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Woman hopes you can weight her true beauty

hippihippo — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 17:28:46 +0800

While most people around the world are trying hard not to be overweight and obese, one woman from Fort Worth, US, who already weighs about 317kg, has one wish – to be the fattest woman on planet earth. To fulfill her dream, Monica Riley is doing just about anything to make it a reality, including eating six to eight thousand calories a day. Her ultimate goal? 450kg. In a video posted on YouTube, Monica, 27 says: "I want to be the fattest woman in the world. The ultimate goal is to be a 1,000 pounds (450kg), to be able to take up an entire seat like this one, I wanna be the fattest woman in the world and become immovable."

Woman, now weighting 318kg, aspires to weight 450kg

Her boyfriend, Sid Riley, is supporting her. Sid, 25, spends his entire day cooking for his obese girlfriend, feeding her through a funnel and rolling her over when her 91-inch stomach is full. He has to help her get off the sofa and get out of bed. If Monica lays down after a big dinner he has to help her roll over because her belly is too full for her to roll. Monica even went on to add why this dream is so important to her. "What attracts me to being immobile is you get to be like a queen. Like in the Egyptian ages when the fatter you were the more loved you were. The bigger I get the sexier I feel."

[youtube]f8HDFAu6Z3A[/youtube]
Monica's Interview: A woman's struggle to be the world's fattest

Monica says that while she hopes to one day be so big she can't move, she still wants to have kids. "We do plan to have children," Monica told The Sun. "There's nothing to stop me raising a child from my bedroom. We would get a nanny in to help around the house and take the baby out and about... Some people might think it's selfish but I'm confident we would be good parents." Not everyone has been so supportive, including Monica's mother. "My mum doesn't understand it at all and she says I'm killing myself. I understand her concerns but it's my life and gaining weight makes me happy," explained the brunette.

Monica says being fat made her feel like ancient Egyptian queen

"I do worry a little bit about losing my independence (being immovable) but I know Sid loves taking care of me and would never let me suffer." Sid told The Sun: "There is a misconception that feederism and immobility is about control but that's not the case. If Monica wanted to stop I would accept her decision without question." He added: "I wouldn't see caring for Monica as a chore at all. I love her and I love doing things for her – caring for her would be a dream come true." An Egyptian queen that is.

Boyfriend says a whole loads of men messaging him saying that he is lucky

On an average day, Monica will eat six biscuits, six sausages in a bread roll, a big bowl of cereal, two weight gain shakes, four McChicken sandwiches, four double cheeseburgers, French fries, 30 chicken nuggets, macaroni cheese, Taco Bell treats and a gallon of ice cream. She has set a target to achieve that by the time she is 32 years old, that is 5 more years. Sid said about Monica: "It's like hugging a big pillow who wouldn't love that? I have loads of men messaging me every day saying you are so lucky."

Supportive boyfriend feeding her to achieve her goal

The response from American viewers have been negative. Many were left totally 'disgusted' by Monica's appearance and slammed her for her attitude: "That couple have got my blood boiling!! We will hire a nanny, really? Some people need to live in the real world!," said one. "How this woman seriously believes she can bring up a child with such a disgusting and unhealthy mentality is beyond me," said another. Yet another added: "This makes me ill, he is helping her die, I hate being fat, can't understand why someone would chose to be". "Selfish women!! She thinks she gonna eat her way to deaths door and b able to care for an innocent child!!," fumed one upset viewer.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/09/07/f...test-woman.html
http://www.hindustantimes.com/health-and-f...zwCy7OwOiI.html
http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle...ng-her-3020110/
http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2016/0...st-woman417113/
http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/07/husband-...n-world-record/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/50-ston...o-wants-8816793
http://www.aww.com.au/latest-news/real-lif...est-woman-28716

Huge inflow into SG as Indon anti-Chinese rises

hippihippo — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 08:10:23 +0800

Nevermind that Singapore is experiencing one of the worst property slumps in its history, demand for luxury housing is suddenly coming from an unexpected group: wealthy Indonesians. The purchases by Indonesian nationals of Singaporean properties have nearly quadrupled from last year's total, Bloomberg reported. The stepped-up buying coincides with the rising anti-Chinese sentiment and highlight the failure of recent Jakarta's tax amnesty plan aimed at getting rich Indonesian Chinese to repatriate an estimated US$300 billion parked in Singapore.

Singapore is suffering its worst property downturn since 1975, but one group suddenly pours in money

"We're seeing a big increase in Indonesians buying the most expensive property, those valued $5 million and above," said Ang Kok Leong, a senior agent at SLP Realty Pte, who cited Indonesians concerns about Singapore's upcoming move to share financial information as the single biggest motivation for his Indonesian clients. "These people are generally in tune with this kind of situation back home, so if I'm not about to let the Indonesians know what I have, I will buy in Singapore."

While other foreign buyers retreated, the Indonesians came in, and they usually close deals in matters of days

Indonesia, Singapore and other countries are adopting global tax reporting requirements to tell each other about nationals holding assets abroad. Indonesians moving money into property are counting on only assets held in banks, not in real estate, being shared, agents and brokers say. It shows that they have little intention of accepting Jakarta's tax plan. But not all Indonesians buying real estate are seeking to avoid taxes, of course. Some may see value in a market that bottomed out in prime areas at the end of 2015.

In June, Jakarta launched a tax amnesty program targeting the US$300 billion parked in Singapore by rich Indonesians, causing a shock in the city-state

A Propnex agent who asked not to be identified said the strong demand from Indonesians came as a surprise. Singapore is currently mired in its most prolonged housing slump on record. Home prices in the city-state fell for the 11th straight quarter in the three months ending June 30, posting the longest losing streak since records started in 1975. Singapore's government is firm on its cooling measures it has rolled out since 2009. The measures, including a stamp duty on foreign buyers, is still applicable.

Since then, Indonesia has witnessed a series of anti-Chinese incidents such as the burning of Chinese temples in Sumatra

"Indonesians see Singapore as a politically stable safe haven," said Jasslyn Yeo, Singapore-based global market strategist for JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s asset management unit. "This is an important factor, especially at this time when you see so much instability in the region." Indonesian wealth fled the country as far back as the 1960s when violence against ethnic Chinese was part of a campaign by President Sukarno to stamp out Communism. Other periods of instability include 1998, when anti-Chinese riots coincided with the ouster of President Suharto, and thousands of ethnic Chinese took refuge in Singapore and elsewhere.

The disapproval of an ethnic Chinese governor has also led to Chinese youth publicly assaulted in Jakarta

Unlike Singaporeans, who mostly buy to reside in properties and take time to decide, Indonesians often close deals in a matter of days and aren't picky about details, the agents say. They typically look for amenities such as hot tubs and swimming pools, as well as private elevator entrances, a feature that has become popular in recent years. "This kind of buyer, sometimes they will come wearing big sunglasses if they're famous, so you don't recognize them, and often they come with their own family agent," said Kent Tan, an agent with realtor Home Guru Pte, who has seen a recent uptick in the number of queries by Indonesians. "These buyers know Singapore's market very well and have known it for many years."

Rich Indonesian Chinese continue to pour money into Singapore, supporting social programs and naming buildings after them

Indonesia introduced the tax amnesty from 1 June this year to encourage wealthy Indonesians to declare their wealth and to repatriate funds 'undeclared' overseas. At first, it roiled Singapore wealth managers, due to the prospect of an undeclared money accounting for an estimated US$200 billion of Singapore's SG$470 billion assets under management in private banks, the impact could have been considerable. But now the city state is cautiously relieved by a lower than predicted result from the tax amnesty program.

Indonesia's plan to lure back overseas money parked by Indonesian Chinese: expect US$30 billion returning, but so far only US$0.06 billion

Early indications suggest that the actual return from the amnesty will not be as high as hoped. On 22 August finance minister Sri Mulyani said the the assets declaration from Singapore was SG$361 million, with SG$81.8 million repatriated. Indonesia initially expected a repatriation of up to US$30 billion. The lower than expected response may also be partly due to some uncertainties under Indonesian law, which has left some investors worried. Another is the recent anti-Chinese sentiment witnessed in Indonesia, such as the burning of temples in the Northern Sumatran city of Tanjung Balai and the rhetoric against ethnic Chinese in Jakarta ahead of the governor race.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...as-taxman-calls
http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2016/se...ia-tax-amnesty/
https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/impact-in...-000000880.html

Russian Navy in South China Sea to back China

hippihippo — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 17:21:51 +0800

The Russian Navy has arrived in South China Sea and will hold eight days of naval drills in the sea off southern China's Guangdong province starting from Monday. The exercises come at a time of heightened tension in the contested waters after an arbitration court in The Hague ruled in July that China did not have historic rights to the South China Sea and criticized its environmental destruction there. China rejected the ruling and refused to participate in the case.

