BANDA ACEH: Rescuers are searching for seven people, including four Australian tourists, who went missing when their boat hit bad weather off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, officials said on Monday (Aug 14). Two boats carrying a total of 17 people left Nias island headed for the private island of Pinang onContinue Reading
An analyst that CNA spoke to said that PN’s gains in the PH-BN states indicate not a desire for change by Malaysians, but a yearning among many Malays for “a return to the pre-2018 absolute Malay dominance over Malaysian polity and society”. “As UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) is perceivedContinue Reading
BEIJING: Shares in Chinese property giant Country Garden plunged on Monday (Aug 14) after it missed bond payments and warned of billions of dollars in losses, deepening fears about the country’s heavily indebted real estate sector. Like its troubled competitor Evergrande, any collapse of Country Garden would have catastrophic repercussionsContinue Reading
The central government will also require emission tests to be part of the process of obtaining a vehicle registration licence in the capital city. It did not say when the measures would be introduced or how they would be enforced. “We will start in Jakarta and when it gets better,Continue Reading
DEHRADUN, India: At least 24 people have been killed, nine of them in a temple collapse, and dozens more are feared missing after intense rains caused floods and landslides in India, officials said on Monday (Aug 14). Days of torrential downpours have washed away vehicles, demolished buildings and destroyed bridgesContinue Reading
A court in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has sentenced two men to life in prison for raping and murdering two Dalit sisters last year.
Two other convicts were found guilty of destroying evidence and were sent to jail for six years each. The convicts are likely to appeal in the high court.
The teenaged girls were found hanging from a tree in Lakhimpur district in September.
The gruesome crime had made headlines and sparked global outrage.
Police had arrested six people – four of them were convicted on Friday while judgements against two minors are pending.
On Friday, a special court that deals with cases of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) convicted two of the four adults of kidnapping, gangraping and murdering the girls.
On Monday, Judge Rahul Singh described the crime as “rarest of the rare” and said that the two convicts’ life sentences would “run until their last breath”. They have also been ordered to pay 41,000 rupees ($500; £390) each as fine.
The bodies of the two sisters – aged 17 and 15 – were found hanging on 14 September near their home in Tamoli Purva village, just over 200km (124 miles) from the state capital, Lucknow.
Less than 24 hours after the crime, police had arrested all the six suspects.
Police said the girls had been friends with some of the accused and had “willingly gone” with them on their bike. They said the accused raped and strangled the girls as they were putting pressure on them to get married and later, hanged them from a tree with the help of their associates.
But the girls’ family had questioned the investigation and alleged that the sisters had been kidnapped by the accused from outside their home.
The police claim was also contested by families of the accused who said their sons were innocent.
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On Friday, after the court convicted four of the adult accused, prosecution lawyer Brajesh Kumar Pandey told the media that the judgement against the two minor accused would come at a later date.
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Urea is manufactured by combining ammonia and carbon dioxide in a chamber at about 200 degrees Celsius.
The compound is later evaporated, and the crystals melted to produce urea as prills or granules.
Pupuk Kalimantan Timur’s complex in Bontang city in East Kalimantan province is Indonesia’s largest fertiliser manufacturing facility, with 13 factories spanning over 400 hectares producing non-organic fertilisers such as urea.
Farmers apply fertilisers to their land by first loosening the soil with an aerator, which encourages the flow of air, water and vital nutrients.
They are now trying to reduce reliance on chemical fertilisers and, instead, produce their own organic fertilisers from animal manure.
Farmer Waryana from the town of Indramayu in West Java told CNA there are many benefits to using organic fertilisers.
The US has just unveiled plans to substantially upgrade Guam’s missile defenses, turning the strategic island into a formidable fortress against potential Chinese and North Korean missile attacks.
This month, The Warzone reported that the US military had conducted meetings discussing the daily impact of 20 planned missile defense sites on Guam, which will host surface-to-air interceptors, radars and other elements of the planned Enhanced Integrated Air and Missile Defense (EIAMD) system.
The EIAMD, the report notes, will consist of Aegis Ashore, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), Typhon, Patriot, and Enduring Shield systems, providing a layered missile defense system.
In addition, the report says that EIAMD will come with new airspace restrictions, particularly around new radar sites in constant operation and present potential electromagnetic interference hazards.
The Warzone report says that the US military held “public scoping meetings” earlier this month to disseminate information about the EIAMD system to residents and get feedback, criticisms and concerns about the project and its possible environmental impacts.
