The Malaysian Insider :: world

PAP and Workers’ Party to contest Hougang by-election

Wed, 16 May 2012 20:57:56 GMT

SINGAPORE, May 16 — The Hougang by-election will be a straight fight between the Workers’ Party’s Png Eng Huat and People’s Action Party’s Desmond Choo after all. At 12.35pm today, returning officer Yam Ah Mee announced the two candidates and said the poll would be conducted on May 26. Addressing his supporters in Mandarin and English, Mr Choo ...

Two Mexican generals detained for alleged drug gang ties

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:51:35 GMT

MEXICO CITY, May 16 — Two Mexican generals, including the former deputy minister of defense who helped lead the escalation of the country’s war against drug gangs, are being investigated for ties to organised crime, the attorney general’s office said today. Mexican soldiers yesterday detained Tomas Angeles Dauahare, who served as the army‘s second ...

US to freeze assets to help Yemeni transition

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:33:40 GMT

WASHINGTON, May 16 — US President Barack Obama today ordered the freezing of US assets of anyone the United States considers to be obstructing the Washington-backed political transition in Yemen. The executive order targets “certain members of the Government of Yemen and others,” according to a copy of the document released by the White House that ...

Mladic taunts survivors at start of genocide trial

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:14:58 GMT

THE HAGUE, May 16 — Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic made a throat-slitting gesture to a woman who lost her son, husband and brothers in the Srebenica massacre at the start of his trial today for some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War Two. Mladic, now 70, flashed a defiant thumbs-up as he entered the courtroom — the last of the ...

German minister steps down, replaced by Merkel ally

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:42:56 GMT

BERLIN, May 16 — German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, who took the blame for a historic defeat for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in a regional election on Sunday, is to step down and be replaced by her parliamentary whip Peter Altmaier, official sources said today. Merkel was expected to make the announcement in a statement to ...

Hollande government to be dominated by moderates, Aubry out

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:34:36 GMT

PARIS, May 16 — The government of France’s new President Francois Hollande is likely to be dominated by moderate social democrats after party leader Martine Aubry, overlooked for the prime minister’s role, said today she would not be in the cabinet. Aubry, daughter of former European Commission president Jacques Delors and on the left of the ...

Ukraine dismisses EU plea over jailed Tymoshenko

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:56:13 GMT

KIEV, May 16 — Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov today brushed aside Western concerns about his government’s treatment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko as misguided and unwarranted, indicating that Kiev was unlikely to change its mind. The EU has condemned the sentencing of former prime minister Tymoshenko — the top opponent of President ...

Indonesia finds black box from crashed Russian Sukhoi

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:47:30 GMT

JAKARTA, May 16 — Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency has found a black box flight recorder from a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed during a demonstration flight killing all 45 people on board, an agency official said today. The aircraft crashed on May 9 on the slopes of a dormant volcano about 64km south of Jakarta. Those on the ...

Obama, Democrats’ April fundraising drops to US$43.6m

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:34:28 GMT

WASHINGTON, May 16 — US President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and Democratic groups affiliated with it raised US$43.6 million (RM135.5 million) in April, a decrease from the previous month despite the start of a robust general election campaign against Republican Mitt Romney. Ninety-eight per cent of the donations were less than US$250 in ...

China pushes N.Korea to drop nuclear test plan

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:13:22 GMT

BEIJING, May 16 — China has been quietly and gently pressuring North Korea to scrap plans for a third nuclear test, said two sources with knowledge of closed-door discussions between the countries, but there is no indication how the North will react. If North Korea goes ahead with the test, China would consider taking some retaliatory steps, but ...

Iran nuclear concession would test big power unity

Wed, 16 May 2012 09:48:21 GMT

LONDON, May 16 — Facing an imminent toughening of sanctions, Iran is hinting at a readiness to give some ground in its long nuclear stand-off with world powers, but any flexibility could split their ranks and lead to protracted uncertainty about how to respond. The stakes are high, for the longer the impasse goes on, the closer Iran will get to ...

UN aims to collect monitors from Syrian town

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:48:14 GMT

BEIRUT, May 16 — The United Nations aims to collect a monitoring team from the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun today, the head of the monitoring mission said, after they spent the night in the hands of rebels following an attack near their convoy. The Free Syrian Army said yesterday the monitors, whose cars were damaged in an attack which killed at ...

Diamond at heart of royal Europe goes for US$9.5m

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:44:12 GMT

GENEVA, May 16 — A diamond coveted by kings, queens and princes for centuries, used to reinforce alliances between nations and pawned to pay off royal debts sold for nine million Swiss francs (RM29.7 million) at Sotheby’s in Geneva last night. The auction house called the “Beau Sancy” diamond “one of the most important historic diamonds ever to ...

