Straight fight in Balingian by election

Straight fight in Balingian by election
No sign missing Malaysia plane neared Australia: PM
North Korea fires 25 rockets into sea
LegCo member urged authorities to monitor overstaying foreign workers
Magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocks Chile: USGS
Web domain name revolution could hit trademark defence: UN

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:26 PM PDT

Posted on March 17, 2014, Monday

MUKAH: A straight fight between BN's candidate Yussibnosh Balo, 48, and PKR's Abdul Jalil Bujang, 55, for Balingian by election.

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No sign missing Malaysia plane neared Australia: PM

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:18 PM PDT

SYDNEY: Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Monday said he had no information that missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have come close to Australia, but conceded the incident was "deeply mysterious".

The Malaysian government has revealed the investigation into the missing jet, which indicates it was deliberately diverted and flew for several hours after leaving its scheduled flight path — either north towards Central Asia, or towards the southern Indian Ocean.

Asked whether Australian agencies had detected the plane close to Australia, given its western coast borders the Indian Ocean, Abbott said: "I don't have any information to that effect.

"But all of our agencies that could possibly help in this area are scouring their data to see if there's anything that they can add to the understanding of this mystery," he told reporters.

Australia has two Orion surveillance aircraft assisting with the search for the plane, which was en route to Beijing when it disappeared, and Abbott said one of those had now been redeployed to the Indian Ocean search.

"It's my intention to talk later today with the Malaysians to see whether there's additional help that Australia can offer," he said.

Abbott said the incident could lead to changes in how aircraft are tracked.

"I think that there will be a lot of analysis done of this particular event which thus far remains deeply, deeply mysterious," he said.

"And I think there will be a lot of lessons learnt, and I dare say some of those lessons will involve the tracking of aircraft."

Six Australians were on board the commercial flight carrying 239 passengers and crew which vanished on March 8 in a busy Southeast Asian sky, and relatives have clung to hope that their loved ones may still be alive.

"I haven't got a clue what is going on, but maybe they have been hijacked and that gives me hope," David Lawton, whose brother Bob was aboard MH370, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

"In this day and age, and the technology we have, you would think they would be able to find it, but no, apparently they can't.

"I don't blame anybody for it, I just want to know what their fate was," he added. - AFP

North Korea fires 25 rockets into sea

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 07:17 PM PDT

SEOUL: North Korea test-fired 25 rockets into the sea on Sunday, South Korea's defence ministry said, the latest in a series of launches that have provoked criticism from Seoul and Washington.

The rockets were fired off the North's east coast and flew about 70 kilometres (42 miles) over the Sea of Japan (East Sea), a ministry spokesman said.

The ministry said 10 rockets were fired at 6:20 pm (0920 GMT), and eight more at 8:03 pm. Another seven followed, the last at 9:30 pm.

The United States said it was closely monitoring the situation.

"We are aware of reports that North Korea fired a number of rockets into the sea," US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

"We once again call on North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions."

The spokesman for South Korea's defence ministry said Seoul's military "has maintained a close watch for possible North Korean provocations".

Yonhap news agency reported that 25 short-range missiles were fired.

South Korean troops have increased vigilance following a series of rocket or missile launches since late February.

The activity coincides with annual South Korea-US military exercises that started in February and will run until mid-April.

Pyongyang routinely condemns such war games as rehearsals for an invasion, while Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.

"We urge North Korea to stop provocative activities that will heighten military tension across the border," the spokesman said.

The North has defended its missile and rocket tests as justifiable self-defence drills.

South Korea has called the launches a "reckless provocation" while Washington urged Pyongyang to halt the tests immediately, saying they risked inflaming regional tensions.

Sunday's rocket launch came two days after the North's National Defence Commission threatened to demonstrate its nuclear deterrence.

Analysts said the comments could indicate the regime is preparing to carry out a fourth atomic test.

"Additional measures will be taken to demonstrate its might one after another as long as the US nuclear threat and blackmail persist as now," the commission said in a statement.

"The US had better roll back its worn-out hostile policy towards (North Korea) as soon as possible and shape a new realistic policy before it is too late."

North Korea and its main ally China want a resumption of six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons programme. But the United States and South Korea both insist that Pyongyang first demonstrates some tangible commitment to abandoning nuclear weapons.

The North carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and in February last year.

Analysts in Seoul said the North is now mulling three options — a fourth nuclear test, the firing of a long-range rocket or the disclosure of progress in its programme to enrich uranium.

Despite tensions over the drills and the North's missile tests, cross-border ties are currently enjoying an upswing.

The two Koreas recently held the first reunion for more than three years of families divided by the Korean War — an event that raised hopes of greater cooperation.- AFP

LegCo member urged authorities to monitor overstaying foreign workers

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 06:11 PM PDT

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Yang Berhormat Dato Paduka Hj Abdullah Hj Md Ja'afar during the latest round of 10th LegCo (Legislative Council) Meeting raised the issue of freelance workers in which he suggested that relevant authorities curb the influx of foreign workers whose 'employment passes' state an occupation that differs from the work they are supposed to perform, Brudirect reported.

