Driver killed in four-vehicle pile-up

KULAIJAYA: A four-vehicle crash involving two lorries, a car and a multipurpose vehicle (MPV) on the North-South Expressway here resulted in one dead and three others injured.

The accident occurred when Eng Boon Pin, 29, who was driving a Honda City, lost control of the vehicle on the northbound route on KM29 at around 5.30am yesterday.

Kulaijaya OCPD Supt Zulkefly Yahya said a tanker lorry behind Eng’s car could not brake in time and rammed into the car.

Eng Boon Pin, 29, who drove a Honda City, lost control of the vehicle on the northbound route on KM29 at around 5.30am on Oct 1, 2013 and died at the scene.

Eng died at the scene.

“The impact caused the car to break into two,” he said. “An MPV and a second lorry which were following behind the first lorry then added to the pile-up.”

Eng, from Taman Gunung Lambak, Kluang, was stuck in the driver’s seat and died at the scene.

Supt Zulkefly said Eng’s passenger Khong Yin Ngee, 25, the MPV’s driver Tan Ah Seng, 32, and his passenger Wang Zhi Hua, 36, all sustained minor injuries while both the lorry drivers were unhurt.

He said the police were conducting investigation under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 and urged witnesses to call the police hotline at 07-2212 999.

Club to challenge takeover of field

KUALA LUMPUR: About 100 people turned up at the Ulu Kelang Recreation Club (UKRC) in Kuala Ampang near here to protest against the takeover of their field by the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ).

Council officers cordoned off the field in the morning, ahead of the evening protest yesterday.

Club chairman Andrew Gopal said they would take legal action against the council on the takeover.

“We were issued a notice last Friday. They did not produce a court order when they came to cordon off the field,” he told reporters.

We have been managing the land since the club started in 1958.

“It is unfair for MPAJ to seize the management of the field without proper notice or discussion.”

The council took over the field on Monday and, except for the clubhouse, will take charge of all facilities there.

These include the football field, basketball court and the empty spaces around the field.

With the takeover, the field has been renamed as Kuala Ampang MPAJ field.

Council deputy president and secretary Abdul Hamid Hussain had said that while the entire land was public land, the Selangor Government was allowing UKRC to buy the portion where the clubhouse is sited.

On this matter, Gopal said: “If the state government is willing to let us pay a premium for the field and the surrounding land, we are willing to do so.”

A resident, who wished to be known only as Lam, said the council had disregarded the efforts of the club committee which has been maintaining the field all these years.

“I have stayed in the area for over 50 years. The club used to be rundown and unkempt. Now it is well-tended and the residents and the public can enjoy the facilities,” said the 67-year-old.

Janice Loke, 48, said the field was regularly used for sporting activities.

“Many have said it is the best field around,” she said, and that now she is worried about how it would be maintained under the council.

Liew Chin Tong's efforts during GE13 were rewarded with top ranking in DAP’s CEC polls

PETALING JAYA: Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong’s surprise top-ranking in DAP’s recently concluded Central Executive Committee (CEC) polls was an acknowledgement of his role as a party strategist in the last general election.

He was also credited for DAP’s success in Johor, which is considered to be a Barisan Nasional stronghold.

“He doesn’t belong to any faction although he is largely seen as Lim Guan Eng’s boy. His move from Penang to Johor has helped him establish his own identity,” said independent political analyst Khoo Kay Peng.

In the May 5 elections, Liew, 36, defeated former Deputy Minister for Higher Education Dr Hou Kok Chung in Kluang.  In the 12th general election, Liew stood successfully the Bukit Bendera parliamentary seat.

In Sunday’s CEC polls, Liew received 1438 votes while in last December’s CEC election, Liew was ranked 14th.

According to Political Science Professor James Chin, head of the School of Arts & Social Sciences at Monash University Malaysia, said many in DAP credit Liew for the opposition’s success in Johor.

“They were the best performing party in Pakatan. In Johor, they brought down their big guns to contest. People credit him for being one of the key strategists in the party,” he said.

“Personality wise, he is humble and people like it,” said Chin adding that when Liew started he was known as Lim Guan Eng’s right hand man.

In the bigger picture however, these rankings don’t really matter said Chin as they are just a snapshot of support at the central level and not the grassroots.