China’s ‘small stick’ approach to South China Sea

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:59:13 GMT

HONG KONG, May 16 — In a month-long standoff between China and the Philippines over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, Beijing has so far refrained from sending warships from its increasingly powerful and modern navy to enforce its territorial claims. Instead, China has deployed patrol vessels from its expanding fleet of paramilitary ships ...

Police disperse protesters at anti-Putin sit-in

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:06:22 GMT

MOSCOW, May 16 — Russian riot police broke up an Occupy-style protest against President Vladimir Putin today, forcing dozens of people out of a central Moscow park where they had staged a sit-in round-the-clock for a week and detaining at least 15. Dispersal of the makeshift encampment was the latest step in a government crackdown on protests over ...

Caretaker government will take Greece to risky repeat vote

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:49:12 GMT

ATHENS, May 16 — Greek political leaders meet today to form a caretaker government that will lead the country into its second election in just over a month, with Greece’s euro membership at stake in a mounting crisis rocking world markets. Parties deeply divided over an unpopular EU-IMF rescue plan threw in the towel yesterday after nine days of ...

Merkel, Hollande promise joint growth strategy

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:24:03 GMT

BERLIN, May 16 — New French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday acknowledged differences over how to boost growth in recession-plagued Europe, but pledged to forge a joint approach in time for an EU summit next month. The Socialist Hollande jetted to Berlin hours after being sworn in to meet Merkel, a ...

A tabloid tale: The Rise and Fall of Rebekah Brooks

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:31:23 GMT

LONDON, May 15 — Rebekah Brooks rose from secretary to chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group, but the woman who once partied with prime ministers now faces criminal charges and possible prison time. Entering a London police station today to be told she was charged with hiding evidence from police investigating phone-hacking ...

Greece to hold new election, jolts euro markets

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:53:14 GMT

ATHENS, May 15 — Attempts to form a government in Greece collapsed today, jolting financial markets at the prospect leftists opposed to the terms of an EU bailout could sweep to victory in a June election and nudge the euro zone crisis into a dangerous new phase. The turmoil in Athens sent waves around other troubled members of the 17-nation ...

Strauss-Kahn countersues hotel maid in US court for US$1m

Tue, 15 May 2012 14:11:51 GMT

NEW YORK, May 15 — Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has filed a US$1 million (RM3.08 million) countersuit against the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, costing him his job and any chance of being elected president of France. New York police arrested Strauss-Kahn a year ago when hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of ...

Ex-Murdoch editor charged over UK tabloid scandal

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:07:18 GMT

LONDON, May 15 — Rebekah Brooks, a close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, was charged today with interfering with a police investigation into a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the tycoon’s media empire and sent shockwaves through the British political establishment. Brooks (picture), 43, was charged with conspiring to remove boxes of archive ...

Obama camp targets Romney firm as job-killing ‘vampire’

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:07:20 GMT

WASHINGTON, May 15 — President Barack Obama’s campaign released a video yesterday calling Mitt Romney’s private equity firm a job-killing “vampire” that ran a steel mill into the ground, signalling a new effort to carve into Romney’s image of corporate success. The Obama campaign’s six-minute video — a shorter version of which will air on TV ...

Syria fighting kills 32, Saudis say peace plan unravelling

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:08:24 GMT

AMMAN, May 15 — Fighting in Syria killed at least 32 people yesterday, activists said, and Saudi Arabia said stubborn violence was shredding the credibility of a UN-Arab League peace plan stipulating a truce and dialogue between President Bashar al-Assad and his foes. Away from the battlegrounds, efforts to find a viable political alternative to ...

Tunisian Islamists join jihad against Syria’s Assad

Tue, 15 May 2012 02:59:47 GMT

BEN GUERDANE, Tunisia, May 15 — The first that Tunisian schoolteacher Moktar Mars heard of his brother fighting alongside rebels in Syria was a phone call from someone on a phone with a foreign number, telling him Houssein was dead. “We got an anonymous call telling us he had been martyred,” said Mars, 40, sitting on a mattress along a wall of ...

Hollande to be sworn in as new French president

Tue, 15 May 2012 01:50:50 GMT

PARIS, May 15 — Francois Hollande will be sworn in as France’s first Socialist president in 17 years in a hurried ceremony today before a dash to Berlin to challenge German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s focus on austerity policies. Hollande, whose election comes as the euro zone is teetering back into crisis with fears about Greece’s future in the ...

