Saudi gift to Malaysia PM Najib Razak 'for election campaign'

Saudi gift to Malaysia PM Najib Razak 'for election campaign'
By Frank Gardner BBC News

Image copyright AFP
Image caption Najib Razak has consistently denied allegations of corruption

The $681m (£479m) deposited in the bank account of Malaysian PM Najib Razak by Saudi Arabia was to help him win the 2013 elections, a Saudi source says.

Malaysia's attorney general cleared Mr Najib of allegations of corruption on Tuesday after ruling that the money was a donation from the Saudi royal family.

Mr Najib had denied that the money came from state-owned investment fund 1MDB.

The Saudi source said the donation was made amid concern in Riyadh about the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the time, Malaysia's opposition alliance included the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Its founders were inspired by the Brotherhood, although there is little evidence the Brotherhood actually has much support in Malaysia.

Mr Najib's coalition went on to win the election, but with one of its poorest showings in more than 50 years in power.

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Profile: Najib Razak

The secretive donation to Mr Najib was allegedly paid over in several wire transfers between late March 2013 and early April 2013, just ahead of the election on 5 May.

The well-placed Saudi source, who has asked not to be named, told the BBC the payment was authorised from the very top - from Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah - with funds coming from both his personal finances and state funds.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption A Saudi source said the donation was approved by the late King Abdullah

Prince Turki bin Abdullah, one of the king's sons, is reported to have had extensive business dealings in Malaysia.

The purpose of the donation was simple, said the Saudi source - it was to help Mr Najib and his coalition win the election, employing a strategic communications team with international experience, focusing on the province of Sarawak, and funding social programmes through party campaigning.

But why should the Saudis care about an election in a non-Arab country more than 6,000 km (3,700 miles) away? The answer, the source said, lay in their concerns over the rising power of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they consider a terrorist organisation.

The Saudis were already upset at events in Egypt, where President Mohammed Morsi was busy consolidating the Brotherhood's hold on the country.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Saudi Arabia was concerned by the rise of Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

It would be another three months before Mr Morsi was to be deposed by the army, and the Saudis were convinced that the opposition was being supported by the Brotherhood and Qatar, which backed the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in the Middle East.
'Very murky'

So how unusual is it for the Saudi royal family to hand over this amount of cash in a personal donation? Not at all, said the Saudi insider, adding that Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Sudan have all been beneficiaries of multi-$100m donations from the Saudi royal purse.

"There is nothing unusual about this donation to Malaysia," he said. "It is very similar to how the Saudis operate in a number of countries."

Saudi Arabia was quick to support the overthrow of Mr Morsi in Egypt, providing the military-backed government with billions of dollars in aid and loans.
Image copyright EPA
Image caption Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali says no further action needs to be taken on the donation

Jordan has been the beneficiary of more than $1bn in Saudi development funding, while Riyadh has deposited more than $1bn in Sudan's central bank and signed deals to finance dams on the Nile. Morocco has been provided with oil, financing, investments and jobs in recent years.

However, questions are still being asked about the secretive and convoluted nature of the money transfer, and the fact that Malaysia's prime minister returned 91% of it just four months later. The remaining $61m has not been accounted for.

A British corporate investigator with extensive experience of the Middle East told the BBC that the $681m was paid through the Singapore branch of a Swiss bank owned by the rulers of Abu Dhabi.

"It is very murky", he said. "This case will never be fully cleared up until the Saudis and the Malaysians release all the transaction data, and that has not happened."
FULL NEWS >> >http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35409424

Silat display at wedding turns bloody after man is stabbed to death with keris

LABUAN: A traditional silat display at a wedding turned bloody when one of the exponents stabbed his 'opponent' with a keris, killing him.

Mohd Amil Zulkarnain, 17, was performing a silat routine for a wedding ceremony at Kampung Patau-Patau here on Saturday when the incident occurred.

While performing a mock duel with his cousin, Amil was accidentally stabbed in the left chest by the curved blade.

He was rushed to the hospital but died on the treatment table.

The keris, a traditional Malay weapon, is usually regarded as extremely lethal due to its 'wavy' blade structure, which does not permit wounds to close easily.

Labuan acting police chief Deputy Superintendent Mohd Ibrahim Mohd Ghani said they received a report from the hospital on the incident at 1.23pm on Saturday.

“Initial investigation revealed that the suspect, who is the victim’s cousin, was performing the silat with Mohd Amil about 11.20am.

“During the course of the performance, the suspect is believed to have stabbed the victim,” he said.

He said suspect has been detained for further investigation.

The case is being investigated under Section 304(a) of the Penal Code of causing death by negligence.

Malaysian dies in Abu Dhabi factory boiler incident

BESUT - A Malaysian working in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates lost his life in an explosion involving a boiler he was inspecting at a plastic manufacturing factory there early yesterday.