While Liew’s ranking was a surprise, status quo prevailed in the elections as all 20 elected candidates were

The re-election of the CEC followed a directive from the Registrar of Societies to hold fresh polls.

The re-election was held following an order from RoS director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman on July 30, demanding DAP hold new CEC elections as he was not satisfied with the “technical glitch” explanation provided.

There was controversy in the party's last CEC election when Lim's then-political secretary Zairil Khir Johari obtained 803 votes after a re-calculation, as opposed to 305 during the initial count.

Khoo said not much should be read into the rankings, as it wasn’t really a poll in the first place.

“It was a DAP reaction towards the ROS and don’t take it as party election seriously. They were responding to the top leadership's call to vote in the same line-up,” he said.

Khoo pointed out that the CEC line-up was predominantly controlled by the Lim and Karpal factions, the backbone of DAP.

“More importantly is how each faction still controls the party very tightly. The current leadership is dominant and the party is united at the core,” he said pointing out that even veteran Kepong MP Tan Seng Giaw didn’t make it to the top 20 list.

“Liew might have got the biggest score, but he would not make it as chairman,” he added.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming and the returning officer of the polls said the results validated last year’s polls.

When asked about the rankings, he said it was “part of the process of a healthy democracy.”

UK job vacancies rise, wages remain flat

LONDON: The number of advertised jobs in Britain rose to its highest level in four years in September, according to a survey released by a jobs website on Tuesday, another sign that the economic recovery is gaining momentum.

The Reed Job Index, assembled using data from around 150,000 vacancies advertised on the website of recruitment firm Reed Global, showed vacancies grew 24 percent on an annual basis to hit the highest number since the launch of the index in 2009.

However, wages remained stagnant for a third month, it found.

Unemployment, currently 7.7 percent, has become one of the closest watched economic indicators since the Bank of England said it would not think about raising interest rates from a record low until the jobless rate falls to 7 percent.

Reed's data indicated that job prospects were improving across all regions in the UK and in a range of industries.

Vacancies in manufacturing and retail rose by 32 percent and 31 percent respectively compared to the same period last year. The construction and property sector saw a 78 percent year-on-year rise in vacancies.- Reuters

Mexico rescues 73 suspected kidnap victims near U.S. border

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Seventy-three suspected kidnap victims were rescued in northern Mexico near the border city of Reynosa after police followed their alleged captors to a house and heard frantic calls for help, authorities said on Monday.

Of the victims, 37 were Mexicans, 19 were from Honduras, 14 from Guatemala and another three from El Salvador, federal police said in a statement. Among the victims were women and minors, some of whom reported having been sexually abused.

Police held three suspects, who were believed to have taken their victims on buses or at bus stations, the statement said. Some of the victims had been held for up to four months while their captors demanded payment from their families, police said.

Police also seized weapons and drugs found at the home, including nearly 700 rounds of bullets, a hand grenade and almost 10,000 kilograms (22,046 lbs) of what was believed to be marijuana.

Reynosa is in Tamaulipas, south of Texas, and is one of Mexico's most violent states, where rival gangs battle for lucrative drug-running routes into the United States.

In 2010, 72 migrants, including dozens of Central Americans, were found in a mass grave in Tamaulipas in an incident linked to Mexico's brutal Zetas cartel.

News of the rescue came as public worries over lawlessness have increased in Mexico, according to a new poll published by Mexico's national statistics agency, INEGI.

The poll taken in March and April showed that 72.3 percent of Mexicans adults said they felt that their home state was unsafe, up from 66.6 percent during the same period a year earlier.

President Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December, pledging to reduce the violence, which soared under his predecessor, Felipe Calderon.

Calderon sent in the armed forces to bring drug traffickers to heel but killings rose as the cartels splintered.

Around 70,000 people died in the explosion of gang-related violence under Calderon, and the homicide count has eased under Pena Nieto. However, the bloody turf wars are still claiming almost 1,000 lives a month, according to official figures.

Test for maid accused of killing employer

KOTA BARU: The High Court has ordered an Indonesian maid, accused of murdering her employer in 2010, to be sent to the Universiti Sains Malaysia bone data unit in Kubang Kerian to confirm her age at the time of the alleged incident.