Russia shifted away from neutral stance: Putin issues statement supporting China on South China Sea

The "Joint Sea-2016" exercise will feature surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters and marines, the Chinese navy said in a statement on Sunday on its official microblog. The two countries will carry out defense, rescue and anti-submarine operations, as well as "island seizing" and other activities, it added. Marines will participate in live-fire drills, island defense and landing operations in what will be the largest operation ever taken together by the two countries' navies, the statement said.

China: I have built more things on the sea than others

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims. China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stoking tension in the region through its military patrols, and of taking sides in the dispute. Russia has been a strong backer of China's stance on the arbitration case, which was brought by the Philippines.

The world's second and third most powerful navies will hold their biggest joint-drill in South China Sea starting Monday

For the first time this week, Russia, previously silent on the South China Sea dispute, has issued a statement supporting Beijing. President Vladimir Putin himself issued the remarks, telling reporters that he believes China is correct to ignore a decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague that its claims against the Philippines in the region are unfounded. "We stand in solidarity and support of China's position on this issue – not to recognize the decision of this court," Putin said.

Backed by Russia, China wants everything within the red line

In response, China says it values Russian President Putin's position on the South China Sea issue, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. "President Putin's position shows Russia to be objective and fair, and represents the voices of justice from the international community," spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press conference. "In fact, if a country is truly concerned about peace and stability in the South China Sea, it will support China to peacefully resolve the dispute with the countries directly concerned in accordance with international law and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC)."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchi...SKCN11H051?il=0
http://www.business-standard.com/article/p...91100278_1.html
http://english.cctv.com/2016/09/08/ARTI29f...wTI160908.shtml
http://rbth.com/international/2016/09/08/r...-experts_628057

US angry: Chinese billionaire hide 6% of world's..

hippihippo — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 09:57:05 +0800

U.S. aluminum executives have accused Liu Zhongtian, the billionaire founder of metals conglomerate China Zhongwang, of using Mexico to game the global trade system. For years, China's growing industrial sector has successfully wiped out aluminum producers in the United States. In 2000 there were 23 major smelters operating in the US, now it is down to only five. Facing competition from the Chinese, American aluminum producers go into full retreat. Alcoa, the biggest aluminum maker in the US, for instance, saw its shares fallen by 40% since 2015.

Chinese billionaire Liu Zhongtian hides 6% of the world's aluminum in Mexico to flood the US markets and to destroy American aluminum producers

Alcoa's CEO Klaus Kleinfeld blamed its company's woes on low aluminum prices, down 20% last year amid a flood of supply from China. Chinese smelters supply half the world's aluminum and, as the lifeblood of many small towns, enjoy subsidized power and taxes from local governments. But that may not be the only advantage they have. Aluminum trade groups have long contended the Chinese companies engage in more underhanded moves to evade import restrictions and anti-dumping laws.

Chinese aluminum producers are subsidized and helped by the government, so they are able to undercut rivals worldwide

And now they found one. Two years ago, a California aluminum executive named Jeff Henderson got wind of a suspicious Chinese activities just below the US border with Mexico, so he commissioned a pilot to fly over the Mexican town of San José Iturbide, at the foot of the Sierra Gorda mountains, and snap aerial photos of a remote desert factory. He made a startling discovery. The Chinese stockpiled some 6% of the world's aluminum there, worth some $2 billion and enough to make 77 billion beer cans, according to the Wall Street Journal.

China produces 60% of the world's aluminum and flood them on the markets, causing prices to plunge

It is simple. Aluminum manufacturing is subsidized in China, and so Chinese firms were able to undercut U.S. producers; to protect American aluminum industry, the US has in place some protective anti-dumping measures and tariff against Chinese producers. So Liu Zhongtian decided to move nearly one million metric tons of aluminum behind a fortress of barbed-wire fenced factory in Mexico. The idea was to move aluminum through Mexico into the US where it could benefit from provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed between US and Mexico.

In 2010, US authorities slapped anti-dumping measures and tariffs on Chinese producers to protect its own producers

Routing Chinese aluminum through Mexico was a way to get around those tariffs. It would allow Chinese producers to continue undercutting and destroying American aluminum industry, as long as U.S. officials didn't know that the aluminum in Mexico originated from China. Such revelation is already leading to tensions between US trade authorities and China. Liu denies his involvement. "These things have nothing to do with me," he told the Journal. He said he wouldn't know how to establish a business in Mexico, joking that "in that sort of place, there are a lot of killers with guns."

Liu then appointed a Singaporean to buy a plot of land in Mexico for the construction of a giant aluminum factory

Mr. Liu's ascent as an aluminum mogul began in 1993, when he started building his company from a small domestic player in northeast China into one of the world's top producers. China Zhongwang's main business is making aluminum "extrusions" -pipes, rods and panels used in finished products such as window frames, refrigerators and automobiles. Extrusions are formed by forcing heat-treated aluminum through a die, like dough through a cookie cutter.

Mexico has a free trade agreement with US, China can ship its cheap aluminum to Mexico then send it up to the US, continue crushing American producers

He took China Zhongwang public in Hong Kong in May 2009, retaining a 74% stake while he raised $1.26 billion in one of the world's biggest initial public offerings of the year. Today he is worth around $3 billion. His China Zhongwang is currently the world's second biggest producer of industrial aluminum. It all began in 2008, when Chinese aluminum exports to the US more than doubled, causing prices to plunge 30% and hitting domestic players. The Commerce Department in 2010 slapped punishing tariffs on Chinese aluminum imports.

In just a short 5 years, China's market share of world's aluminum climbed from 30% to 60% while US dropped to 3%

And so in 2010 China Zhongwang's U.S. shipments ground to a halt, and its 2010 profits fell 26% from the previous year. The company never responded to the U.S. government's questions about its trade practices. It also didn't respond to several requests for comment. Instead, it quietly devise a plan. Around this time, an ambitious young businessman, Po-Chi "Eric" Shen, a native of Singapore who had attended the University of California at Berkeley, began shopping for real estate in Mexico.

China: It is not only aluminum, we also want to produce more than the rest of the world combined in other metals

The Singaporean settled on a plot near San José Iturbide, about 160 miles northwest of Mexico City and about 500 miles from the U.S. border at Brownsville, Texas. There, a company Mr. Shen helped establish, Aluminicaste Fundición de México, developed plans to construct a $200 million factory to melt aluminum into raw metal. Mr. Shen, of course, had a connection with the Liu clan. He was friends with Mr. Liu's son, Liu Zuopeng. In Mexico, Mr. Shen was implementing an audacious plan: A network of trading companies could route hundreds of thousands of tons of aluminum from China to Mexico, where a plant would melt it for shipment to the U.S., evading trade restrictions and claiming North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) benefits.

As US executives accused him of using Mexico to circumvent US tariffs, Liu bought an American aluminum producer

Despite his setbacks, Mr. Liu is still thinking big. He is acquiring US maker directly. Last month, a company controlled by him and affiliated with China Zhongwang agreed to acquire Cleveland aluminum producer Aleris Corp. for $1.1 billion, which would mark the highest price ever paid by a Chinese company for a U.S. metals outfit. Meanwhile Mr. Shen's job has been replaced by California lawyer Charles Pok, who is named president of Eighty Eight Investments AG, the Swiss holding company for GT88, the Singapore trading company that shipped aluminum to Mexico.

http://www.businessinsider.com/a-chinese-b...n-desert-2016-9
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-chi...-mexican-desert
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/08/chinese-co-...vals-claim.html
http://fortune.com/2016/09/09/chinese-alum...ican-stockpile/
https://agmetalminer.com/2016/09/08/china-z...transshipments/

Indon anti-Chinese sentiment rise, youth attacked

hippihippo — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 11:13:05 +0800

A 24-year-old Chinese-Indonesian man has reportedly being attacked at a Transjakarta bus stop by people who called him Ahok, the nickname of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjajaja Purnama, who is of Chinese descent. The attackers also reportedly screamed racial slurs at him. The incident is making national headlines coinciding with the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment in Indonesia. After the attack, the man, Andrew Budikusuma went to the emergency unit at Siloam Hospital in West Jakarta, to have his injured lips and a bump on the head treated. It took 5 days for him to recover.