Mohd Shukri Sulaiman, 45, from Besut, Terengganu had been employed as a boilerman at Al-Borouge Pte Company Limited since 2011.

The victim's younger brother, Faizol Sulaiman, 42, said when met at their mother's house at Kampung Padang Landak here today that the family was informed of the incident by his brother's workmate who is also from Besut.

"We were informed in a phone call by Ahmad Syukkri Md Nor. He said prior to the incident he heard a loud explosion and went to the scene and discovered my brother's body which was almost totally charred next to the boiler.

Faizol said their elder brother Saria Sulaiman, 52, would leave for Abu Dhabi today as according to Ahmad Syukkri, 33, their employer was waiting for him to identify the remains.  

Mohd Shukri, the sixth of 11 children left behind his wife, Azmahani Mamat, 43, and four children, three boys and a girl aged between 7 and 14 years who are presently living in Indera Mahkota, Kuantan.

Faizol said his brother had previously worked for Petronas in Kerteh, Syarikat Grace Kuantan, YTL in Paka, Malaysia Newsprint Industry, Mentakab and Electric Supply Board, Kulim before joining A-Borouge Pte Com Ltd.

She said her son returned home for a week's leave on Dec 7 and had brought her along for a holiday to Kundasang, Sabah with his wife and children. - Bernama

G20 Summit starts with focus on global economic challenges

ANTALYA: The two-day G20 Leaders’ Summit begins Sunday with the central focus on global growth and expectations the leaders will respond further to issues relating to terrorism and refugee crisis.

With the current financial market tensions and slowdown in emerging market economies, the Summit is expected to focus on global economic challenges and update on its growth strategies.

The event started with the welcoming ceremony of world leaders at noon, among them, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was also received by the Summit’s host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Regnum Carya Hotel, which is the Summit venue.

Najib, who was on a three-day working visit to Turkey since Nov 13, attends the Summit in his capacity as the Chair of ASEAN.

It is understood all G20 leaders attend the Summit with the exception of French President Francois Hollande following the recent Paris incident and Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner due to the country's election.

Azerbaijan, Spain, Malaysia, Senegal, Singapore and Zimbabwe have been invited to participate in the Antalya Summit together with the G20 members.

Approximately 13,000 guests, of which 2,469 are media members, participated in the two-day Summit.

The G20 is the premier forum for global economic and financial cooperation that brings together the world’s major advanced and emerging economies, representing around 85 percent of global gross domestic product.

It groups individual countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, US and the European Union.

The G20 aims to conclude the Summit with practical outcomes on priority areas such as development, climate change, trade, growth and environment.

Following the welcoming ceremony, leaders will then proceed for a working lunch session on development and climate change, followed by the next working session on inclusive growth that would will delve on global economy, growth strategies, employment and investment strategies.

A working dinner session on global challenges pertaining to terrorism and refugee crisis will then be held after an earlier reception and cultural performance hosted by Turkish Prime Minister Dr Ahmet Davutoglu and wife.
The Antalya Summit was preceded by the G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia in 2014 which saw leaders adopting the Brisbane Action Plan, intending to raise potential world growth by two percent over five years.

This was expected to add US$2 trillion to world output with some 1,100 measures put forth by G20 member governments.

--awani

Four murders, bodies burnt and dumped in river

IPOH: Four people were murdered, their bodies burnt and their ashes and bones thrown into a river at a workshop in Tapah near here.

The murders started with a 57-year-old man who was reported missing on Oct 30, 2012. After that, a tour bus operator, 56, went missing on March 1, 2014 followed by a vehicle spare parts dealer, 54, also last year.

The latest in the murders was a 46-year-old land broker, who was reported missing by his son on Aug 25 after he left the house in Kampung Sungai Lah, Chenderiang in the morning and never returned.

Perak deputy police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Hasnan Hassan said the victims were murdered and their bodies burnt at the workshop in Tapah. Their ashes and bones were later thrown into a river to conceal the murders.

Police now believe that they have solved the murders in connection with the missing persons reports on the four.

On Oct 26, they nabbed a family comprising a 57-year-old mechanic, his wife, 54, and their two children aged 17 and 20, at their house in Tapah, some 55km from here.

DCP Hasnan said the murders were believed to have taken place between 2012 and this year.

"The forensic team from the police and the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital conducted a two-day crime scene investigation on Oct 30 and 31 in a few areas in Tapah.

"A few bone samples were found and have been sent to the hospital for a post mortem, as well as a DNA test for identification," he said.

DCP Hasnan said the suspects' latest victim was murdered and burnt at the suspects' bus workshop in Tapah.

"His bones and ashes were thrown into the river nearby while his motorcycle was left on the side of the road heading to Cameron Highlands," he told journalists on Monday.

