Sultan: Agihan kekayaan tak seimbang undang rasuah

Former Islamic State Fighter: Recruits Assigned to Suicide Squads ‘Because They Were Useless’

Algemeiner

Islamic State foreign recruits were placed in suicide units because they served no other use for the terrorist group, a former ISIS member told Your Middle East in a recent interview.

“I saw many foreign recruits who were put in the suicide squads not because they were ‘great and God wanted it’ as IS commanders praised them in front of us, but basically because they were useless for IS, they spoke no Arabic, they weren’t good fighters and had no professional skills,” said “Sherko Omer,” whose real identity was not revealed for security reasons.

“Omer” said recruits were promised women both in heaven and on earth based on ISIS jihadist teachings. They were also told it was permissible to rape their female captives. He said foreign recruits assigned to the suicide squads “were brainwashed into the ‘women in heaven’ and those they could rape on earth before they eventually killed themselves.”

“Omer” called himself a “technical professional” and told Your Middle East that because of his qualifications he was assigned technical work such as intercepting enemy calls and radio lines, as well as salvaging digital gadgets and archives during attacks. He said, ”I am alive partly thanks to my qualifications.”

“You have to remember that ISIS has been portrayed as an organization of gangs only… but the political leadership pay unbelievable attention to education and educated recruits,” he explained. “But at the end of the day good moral values are based on the way education and intelligence are being used.”

Georgian man stabs sister for not wearing hijab

TBILISI, DFWatch–A man from Pankisi Gorge stabbed his sister in the breast with a knife for refusing to wear a hijab.

The brother, 35, inflicted 7 wounds on his 33 year old sister, a former police officer.

Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge is located in the northeast of the country. The majority here are Kists, a subgroup of Chechens adhering to the Sunni branch of Islam.

The wounded woman underwent emergency surgery at the local hospital. His brother was arrested and is under investigation for attempted murder.

Seyphullah al-Shishani as he was hit by a shell. (Warning: disturbing images.)

The stabbed woman worked for several years as a police officer at Duisi police station, but left in February to start working at the local school administration. According to some locals, the woman left the police under pressure from her brother.

Neither family members nor relatives are eager to comment on the issue openly in this small but extremely closed community. According to some account the perepetrator has mental problems.

Pankisi Gorge, the home of approximately 7,000 Kists, in the last two decades witnessed the spread of radical Islam – Wahhabism, or Salafism especially among the youth, which is gradually replacing traditional Islam.

This leads to conflict between old and new generations, since the former follow adat; a traditional, moderate Islam and code of conduct widespread among many ethnic groups of Caucasus.

This conflict has come to the surface in Duisi, the administrative center of the Pankisi valley, where moderate and radical Muslims attend different mosques.

During a visit to the valley in December, 2013, DFWatch was told by the elderly people that 80-90 percent of the youth are following Wahhabism, which was their biggest worry.

In Duisi, there was also a prevalence of bearded young men, dressed in specific orthodox style. Although many people there have a more moderate lifestyle, the rise of the radicalisms is quite visible and the prominence of Pankisi men among top ranks of Middle Eastern terrorists is a proof of this.

Pankisi Gorge was the cradle of some of the most infamous Islamist leaders among groups active in the Middle East. One of them, Tarkhan Batirashvili, aka Abu Umar al-Shishani, is head of the military wing of the Islamic State in Syria, though also actively participating in hostilities in Iraq; another one is Murad (Muslim) Margoshvili, aka Muslim al-Shishani, commander of the Junud al-Sham group, affiliated with al-Nursa front, an official branch of al-Qaeda in Syria, and designated as terrorists by the United States.

There are no exact figures about how many Kists from Pankisi are fighting in the Middle East. Accounts range from as little as ‘several dozens’ to ‘hundreds’.

According to Kakheti Information Center (ick.ge), six men from Pankisi have died in Syria so far. One of them is another prominent field commander, Ruslan Machalikashvili, a.k.a. Seyphullah al-Shishani who was hit by a shell last February.

Don’t blame others if you fail to meet targets, Dr M tells Malays – Bernama

The Malays cannot blame the government and other races if the target of 30% Bumiputera equity ownership in the economy by 2020 is not achieved.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said they only have themselves to blame for not doubling efforts to improve themselves.

