example of big-money Chinese infrastructure projects in the troubled nation.

Cash-strapped Pakistan, plagued by a bloody homegrown Taliban insurgency, is battling to get its shaky economy back on track and solve a chronic energy crisis that cripples industry.

Politicians in Beijing and Islamabad are fond of extolling the profundity of their friendship in flowery rhetoric and on the ground this has translated into around 10,000 Chinese engineers and workers flocking to Pakistan.

Chinese companies are working on more than 100 major projects in energy, roads and technology, according to Pakistani officials, with an estimated $18 billion expected to be invested in the coming years.

"Some projects are being done by the government, then most of the projects are being done by the Chinese companies, by the provinces and also with the state enterprises and authorities," Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan's federal minister for planning and development, told AFP.

"In the energy sector, Chinese engineers are building up to 15 power projects that include hydel (hydroelectric), thermal and nuclear plants."

Pakistan faces an electricity shortfall of around 4,000 megawatts in the sweltering summer, leading to lengthy blackouts that make ordinary people's lives a misery and have strangled economic growth.

To combat the crisis, Pakistan has sought Chinese help in building power generation projects across the country, including nuclear.

Aside from the 2,200 MW project near Karachi launched by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif last week, Chinese companies built two of Pakistan's three operational reactors.

Chinese engineers are also busy in the construction of a 969 MW hydropower project in Kashmir. They have also committed to generate 6,000 MW of electricity from coal and wind in southern Sindh province.

But cooperation goes beyond energy.

Visiting in May during his first overseas trip after taking office, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang linked growth in his country's restive west with that in Pakistan, saying the two sides wanted to create an "economic corridor" to boost development.

The concept involves improving road and rail networks to link China through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea and planning minister Iqbal said its benefits would extend to other neighbouring countries.

"The biggest flagship project is going to be the economic corridor. I hope with its completion, we will be able to create opportunities not just for China and Pakistan but for the entire region," he said.

"If the economic corridor is constructed, trade between China and India can also take place from this corridor. Similarly, trade between China and Central Asia and also between India and Central Asia can take place," Iqbal said.

In January the Pakistani cabinet approved the transfer of Gwadar port, strategically located in the country's far southwest, to a Chinese state-owned company.

Once the road network is improved, Gwadar will slash thousands of kilometres off the distance oil and gas imports from Africa and the Middle East have to be transported to reach China.

The bloody six-year Taliban insurgency and threat of expat workers being kidnapped and beheaded by militants has made many foreign firms wary of investing in Pakistan.

Chinese engineers on construction sites are guarded at all times by armed policemen, and some AFP spoke to seemed happy with their time in Pakistan.

"Pakistani people are very friendly with Chinese. That is why I am here since last three years and I will spend some more years over here," said Wang Yanjun, supervising a road-building project in Muzaffarabad, the main town in Pakistani Kashmir.

"They provide respect and support to Chinese, so cooperation between China and Pakistan is increasing. I think we will do much more development projects in future than now."

Wang Yanjun's company China Xinjiang Beixin, has already worked on projects in Pakistan ranging from roads to airports.

Another engineer, Wang Songqiang of China International Water and Electric Corporation, is looking after the construction of a shopping centre in Muzaffarabad.

"Our company is working in 38 countries, but we have special feelings while working here in Pakistan," he told AFP.

Pakistan and China presently have annual bilateral trade of around $12 billion and are trying to take it to $15 billion in the next three years, though Iqbal said Sharif is dreaming of doubling even this volume.

For China, investing in Pakistan's crumbling infrastructure is a chance to boost trade but also about using its southwestern neighbour's workforce as it seeks to keep prices down while satisfying growing domestic demand.

"Some industries are becoming very costly in China and their government feels they can get cheaper labour in Pakistan for those factories, which includes electronics and autos," Ahmed Rashid Malik, senior research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, told AFP.

"For that they need energy in Pakistan and investing in Pakistan's energy sector can prove beneficial for China in future."

But there are dissenting voices, raising worries about possible corruption in the somewhat opaque deals struck between Pakistani government departments and provincial administrations and Chinese firms.

"The capacity of Pakistani bureaucracy and the issue of transparency in this whole development plan is a source of concern for me," Senator Mushahid Hussain, chairman of Pakistan China Institute and a strong advocate of Pakistan-China friendship, told AFP.

"There have been allegations of corruption against them in the past, so it's a challenge for us to utilise this opportunity which came to us through Chinese cooperation," he said. -AFP

A chronic disease in Thailand

Posted:

The 'Thaksin system' is a reflection of a deeper illness that pervades and perverts Thai democracy.

