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Malaysia’s closely-watched 14th general elections will fall on May 9, with nomination day on Apr 28, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday (Apr 10).
Polling will fall on a Wednesday, a departure from past elections.
The minimum campaigning period is 11 days.
“The EC has held a meeting and established that polls must be held within 60 days of the date of dissolution,” the commission’s chairman, Mohd Hashim Abdullah, told a news conference.
Early voting will take place on May 5.
Eurocontrol cautions airlines to avoid Syria due to possible launch of air strikes within the next 72 hours.
The international air traffic control agency Eurocontrol has warned airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria in the next 72 hours.
Eurocontrol said that air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles could be used within that period and there was a possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment.
US President Donald Trump and Western allies are discussing possible military action after they blamed Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held town that long had held out against government forces.
Trump on Tuesday cancelled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump had on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the Syria attack was established.
“Due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria with air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles within the next 72 hours, and the possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment, due consideration needs to be taken when planning flight operations in the Eastern Mediterranean/Nicosia FIR area,” it said, referring to the designated airspace.
The Eurocontrol warning on its website did not specify the origin of any potential missile threat.
UN deadlock
The statement came after rival draft resolutions by the US and Russia to set up a new expert body to probe chemical weapons attacks in Syria both failed to pass at the United Nations Security Council.
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macaron said on Tuesday that after further discussions with the US and UK, a decision to execute military strikes will be taken within days, stressing that the strikes will target Syrian chemical weapons facilities.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said during a joint press conference with Macaron in Paris that there was a possibility that his country would take part in strikes against the Damascus if necessary.
Aviation regulators in countries including the US, UK, France and Germany have previously issued warnings against airlines entering Syrian airspace leading most carriers to avoid the area.
The only commercial flights above Syria as of 01:15 GMT on Wednesday were being flown by Syrian Air and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
The Eurocontrol statement included a broader area outside the airspace controlled by Damascus.
Aljazeera
An Indian Army soldier and two civilians were killed on Wednesday during a gunfight between the security forces and militants in Jammu and Kashmir that started late last night.
Hospital sources said a second injured civilian, identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar, 17, was brought to the hospital after sustaining bullet injuries at the gunfight site in Kulgam district.
The teenager was pronounced dead on arrival by the doctors.
Earlier, another civilian, Sharjeel Sheikh, 28, was killed when clashes erupted at Wani Mohalla in Khudwani between protesters and the security forces.
Police said a soldier was killed and two other security men were also injured earlier on Wednesday when militants holed up inside a home started firing at the security personnel closing in on them.
Protesters pelting stones at the security forces even as two-to-three LeT militants reportedly remained holed up inside the house.
Authorities have ordered closure of all schools and colleges in Kulgam and Internet services have been suspended in South Kashmir areas.
Clashes also erupted between students and the security personnel in north Kashmir’s Sopore town immediately after the news about the deaths of civilians in the Kulgam gunfight spread across the town.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Under fire for the worst privacy debacle in his company’s history, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg batted away often-aggressive questioning from lawmakers who accused him of failing to protect the personal information of millions of Americans from Russians intent on upsetting the US election.
During some five hours of Senate questioning on April 10, Zuckerberg apologized several times for Facebook failures, disclosed that his company was “working with” special counsel Robert Mueller in the federal probe of Russian election interference and said it was working hard to change its own operations after the harvesting of users’ private data by a data-mining company affiliated with Donald Trump’s campaign.
Seemingly unimpressed, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Zuckerberg’s company had a 14-year history of apologizing for “ill-advised decisions” related to user privacy. “How is today’s apology different?” Thune asked.
“We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company,” Zuckerberg conceded, and Facebook must work harder at ensuring the tools it creates are used in “good and healthy” ways.
The controversy has brought a flood of bad publicity and sent the company’s stock value plunging, but Zuckerberg seemed to achieve a measure of success in countering that: Facebook shares surged 4.5 percent for the day, the biggest gain in two years.