"We cannot blame others and hope that they slow down for our sake. We must correct ourselves and work hader than the other races to be successful," he said at a dialogue session organised by the Federation of Malacca Retiree Associations today.

Mahathir said the Malays were accorded many benefits by the government especially in the economic sector, but they did not use them well.

"For example, the government gave the project to build computer classes in schools to Malay contractors but they sold the project to others."

On another note, he said the concept of sharing political power and the economy founded by past leaders can sustain the prosperity and racial harmony of this country.

On the other hand, the move to dominate all fields by a particular race can threaten the peace and stability as it can lead to rioting by the oppressed. – Bernama, October 1, 2014.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/dont-blame-others-if-you-fail-to-meet-targets-dr-m-tells-malays-bernama#sthash.lvfKs26m.dpuf

Perak ruler says Strepsils will not cure graft

 

Expressing concern over the New Economic Model (NEM) data report, the Sultan of Perak said the nation can no longer remain in a denial mindset.

Sultan Nazrin Muizuddin Shah is worried that the disproportionate distribution of wealth and the widening income gap would fertilise the culture of corruption.

Speaking at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) anniversary today, Sultan Nazrin said the nation is facing a major challenge.

"This is not a temporary sore throat which can be cured with Strepsils.

"It is a serious social illness that requires intensive treatment from social doctors and surgeons.

"It requires a medical formula from the social pharmacy, which is capable of drawing up a comprehensive and holistic social policy," he said.

Sultan Nazrin questioned what options civil servants or private sector employees have when their salaries do not commensurate with the daily cost of living.

"The majority in this category actually do not wish to take bribes.

"The number of those in this category will increase if an effective formula is not introduced, with focus on housing, food, transport and healthcare," he added.

Greed plunges man into sin

The NEM report revealed that 80 percent of the households earned less than RM5,000 a month, 40 percent less than RM2,000 whereas 78.6 percent of Employee Provident Fund (EPF) contributors earn less than RM3,000 a month.

The sultan also referred to the request by civil servants union (Cuepacs) for banks to include more RM10 notes in their ATM machines.

This, he said, showed that at certain times, a number of ATM card holders had less than the minimum RM50 in their accounts.

The Perak ruler also underlined two prerequisites in combating corruption which involved stern and non-selective punitive measures as well as preventive action to strengthen integrity.

He cited the example of the first magistrate appointed in Penang more than 200 years ago during the colonial era who was terminated for bribery.

"Taking stern action which is not selective is not an option but a must," he added.

As for preventive measures, Sultan Nazrin said this required initiatives to ensure that people possess the will power to refrain from such practices.

Greed, he added, is often the factor that plunges man into sin.

Flash floods strike KL after evening downpour

 

Flash floods have struck central Kuala Lumpur this evening, just as office workers were about to leave the city for home.

Reports and photos of the flood began appearing on social media sites after 5pm during an hour-long downpour, as road user complained of the resulting traffic mayhem.

According to Star Radio Traffic's twitter account @mytraffic, the roads flooded include Jalan Sultan Ismail, Jalan Chan Sow Lin, Jelatek LRT station, the Cheras roundabout tunnel.

Meanwhile, the Malay-language tabloid Kosmo tweeted that over 100 vehicles were damaged by the flood at Jalan Pinang.

Other major roads widely reported as being flooded include Jalan Ampang, and the area around the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Several netizens also lamented the fact that the flood also coincided an impending fuel hike at midnight tonight.

"Fuel prices go up, flood waters go up, people's tempers go up, (but) football rankings don't go up.

"All these are (PKR de facto leader) Anwar Ibrahim's fault," tweeted the netizen @DeeyaHazard, apparently making reference to Anwar’s frequent jibes at his opponents for blaming him for various, disparate problems.

Another Twitter user, @beautifulnara, wrote, "It's bad enough that it is flooding, not I have to queue up to refuel. What a trial."

Landslide

In a later report, newswire Bernama said that the heavy downpour also caused a landslide in front of Sri Putra Mas condominium at Jalan Data Mas at about 5.50pm.

"The landslide also caused traffic congestion in the areas as the slip closed half the road. However, no victim was trapped," Kuala Lumpur fire and rescue operation centre head Samsol Maarif said.

The operation to clean up the area was mounted with the cooperation from several agencies, including Tenaga Nasional Berhad and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, and was completed at 7.30pm.