Youth attacked at Indonesian train for being Chinese

"I remember it well, they asked me: 'Which do you prefer? Slanty eyes or closed eyes? They also screamed 'Ahok, Ahok, you're Ahok, right?' at me," Andrew told The Jakarta Post. He said the incident occurred between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. when he was travelling on the Transjakarta bus from Kuningan Barat in South Jakarta to Pluit in North Jakarta. When the bus stopped at the Senayan JCC shelter, three or four men reportedly screamed "Ahok, Ahok" at him. Andrew, who was standing near the door, was pulled off the bus by the men. A passenger came to his rescue and pulled him back onto the bus. Transjakarta staff did not try to help him.

Indonesian opposition decry ethnic Chinese as "damn foreign bas**rds"

Defying his parents' admonition that he should simply accept his position as a member of a minority community, the young Chinese-Indonesian man has decided to report to the police of the racial attack. "My parents actually asked me not to file a police report but rather resolve the problem through dialogue, but I decided to proceed with legal action because I think that they have to be held responsible for what they have done," Andrew told reporters at the police headquarters.

Indonesia Islamists say they no longer can stand Jakarta stolen by "Chinese infidels"

People of Chinese origin were denied their full rights as citizens of Indonesia until after the fall of Soeharto in 1998. In the past they were often treated differently from their compatriots. Although they constitute a small minority in the country there is a long-held perception that they dominate the national economy. Andrew's response have gained the support of other Chinese-Indonesians who claim they feel emboldened to take the same action should they suffer similar abuse.

Indonesian Army General made threatening post on Facebook, reminding Chinese of the dates they were slaughtered in Indonesia

The Jakarta Governor has reacted to the news, calling the attackers cowardly. "If they (the attackers) meet me, they wouldn't dare beat me. [What they did] was just a terror technique," Ahok said at City Hall, as quoted by Vivanews. Ahok said that it's possible that the attackers targeted a man of Chinese descent in order to send a message of racial intolerance to the governor. "I ask, would they dare do it again? It's a cheap terror technique. They are hypocritical cowards," he said.

Ahok cuts waste spending, improve efficiency and lift poverty in Jakarta. He might win the second term

The timing of the incident also corresponds with the trend in the national media of focusing on next year's Jakarta gubernatorial election, in which Ahok will be running for a second term. The mere notion that Ahok may win his second term on his own merits has ruffled feathers in the anti-Chinese quarters. Sri Bintang Pamungkas, an opposition leader, alleged that both President Widodo and Ahok had conspired to bring about political power for Chinese Indonesians, whom he called "damned foreign bastards", culminating in an ethnic Chinese sitting on Indonesian presidency.

Old guards say pribumis must not lose Jakarta to Chinese, and Jakarta must not be transformed into Singapore

Pamungkas also called for the restoration of the pre-amendment Constitution, which forbade the election of a President not of "pribumi" ancestry. It is clear for people like him that nationalism means power and privilege to the "indigenous" pribumi. Anti-Ahok sentiments have also become interchangeable with Sinophobia. Celebrity singer-turned-politico Ahmad Dhani told the press that his anti-Basuki stance might result in "the Chinese" ruining his business as revenge, but he wanted to ensure Indonesia did not fall to the "infidels".

70% of Indonesia's economy is in the hands of Chinese, pribumi groups say they must never be allowed to make inroads into politics

A Jakarta-based lawyer claiming to belong to the Bataknese Youth Brigade recently posted an open letter challenging the governor to a 12-round boxing match, signing himself at the end with the words "Lapak Pribumi", which roughly translate to "indigenous space". Such hate speech may be appalling to modern sensibilities, but Sinophobia — and xenophobia — were present at the birth of the modern Indonesian republic in 1945, and anti-foreign sentiments became an important motivation to sustain the fight against the Dutch.

Today' anti-Chinese provocateurs, such as Sri Bintang Pamungkas, have been trying to resurrect the old demon by painting Chinese Indonesians as the common "foreign" enemy akin to the Dutch. For others like the Islamic Defenders Front group, a Chinese-Christian governor in Jakarta is too much for them to handle. One of the group's leaders told news agencies that it is "forbidden to have an infidel as the head of Jakarta". They are also in opinion that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo many eventually hand over his position to his deputy Ahok.

President Jokowi and billionaire Jack Ma: Indonesian conspiracy theorists claim Jokowi intends to pass the presidency to Ahok, who would flood Indonesia with mainland Chinese to turn the country Chinese

A supporter of the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) told Jakarta Post that he did not like the Jakarta Governor for two fundamental reasons: he is of Chinese descent and a Christian, an infidel in his view. "To be honest with you, my faith forbids me from tolerating such a person." For many in Indonesia, both the ethnic Chinese and Christianity are a symbol of the hegemony by the minority. Members of each group control Indonesia's economy, even though Muslims are the majority in terms of numbers.

Indonesian hardliners now see ethnic Chinese as their main enemy

Chinese-Indonesians both admire Ahok and worry about him. They like his iconoclastic acts, his argumentative defenses and his Christian and Chinese identity. But they also worry that his assertive statements will inflame anti-Christian and anti-Chinese sentiments that might lead to another anti-Chinese riot. The Chinese acknowledges that the biggest problem came from old elites who did not like political changes in Jakarta and Islamic thugs who claimed that Jakarta and Indonesia had been "stolen" by "the heathen Chinese".

With racial attacks back on scene, Indonesia's Chinese community worry about escalation

Earlier in the year, on March, Indonesian Army General Surya warned Ahok and those friendly or affectionate with Chinese-Indonesians to remind them that they should not be arrogant with power or authority. He posted the year 1740-1743, 1959, 1966 and 1998, the historic tragic dates on which Chinese-Indonesians had suffered slaughter. Ahok has sharply criticized anybody who would try to use religion or race to attack him. "Selling religion is an act of cowardice and is blasphemous to God. God isn't racist. You are Muslim, I am Christian, however we breathe the same air from God," he said.

http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/why-...rsist-indonesia
http://news.asiaone.com/news/crime/chinese...-attack-jakarta
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/08...-back-down.html
http://jakarta.coconuts.co/2016/08/30/ahok...jakarta-cowards

Pinoy top cop: I won't corrupt cos I high salary

hippihippo — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:40:07 +0800

Philippines Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa referred to himself as the "richest cop in the Philippines" to explain why he can refuse a bribe. As Philippine National Police chief, his basic salary and allowances run up to P133,114 a month (US$2,830) which is almost six times the P22,696 monthly pay (US$482) of the lowest Police Officer 1 (PO1).

Philippines police chief: So far they (drug and gambling lords) have failed to bribe me. Remember my salary is US$2,830 a month

At least P1,500 is deducted monthly as payment for his use of the White House, the official residence of the PNP chief in Camp Crame, Dela Rosa said during a visit here on Monday. "That's why I cannot be bribed by gambling lords," he said. After the controversial war on drugs of the Duterte administration, it is set to combat illegal gambling.

President Duterte's drug war has killed more than 2,400 people so far

Bato has previously mentioned that gambling lords are already offering him bribes amounting to millions to spare them from. The police chief warned that his officers were prepared to kill anyone, even rich and influential politicians. Since Duterte took office just over two months ago, the government said more than 2,400 people have been killed in his anti-crime crusade, an increasingly controversial campaign that has drawn UN condemnation.

Philippines police chief says these cops have a salary of US$482 a month

Police said they themselves killed 1,011 drug suspects with 1,391 others listed as "deaths under investigation". "If they fight back... they will die. Rest assured, we do not discriminate," national police chief Ronald De la Rosa told a news conference. "All of them, the rich, the poor, police, civilians... even if you are a politician, you will die if you are into drugs and you fight back," he warned.

http://www.filipinewsph.com/2016/09/bato-s...-cop-in-ph.html
https://kami.com.ph/49336-pnp-chief-bato-de...est-cop-ph.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rich-poor-target...-075104323.html

Bill Gates ousted as world's richest man

hippihippo — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 09:10:20 +0800

Amancio Ortega, the Spanish retail tycoon who started Zara, surpassed Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates to become the richest man in the world on Wednesday. Shares of Ortega's business Inditex, parent company to Zara, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, ticked up 2.5% Wednesday, boosting his personal fortune by $1.7 billion. That lifted Ortega's net worth from $77.8 billion to $79.5 billion. Gates is worth an estimated $78.5 billion.

