Khamis, 19 Disember 2013

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Philippine mayor among four dead in Manila airport ambush
Three more remanded after riot
Fishing union boss shot dead in Japan

Philippine mayor among four dead in Manila airport ambush

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 09:49 PM PST

MANILA: Four people, including the mayor of a southern Philippine town and his wife, were killed Friday in an ambush outside Manila international airport's passenger terminal, its general manager said.

"The mayor and his family and some security escorts were attacked," Manila airport general manager Angel Honrado told reporters, adding one of the dead was the mayor of Labangan town in the troubled southern region of Mindanao.

Ukol Talumpa, a member of the political opposition, won a hotly contested election for mayor of Labangan in last May's elections.

The mayor, his wife, other members of his family and their bodyguards were shot at by at least two men as they stepped out of the passenger terminal shortly after getting off a flight from the southern Philippines, Honrado said.

Four people were killed and four others wounded in the shooting, he said, adding "the mayor and his wife" were among the dead.

Footage by local television GMA showed a man slumped on the curb of the airport driveway, with two trolleys full of luggage either side of him.

Police are withholding the identities of the other victims pending notification of next of kin, he added.

Honrado, speaking alongside Manila police officials at a news conference, said the authorities did not know the identity of the gunmen nor the motive for the attack.

The Philippines is infamous for a brutal brand of democracy where politicians - particularly at local and provincial levels - are willing to bribe, intimidate or kill to ensure they win.

More than 60 people were killed in last May's elections, when 18,000 posts from provincial governor to town and city mayors as well as city and town executive councils were contested.

At the Manila airport Friday, airport security force chased after the gunmen but they escaped on a motorcycle in the heavy late-morning traffic outside the terminal, Honrado said.

"This is a very unfortunate incident that did happen at Terminal 3," Honrado said.

"Government agencies are trying their best to determine the perpetrators and bring them to justice."

He appealed to other passengers who witnessed the shooting to help the police identify the suspects. -AFP

Three more remanded after riot

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 03:49 PM PST

THREE more alleged rioters in the Dec 8 incident in Little India were on Thursday afternoon ordered to be remanded until the following week to assist in ongoing investigations.

Agreeing to the prosecution's request, District Judge Lim Tse Haw cited the scale and sheer amount of evidence involved in the case for the trio to be remanded at 'A' Division. The case against them will be heard next Monday, along with 25 others who had appeared in court earlier in the week.

All Indian nationals, namely Karuppaiah Chandrasekar, 31, Palanivel Dhasmohan, 27, and Arumugam Karthik, 24, had been charged in court last week (on different days) for being part of an unlawful assembly at Little India on Dec 8.

A riot was sparked on that day after a fatal traffic accident involving construction worker Sakthivel Kumaravelu, a 33-year-old Indian national, and a private bus operated by BT&Tan.

Two of the accused, Karuppaiah Chandrasekar and Palanivel Dhasmohan, were alleged to have thrown hardened concrete at police officers.

The third, Arumugam Karthik, is said to have been part of a group of at least five that had overturned and set a police car on fire, as well as thrown a dustbin, hardened concrete, bottles and a metal drain cover at the bus windscreen and windows.

When asked if they had anything to say, the three men, who were dressed in yellow polo tees, all shook their heads. There will be a hearing next Monday. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Fishing union boss shot dead in Japan

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 08:16 PM PST

TOKYO: Japanese police said the head of a fishermen's union was shot dead Friday, the second fatal shooting in as many days in a nation unaccustomed to gun crime.

Tadayoshi Ueno, 70, was found lying in the street in the southern city of Kitakyushu after residents nearby heard what was believed to be the sound of gunfire.

Local police said he was confirmed dead at hospital, with reports suggesting he had been shot multiple times.

Gun crime is rare in Japan, and incidents involving firearms usually have a connection to organised crime groups.

Ueno, whose family runs a civil engineering company, was previously fired at in front of his house in 1997 but escaped unhurt, Jiji Press news agency said.

However, his brother was shot dead the following year, a crime for which mobsters were arrested, with investigators saying they had targeted him because he refused to give favours in public works projects, Jiji said.

Friday's shooting came the day after the president of a well-known dumpling restaurant chain was shot dead in the ancient western city of Kyoto. -AFP

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Rape case removed from U.S. Air Force general who made controversial ruling
U.S. diplomats, but not prosecutors, seek to quell India dispute
Troops clash in South Sudan, African states mediate

Rape case removed from U.S. Air Force general who made controversial ruling

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:55 PM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force general who provoked outrage early this year by overturning a fighter pilot's sexual assault conviction has been removed as the officer in a rape case after dismissing the charges, military officials said on Thursday.

Lieutenant General Craig Franklin, commander of the Third Air Force, was removed in September as the officer responsible for the case against Airman First Class Brandon Wright, who was accused of raping a female sergeant at Aviano Air Base in Italy, an Air Force spokeswoman said.

