66 dies after Bangladesh ferry sinks after collision with trawler |
- 66 dies after Bangladesh ferry sinks after collision with trawler
- DAP MP: Minister must be dreaming over Malaysian varsities world-class comment
- New swanky Cadillac sedan shows up at the Oscars
- Crude oil slips as Libya resumes oil exports from port
- More departures cancelled over sleet at Dallas/Fort Worth
- Western countries issue warnings after more fighting in volatile Ukraine
| 66 dies after Bangladesh ferry sinks after collision with trawler Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:35 PM PST
Rescuers managed to save at least 50 passengers and were still searching for more survivors, regional police official Harun-ur Rashid told Reuters today. Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, suffers regular ferry disasters, with deaths sometimes running into the hundreds. More than half of the 66 bodies retrieved so far from the river Padma were women and children, Harun said. Police have seized the trawler and arrested the captain and his two crewmembers, he said. "The ferry was recovered ... and there were 23 bodies inside," Harun said. "There might be more bodies trapped inside the ferry and searching is continuing," he said. Another 43 bodies were pulled from the water earlier yesterday. Rescuers from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and Red Cross were still searching the river. The ferry was heading to Paturia from Daulatdia in Rajbari, located on the opposite bank of the river, about 135 km (85 miles) west of the capital, Dhaka. Shajahan Khan, the shipping minister, told reporters at the scene that an investigation had been launched. A similar accident on February 13 killed at least seven passengers in southern Bangladesh. — Reuters  |
| DAP MP: Minister must be dreaming over Malaysian varsities world-class comment Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:21 PM PST
The Penang federal lawmaker countered the minister's recent assertion with 2013 data from the latter's own ministry showing the enrolment of international students in local schools of higher learning were largely from countries he deemed to have "inferior" universities. In a statement, he listed the top 10 countries of foreign student intake in public universities in descending order as: Iran with 5,009 students, Indonesia, China, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, Libya, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand. For private universities, he noted that China topped the list with 4,398 students, followed by Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Botswana. "Clearly, the minister is dreaming if he thinks Malaysian universities are world-class, especially when there are hardly any Singaporean, British, German or Australian students in Malaysia compared to the tens of thousands of Malaysians studying in those countries," Zairil said. He pointed out that further data from the Education Ministry showed over a third of Malaysian students or 28,869 people in 2013 preferred studying abroad with 15,020 opting for the UK including Ireland, 13,297 in Australia, 3,016 in Singapore, and despite the language difference, 452 decided on Germany. "On the flip side, the number of British, German and Australian students in Malaysian universities is so negligible that these countries do not even make it into the list of top 35 countries of origin for international students in Malaysia," the Bukit Bendera MP said. Zairil urged the minister to reflect on the large outflow of Malaysian students furthering their education abroad instead of seeking to trumpet insupportable claims. The DAP assistant national publicity secretary suggested the government cast its eyes towards Singapore for ideas to raise the rankings of local universities, highlighting the highly-competitive nature that has boosted its national university that shares the same roots as Universiti Malaya into the ranks of the world's top 100 tertiary education institutions. Idris was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama on Saturday that Malaysia's institutions of higher education are on par with those in the UK, Germany and Australia as there are 135,000 foreigners making 10 per cent of all students in local universities and colleges. The minister also cited Universiti Malaya's rise in the 2014 QS World University Rankings, from 167 to 151, as further evidence. |
| New swanky Cadillac sedan shows up at the Oscars Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:21 PM PST
The phrase comes from Teddy Roosevelt's famous "Citizen in a Republic" speech, which voices one of the spots. You've heard the spiel before. "It's not the critic who counts. ...The credit belongs to the man in the ring. ... Dust and sweat and blood ...(etc.)" Here's the most weighty of the four commercials: https://www.youtube.com/embed/I_fm3O5h9Bg Cadillac expects the audience to identify with the protagonist and be roused to action. And there are some impressive protagonists folded into the campaign, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, and Boyhood director Richard Linklater (a particularly prescient endorsement). Of course, there's also the yet unseen Cadillac, the CT6, ghosting through the gray of Manhattan SoHo neighborhood. https://www.youtube.com/embed/EGhaOV0BPmA Cadillac is swiping a page from Apple and its "Think Different" campaign. It's casting itself as the choice of entrepreneurs and artists, not corporate climbers—a younger, hipper, less rule-bound—and let's not forget richer—slice of our socioeconomic peak. But there are two problems with reprising the Roosevelt speech. For one, critics love Cadillacs these days; every car magazine in the country says GM's blue-chip brand is finally on a par with the best that Germany has to offer. Secondly, no one wants to "dare greatly" when it comes to buying a car—least of all those buying a luxury car. Drivers ponying up more than US$50,000 (RM182,399) want, primarily, not to muck it up. That's why BMW sells so many of its 3-series sedan. It's both a great car and a perfectly safe choice.
