Woman stabbed by robbers dies shortly

A woman died after being stabbed by robbers on Saturday evening while she was on her way with her family to a charity run at Gasing Hills, Petaling Jaya.  Madam Irene Ong was walking with her daughter when two men on a motorcycle came from behind. Ong knew something wasn’t right and pushed her daughter away. She was stabbed four times by the pillion rider.
The robbers then tried to snatch her pouch while her daughter was running to look for help. By the time her husband ran to her aid, she had passed away due to the loss of blood. According to sources, the deceased’s last words to her daughter were “I love you.”
In light of the tragic incident of Madam Ong and the rampant snatch thefts that have been occurring lately, what can we as citizens and as a community do to protect ourselves and deter such crimes from happening? Request for more police patrols around Bukit Gasing or the community coming together to organise a crime watch around the area?

AirAsia starts recruiting pilots for Indian venture

Asia's largest budget carrier AirAsia announced Saturday it has begun recruiting pilots for the no-frills Indian airline joint venture it plans to launch later this year.

AirAsia is searching for India-based captains and co-pilots, the carrier said on its website. Group chief executive Tony Fernandes added on his Facebook page: "Come fly with us! AirAsia India is hiring pilots."
Last month, the Malaysia-based company won approval from India's foreign investment panel to set up an airline in a joint venture with the giant Tata group, a government official said.
"The way things are going, it looks like we will start operations in September provided we get all the necessary approvals," Bo Lingam, chief operating officer of Air Asia, was quoted as saying by India's Economic Times.
The venture still has to obtain a flying licence from India's aviation regulator, among other steps.
The company will recruit 100 employees to begin with for its Indian operations, the newspaper said.
AirAsia will have a 49 percent stake in the carrier while India's Tata Group will hold 30 percent. The remainder will be held by entrepreneur Arun Bhatia's Telstra Tradeplace.
Fernandes, a former record industry executive, took over insolvent AirAsia in 2001 and turned it into one of the aviation sector's biggest success stories.
AirAsia's entry would mark the first by a foreign carrier in the Indian aviation sector since the government last September relaxed rules allowing overseas airlines to take up to 49 percent stakes in domestic carriers.

Strong quake jolts Iran, felt in Gulf and South Asia

A powerful earthquake rattled Iran on Tuesday, and was felt in the Gulf and South Asia, where at least five people died and frightened office workers fled from buildings
 

Pakistanis wait outside after evacuating nearby buildings following tremors in Karachi, on April 16, 2013. A powerful earthquake has rattled Iran on Tuesday, and was felt in the Gulf and South Asia, where at least five people died and frightened office workers fled from buildings, reports said.

It comes a week after one struck near Iran's Gulf port city of Bushehr, killing at least 30 people and injuring 800.
At least 27 people were hurt in Iran on Tuesday, according to a local governor speaking to the official IRNA news agency, but there was no immediate confirmation of any deaths.
In Pakistan, the quake brought down homes, killing at least five people and injuring others, a hospital official said.
"We have received five dead bodies," Ashraf Baloch told AFP by telephone from Mashkail in Washuk district, around three kilometres (1.8 miles) from the border with Iran.
A local health official in Iran told the Fars news agency that more than 20 villages were probably "severely damaged," based on initial reports.
But the deputy head of Iran's state crisis management organisation, Morteza Akbarpour, told Fars news agency casualties should be low considering the rural setting of the stricken area.
IRNA said crisis management authorities had declared a state of emergency in the quake-hit area.
The head of Iran's Red Crescent rescue corps, Mahmoud Mozafar, said communications to the stricken areas have been cut.
The earthquake also shook buildings in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, across the waters of the Gulf in the United Arab Emirates. It was also felt in the Saudi capital Riyadh and in Oman.
In the tourist hub of Dubai, residential and office buildings were evacuated and thousands of people gathered outside skyscrapers.
"Everybody's on the streets. There's a state of panic," said the director of an insurance company in the city centre who identified himself only as Rami.
The grandiose Dubai Mall was completely evacuated, according to employees who said people were evacuated from towers in Downtown Dubai, home to the world's tallest building.
The quake was also strongly felt in Kuwait, particularly in coastal areas, and in the Bahraini capital Manama, where buildings in the central financial district were evacuated.
It was felt across northern India, including in the capital New Delhi. where tremors rattled buildings and led many office workers to run into the street as a precaution.
"We felt the jerks," said SC Basu, a retired government engineer who lives in the east of the Indian capital. "Our beds shook and crockery rattled. Many people left for outside."
There were no immediate reports of any damage or casualties in India, but concern remains high just 10 days after the collapse of a building in Mumbai killed 72 people.
Iran's Seismological Centre said the 7.5-magnitude quake struck at 3:14 pm (1044 GMT) in the southeast near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It had initially put the depth of the quake at 18km (11 miles) but later revised it to 95km (59 miles).
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 7.8, and said it struck near the Iranian city of Khash, in the province of Sistan Baluchistan.
Dr David Rothery, chair of the volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis course at Britain's Open University, said "this morning's earthquake in Iran was strong... but fortunately its source was quite deep.
"Although the ground probably shook for the best part of a minute, the intensity of the shaking was less than it would have been for a shallower earthquake of the same magnitude."
But he added that the area "is mountainous, and damage can be expected from landslides as well as because of poorly constructed buildings."
Iran sits astride several major fault lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes, some of which have been devastating.
A double earthquake, one measuring 6.2 and the other 6.0, struck northwest Iran last August, killing more than 300 people and injuring 3,000.
In December 2010, a massive quake struck the southern city of Bam. It killed 26,271 people -- about a quarter of the population -- and destroyed the city's ancient mud-built citadel.