Following a probable cause hearing, Franklin agreed with his legal advisers that the evidence against Wright was not strong enough to proceed to trial, the spokeswoman said. The case has since been shifted to a new jurisdiction and Wright has been charged again with rape.

The case occurred at a time when the Air Force and other military service branches were reviewing their procedures for handling sexual assault prosecutions, in part because of the outcry over Franklin's decision to overturn a jury's sexual assault conviction in the earlier case at Aviano.

That decision was one of several incidents that fuelled anger this spring over a Pentagon report estimating there were 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact in the military in 2012, a 37 percent jump over the previous year. The report prompted a push by lawmakers and the military to address the issue.

Senior Air Force officials reviewed the rape case against Wright and decided that in light of a move toward new procedures, the evidence should be re-examined in a new jurisdiction to ensure the victim's concerns were fully aired, the spokeswoman said.

Wright, who was reassigned in September to the Washington area, was informed by his new commander on November 12 that he had been recharged in the Aviano case. A hearing is tentatively set for January, the spokeswoman said.

News of Franklin's decision in the Wright case provoked new outrage at the general.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, a former sex crimes prosecutor who has led efforts to reform the way the military handles assaults, called for the Air Force to remove Franklin from his command.

"Lieutenant General Franklin should not be allowed to fulfil the responsibilities of military command because he has repeatedly shown he lacks sound judgment," she said.

Kimberly Hanks, the woman who saw her alleged attacker's conviction overturned by Franklin in February, called for the general's ouster from the Air Force. She said in a statement the cases were examples of an "extremely biased and broken military justice system that must be fixed."

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who is leading a push for tough reform of military sex crime prosecutions, said Franklin's decision in the two cases proved the need for her legislation to put prosecutors rather than commanders in charge of deciding whether to take sex crimes to trial.

"For months the military has been arguing that commanders retaining ... authority to prosecute sexual assault is the solution to the vast underreporting of sexual assault crimes in the military," she said. "Franklin is a glaring example of how wrong that is."

(Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

U.S. diplomats, but not prosecutors, seek to quell India dispute

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:45 PM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government sought to present a united front on Thursday and play down any signs of a rift between the State Department and law enforcement officials over how to handle the politically sensitive case of an Indian diplomat subjected to a strip search over alleged visa fraud.

The arrest has enraged India, which demanded that charges be dropped against the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade. New Delhi has also demanded the arrest of the housekeeper, also an Indian national, who had accused her of fraud and underpayment of wages.

In an unusual move, the United States flew the family of the housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, out of India. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said attempts had been made in India to "silence" Richard and compel her to return home.

"It needs to be asked what right a foreign government has to 'evacuate' Indian citizens from India while cases are pending against them in the Indian legal system," an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Before the diplomatic blow-up on Saturday, relations between the two countries had been seen as cordial and improving.

While the U.S. State Department attempted to tamp down the furor in India, U.S. prosecutors showed no signs they would drop their case against Khobragade. In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, Bharara defended the investigation and treatment of Khobragade.

His statement came just hours after Secretary of State John Kerry called India's national security adviser to express regret about Khobragade's treatment.

On Thursday, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke with Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh to again stress the importance of the U.S.-Indian ties and to pledge to work through the complex issues of the case.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf denied suggestions that the department was pressuring U.S. law enforcement to drop the case. "Not true," she told reporters.

Khobragade was arrested last week and released on $250,000 bail after giving up her passport and pleading not guilty to charges of visa fraud and making false statements about how much she paid Richard. She faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted of both counts.

The U.S. Justice Department confirmed that Khobragade was strip-searched after her arrest. A senior Indian government source has said the interrogation also included a cavity search, although U.S. officials have denied this.

Some tension between the State Department and the Justice Department is expected, because one is focused on international law and security while the other attempts to investigate alleged crimes without interference, said John Bellinger, who has held senior positions in both departments.

"Whether it was wise policy to actually arrest and detain someone for a non-violent crime like this, even if technically permissible under the Vienna Convention, is questionable to me. It's really quite surprising," said Bellinger, a former State Department legal adviser and now a private lawyer at the firm Arnold & Porter.

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations gives consular staff such as Khobragade limited but not absolute protection against prosecution.

OUTRAGE IN INDIA

Khobragade's arrest has fed into a pre-election ferment in India, with political parties of all colors voicing patriotic outrage.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters that New Delhi was not convinced there was a case against Khobragade, who he said had been treated like a common criminal.

"We have asked for an explanation for what has happened ... and why, and we have asked for the cases to be dropped and withdrawn immediately," Khurshid told reporters.

"The worst that can be said about the lady who was involved ... is that she did not comply with the amount that was supposed to be paid under law," Khurshid said. "I don't think that justifies treating her like a common criminal."