Spain's Ortega surpassed Gates as world's richest man

The son of a railway worker from La Coruña, Spain, Ortega is as reclusive as he is rich. He started his career as a store clerk in his hometown before opening his own business. Starting with less than $100, he and his wife Rosalia Mera began making lingerie, pajamas and nightgowns in their living room. In 1975, the couple (who eventually divorced) decided to open a store named Zara. Eight years later, Ortega had expanded to nine locations around Spain. In 1984, he opened a 10,000 square foot logistics hub.

Ortega is said to be a reclusive man who shuns publicity and dislike ties

Unlike most retailers, Inditex hardly relies on advertising. Ortega has instead devoted most of his resources into turning his company into the most efficient retailing operation in the world. When companies like Gap and H&M were taking five months to design, make, distribute and sell new products in the early 2000s, Zara was doing it in three weeks. That meant Ortega's companies could keep up with the whims of shoppers much more easily than its competitors — and also had to spend less on warehousing.

Zara is the company Ortega started with less than $100. It is now the world's biggest clothing retailer

Ortega took the business public in 2001 and debuted on the Forbes billionaires list the same year, with a net worth of $6.6 billion. By then, Gates was already the richest man in the world, with a fortune of $58.7 billion.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2...microsoft-zara/
http://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/m...t-man-in-world/
http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/09/08/inengl...520_149301.html

Brunei crown prince: Technology is harmful to us!

hippihippo — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 08:49:11 +0800

Brunei Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah, the heir to the throne, yesterday called for a generation of Huffaz (Quran memorizes) to lead the Bruneian society against the proliferation of misguided teachings. In his speech, the Crown Prince underscored the need for Quran memorizes to ward off "a multitude of elements which may adversely challenge our minds and faith" in daily life.

Brunei Crown Prince calls for a generation of pious people to lead society

"What is more disturbing, the pace of globalization and rapid advancement of ICT has opened up more space for communities with beliefs and ideology that destroy the mind, undermine faith, social institutions, and the sanctity of Islam," said His Royal Highness. The Crown Prince also described these elements as incompatible with the Bruneian laws and culture of local Islamic communities.

"Therefore, we need a 'Huffaz Generation' who are ready to serve and contribute in a productive manner towards the development of the people and nation of Brunei," said Al-Muhtadee Billah. "Specifically, religion and civilization are dependent on the generation of leaders who are spiritually and physically strong. Thus, the country is expected to collectively shoulder the responsibility of producing a 'Huffaz Generation' well equipped in upholding the religion based on the principles of Maqasid Syariah (noble objectives of Islamic Law).

Brunei believes rapid technological advancement is harming its local customs, something that needs to be countered with increasing religiosity

"It is very important to ensure and protect the dignity of the religion and safeguard the interests and honour of individuals. As a step forward, the 'Huffaz Generation' must be empowered in accordance with the responsibility and trust of upholding Islam. As Islamic scholars, they need to mutually utilize and share knowledge based on Al-Quran and the Sunnah,” said His Royal Highness.

In doing so, the Crown Prince believed they will be able to produce a community of pious believers based on the true teachings of Islam. His Royal Highness pointed out the objective of creating a 'Zikir Nation' with the support of pious believers is in line with the aspiration of the current Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah. Brunei's Wawasan 2035 Negara Zikir is a national aspiration to become a pure Islamic state by the year 2035.

The Crown Prince (right) is expected to follow his father (center)'s aspiration to transform Brunei into a pure Islamic state by 2035

The Crown Prince is expected to inherit the throne of Brunei and rule as an absolute monarch. It would be a challenging job. When his father Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah took over the governing administration from Britain in 1984, Brunei was the wealthiest country in Southeast Asia, with a development pace not far from Singapore. The Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), left down by the British, held assets over US$100 billion.

The Sultan and his siblings went on a spending spree and neglected the economic development of Brunei. Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the playboy brother of the Sultan of Brunei, former Minister of Finance, led an exorbitantly lavish lifestyle and blown off US$14.8 billion, probably the person who "gone through more cash than any other human being on earth," according to Business Insider. At one point, he was reportedly spending US$50 million a month.

Rapidly falling behind: Can Brunei's Crown prince reverse the damages done by his predecessor, or deepen it?

In 2007, the court in London revealed a 50-page list of payments - which totals £19.5 billion - used to fund the expenses of Brunei royals, including nearly £4 billion of state funds paid into the Sultan's personal account to bankroll his lifestyle over four years. That's more than oil-rich Brunei's entire GDP at that time. Mohammad Bolkiah, another of the Sultan's brother, took US$2 billion. Another US$13.5 billion had gone missing and remained unaccounted for. Britain, who once managed BIA, was disturbed by the gross fiscal mismanagement of its former colony.

Al-Muhtadee Billah attended tutorials at the University of Brunei Darussalam and began his overseas education at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in October 1995. He matriculated for admission to University of Oxford's Foreign Service Programme at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1997. While at Oxford, he followed a programme of study specially designed for him involving Islamic studies, trade, diplomacy and international relations. He received his Diploma in diplomatics Studies in 1998.

http://bt.com.bn/frontpage-news-national/2...az-lead-society

Saudi, Iran accuse each other of "not Muslims"

hippihippo — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 18:32:53 +0800

Iran has urged the Muslim world to unite and punish Saudi Arabia as the bitter war of words between the two countries escalates ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. On Monday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Saudi Arabia over how it runs Hajj after a stampede last year killed more than 750 people. He said Saudi authorities had "murdered" the pilgrims, describing Saudi rulers as non-Muslims, godless and irreligious. "This incident proves once again that this cursed, evil family does not deserve to manage the holy sites," Khamenei said.

Iran Supreme Leader: Saudis are evil Wahhabi extremists, they are non-Muslims!

In response, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei's comments. "We have to understand that they [Iran's leaders] are not Muslims," he told the Makkah daily. "They are children of the Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is ancient." Magi refers to Zoroastrians and those who worship fire. Much older than Christianity and Islam, Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in Persia before the Arab conquest.

Saudi Grand Mufti: Iranians are not Muslims, they are actually Zoroastrians!

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has accused Saudi authorities of "bigoted extremism" by labeling them Zoroastrians. "Indeed, no resemblance between Islam of Iranians and most Muslims, and bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric and Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif tweeted late on September 6. Iran says it is not sending any pilgrims on this year's hajj beginning September 10 after talks with Saudi officials about security failed. At least 2,297 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at the pilgrimage in 2015, with Iranians making up the bulk of the victims.

Iran: This year we won't send pilgrims to Mecca!

The Middle East's two great geopolitical adversaries have long histories of rivalry, shaped by sectarian Sunni-Shia divisions, can be seen in numerous bloody proxy conflicts across the region. "Saudi rulers... who have blocked the proud and faithful Iranian pilgrims' path to the Beloved's House, are disgraced and misguided people who think their survival on the throne of oppression is dependent on defending the arrogant powers of the world, on alliances with Zionism and the U.S.," Supreme Leader Khamenei said.

Iran wants Mecca and Medina to be wrestled out from Saudi and be independent states like Vatican, instead of being governed by Saudi

"The world of Islam, including Muslim governments and peoples, must familiarize themselves with the Saudi rulers and correctly understand their blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic nature," The Iranian leader went on to assert that Saudi's rulers were unfit to be the custodians of Islam's holiest sites: "Because of these rulers' oppressive behavior towards God's guests, the world of Islam must fundamentally reconsider the management of the two holy places and the issue of hajj."

Saudi says Iranian hatred has something to do with their Zoroastrian past

Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, the Saudi Grand Mufti, said Iranians have deep hatred hatred toward Sunnis. Iran's theocratic regime sees itself as the vanguard of Shia Islam, similar to how the Saudis, practitioners of a particular orthodox Wahabist brand of the faith, style themselves as the leaders of the Sunni world. Abdulaziz pointed to the pre-Islamic history of what's now Iran, where the bulk of population were once monotheistic Zoroastrians, and suggested that this ancient legacy still shadowed the present.