The report mentions that EIAMD will defend Guam in a 360-degree arc by distributing system components at multiple locations across the island.
It notes that the core of EIAMD would be the planned Aegis Ashore system in Guam, with unique features for its strategic location. Although the source says that the exact configuration of Aegis Ashore in Guam remains to be determined, it will have a more distributed architecture than its predecessors.
The Warzone notes that the EIAMD will include at least four AN/TPY-6 four-sided phased array radars, leveraging technology from the Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) now operational in Alaska.
Asia Times reported in May 2023 that Guam would receive a road-mobile version of the AN/TPY-6 for integrated air and missile defense, linked to a disaggregated Aegis Ashore. An underground facility at Guam’s southern end may also be possible, with interceptor missiles fired from apertures in the mountainsides.
Asia Times noted in August 2022 that the LRDR is a two-in-one system combining low and high-frequency radars. The former can track multiple space objects but cannot distinguish which ones are threats, while the latter has a narrow field of view but can discriminate and identify specific threats.
Such capability may be crucial to defeating evolving ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile threats, which may be volley-fired with deployed penetration aids to defeat current US missile defenses.
Apart from Aegis Ashore, the US plans to upgrade the THAAD currently deployed in Guam as the backbone of the island’s missile defenses, alongside Aegis-equipped offshore warships.
Asia Times reported in August 2022 that British Aerospace Systems (BAE) won a contract from US defense contractor Lockheed Martin to design and manufacture next-generation infrared seeker technology for the THAAD interceptor missile, providing critical sensing and guidance capabilities against ballistic missile threats.
BAE System’s new seeker can seek and lock on to missiles flying at 27,300 kilometers per hour, enabling THAAD guidance systems to route interceptor missiles to the threat. THAAD’s non-explosive hit-to-kill mechanism minimizes the risk of unintended detonation, reducing the risk posed by ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Aside from the EIAMD and THAAD, the US may deploy the Typhon road-mobile missile launcher in Guam to reinforce the latter systems and as a part of a larger strategy to build a “missile wall” in the Pacific.
In December 2022, Asia Times reported that the US Army received the first of four prototype Typhon missile launchers designed to fire Standard SM-6 interceptors. It is expected to fire the latest Standard SM-6 Block IB, which features a redesigned body and a larger rocket motor, improving its anti-air and anti-missile capabilities and giving it a secondary land-attack capability.
The Patriot missile system may complement those systems to improve Guam’s defenses, medium and short-range threats. However, there have been conflicting reports regarding the system’s effectiveness.
In line with those conflicting reports, Asia Times noted in August 2022 that, during the 1991 Gulf War, the US Army may have manipulated figures about the Patriot’s effectiveness, initially claiming near-perfect performance in intercepting 45 out of 47 ballistic missiles, but later revising that to 50%, then after that expressing “higher confidence” in just a quarter of intercepts.
The Patriot has also been criticized for its near-terminal phase interceptions, limited target discrimination capabilities and limited effectiveness against a highly-lofted trajectory ballistic missile attack.
Despite that possibly subpar performance in its combat debut, the Patriot has been upgraded several times, substantially increasing its capability compared to earlier versions.
Defense News reported in November 2017 that Arab-operated Patriot batteries had intercepted more than 100 tactical ballistic missiles since 2015, with 90 of those kills credited to the PAC-2 Guided Enhanced Missile-T (GEM-T) interceptor with a powerful blast fragmentation warhead.
In May 2023, multiple media outlets reported on the Patriot system’s successful intercept of Russia’s much-vaunted Kinzhal air-launched hypersonic weapon, potentially validating its capability against hypersonic threats. That may also be early proof of concept against China’s new air-launched hypersonic missile, unveiled in November 2022, which is very similar to Russia’s Kinzhal.
The US may also deploy short-range air defense capabilities (SHORAD) systems to Guam, further bolstering the island’s defenses against low-flying threats. Such systems may be missile-based or directed-energy weapons such as lasers.
In January 2023, The Warzone reported on the US Army’s Enduring Shield Indirect Fire Protection system, built around the Multi-Mission Launcher (MML) and AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, with a platoon consisting of four launchers linked to one AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel-series radar via the Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) network.
Based on released concept art, the Warzone report notes that a platoon could have 18 AIM-9X missiles.
However, integrating those various systems may be a significant challenge to Guam’s missile defense, as disjointed systems may not be effective against an adversary deploying several types of advanced weapons such as drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and hypersonic weapons in a saturation attack.
