Selasa, 27 Ogos 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

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Barkley and Townsend named in England squad

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 09:46 AM PDT

August 28, 2013

Young midfielders Ross Barkley and Andros Townsend were named yesterday in the England squad for World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine.

Everton's Barkley, 19, and Tottenham Hotspur's Townsend, 22, received their first senior call-ups and Southampton forward Rickie Lambert was given another chance after scoring on his debut against Scotland two weeks ago.

"In choosing these players, we're giving ourselves a chance to look at players who have got a very bright future and who are capable at the moment of making an impact, making a difference to a game as we see them do each week at the very top level of Premier League football," England's football manager Roy Hodgson (pic) told a news conference yesterday at Wembley Stadium.

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge, who missed that match due to injury, was recalled to the squad and Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster replaced the injured Ben Foster.

"It's a great pity because he's been in extremely good form at the start of this season and he's our number two goalkeeper," Hodgson said of Foster.

"We just have to hope the injury isn't as bad or takes as long to heal as projected."

England face Moldova at Wembley on Sept. 6 before travelling to Kiev to play Ukraine on Sept. 10.

ENGLAND SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Celtic), Joe Hart (Manchester City), John Ruddy (Norwich City).

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur).

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).

Forwards: Jermain Defoe (Tottenham Hotspur), Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), Ashley Young (Manchester United). (Reporting by Tom bartlett, editing by Ed Osmond). – Reuters, August 28, 2013.

West Brom keeper Foster out for up to three months

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 07:03 AM PDT

August 27, 2013

West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster could be sidelined for up to three months with a stress fracture in his foot, manager Steve Clarke said today.

The England international limped off after 77 minutes of his side's 0-0 draw with Everton on Saturday and will have surgery on his right foot later in the week.

"There's no hiding the fact this is disappointing news as Ben is a key player for us," Clarke told the Premier League club's website (www.wba.co.uk).

"He was excellent on Saturday before his injury forced him off."

West Brom's reserve keepers are Wales international Boaz Myhill and Luke Daniels, who made his first-team debut when coming on for Foster. – Reuters, August 27, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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Fracking brought a boom, jobs and new businesses… and then the earth shook

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 05:30 AM PDT

August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 28, 2013 04:30 am

Davis says the addition he built on to his main home became unsafe to live in after an earthquake in February 2011. Reuters, August 27, 2013.Davis says the addition he built on to his main home became unsafe to live in after an earthquake in February 2011. Reuters, August 27, 2013.Tony Davis, a 54-year-old construction worker in central Arkansas, said he welcomed the boom in natural gas drilling that brought jobs and new businesses to his hometown starting about a decade ago. But that was before the earth shook.

In 2010 and 2011, the quiet farming town of Greenbrier, Arkansas, was rattled by a swarm of more than 1,000 minor earthquakes. The biggest, with a magnitude of 4.7, had its epicenter less than 450 metres from Davis's front porch. "This should not be happening in Greenbrier," Davis recalls thinking. He said the shaking damaged the support beams under an addition to his home.

Then came another surprise: University of Memphis and Arkansas Geological Survey scientists said the quakes were likely triggered by the disposal of waste water from hydraulic fracturing – commonly known as fracking – into deep, underground wells. That finding prompted regulators from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to order several wells in the area shut down, and the earthquakes soon subsided.

It also prompted Davis and more than a dozen of his neighbours to file five lawsuits in federal court against Chesapeake Operating Inc, as the owner in 2010 of two injection wells near Davis' home, and BHP Billiton, which purchased Chesapeake's shale gas assets in 2011.

Another company, Clarita Operating LLC, owned a third well that was shut down, but the company went bankrupt and was dropped from the litigation in 2011.

Chesapeake and BHP both declined to comment, citing policies not to discuss ongoing litigation. In court documents they denied they were responsible for the quakes and for any damage the quakes may have caused.

The litigation marks the first legal effort to link earthquakes to waste water injection wells, according to a search of the Westlaw database and interviews with legal experts, and the first attempt to win compensation from drilling companies for quake damage.

If any of the earthquake cases make it to a jury and the plaintiffs prevail, the outcome could spark additional litigation, since waste water injection wells are used not only in fracking, but in other kinds of oil and gas drilling and geothermal energy production.

"The scientific community is really focusing on this issue so I imagine we will see more cases because of that," said Barclay Nicholson, a Houston lawyer who represents major oil and gas companies and is not involved in the Arkansas cases. "That's one of the new battlegrounds."

The first of the suits, filed in US District Court in Eastern Arkansas, is scheduled to go to trial before Judge J Leon Holmes next March, though the parties have been engaged in settlement talks, according to the court docket.

