AHMAD’S TONGUE UNDERMINING BN

Wan Hamidi Hamid

SEPT 1 — Can Datuk Ahmad Ismail’s alleged racist remarks against the Chinese community in Malaysia be the trigger for the MCA, Gerakan and other Barisan Nasional component parties to leave the coalition?

Or will they continue to grin and bear it, as they have always done for many years, despite the Bukit Bendera Umno division chief calling the Chinese “squatters” and “as the Chinese were only immigrants it was impossible to achieve equal rights amongst races” at a ceramah during the Permatang Pauh by-election recently?

MCA and Gerakan leaders have made tough calls for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take stern action against Ahmad for his alleged racist remarks.

But the best answer they got from Abdullah was: “I will tell him (Ahmad) not to do it again. You know in a campaign all sorts of things can come up. I don’t think he meant it. I’ll make sure to tell him not to use it again.”

More:http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/8379-ahmads-tongue-undermining-bn

SODOMY LAW SHOULD BE SCRAPPED

In 1999, Sidney Jones, director of Human Rights Watch for Asia, had made the suggestion that the sodomy law under which Anwar Ibrahim and his adopted Indonesian brother are charged, was a violation of human rights.

Jones viewed section 337B of the Penal Code on unnatural offences as an infringement of human rights and one which could lead to discrimination.

"Quite apart from whether there is any substance to the allegations against Anwar, we believe that so-called 'sodomy laws' violate the right to privacy. They should be scrapped," he said. Here

More:http://hard-t.blogspot.com/2008/09/sodomy-law-should-be-scrapped.html

GEORGIA WAR SHOWS RUSSIA `FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH'

Sebastian Alison

When British General Sir Michael Rose commanded United Nations forces protecting Bosnia in the mid-1990s, he gained first-hand knowledge of Russia's army, which participated in the mission.

``They were worse than useless,'' the 68-year-old retired officer said in an interview.

Russia's five-day drubbing of the U.S.-trained and equipped Georgian military this month followed a 5 trillion ruble ($200 billion) buildup undertaken in 2006 and lessons learned from misadventures in Afghanistan and Chechnya.

``Today they're a reinvented institution and a military force to be reckoned with'' after ``10 years of humiliation and pressure from NATO,'' Rose said.

More: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=9262

DANGER GROWS OF NATO-RUSSIAN CLASH IN BLACK SEA

Julie Hyland & Chris Marsden

A build-up of naval forces is underway in the Black Sea, involving both NATO and Russian ships. The provocative actions by the US-lead military coalition create the danger of a clash with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Late last week, General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military’s general staff, claimed that 10 NATO warships were in the Black Sea and that more were on the way.

“In light of the build-up of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea, the [Russian] fleet has also taken on the task of monitoring their activities,” he said.

The ships include two US warships, ostensibly in the region to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia. These have since been joined by a third.

In addition, NATO admitted that four of its vessels are on a “pre-planned deployment” in the Black Sea, “conducting port visits with Romanian and Bulgarian forces”.

More: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/afgh-s01.shtml

THIS MERDEKA, FORGET ABOUT UNITY!

Khoo Kay Peng

AUG 31 - After nearly 51 years of independence, we are still talking about national unity. National unity is an often repeated mantra of the only government we know but action speaks louder than words. Unfortunately, there is very little of our multi-racial harmony that we can credit to the politics of race and religion.

Multi-racial co-existence is a lot older than our nation. This land was inhabited by different races longer than what's recorded in our history textbooks.

The fact that our multi-racial society is still living in peace and harmony proves that we have accepted our shared destiny.

More:http://themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/8339-this-merdeka-forget-about-unity

RUSSIA THREATENS TO SUPPLY IRAN WITH TOP NEW MISSILE SYSTEM AS 'COLD WAR' ESCALATES

Phillip Sherwell and William Lowther

US intelligence fears the Kremlin will supply the sophisticated S-300 system to Tehran if Washington pushes through Nato membership for its pro-Western neighbours Georgia and Ukraine.

The proposed deal is causing huge alarm in the US and Israel as the S-300 can track 100 targets at once and fire on planes up to 75 miles away.

That would make it a "game-changer", greatly improving Iranian defences against any air strike on its nuclear sites, according to Pentagon adviser Dan Goure. "This is a system that scares every Western air force," he said.

Senior US intelligence operatives believe that Russia is planning to use a stand-off over the S-300 to create a foreign policy showdown that would test the mettle of a new US president.

More: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=9255

ANWAR’S LANDSLIDE WIN: A FURTHER BLOW TO MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT

John Roberts

Anwar Ibrahim, leader of the opposition Malaysian Peoples Front (PKR), won a hotly contested by-election for the seat of Permatang Pauh on Tuesday with 67 percent of the vote. The scale of the win in the northern state of Penang will see Anwar back in the national parliament for the first time in a decade and intensify the opposition’s confrontation with the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

Anwar has set September 16 as the date by which he would form a new government by enticing government MPs to his side. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which is the major party in the ruling 14-party Barisan Nasional (BN), has held power for more than half a century. The PKR alliance won 82 of the 222 seats in the national parliament in elections in March and needs 30 MPs to switch camps to bring down the government.

Anwar was unable to run for a seat in March due to a ban stemming from his conviction on trumped-up charges in 1999. His wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail resigned her seat to create the by-election. Despite a malicious campaign against him, Anwar won 31,195 votes to 15,524 for the BN candidate Arif Shah Omar Shah—an increase of 3 percentage points from his wife’s result in March.

More: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/mala-a28.shtml