Similarities may push Merkel, Hollande together

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:07:19 GMT

BERLIN, May 15 — Five years ago, Nicolas Sarkozy flew straight to Berlin after his inauguration and shocked his hosts with some blunt talk on planemaker Airbus, one of the most sensitive of Franco-German issues. That first visit set the tone for the months that followed. German officials looked on in horror as the new French president reneged on ...

Greek leftists reject proposal for technocrat government

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:30:29 GMT

ATHENS, May 15 — President Karolos Papoulias will ask politicians today to stand aside and let a government of technocrats steer the nation away from bankruptcy, but leftists have already rejected the proposal and look set to force a new election they reckon they can win. Party leaders, deadlocked since a parliamentary vote nine days ago, will ...

Thatcher did not help Murdoch buy Times: Lawyer

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:04:48 GMT

LONDON, May 14 – Rupert Murdoch did not ask Margaret Thatcher to bend the rules to allow him to buy the Times of London in 1981, one of his lawyers said today, dismissing theories of a deal as “science fiction”. Lawyer Rhodri Davies said the media mogul had nothing to hide and rejected as baseless an accusation that Murdoch (picture) was suffering ...

Madame Tussauds unveils UK queen’s jubilee waxwork

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:16:11 GMT

LONDON, May 14 – Capturing an exact facial expression of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth proved a challenging task for sculptor Steve Swales during the creation of the latest royal wax figure for London tourist attraction Madame Tussauds. “It’s quite difficult because when you’re sculpting something you have the main features, the eyes, nose, mouth. And ...

Peru-Chile border hit by 6.2 quake, no damage seen

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:03:48 GMT

LIMA, May 14 – A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook the border area straddling southern Peru and northern Chile early today, but there were no reports of damage, the Andean neighbours’ national emergency offices said. The US Geogolgical Survey said the quake struck 66km east-northeast of Tacna in Peru, and 107km northeast of Arica in the far ...

Japan assembly agrees to restart reactors, hurdles remain

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:37:05 GMT

TOKYO, May 14 – The assembly in a western Japanese town that hosts a nuclear plant agreed today it was necessary to restart two off-line reactors, its chairman said, the first such nod since all the country’s stations were halted after the Fukushima crisis. With power shortages looming in the region when demand peaks this summer, the central ...

UN inspectors to press Iran on military site access

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:50:53 GMT

VIENNA, May 14 — The UN atomic watchdog will press its demand for access to an Iranian military site in talks starting today that could influence the prospects for a broader diplomatic push to settle the decade-old stand-off over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The May 14-15 meeting in Vienna will test Iran’s readiness to address UN inspectors’ ...

Syrian forces kill 7 civilians in rural attack

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:29:01 GMT

AMMAN, May 14 — Syrian troops backed by tanks shot dead seven civilians when they overran a rebellious Sunni Muslim village west of the city of Hama yesterday, activists’ organisations said, in a crackdown on the rural epicentre of the 14-month anti-government revolt. In neighbouring Lebanon, three people were killed when fighting erupted in the ...

Forty-nine headless corpses found in northern Mexico

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:54:50 GMT

CADEREYTA JIMENEZ (Mexico), May 14 — Suspected drug gang killers dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near Mexico’s northern city of Monterrey in one of the country’s worst atrocities in recent years. The mutilated corpses of 43 men and 6 women, whose hands and feet had also been cut off, were found in a pile on a highway in the municipality of ...

Monti warns of tears in Italy’s social fabric

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:45:24 GMT

ROME, May 14 — Italy’s social fabric is being torn by recession and tensions are growing among its citizens, Prime Minister Mario Monti said yesterday. Speaking to a group of students in the central Italian town of Arezzo, Monti urged Italians to stick together and “not give up” in the face of a shrinking economy and rising unemployment. Monti’s ...

Greek leftist rejects new coalition talks

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:12:03 GMT

ATHENS, May 14 — Greece’s radical leftist leader spurned an invitation from the president for a final round of coalition talks today, all but ensuring a new election that he is poised to win. Greece’s political landscape has been in disarray for a week since an inconclusive election left parliament divided between supporters and opponents of the ...

Italy mulls using army to stem political violence

Sun, 13 May 2012 15:46:19 GMT

MILAN, May 13 — Italy is considering using the army to protect the defence conglomerate Finmeccanica and the tax collection agency Equitalia, the targets of a series of attacks that are raising concerns about political violence, the interior minister said. Although protests against Italy’s austerity programme have been largely peaceful, last week ...

Merkel faces rout in state vote over austerity

Sun, 13 May 2012 12:12:18 GMT

DUESSELDORF, Germany, May 13 — Voting began today in Germany’s most populous state where Angela Merkel’s conservatives face a defeat that could give the left momentum before next year’s federal election and fuel criticism of the chancellor’s European austerity drive. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), an industrial state in western Germany with an ...