He said the landslide was believed to have occurred due to the soil movement at the construction site of a new condominium in the area.

Meanwhile, he said areas in Jalan Raja Chulan and Dang Wangi were inundated by flash floods, while four vehicles parked near Sentul police stations were damaged by fallen trees.

No casualties were reported.

Aziz Bari ‘absolutely unafraid’ of jail

The sedition suspect keeps silent during police questioning.

SABAK BERNAM: Police today interrogated University of Selangor law professor Abdul Aziz Bari over allegedly seditious comments reported in two articles published by The Malaysian Insider.

The constitutional law expert is the second academic to be picked up under the much criticised sedition dragnet. He follows University of Malaya lecturer Azmi Sharom, who was charged under the Sedition Act early last month.

The first of the two offending articles quoted him as saying that the 1992 Declaration of Constitutional Principles obligated the Sultan of Selangor to appoint PKR President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the Selangor Menteri Besar (MB).

According to the second article, Aziz, speaking at a public forum, said the Sultan was wrong in demanding that Pakatan Rakyat nominate more candidates for the MB’s post, adding that “only God, not the Sultan, was infallible and has absolute power.”

More than 100 police reports were reportedly lodged against the professor, who announced today that he was “absolutely unafraid” to be jailed under the Sedition Act, saying his role was merely to answer questions at the forum according to his knowledge of the constitution.

He was accompanied to the Sabah Bernam police headquarters by his lawyer, Afiq Noor of Lawyers for Liberty. He was questioned for one and a half hours.

His lawyer disclosed that among the questions the police asked was, “Do you agree that the Sultan cannot be compared with God?”

According to The Malaysian Insider, Aziz opted not to answer any question during the interrogation so as not to incriminate himself.

The investigation is ongoing.

Depending on the outcome of Azmi’s constitutional challenge against the Sedition Act, Aziz’s situation could change.

Azmi earlier today won the right to take his challenge to the High Court. He is contending that the colonial era law is not constitutional because it was not passed by Parliament.

Why are our varsities so pathetic?

Kit Siang demands an explanation for Malaysia's poor performance in the Times ranking.

PETALING JAYA: DAP National Adviser Lim Kit Siang today demanded that Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin explain the failure of Malaysian universities to make it to the top 200 in the Times Higher Education (THE) global ranking.

In a press statement mocking Muhyiddin for once saying that Malaysia had “one of the world’s best education systems,” Lim said he should state why, during his entire tenure as Education Minister, he had failed in “all efforts” to restore the high international standing in “unversity repute and excellence” that Malaysia enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s.

He suggested that Muhyiddin make a ministerial statement at the resumption of Parliament next Tuesday.

Lim noted that Singapore’s National University, which shared the same beginnings with Universiti Malaya, had “leapt” into the top 25 in the THE list.

He recalled that during Universiti Malaya’s centennial celebrations in 2005, the then Education Minister, Najib Razak, challenged the university to rise from its 89th position in THE’s 2004 list to Number 50 by the year 2020.

“Let Muhyiddin explain in his ministerial statement next week how he proposes in the next five years to meet Najib’s challenge,” he said.

“Malaysia is not only facing a serious and deteriorating higher education crisis, but a grave crisis in the entire education system, as witnessed by recent international assessments which place Malaysian students in the bottom third of international educational benchmarks and attainments.”

Captured by the Islamic State, these two teenagers went through hell. Then they ran

Editor's note: The names of the Yazidi girls and women in this story have been changed to protect their identities.

DUHOK, Iraq — 15-year-old Sara had considered suicide many times during her month-long ordeal. The old man she had been given to as a “gift” beat her frequently. He taunted her with videos of Islamic State militants beheading her neighbors. On two occasions she said he drew blood from her arm with a large syringe, making her feel weak and sickly.

“They didn’t feed us much. I used to pass out a lot, but I would make trouble for him as much as possible and fight when I could,” Sara said, sitting under a tent in a makeshift camp for the displaced outside Duhok. “Many times I thought of suicide but I kept thinking of my family and my brother. I lived only for them.”

Sara is Yazidi, a member of a minority religious group from northern Iraq persecuted for centuries for its ancient beliefs. She still bears horrific scars across the left side of her body from a double truck bombing that struck her neighborhood in 2007 — when she was just 8 years old — killing almost 800 people and injuring more than 1,500.

