“HUGE CRISIS” Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former president Asif Ali Zardari, said he would like to see his father become president again. “And I am not saying this because he is my father. I am saying this because the country is inContinue Reading
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysia prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, 98, has been admitted to hospital again, his office said, confirming media reports after the ex-premier of more than two decades missed a court hearing on Tuesday (Feb 13). The nonagenarian has been in and out of hospital in recent years. HeContinue Reading
Local authorities are under growing fiscal pressure as a crisis in the real estate industry – their most important source of income – has shown no sign of abating, and other challenges including weak domestic and external demand hold back the post-pandemic recovery of the world’s second-largest economy. The education department inContinue Reading
KUALA LUMPUR: A light aircraft has crashed near Kapar, a town in Selangor, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) said on Tuesday (Feb 13).
In a statement, CAAM chief executive officer Captain Norazman Mahmud said that two people including the pilot were on board the aircraft that crashed near the town in Selangor’s Klang district.
“Their conditions have yet to be confirmed,” he said.
The Air Accident Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Transport will investigate the incident, he added.
According to Captain Norazman, the aircraft, operated by Air Adventure Flying Club, departed from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Selangor, at 1.28pm (5.28am GMT) for a recreational flight. The aircraft was a Blackshape BK160 Gabriel with the registration code I-POOC.
“Last contact made by the aircraft with air traffic control was at 1.35pm, however, there was no distress call received,” Captain Norazman said.
The Kuala Lumpur Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre at the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre was immediately activated to determine the location of the aircraft, he added.
WEST JAVA: A stable economy, more job opportunities and equal treatment of citizens are among the aspirations on the wish list of West Java voters for Indonesia’s next president.
“The leader I want is aware of these three things: awareness of position, awareness of conditions and awareness of the situation,” said one resident Imam Iskandar.
West Java, Indonesia’s most populous province, is often included among the top priorities of political parties in canvassing for votes.
It is home to about 50 million people and has the highest number of registered voters at close to 36 million, making it a pivotal battleground for Wednesday’s (Feb 14) elections.
The province is also unique in terms of the high plurality of support for parties, observers told CNA.
West Java typically gives candidates the opportunity to raise the number of votes that they previously may have lost, or strengthen wins where they may have had a strong support base.
NEW DELHI: Indian security forces fired tear gas on Tuesday (Feb 13) to stop thousands of farmers demanding minimum crop prices from marching on the capital New Delhi after talks with the government failed. Local broadcasters showed thick clouds of tear gas fired to disperse protesters near Ambala, some 200kmContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Jailed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been granted parole after serving six months in detention, the prime minister said Tuesday (Feb 13), while highlighting his service to the country. The influential billionaire, a political heavyweight and arguably Thailand’s best-known prime minister, made a dramatic homecoming after living abroad forContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Jailed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is to be freed, the kingdom’s justice minister said on Tuesday (Feb 13), possibly as soon as the weekend – just six months after returning from 15 years of self-imposed exile. The controversial billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006Continue Reading
Candidate Anies Baswedan, who recently held a dialogue session with the Chinese community in Jakarta’s Chinatown, said: “In every election, there are bound to be different choices and these different choices will definitely be associated as a form of polarisation.
“After the election is over, everyone is an Indonesian citizen who has the same right to receive services from the state (and) to get opportunities from the state. Therefore, after the election is over, the elected president needs to embrace everyone (and) work together with everyone.”
In 2017, Mr Anies had allegedly used identity politics to win the Jakarta gubernatorial election against incumbent Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok, who is a Christian and Chinese Indonesian.
Identity politics may not be prevalent in this year’s contest because all three pairs of candidates are supported by figures who have good Islamic credentials, according to political observers.
“There are no certain negative Islamic-related issues that can be directed towards each of these candidates,” Indonesian Survey Institute executive director Djayadi Hanan told CNA.
“So it is difficult to use identity politics to pinpoint if somebody is against Islam or not, or to claim that you are the only candidate fighting for Islam.”
Group members, who have known each other since they were young, missed out on an education in the harsh years after the Korean War, and in 2016, they all took an adult education class to learn how to read and write the Korean alphabet, Hangul. Last year, Park came acrossContinue Reading