In response to Khobragade's treatment, India has withdrawn some privileges given to U.S. diplomats and removed security barriers at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

In a report filed by Khobragade with police in India, the diplomat said the nanny told her in June that she felt "overburdened" by her work and wanted to be free to leave the house between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Khobragade responded that Richard had come to the United States on an official passport and "perhaps government rules do not permit her to stay beyond the limit of consulate premises," according to police and court documents seen by Reuters.

The report alleged that Richard had committed crimes under Indian law by making a "false promise" in order to enter the United States and was duty-bound to surrender her passport the moment she stopped working as a domestic servant for Khobragade.

A court order issued an arrest warrant for Richard, and - according to foreign minister Khurshid - her Indian passport has been revoked.

"Unless she takes asylum she will have to come back, she doesn't have a valid passport," he said.

(Additional reporting by John Chalmers, Sruthi Gottipati and Suchitra Mohanty in New Delhi; Editing by Howard Goller, Ross Colvin and Mohammad Zargham)

Troops clash in South Sudan, African states mediate

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:25 PM PST

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudanese government troops battled to regain control of a flashpoint town and sent forces to quell fighting in a vital oil producing area on Thursday, the fifth day of a conflict that has deepened ethnic divisions in the two-year-old nation.

The conflict, which has so far killed up to 500 people, has alarmed South Sudan's neighbours. African mediators held talks with President Salva Kiir on Thursday to try to broker peace, and U.S. President Barak Obama urged the clashing factions to stop fighting.

The clashes that erupted around the capital Juba on Sunday night have quickly spread, pitting loyalists of the former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer, against Kiir, a member of the dominant Dinka clan.

Machar, whose dismissal in July led to months of tensions, has denied Kiir's accusation that he had led a coup attempt.

Rivals have fought fierce gunbattles over the town of Bor, north of Juba, the scene of a 1991 massacre by soldiers loyal to Machar of hundreds of Dinkas.

Thousands of people have sought refuge in U.N. bases, including 200 oil employees in a main crude-producing region. U.N. officials said one base in Jonglei state, where Bor is located, was breached by Nuer and there may have been deaths.

The fighting adds new instability to an already volatile region of Africa, derailing the young and undeveloped nation's halting efforts to build a functioning state.

A team of mediators sent by the Addis Ababa-based African Union arrived in Juba for talks. An Ethiopian official said representatives were from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, the first major peace initiative since clashes first erupted.

"The African Union is until now meeting with the president," spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said, without giving details of the team. "Their message is that they are trying to broker peace between the two forces."

Ateny said Bor was in the hands of Machar's forces. "Bor has surrendered actually because the forces that were in Bor were mainly loyal to Machar," he said. "They control the town but government forces are trying to retake the town."

In Washington, Obama issued a statement saying the conflict threatened to derail progress South Sudan has been making since gaining independence.

"Inflammatory rhetoric and targeted violence must cease," Obama said. "All sides must listen to the wise counsel of their neighbors, commit to dialogue and take immediate steps to urge calm and support reconciliation."

OILFIELD CLASHES

Jodi Jonglei Boyoris, a senior official in Juba, said his family were trapped in Bor and were trying to reach a U.N. camp for safety.

"There is no fighting at all because those soldiers who were in Bor town evacuated as of this morning," he said.

U.N. diplomats have estimated between 400 and 500 dead in the clashes and say about 20,000 people have flocked to the bases of U.N. peacekeepers for refuge. But the United Nations says its 7,000 to 8,000 peacekeepers will not intervene in the conflict.

A U.N. base in Akobo in Jonglei state was attacked on Thursday and the United Nations received reports that some people had been killed, Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said. "The situation in Jonglei has deteriorated," he said.

A U.N. spokesman said the 200 or so oil workers who fled to a U.N. base in the Bentiu oil-producing area were expected to be evacuated by their company, which he did not name.

Mabek Lang De Mading, deputy governor of Unity State, one of the main oil-producing areas, said forces were sent to Unity field, where five people were killed after workers fought with spears and sticks, and to Thar Jath field, where 11 were killed.

"It is stable now," he told Reuters.

China National Petroleum Corp, India's ONGC Videsh and Malaysia's Petronas are the main firms running the oilfields. Total has exploration acreage in country. South Sudan, a nation the size of France, has the third-largest reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria, according to BP.

Oil production, which had been about 245,000 barrels per day, supplies the government with most of its revenues.

As tension in South Sudan mounted following the sacking of Machar, the former vice president said Kiir was acting like a dictator. The president said his rivals were reviving the splits of 1991 that led to bloodshed.

South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in 2011. A persistent dispute with Sudan over their border, oil and security have added to the sense of crisis.

The row led to the shutting of oil production for about 15 months until earlier this year, slashing state revenues and undermining efforts to improve public services in a nation of 11 million people but with barely any paved roads.

(Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in Nairobi and Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by George Obulutsa, Rosalind Russell and Eric Walsh)

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China to relax rules for currency derivatives
Chin Well shares up on positive prospects, RM10mil capex to boost production
China faced the most scrutiny in 2012 over US investments

China to relax rules for currency derivatives

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 02:06 AM PST

BEIJING: China is set to simplify and tweak its rules for currency swaps and options to encourage investors to manage their currency risks, the country's regulator said on Thursday.

As China relaxes its grip over the yuan's value, the authorities want domestic investors and companies to learn to deal with currency risks to minimise financial losses that may threaten the health of the world's No 2 economy.

From Jan 1, financial institutions that already offer currency forwards to clients can also start providing currency and foreign exchange swaps without needing further approvals, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement.

Banks can also offer net payments of foreign exchange and currency swaps under the new rules, the regulator said, a step that brings China in line with international practices.

The revised rules will also allow banks and counterparties to pick the exchange rates they would like to use as reference rates when settling currency options – Reuters

Chin Well shares up on positive prospects, RM10mil capex to boost production

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:57 PM PST

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Chin Well Holdings Bhd rose at midmorning on Friday after the group said it would invest RM10mil to enhance its production facilities.

At 10.51am, it rose four sen to RM1.36 with some 1.41 million shares done between RM1.33 and RM1.37.

The FBM KLCI fell 6.04 points to 1,849.14. Turnover was 263.99 million valued at RM239.76mil. There were 182 gainers, 279 decliners and 268 counters unchanged.

StarBiz reported the group would spend RM10mil in capital expenditure next year, which would be generated by internal funding, to expand its production capacity and range of products.

The group had also received maximum orders for fasteners for the first quarter of 2014, which corresponds to the group's 2014 fiscal year third quarter, and is now taking orders for the second quarter.

Group managing director Tsai Yung Chuan said the orders from Europe and the United States would improve the group's revenue and bottom-line.

"With this uptrend likely to continue, we intend to upgrade our production capacity for our fastener products at our manufacturing facilities in Penang and Vietnam," he said.

China faced the most scrutiny in 2012 over US investments

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 06:49 PM PST

WASHINGTON: Chinese companies faced the most scrutiny over their US acquisitions last year, eclipsing British firms for the first time, according to a report issued on Thursday.

Chinese corporations filed 23 notices with US regulators in 2012, up from 10 in 2011 and nearly quadruple the number in 2010, according to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS.

This compared with 17 notices from companies from the United Kingdom last year, the report said.

CFIUS, an interagency group chaired by the Treasury Secretary, reviews transactions that would bring US businesses under foreign ownership for national security concerns. Most of its reviews stay secret unless companies choose to disclose them, but once a year the group must file a report to Congress about general trends.

Speaking about the latest report, a senior Treasury official said the higher number of Chinese deals under review was consistent with growing Chinese investment in the United States.

There was US$11.5bil's worth of deals by Chinese companies in the US in 2012, which was a significantly higher figure than in any year other than 2007, according to Thomson Reuters data.

US politicians are eager to attract Chinese investment as a source of new jobs and economic growth. And Chinese companies have also become more comfortable with US deals, despite the 2005 rejection of China National Offshore Oil Corp's US$18.5bil attempt to buy US energy company Unocal. CNOOC's bid was thwarted by fierce political opposition because of national security concerns.

CFIUS also recommended that US President Barack Obama block a Chinese firm's acquisition of wind farms close to a US naval training site.

But CFIUS cleared Chinese plans this year to buy Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, despite concerns among some US lawmakers about food safety.

In its report, CFIUS also said it no longer sees that some foreign governments have a coordinated strategy to acquire valuable US technology by buying U.S. firms, as it saw for 2011 – Reuters.

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Malaysian boy on holiday in Sydney killed
A-G refutes HK account claims
Bread manufacturer loses defamation suit

Malaysian boy on holiday in Sydney killed

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

SYDNEY: A Malaysian boy on holiday here with his mother and two cousins was pinned to a school fence by a car that mounted the footpath and hit the group as they walked to a nearby school.

The six-year-old boy died at the scene near the corner of Rickard Street and Marsden Road in the suburb of Carlingford, near the Carlingford Public School, shortly after 9.20am Wednesday.

According to the Australian Associated Press, the boy and his mother were walking to the school with two cousins, aged four and five, and two other children, both girls, when the car ploughed into them. — Bernama

A-G refutes HK account claims

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

KUALA LUMPUR: Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said allegations of his wrongdoings could be easily disproved but Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli chose to go through a lot of trouble to discredit him.

Refuting claims that he and his family members had dealings via banks in Hong Kong, Gani said: "If there is such (account), then it must be a miracle and I would like to know myself."

He added that all Rafizi needed to do was do a company search with the Hong Kong Securities Commission for details.

Rafizi's claim followed allegations by former CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim that he had a statutory declaration accusing Gani of taking bribes to ensure the Malaysian legal team lost in the Pulau Batu Puteh case against Singapore in 2008.