The Arkansas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners, an oil and gas industry group, acknowledges that scientists found a possible connection between the disposal wells and the spate of minor quakes in and around Greenbrier.

But J Kelly Robbins, the group's executive vice president, said the companies had no way of knowing of any such link before waste water injection began, and he said the operators shut the wells down when questions were raised.

"The appropriate state agencies stepped up, collected data, did what they were supposed to do and made a decision," Robbins said in an interview. "Industry abided by that and those wells were closed."

Robbins also said that while Arkansas is a traditional oil and gas producing state, fracking in the Fayetteville shale had brought billions of dollars of investment and boosted the state's natural gas production ninefold in seven years.

The earthquake cases are part of a wave of litigation that has followed the rapid expansion in natural gas production across the United States using fracking, a drilling process that deploys a highly pressurised mix of water and chemicals to break apart shale rock to release oil and gas.

Since 2009, some 40 civil suits related to fracking have been filed in eight states, claiming harm ranging from groundwater contamination to air pollution to excessive noise.

So far none of the lawsuits has made it to trial and about half have been dismissed or settled, with company lawyers mainly arguing that a link between fracking and contaminated groundwater or other environmental problems has not been proven, according to a Reuters analysis of legal filings.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue a major report on fracking and drinking water next year that could have an impact on these cases, lawyers closely following the litigation say.

The Arkansas litigation does not target fracking itself, but rather the disposal of the leftover toxic, briny water known as "flowback." Millions of gallons of waste water are typically trucked from the fracking site to the well site, where they are injected thousands of feet underground into porous rock layers, often for weeks or months at a time.

Seismologists say fracking can cause tiny "micro earthquakes" that are rarely felt on the surface. The process of disposing of the wastewater, though, can trigger slightly larger quakes when water is pumped near an already stressed fault, even one that hasn't moved in millions of years, according to the US Geological Survey.

Only a handful of the 30,000 injection wells across the country have been suspected of causing earthquakes, the US Geological Survey has said.

That rare event likely happened in central Arkansas, said Scott Ausbrooks, a geologist at the Arkansas Geological Survey in Little Rock who lives in Greenbrier and said he received calls from panicked neighbours when the quakes were rattling the town more than a dozen times a day.

Ausbrooks said he became interested in studying wastewater injection in the area because it had previously experienced some earthquakes, including a notable swarm in the 1980s.

He worked with Steve Horton from the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information to set up seismic monitors around eight disposal wells. They found that 98 percent of the 2010-11 swarm of small quakes occurred within 6km of two of the wells.

"Given the strong spatial and temporal correlation between the two wells and seismic activity on the fault," Horton wrote in a study published in Seismological Research Letters in the March/April 2012 issue, "it would be an extraordinary coincidence if the recent earthquakes were not triggered by the fluid injection. For these reasons, I conclude that fluid injection triggered the recent seismicity."

It was only after the waste water injection wells went online that scientists discovered a previously unknown fault, now called the Guy-Greenbrier fault, Ausbrooks and Horton said.

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission declared a permanent moratorium on new injection wells in almost 3,100 sq km around the newly discovered fault. The commission now requires new wells to be between 1.6 km and 8 km from known faults, and it more closely monitors the amount and pressure of injected waste water.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently has no regulations relating to earthquakes and disposal wells – known as Class II wells – but the agency began working on a report addressing the issue in the wake of a spike in quakes in the central and eastern United States.

In a November 2012 draft report, the EPA said it was studying "injection-induced seismicity" in central Arkansas, north Texas, Braxton County in West Virginia and Youngstown, Ohio.

In Texas, operators in 2009 voluntarily plugged two disposal sites after regulators started investigating whether the wells touched off several quakes around the Dallas Forth-Fort Worth International Airport.

Virginia's Department of Environmental Protection in 2010 reduced the rate of waste water injection allowed after a series of small tremors. And in Ohio, officials shut down five injection wells in Youngstown following a 4.0 earthquake on New Year's Eve 2011 in an area that had never experienced seismic activity before, the EPA report said.

The EPA said the draft, obtained by the specialised news service EnergyWire through a Freedom of Information Act request, was a "technical report" as opposed to a policy blueprint and "is still under development."

While the federal regulatory process plays out, the relationship between injection wells and earthquakes could first be thrashed out in court. Defence lawyers say proving negligence could be a difficult hurdle.

"You have to prove that the conduct was unreasonable," said Thomas Daily, an Arkansas lawyer who represents energy firms and is not involved in the earthquake cases. "You are not liable for a bolt out of the blue."

The plaintiffs' attorneys, from the Little Rock firm Emerson Poynter, claim the companies should have known the risks of drilling in a historically seismic area.

"The scientific proof is absolutely there," said plaintiffs' lawyer Scott Poynter.