Persia was for most of ancient histories a world power. It never recover after Arab invasion

The House of Saud came to power by conquering most of Arabian peninsular in 1932 with their allies, the Wahhabi clerics, establishing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Iran's theocratic government came to power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy. The Arabs launched an invasion of Sassanid Persian empire in 633, eventually to conquer it by 654. Zoroastrian scriptures were burnt and many priests were executed, with Persia converted to Islam. The hatred between Arabs and Persians lasted until today. Iranian intellectual Sadek Zibakalam said, "I think the majority of Iranians of all types hate Arabs, and I believe they hate us, too."

Most Persians and Arabs agree that they hate each others

The last Persian Emperor Yazdgerd III was captured and murdered after the Arab invasion. His son, Pirooz, after seeing all were lost, fled east to China. The Emperor of China at that time was Emperor Gaozong of Tang, who received Pirooz and told him, "You've come a long way. Have no more fears. For you are my brother and this is your new home." Pirooz died peacefully in China. Before his death, he said, "I have done what I could for my homeland (Persia) and I have no regrets. I am grateful to China, my new homeland." Then he looked at all the Persians who had fled with him and said: "We are no longer Persians. We are now Chinese." His descendants adopted the Chinese surname Li.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldvi...y-being-muslim/
http://www.payvand.com/news/16/sep/1027.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/saud...7104137364.html
http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/ir...ticize-haj-gcc/
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/reuters/saudi-...emism-/42426990
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-saudi-ar...j/27973885.html

Israel invents mind-control bots, may change world

hippihippo — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 11:14:51 +0800

Of all the physical components of the human body, the one we most associate with our "self" and our consciousness is the brain. But as central as the brain is to our existence, we understand very little about how it actually works. According to Dr. Thomas Insel, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), around 80% of the brain functions is unknown to scientists.

It may be science fiction, but Israeli scientists use human minds to control nanobot activities for the first time

"In the 1970s, we had a pretty good understanding of how the kidney serves as a filter, how the heart serves as a pump, what lungs do and how they do it; but 40 years today, I can't tell you — nor can anyone else — how the brain functions as an information processing organ. How does it do it? Even with our ability to explore outer space, we still cannot map out the brain, and we still cannot understand this of our inner space," Insel said.

The scientists successfully made a group of cockroaches follow a person's mind

But this is set to change. For the first time, researchers at Bar Ilan University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, both in Israel, have developed new technology that allows tiny bots to release drugs into the body controlled by human thought alone. The test involved a man using his thoughts to activate nano robots inside a cockroach.

Even with modern technologies, around 80% of the brain remain unknown

When we take or inject medicine, they are delivered into the body but there is no way to "turn off" the drug once it gets into the bloodstream. The medicine may also not be delivered on time and may come with unnecessary side effects. The Israeli scientist built a nanorobot out of DNA that can be switched on and off to release drugs within the body when needed and this tiny robot can be manipulated using mind control.

Monk allows scientists to experiment on him to prove that 'understanding your mind and body will lead to the understanding of your soul and spirit'

Led by Dr. Ido Bachelet of Bar Ilan University, scientists demonstrated how to control this process with human brainwaves. Using a computer algorithm, they trained the system to detect when a person's brain was under strain from doing mental arithmetic. The team then placed a fluorescent drug in the bots and injected them into various cockroaches that were placed inside an electromagnetic coil.

Israeli scientists hope one day we would be able to heal our body and illness with our own minds

The team then attached a fluorescent drug to the bots and injected them into a cockroach sat inside an electromagnetic coil. A person wearing an EEG cap that measures brain activity was then instructed either to do mental calculations, or rest. The cap was connected to the electromagnetic coil, switching it on when the man was calculating and off when he was resting. By examining when fluorescence appeared inside different cockroaches, the team confirmed that it worked.

The new technology may spur further research to decipher the brain

The algorithm could be trained to track other types of brain activity, says Sachar Arnon, a member of the team at the Interdisciplinary Center. "It could track brain states that underlie ADHD or schizophrenia, for example. It could be modified to suit your needs." The idea would be to automatically trigger the release of a drug when it is needed. For example, some people don't always know when they need medication – before a violent episode of schizophrenia, for instance. If an EEG could detect it was coming, it could stimulate the release of a preventative drug.

Welcome to the era of using your brain power

"As a proof of principle we demonstrate activation of DNA robots to cause a cellular effect inside the insect Blaberus discoidalis, by a cognitively straining task," researchers wrote in the journal Public Library of Science One. "This technology enables the online switching of a bioactive molecule on and off in response to a subject's cognitive state." The researchers believe the technology could be used to treat many mental disorders such as schizophrenia, depression and ADHD.

Israel scientists: The potential is endless, we can turn angry people happy

However, the technology isn't ready to be used in humans yet. To work, the setup needs a smaller, more portable method of measuring brain activity – something Arnon says shouldn't be too far away. "People could take this in all different directions. Imagine if you could deliver the exact amount of alcohol that you wanted to keep you in a happy state but not drunk. Kind of stupid, but this could happen. I think we've just scratched the surface."

Future human: Fusion of body with nanobots controlled by the mind?

There is a myth that humans only use 10% of their brains. Neurologist Barry Gordon describes the myth as false, adding, "we use virtually every part of the brain, and that (most of) the brain is active almost all the time." The more accurate description is that we use our brain at 10% productivity. "The human brain could be enhanced by tiny robotic implants that connect to cloud-based computer networks to give us 'God-like' abilities, according to a leading computer scientist, Ray Kurzweil, who works on Google's machine learning project.

Top Google computer scientist: Our brains work at only 10% efficiency, some people go further than that so they appear to have super-human wisdom or strength. If we can raise it to 100% we would be God-like

Speaking at an event organised by the Singularity University at Moffett Field in California, Ray predicted that by the 2030s, humans will be using nanobots capable of tapping into our neocortex and connecting us directly to the world around us. This will allow people to send emails and photos directly to each other's brains while also backing up our thoughts and memories.

http://www.sbs.com.au/topics/science/futur...side-your-brain
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientists-create...-144949109.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/217252
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/...g-creature.html
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/175336/2...h-treatment.htm
http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/08/28/israe...-to-depression/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/art...n-epilepsy.html
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-scien...minister-drugs/
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world...51a156700447fc7
https://www.newscientist.com/article/210246...ide-your-brain/

Syria launches ad campaign to promote its tourism

hippihippo — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 09:40:53 +0800

Undaunted by a five-year civil war and the rise of ISIS, Syria's tourist board has released a series of unfeasibly optimistic promos showcasing everything the country has to offer holidaymakers. The ad features swooping shots of packed beaches and luxury hotels, with care-free tourists seen jet skiing across pristine looking waters as the sun sets on another glorious day.

[youtube]H-dCsFvA6lI[/youtube]
Syria's Tourism Ministry released new video to promote tourism

The video did not make any mention of Islamic State, the murderous jihadist caliphate that now controls large swathes of the country under brutal Sharia law. Instead, the clip ends with the words: "Syria, Always Beautiful." Another video features breathtaking views of some of the country's most beautiful historical landmarks - a number of which have since been destroyed by ISIS. Most of the scenes shown are Syria before the war.

Many Syrian ancient sites have been blown up, but the country is still promoting them

The footage is in stark contrast to the harrowing pictures we usually associate with Syria today - of cities leveled by air strikes, of millions left homeless and bloodied children sitting dazed after being pulled from the rubble that was once their home. The campaign is the government's attempt to sell the nation as a luxurious holiday destination as tourism numbers plummet amid the country's civil war. All six of Syria's UNESCO World Heritage sites have been damaged in the conflict, including the ancient city of Palmyra, parts of which were blown up by militants from the Islamic State group.

Tourists can still visit the resorts in Russia-protected zones

Nearly eight million tourists visited the country in 2011, before the fighting began, while only 465,000 travelled to the country in 2013, the Middle East Eye reports. In 2014 Syria's tourism minister told Bloomberg the country was relying on the growth of the tourism industry. "We're betting on the tourism sector becoming a major support for the economy," he said. Most remaining foreign visitors now believed to be Iranians performing pilgrimages to religious sites

Life inside Russian zone in Syria

The video shows the Golden Sands Beach in the government-controlled coastal city of Tartus. Resorts on Syria's Mediterranean coast, such as Tartus, have continued to attract tourists, mostly from other parts of the country, the Telegraph reported in 2015. The beach is located a few miles down the coast from a major Russian naval base, while fierce fighting between government forces and rebel groups continues to rage in neighbouring Latakia province.