Gani had reportedly told Bernama on Tuesday he was prepared to give Rafizi a letter of authority if the PKR strategy director wants to check his accounts in Hong Kong or in any country over the millions of dollars that had purportedly been deposited into his (the A-G's) account as a bribe in the overlapping claim on the island at the International Court of Justice.

Repeating his offer yesterday, Gani said: "There is no need to trouble people. Just come and see me and I will sign the letter (authorisation letter) for him."

The A-G was speaking to reporters after attending a talk on the Security Offences Act organised by the Malaysian Institute of Defence and Security here.

Rafizi said he would take up Gani's offer, adding that he would travel to Hong Kong to further investigate the alleged case.

Bread manufacturer loses defamation suit

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

SHAH ALAM: A bread manufacturer has lost its defamation suit against a consumer who claimed he found a dead lizard in a loaf he bought in March.

Sessions Court judge Sabariah Othman ruled that Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn Bhd had failed to prove the elements of defamation in the suit against human resources trainer Lau Kian Eng.

On March 28, at a press conference called by Klang MP Charles Santiago, Lau gave statements regarding the dead lizard he found in a bread packaging.

On Aug 6, Gardenia Bakeries sued Lau, claiming he had defamed the company in articles published in five Chinese language newspapers.

The company, which sells a variety of bread products under the Gardenia brand, claimed words and photographs published in the articles implied it had produced and sold unclean and unhygienic products to the public.

It had sought aggravated and exemplary damages and an injunction to prevent Lau or his agents from repeating the alleged defamatory words and photos.

Lau, in his defence, contended he never mentioned the brand name and that the photos of the packaging were blurred.

"The court finds the photos used in the articles did not refer to the plaintiff (Gardenia Bakeries)," said Sabariah, dismissing the suit with costs to be specified later.

She said there was no concrete or conclusive evidence of defamation in the case.

Lau, 42, who was absent from the proceeding, was represented by lawyers Sreekant Pillai and Nicholas Netto.

In an immediate statement, Gardenia Bakeries said it was disappointed but respected the court's decision.

"While the unpleasant experience by Lau and his family is most unfortunate, Gardenia is confident of the hygiene and product safety measures in place at our facilities," it said.

The company did not state if it will appeal against the decision.

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US 'regrets' diplomat treatment as India seethes

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 03:17 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday voiced regret to India over the treatment of a diplomat whose account of being stripped and cavity-searched triggered outrage.

With New Delhi vowing to "restore the dignity" of diplomat Devyani Khobragade, Indian media reported that the 39-year-old was being moved from her post as deputy consul general in New York to the UN mission in a bid to thwart her prosecution.

As India retaliated against American diplomats in the usually US-friendly country, Secretary of State John Kerry tried to end the row in a telephone call to India's national security advisor Shivshankar Menon.

"As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the secretary empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India about the events that unfolded after Ms. Khobragade's arrest," a State Department statement said.

Speaking to Menon, Kerry "expressed his regret, as well as his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public issue to hurt our close and vital relationship with India," it said.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said it was "particularly important to Secretary Kerry that foreign diplomats serving in the United States are accorded respect and dignity just as we expect our own diplomats should receive overseas."

The White House also tried to quell the rift, with spokesman Jay Carney saying that "this isolated episode is not indicative of the close and mutually respectful ties that we share."

Khobragade was arrested on December 12 in New York for allegedly paying a domestic worker a fraction of the minimum wage and for lying about the employee's salary in a visa application. She is free on bail.

The fury in India grew Wednesday after an email from Khobragade in which the diplomat said she had been repeatedly stripped and cavity-searched by the US authorities after her detention.

"I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a hold-up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity," she said in the email.

"I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified, thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride."

Outrage grows in India

The revelation that a diplomat could be subjected to such treatment at the hands of the United States has caused huge offense in a country that sees itself as an emerging world power.

In an address to parliament, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said it was his "duty to bring the lady back."
"We have to restore her dignity and I will do it at any cost," he added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed the diplomat's arrest "deplorable" as newspapers hailed his government for a series of reprisal measures.

"India takes on Uncle Sam," read the front-page headline of The Hindustan Times, while the Mail Today splashed with "Bulldozer Diplomacy" on top of a picture of a digger dragging away concrete barricades outside the US embassy on Tuesday.

US consular officials have also been told to return identity cards that speed up travel into and through India. Import clearances for duty free alcohol and other goods have been suspended.

In a separate call, State Department number three Wendy Sherman spoke to Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and voiced hope that Indian authorities "will continue to fulfill their host government obligations regarding the safety and security of our personnel and mission premises," Harf said.

With a general election just months away, the ruling Congress and the nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are both keen to be seen as standing up to the United States over the issue.

Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP foreign minister, said Tuesday that India should now arrest the same-sex partners of US diplomats after a court ruling last week that upheld a colonial-era ban on homosexuality.
Khobragade is alleged to have paid her worker just $3.31 an hour - well below New York's required $7.25 - despite signing a contract to pay her three times that amount.

