Archive - 4 June 2004

Merger talks between MCA and Gerakan top guns got off to a slow start with nothing much to show except for a joint programme scheduled to take off by August end.

Journalists groups urge Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to stop harassing Burmese journalists in Malaysia.

The government rules out the deployment of US Marines in the vital Malacca Strait as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he hoped US forces would be hunting terrorists in Southeast Asia "pretty soon".

Semua badan bukan kerajaan dan agensi kerajaan dinasihat berwaspada terhadap tawaran tajaan kewangan daripada syarikat tembakau yang kini sedang berusaha memulihkan imej mereka di mata masyarakat.

The police have also obtained the identity of four other accomplices and are urging them to surrender.

In view of the growing complaints of human rights abuses of detainees held in police remand centres, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia plans to visit the detention facilities.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi clarifies that extending the deadline for BN MPs to declare their assets does not mean that they will be exempted from doing so.

Its chairperson Lim Kit Siang wants the police to probe who paid for the advertisement and whether it had breached any laws.

The international trade and industry minister says that Malaysia has benefited from various initiatives of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.

The government is undecided if it should allow a UN watchdog to question Sri Lankan businessman BSA Tahir over his involvement in the nuclear black market scandal.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appears to be in the dark over the spendthrift habit of his ministries, which have already blown almost 90 percent of the money allocated under the five-year Eighth Malaysia Plan.

The recent reports of cutbacks in the Ministry of Health expenditures, along with the recent suggestion by Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek to create a private wing in government hospitals, are a cause for concern and public scrutiny.

If we continue to register high growth for the next quarter, we expect that growth will be beyond what we estimate for this year, says Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Ahli pergerakan Pemuda Umno menunggu pengumuman Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein Ahad ini mengenai jawatan yang akan ditandinginya dalam pemilihan parti September ini.

Unfortunate though it may be, the Malaysian way of dealing with pressing issues can be summed up under 'first class infrastructure and third class mentality.'

Kita wajib menerima hakikat bahawa dunia di hadapan kita bukan lagi dunia yang didiami oleh ayah dan ibu kita. Ianya hanya wujud dalam ingatan kolektif kita, kata HISHAMUDDIN RAIS.

'The abduction of a journalist who is trying to do his work is very troubling,' said Ann Cooper, the executive director of New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

India has been rapidly transforming into a regional economic power also and JOSH HONG wonders why ties with New Delhi are not viewed with the same intensity as that with Beijing.