Life in other parts of Syria

In a recent post to Facebook the Ministry of Tourism boasted that the number of tourists visiting Syria had increased 30 percent in 2016. The ad doesn't mention the bombings or civil war which has been raging in Syria for the past five years, destroying the nation's economy. Almost 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict and up to 11 million nationals had been displaced from their homes, many fleeing the country, causing a refugee crisis in Europe.

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/09/01/0...omestic-tourism
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/bi...feature-8742309
http://news.sky.com/story/syria-tourist-bo...utiful-10559682
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/come-holiday-syri...-regime-1578800
http://news.sky.com/story/syria-tourist-bo...utiful-10559682
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinat...ivil-war-rages/

HK defeated Soros & gang, earn HK$310 billion!

hippihippo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 19:52:44 +0800

Earlier in the year, currency speculators mount attacks against the Hong Kong dollar, sinking the HKD forwards to their weakest level since 1999. The city's stock market tumbled, and interbank loan rates jumped the most in seven years. Government bonds plunged, pushing the 10-year yield to the highest level in 15 months. "It's like an attack all fronts on Hong Kong," Nordine Naam, global macro strategist at Natixis in Paris, said at that time. Their goal? To break the HKD-USD peg beyond the HK$7.75-HK$7.85 range that it can trade within under the existing exchange-rate system.

Soros and gang mounted speculative attacks against the Yuan and Hong Kong dollar earlier in the year

Hong Kong is one of the world's leading financial centers, competing with the likes of New York and London. By the end of 2015, Hong Kong had a net investment position of HKD 7.6 trillion or US$ 1.0 trillion. This amounted to about 316.6 percent of GDP, much higher than Singapore (209.8 percent of GDP) - the other major financial center in Asia. Any change in the HKD-US$ peg will therefore create large volatility in currency returns, especially for the territory’s financial institutions whose assets are mostly denominated in US dollars. It will disrupt Hong Kong's position as a financial hub.

Goal of speculators: To break Hong Kong's 32-year peg with the USD

Utilizing the double play strategy, speculators short stocks and Hang Seng Index futures, followed by short-selling of Hong Kong dollar to push up interest rates, so as to create panic in the wider financial markets to reap huge profits on stocks and index futures and currency bets. Hong Kong's government stepped in to defend the peg. Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Norman Chan Tak-lam vowed to use its entire HK$3.27 trillion Exchange Fund to defend the currency. "We have no plan, no intention, and have no need to change the peg link system which has served Hong Kong financial markets well over the past three decades," Chan said.

Soros depegged pound from the ERM in 1992, triggering currency crisis in the UK, depegged Baht from USD in 1997, triggering Asian financial crisis

The opponents are American hedge fund managers the likes of George Soros. Back in February, Chan said. "There were rumour of some speculators are trying to attack the Hong Kong dollar peg. However, we should note that the current Hong Kong financial market is substantially stronger than in 1997. We do not need to be overly worried. If the speculators now want to repeat the same strategies in 1997 to short sell the Hong Kong dollar to try to push the interest rate up and to benefit from a falling stock markets, they would need to use hundred of billions of dollar which would be very expensive for them to do so."

Hong Kong challenged the speculators, and won the battle

Kyle Bass's Hayman Capital Management predicted at that time the yuan would fall as much as 40 percent over the next four years and, like Soros, he is shorting Asian currencies. Soros on the other hand, drew the ire of Chinese officials after the billionaire hedge fund manager said China would have an economic hard landing and the yuan and Hong Kong dollar may fall sharply as a result. Soros is famed for breaking the Bank of England in 1992 which forced the pound to depeg from the ERM mechanisms. In the 1997 Asian financial crisis, he and other hedge-fund players cleaned up by betting on a devaluation of the then-dollar-pegged Thai baht.

Fending off attacks: HKD has not only returned to stability but now strongest in 5 years

But Hong Kong is proven to be much tougher. Fast-forward 7 months later, today, rising demand for the Hong Kong dollar has driven one-year forward contracts to the strongest level versus the greenback in five years. The rally reflects fading bets for higher U.S. interest rates, a buoyant local equity market and the conversion of yuan deposits held in the city, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by MK Tang wrote in a note. The Assets at the Exchange Fund, which is used to back the Hong Kong dollar, totaled HK$3.58 trillion (US$461.65 billion) at the end of July, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Wednesday. It was HK$3.27 trillion in January.

In its battle with speculators, HKMA also realized a gain of HK$310 billion (US$40 billion)

The figure was HK$37.6 billion higher than the total at the end of June, with foreign currency assets rising by HK$31.6 billion and Hong Kong dollar assets up by HK$6.0 billion, the city's de facto central bank said in a statement. The HKMA said the rise in foreign currency assets was mainly due to the mark-to-market gains on foreign currency portfolios and an increase in unsettled purchases of securities. To defend the currency peg, the HKMA had injected billions into the market, and buy and sell US dollars to maintain the HK$7.75-HK$7.85 range. This netted it a gain of HK$310 billion thus far.

http://www.reuters.com/article/hongkong-ec...s-idUSL3N1BB1YA
http://www.scmp.com/business/markets/artic...k33tn-war-chest
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...ince-2010-chart
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/george-so...ound-2016-01-28

Latest study: Kelantan is Malaysia's poorest state

hippihippo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 10:00:18 +0800

Almost 85% of households in Kelantan are living with a monthly income below the average RM6,000 benchmark in Malaysia, according to a study by Khazanah Research Institute (KRI). The study, titled The State of Household, has thus considered them as earning the lowest household income compared to the other states, Utusan Malaysia reported on Tuesday. It also revealed that more than 30% of households in the east coast state earned less than RM2,000 per month.

Kelantan revealed to be the poorest state: 85% of households earn a combined family income below RM6,000

KRI managing director Datuk Charon Mokhzani said only 15.2% of households in Kelantan earned more than RM6,000 a month, adding that the study indicated the richest and poorest state in Malaysia. The study also revealed that there is a disparity of wealth in terms of households nationwide, but the differences could be due to the economic attraction a state receives, he said. "More than 50% of households in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor earned more than RM6,000 a month, and at the same time they have the highest number or households earning more than RM15,000," he was quoted as saying by the Malay daily.

The richer Malaysians can be found in KL, Putajaya and Selangor

Perak ranked second after Kelantan on the household income ranking, with 81.1% of its households living with below RM6,000 monthly income. Other states that recorded household income of below average were Perlis with 80.3% households earning below RM6,000, Pahang (80.3%) and Kedah (79.1%). The average Malaysian income was RM6,141 while the median income RM4,585.

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1954242
http://www.siakapkeli.my/2016/08/rakyat-ke...tan-paling.html

Asia richest man gives advice, ridiculed online

hippihippo — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 09:39:27 +0800

"You shouldn't be that ambitious. Set a small target first, like earning 100 million yuan [US$15 million]."

Asia richest man Wang Jianlin: You shouldn't be too ambitious, set a small target of 100 million yuan (US$15 million) first

This is the advice given by China richest man Wang Jianlin, and his "small" target of "100 million yuan" has become a hot internet topic in China, with the statement went viral on social media sites such as Sina Weibo, and his post recording 2.4 million hits within just a few hours. Many online users ridiculed his advice, some users jokingly commented: "Now I understand, Wang's wealth of 170 billion yuan is actually made up by 1,700 small targets." Other said: "Thinking of his wealth, this is indeed a small target."

Wang, who now run 13% of US cinemas, say he wants to dominate Hollywood and crush Walt Disney in 20 years

Wang made the statement during an interview part of the show on how young people who want to become wealthy should plan ahead. The show also displayed Wang's collection of famous drawings in his office and what he likes to eat for lunch at the dining hall of Wanda Group. Wanda is China's biggest property developer and the world's biggest cinema chain. It is now spending billions in hope to become the world's biggest theme park operator.

The ambitious tycoon was a former PLA soldier

This is not the first time that Wang has gone viral. His remarks in May on rival entertainment giant Walt Disney also sparked heated discussion online. Wang has been shifting Wanda's focus toward the entertainment industry in recent years from its roots in real estate. Wanda signed an agreement to invest US$9.45 billion to build a tourism and sports complex in eastern China on Aug 26 as its latest effort for this plan. He plans to crush Walt Disney in 20 years.