To the Islamic State (IS) the Yazidis are infidels. When the terror group seized control of dozens of Yazidi villages in the region of Sinjar last month, they executed men and kidnapped thousands of women and children. Those assaults on Yazidis and other minority groups — and in particular, the IS threat against tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped in the Sinjar Mountains — were a major reason US President Barack Obama cited for authorizing airstrikes against IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Iraq. The US has since expanded those strikes to Syria.

The Yazidi Fraternal Organization, formally based in Sinjar but now working from the Kurdish capital Erbil, has registered the names of more than 12,000 missing Yazidis — 5,000 women and 7,000 men — believed to have been killed or captured during a three-day period beginning Aug. 3.

At least 47 of the women have since escaped.

They tell tales of rape, forced marriage and enslavement. Many, like Sara, say they were given to IS fighters as wives or sold as slaves for prices ranging from $100 to $1,000. Late last month, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 300 cases of Yazidi women transported to Syria by IS, some of whom were then sold in Aleppo in a human trade market.

The escaped women's stories offer details about the Islamic State’s systematic violence against minority communities in Iraq, and insight into the group's methods for imposing an extreme ideology and recruiting fighters to its cause.

The day IS took Sinjar

Sara’s ordeal began on Aug. 3 in the Sinjar village of Tal Azir, when IS launched its attack. Without a vehicle, she and her mother, her brother and his pregnant wife simply ran toward the nearby mountains. After two hours on foot, they reached a farmhouse where many of their neighbors and relatives had taken shelter on the edge of the mountain range.

Soon, IS had them surrounded.

“There were about 20 cars. They all had heavy weapons,” said Sara. “They separated the men from the women. Some of the men tried to run. They shot them. They locked my mother in a room with some of the older women.”

Sara said the younger Yazidi women were then loaded onto the backs of seven pickup trucks, some of the vehicles taken from villagers and others belonging to IS. She stuck close to her pregnant sister-in-law.

“I don’t know how many of us there were but they were pushing us into the trucks, as many as they could hold in each one,” she said. “The children they didn’t care about. Some women took their children. Others got left behind.”

As the trucks full of young women and children sped away, Sara could hear gunfire.

“We thought maybe our men were fighting them to save us,” she said.

Back at the farmhouse Sara’s mother Narin was also listening to the sound of gunfire, locked in a room with several other women. As bullets sprayed in a neighboring room, she blocked her ears and crouched down. Then everything went quiet.

“There were six of us ladies left,” Narin said. After waiting for a short time and hearing nothing, the women tried the door. It opened.

There were dozens of dead men, Narin said.

“When we left the room we saw the bodies. All of them. They killed my son!”

The fighters had abandoned the farmhouse. The other women urged Narin to run with them to the mountains before IS returned.

“I could barely even hear them. I was so overcome with grief,” she said. “I just sat by my son’s body, rocking and crying and hitting myself.”

Unable to pull Narin away, the other women left.

Eventually she made her way to the mountains alone. She was reunited there with her husband, who had been away from their village on business when IS attacked.

As her mother related the story from inside a hot, dusty tent in the desert IDP camp, Sara broke down in tears. Thoughts of a reunion with her only sibling had kept her strong throughout her ordeal. He was a 19-year-old newlywed; he and his elated wife were anticipating the arrival of their first child. Sara had only recently learned of his death.

Khalif Kouli, a Yazidi militia fighter based in the Sinjar Mountains, said in an interview in Duhok that his group had made it to the farmhouse three days after the massacre and found the bodies of seven executed men. Narin insisted she had seen dozens of dead right after the killings on Aug. 3.

Parwen Aziz of the Kurdistan National Congress has heard dozens of similar stories of capture and mass execution from members of the Yazidi community, which has sought refuge in the Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq. Aid workers assisting the Yazidis have heard them, too. Aziz has been lobbying the Kurdish government and aid groups to provide more support for escaped IS prisoners like Sara, who started turning up here about six weeks ago.

Aziz said there were early fears that Yazidi women who returned from captivity may be rejected or even killed by their own families, due to local concepts of honor. However, she hasn’t heard of any women with surviving family members who weren’t welcomed back.

Her concern has now turned to the risk of suicide among survivors due to trauma, shame or hopelessness.