BANGKOK: "Please help me," im­­plored the woman sitting at the roadside.

I was near the popular Bobae wholesale clothes market. Government House, a main target of the anti-government protesters trying to unseat the Yingluck Shinawatra administration, was only a few blocks away.

The intermittent pops of rubber bullets being fired were growing in intensity and frequency, while a haze billowed down the street, bringing with it the faint odour of gunpowder and an acrid smoke that immediately burned the eyes and nose.

The barricades began just two blocks away, where traffic was being redirected away from the protests.

Although we were close to the site of the clashes, the woman was not a protester, nor had she been hurt.

Not physically.

"I have barely sold anything all day," she lamented.

Daeng was a middle-aged roadside vendor who sold jackfruit, and what should have been a bustling market was nearly deserted, the vendors whiling away the time with gossip.

Several were unsteady on their feet, nursing bottles of local rice whisky.

"It has been like this for over a week now but has been especially bad (since the violence broke out)." She gestured towards a pile of unsold, peeled jackfruit.

"I'm not going to make back my investment today."

Daeng invests about 200 baht (RM20) each day to purchase several whole jackfruit, which she peels and sells on the roadside.

This neighbourhood, located close to Government House, Rajdamnoen Avenue and its symbolic heart, the Democracy Monument, and several major ministry buildings, is no stranger to political turmoil.

Almost every major political uprising in Thailand has taken place in or around the area, including the "1932 revolution" that ended absolute monarchy.

As I did what I could to help Daeng recoup her investment, groups of protesters passed through, frequently wearing black, with the Thai flag emblazoned on a T-shirt, scarf or wristbands, and with the latest local fashion accessory – a whistle – strung around their necks.

Many had towels or swimming goggles handy, and several were helping each other rinse out their eyes with bottles of drinking water.

At the time of writing, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban says the prime minister's resignation and dissolution of the House would not satisfy the anti-government campaign's demands.

Instead he has given Prime Minister Yingluck a nebulously worded ultimatum of two days to "return power to the people" so that a "People's Democratic Reform Committee" comprised of unelected individuals can oversee political reform and uproot the so-called Thaksin system.

As a physician, I have learned to make a clear distinction between the disease and its symptoms. One of the cardinal manifestations of the disease malaria is high fever, which can be treated with anti-pyretics such as paracetamol while treatment against the causative parasite can be administered.

Similarly, the "Thaksin system" is a reflection of a deeper illness that pervades and perverts Thai democracy: that of patronage networks, where personal loyalties – rather than platforms, performance or ideals – are of paramount importance.

Such networks can make or break careers, open or close doors to power, and even allow those with the right connections to flout the law.

Thaksin Shinawatra has been indicted for conflict of interest, abusing his position to help his wife purchase land, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison.

Meanwhile, those close to his family were promoted to positions of power.

His cousin Chaiyasit Shinawatra was elevated to army commander-in-chief in 2003.

Yet the man who would lead the charge against the scourge of the "Thaksin regime" and undertake political reform is, himself, no stranger to controversy and scandal.

Suthep Thaugsuban, a veteran politician, has been implicated in several cases of corruption and conflict of interest, and it was Suthep's involvement in shady land deals in Phuket which, in 1995, brought down one Democrat government.

Although his current message has struck a chord with many, mobilising the largest protests since 2010 in an expression of anger against the government's unpopular amnesty bill to absolve corrupt politicians, Suthep's past, coupled with his nebulous goals and undemocratic tactics and statements, belie his exhortations for reform.

True, durable political reform in Thailand will not simply come about with the removal of the Shinawatras.

To paraphrase the words of a friend who works as a medic in the jungles on the Thai-Myanmar border, their removal would be akin to providing just paracetamol for malaria, masking the symptoms of fever without curing the disease.

The bitter pill to swallow, the treatment for the disease, will require a sea-change in the country's value system.

> Voravit Suwanvanichkij, MD, is a Research Associate at the Centre for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Brothers held for hacking PMO site face 16 charges

Posted:

TWO brothers, initially arrested over the hacking of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) website, now face a total of 16 cybercrime charges between them.

The prosecution yesterday tendered 10 charges in court against Mohammad Azhar Tahir, 27. They include the unauthorised modification of content on the PMO site, illegally accessing a neighbour's wireless Internet service, and hacking into various social media and e-mail accounts of Ah Boys To Men actor Ridhwan Azman.