Emerson Poynter lawyers said they currently represent 35 homeowners, about half of whom have yet to file lawsuits but plan to do so in state court. Along US highway Route 65, which cuts through Greenbrier, the firm sprung for a billboard that features an illustration of a cracked brick wall next to the caption, "Earthquake damage?" written in a shaky looking font. The firm's phone number is at the top.

No matter how many people sign on, state regulators said the lawsuits will not deter oil and gas drilling.

"It's something that happened, we addressed it and developed some rules to keep it from happening again and everyone has moved on," said Lawrence Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.

"Whether the past will result in some award of money to someone I really don't know. But I don't know what more could have been done." - Reuters, August 27, 2013.

Career first, children later: Taiwan women put their eggs on ice

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 09:44 PM PDT

August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 27, 2013 12:54 pm

An employee demonstrates the preparation to take eggs with a needle at the e-Stork Reproductive Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan. - Reuters, August 27, 2013.An employee demonstrates the preparation to take eggs with a needle at the e-Stork Reproductive Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan. - Reuters, August 27, 2013.Caught between traditional expectations and career pressures, working women in Taiwan are increasingly opting to freeze their eggs at fertility clinics as they postpone marriage and motherhood.

Women play a big part in Taiwan's workforce, trailing only New Zealand and Australia for female employment among 14 countries in Asia, a recent report by MasterCard showed.

A slowdown in the economy has made job security an even more pressing priority. That has been a factor in pushing the East Asian island's average marriage age to 30 these days, from 24 in the 1980s, and in driving the interest in egg freezing.

"I was not sure when my ovaries would start degenerating but I was sure that I would probably marry late and I was sure that I wanted to become a mother," said Linn Kuo, 34, who chose to freeze her eggs three years ago.

Kuo, a manager at Cisco System Taiwan Ltd, has a well-paid job that allows her to work from home. While her career has had a smooth trajectory, Kuo said she has not been as lucky in her love live.

After her mother died, she realised the importance of having the support of children in later life.

"I already had my conclusion," she said. "So I did some research and decided to freeze my eggs."

Lai Hsing-hua, the clinic director at e-Stork Reproduction Centre in the city of Hsinchu, said he realised the need for egg-freezing services when many patients asked for egg donors after a late marriage.

"We thought if they had frozen their eggs earlier, maybe they wouldn't need to use donated eggs," he said. "That's why we combined in-vitro fertilisation with the idea of prevention - prevent them from using others' eggs after their fertility has deteriorated."

The clinic now gets more than 100 phone calls a month asking about egg freezing.

Five years ago, it did just 20 of the procedures. It handled more than 70 cases in 2011, more than 50 last year and already more than 40 in the first six months of this year.

The technology has matured and the embryo now has a high survival rate with egg freezing, Lai said. The service costs around 80,000 Taiwan dollars (RM8,890) and the whole process of retrieving the egg takes about 20 minutes.

Chen Fen-ling, a professor of social work at National Taipei University, said societal pressures were causing women to delay marrying and starting a family.

"Married women are like candles burning at both ends," she said. "We say that women work two jobs. They make money with a daytime job but, when they go back home, they take care of their children and parents-in-law. This pressure often makes women hesitate when making the decision about marriage."

Those realities about career, marriage and motherhood are reflected in a woefully low birth-rate. Taiwan is tied with Hong Kong in third-last place globally in terms of the average number of children born per woman, just above Macau and Singapore, the CIA World Factbook says. - Reuters, August 27, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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Woman’s prison drama-comedy a smash hit in US

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 06:28 PM PDT

August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 27, 2013 05:28 pm

Lead actress Taylor Schilling at the special screening of the new show Orange is the New Black by Netflix. - AFP pic, August 26, 2013.Lead actress Taylor Schilling at the special screening of the new show Orange is the New Black by Netflix. - AFP pic, August 26, 2013.A television series by streaming video service Netflix about a middle-class white woman learning to get by in a women's prison has slowly and quietly become a smash hit in America.

Orange is The New Black - a "dramedy" based on a best-selling autobiography with the same title - has earned gushingly positive reviews, with Rolling Stone magazine praising it as "utterly brilliant."

Esquire magazine says it is the best new television show right now and "reveals the possibilities of a new form, perhaps a new genre."

The series depicts the interactions and conflicts of blacks, Latinas, whites and Asians forced to live together in prison.

Lead character Piper Chapman, played by Taylor Schilling, is a well-to-do married New Yorker who makes a living fashioning organic soaps.

But she is sentenced to 15 months in jail for a mistake she made 10 years earlier: she served as a money courier for a sexy female drug dealer named Alex (Laura Prepon), with whom she had a brief affair.