The matter was brought forth following a spike in criminal activities such as burglaries, home invasions, carjacking, thefts, fraud and smuggling, some of which involved foreign nationals carrying out freelance work after their contracts had ended.

Yang Berhormat suggested that the contractors that are no longer tasked with a project report to the relevant departments so that their work passes could be terminated. He also called on village heads to be more proactive by mobilising the registration of rented house tenants in their respective villages. This would help the Labour Department and the Immigration and National Registration Department to track down foreign workers whose work permits have expired.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Yang Berhormat Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Hj Awg Badaruddin Pengarah Dato Paduka Hj Othman, in his response, welcomed the suggestions, especially the call for greater proactivity amongst the village heads in registering the rented houses or quarters in their respective jurisdictions.

Yang Behormat Pehin hoped the district authorities would take appropriate measures to that effect. In reference to crimes committed by foreign workers, the minister attributed the causes to the possibility that they would remain in the country beyond the set duration of their contracts under the guarantee of their respective employers. However, this still does not explain why they are driven to commit crimes in the first place. It also brought to light the alleged economic stability of the Sultanate where everyone is supposedly well-provided in all aspects of life.

Yang Behormat Pehin said the local parties have the responsibility to ascertain whether the workers have a specific permanent occupation while looking into the possibility that if the job does not fulfil their needs, they could resort to criminal activities.

While the crimes are committed by the foreign workers, the source of the misdeeds could be their employers giving them access to remain in the country by backing or requesting work pass extensions.

Yang Berhormat Pehin thereby called on such employers to think not just for their own importance but also for the sake of the security and peace of the citizens and residents in the country.

While previously, many locals have difficulty accepting the truth that the Malay Muslim Bruneians are incapable of committing crimes of any kind, the Sultanate received a major blow to its very own definition of 'Abode of Peace' after three local men are sentenced to lengthy imprisonments for destruction of property and stealing donation funds from mosques across the country.

Magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocks Chile: USGS

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 05:45 PM PDT

CHILE: A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake jolted Chile's northwestern coast Sunday, US geologists said, though there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 5:16 pm (2116 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey, which had originally said that two quakes rattled the area within a minute of each other.

Located 61 kilometers (38 miles) northwest of the port city of Iquique, the temblor was 35 kilometers deep.

"Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," the US National Weather Service's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin.

"Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action."

But it later cautioned that "based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii." – AFP

Web domain name revolution could hit trademark defence: UN

Posted: 16 Mar 2014 05:29 PM PDT

The mass expansion of Internet domain names could cause havoc for the defence of trademarks in cyberspace, the UN's intellectual property body warned on Monday.

"We have this extraordinary expansion that is going on," said Francis Gurry, head of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which oversees global rules against cybersquatting.

"That is going to have an impact, which is likely to be significant, on trademark protection. The exact nature of the impact, we aren't sure of at this stage, but it is likely to be significant and disruptive," Gurry told reporters.

"Trademark owners are very concerned about the impact that this expansion will have on branding systems," he added.

Opening the Internet to domain names that go far beyond classics such as .com, .org, .net, .gov, and .edu has been heralded by US-based Web overlords the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as the biggest change to the Web since it was created.

There have long been just 22 generic top-level domains (gTLDs), of which .com and .net comprise the lion's share.

But California-based ICANN has said that the snowballing of the Internet — with some two billion users around the world, half of them in Asia — makes new names essential.

Around 1,400 new gTLDs are gradually being put up for grabs, with the first 160 already delegated to various Web registration firms.

"The opportunity for misuse of trademarks expands exponentially," said Gurry, noting that registering a domain name is a cheap, automatic procedure that takes a matter of seconds and does not have a filter to examine whether there is a trademark conflict.

"That brings with it the attendant inconvenience of a much greater burden of surveillance on the part of trademark owners," he said.

In the initial mix, opened in January, are addresses ending in guru, bike, singles, as well as clothing, holdings, plumbing and ventures.

Other generic terms on the horizon include .football, .flights, .cards and .bid.

The first-ever non-Latin letter domains have also been approved, including the Chinese for "game", the Arabic for "web" or "network," or the Cyrillic for "online".

Concern over 'side effect'

Gurry acknowledged that the expansion was meant to ease use of the fast-growing Internet.

"So presumably, their reasons for expanding relate to improvement of navigational capacity on the Internet. What we're concerned is the side effect of the impact that that has on branding systems that are used by consumers for their interaction with commerce," he added.

Trademark owners aggrieved by cybersquatting — the abusive registration of domain names, sometimes in order to sell them back to rights holders or draw consumers to rival products — have the option of turning to WIPO's arbitration procedure.

In 2013, 2,585 such cases were filed with WIPO, concerning a record 6,191 individual domain names.

Under international rules, Web registration firms must void the registration of losers in WIPO cybersquatting cases.

The UN body is already hearing its first case concerning a new gTLD, filed in February and pitting a German company against the Dutch registree of the still-inactive website canyon.bike.

Erik Wilbers, director or WIPO's arbitration arm, said that the vast increase of gTLDs will mean that trademark holders would have to be "much more focused" in what they challenge.

"You cannot keep shooting at everything that moves in an expanding domain name system," he said. – AFP