The Star Online: Nation
The Star Online: Nation |
- Wan Azizah replaces Anwar in by-election
- Probe into passport ring in Phuket
- Many theories on how plane could have disappeared into thin air
| Wan Azizah replaces Anwar in by-election Posted: 09 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PDT KAJANG: The PKR's "Kajang Move" initiative continues with its president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the candidate for the March 23 by-election and she is out to prove that she is no seat warmer for her husband. Dr Wan Azizah said she was willing to take up the challenge after Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim lost his eligibility to contest following his sodomy conviction, adding that it was her responsibility as party chief to follow through with the struggle. "People can call me a seat warmer or whatever they like. But I know and the party knows that I'm more than that. I'm here with a purpose, which is to fight for the people," she said. This is not the first time that Dr Wan Azizah is contesting "on behalf" of Anwar. She stood in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency in the 1999, 2004 and 2008 general elections, a seat held by her husband before he was jailed for corruption. However, a few months after the 2008 polls, she relinquished her post to make way for a by-election which Anwar won. Anwar could not contest in the Kajang by-election after the Court of Appeal on Friday overturned his acquittal on sodomy charges and sentenced him to five years in prison. Asked why Dr Wan Azizah was chosen although 12 other names, including PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution, were put forward, Anwar said: "Yes, Saifuddin's name was included and I was keen for him to take over. However, he is very reluctant and wants to focus on his job as secretary-general. "He also feels that in light of these circumstances and to represent the values and struggle of the Kajang Move, Wan Azizah is the best candidate for Kajang." Vowing to campaign daily in Kajang, Anwar said: "My wife is contesting. Of course, I will be campaigning for her." |
| Probe into passport ring in Phuket Posted: 09 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PDT PETALING JAYA: Investigations have begun into a "passport ring" as details emerged of bookings made in Thailand with stolen European passports for the vanished Malaysia Airlines flight. Two European names – Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy – were listed on the passenger manifest of the flight MH370, but neither man boarded the plane, officials said. Both had their passports stolen in Thailand over the past two years. A senior Thai police official said authorities were probing a passport racket on the resort island of Phuket, where Maraldi's passport was stolen. "A police team combined with local police and immigration are working to track down a passport ring," southern police commander Panya Mamen told AFP. Malaysia has also launched a terror probe investigating the suspect passengers and the United States has sent in the FBI to assist. Immigration Department director-general Datuk Aloyah Mamat will head the probe into how two men used the stolen passports to board the missing MH370. "We want to find out how these two impostors passed through Immigration and boarded the plane," said Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. However, he said it was possible for stolen passports to slip through, especially if they did not have hi-tech features. "Unlike the Malaysian passport, which has a chip, biometric and barcode features, passports issued by some countries are not as sophisticated," he added. He said the department would only be informed of stolen or lost travel documents if the country had a transborder agreement with Malaysia. Bukit Aman is also focused on identifying the two men. According to police sources, cases of stolen passports are common in Thailand. According to several websites, the flight tickets under Maraldi's name was for the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route on MH370/CZ748 (code sharing with Malaysia Airlines and China Southern Airlines), the Beijing-Amsterdam route on CZ767 and onward to Copenhagen on CZ7737. As for "Kozel", he was supposed to travel on the same flights to Amsterdam and then to Frankfurt on CZ7689. It has been speculated that the impostors might know each other as the tickets were bought together and the ticket numbers were in sequence, indicating that they were issued together. Meanwhile, Interpol has expressed regret that few member countries systematically search its database to determine whether a passenger is using a stolen or lost travel document to board a plane. "If Malaysia Airlines and all airlines worldwide were able to check the passport details of prospective passengers against our database, then we would not have to speculate whether stolen passports were used by terrorists to board MH370," said its secretary-general Ronald Noble in a statement posted on the organisation's website. |
| Many theories on how plane could have disappeared into thin air Posted: 09 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PDT PETALING JAYA: With little or no progress in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, many theories are being put forward over how it could have just disappeared. There are suspicions that the Beijing-bound jet, with 239 people on board, may have been hijacked or bombed after the discovery that two passengers were found to be using stolen passports. Reuters reported that it was possible that the plane disintegrated in mid-flight. It quoted a source who is involved in the investigations in Malaysia as saying: "The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet." "If the plane had plunged intact from such a height, breaking up only on impact with the water, search teams would have expected to find a fairly concentrated pattern of debris," said the source, who could not be named as he is not authorised to speak publicly on the investigation. He shared this shortly before Vietnamese authorities said a military plane had spotted at sea objects suspected to be parts of the missing airliner. Asked about the possibility of an explosion, such as a bomb, the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play and that the aircraft could have broken up due to mechanical issues. The authority said it was too dark to be certain if the objects were part of the missing plane, and that more aircraft would be sent to the site, in the waters off southern Vietnam, today. "We received information that our planes found two broken objects, which seem like those of an aircraft, about 50 miles (80km) to the south-west of Tho Chu Island," said a Vietnamese official. Malaysian officials had earlier said no wreckage had yet been found. A more sinister theory arose after a Chinese blogger claimed that a "Muslim minority group" which had been deported from Malaysia claimed responsibility for the disappearance of the plane. Several Uighurs were deported to China from Malaysia in 2011 and 2012 for carrying fake passports. The claim comes a week after knife-wielding assailants killed at least 29 people at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. A Malaysian official said the authorities were not ruling out Uighur involvement. "This is not being ruled out. We have sent back Uighurs who had false passports before. It is too early to say whether there is a link," the official said. |
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