"In a lot of ways, Piper was my Trojan Horse," series creator Jenji Kohan said recently on National Public Radio.

"You're not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals."

"But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories," she added.

"The girl next door, the cool blonde, is a very easy access point," said Kohan, who also created the hit Showtime series Weeds.

Kohan has won praise in particular for flashbacks that take the action out of the prison and tell the personal stories of the inmates.

She also has earned high marks for the authenticity of her characters: women who are overweight, wrinkled and otherwise not the kind of women generally seen in starring roles on television.

Dominican actress Dascha Polanco, who plays a Latina prisoner named Dayanara, says it is rare to see a TV program about women, made by women and that does not define women in terms of relationships with boyfriends, husbands, family or children.

"In that sense, 'Orange' breaks new ground. It is not about a woman and her house with her children and her husband. It speaks of a reality," Polanco told AFP.

She said she was grateful to the series for allowing her to overcome the stigma of not being stick-thin in an industry in which thin is everything.

For Piper Kerman, author of the memoirs published in 2010 and on which the series is very loosely based, one of the main challenges upon going to jail is "to figure out is where you fit in in the social ecology of the prison."

"When you are first setting foot into this unit, this strange new community which you'll be living in, race is a really powerful organizing principle," Kerman, who was 24 when she carried the money-laden suitcase in 1993, told NPR.

"What I found was that, over time, it was less and less important. My work assignment in the electric shop was not made along racial lines. I had co-workers who were black and Latina and Asian," said Kerman, who defines herself as a former lesbian.

She started doing her time in 2004 in a minimum security jail in Danbury, Connecticut. Since then she has become an outspoken advocated for female inmates and sits on the board of the Women's Prison Association.

Orange saw its debut last month without the hype that has accompanied other original series created by Netflix such as House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey, or Arrested Development, which already had a solid fan base thanks to previous seasons on Fox.

Both made history in July by becoming the first online series to earn nominations for the Emmys, the US television awards. House of Cards is nominated in nine categories and Arrested Development in three.

Referring to House of Cards, Rolling Stone predicted last week that Orange, which debuted after the Emmy eligibility period had ended, "will have just as many nominations as its big brother in 2014". - AFP, August 26, 2013.

VMAs cause a huge buzz on Twitter

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 06:01 PM PDT

August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 27, 2013 05:01 pm

A reunited 'N Sync including Justin Timberlake (C), JC Chasez (L), Lance Bass (2nd L), Joey Fatone (2nd R), and Chris Kirkpatrick (R) at the MTV Video Music Awards August 25, 2013 at the Barclays Center in New York. - AFP pic, August 26, 2013.A reunited 'N Sync including Justin Timberlake (C), JC Chasez (L), Lance Bass (2nd L), Joey Fatone (2nd R), and Chris Kirkpatrick (R) at the MTV Video Music Awards August 25, 2013 at the Barclays Center in New York. - AFP pic, August 26, 2013.On Monday, August 26, Twitter was buzzing with news and opinions from Sunday night's Video Music Awards (VMAs).

Following the annual MTV VMAs, Twitter users are discussing the event's highlights, including the appearance of NSYNC, Taylor Swift's language and Miley Cyrus's dance routine.

Trending in fifth position is musician Robin Thicke, who performed his hit single "Blurred Lines" along with Miley Cyrus, who indulged in some rather suggestive dancing, particularly emphasizing her buttocks, leading "#Mileyasssmallerthan" to trend in fourth position. 

The VMAs also account for why "#NSYNC" is trending in seventh position. The now defunct boy band, which originally featured pop star Justin Timberlake, reformed and joined the aforementioned pop star on stage for quick renditions of "Bye Bye Bye" and "Girlfriend."

American singer songwriter Taylor Swift is in ninth position in Twitter's worldwide trends. The "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" singer was caught on camera at the VMAs swearing when her previous boyfriend, One Direction's Harry Styles, appeared on stage at the awards show.

The awards also account for the trend "#VMAs2013." - AFP-relaxnews, August 26, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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Perang ROS-DAP: DAP ambil untung yang akhirnya rugi?

Posted: 26 Aug 2013 05:44 PM PDT

August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 27, 2013 09:03 am

Penulis adalah seorang jurutera semikonduktor, wartawan freelance, penerbit dan editor buku motivasi yang suka mengikuti perkembangan politik Malaysia

Bahagian II

Perang antara Jabatan Pendaftaran Pertubuhan (ROS) dan DAP bermula secara rasminya pada awal tahun ini.

Perang tidak rasmi bermula daripada kenyataan Setiausaha Agong DAP, Lim Guan Eng pada 10 Januari 2013 yang menyatakan partinya tidak akan mengadakan pemilihan semula untuk mengesahkan keputusan pemilihan parti 15 Disember 2012 di Pulau Pinang.