Cadillac, however, needs to take some risks, because nothing—save its giant Escalade—seems to be working that well on the marketing front. Despite a lineup of world-class vehicles and some momentum abroad, the brand hasn't closed the sales gap with BMW and Mercedes in the US The cars are finally great, but a lot of consumers don't care. This is why Cadillac moved its headquarters to New York, hired a long-time BMW executive to handle marketing (Uwe Ellinghaus), fired its ad agency, and threw a pile of money at Publicis to do something bold with its Oscar ad slots. It's also why the company has raised its prices and kept them high even as sales sputtered. Cadillac has been sending a message of confidence with its steep window stickers, a sort of premium swagger echoed in its new ads. Equally telling, meanwhile, is what we won't see in the ads. Per edicts from Ellinghaus, the spots will be without the following: Americana: No Detroit skylines, Empire State Building, or Route 66 signs. "That's too obvious," Ellinghaus said. "We want to opt out of the automotive clichés." The word "luxury": If you have to explain it, it isn't luxury — at least that's the line from Cadillac's marketing team. Gray cars: They represent the kind of teutonic uniformity Cadillac is trying to set itself against. "I can't tell you how many gray cars I have launched in my career," Ellinghaus said of his tenure at BMW. Performance statistics: Cadillac wants passion first, metrics second. "We will not try to out-German the Germans," said Ellinghaus (himself German). "We will not try to argue our way into the market with numbers." Ellinghaus, meanwhile, is a little bit giddy every time his former employer in Munich announces another boffo month of sales. It makes his challenge of casting Cadillac as something special that much easier. "Our biggest opportunity long term is the ubiquity of the Germans," he said over breakfast recently. "Because if suburbia is only full of BMWs, Mercedes and Audis, more customers will say, 'I know the cars are great, but I'm not so sure I want a car that the entire neighbourhood already has.'" The marketing blitz will stretch into early April, when the company unveils its all-new CT6 at the annual New York International Auto Show. If today's Oscar ad is to be believed, it won't be your grandfather's Cadillac. More importantly, it won't be your father's Cadillac—the one he passed over for a BMW. — Bloomberg |
| Crude oil slips as Libya resumes oil exports from port Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:16 PM PST
Futures slid as much as 0.8 per cent in London after capping a 2.1 per cent weekly decline on February 20. Oil fields in east Libya resumed shipping crude to the port of Hariga after a pipeline was fixed, according to Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp. Oman, the biggest Middle Eastern oil producer that's not a member of OPEC, is boosting crude output to 980,000 barrels a day this year. Rising global supply contributed to a surplus that drove prices almost 50 per cent lower last year. US drillers idled the fewest rigs in seven weeks, according to data on Friday from Baker Hughes Inc, an oilfield-services company. The United Steelworkers representing 30,000 oil workers called on four more plants to join the biggest strike since 1980 as labour contract talks dragged on. Brent for April settlement dropped as much as 48 cents to US$59.74 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange and traded at US$59.95 at 8.23am Singapore time. The contract rose 1 cent to US$60.22 on Friday. West Texas Intermediate for April delivery slid as much as 60 cents to US$50.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The March contract expired on Friday after falling 82 cents to US$50.34. The volume of all futures traded was about 38 per cent below the 100-day average. The US benchmark crude was at a discount of US$9.49 to Brent. — Bloomberg |
| More departures cancelled over sleet at Dallas/Fort Worth Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:14 PM PST
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport had 57 per cent of today's departures and 49 per cent of incoming flights scrubbed, according to FlightAware. The airline, operated by Fort Worth- based American Airlines Group Inc, dropped 28 per cent of its flights today in advance of the inclement weather, the industry data tracker said. A winter storm warning is in effect through 6pm today for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the National Weather Service said. Sleet accumulations of 1 to 1 ½ inches are expected, while some areas will as much as 5cm. Freezing rain may also form into ice, creating potentially impassable roads and overpasses. Temperatures are forecast to stay below freezing through tomorrow morning. In parts of the central and southern Great Plains, temperatures are expected to be -3º to 4º degrees Celsuis below average through midnight Wednesday, the forecaster said. — Bloomberg |