In all, he skated largely unharmed through his first day of congressional testimony. He’ll face House questioners on April 11.
The 33-year-old founder of the world’s best-known social media giant appeared in a suit and tie, a departure from the T-shirt he’s famous for wearing in public as well as in private. Even so, his youth cast a sharp contrast with his often-elderly, grey-haired Senate inquisitors. And the enormous complexity of the social network he created at times defeated the attempts of legislators to hammer him on Facebook’s specific failures and how to fix them.
The stakes are high for both Zuckerberg and his company. Facebook has been reeling from its worst-ever privacy failure following revelations last month that the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which was affiliated with Trump’s 2016 campaign, improperly scooped up data on some 87 million users. Zuckerberg has been on an apology tour for most of the past two weeks, culminating in his congressional appearance Tuesday.
Although shaky at times, Zuckerberg seemed to gain confidence as the day progressed. An iconic figure as a billionaire entrepreneur who changed the way people around the world relate to each other, he made a point of repeatedly referring back to the Harvard dorm room where he said Facebook was brought to life.
At times, he showed plenty of steel. After aggressive questioning about Facebook’s alleged political bias from Sen. Ted Cruz, for instance, Zuckerberg was asked if he was ready to take a break. No need. “That was pretty good,” he said of the exchange with Cruz.
For the most part, his careful but generally straightforward answers, steeped in the sometimes arcane details of Facebook’s underlying functions, often deflected aggressive questioning. When the going got tough, Zuckerberg was able to fall back on: “Our team should follow up with you on that, Senator.”
As a result, he found it relatively easy to return to familiar talking points: Facebook made mistakes, he and his executives are very sorry, and they’re working very hard to correct the problems and safeguard the users’ data. As for the federal Russia probe that has occupied much of Washington’s attention for months, he said he had not been interviewed by special counsel Mueller’s team, but “I know we’re working with them.” He offered no details, citing a concern about confidentiality rules of the investigation.
Earlier this year Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in a plot to interfere in the 2016 presidential election through a social media propaganda effort that included online ad purchases using US aliases and politicking on US soil. A number of the Russian ads were on Facebook. Much of the effort was aimed at denigrating Democrat Hillary Clinton and thereby helping Republican Trump, or simply encouraging divisiveness and undercutting faith in the US system.
Zuckerberg said Facebook had been led to believe Cambridge Analytica had deleted the user data it had harvested and that had been “clearly a mistake.” He said Facebook had considered the data collection “a closed case” and had not alerted the Federal Trade Commission. He assured senators the company would handle the situation differently today.
Separately, the company began alerting some of its users that their data was gathered by Cambridge Analytica. A notification that appeared on Facebook for some users Tuesday told them that “one of your friends” used Facebook to log into a now-banned personality quiz app called “This Is Your Digital Life.” The notice says the app misused the information, including public profiles, page likes, birthdays and current cities, by sharing it with Cambridge Analytica.
In the hearings, Zuckerberg is trying to both restore public trust in his company and stave off federal regulations that some lawmakers have floated.
Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida said he believes Zuckerberg was taking the congressional hearings seriously “because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation.”
Republicans have yet to get behind any legislation, but that could change.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Zuckerberg if he would be willing to work with lawmakers to examine what “regulations you think are necessary for your industry.”
Absolutely, Zuckerberg responded, saying later in an exchange with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that “I’m not the type of person who thinks that all regulation is bad.”
Ahead of the hearing, John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said, “This is a serious matter, and I think people expect us to take action.”
At the hearing, Zuckerberg said: “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
He outlined steps the company has taken to restrict outsiders’ access to people’s personal information. He also said the company is investigating every app that had access to a large amount of information before the company moved to prevent such access in 2014 – actions that came too late in the Cambridge Analytica case.