Ini kerana, dakwa Guan Eng, keputusan pemilihan Jawatankuasa Eksekutif Pusat (CEC)  itu ialah "versi yang diperbetulkan, diaudit dan disahkan oleh akauntan bertauliah bebas."

Namun, kenyataan Guan Eng tidak dapat menghalang kontroversi kesilapan teknikalnya terus dihidupkan dan dihangatkan bukan sahaja daripada kalangan musuh, tapi dari ahlinya sendiri.

Ketika itu juga, Ketua Pengarah ROS, Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman mengingatkan DAP untuk mengemukakan penyata tahunan dalam masa 60 hari bagi membantu siasatan berhubung dakwaan wujudnya penyelewengan dalam pemilihan itu.

Pada 14 Januari 2013, Naib Presiden DAP - Ladang Paroi, David Dass Aseerpatham dan setiausaha, Mahendran Krishnan membuat laporan ROS terhadap DAP. Menteri Dalam Negeri ketika itu, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein yang bertanggungjawab terhadap ROS, berkata jabatan itu akan mengambil keterangan daripada dua ahli terbabit.

Kemudian, DAP Cawangan Desa Dahlia, Senawang pula dilaporkan membuat laporan ke ROS dan mendesak pemilihan diadakan semula.

"DAP asyik menyebut perihal bersih di luar parti, sedangkan rumah sendiri kotor. Bersihkan rumah kita dahulu, baru negara. Jika kepimpinan tinggi DAP masih enggan mengadakan pemilihan semula CEC, usahlah bercakap soal demokrasi dalam DAP, ubahlah nama DAP kepada AAP (`Autocratic Action Party'). Jika benar parti ini mengamalkan demokrasi, buatlah pemilihan semula," kata pengerusi cawangan itu, Richard Francis.

Pandangan Richard secara ironisnya senada dengan sindiran yang diberikan Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Tun berkata pemilihan DAP itu mengarut dan hanya satu helah politik.

"Tak kan lah begitu bodoh sekali sehingga hendak kira undi pun tidak tahu. Kalau dia (DAP) tidak tahu hendak kira undi, tak payah lah nak jadi kerajaan," sindirnya lagi.

Pada 22 Januari 2013, Pengerusi DAP, Karpal Singh menegaskan bahawa partinya tidak bermasalah untuk disiasat ROS. Beliau dengan penuh yakin menyatakan ROS tidak boleh mengharamkan DAP tanpa bukti. Paling hebat pun katanya, ROS hanya boleh mengarahkan DAP membuat pemilihan semula, tapi mesti dengan hujah yang kuat.

11 hari sebelum tarikh akhir 15 Februari 2013 untuk mengemukakan laporan kepada ROS, Guan Eng berkata tiada apa yang perlu dirisaukan dan mengesahkan bahawa parti itu akan menghantar laporan berkenaan sebelum tarikh akhir.

Sinar Harian melaporkan bahawa DAP menghantar laporan penyata tahunannya pada 8 Februari, sebelum Tahun Baru Cina yang jatuh pada 10 Februari. Ia berdasarkan kenyataaan Setiausaha Pengelola DAP, Anthony Loke.

Ketika diminta mengulas mengenai tempoh masa yang agak lama diambil oleh DAP untuk menghantar penyata itu, Loke berkata persoalan itu tidak timbul kerana DAP perlu menghantar dalam tempoh 60 hari seperti yang diperuntukkan oleh undang-undang.

Loke berkata, laporan itu hanya laporan biasa dan berharap pihak ROS dapat bertindak adil kepada DAP yang sudah membuat kenyataan secara terbuka bahawa ada kesilapan mengira dan DAP membaiki kesilapan itu.

Namun, tidak diketahui bagaimana Hishamuddin 'termiss' laporan tersebut sehingga menggesa ROS untuk memulakan siasatan terhadap DAP kerana parti itu gagal mengemukakan laporan mengenai pilihan rayanya pada 16 Februari.

Perkara ini membengangkan DAP, mencemarkan nama baik ROS dan Hishammudin dan seterusnya menghangatkan lagi kontroversi ini.

Sepantas kilat, DAP mendesak Hishammudin untuk memohon maaf atas tuduhannya.

"Bagi saya Hishamuddin berbohong dan dia perlu mohon maaf pada DAP secara terbuka. Dia sebagai menteri tidak ada profesionalisme," Loke mendesak ketika itu.

Selain menyerang Hishamuddin, Loke juga menyerang ROS dan bertanya apakah wujud konspirasi untuk mengharamkan DAP walaupun DAP sudah sengaja "menghantar awal" laporan penyata tahunan.