DCP Hasnan said further investigations revealed that the other three victims were killed and disposed of using the same method.

All the victims were believed to have been killed over debts, failed land sales and stolen land titles.

DCP Hasnan added that the main suspect - the mechanic - was previously charged with four counts of breaking and entering, one count of fraud, one count of robbery, and one case of breach of trust.

"All four suspects have been remanded until Nov 6 to assist in investigations.

"I urge those who have any information related to this case to contact their nearest police station, as we have reason to believe that there could be more victims involved," he said.

Russian plane crash: Final moments of doomed airliner revealed in flight data as it emerges crew went unpaid for two months

Airline had not paid employees for two months

The airline of the jet that crashed into the Sinai had not paid its staff in over two months, Russian news agencies have reported.

The widow of the doomed jet's co-pilot, Sergey Trukhachov, said that he had not been paid for three months.

Metrojet's parent company, Kogalymavia, has wage arrears of just over $1 million (£650,000), according to its CEO Alexander Snagovsky.

The airline flies charter flights to popular destinations such as Turkey and Egypt, and has a history of serious accidents.

A Kogalymavia (MetroJet) Airbus A321, like the one that crashed in the Sinai

AFP reports that in 2010, one of Kogalymavia's Tupolev planes leased to an Iranian carrier made a hard landing and broke up and caught fire, injuring 46 passengers.

In 2011, three people died after one of its Tupolevs caught fire on the runway in the Russian Far North on New Year's Day.

Kogalymavia stopped flying Tupolevs later that year and in 2012, it rebranded itself as Metrojet.

The plane that was involved in this crash had previously been in an accident in which its tail had been damaged. The plane was not operating under this airline at the time, and Metrojet stressed that it was properly repaired and had recent safety checks.

Russia has a poor air safety record, particularly with smaller airlines' unmodernised fleets causing worries.

15:45

A summary of today's events so far

Executives at the airline of the doomed airliner Metrojet announced that it came down due to "external impact", and not technical faults or human error.

Metrojet executive Alexander Smirnov said that the plane was "flying out of control - that is, it wasn't flying, it was falling."

He also defended the airline from claims that it had not paid its staff for over two years, and that the plane had suffered a tail strike in previous years, which had been repaired fully.

The plane's black boxes have not yet been analysed, although one source told Reuters that the jet was not struck from the outside.

Russian investigators stand near debris, luggage and personal effects of passengers a day after a passenger jet bound for St. Petersburg in Russia crashed in Hassana, Egypt  Photo: AP

There has been growing speculation in the Russian media that flight 7K9268 may have been destroyed by an on-board explosion.

Russian and Egyptian authorities have both played down claims that the plane was brought down by Isil, as the group has claimed.

Vladimir Putin called for an objective investigation into the disaster. "Without any doubt everything should be done so that an objective picture of what happened is created, so that we know what happened,” he added. "This work should be continued until we are fully sure that this stage is complete,” he said.

The Egyptian government also pushed back on assertions by Metrojet that their Airbus A321 did not suffer a technical fault and was instead brought down by an "external impact".

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he could not rule out involvement of Isil in the crash, but said that it was "unlikely", adding that "We don't have any direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet,"

A woman lights a candle during a requiem in memory of the victims of the plane crash in Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg  Photo: Getty

A Russian cargo plane landed in St Petersburg this morning, carrying the remains of 140 people. Another flight carrying the rest of those killed in the crash will arrive in Russia this evening.

Russian authorities announced that they had finished combing a 20 square kilometre area for bodies, and would now concentrate on working out the causes of the crash.

15:19

An aerial picture reveals the spread of the debris in the Sinai desert

The Russian airplane crash site on the Sinai Peninsula is pictured in this handout photo satellite image provided by Russian Emergencies Ministry  Photo: REUTERS

Wreckage at the site where a Russian aircraft crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula near El Arish city.   Photo: Corbis

14:56

Flight Radar data shows the 'final moments' of the doomed airliner

Flight 7K9268 lurched up and down several times in the final moments before it lost contact with the ground, according to data from the Flight Radar 24 tracking site.

The Airbus 321 climbed nearly 3,000 feet in three seconds before falling another 3,000 feet a few seconds later, the altitude data shows. It repeated the abrupt rise and fall a second time before it was lost to radar.

The records from the Sweden-based Flight Radar 24 also show the aircraft rapidly losing speed in its last minute. This data is usually very reliable, but can sometimes be affected by an erroneous message.

Alexander Smirnov, a top official at Metrojet, says its plane dropped 300 kph (186 mph) in speed and 1.5 kilometers (about 5,000 feet) in altitude one minute before it crashed into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The flight was at a cruising speed of just over 407 knots (468 miles per hour) at the beginning of the data set. Thirty seconds later the speed had fallen to just 62 knots (70 miles per hour) - far too slow for a plane that size to remain airborne.