The younger brother, Mohammad Asyiq Tahir, 21, faces six similar charges, including one for hacking into the Facebook page of his former girlfriend Woo Huijing, on Nov 4.

Azhar, who is unemployed, was accused of hacking into the PMO site on Nov 7, causing it to show an image of a mask and two phrases over what the webpage would normally display.

One of those phrases had references to the Anonymous hacktivist group.

The two brothers are also accused of separately hacking into seven different social media and e-mail accounts belonging to Ridhwan on Nov 5.

Yesterday, the 20-year-old entertainer said Asyiq was the former boyfriend of Woo, 19, before he started seeing her.

The brothers were released on S$10,000 (RM25,395) bail yesterday with their passports impounded.

Their case will be heard again on Jan 6. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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South Korea to make announcement on air zone; expansion is anticipated

Posted:

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea was scheduled to make an announcement on Sunday amid anticipation that it will expand its air defence zone south into a zone newly declared by China that has spurred regional tensions.

South Korea's defence ministry said the announcement at 0500 GMT/Midnight ET would be about its Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), but declined to comment on the details.

South Korea has said China's move is unacceptable because its new zone includes the maritime rock named Ieodo which it controls, with a research station platform built atop it. China also claims the submerged rock as its own.

China's decision on November 23 to declare an air defence zone in an area that includes islands at the centre of a territorial dispute with Japan has triggered louder protests from Tokyo and Washington.

The decision was the subject of a tense disagreement as U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden visited China last week, stressing Washington's objections to the move that he said caused "significant apprehension" in the region.

Beijing said its zone was in accordance with international law and Washington and others should respect it.

Under the zone's rules, all aircraft have to report flight plans to Chinese authorities, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries.

U.S., Japanese and South Korean military aircraft have breached the zone without informing Beijing since it was announced. South Korean and Japanese commercial planes have also been advised by their governments not to follow the rules.

South Korea's reaction to the Chinese zone has been more measured than the protests from Tokyo and Washington. Officials have said they are reviewing a series of options that will ensure its national sovereignty is protected.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Jane Chung; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Bashir announces resignation of Sudan vice president - state media

Posted:

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced the resignation of First Vice President Ali Taha on Saturday, state media reported, the first move in a Cabinet reshuffle announced early on Sunday that brought in younger members of the ruling party.

Taha held the country's second-highest political position as first vice president and was the main negotiator of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 that brought an end to the Sudanese civil war.

"(He) resigned to make space for the youth and there are no conflicts between us," state media quoted Bashir as saying on Saturday.

Taha was replaced by Lieutenant General Bakri Hassan Saleh.

Bashir held a meeting with ruling National Congress Party leaders to approve the Cabinet reshuffle that introduced at least five ministers from the younger generation of the ruling party.

An hour after midnight, an official announced the second vice president as Hasbo Mohamed Abdulrahman and the parliament head as Alfateh Ezziddin.

Ibrahim Ghandour, head of the labour union, was named assistant to the president. Badr El-Din Mahmoud, who was the deputy central bank governor, became finance minister.

Abdel Wahid Youssef replaced former Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud, who is now minister of agriculture. The new oil minister is Mohamed Awad Makawi, former Sudan Railways manager.

Another new minister from the ruling party is Salah Wanasi, who became minister of the presidency. Tahani Abdullah and Altayeb Hassan Badawi were named minister of telecommunications and minister of culture, respectively.

Minister of industry is al-Sameeh al-Seddiq and minister of higher education is Sumaya abu Kashawa.

Taha had announced in November that the government planned to carry out a major Cabinet reshuffle, a move apparently aimed at appeasing protesters after fuel price increases provoked the country's worst unrest in years.

The government cut fuel subsidies to ease a financial crunch aggravated by the secession of oil-producing South Sudan in 2011. Dozens of people were killed and more than 700 arrested when protests erupted after pump prices doubled overnight.

(Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz; Writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Pravin Char and Peter Cooney)

Obama to attend Mandela memorial Tuesday in Johannesburg

Posted:

Washington (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will attend the national memorial service in Johannesburg on Tuesday for former South African President Nelson Mandela who died on Thursday, the White House said.

Other details of the trip and the U.S. delegation will be announced soon, the White House said on Saturday.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, will be joined by former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, on Air Force One on the trip to South Africa next week, the White House said on Friday. Former President Bill Clinton will also attend Mandela events in South Africa, but his travel plans have not been announced.

There has been an outpouring of tributes from Americans to the 95-year-old Mandela, whose battle against white minority rule in South Africa was followed closely in the United States and helped fuel Obama's interest in politics.