Black Bear Becomes First To Undergo Brain Surgery

A three-year old Asiatic black bear by the name of Champa has undergone brain surgery, and in the process has become the first of her kind to do so.
Champa is based in the mountains of northern Laos, and after losing her vision and becoming more violent vets in her sanctuary came to the conclusion that she was suffering from hydrocephalus, otherwise know as ‘water on the brain.’

Due to this condition she constantly felt as if she was suffering from a migraine. Previously, Champa had always stood out due to her protruding forehead and she often had difficulties socialising with other bears around her.
However, rather than being put down because of her conditions, the Buddhist traditions in Laos, as well as various wildlife protection laws, meant that Champa was forced to undergo a six surgery.
A South African veterinary surgeon was flown in from her usual place of work at the Edinburgh Zoo, in Scotland, to complete the procedure.
This operation, which took place in February, consisted of drilling a small hole behind one of the bear’s ears, before then using an ultrasound probe to confirm that she was indeed hydrocephalic.
A thin tube was then inserted into her brain, which then threaded under her skin to the abdomen, where they drained the fluid from the cavity.
Matt Hunt, the chief executive of the sanctuary, noted that Champa was instantly different after the ordeal. “There was a lot more recognition,” he stated. “We can’t know if her vision is fully recovered, but everyone certainly believes her vision has improved.”
The sanctuary where Champa is based is entitled Free the Bears, and protects these bears from wildlife traffickers. The Asiatic black bear is currently listed as vulnerable on the list of threatened species, whilst its bile is often used in Chinese and Korean medicine.

Kim Jong-Un ‘Struggling,’ Says Former North Korean Spy

Kim Jong-Un is “struggling” to maintain control of North Korea’s military forces. According to a former North Korean spy and terrorist who took orders directly from his father, the bombastic young dictator that everyone loves to hate is still fighting to consolidate power with a show of force.
That’s the read from convicted terrorist Kim Hyun-He, who placed a bomb on a South Korean airliner in 1987. The bomb exploded, killing 115 people. She was captured and sentenced to death but ultimately pardoned because it was established that she herself was a victim of brainwashing. She now lives in hiding in Seoul, South Korea, and she gave her thoughts last night on the situation to Australia’s ABC TV from a secret location.