Wang, Li and Ma have been dominating Asia's top 3 richest position for the past 2 years

Wang, with a fortune of US$32.8 billion, is the richest trio in Asia, along with Alibaba's Jack Ma and Hong Kong's Li Ka Shing. The Asia richest title change 16 times among 3 of them in the past 2 years. Alibaba is the planet's biggest ecommerce platform while Li's CK Hutchison is a conglomerate comprised of Hutchison Port, the world's biggest port operator, and Watson's, the world's biggest health and beauty retailer.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/08...goes-viral.html
http://english.cri.cn/12394/2016/08/30/3521s938804.htm
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/trending/2016...nt_26640348.htm

Sarawak: We are Malaysia's 3rd biggest economy

hippihippo — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 19:12:16 +0800

Sarawak is the third largest contributor to the nation's economy, pumping in as much as RM122.9 billion last year, revealed Adenan Satem in his National Day message. This is a huge achievement considering it was only RM71.9 billion back in 2012. The Sarawakian Chief Minister said in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) contribution to the Malaysian economy, Sarawak was only behind Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Sarawak CM: Sarawak is Malaysia's 3rd biggest economy after Selangor and KL

The Borneo Post Online reported that Adenan's message in the souvenir programme for the state-level National Day celebrations also touched on improvements to income levels and reducing poverty in the state. Household income has increased from RM936 in 1970 to RM4,934 in 2014, while the poverty rate had gone down from 56.6 percent in 1970 to the current 0.9 percent.

Sarawak's GDP per capita is now higher than Selangor and Penang, but still a distance from KL

In terms of GDP per capita, Sarawak (RM44,437) is now wealthier than Penang (RM42,186) and Selangor (RM40,701), but still a distance from the richest Kuala Lumpur (RM91,097). Sarawak's neighbor Brunei had a per capita of RM84,035 while Singapore RM157,397 after converting from their respective currencies. Meanwhile, Kelantan is Malaysia's poorest state at RM11,815.

Sarawak says it would proceed with economic development in hopes of becoming a developed state by 2030

To continue these efforts, the PBB president said the state government had embarked on a comprehensive, balanced and integrated economic plan known as the Sarawak Socio Economic Transformation Plan (SETP). "Its objective is to enhance the income growth, to narrow the gap of the people's income and to ensure that Sarawak is a progressive and a high-income state by 2030," he said, while also thanking the Federal Government for the Pan Borneo Highway, which he said would be a catalyst for growth.

Sarawak acknowledges its rural areas are still backwards and require years to infrastructure development to fill the gap

Meanwhile Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Modernisation of Agriculture and Rural Economy, Douglas Uggah Embas, in his message, reminded the people to uphold racial unity, tolerance and cooperation. He said the people's support for the state government's programmes and transformation plan was crucial in ensuring Sarawak's progress. The Sarawak state-level National Day celebrations this year will be held in Sri Aman.

The state however says it has the racial unity other parts of the country lack, so it can focus better on development

The Chief Minister also thanked the federal government for the Pan Borneo Highway project which he hoped would uplift the state's economy like what the North-South Expressway had contributed in Peninsular Malaysia. He acknowledged that Sarawak was behind in many aspects such as infrastructure development and public utilities, especially for those living in the rural and coastal areas. The state of Sarawak has a land size as big as the entire West Malaysia.

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...tional-economy/
http://www.theborneopost.com/2016/08/30/cm...aysian-economy/

Saudis call for boycott against Microsoft's Bing

hippihippo — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 12:23:40 +0800

Bing search engine and its parent U.S.-based company Microsoft are coming under fire from users in Saudi Arabia after it was shown that Bing translated "Daesh," the Arabic acronym for the ISIS group, to "Saudi Arabia." Angry Saudis took to Twitter using an Arabic hashtag that translates to "Microsoft Insults Saudi" where many were calling for boycotting the search engine and Microsoft. The software giant's engineers moved fast to head off the PR disaster, and have now fixed the issue. Microsoft staffers also apologized to Saudi officials for the blunder.

Microsoft Bing search engine translates Daesh (ISIS) into Saudi Arabia, angering the kingdom

Mamdouh Najjar, a senior official in Saudi's branch of Microsoft, apologized for the "unintentional error" and said in a tweet Aug. 26 that the translation was fixed. He told Huffington Post Arabi last that the error could have happened as a result of the user suggestion method the company uses to update meanings of words across languages. Najjar said a change in the meaning of a word happens when more than 1,000 people submit the same translation suggestion for it, prompting the algorithm to automatically choosing it as the preferred translation. Bing is the second largest search engine in the US after Google.

Too many people around the world think Saudi Arabia is no different than ISIS

There are people who believe Saudi Arabia is the same like ISIS. The country for instance, has one of the most extreme interpretations of Islamic law rooted in the country's Wahhabi school of law which in fact it shares with the Islamic State group. Saudi Arabia and the extremist groups both share the beheading method for executions, the same laws regarding women and the fact that they are treated as minors their whole lives, as well as seeing anyone who does not adhere to the Sunni Wahabi version of Islam as an apostate who must be killed.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bing...60829-0023.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/30/bi...enrages_saudis/
http://www.albawaba.com/loop/bing-translat...-kingdom-877768
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/outrage-...osoft-993648889
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160830...ranslation.html

Brunei: Need to make 50% of our people pass Form 5

hippihippo — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 08:42:25 +0800

Brunei's Ministry of Education has released the results for GCE A, AS and O-level, and the International General Certificate Secondary Education (IGCSE), for May/June 2016 yesterday. Of the 242 candidates that sat for the Form 6 GCE A-level examination, 30% obtained at least two A-level passes, a six percent increase from last year's May/June result. Most Bruneian A-level students take 4 subjects in college.

Brunei's Form 5 O-Level exam results improving, but still below 50%

2,350 candidates sat for three to nine subjects for the May/June O-level examinations. Of this number, 401 students took at least five subjects. Overall, 127 students (or 32%) achieved five or more O-level passes. The MoE said students can obtain their result slips from their respective schools while private candidates can obtain their slips at the Department of Examinations during working hours.

Last year O-Level pass rate (4 'O' and above): 44.39%

Brunei is hoping to improve its Form 5 GCE O-level results. Last year, out of 6,903 candidates who sat for the 'O' Level and IGCSE exams, 3,064 of them - or 44.39% - managed to attain four O-Level passes. This is an improvement from the 43.78% back in 2014. A typical Bruneian students take 8 subjects in their secondary schools. The country's Form 6 A-Level students fared better with 72.65% candidates obtaining 2 A-Level credits and above.

The country wants to be more on par with Singapore, whose O-Level pass rate (5 'O' and above) is 83.8%

According to Brunei's Ministry of Education, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Hj Awg Abu Bakar Hj Apong, Brunei's educational performance had its "ups and downs" in the past 10 years, and to paint a complete picture of the overall situation from the examination results would be "superficial". The minister said his ministry will implement various strategies that are believed to be effective in improving teacher and school leader capacity as well as education quality.

Brunei Minister of Education: It is 'superficial' to judge Brunei education just by its exam results, but we are implementing steps to improve

For example, to ensure national education at the secondary level is on par with that of other developed countries, Brunei hopes to take part in OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018. It is among the country's goals to achieve a rank of 50 and above within the programme participants come 2018, YB Pehin Dato Hj Awg Abu Bakar said. Singapore is currently ranked no.2 in PISA, after Shanghai, China.

Brunei to participate in PISA international exam starting 2018, an exam where Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong reign supreme

In Singapore last year, the O-level students put up an excellent showing with the best performance to-date for the annual examination, with 83.8% of them attaining five or more passes. This surpassed the 83.3 per cent mark set by the class of 2014. For their A-Level examination, about 93.1% of the 13,582 Singaporean students who took last year's GCE A-level examination achieved at least three H2 passes.

http://www.bt.com.bn/news-national/2016/08...o-level-results
http://borneobulletin.com.bn/moe-releases-...-igcse-results/
https://www.brudirect.com/news.php?id=11701

Indonesia: Stop complaining about haze!

hippihippo — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 09:58:22 +0800

Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya said on Sunday that the country was working very hard to tackle land and forest fires, and urged "outsiders" to appreciate Indonesia's efforts instead of criticizing it. "All outsiders should withhold unnecessary comments, but view the efforts that have systematically and seriously been carried out by the government of Indonesia," she said in the statement.

Indonesia environment minister tells 'outsiders' to appreciate how hard Indonesia is working to fight fires

Siti said patrol teams on the ground and strong law enforcement against perpetrators who have deliberately set fires have helped to keep the number of hot spots across the country low. The results of Indonesia's efforts, she added, could be seen from a decline in the extent of smoke and fires this year. Satellite observations show a decrease in the number of hotspots from 8,247 points from January to August last year to 2,356 points in the same period this year, a nearly 75 percent decline according to the statement.