Dr Stephen Wright, who teaches aviation at the University of Leeds, pointed to the possibility of a "wayward act" which may have caused the sudden end of data transmission - and crash.

"Looking at the numbers, it's confusing to me", he said. "If there was a catastrophic failure due to a wayward act that would cause significant damage and the aircraft could break up in flight."

The sudden climb "would suggest it hit really terrible weather, an updraft, clear air turbulence. Those kinds of weather conditions are usually when you are flying over large expanses of water, and particularly tropical water.

"I don't think that's possible in that location because it's over the desert."

He added that the focus now is on "the information is in the black boxes - those are the items I am interested in now.

"They will be listening to the cockpit recorder for unusual sounds. it records the voices and also the sounds at different locations, and you can triangulate where the sound came from and the type of sound."

14:23

US Director of National Intelligence: no evidence yet of terrorist involvement

Speaking at the Defense One Summit, the US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that there was no direct evidence yet of terrorist involvement in the Russian plane crash.

Man claims MH370 wreckage on south Philippines island

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police have received a report claiming that an aircraft wreckage with the Malaysian flag painted on it was found on a southern Philippines island.

The report was made by a man who said the wreckage with human remains inside was spotted by his nephew, from the southern Philippine island of Tawi Tawi,  at Ubian Island in southern Phillippines several days ago.

State Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the man made the report at the Sandakan police station on Saturday.

“This matter is being investigated,” he told The Star in a text message.

In the report the man, an audio visual technician in his 40s, said his nephew and a few others were hunting for birds when they spotted the wreckage on the island.

They managed to get near the wreckage where they found human bones. They also found skeletal remains in the pilot's chair with the seat belt fastened.

Before leaving the area, they took a flag they found in the wreckage.

The man said he informed police as the wreckage could be that of an airplane that disappeared last year.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them China nationals.

The incident triggered one of the largest search for an aircraft focusing in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Last month, French authorities confirmed a  piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has been identified as part of the MH370 wreckage.

The flaperon was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/10/10/mh370-man-claims-found-part-of-wreckage-in-south-philippnes-island/

Indonesian C130 Hercules crashes in residential area of North Sumatra, killing 30 people

An Indonesian military plane has crashed in a residential area in the capital of North Sumatra killing 30 people, according to a search and rescue official.

The local hospital reported 13 dead and two in intensive care, but the head of Search and Rescue, Rochmali, whose staff are at the crash site, said 30 bodies had been counted in the flaming wreckage.

The C130 Hercules took off from Suwondo Air Base in Medan shortly before midday (local time) but just minutes into the flight the pilot requested permission to return to the base.

The plane then banked to the right and plummeted into the ground, wiping out buildings, including part of a hotel.

Military spokesman Dwi Badarmanto said the plane was on a routine logistics mission to Tanjung Pinang, near Singapore, and there were 12 people on board.

Pictures on social media showed flaming wreckage, with the fuselage of the aircraft visible among thick plumes of black smoke.

The plane came down in an area where there are houses, shops and a hotel.

Video Suspects open fire on Dallas police

DALLAS — Multiple gunmen toting automatic weapons opened fire on officers outside Dallas Police headquarters early Saturday morning, before one man fled the scene being chased by police in what witnesses described as an armored van, according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown.
Police said conflicting witness accounts made it difficult to immediately determine how many shooters were involved and authorities were trying to determine a motive.

Brown said during a news conference that the shootout began about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, when the suspects parked in front of the building located south of downtown and began firing. He said at least one of the suspects fled the scene in a van that rammed a police cruiser before leading police on a chase that ended in an ongoing standoff at parking lot in the nearby suburb of Hutchins, where additional gunfire was exchanged.
Brown said the suspect driving the van has told officers that he blames police for losing custody of his son and “accusing him of being a terrorist.” The gunman also said he had explosives in the van, which appeared to be outfitted with gun ports in the sides.
Brown said negotiations with that suspect and the SWAT unit are ongoing. No injuries were reported.
Brown said, based on witness accounts, as many as four suspects may have been involved in the original shooting, including some who may have been strategically positioned at elevated positions. Police could not immediately confirm how many shooters were involved and where any additional suspects may be located.
Meanwhile, Brown said police also found four bags outside police headquarters, including one that held a pipe bomb that later exploded. He said police were evacuating nearby residents as a precaution.
Ladarrick Alexander and his fiancée, Laquita Davis, were driving back toward the police station to their nearby apartment when they heard 15 to 20 gunshots in quick succession.
Seconds later, police could be seen swarming an unmarked van that appeared to have crashed into a police car, they said.
They turned around and were parked outside the police perimeter about two blocks away, where they heard the sound of one detonation at about 4:30 am and smoke coming up in the air.
Police headquarters is in a former warehouse district where a boutique hotel and several new apartment buildings have been opened.
“We don’t see too much going around here at all,” Alexander said.