Poor Kim Jong-Un. A stone-hearted strongman waving nuclear threats just can’t get any respect these days.
When he announced that doomsday might be coming as soon as Wednesday or Thursday of last week, a cheeky British tabloid published probably false photos of the alleged young Kim Jong-Un playing a role as a leather-jacket wearing hoodlum in the musical Grease.
John McCain called him “a clown.” Fidel Castro said that the threats were absurd. Anonymous hacked North Korea and turned admittedly chunky Kim Jong-Un into a pig.
Even former vice-president Dick Cheney, who’s always up for a good war, conceded only that we might be “in the deep doo-doo” with the young and impetuous dictator. Doo-doo? You run a whole country, and you can’t even get an upgrade to s**t?
Despite breathless reports that the missile is now upright, it didn’t go off at the appointed time. An internet wit spread the word that the test was delayed because of North Korea’s reliance on Windows 8 software, and that North Korea has now declared war on Microsoft.
Yeppers, there’s no doubt that Kim Jong-Un is struggling to get the respect of the west. But his own military? That’s another question.
Some observers have cautioned that Ms. Kim Hyun-He’s take could be way out of date. She knew the father, not the son, and it isn’t known if she still has current contacts feeding her information from North Korea.
Far from struggling, those analysts point out that Kim Jong-Un appears to have a firm grip on the North Korean armed forces — so firm that he has successfully removed senior generals. That includes four officials that actually carried the casket of his father at the state funeral.
“He is proving he is the leader, the decider…a leader in power, a leader from the get-go,” said Joseph DeTrani, a former North Korean ambassador.
While the world waits to see when, or if, the next much-ballyhooed missile test will launch, the jokes will probably continue. At the end of the day, almost everyone seems to agree that it isn’t about starting a nuclear war. It’s about blackmail.
“He’s also using the nuclear program as a bargaining chip for aid, to keep the public behind him,” said Kim Hyun-He.
Whether you think he’s a pathetic blackmailer, a serious danger, or just a joke, Kim Jong-Un’s struggle for respect is far from over.

Seoul calls Pyongyang to come to dialogue table

SEOUL: South Korea on Thursday called on North Korea (DPRK) to come to the dialogue table to resolve the political deadlock, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

"The suspension in operation of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a symbol of the inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation, is an act that does not do any good to our nation's future," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a formal statement.  
Ryoo said that "the normalisation of the Kaesong complex should be made through dialogue," urging Pyongyang to "come to the dialogue table to discuss what the North (DPRK) wants."  
Asked whether the statement is a formal proposal for dialogue with Pyongyang, Ryoo told reporters that it would be a declaration to make certain that "all the problems, including the Kaesong Industrial Complex problem and the escalating threats by North Korea, should be resolved through dialogue" rather than the government's formal suggestion for dialogue.  
Ryoo strongly urged Pyongyang to stop heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula, expressing his regrets over the North Korea's repeated provocative threats.  
His comments came amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. A spokesman of North Korea's General Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone told the official Korea Central News
Agency that the Kaesong industrial zone may cease to exist if the South Korean authority continues its confrontation policy.  
The industrial zone, established under an agreement reached at the unprecedented inter-Korean summit in 2000, stopped operations from Tuesday as around 53,000 North Korean workers failed to report to work following North Korea's announcement of withdrawal of all its workers from the North Korea's border town of Kaesong. 
 

South Korean army tanks move at a shooting range in the border city of Paju on April 11, 2013. North Korea kept the world on edge on April 11, over an expected missile launch while turning its own energies to celebrating leaders past and present amid soaring tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Bomb kills 2 soldiers, wounds 6 in south Thailand

PATTANI, Thailand: Police say two soldiers were killed and six were wounded in a roadside bombing in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south.

Police Col. Manit Yimsai said Thursday that suspected insurgents detonated an improvised bomb hidden on the road surface in Pattani province’s Panarae district.
The soldiers were in two armored vehicles traveling Wednesday night to inspect damages from an earlier militant attack. One of the personnel carriers was badly damaged.
The attack was one of 36 incidents overnight in Pattani. Authorities said suspected militants set fires on tires, cell towers, telephone booths, buildings and closed-circuit cameras. No other casualties were reported.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004.




Thai security forces inspect the site of a roadside bomb attack on an armoured vehicle by suspected separatist militants which killed two soldiers and injured six in Thailand's restive southern province of Pattani on April 11, 2013. More than 5,500 people have been killed in nine years of bloodshed in Thailand's Muslim-majority south near the border with Malaysia, with shadowy insurgent groups blamed for near-daily bombings and shootings.