A state funeral will take place on Sunday, December 15, at Mandela's home.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by Jackie Frank)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

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Flood situation getting worse

Posted:

KUALA TERENGGANU: The number of evacuees in the flood-hit states is continuing to rise as the flood situation continues to worsen.

In Terengganu, the number of flood evacuees rose to 7,337 yesterday evening with Dungun registering the biggest increase among the districts.

Up to 4,340 people have been evacuated in Dungun, from 2,668 in the morning. The National Security Council (MKN) portal reported that Kemaman also registered an increase of over 100 evacuees to 2,472.

The number of evacuees dropped in the districts of Marang and Hulu Terengganu to 42 (from 63) in Marang and 483 (844) in Hulu Terengganu.

The portal said the floods in Besut and Setiu districts receded completely and all the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes yesterday.

Three people have been confirmed drowned in Pahang even as the number of flood evacuees began to drop.

The bodies of Pekan Umno committee member Jamali Jani, 45, and his son, Mohd Nazli, 17, were found yesterday after they went missing on Wednesday when they fell into the floodwaters in Sungai Isap.

Mohamed Alif Khalid, 21, drowned on Wednesday while fishing alone at Sungai Kampung Sepial in Kuala Tembeling, Jerantut.

A spokesman of the Pahang police flood operations room said the number of evacuees had dropped to 32,808 from 34,235 in the morning.

He said the evacuees were from eight districts, namely Kuantan, Pekan, Rompin, Maran, Jerantut, Lipis, Temerloh and Bera.

Kuantan district continues to have the highest number of evacuees, at 27,385, who are being housed at 48 relief centres.

The spokesman said Rompin district had 1,167 evacuees at 14 relief centres; Pekan, 3,218 at 18 centres; Maran, 49 at two centres; Jerantut, 472 at 11 centres; Lipis, 33 at two centres; Temerloh, 419 at five centres and Bera, 65 at five centres.

Several stretches of road remain closed, among them Jalan Sungai Lembing-Kuantan at Km28, Jalan Kuantan-Segamat at Km72, Jalan Kuantan-Rompin at Km62 and Jalan Temerloh-Bahau at Km14. —Bernama.

Boy dies after consuming poison

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: A 10-year-old boy has died after he was forced to drink an insecticide-laced drink. His 31-year-old mother and 11-year-old sister also took the drink.

Kajang CID chief Deputy Supt Azry Akmar Ayob said that the woman brought her daughter to a sundry shop near her home in Bangi where she bought insecticide and some soft drinks about 9am on Monday.

"Initial investigations revealed that the woman mixed the soft drinks with the insecticide before feeding the concoction to her children at their home. She then consumed the poisonous drink," he said yesterday.

DSP Azry Akmar said that while two of her children drank the beverage, the woman's 15-year-old daughter resisted and went into her room where she contacted her boyfriend for help.

"The girl's boyfriend came to the rescue and sent all of the children to Serdang Hospital.

"However, the woman's 10-year-old son died at about 10am on Thursday despite receiving treatment," he said.

He added the boy's body was being kept at the hospital's mortuary while the sibling who survived was still being treated at the same hospital.

DSP Azry said the woman had been detained under police custody at Kajang Hospital, pending a psychiatric evaluation.

"We have yet to record a statement from her," he said.

He added that the woman might have been suffering from depression following some marital problems.

In September, the nation was shocked when a family's suicide attempt turned into a homicide case against the couple after one of their two children died.

The couple first attempted suicide on Sept 11 by burning charcoal in the master bedroom before they went to bed in their second floor apartment at Sri Manja Square, Taman Sri Sentosa, off Old Klang Road here.

When that failed, they tried again the next day. This time, their daughter died.

They kept the body in the apartment until it was discovered on Sept 18 after the girl's kindergarten teacher asked a classmate's mother to check on the girl, who had been absent for more than five days.

Those with problems can call Befrienders at 04-2815161/04-2811108, 05-5477933/05-5477955 and 03-79568144/03-79568145.

Woman found dead in elevator shaft

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Faint cries for help reported by residents at the Seri Selangor flats here three days ago could have come from the elevator shaft, where the body of S. Sava­riamal has been found.

Her nephew R. Kumar, 42, said the family noticed that the 62-year-old had been missing since Monday.

"We thought she had gone to visit her son in Penang. Neighbours informed the family that cries for help could be heard earlier in the week but nobody could pinpoint where they were coming from," he said when met here yesterday.

The decomposed body of the widow, who had lived alone in her unit on the top floor of the 16-storey flat for three months after moving from her son's home in Penang, was discovered by firemen from the Hang Tuah station.