Sources in the Congress say party president Rahul Gandhi has given a go-ahead to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s plan to contest from two seats in upcoming Assembly elections — Chamundeshwari and Badami. Siddaramaiah was thought to be keeping a safe seat in north Karnataka region as a back-up after being convinced by his well-wishers about the dangers of relying only on the Chamundeshwari seat in view of a “deal” between JD(S) and the BJP there. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Chief (KPCC) Dr G Parameshwara, who had lost the last time by over 30,000 votes, is also likely to contest from two seats — Koratagere in Tumkur district and Pulikeshinagara in Bengaluru. The ruling party, meanwhile, is battling yet another piece of fake news and has denied a candidates’ list doing the rounds.
The alleged crime came to light when the elder of the two sisters, who is 17 years old, told her mother about the ordeal last week.
A 42-year-old fashion designer was arrested in suburban Vakola for allegedly sexually assaulting his two daughters, police said on Tuesday.
The alleged crime came to light when the elder of the two sisters, who is 17 years old, told her mother about the ordeal last week, said a police official. The younger sister is 13 years old, he said.
When the woman confronted her husband about it, he abused her, after which she took both the girls to the Vakola police station and lodged a complaint, said senior inspector Kailashchand Avhad.
Police registered a case of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against the man.
The elder girl, who is a class XI student, told police that her father had sexually assaulted her many times in the last two years, the officer said.
He allegedly threatened to stop paying for her education and even throw her out of the house if she complained.
In November last year, the accused tried to sexually assault her younger sister too, she told police. The accused was arrested on April 8 and a special court for the POCSO Act sent him in police custody till April 12, Avhad said, adding that that probe is underway.
The bench said it would hear the plea which has also alleged that the rape victim’s father was tortured and killed in police custody.
The Supreme Court will hear next week a plea for CBI probe into the Unnao gangrape case allegedly involving a BJP lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh.
The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it would hear the plea which has also alleged that the rape victim’s father was tortured and killed in the police custody at the behest of the “ruling party” in the state.
The petition, filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, sought the court’s direction to the CBI to probe the alleged kidnapping and rape of a minor girl in July, 2017 “by the BJP MLA and his companion and custodial death of her father via torture” on 9 April.
Alleging that the complaint had not mentioned the name of the legislator “under political pressure” and that the state police would not carry out a “fair investigation under compulsion”, it said the matter should be handed over to the CBI for an independent investigation.
Referring to the victim’s statement, the petition also alleged that sitting BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar from Bangarmau constituency in Unnao district was the main accused in cases of the girl’s rape in July, 2017 and custodial death of her father after her protest against the legislator.
The public interest petition also sought protection and compensation to the victims’ kin, as was provided in the Nirbhaya gangrape case.
A total of 5,000 advanced EVMs and VVPATs which can automatically detect errors and any tampering with the vote will be used in Bengaluru for the May 12 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, the state’s Chief Electoral Official said on Tuesday.
“We are going to use 5,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines with advanced automation and can detect any errors and display on the screen if the vote cast was tampered with or dysfunctional,” CEO Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here.
Bengaluru-based Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will be supplying this advanced election machinery to use in the city for the ensuing elections on a pilot basis.
“The new machines, which will be used for the first time in the state, will be deployed in the constituencies of Bengaluru,” Kumar said.
Training programmes for the election officials on using the new machines will be held, he said, adding that however, for the voters, there is no difference between the machines as all the elements remain the same.
Each EVM consists of a control unit and a balloting unit. As of date, there are 89,206 balloting units and 76,192 control units in the state.
“These units are enough for the 58,546 polling stations across 224 assembly segments in the state,” Kumar added.
Some of the units have been sourced from other states, including Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, to make up for the shortfall of some outdated machines which were discarded, and few others stuck in court cases over alleged rigging of votes in the past.
The southern state has 4.96 crore electors, including 2.52 crore men and 2.44 crore women and about 4,500 people who identify themselves as the third gender.
After a special drive was held on April 8 to register any voters left out in the state, 6.45 lakh applications were received, which will be scrutinized by the election officials and will be added to the electoral list if eligible to vote, Kumar said.