Malaysian police ask for permission to remove Rohingya remains via Thai territory

Songkhla – Malaysian police have sought the permission of the Thai authorities to use the route in Thailand to bring out the remains of human trafficking victims found in a forest area near the border.
Both sides agreed to cooperate and the Thai side wanted to refer the matter to its higher authorities, said 9th Division Police chief, Pol. Gen. Monteree Potranant.
A Malaysian police team from Perlis held a two-hour meeting with the Thai side which was represented by the police, army and district office at the Sadao police station in Songkhla.
Meanwhile, Chakrit Longsamat, 53, former mayor of Mukim Tamalang, Satun, surrendered to police at the Padang Besar police station in Sadao, today.
This followed the issuance of an arrest warrant against him for alleged human trafficking.
Thailand’s 9th Division Police spokesman, Pol. Maj. Gen. Puttichat Akkachan said 77 arrest warrants were issued, with 49 people arrested or they surendered, while 28 others were still at large.
He said the Prevention of Money Laundering Office seized assets totalling 84.5 million baht.
Of the amount, 63.5 million baht was seized in Ranong province and 21 million baht seized from the Nai Pajuban Angchotipan group in Satun province.
Thai police will bring human trafficking victims comprising Rohingyas to the camp at Bukit Khao Keaw in Mukim Padang Besar, Sadao district, Songkhla, soon.
This was where the first graves of Rohingya migrants were discovered which triggered a crackdown on human traffickers by the Thai authorities in southern Thailand.
The investigation into human trafficking cases is expected to be completed by June 20, reports Bernama.

Rohingya toddler found at sea dies

LANGSA (Indonesia) – Beneath the swaying banana trees, there is ­nothing but a few plants to mark the resting place of three-year-old Shahira Bibi and the horror of the final weeks of her short life, at sea on a migrant boat.
When the tiny Rohingya girl from Myanmar was finally rescued from the sinking vessel off Indonesia’s western Aceh province, her body was already wracked with spasms and weighed no more than a six-month-old baby.
Some 100 people had already died onboard when clashes broke out between Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants over the meagre rations of food and water left after weeks adrift.
As the fighting escalated, the boat started to go down – but fishermen spotted the desperate migrants off Aceh just in time, and ferried them to shore on May 15.
 Shahira was taken to hospital, but by then she was already desperately ill and there was little the medical team could do to save her.
Her death Wednesday is the latest tragic tale from a migrant crisis that has seen more than 3,500 boat people arrive in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia in the past two weeks.
“Deep inside my heart, I am very sad,” her mother Mimi said, describing how she has cried constantly since losing her daughter.
Now she is trying to stay strong for her other daughter, four-year-old Asma, who was also on the boat.
“If I look sad, Asma will cry, so I am laughing with her,” said 25-year-old Mimi, who goes by one name.
Like thousands of Muslim Rohingya fleeing persecution in Buddhist Myanmar, the family had been trying to make their way to relatively affluent Malaysia where Mimi’s husband is working.
But a clampdown by Thailand, where many stop before travelling overland to Malaysia, disrupted long-established people-smuggling routes and the boat carrying the family and hundreds of others was abandoned by its crew. – AFP

Turkish prime minister’s wife in tears after meeting Muslims in Myanmar

A video released on a social media platform shows Emine Erdogan, the wife of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, burst into tears when she met members of the Muslim minority in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.

Emine Erdogan accompanied Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as he left on Wednesday to observe the situation in Rakhine where fighting between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslim has killed 80 people in June, according to official figures.

Mrs. Erdogan’s attempts to stop her tears with a tissue were futile, when a man speaking in the local Roghinya language made his anguish clear to Davutoglu not only through a translator but also through his loud cries, which compelled the foreign minister to hug him, and made her cry even more.

Before his departure to Myanmar, Davutoglu said that the government of Myanmar reported the deaths to be around a hundred... but the Muslim leaders in Rakhine, with whom Ankara had been in contact, said the toll reached thousands.

The foreign minister and the prime minister’s wife offered hugs and around $2 million worth of humanitarian supplies. Myanmar generally allows only humanitarian aid through U.N. organizations but recently accepted the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to assist the Rohingya displaced by sectarian violence.

Human Rights Watch said on Aug. 1 that the Rohingyas had suffered mass arrests, killings and rapes at the hands of the Myanmar security forces. The minority bore the brunt of a crackdown after days of arson and machete attacks in June by both Buddhists and Rohingyas in Rakhine state, the monitoring group said.

Myanmar, where at least 800,000 Rohingyas are not recognized as one of the country’s many ethnic and religious groups, has said it exercised “maximum restraint” in quelling the riots.