A resident had complained of a stench coming from the elevators at 7pm on Thursday.

Savariamal's relatives, who lived in an adjacent block, rushed to the scene after a neighbour told them that the body of a woman had been found and identified her at 10.25pm.

Her sisters were earlier seen outside the lift lobby trying to reach her by telephone.

Savariamal was the second of four sisters and had two sons, Prakash, 30, and Thivagaran, 27.

Police have classified the case as sudden death pending post-mortem results.

Meanwhile, a resident, Zaid Sakadi, 31, said the elevator had jammed on Monday morning.

"Most of us noticed the smell but we thought that it was either from the garbage or a dead rat," said Zaid who lives on the seventh floor.

He also said that repairmen had opened the stuck elevator earlier in the week but did not find anything inside.

Zaid said the elevators in the block frequently jammed and suspected that Savariamal might have slipped into the shaft when she tried to climb out of the elevator that had descended halfway.

City Hall housing officers declined comment, saying they were investigating the incident.

Savariamal was cremated at the Cheras crematorium yesterday.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: Central

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Philippines typhoon survivors determined to hope

Posted:

TACLOBAN, Philippines, Dec 07, 2013 (AFP) - A raggedy cloth banner in a Philippine town torn apart by one of the most powerful typhoons on record declares that its residents are "roofless, homeless, but not hopeless".

Super Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,500 people dead or missing and ruined the homes of about four million others when it tore across some of the Philippines' poorest fishing and farming communities.

A month after the typhoon struck, the battle for survival remains undeniably desperate in squalid towns, where masses of survivors huddle on roads still choked with debris while waiting for noodles, rice, water or other essentials being handed out by relief workers.

But the hand-painted message on the banner, hanging above a shop front being repaired on the outskirts of the hard-hit port city of Ormoc, represents a spirit of hope and resilience that resonates throughout the disaster zone.

International relief workers, who spend their lives visiting disaster zones around the world, have expressed surprise and admiration at the outwardly jovial determination of the survivors to "bangon", or rise, again.

"People are really struggling and yet the vast majority have got this incredible spirit where they just refuse to be defeated by this disaster," International Federation of the Red Cross spokesman Patrick Fuller told AFP on Friday after visiting some of the worst-hit areas in and around the coastal city of Tacloban.

And while much of the international focus in the immediate aftermath of the typhoon has been on the enormous relief effort that was initially dominated by a giant US military contingent, many survivors have quietly started rebuilding their lives using their own initiative.

In the tiny farming community of Kananga on Leyte island, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Tacloban, virtually all of the coconut trees that have sustained families for generations lie worthless on the ground after being ripped apart by Haiyan's monster winds.

Farmer Pepito Baring and a group of young men were on Friday using a chainsaw in the badly damaged local cemetery to cut coconut trees, which were resting on shattered concrete graves, into planks of timber.

"It takes two trees to get enough wood to rebuild a temporary shelter," Baring, 56, said as he stood bare-chested in the fierce early afternoon sun wearing only a pair of dirty shorts and flimsy rubber sandals.

Along the 100-kilometre road between the devastated towns of Ormoc and Tacloban, there are many similar, improvised saw mills that have spurred an astonishingly fast construction boom, albeit of flimsy homes that would be equally unable to withstand another typhoon.

Countless homes of farming and urban communities have been resurrected using the "coco lumber", as well as the recycled materials of their destroyed houses and sometimes tarpaulin roofing donated by relief organisations.

The number of people listed by the government as homeless has dropped from more than four million shortly after Haiyan struck to just 94,000, with one important factor, the determination of survivors to rebuild their homes themselves using whatever means they can. 

Healing Haiyan's wounds to take years

Nevertheless, the poorly rebuilt homes are just band-aids over a gruesome wound that authorities say will take many years and billions of dollars to heal.

Most areas of the central Leyte and Samar islands that were the worst hit by Haiyan remain without electricity and supplies of drinking water.

And nearly three million people remain reliant on life-saving food aid or farming support, such as crop seeds, according to the United Nations.

People living in ruined communities along the sides of major roads on Leyte write messages on boards, such as: "Help us, we need food", in the hope of getting a relief truck to stop.

Yet, desperation should not always be confused for despair.

In one devastated coastal community on the outskirts of Tacloban, hundreds of people queued on Friday for what they said were their first supplies of bottled water for a week.

Among them was Rosalinda Tabao, 55, a mother-of-six who lost her shanty home, her vegetable-stall business and three cousins when Haiyan's tsunami-like storm surges swept across their town.