Greek president makes last push to avert elections

Sun, 13 May 2012 11:25:20 GMT

ATHENS, May 13 — Greece’s president met party leaders today in a final bid to cobble together a coalition and avert a repeat election, but the veteran politician’s effort looked set to fail because of deep splits over an EU/IMF rescue plan. Leaders of the three biggest parties, each of whom had failed to form a government in the past week, ...

Gunmen kill senior Afghan peace negotiator

Sun, 13 May 2012 09:13:30 GMT

KABUL, May 13 — Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul today, police said, dealing a massive blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal with Taliban insurgents. Maulvi Arsala Rahmani was one of the most senior members on Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to ...

Greece’s anti-bailout leftists lead in polls

Sun, 13 May 2012 02:42:19 GMT

ATHENS, May 13 — Greece's radical leftist SYRIZA party has gained support since today's inconclusive election to become the most popular party, but backing for the anti-bailout group is falling, the second opinion poll since the vote showed yesterday. The main pro-bailout parties, conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, were gaining ...

Thousands march against economic gloom in Spain, UK

Sun, 13 May 2012 02:18:15 GMT

MADRID, May 13 — Thousands of Spaniards fed up with economic misery and waving banners against bankers marched on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the grassroots "Indignados" movement that has sparked similar protests around the world. Up to 600 people denouncing the Bank of England rallied in London and a Reuters witness said scuffles ...

Bahrain protesters clash with police outside capital

Sun, 13 May 2012 02:09:13 GMT

MANAMA, May 12 — Pro-democracy protesters burned tyres and clashed with police in Bahrain yesterday to demand the release of opposition leaders and rights activists, one of whom has been on a three-month hunger strike, residents said. Hundreds of youths gathered in mainly Shi'ite villages outside the Gulf state's capital Manama, some masked and ...

Israel’s Netanyahu responds to Palestinian letter

Sat, 12 May 2012 23:34:39 GMT

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 13 — Israel and the Palestinian Authority issued a rare joint statement yesterday, saying they were committed to peace after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched an envoy to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.The envoy carried a letter from Netanyahu replying to one he received last month from Abbas, in which ...

Topless Ukraine activists open anti-Euro soccer campaign

Sat, 12 May 2012 15:05:41 GMT

KIEV, May 12 – A Ukrainian women’s rights activist stripped to the waist and seized the Euro-2012 soccer trophy while it was on public display in Kiev today in a protest against the exploitation of women during the forthcoming championship. The young woman, 23-year-old Yulia Kovpachik, strode up to the silver trophy, which was on display as a ...

Greece lurches towards new vote, hard left leads

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:22:55 GMT

ATHENS, May 12 — Greek politicians abandoned their quest to form a government today, leaving the president with one final opportunity to avert new elections that could drive the debt-choked country out of the European single currency. Greece’s political landscape is in disarray after voters humiliated the only parties backing a rescue plan tied ...

Senior Boko Haram commander caught

Sat, 12 May 2012 10:26:16 GMT

ABUJA, May 12 – Nigeria’s police said today they captured a senior commander of the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram in Kano, the largest city in the north and scene of attacks this year that have killed hundreds of people. Security sources also said that the man police say they caught, Suleiman Mohammed, was known to be a leading Boko Haram ...

Fire bombs thrown at tax office in central Italy

Sat, 12 May 2012 07:37:16 GMT

MILAN, May 12 — Fire bombs were thrown at the offices of Italy’s tax enforcement agency Equitalia in the port city of Livorno, police told Reuters today without adding further details. Italian news agency ANSA said the Molotov cocktail bombs had damaged the office’s facade. Public anger against Equitalia is rising in crisis-hit Italy, where the ...

Tennessee governor signs controversial sex ed bill

Sat, 12 May 2012 04:15:40 GMT

NASHVILLE, May 12 — Tennessee teachers can no longer condone so-called “gateway sexual activity” such as touching genitals under a new law that critics say is too vague and could hamper discussion about safe sexual behaviour. Governor Bill Haslam’s office yesterday confirmed that he had signed the bill, which stirred up controversy nationwide and ...

From Cameron with love: Murdoch protegee haunts PM

Sat, 12 May 2012 03:38:41 GMT

LONDON, May 12 — David Cameron signed off messages to tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks with an affectionate “LOL”, she told an inquiry yesterday, conjuring the embarrassing image of a British prime minister-in-waiting fawning over a Rupert Murdoch protegee. As editor of Britain’s most-read newspapers the News of the World and later the Sun, Brooks ...