Turkish military ship joins efforts to reach Rohingya Muslims

The Turkish navy is carrying out efforts to reach Rohingya Muslims stranded in boats off the coast of Thailand and Malaysia, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said.

Addressing a group of young people at Çankaya Palace May 19, Davutoğlu said that Turkey was doing its best to reach Rohingya Muslims at sea with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with the help of a ship from the Turkish Armed Forces already sailing in the region.

Some 7,000 to 8,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants are currently thought to be in the Malacca Straits, unable to disembark because of crackdowns on trafficking networks in Thailand and Malaysia, their primary destination.

Boats carrying about 500 members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community washed ashore in western Indonesia on May 10, with some people in need of medical attention, a migration official and a human rights advocate said.

The men, women and children arrived on two separate boats, holding 430 people and 70 people respectively, said Steve Hamilton, deputy chief of mission at the IOM in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital.

Rohingya Muslims have suffered for decades from state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar.

Attacks on the religious minority by Buddhist mobs in the last three years have sparked one of the biggest exoduses of boat people since the Vietnam War, sending 100,000 people fleeing, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project. The project has monitored the movements of Rohingya for more than a decade.

Tightly confined and with limited access to food and clean water, Lewa said she worries that the migrants’ health is steadily deteriorating. Dozens of deaths have been reported in the last few months.

Who brought down Bin Laden?

A UK-based former senior officer in the Pakistan Army has been accused of being a supergrass who sold the secret location of Osama bin Laden to the CIA.
Retired Brigadier Usman Khalid, a British citizen, has been named as the informant whose tip-off led to the assassination of the world’s most wanted man in 2011.
His family have told The Telegraph of their anger that their father – who died a year ago after living in London for 35 years – has been publicly identified as the source of the leak.
And they have denied that Brigadier Khalid was the man responsible.
The White House and CIA have always maintained that their own intelligence agents pieced together the information that led to the Navy Seals raid.
Mr Hersh’s version of events could scarcely be more different. Mr Hersh claimed that Bin Laden was being held prisoner by the Pakistani intelligence agency – the ISI – in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
He claimed that an unnamed senior officer in the Pakistani army had been the “walk-in” who provided details of the secret hideout in exchange for a substantial amount of a $25 million bounty.
According to Mr Hersh’s account, the supergrass was supposed to also have been rewarded with US citizenship and to be alive and well in America.
In a bizarre twist, the unnamed officer has now been identified in Pakistani media – citing military sources – as Brigadier Khalid.
However, his family believe he has been wrongly implicated because of his outspoken views on Pakistani politics.
The retired brigadier claimed political asylum in Britain after resigning from a 25 year career in the army in protest at the execution in 1979 of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the former prime minister and father of Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.
Brigadier Khalid died last year of cancer at the age of 79.
Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, his son, Abid Khalid said: “It simply doesn’t make sense. At the time that this was supposed to have happened, he was suffering from cancer and in and out of hospital.
“My father hadn’t visited the USA since 1976 and had lived in the UK since 1979 so there was no question of him of his family getting American citizenship. He had no contact with the CIA and knew nothing about Osama Bin Laden, other than what he read in the newspapers, just like everyone else.
“He was politically very vocal, so he was an easy target.”
The family also denied claims that their father had played a role in persuading a Pakistan doctor – Dr Shakhil Ahmed – to set up a fake polio vaccination drive as part of a CIA ploy to surreptitiously acquire DNA evidence of Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.
“My father was an honourable and patriotic man,” said Abid Khalid. “He was also a caring, family man and would be horrified to be linked to the fake polio vaccination programme.
“He would have been devastated to have been linked to anything which would put the lives of innocent people, especially children at risk, especially in the country he loved.”

Tip-off
Critics have accused Mr Hersh – the investigative journalist who uncovered the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prison scandal – of allowing himself to be used to vent conspiracy theories. They have also queried the quality of his reporting, saying that has relied too much on one US intelligence source, whom they say appears to have known little about the inner workings of the operation to find Bin Laden.
The White House described his claims that Pakistan co-operated with the US to kill the former al-Qaeda leader as “inaccurate and baseless”.
However, since the publication of the article further allegations have emerged to support at least some of his assertions.
On Sunday it was reported that Germany’s foreign intelligence agency helped the CIA track down bin Laden.
The BND spy service – the German equivalent of MI6 – was said to have provided a tip-off that he was hiding in Pakistan, with the knowledge of Pakistani security services.
Mr Hersh declined to comment on the comments by Brigadier Khalid’s family. It is understood that he claims the source of the tip-off about Bin Laden’s whereabouts was not the same person identified by the Pakistani newspaper, The News.
In 2013, the London Review of Books published another widely-contested article by Mr Hersh, in which he cited anonymous intelligence sources blaming the Nusra Front jihadist group rather than the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad for the August 2013 sarin gas attack in Ghouta, Damascus. - Daily Telegraph UK