Tabao said her family lost everything, including all their money and the vegetable crops on a small plot of land they rented and which supplied her vegetable stall.

But Tabao refused to be defeated.

Four days after Haiyan struck, Tabao made a seven-hour bus trip to Ormoc and bought 500 pesos ($12) worth of Chinese cabbage seeds using money donated by her mother-in-law, and sent her husband to plant them on their tiny farm.

"They should be ready in a month," Tabao said as she stood in the queue waiting for water. "Once they are ready, I'll sell them and use the money to buy more seeds, maybe eggplant."

Like her neighbours, Tabao and her husband had also quickly rebuilt a temporary shelter where their old home stood using salvaged materials.

Asked about her strongest emotions over the past month, Tabao said: "I hope. As long as I live, I'll continue to hope."

Japanese parliament passes controversial secrets law

Posted:

TOKYO, Dec 06, 2013 (AFP) - Japan's parliament on Friday adopted a law on protecting state secrets despite a public outcry, with strong opposition from the media and academics who fear it will infringe on the right to information and free expression.

The controversial bill, proposed by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was approved by the Senate on Friday, a few days after it was passed in the lower house.

The Senate vote in favour was expected as the coalition government led by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds a majority of seats there.

The opposition raised motions to stop the law but each move was rejected by the LDP members and their allies.

The law allows government ministers to designate as a state secret information related to defence, diplomacy, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.

Abe has argued that the measure is necessary to plug a notoriously leaky government machine, which prevents its chief ally the United States from sharing intelligence.

But critics say the categories are so vague that almost anything could fit the definition. They worry that information that is embarrassing to governing politicians or to their patrons could easily be hidden from public view.

They point to the way that Tokyo withheld news of the severity of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011, and say a state that already operates largely behind closed doors will become even more secretive.

That problem is exacerbated by a relatively weak institutional press.

The bill allows for jail terms of up to 10 years for those convicted of leaking state secrets, as well as for those who acquire secrets through illegal means - for example through trespass.

Anyone found guilty of encouraging someone to leak a state secret could face up to five years in jail, a provision that has drawn howls of protest from journalists, lawyers and academics.

More than 250 film celebrities, including animation directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, along with journalists, researchers, lawyers and other influential figures had appealed for making every effort to block the law which they criticised for being "anti-liberty, anti-democratic and dangerous".

The legislation does not provide for any independent oversight of the process.

Abe has said the government intends to set up panels to provide checks and balances in the process of defining a secret. But opponents say nothing is written into the legislation and government-appointed panels are in any case unlikely to rule against their paymaster.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

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Five worst celebrity diets to avoid

Posted:

Faddy weight-loss plans that may put a damper to your new year.

DIETS involving gulping air rather than food, avoiding gluten like the plague, and replacing sensible meals with booze rank as some of the worst celebrity diets to avoid.

With the approach of January, the British Dietetic Association (BDA) has shared its annual top five worst celebrity diets for the coming year. For the past three years, the Dukan Diet had topped the chart, but this year's new entry, the Breatharian Diet, has claimed the distinction of worst faddy weight-loss plan. Here's the rundown:

1. Breatharian diet – Skip meals and even water and just breathe air; at least that's the premise of this fad. While not wildly dissimilar to Madonna's alleged Air diet, this diet comes with serious health risks.

2. Biotyping – This diet claims to reduce body fat in trouble zones by balancing hormones. Famous followers include Boy George, but BDA experts warn that the plan's "supplements and pseudo-science" make it worth skipping.

3. Gluten-free diet – While Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly eschews gluten, the BDA says that while "important for those with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity, there is no credible published research showing that a gluten-free diet leads to weight loss in other people." Of course, trimming back on breads, pastries, and cakes certainly won't hurt your waistline, but gluten-free doesn't mean calorie-free.

4. Alcorexia/Drunkorexia diet – Basically, a diet based on alcohol and little else. Followers "save up" their caloric intake from food for binge-drinking madness at parties.

5. Dukan Diet – The famous protein-heavy Dukan Diet, popularised by celebrities such as Carol Middleton (mom to Kate Middleton), Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bundchen, is confusing, time consuming, rigid, and hard to sustain, the BDA claims. Side effects are likewise unappealing, with everything from lack of energy to constipation and bad breath. – AFP Relaxnews

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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Philippines typhoon survivors determined to hope

Posted:

TACLOBAN, Philippines, Dec 07, 2013 (AFP) - A raggedy cloth banner in a Philippine town torn apart by one of the most powerful typhoons on record declares that its residents are "roofless, homeless, but not hopeless".