"Kita hantar tapi kata kita tak hantar. Kita sengaja hantar awal sebelum tahun baru Cina.  Jadi saya nak tanya, adakah ini konspirasi Hisham dan ROS untuk batalkan pendaftaran DAP sebagai parti politik dengan alasan teknikal ini? Bagaimana pegawai boleh beri maklumat salah pada menteri? Bagaimana kita nak ada kepercayaan pada ROS?" katanya.

Tidak diketahui bagaimana ia boleh dikira sebagai "menghantar awal" jika masa yang diambil ialah 53 hari daripada 60 hari yang diberi. Mungkin Loke tidak sedar, perkara tersebut merugikan DAP dari sudut persepsi, seolah-olah ada sesuatu yang tidak kena berlaku dan memerlukan masa yang panjang untuk menyiapkan penyata.

Tetapi akibat serangan tersebut, peperangan terbuka ROS dan DAP terus hangat.

Pada 22 Mac, bekas Naib Presiden DAP Tunku Aziz melakukan serangan tajam terhadap bekas partinya dengan menggesa ROS bertindak terhadap DAP kerana gagal mengadakan semula pemilihan partinya selepas berlaku kesalahan dalam pengiraan undi.

Ini diikuti dengan kenyataan Abdul Rahman yang mendakwa ROS sedang menghadapi kesukaran untuk menyelesaikan siasatan berhubung kes berkenaan kerana tidak mendapat kerjasama daripada pemimpin tertinggi parti DAP.

Daripada dua kenyataan tersebut, Penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang terbau ada rancangan jahat yang sedang berlaku; lalu membuat pengumuman mengejutkan di Twitter pada 23 Mac 2013 bahawa beliau mungkin bertanding atas lambang PAS jika DAP diharamkan sebelum PRU13 diadakan.

"Jika BN salah guna kuasa (batalkan pendaftaran DAP), saya mungkin guna lambang PAS untuk mengukuhkan Pakatan Rakyat," tulis Kit Siang.

Pengumuman Kit Siang terus disambut dengan tangan terbuka oleh Setiausaha Agong PAS, Datuk Mustafa Ali.

Melihat kenyataan Kit Siang, Tunku Aziz menajamkan serangan pada DAP dengan mendesak agar "ROS bertindak adil dan cepat" terhadap DAP yang bongkak.

"DAP fikir mereka kebal dengan undang-undang dan tidak perlu bertanggungjawab isu salah kira undi pada pemilihan lepas. Mereka memang angkuh," tambahnya.

Pada 13 April 2013, Karpal menyatakan bahawa ROS meminta bekas pengarah pemilihan DAP, Pooi Weng Keong dan ahli strategi pilihan raya, Ong Kian Ming menghadiri satu siasatan terhadap pemilihan CEC parti pada 18 April 2013. Ketika itu, parlimen telah pun dibubarkan (3 April 2013).

Perang DAP-ROS mencapai kemuncak pada 17 April 2013 apabila ROS menghantar surat memaklumkan parti itu tiga hari menjelang penamaan calon, bahawa ROS tidak mengiktiraf jawatankuasa eksekutif pusat (CEC) DAP.

Terkejut beruk semua dibuatnya.

Namun ada perkara yang pelik yang berlaku ketika itu iaitu ROS menghantar dua surat pada hari yang sama tapi berbeza kandungan kepada DAP.

Menurut Guan Eng,  surat yang diberikan ROS kepada beliau dan Setiausaha Organisasi Kebangsaan, Anthony Loke pada hari itu adalah berbeza. Dalam surat kepada Guan Eng, ROS menyatakan tidak mengiktiraf CEC namun surat kepada Anthony menyatakan siasatan dakwaan silap kira itu telah ditangguhkan ke tarikh 9 Mei 2013 selepas PRU13.

Keganjilan tindakan ROS digunakan sepenuhnya untuk Guan Eng mempertikai tindakan ROS yang mengeluarkan surat tersebut sebelum siasatan selesai dilakukan.

Setelah gagal mendapat sebarang respon penarikan balik surat penggantungan CEC daripada ROS, DAP  mengambil keputusan pada 19 April mengumumkan untuk bertanding menggunakan logo PAS di Semenanjung Malaysia dan PKR di Sabah dan Sarawak dalam PRU13 yang dijadualkan pada 5 Mei 2013.

Atas kesilapan ROS ini dan tindakan PAS dan PKR bersetuju menerima DAP untuk bertanding atas lambang mereka, DAP mengambil untung maksima dalam pertarungan politik ini. Ramai penganalisa berpendapat langkah ROS yang dilihat menganiaya DAP ini melonjakkan undi Cina kepada PR melebihi 85 peratus.