The US Marshals Service confirmed Tuesday that Khobragade had been strip-searched like all other prisoners after being arrested while dropping her two children off at school.

Harf said the State Department has not received any notice that India wanted to change Khobragade's credentials to the UN mission. Such a move "would have to be approved by all appropriate authorities" at the UN and State Department, she said.-AFP

Killer Indian driver accuses Australia of hatred

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

NEW DELHI: A lawyer for an Indian driver who fled Australia after a fatal car accident said his client would not get a fair trial if extradited because of hatred towards Indian students.

Anil Mittal, lawyer for Puneet Puneet, told a New Delhi court he opposed his client's extradition to Melbourne to face trial because of the "hatred towards Indian students in Australia".

Mittal cited hate messages on Australian social media sites against Puneet as evidence that his life would be threatened if he returned and that he would not receive a fair trial.

Several attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2011 outraged India and led to accusations of racism against migrants, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Mittal also accused Australian police of pressuring Puneet into confessing to the crime but did not give details.

"The guilty plea was taken out of him under pressure," the lawyer told the magistrate's court.

"We are opposing his extradition. The trial for the charges that he is facing can be held in India."

Puneet, 24, who is being held in Delhi's Tihar jail, was in court along with members of his family.

The court fixed Jan 9 as the date for the next hearing. — AFP

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Malaysian writers pen edgy play

Posted: 19 Dec 2013 12:50 AM PST

Miasma revolves around four stories that share the same pent up emotions.

By QISHIN TARIQ

STEWING is a national past time.

This notion becomes apparent when four Malaysian writers, penning scripts independently of each other, somehow came to a similar theme of pent up passive aggression. The result, Miasma, is being staged at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPac) in Petaling Jaya, Selangor by theatre company Liminal Edge.

Directed by David Lim, the play is adapted from an anthology of original stories by four local talents: Na'a Murad, Maya Tan Abdullah, and new faces Shamaine Othman and Adiwijaya (Iskandar Ismail).

The diverse collection doesn't attempt to be homogenous, instead it celebrates each writer's unique voice. As such, the scripts are multilingual, starting with Shamaine's Noah which is mostly in English, while Adiwijaya's Bapak is performed in northern-accented Malay, Na'a's The Hundred being Manglish to reflect the reality of KL life, and ending with Maya's Dunia Lelaki written entirely in Malay.

"I wanted some Mandarin added to mine too, but we decided not to have too many things going on," says Na'a, during a recent interview. He adds that the play will have surtitles in English and Malay.

Despite having four segments, Miasma, makes use of a relatively compact cast which includes Na'a, Gregory Sze, Iskandar Zulkarnain, Siti Farrah Abdullah, Zukhairi Ahmad, Amelia Chen and Helen Ann Peters.

In the play, Na'a does double duty as both writer and actor, appearing in three of the four segments.

"Rather than put me in drag, the director left Shamaine's piece – which is about two women – in the capable hands of actual actresses," he laughs.

Shamaine reveals that her script Noah tackles the grudging battle between married and unattached people, represented by a pregnant woman arguing with her still-single friend about what to name her soon-to-be-born son. "Having more and more married friends, there's a lot of material to draw from," she admits.

Adiwijaya says his piece Bapak, centres on two siblings and their father who suddenly find themselves in an uncomfortable conversation at an inescapable setting: the family dinner table.

Na'a, who plays the father in Bapak, gleefully adds that the segment's awkwardness would ring uncomfortably close to home for most "typical non-confrontational Asian families."

Maya shares the collection was retroactively titled Miasma after the directors noticed the thread between the stories – all its characters were unable to face issues head on.

Adiwijaya assures that the play is not meant solely to discomfort the audience.

"I like it when a play shows uneasy moments, I believe it gives the audience an idea of how to deal with things in their own life so they don't get stuck in their Miasma," he sums up.

Miasma is on at Black Box, Damansara Performing Arts Centre, Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya in Selangor daily till Dec 22. Shows are at 8.30pm, with matinee performances at 3pm on Dec 21 and Dec 22. Tickets: RM38 (adult) and RM28 (student/senior citizen/disabled). Call 03-4065 0001 or 4065 0002 or visit www.dpac.com.my to book tickets.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

Borderline sugar alert!

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

Those with prediabetes are not only in danger of developing diabetes, but also, at risk of dying early.

WE KNOW that people with diabetes are prone to serious, and sometimes, fatal complications.

As was said in my previous article (Sugar in the blood, Star2, Dec 5), prediabetes is just a condition where blood glucose (sugar) levels are higher than normal, but not as high as in people with untreated diabetes. So, we need not be worried about having prediabetes then, true?

Not true, unfortunately! Even though people with prediabetes have lower blood sugar levels than diabetics, they are also prone to developing complications that occur in people with (uncontrolled) diabetes; for example, kidney disease (nephropathy), eye disease (retinopathy) and nerve damage (neuropathy), especially to the legs.

