At political Front
The opposition took the Sibu seat with a majority of 398 from the National Front coalition that has ruled
Sibu is around 60% ethnic Chinese in a Southeast Asian country where they account for 25% of the 28mn population that is mainly ethnic Malay and Muslim.
- Philippine
The Philippine deputy mayor, whose wife, two sisters and four other relatives were among 57 people killed in an election-related massacre last year, was yesterday declared winner of the governorship of his troubled province.
Philippine politics will never be the same after the country's first automated ballot electrified voters long used to cheating, violence and disputes over delayed results.
Senator Benigno Aquino, 50, whose parents led the struggle to restore Philippine democracy, will soon become the country's first digitally elected president after a rapid vote count showed him winning by a landslide.
Despite daunting logistic challenges in a sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago with 50 million voters, ballot-counting machines were activated just in time for Monday's elections for 17,000 positions.
The saying that "guns, goons and gold" lord it over Philippine elections may no longer be totally true after a new weapon, the microchip, entered the scene.
After the death of his national heroine mother, Benigno Aquino rode a wave of public emotion all the way to the Philippine presidency. Now he needs to show that politically at least, he is not his mother's son. He has a strong mandate to fight graft and investigate his unpopular predecessor, but must show leadership and assertiveness so far absent in his career to ensure his market-friendly agenda is not derailed by vested interests, internal and external. He has to focus of more significantly of following line along with many others:
- He cannot avoid the relatives and the people who campaigned for him
- Fiscal problem is a key requirement if the
- He has to plan double defence spending to 2 percent of GDP, which should help initial relations, and his large margin of victory should also give him authority.
The conduct of the May 2010 elections has forced the National Statistics Office (NSO) to delay the start of the 2010 Census of Population and Housing. The 2010 census will be conducted through interviews and self-adminsitered questionnaires. This year's census will ask for new data like functional disabillity--like visual impairment, difficulty in walking, among others--and housing rentals. The latter will be among the data to be used by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council in regulating rental rates, as prescribed by Republic Act 9653 or the Rent Control Act of 2009.Batas Pambansa Blg. 72 states that integrated census should be conducted every 10 years beginning 1980, and that public school teachers should be employed for enumeration work.Incidentally, public school teachers are also mandated by law to serve as board of election inspectors during elections.
The Cambodian government Monday urged all parties concerned in Thailand to resume peaceful talks in order to achieve a political settlement to the current stand- off.In a statement released on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said that Cambodia, as a neighbouring country and a member state of ASEAN "is very concerned by the increasingly severe violence in Thailand."
Cambodia's ruling party has set up local committees nationwide to work out the political preferences of each citizen ahead of national elections in 2013, national media reported Wednesday.A document seen by the Cambodia Daily newspaper said people would be classified as white, gray or black, depending on their affinity to the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), with the party's strongest supporters categorized as white.
The object is to work out what motivates people who fall into the gray or black categories, then 'transform the black and gray to become white,' the document said.
It said another purpose is to prioritize help for ruling party supporters while CPP officials claimed information gathered on political affiliations would be used solely for internal purposes
Thousands of Red Shirt supporters in a fortified camp appeared calm as Thai troops staged a bloody operation to disperse anti-government protesters today. Some were eating or sleeping. Others prepared for battle.
The United Nations urged
Leaders of the "Red Shirt" protestors offered the government a truce Monday after five days of violence in central Bangkok that have left 38 people dead and more than 270 wounded.UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on both sides to negotiate an end to the violence, which has turned parts of the Thai capital into no-go zones.
Protest leaders argued over whether they should continue to resist a crackdown that has left 39 people dead over six days. The government estimated that only 3,000 people remain in the downtown encampment, down from 5,000 on Sunday and 10,000 last week.
Scattered clashes continued Tuesday outside the main protest area, but they appeared to be less intense than in previous days. Since the army surrounded the fortified entrances to the protest zone last Thursday, fiery battles have raged between soldiers firing live ammunition and hundreds of rioters with homemade weapons.
The government has accused Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon ousted in a 2006 coup, of bankrolling and masterminding
Thaksin lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption, but the government has exerted pressure on countries he has visited, moved to freeze his finances and sought a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges.
Foreign Relation
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew says
The investments are well-diversified across many sectors, like manufacturing and retail.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is in
- Philippine
Apparent president-elect Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd and
Calling on Aquino in what could be the first for a foreign ambassador in the country, Thomas practically declared his host as the next president of the Philippines although the votes from the May 10 elections still have to be counted officially.“We want to [talk] with the incoming administration, work very closely with them, and . . . it is up to them to decide how they will like to talk with the
At economic Front
"The government has allocated the fund in 2009. That is a clear indication that the government is ready to move to seize the opportunity," Minister for Research and Technology Suharna Suryapranata told a parliamentary hearing.He said that his ministry is given limited authority for the project, just for preparation of the power plant construction.
MalaysiaHe also said that in the economically point of view, the reactor must provide benefit for a country."As the operators would be private parties, surely they know calculation in bringing profitability," he said.However, members of parliament said that the government must regulate it very carefully so people would not be burdened by the power cost
The biggest one-day drop in more than a year on Wall Street on Thursday hit the Indonesian market on Friday, as fresh doubts about the strength of the US economy added to worries about European debt, causing jittery investors to flee riskier assets such as developing market stocks.
The Jakarta Composite Index dove 4 percent in morning trade before trimming its losses to 2.6 percent, and capping its worst week since the height of the global financial crisis in November 2008. The index tumbled 8.2 percent over the week, and has fallen 12 percent from a record high set in early May. A drop of more than 10 percent is considered a correction by some analysts.