Tidak kurangnya juga, isu ini menguntungkan PAS yang bersedia memberikan laluan kepada DAP untuk menggunakan logo bulannya. Murshidul Am PAS Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat mengeluarkan kenyataan ini yang disambut baik oleh semua lapisan rakyat Malaysia, yang majoritinya berhasrat melihat terkuburnya BN pada 5 Mei nanti.

"Keputusan DAP ini insyaAllah satu rahmat besar buat PAS. Ia sebenarnya rezeki buat perjuangan Islam. Mungkin Barisan Nasional merasakan langkah ini bakal membantutkan gerak langkah Pakatan Rakyat, namun sesungguhnya ia mengandungi rahmat yang sangat besar.

"Jika Perjanjian Hudaibiyyah membuka jalan kepada pembukaan kota Makkah, maka tidak mustahil langkah kerajaan Barisan Nasional ini sedang membuka kepada pembukaan Putrajaya dan pembinaan Malaysia Baru. Tidak mustahil tarikh 6 Mei 2013 nanti, perayaan besar-besaran kemenangan rakyat akan berlangsung di seluruh negara menyaksikan keruntuhan Barisan Nasional.

"Yakinlah keputusan ini membuka pintu sejarah yang akan dikenang zaman berzaman. Inilah saatnya di mana akhirnya roket berjaya mendarat di bulan!" kata Nik Aziz.

Barangkali menyedari kesilapan ROS yang memberikan momentum yang amat besar kepada PR, Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) memberi jaminan bahawa DAP boleh mengemukakan calon seperti biasa pada hari penamaan calon dengan lambang roket tanpa mengira keputusan ROS.

Namun begitu, DAP masih was-was dengan jaminan itu kerana sekiranya SPR berpaling tadah, habislah semua calon DAP. Disebabkan itu, Guan Eng mengeluarkan arahan supaya semua calon DAP membawa dua surat kebenaran, iaitu satu yang ditandatangani olehnya dan satu oleh Mustafa mewakili PAS.

"Ini adalah peluang terakhir kami untuk menggunakan simbol roket tetapi jika tidak boleh, kita akan guna simbol PAS," kata Guan Eng.

Akhirnya semua calon DAP dapat bertanding menggunakan simbol roket, dan walaupun taktik politik DAP dan PR berjaya memaksimakan keuntungan politik daripada keterlanjuran ROS dalam episod ini, namun PR tetap gagal ke Putrajaya.

(Bersambung ke bahagian 3 dan akhir minggu depan)

Bahagian 1: Akibat silap kira 1,823 undi, DAP dalam dilema

* Ini adalah pendapat peribadi penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili pandangan The Malaysian Insider.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

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Anak ketua menteri Sarawak punyai anak bersama wanita Australia, kata bekas isteri

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 02:13 AM PDT

OLEH RITA JONG
August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 27, 2013 05:17 pm

Bekas isteri anak Taib Mahmud (dua dari kiri) mendakwa Bekir mempunyai anak dengan wanita Australia. Gambar The Malaysian Insider oleh Afif Abd Halim, 27 Ogos, 2013.Bekas isteri anak Taib Mahmud (dua dari kiri) mendakwa Bekir mempunyai anak dengan wanita Australia. Gambar The Malaysian Insider oleh Afif Abd Halim, 27 Ogos, 2013.Mahkamah Tinggi Syariah hari ini mendengar kes anak Ketua Menteri Sarawak Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud yang dikatakan telah berlaku curang sejak dua dekad lalu.

Shahnaz A. Majid, 50, berkata Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Abdul Taib telah membawa wanita Australia dan Rusia ke perhimpunan keluarga semasa masih ada hubungan perkahwinan.

Beliau difahamkan Mahmud telah mempunyai seorang anak lelaki bersama wanita Australia itu.

"Dia membawa wanita itu ke majlis perkahwinan adik perempuannya sama ada pada tahun 2000 atau 2001 di Kuching," katanya sewaktu ditanya peguam Akbardin Abdul Kader hari ini.

"Nama wanita itu Louisse Hiley. Saya tidak tahu status pernikahan mereka tetapi mereka mempunyai anak bernama, Adam."

Shahnaz kemudian diberitahu Hiley dan Mahmud telah berpisah dan Adam mengikut ibunya.

Shahnaz adalah kakak kepada penyanyi jazz Datuk Sheila Majid telah memberi keterangan kepada mahkamah bagi mendapatkan pampasan RM300 juta dan RM100 juta tuntutan mutaah atas penceraian itu.

Beliau turut meminta 50 peratus aset kepunyaan Mahmud Abu Bekir termasuk kereta mewah, beberapa rumah di luar negara, tanah di Sarawak dan pegangan saham.

Kes penceraian itu mendedahkan kekayaan keluarga ketua menteri Sarawak.