Integrating those systems will require exceptional sensor fusion across various domains, such as space and cyberspace, to defeat such threats.
Candidate does not have to be in parliament for vote
PUBLISHED : 14 Aug 2023 at 17:20
Pheu Thai will propose Srettha Thavisin for prime minister, expects he will immediately get all the support he needs, and he does not have to attend the joint sitting of parliament that will vote on his nomination, according to party secretary-general Prasert Chanthararuangthong.
Mr Prasert said on Monday that key party figures had agreed and confirmed that Mr Srettha would be their candidate for prime minister.
He dismissed speculation that Paetongtarn Shinawatra, another of the party’s three registered candidates, could be nominated to the parliament instead of Mr Srettha. Ms Paetongtarn is a daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
“The members of the House of Representatives who will support Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate should number about 270. The support of the Senate is also being requested. I believe that many senators will support the candidate of Pheu Thai,” the party secretary-general said.
“So, I am confident that Mr Srettha will be elected right away.”
The constitution requires a joint vote by the 500 House representatives and 250 senators to select the prime minister.
Mr Prasert confirmed that Pheu Thai would be happy to receive supporting votes from all political parties, including the two political parties linked to caretaker Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.
Asked to comment on some senators’ demand that Mr Srettha elaborate on his qualifications in the parliament, Mr Prasert said that Mr Srettha was not an MP and so he was not required to be in the parliament when it votes for a prime minister.
Parliament President Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said that he may reconvene the joint sitting of the House and the Senate either on Friday this week or Tuesday next week, for their vote for prime minister.
He preferred to first wait for a ruling from the Constitutional Court, expected on Wednesday, on the parliament’s resolution rejecting the renomination of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat for prime minister on July 19.
BBC NewsThe Australian woman who cooked a beef wellington using mushrooms which killed three relatives and left one critical has told police it was an accident.
Erin Patterson, who is not facing charges, has provided a statement of events to police, local media report.
Police believe the victims had eaten death cap mushrooms – which are highly lethal if ingested.
In her statement, Ms Patterson said she had used some dried mushrooms but did not know they were poisonous.
“I am now devastated to think that these mushrooms may have contributed to the illness suffered by my loved ones,” said the 48-year old.
“I really want to repeat that I had absolutely no reason to hurt these people whom I loved.”
Her statement to Victoria Police has not been publicly released but was reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Nine Newspapers on Monday.
Australia has been gripped by the mystery over the fatal lunch – held in Ms Patterson’s home in the small town of Leongatha, Victoria on 29 July.
Ms Patterson had invited her former in-laws Gail and Don Patterson, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson and Heather’s husband Ian. Her estranged husband could not attend last minute.
Hours after the meal, all four guests fell ill with what they initially thought was severe food poisoning.
Within days, Heather, 66, Gail, 70, and Don, 70, had died. Ian, 68, is still fighting for his life in a Melbourne hospital as he awaits a liver transplant.
Ms Paterson was identified as a suspect after the deaths – as it initially appeared that she and her children were unharmed from the meal. At the time, Australian police had also said she could be totally innocent.
In her statement reported on Monday, Ms Patterson reiterated her innocence and said she herself had been hospitalised after the meal due to stomach pains.
Speaking to reporters outside her home in the immediate aftermath of the incident, Ms Patterson had stated her innocence – but declined to answer questions about what meals were served to which guests or where the mushrooms had come from.
“I now very much regret not answering some questions following [my lawyer’s] advice given the nightmare that this process has become,” she said in her statement to police.
“I am now wanting to clear up the record because I have become extremely stressed and overwhelmed by the deaths of my loved ones.”
Ms Patterson said the mushrooms used to prepare the meal were a mixture of button mushrooms bought at a supermarket, and dried mushrooms purchased at an Asian grocery store in Melbourne several months ago.
Her children, who were not present at the lunch, ate some of the leftover beef Wellington the next day. However the mushrooms had been scraped off the dish as they do not like the fungi, she said.
Ms Patterson said she herself was hospitalised on 31 July. She said she was put on a saline drip and given medication to guard against liver damage.
She said she had also saved and given the remainder of the lunch to hospital toxicologists for examination.
In her statement she also admitted lying to authorities about a food dehydrator seized by police from a local tip during investigations last week.
She said she had been questioned by her estranged husband as to whether she had poisoned his parents, and so panicked and disposed of the dehydrator as she was worried she might lose custody of their children.