The Thai stock exchange said on Wednesday that it would be closed for the last two trading days of the week due to violence that has gripped the capital
The Thai government has extended an overnight curfew to 21 provinces as unrest spread from the capital to seven provinces, with town halls burnt in three northern area
Central World shopping centre burns after troops evicted anti-government “Red Shirt” protesters from
Thai seafood exports have received minimal impact from the riots in Bangkok with only a small volume of cargoes being delayed at the capital's ports.The protests that forced the government to announce national holidays for the entire week interrupted export procedures and delayed some shipments, said Panisuan Jamnarnwej, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association.
Despite the economic uncertainties in
The private residential market remains resilient with a bumper sale of 2,207 new units in April. Private apartments are hot property, and public housing flats are also enjoying good demand since the second half of 2009.
The Singapore Environment Council (SEC) and the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) have inked an agreement to launch
Senior finance executives worldwide have reported growing optimism about economic recovery. But the executives are proceeding with caution investing in categories that will boost growth such as sales and product development while selectively increasing discretionary spending in areas like marketing and technology; In Singapore, eight in ten respondents expect to see economic growth in the year ahead.
Some 21 per cent of the respondents said their companies have already experienced an increase in demand for their products and 51 per cent expect an increase in the second or third quarters of this year. Also, about 84 per cent said their companies plan to increase headcount this year. Meanwhile, respondents from
Initial government estimates released in April showed the economy expanded an annual 13.1 per cent and 32.1 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The MTI said the first quarter display was driven by the manufacturing sector's annual 32.9 per cent surge amid buoyant global demand for electronics products, especially semiconductor chips.
"The strong momentum seen in the first quarter was broad-based, led by the manufacturing sector. The electronics cluster enjoyed the strongest growth, underpinned by strong global demand for semiconductor chips," the MTI said.
Impoverished
London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness criticized
The Southeast Asian nation’s inflation expectations need to be “consistent” with its 2010 economic growth target of 6.5 percent, according to a statement on the government’s website Monday.
The
“General socioeconomic conditions in the first months of 2010 continued to improve and inflation is still under control,” Hung said in the opening speech of the National Assembly meeting in
At Social Front
Amid bilateral negotiations, Indonesia and Malaysia remain committed to signing a new labor agreement to provide legal protection, which will reopen the supply of Indonesian migrant workers to the neighboring country.Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said upon his return from Kuala Lumpur Thursday that the agreement was expected to be signed during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's official visit to the Malaysian capital on May 18.
TEARFUL Cambodians marked an annual 'Day of Anger' with a re-enactment of Khmer Rouge crimes at a notorious 'killing field' on Thursday to commemorate relatives killed by the regime.Some 3,000 people, including Buddhist monks, watched as students mimed raping, bludgeoning, strangling and eviscerating bound victims to remember those who died at Choeung Ek, a field outside the capital Phnom Penh.
Many sobbed during the performance by the black-clad students just metres from mass graves where Khmer Rouge soldiers murdered thousands of people during the rule of the hardline communist movement in the late 1970s.
THE arrears in electricity for homes and commercial buildings in
So Calling on Bruneians to save electricity, the religious leaders brought out facts and figures to show that the people owed the government a whopping $1 B in electricity bills up to last year 2009 alone. And up to March 2010, hotel owners owed $4Million dollars to the Government.
Trying to make the point that what one can't pay shouldn't be used, the Imams said that it's a colossal waste to use so much more than one needs. They urged Bruneians to be prudent in electricity usage. The government and the private sectors call upon the public to be proactive in answering the call to be wise and prudent in energy usage through three simple ways namely by switching off lamps when not in use, switching off water heaters when not in use, as wellas to setting air conditioners to 24 degrees Celsius or at least, one degree higher than usual
At environmental Front
- Philippine
Seven people, including the governor of a province in the southern Tagalog region in the
Quezon Governor Rafael Nantes, a pilot and two of his security aides were on board the ill-fated private helicopter that crashed in a residential area in the provincial capital of Lucena five minutes after taking off from a state-run school where he had a speaking engagement.
The
Since 1997 there have been off-and-on negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to end a conflict that has run more than 40 years, killing 120,000 people and displacing 2mn in the resource-rich south.
A sustained resolution to the conflict is essential to removing a long-term investment risk in the
Muslim separatists blamed for years of conflict and displacement on the southern
Heavy fighting broke out between two separate factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Barangay Kulambog, Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao province Friday afternoon allegedly due to a turf war, police and government reports said.
Senior Superintendent Alex Lineses, Maguindanao police provincial director, said fighters from the 105th and 106th MILF Base Commands started an armed confrontation at around 4 p.m, which escalated and continued for several hours. At least 2 houses went up in flames during the fighting, he said
The European Union is likely to sign an agreement with
The agreement is expected to be signed at the two-day regional conference of the Global Climate Change Alliance to be held in Dhaka on May 30-31 in collaboration with the European Union, officials said.Nine countries of Asia - Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Yemen - will participate in the conference.
ASEAN
ASEAN countries are developing cooperative programs of defense,
Minister of National Defense Phung Quang Thanh was quoted as saying that the cooperative programs will include joint sea and land patrols, and fighting terrorism.
ASEAN countries will also plan rehearsals for rescues and humanitarian missions in case of emergencies caused by natural disasters, Thanh told the meeting on regional security and defense.During the four-day session, the ministers and high-ranking defense officials shared their views about ASEAN current security situation and report on each countries’ defense policy, another news website Vietnamnet said.
Clockwise, friends console a woman looking for a relative, a "red shirt" protester who was not on the train arriving from
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