Dalam penghakiman itu, Shahnaz menyenaraikan tujuh kereta mewah, ribuan hektar tanah di Sarawak dan saham dalam 15 buah syarikat yang diisytihar sebagai harta sepencarian.

Beliau mendirikan rumah tangga bersama Mahmud pada 9 Januari 1992 dan dikurniakan seorang anak lelaki, Rayden Myura Abdul Taib Mahmud, 20.

Mereka telah mendirikan rumah tangga selama 19 tahun empat bulan sebelum Mahmud memfailkan penceraian pada 11 Mei 2011.

"Perkahwinan kami pada awalnya bahagia namun tidak kekal lama. Tidak lama kemudian, perkahwinan dilanda masalah kerana Mahmud gagal melunaskan tanggungjawabnya," kata Shahnaz.

"Kami akhirnya berpisah kerana dilanda pelbagai masalah ekoran sifatnya yang ganas dan panas baran."

Katanya, Mahmud melayannya dengan tidak adil sebagai isteri pertama. Selepas Hiley, dia berkahwin dengan perempuan Rusia.

Akbardin: Bagaimana anda tahu dia berkahwin dengan wanita Rusia?

Shahnaz: Saya baca sebuah artikel di majalah The Peak pada September 2010. Beliau telah ditemubual oleh majalah berkenaan dan mengakui wanita Rusia itu isterinya.

Akbardin: Apa namanya?

Shahnaz: Elena Vasilenko.

"Dia kemudian kembali ke rumah bersama perempuan itu dan membawa anak kami keluar. Saya tidak tahu mereka telah berkahwin," katanya.

Shahnaz menambah sebelum dia bercerai, Mahmud turut membawa Vasilenko ke majlis hari jadi ibunya.

Pada Mac tahun ini, Mahkamah Rayuan Syariah membenarkan permohonan Mahmud bagi diadakan perbicaraan semula atas sebab kes tuntutan mutaah sebelum itu dijalankan tidak mengikut prosedur. - 27 Ogos, 2013.

Lebih ramai murid bukan Islam tinggalkan SK Seri Pristana kerana intimidasi

Posted: 27 Aug 2013 01:16 AM PDT

OLEH ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH
August 27, 2013
Latest Update: August 27, 2013 04:58 pm

Gambar fail yang mencetuskan kontroversi apabila murid bukan Islam SK Sri Pristana dikatakan diarahkan makan dalam tandas pada bulan puasa.Gambar fail yang mencetuskan kontroversi apabila murid bukan Islam SK Sri Pristana dikatakan diarahkan makan dalam tandas pada bulan puasa.Sekurang-kurangnya tiga murid bukan Islam meninggalkan SK Seri Pristana dan 10 lagi akan menyertai mereka kerana intimidasi selepas insiden makan di bilik persalinan.

Tiga murid yang meninggalkan sekolah itu mendakwa mereka diintimidasi dan dibuli pihak berkuasa sekolah selepas isu murid bukan Islam diarahkan untuk makan di bilik persalinan timbul.

Dalam sidang akhbar hari ini, ibu bapa kepada 10 lagi murid yang akan berpindah sekolah mendedahkan, keputusan mereka disebabkan salah seorang ibu bapa ditahan kerana mendakwa diintimidasi oleh guru besar sekolah.

Setiausaha Kebangaan Malaysia Tamilan Today Welfare, K Gunasegaran, berkata semua ibu bapa hilang kepercayaan kepada guru besar dan guru.

"Kami tidak melihat cara lain oleh kerana murid diganggu dan dibuli di sekolah, hanya kerana ibu bapa mereka bersuara," ksysnys.

Terdapat 25 murid bukan Islam di sekolah yang mempunyai 1,400 murid itu.

Kontroversi menyelebungi warga SK Seri Pristana tercetus selepas Guneswari memuat naik gambar murid bukan Islam di SK Seri Pristana makan di bilik persalinan semasa bulan Ramadan lalu.

Gambar yang disiarkannya di Facebook mengejutkan pengguna internet yang kemudian berkongsi gambar itu, dan akibatnya menyebabkan kekecohan di media sosial.

Ramai yang menyokong sementara ada juga pihak yang mengkritik dan mengugutnya.

Pengguna internet yang memberikan maklum balas negatif kebanyakannya membuat komen berbaur perkauman, meminta Guneswari dan ibu bapa bukan Islam yang lain menghantar anak mereka ke sekolah vernakular jika mereka tidak gembira dengan SK Seri Pristana, sekolah yang terbabit dalam kontroversi itu.

Malah, guru besar Mohamad Nasir diarah mengambil cuti seminggu berikutan kontroversi tersebut. – 27 Ogos, 2013.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
 

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