Since the model code of conduct was put in place across the state by the Election Commission on March 27, Rs 4.69 crore cash has been seized in the state by the surveillance teams for violation of the poll code.
Freebies for voters worth over Rs 9.96 crore were also seized by the poll officials.
About 10,500 liters of liquor valued at Rs 46 lakh was also seized by the state’s Excise Department.
A total of 15,42,000 youth in the 18-19 age group have enrolled to vote for the first time in the ensuing poll.
In all, 3,56,552 personnel will be deployed to conduct the polling. The vote count will be done on May 15.
India won three medals in shooting on Day 7 of the Commonwealth Games with Shreyasi Singh winning the gold while Ankur Mittal and Om Mitharval settling for bronze.
On Day 7, Shreyasi Singh won the gold medal for India in Women’s Double Trap on Wednesday. Varsha Varman finished in the 4th position. Ankur Mittal settled for the bronze medal in Men’s Double Trap while Ashab Mohd finished in the 4th position. Jitu Rai, who earlier clinched gold in 10m air pistol, failed to add another for India after he finished in the 8th position. Om Mitharval, who had earlier won a bronze in 10m air pistol, won another bronze after he finished in the third position in the event. India total won 1 gold and 2 bronze in shooting on Day 7
The 32-hour countdown for Thursday’s early launch of the IRNSS-1L navigation satellite is progressing smoothly at the Sriharikota rocket port, around 105 km from here, Indian space agency officials said.
The countdown began at 8.04 p.m. on Tuesday.
The 1,425-kg satellite — part of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) — will be carried by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket XL variant that will blast off on Thursday at around 4.04 a.m., said an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
This will be the ninth of the IRNSS satellite series and will be a replacement for IRNSS-1A as its rubidium atomic clocks have failed. The atomic clocks are important to provide the accurate positional data.
Simply put, the IRNSS or NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) is similar to the US-owned GPS.
The Rs 1,420-crore Indian satellite navigation system NavIC consists of nine satellites — seven in orbit and two as substitutes.
The IRNSS-1L will be the second satellite that will be sent up as replacement for IRNSS-1A. The first replacement IRNSS-1H satellite launch mission ended in a failure.
Each satellite has three Rubidium atomic clocks and a total of 27 clocks for the navigation satellite system (including the standby satellites) were supplied by the same vendor.
Like its other IRNSS predecessors, IRNSS-1L also carries two types of payloads for navigation and ranging.
The navigation payload of IRNSS-1L will transmit navigation service signals to the users. This payload will be operating in L5-band and S-band.
The ranging payload of IRNSS-1L consists of a C-band transponder, which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite. IRNSS-1L also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging.
The four stage/engine PSLV-XL stands 44.4 metres tall and weighs 321 ton at the
lift-off stage.
Around 19 minutes 20 seconds after the lift-off, the rocket will sling IRNSS-1L at an altitude of around 507 km.
According to ISRO, NavIC is useful for fishermen to reach potential fishing areas. The fishermen can also get alert messages relating to bad weather, high waves or when they approach international maritime boundary line.
These services are provided through a software application on a smart phone.
The Indian space agency also said NavIC is useful for merchant ships in their navigation and also during search and rescue operations.
In the road transport sector, NavIC helps commuters to traverse distances and also enable transport operators to track their vehicles.
According to ISRO, the navigation system is also helpful for railways in tracking trains and also giving an alert in the case of unmanned level crossing.
The Indian space agency said NavIC is also used for other applications like location-based services, survey and alignment, time synchronised services
NavIC provides two types of services — standard positioning service and restricted service. The former is for all users while the latter is an encrypted service only for authorised users.
Starting in July 2013, the Indian space agency has launched eight navigation satellites, with the last one launched on Aug 31, 2017.
The Aug 31 mission was a failure as the rocket’s heat shield did not separate three minutes after the rocket’s lift-off. As a result, the IRNSS-1H remained housed inside the heat shield.
Each satellite has a life span of 10 years.
(IANS)