Super Typhoon Haiyan left more than 7,500 people dead or missing and ruined the homes of about four million others when it tore across some of the Philippines' poorest fishing and farming communities.

A month after the typhoon struck, the battle for survival remains undeniably desperate in squalid towns, where masses of survivors huddle on roads still choked with debris while waiting for noodles, rice, water or other essentials being handed out by relief workers.

But the hand-painted message on the banner, hanging above a shop front being repaired on the outskirts of the hard-hit port city of Ormoc, represents a spirit of hope and resilience that resonates throughout the disaster zone.

International relief workers, who spend their lives visiting disaster zones around the world, have expressed surprise and admiration at the outwardly jovial determination of the survivors to "bangon", or rise, again.

"People are really struggling and yet the vast majority have got this incredible spirit where they just refuse to be defeated by this disaster," International Federation of the Red Cross spokesman Patrick Fuller told AFP on Friday after visiting some of the worst-hit areas in and around the coastal city of Tacloban.

And while much of the international focus in the immediate aftermath of the typhoon has been on the enormous relief effort that was initially dominated by a giant US military contingent, many survivors have quietly started rebuilding their lives using their own initiative.

In the tiny farming community of Kananga on Leyte island, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Tacloban, virtually all of the coconut trees that have sustained families for generations lie worthless on the ground after being ripped apart by Haiyan's monster winds.

Farmer Pepito Baring and a group of young men were on Friday using a chainsaw in the badly damaged local cemetery to cut coconut trees, which were resting on shattered concrete graves, into planks of timber.

"It takes two trees to get enough wood to rebuild a temporary shelter," Baring, 56, said as he stood bare-chested in the fierce early afternoon sun wearing only a pair of dirty shorts and flimsy rubber sandals.

Along the 100-kilometre road between the devastated towns of Ormoc and Tacloban, there are many similar, improvised saw mills that have spurred an astonishingly fast construction boom, albeit of flimsy homes that would be equally unable to withstand another typhoon.

Countless homes of farming and urban communities have been resurrected using the "coco lumber", as well as the recycled materials of their destroyed houses and sometimes tarpaulin roofing donated by relief organisations.

The number of people listed by the government as homeless has dropped from more than four million shortly after Haiyan struck to just 94,000, with one important factor, the determination of survivors to rebuild their homes themselves using whatever means they can. 

Healing Haiyan's wounds to take years

Nevertheless, the poorly rebuilt homes are just band-aids over a gruesome wound that authorities say will take many years and billions of dollars to heal.

Most areas of the central Leyte and Samar islands that were the worst hit by Haiyan remain without electricity and supplies of drinking water.

And nearly three million people remain reliant on life-saving food aid or farming support, such as crop seeds, according to the United Nations.

People living in ruined communities along the sides of major roads on Leyte write messages on boards, such as: "Help us, we need food", in the hope of getting a relief truck to stop.

Yet, desperation should not always be confused for despair.

In one devastated coastal community on the outskirts of Tacloban, hundreds of people queued on Friday for what they said were their first supplies of bottled water for a week.

Among them was Rosalinda Tabao, 55, a mother-of-six who lost her shanty home, her vegetable-stall business and three cousins when Haiyan's tsunami-like storm surges swept across their town.

Tabao said her family lost everything, including all their money and the vegetable crops on a small plot of land they rented and which supplied her vegetable stall.

But Tabao refused to be defeated.

Four days after Haiyan struck, Tabao made a seven-hour bus trip to Ormoc and bought 500 pesos ($12) worth of Chinese cabbage seeds using money donated by her mother-in-law, and sent her husband to plant them on their tiny farm.

"They should be ready in a month," Tabao said as she stood in the queue waiting for water. "Once they are ready, I'll sell them and use the money to buy more seeds, maybe eggplant."

Like her neighbours, Tabao and her husband had also quickly rebuilt a temporary shelter where their old home stood using salvaged materials.

Asked about her strongest emotions over the past month, Tabao said: "I hope. As long as I live, I'll continue to hope."

Japanese parliament passes controversial secrets law

Posted:

TOKYO, Dec 06, 2013 (AFP) - Japan's parliament on Friday adopted a law on protecting state secrets despite a public outcry, with strong opposition from the media and academics who fear it will infringe on the right to information and free expression.

The controversial bill, proposed by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was approved by the Senate on Friday, a few days after it was passed in the lower house.

The Senate vote in favour was expected as the coalition government led by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds a majority of seats there.