Sandakan kidnapping: Police verifying ransom calls

KOTA KINABALU – Police are verifying the authenticity of a purported call demanding for millions of Ringgit for the release of two Malaysians kidnapped from a restaurant in Sandakan.
Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said they are evaluating claims made in a media report.
“I will only comment after that,’’ he told the Star on Saturday.
Utusan Malaysia reported security forces as saying that they had received a call from the kidnappers demanding a large ransom late Friday although the amount was not disclosed.
 The security official was quoted as saying that they would not bow down to such demands although they would negotiate for the safe release of the restaurant manager Thien Nyuk Fun, 50, and a Sarawakian tourist Bernard Thien Ted Fen.
The duo were kidnapped by at least four gunmen from the seaside Ocean King Seafood Restaurant in Sandakan on Thursday.
Based on previous kidnappings, unknown groups make calls demanding exorbitant ransoms of up to RM80mil before lowering them to between RM1mil to RM3mil for their release.
Currently, the whereabouts of the gunmen and the two hostages are still unknown although security sources in Philippines believe that the group had slipped out of Malaysia by late Thursday.

Asean needs to jointly address Rohingya refugee issue – Najib

JOHOR BAHARU – An ASEAN solution through the network of ASEAN member countries must be taken to deal with the Rohingya refugees issue before it becomes a more deadly humanitarian catastrophe, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
The prime minister in stating Malaysia’s stand as ASEAN chairman, said it was not only the concern of ASEAN leaders but was also voiced out by regional and international leaders, including United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
“We respect the ASEAN principles whereby we do not interfere with the internal affairs of any ASEAN countries.
“However when a certain problem has spread and affect the leadership of other ASEAN nations and possibly outside ASEAN, then we need to find solutions through an ASEAN forum and cooperate with other parties,” he told reporters after officially handing over the Melana Indah Fasa 1 People’s Housing Project (PPR) here, Saturday.
Najib said the UN secretary-general via a telephone call to him this morning, had voiced the international body’s concern on the issue.
“I told him (Ban) it is a humanitarian catastrophe that must be taken seriously by all countries.
“This is not only an ASEAN issue but humanitarian issue, a global issue that must be taken seriously by all countries,” said the prime minister.
Najib said Malaysia should not be burdened by the issue of ethnic Rohingya refugees, particularly when the source of the problem does not come from within the country.
“We are very sympathetic towards those who were floating in the open seas. Many were killed, including children and so forth,’ he said.
“We are unwilling or pleased with this matter. Because of that we allow some of them to land and provide humanitarian aid to them but Malaysia must not be burdened with this problem as there are thousands more waiting to flee from their region,” said Najib.
Hence the prime minister has directed Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman to contact the Myanmar government to convey this message and hoped for a positive response from that country.
“I hope they will give a positive response as the refugees were due to internal problems that we cannot interfere but we want to do something before it gets worst.
“We will work through the ASEAN network to find an ASEAN solution and hope that the Myanmar government will not consider this as interfering with domestic matters but look at it as to avoid human tragedy of gargantuan proportions,” he said in a firm tone.
Asked if it was necessary to call for an emergency meeting among ASEAN member countries, he said Malaysia was looking at several options.
“Right now, we are liaising with the Myanmar government to get their response,” he said.
“In the next few days, we see how their (Myanmar) response is and I am in contact with other ASEAN colleagues,” said the prime minister.
Asked if UN would offer assistance, Najib said the international body had voiced its concern while aid could be obtained through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“We see what statement the UN will make,” he said.
On whether Malaysia would sign the UN Refugees Convention 1951 agreement, Najib said: “There are implication to that. As you know Malaysia already has 120,000 illegal people from Myanmar in the country.”
“To say we do not accommodate or reduce this humanitarian problem is not true. Malaysia has played a large part but we are not the source of the problem,” he said.
Asked if the National Service Training Programme (PLKN) was used to place Rohingya refugees, Najib said the decision was based on humanitarian ground.
“We will make it based on discretion on humanitarian ground but we cannot obviously give the signal that Malaysia is open. Anyone who wants to enter, can enter,” he added, reports Bernama.