Indonesia: Because we work so hard this year, the haze isn't as bad as last year. One should thank us instead of criticizing

The minister said her ministry was taking a "multidoors" approach to combating the fires, including administrative sanctions and civil lawsuits. About 30 companies are currently being subjected to administrative sanctions over last year's fires and those found guilty will receive a strong warning and have their licenses temporarily revoked. Civil suits against almost 10 companies are also ongoing, she said without the companies.

Indonesia: Understand that we put up the efforts on our own willingness, not because of pressure by other countries

"Currently, the Ministry for the Environment and Forestry has enforced a temporary moratorium on forest management permits, palm plantations and management of peatlands. This is one step to evaluate, and at the same time fix the management of natural resources by taking into account environmental factors," she said in the statement. Siti also said that Jakarta "respects the complaints from neighboring countries" over the haze caused by land and forest fires, but the government is tackling the issue "not because of pressure by other countries".

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapa...on/3080954.html
http://news.asiaone.com/news/haze/huge-fir...t-out-indonesia
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/i...s-says-minister
http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2016/08/28/20...-Fire-Emergency

Guangzhou orders hotels to ban 5 Muslim countries

hippihippo — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 07:28:13 +0800

Police in the Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou have reportedly ordered low-end hotels not to allow guests from five Muslim-majority countries to stay. Hotel representatives in the city told Reuters that they had received police notices from as early as March telling them to turn away people from Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan. "I'm not clear of the reason. We just can't take them," one hotel worker said by telephone. The notice however, appears only to apply on cheaper hotels at the bottom of the price scale.

Low-end hotels in Guangzhou told Reuters police has ordered them to ban 5 Muslim countries

All of the five countries have been beset by terrorist attacks in the past few years, or in the case of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been in states of war. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said the rule appeared to be a security measure coinciding with a development forum being held in Guangzhou this week, and also ahead of next week's G20 summit in Hangzhou, though the two cities are more than 1,000 km (620 miles) apart.

The 5 countries are Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan

"We were briefed in a meeting by our supervisor that local police asked us to turn down guests from these five countries until September 10, without giving any reason," said a person at the front desk of a hostel, reported Hong Kong's South China Morning Post. In March last year, a knife attack by suspected Uighur activists took place on a train station in Guangzhou during morning rush hour, in which nine people were injured. The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking, largely Muslim group who hail from Xinjiang, where China has launched a major anti-terror security crackdown.

China will soon host the G20 Summit

When asked, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he is not sure and was not aware that such an order had been issued in Guangzhou. "I've never heard that there is this policy being followed in China," Lu told a daily news briefing. "Moreover, as far as China is concerned, our policy in principle is that we encourage people from China and other countries to have friendly exchanges and are willing to provide various convenient policies in this regard."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-se...s-idUSKCN111144
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hotels-chinas-gu...-103719368.html
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/visiting-china-pa...-easily-1578327
http://www.business-standard.com/article/n...82700689_1.html
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/interna...slim-countries/
http://nation.com.pk/international/27-Aug-...uslim-countries
http://www.albawaba.com/editorchoice/hotel...ountries-877272
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...slim-countries/
http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/china-...slim-nationals/

Chinese woman lost $7mln to 300-yr old emperor

hippihippo — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 08:09:19 +0800

Two men in southern China have been found guilty of tricking a wealthy woman out of more than 47 million yuan (US$7 million) by one claiming to be a 300-year-old Qing Dynasty emperor and another to be a student of famous investor George Soros, the Southern Metropolis Daily reports. The woman, Zheng Xueju, wanted to setup a village bank in 2012 in Shenzhen, Guandong province. She met Wan Jianmin and Liu Qianzhen, who said he was actually Qianlong emperor. Liu said he was still alive after drinking 'the elixir of life', and had access to "imperial" savings.

Chinese woman scammed: con artist claims he was Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799) but still alive as he had drank the 'elixir of life'

Wan told her he was a student of the investor George Soros and was able to "unfreeze the royal money". The pair initially convinced Zheng that they needed 2.22 million yuan to access the royal money and purchase jade cabbage sculptures, which she provided. She later, in May 2014, gave them another 15 million to invest in "profitable" financial derivatives. Wan and Liu spent most of the money to buy housing, automobiles and medicines, but were eventually discovered and found guilty in a Shenzhen court on Thursday.

Assistant of 'Qianlong' claims he was the student of Soros and could manipulate the system to 'unfreeze royal money'

In China, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported, this is not the first time a bit of imperial magic has been used to persuade people to part with their cash. Recently, a 48-year-old woman pretended to be a princess of the royal Qing dynasty family, claiming she had access to a legacy worth 175 billion yuan (US$26 billion). Between 2013 and 2014, she scammed some 2.3 million yuan (US$344,000) from several victims in rural Henan province.

Under the Qing, China was the world's wealthiest empire back in the 1700s, but went into great decline in the 1800s

In 2011, a man in Sichuan gave a woman 30 million yuan (US$4.5 million) in cash after she claimed she was from the Aisin Gioro family, descendants of the Qing dynasty royal family who ruled China from 1644 until 1912. The woman had claimed she had 98 million yuan (US$14.7 million) stashed in caves but - you guessed it - needed money to bribe the guards. The Qing dynasty had long collapsed back in 1911 but some believed the Aisin Gioro clan has stashed their treasures elsewhere.

Manchu princess Chan Laiwa is the richest descendant of the Qing royal today, she is worth US$6.2 billion

The wealthiest descendant of Qing royals today is Chan Laiwa, who is worth US$6.2 billion, the 16th richest in China. Chan was born in 1941 in the Summer Palace, Beijing, but the Qing had already fallen 30 years ago and the Japanese were advancing. The Chinese government had also confiscated the Aisin Gioro assets and her family was in poverty. She had to fled to Hong Kong, earning her living by going house to house to repair furniture. Her business in Hong Kong was so successful she accumulated enough money to buy 12 villas. In the 1980s she went back to China and setup Fuwah International Group, which becomes one of the biggest property developer in the country.

The Qing dynasty fell in 1911 and successive Chinese government confiscated Aisin Gioro's assets

Other Aisin Gioros are not so fortunate. Jin Hengkai lives in a small room, working as a night watchman for a real-estate company. His great-grandfather was Prince Tun, and his father was Yu Yun, who accompanied Pu Yi, imperial China's last emperor, first to Changchun as head of the Japanese Manchukuo state and later to 12 years in Soviet and Chinese prisons. Pu Yi appointed Yu Yun the rightful heir to the Manchu throne, so in theory, Jin Hengkai has a right to claim the title of Qing Emperor.

Though China is already a republic, 'imperial scams' are on the rise

But because of their bloodline, Jin's family were sent to labor camps and prisons by the communists over the decades. His father died in 1999 after spending 32 years in various types of prison. Jin was sent to work at a labor camp in Xinjiang, and was only allowed back to the capital in 1998. Today, with little education, Jin lives by with only a monthly salary of 800 yuan (US$120). To make matter worse, his only son, Jin Yinghui, now 24, fell ill and needed a kidney transplant to survive. The family could not afford the operation or the 3,000 yuan a month to buy medicine.

Many believe former Qing royals stashed their treasures somewhere, just like the descendants of Indian maharajas

Another Qing princess, Aisin Gioro Man-ka, a fourth-generation descendant of the Qing dynasty emperor Daoguang, lives in Hong Kong. She rent a 500-square-foot apartment in Kornhill for HK$13,000 a month, with the rent taking up a significant portion of her monthly income. Asked on her royal background, she jokingly said: "Back in the old days, our imperial family was the most privileged class of the society. Now, property developers have become the most privileged social group. Li Ka Shing is the new emperor of our time."

Ming and Qing vases are highly valued items in international auction houses

Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty. Born in Beijing in 1711, his six-decade reign was one of the longest in Chinese history. As a capable and cultured ruler inheriting a thriving empire, during his reign the Qing Empire reached its most splendid and prosperous era, boasting a large population and economy, with various military campaigns expand its territory to the largest extent. But the final two decades of his rule were also marked by extravagance and corruption that left the empire considerably weaker. He died in 1799 and the empire went into decline.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/art...ndles-woman-out
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-...peror-1.2769465
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldvi...ar-old-emperor/