The opposition raised motions to stop the law but each move was rejected by the LDP members and their allies.

The law allows government ministers to designate as a state secret information related to defence, diplomacy, counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism.

Abe has argued that the measure is necessary to plug a notoriously leaky government machine, which prevents its chief ally the United States from sharing intelligence.

But critics say the categories are so vague that almost anything could fit the definition. They worry that information that is embarrassing to governing politicians or to their patrons could easily be hidden from public view.

They point to the way that Tokyo withheld news of the severity of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in 2011, and say a state that already operates largely behind closed doors will become even more secretive.

That problem is exacerbated by a relatively weak institutional press.

The bill allows for jail terms of up to 10 years for those convicted of leaking state secrets, as well as for those who acquire secrets through illegal means - for example through trespass.

Anyone found guilty of encouraging someone to leak a state secret could face up to five years in jail, a provision that has drawn howls of protest from journalists, lawyers and academics.

More than 250 film celebrities, including animation directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, along with journalists, researchers, lawyers and other influential figures had appealed for making every effort to block the law which they criticised for being "anti-liberty, anti-democratic and dangerous".

The legislation does not provide for any independent oversight of the process.

Abe has said the government intends to set up panels to provide checks and balances in the process of defining a secret. But opponents say nothing is written into the legislation and government-appointed panels are in any case unlikely to rule against their paymaster.

Banks told to boost cyber security

Posted:

Singapore's central bank has called on financial institutions to tighten up cyber security after a database on elite customers of Standard Chartered Bank was compromised.

Police confirmed yesterday that information on private-banking clients of the British lender had been found in the laptop of a Singaporean man charged with hacking the parliamentary district website of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement it has "reminded all FIs (financial institutions) to heighten their vigilance to safeguard their IT systems and customer information, including controls at third party service providers".

"MAS is paying special supervisory attention to FIs' compliance with MAS' requirements for IT outsourcing."

In a statement sent to AFP yesterday, the Singapore Police Force said it discovered files containing data on Standard Chartered's clients in a laptop seized from James Raj when he was arrested on Nov 4 in Malaysia.

The 35-year-old was extradited to Singapore and charged on Nov 12 with hacking the Ang Mo Kio district website, whose MPs include Lee, and posting the image of a Guy Fawkes mask used by international hacker group Anonymous.

The alleged hacking was among a string of cyber attacks that have also targeted the official websites of Lee and President Tony Tan as well as pro-government media.

Some of the attackers denounced new rules requiring news websites in Singapore to obtain annual publication licences, but other hacking incidents appear to be unrelated.

Standard Chartered, whose biggest shareholder is Singapore's state investment firm Temasek Holdings, said in a statement the monthly statements of 647 private banking clients for February 2013 were stolen from the servers of Fuji Xerox, which it had engaged for printing services.

"The confidentiality and privacy of our clients are of paramount importance to us, and we take this incident very seriously," Ray Ferguson, the bank's chief executive, said in the statement.

"Customer data protection is our responsibility and we sincerely apologise to all our customers and specifically to our private bank clients who have been affected."

The bank said no unauthorised transactions resulted from the incident, and that its retail and other banking units were not affected.

The MAS said it was investigating the matter and while it was an "isolated case" it underscored the need for greater vigilance.

"Globally, financial institutions have been facing an increasing number and variety of cyber threats," it said.

"MAS takes a serious view of such threats and has stringent requirements in place for FIs to protect the security of their IT systems and confidentiality of their client data."

Singaporean lawyer M. Ravi, who is representing Raj, did not immediately comment on the matter.

Raj was denied bail on Wednesday after a court ruled that he posed a flight risk.

He has yet to comment on his links to Anonymous, an amorphous group of global hackers. — AFP

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Snap away

Posted:

Take fun family photos and win prizes.

Now, there is all the more reason to snap away during the festivities and family functions.

Focus on the Family Malaysia is running an online photo contest, Family Fun Time Photo Contest, from 1 - 31 December 2013. The objective of this contest is to encourage family bonding by capturing fun and memorable photos, especially during this year-end holidays.

This is how you participate in the contest.

Four easy steps:

1. LIKE "Focus on the Family Malaysia" (FOFM) Facebook page.

2. Take a fun family moment and upload to FOFM Facebook fanpage wall.

3. Complete "Family fun time is..." in not more than 20 words.

4. Get your friends to LIKE your photo.

Win the grand prize of RM1,000 and many more prizes worth RM8,000!

Closing date : 31 Dec 2013

For more information, go to http://on.fb.me/17Yx9mI.

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