Justice Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim also ordered teenager Wilfrida Soik, allegedly a victim of human trafficking, to undergo psychiatric observation by an authority to be appointed by the defence.

Wilfrida, 23, is accused of murdering Yeap Sook Pen at Kampung Lubuk Tapah, Pasir Mas, at between 11am and 12.30pm on Dec 7, 2010.

She was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code that carries a mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

The full gallery in the courtroom included Indonesian presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto, who claimed Wilfrida was abducted by human traffickers and brought to Malaysia to work as a maid when she was still underage.

Prabowo, from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) is vying to be a candidate for the presidency next year.

Others in the courtroom included the girl’s parents, Rikardus Mau and Maria Kolo, Indonesian lawmakers, Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Herman Prayitno and the Indonesian press corps.

Wilfrida, from Kampung Koloulun, Belu, Nusa Tenggara Timur, has attracted international attention following the move by Prabowo to take up the case as a “mission to save” the young maid.

The court order followed an application by newly-appointed defence counsel Tan Sri Muham­mad Shafee, who told the court it was important to determine the age of the accused at the time she was alleged to have committed the crime.

He contended he has reasons to believe that Wilfrida was an underage person when she committed the crime.

“It has come to my knowledge that the accused was also found to have suffered from major depressive disorder after she was sent for psychiatric observation and, therefore, it is important to to find out her real age,” he said.

Justice Ahmad Zaidi also allowed an application for the defence to secure all the court evidence that included reports, notes or audio visual evidence tendered to court with a possibility of recalling witnesses to testify.

Deputy public prosecutor Julie Ibrahim agreed to all the applications forwarded by the defence but, she added, it would be presumptuous for the defence to recall witnesses to testify, especially when the case had reached prima facie stages.

Justice Ahmad Zaidi assured the gallery the court was blind to race, religion or creed. He adjourned the case to Nov 17.

The way forward for the graft busters

PUTRAJAYA: Company bosses and their firms will be liable if their workers were found to have committed graft under a planned addition to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009.

MACC deputy commissioner Datuk Sutinah Sutan said board members, chief executive officers and companies would be held responsible for bribes given by their employees under the new “corporate liability law” provision in the Act.

In the past, only company personnel or officers were held liable for corruption.

“We are hoping this new provision will give us more leeway to go after the companies themselves,” she said, explaining that the MACC would take action against domestic or multi-national companies regardless of their country of origin.

Citing a case in Germany, Sutinah said engineering and electronics company Siemens had to pay hefty fines for bribing government officials of another country.

She added that while this was still in the proposal stage, the Attorney-General’s Chambers is studying the suitability of including the provision in the MACC Act.

“Once passed in Parliament, it will mark a new age in the country’s war against corruption,” she said in an interview at the MACC headquarters in conjunction with the commission’s 46th anniversary.

Sutinah said the MACC had proposed to the Government last year to amend the MACC Act to include the provision, adding the commission could not currently prosecute companies for corruption as the law only enables action against individuals.

Touching on the challenges faced by the MACC, Sutinah said the commission found 75% of the people are willing to lodge reports on corrupt practices but only a handful were willing to become witnesses.

We need corroborative statements from witnesses to ensure a foolproof case.

“The cases must be beyond a shadow of a doubt to ensure convictions,” she said, adding that the Witness Protection Act and the Whistleblower Act provided informants and witnesses adequate protection against harassment or intimidation from the accused party.

Sutinah revealed that 18 special courts to hear corruption cases had been set up nationwide since 2011 and convictions up to June this year had increased 89%.

“The courts provide speedier trials. Prior to 2011, cases took five to seven years to conclude but now it takes less than a year,” she said.

Sutinah said the MACC investigated 5,496 cases last year, 6,475 cases in 2011, 5,646 in 2010 and 5,936 in 2009.

She said the MACC received between 12,000 and 13,000 reports of corruption each year but only half of them are actual corruption cases.

She added that since 2009 the MACC had carried out a transformation programme covering operations, human resources and prevention.

Sutinah said MACC investigations are team-based, which shortens the probe period.

A case can be completed within a month as there is a team instead of an invidual taking charge of an investigation.

“In the past, an investigation took between two and three years to complete,” she said.