“Psychological support programs are not accepted here so we are trying to start income programs that will help [women] psychologically at the same time,” she said. “Some of these women do not want to talk at all. They need time. Some of them speak of frequent rape, up to six times a day. Others were not tortured or raped at all. Their situations vary often according to age or the area where they were held.”

'We drove past so many bodies'

For 19-year-old Leila, the horror began as she tried to flee on foot from her village in Sinjar with her husband and his family. When IS vehicles caught up to them, militants forced the men to lie face down on the ground. Then they shot them, including boys as young as 14. Leila watched as her husband was executed.

The women were bundled into the backs of pickup trucks.

Leila clung to one-year-old Murad, her only child, as the women were driven to the town of Sebai. In separate interviews, Sara and Leila, who do not know each other, gave similar accounts of what they saw on the drive through this part of Sinjar.

“We drove past so many bodies. Even the bodies of children,” Leila said. She sits now in the home of a relative in Duhok, holding baby Murad tightly in her arms.

Leila was eventually taken to Mosul, she said, and held in a hall with more than a thousand other women. They compared stories: Most often their men had been lined up and shot. Others had been taken away in trucks.

“[IS] told us we must convert to Islam,” she said. “We refused and they left us alone for 10 days.” Food continued to arrive, but the men stopped bringing milk for her baby.

Then things changed.



“They started to take the women away. Sometimes they let them bring their babies along, but other times they refused.”

Leila said some women would disappear for several days, then return to the hall. Others never came back. Some of the men coming to choose women, mostly local Iraqis, looked as old as 70, Leila said.

Read ore: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/140929/how-two-teenagers-yazidi-girls-sinjar-escaped-islamic-state

Karpal’s nephew questioned over Facebook postings

The Star

PETALING JAYA: Dalbinder Singh Gill, a law student and nephew of the late Karpal Singh, was questioned by police for allegedly making seditious statements pertaining to bumiputra rights and the monarchy on his Facebook page, an online news portal reported.

According to the report, Dalbinder surrendered himself at the Northeast Police District Headquarters in Jalan Patani, Penang at 10.45pm, Tuesday for questioning.

He told the news portal that he was bailed at around 1.30am, Wednesday.

“I was told that it was the police who lodged a report against me, prompting them to detain me,” he is reported to have said.

Dalbinder said that authorities seized his iPhone and iPad to help with the investigations.

He added that he has to report back to the station in a month.

Congestion At Petrol Stations, Motorists Flock To Fill Their Tanks Before Fuel Price Goes Up

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- Long queues and congestion were the order of the day as motorists lined up at petrol stations throughout the Klang Valley to fill up their tanks following news that the price of RON95 petrol and diesel prices will go up by 20 sen effective midnight (Thursday).

A survey carried out by BERNAMA at Petronas, Shell, Petron, Caltex and BHP stations saw motorists queuing up at the pumps of petrol stations since 8.30pm Wednesday night when news broke out about the price hike.

Civil servant Hasbullah Ahmad, 25, said he quickly rushed to the petrol station after news of the price hike.

"I had to wait for about 20 minutes to fill up but I feel I was lucky because I went straight to the station after hearing about the price hike," he told BERNAMA.

The Domestic Trade, Consumer Affairs and Cooperatives Ministry, Wednesday announced that the subsidy for petrol RON95 and diesel would be reduced by 20 sen a litre starting 12.01am, (Oct 2).

Following the announcement, Petrol RON95 will be sold at RM2.30 a litre and diesel at RM2.20 a litre.

The unsubsidized market price for RON95 is RM2.58 per litre while the price of diesel is RM2.52 per litre.

Noraisha Abdul Razak, a lecturer at a private college said she was shocked by the price hike because there was no indication of such a price hike.

"I only realised about the hike when I saw motorists lining up at the petrol station," she said.

Amirul Haslam, 22, a technician expressed concern with the hike because it would see a chain reaction as prices of other essential goods would also increase, thus increase the peoples' cost of living.

"Normally when the price of fuel goes up, there will be an increase in other goods and this will certainly affect the lower income group," he said.

Kuih seller K. Selvi, 50, also echoed a similar, fearing the prices of everything else related to the increase of petrol and diesel, would go up.

"I hope the government will provide some form of incentive to cushion the price hike," she said.

A bank officer, David Lim, 30, hoped there would not be another price hike in the near future.

"We cannot avoid a price hike but the government can take the initiative to improve the economy to ensure subsidies are provided for the people," he said.