| Western countries issue warnings after more fighting in volatile Ukraine Posted: 22 Feb 2015 05:12 PM PST
The volatility was underlined by a bomb blast in the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv that killed two people during a pro-government march. Security officials said they had arrested four suspects linked to the "terrorist" attack. Meanwhile, intensifying fighting around Mariupol, on the Avoz Sea, heightened concerns the pro-Russian rebels might be preparing a new offensive after storming the key town of Debaltseve in defiance of a week-old ceasefire. Ukrainian defence spokesman Andriy Lysenko said "two tank attacks" were reported Yesterday near Mariupol and fighting was ongoing near the city. Kiev claims Russia has dispatched 20 tanks and other vehicles and big guns to the area. "An advance on Mariupol would clearly be in breach of the agreements" underpinning the truce brokered by Berlin and Paris, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview with his country's Bild newspaper. Sanctions 'could be strengthened' France's European affairs minister Harlem Desir, who was in Kiev for a unity march marking the first anniversary of the overthrow of Ukraine's former pro-Kremlin president, told reporters the ceasefire "must absolutely be respected". Otherwise, he said, Western sanctions on Russia would be maintained "and could even be strengthened". EU president Donald Tusk, also in Kiev, said he would "begin consultations today to increase some of the measures in connection with the aggression" in Ukraine, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported. On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry went further, declaring that if the ceasefire continued to be violated, "there will be further consequences including consequences that will place added strains on Russia's already troubled economy". Moscow denies the accusations it is behind the insurgency. Russia has already been hit by successive rounds of Western sanctions that are savaging its economy, which is headed for recession because of a collapse in oil prices. Dispute over weapons withdrawal Although the Ukraine ceasefire has managed to tamp down the combat along parts of the frontline, both sides in the conflict accuse the other of regular breaches. Yesterday, the Ukrainian army and the rebels announced they had agreed to pull back heavy weapons from the frontline — an important and overdue part of the truce. But even that part of the deal turned contentious. The insurgents said the withdrawal would only begin properly tomorrow, after a couple of days of "preparation". Kiev insisted that it was meant to start yesterday with no delays, and be completed within two weeks. About the only visible sign of compliance with the ceasefire agreement was a late-Saturday prisoner swap of nearly 200 fighters detained by both sides. Several of the 139 soldiers traded by the rebels had been captured in the assault on Debaltseve, a strategic transport hub between the separatist strongholds of Donetsk and Lugansk. The rebels overran the town tomorrow, sending 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers fleeing. A few of the released soldiers struggled on wooden crutches across a war-torn landscape cratered and littered with twisted metal. One freed insurgent, Roman Biarinov, vowed he would quickly return to the fight. "We have to defend this land. We are going to win. I don't know how, but we will win," he said. In Debaltseve yesterday, the International Committee of the Red Cross distributed food, blankets and medical supplies to some 5,000 people who had been trapped in the town by the combat. "We didn't have anything. No wages, no work, no potatoes," said one resident, Tatiana, who showed up to receive a box of supplies. "At least tonight we'll have something hot to eat." Another, Albert Baronov, 76, raged at the fighting that destroyed his home and left him living for the past three and a half months in a cellar. "We are furious that Europe let this happen," he told AFP. "Thousands of people have been killed and Europe hasn't stopped the war." — AFP |
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