Accused of misleading Parliament, Ahmad Maslan says sorry for 1MDB support letter slip-up

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan was forced to apologise to the Dewan Rakyat today for having left out “six words” during his winding speech in Parliament two weeks ago over a controversial letter of support for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
In responding to a motion to refer him to the Parliament’s rights and privileges committee, Ahmad said he did not intend to mislead the House when he said on November 6 that there was no other sovereign guarantee or letter of support to the Putrajaya-backed investment arm.
“I accept my mistake of having left out six words that — there is no other guarantee letter,” said Ahmad, who is also the Barisan Nasional MP for Pontian.
In an unprecedented move, Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia also explained that he had instructed both parties to submit documents to prove their claims and refrained from making a ruling  to avoid a misunderstanding.
“I gave both Pandan and Pontian a chance to present the facts here again... because I want to remind all of you here that the Standing Orders 36 (12) is not to be used in vain as it is a testament of a parliamentarian’s integrity,” said Pandikar.
“You may disagree with my decisions but I will do my job as fairly as possible.
“I would like also like to draw your attention to Standing Orders 10 (4) — the Hansard can be corrected with the Speaker’s permission ... and as such the deputy minister has stated that it was not his intention to mislead the House, and therefore, I have decided to not refer him to the rights and privileges committee,” he said.
Ahmad had made the correction after Pandan PKR MP Rafizi Ramli’s filed a motion to cite the former for contempt under Standing Order 36 (12), supposedly for misleading the Dewan Rakyat over the letter of support issued to 1MDB last week.
During his winding up speech on Budget 2015, Ahmad had insisted that there were “no other letter support” apart from an explicit guarantee of only RM5.8 billion of the sovereign fund’s loans.
Ahmad had also denied the existence of Putrajaya’s letter of support for 1MDB arranged by US-based investment banker Goldman Sach’s International to raise US$3 billion (RM10.02 billion) in bonds last year.
On November 8, in a press conference in Parliament, the deputy minister, however, said he meant to state that the letter of support does not amount to an explicit guarantee.
Unlike a letter of support, an explicit guarantee is legally binding under the Loans Guarantee (Bodies Corporate) Act 1965, Ahmad had explained, asserting that 1MDB — which was set up to help drive Putrajaya’s strategic investments — is financially sound to settle its debts with assets valued at RM51 billion.
This was was opposed by Pakatan Rakyat MPs, who contended that the letter of support amounted to a guarantee as in confirms that Putrajaya has agreed to inject necessary capital or make payments on behalf of 1MDB to ensure its obligations are met.
1MDB has been dogged by negative publicity over massive fees paid for bond sales, the near one-year delay in publishing its financial accounts, and most recently, changing auditors.

Russian TV channel says photos show MH17 shot down by fighter jet

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian state television has released a satellite photograph that it claims shows that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. But the U.S. government dismissed the report as preposterous and online commentators called the photo a fake.
All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed when it was shot down July 17 over a rebel-held area of Ukraine. Ukraine and the West have blamed the attack on Russia-backed rebels using a ground-to-air missile.
The photo released Friday by Russia's Channel One and Rossiya TV stations purportedly shows a Ukrainian fighter plane firing an air-to-air missile in the direction of the MH17. The channels said they got the photo from a Moscow-based organization, which had received it via email from man who identified himself as an aviation expert.
The U.S. State Department on Friday dismissed the Russian TV reports as yet another "preposterous" attempt by Moscow to "obfuscate the truth and ignore ultimate responsibility for the tragic downing of MH17." It renewed a call to Moscow and Russia-backed separatists to "grant unfettered access for international investigators to the crash site."
Several bloggers said the photograph is a forgery, citing a cloud pattern to prove the photo dates back to 2012, and several other details that seem incongruous.
Some saw the photo as a propaganda effort intended to deflect criticism over the tragedy that Russian President Vladimir Putin faces as he attends the Group of 20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.
Mark Solonin, a Russian author who is an engineer by training, said in his blog that both aircraft looked disproportionate to the landscape and concluded that their images were crudely edited into a satellite picture.
Others noted that the commercial airliner in the photo appears to be of a different type, a Boeing 767.
The Russian television stations stood by the report, saying their source was the Russian Union of Engineers, an obscure Moscow-based organization that had previously issued a report claiming that the Malaysian plane had been downed by Ukrainians. The organization's vice president, Ivan Andriyevsky, said in televised remarks that it received the image via email from a man who said he was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 20 years of experience as an aviation expert.
Attempts to reach Andriyevsky by telephone and email on Saturday were unsuccessful.
Most of the victims of the MH17 crash were Dutch, and a preliminary report issued by Dutch crash investigators in September said the Malaysia Airlines plane was likely downed by multiple "high-energy objects," a finding aviation experts say is consistent with a missile strike.
Pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine have always denied any involvement in shooting down the plane.
However just three hours before MH 17 was downed, The Associated Press reported the passage of a Buk M-1 missile system — a machine the size of a tank bearing four ground-to-air missiles — through the rebel-held town of Snizhne near the crash site.
A highly placed rebel officer told the AP in an interview after the disaster that the plane was shot down by a mixed team of rebels and Russian military personnel who believed they were targeting a Ukrainian military plane.
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AP reporter Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.