But, diabetes-related complications are not the only conditions prediabetics need to be concerned about.

· Progression to frank diabetes

This is the most common consequence of prediabetes.

People with prediabetes are said to be about four to 10 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus, compared to those without the condition.

Studies have also suggested that every year, about 10% of those with borderline high blood glucose levels – that is, one in every 10 prediabetics – will progress to become diabetics.

So, it follows that if you do not take steps to address your prediabetes, you could become a diabetic within 10 years!

The more overweight you are, and the higher your blood glucose levels are above normal, the more likely it is that you will develop diabetes.

It is also worth noting that type 2 diabetics almost invariably go through the prediabetic stage that lasts, on average, about 10 years before diabetes is diagnosed.

Clearly, there is plenty of time to improve our health and prevent the progression to diabetes!

Being diagnosed with prediabetes is a warning that your health is in danger, so start exercising and eating right to improve your wellbeing. — Filepic

· Increased risk of heart disease and stroke

People with prediabetes are prone to developing cardiovascular disease (diseases of the heart and blood vessels), including suffering from heart attacks and stroke.

It is estimated that prediabetics are at least twice as likely to have a heart attack, compared to those with normal blood glucose levels.

And it would appear that having high blood glucose levels in the prediabetic range after meals is just as dangerous as for a diabetic, even when the fasting blood sugar level is still normal.

· Increased risk of dying from any cause

Studies have shown that the higher the blood glucose level, the higher is the risk of early death from any cause, including of course, stroke, heart attack, cancers and kidney failure.

The relationship is more obvious with sugar levels after food (measured by the oral glucose tolerance test, OGTT), as shown by landmark studies such as the DECODE (Diabetes Epidemiology Collaborative Analysis of Diagnostic Criteria in Europe) study involving more than 22,000 subjects.

Why the increased risk?

The exact cause of why people with prediabetes are more prone to heart disease or increased risk of dying (from any cause) is still not clear. Experts believe that the cause may be multifactorial, including the presence of:

· High blood pressure

People with diabetes (and prediabetes) are more prone to developing hypertension or high blood pressure (i.e. blood pressure 140/90 mmHg or higher).

If you have high blood pressure, your heart must work harder to pump blood around your body. Thus, uncontrolled high blood pressure will put a strain on your heart and damage your blood vessels, promoting fatty deposition.

By itself and in combination with other risk factors, high blood pressure increases your risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

· Abnormal blood fat levels

In people with prediabetes, this is due to high levels of triglycerides (a type of fat), low levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol, and sometimes, high LDL ("bad") cholesterol, which may present singly or in combination.

Cholesterol can build up inside your blood vessels, especially when these are already damaged by intermittently-raised blood glucose levels (as may occur in people with prediabetes) and uncontrolled high blood pressure.

As a result, your arteries become hardened and narrow, restricting blood flow and increasing your risk for diseases of the heart and blood vessels (CVD).

· Overweight or obesity

If you are an Asian, you are deemed to be overweight if your body mass index (BMI) is between 23.0–24.9 kg/m², or obese if your BMI is 25.0 kg/m² or more.

Central obesity, i.e. having excess weight around your waist (as opposed to the hips), puts you at higher risk of heart disease because abdominal fat can increase production of LDL-cholesterol.

For Asians, a waist circumference of more than 90cm for men or more than 80cm for women means you have central obesity.

Overweight or obesity increases the risk for CVD.

In some studies, even mild to moderate overweight is associated with a substantial elevation in coronary artery disease risk, causing heart attack or heart failure.

· Metabolic syndrome

Raised blood glucose levels (such as in people with prediabetes), high blood pressure and abnormal blood fat levels (low HDL-cholesterol and/or high triglycerides) usually tend to be present together, especially in obese individuals (or those with central obesity).

According to the International Diabetes Federation, you are said to have metabolic syndrome if you have central obesity and two or more of the above conditions.

It is estimated that people with metabolic syndrome have a five-fold greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, compared to those without.

And as expected, people with this syndrome – if not properly managed – are at higher risk of developing CVD, compared to those who have prediabetes alone.

They are three times as likely to have (and twice as likely to die from) a heart attack or stroke, compared with people without the syndrome.

These people are also more prone to kidney failure and early death.

From the above, it is clear that having prediabetes is not as innocuous as it seems.

Indeed, prediabetes puts one in danger of not only developing diabetes, but also heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and other serious complications, including early death.

So, it makes great sense for us to pay serious attention to our prediabetes, and to start taking good care of our health, so that we will not be burdened by its potentially serious (and sometimes fatal) complications.

In the next article on Jan 2, we will learn how to best look after ourselves if we have prediabetes.

Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Mustaffa Embong is a consultant diabetologist and (honorary) executive chairman of the National Diabetes Institute (NADI) of Malaysia. This article is provided by NADI under the "Prevention of Diabetes and Heart Disease" Programme, which is fully funded by the Health Ministry's Health Promotion Board.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

Great leap beyond

Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

Blink-182 isn't afraid of dividing fans and startling critics as it enters a fresh stage.

FOR airplane-phobic drummer Travis Barker, the gig required a quick trip across town in a pimped-out low rider. Singer-bassist Mark Hoppus flew 5,400 miles from London. And with sky's-the-limit rock-star gusto, guitarist-vocalist Tom DeLonge bypassed traffic on the 405 and helicoptered in from San Diego.

With the sun high in the autumn sky, Blink-182 arrived at the Hollywood Palladium to find a punk-rock centipede, a line of heavily tattooed, extravagantly pierced and Mohawk-sporting fans waiting for the sold-out show.

The scene made Hoppus uncharacteristically wistful. "I was that dude!" he said. "I saw so many Palladium shows."

With two back-to-back Palladium performances selling out in 36 seconds (and three other quickly scheduled dates at L.A.'s Wiltern Theater sold out as well), Blink-182's pop-punk cultural output is still defined by arrested adolescence.

Blink rose from San Diego's suburban torpor to become perhaps the least likely alterna-rock band to conquer mainstream radio.

But that band of bros singing about burritos, prank calls and alien abduction? They lost that snot-nose spirit long ago.

Consider that Barker nearly died in a fiery 2008 private-jet crash that claimed the lives of four other people onboard. DeLonge battled back from skin cancer in 2010. And nearly three years ago, Hoppus moved to Europe.

For its November shows, the band turned away from its earliest material and spotlighted its underrated masterwork: the 2003 untitled album commonly known as Blink-182. The plan was to play it front-to-back for the first time at the Palladium, including six songs Blink had never performed live before an audience.

"That's by far my favourite album we did," said Barker, taking a break from pounding his practice pads in an upstairs dressing room. "It was groundbreaking for us."

Upon its release a decade ago thismonth, the self-titled CD arrived as a great leap forward for Blink. It drew in post-hard-core rock influences from DeLonge and Barker's critically hailed side band Boxcar Racer, and ultimately divided fans and startled critics.

While selling more than 2.2 million copies and spawning a No.1 hit (on the Billboard alternative chart) with the melancholy power ballad I Miss You, the album opened inter-personal fissures in the band and contributed to a hiatus that lasted from 2005 to 2008.

Intended as their boys-to-men moment, the self-titled CD provided a turning point for the group by dint of its experimental instrumentation, darker lyrics and total absence of toilet humour.

"We were the joke band. We were the dudes that ran naked in the video," said Hoppus, 41, flanked by his visiting parents and pre-teen son backstage. "We needed to prove that there was something deeper than that. We wanted to treat our music as a form of art and see what we could really do."

In 2002, they moved into a mansion in the San Diego luxury community of Rancho Santa Fe and recorded for nearly six months. Producer Jerry Finn procured some decidedly un-punk instruments, including Tubular bells, stand-up basses and a polyphonic tape replay keyboard, or Mellotron. The Cure's Robert Smith contributed vocals on the song All Of This.

"Mark was like, 'Who ... cares what anyone else thinks? This is for us,'" recalled DeLonge, 37, an alternately kinetic and pensive presence dressed in Johnny Cash black. "We wanted to see what we could be if the cage was opened up."

Rapier thin and laser-intense, Barker has been called "punk's first superstar drummer." But as Blink's least talkative member, when he speaks others take heed.

"I told the guys, 'Pretend this is our first album,'" said Barker, 37. "We weren't going to tour it or make videos; it was supposed to be this quiet little project."

Yet upon its 2003 release, Blink-182 landed at No.3 on the national album chart, spawned two hit singles and several videos.

But recognition came at a price. To hear it from the group now, Hoppus had difficulty accepting the group's new direction.

"It definitely caused some weirdness," said Barker.

After touring through 2004, the three essentially stopped communicating with one another. DeLonge bowed out of further touring, prioritising family before band.

Hoppus described Blink's period apart as an "acrimonious band split where people detest one another and say horrible things about one another in the press."

Barker's plane crash, which left him with third-degree burn scars, brought the three together again.

"We're in a good place," said Hoppus. "When the three of us are in the same room, everyone's focused and excited. Then everyone goes their separate ways and we drift apart. It takes something like this where everyone's like, 'Oh, yeah, this thing!' And we huddle together and get back to work."

After leaving longtime home Interscope Records, Blink is in talks for a new deal. It expects to record new material within the next 90 days. Nostalgia surrounding the 10th anniversary of Blink-182 notwithstanding, the idea is to channel the 2003 mojo into the new material.

Step 1: Shack up in some opulent SoCal spot for the duration of recording. This time, Hoppus said, they're thinking Malibu. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

US 'regrets' diplomat treatment as India seethes
Killer Indian driver accuses Australia of hatred
Sword-wielding man identified as Peter Chua