BEIJING: A 5.3-magnitude earthquake jolted Hualien County of China's Taiwan at 8.14pm on Thursday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC), reported Xinhua.
The epicentre was monitored at 23.78 degrees north latitude and 121.55 degrees east longitude. The earthquake struck at a depth of 19 kilometres, the centre said. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
Kerjasama beri ruang kepada Zakat Selangor dan Mara kenal pasti pelajar berpotensi dan menyediakan bantuan pendidikan.
Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Zakat Selangor, Khaidzir Shahari, berkata kerjasama itu memberi ruang kepada pihaknya dan Mara untuk mengenal pasti pelajar asnaf berpotensi serta menyediakan bantuan pendidikan agar mereka dapat meneruskan pengajian dalam persekitaran yang lebih kondusif.
“Inisiatif selama lima tahun itu meliputi usaha membantu persediaan pelajar asnaf cemerlang memasuki Maktab Rendah Sains Mara di seluruh negara.
“Kerjasama ini menjadi langkah strategik dalam memperkukuh pembangunan pendidikan anak-anak asnaf melalui sokongan institusi yang berpengalaman,” katanya ketika berucap pada majlis berbuka puasa.
Usaha itu juga merangkumi penyediaan kelas tambahan bagi subjek kritikal bertujuan meningkatkan tahap pencapaian akademik pelajar yang terlibat.
Beliau juga berpendapat kerjasama dengan Mara berpotensi membuka laluan kepada pelajar asnaf melanjutkan pengajian ke peringkat tertiari khususnya dalam bidang teknikal dan profesional.
“Mara mempunyai kepakaran luas dalam bidang Pendidikan dan Latihan Teknikal dan Vokasional yang mampu membantu meningkatkan kebolehpasaran graduan dalam sektor industri.
“Selain pendidikan anak-anak asnaf, kerjasama ini turut merangkumi pelaksanaan latihan kemahiran dan program keusahawanan kepada ibu bapa bagi membantu meningkatkan taraf ekonomi keluarga,” katanya. - FMT
Amanah also urges the opposition not to politicise the Middle East conflict and its economic impact for their political interests.
Amanah secretary-general Faiz Fadzil called on the people to spend wisely in preparation for such challenges, especially since the nation would likely face a challenging economic climate if the conflict drags on.
“Amanah would like to remind the opposition not to politicise the war for their political interests. The rise in oil prices is a global phenomenon, but Amanah believes the government will do all it can to stabilise oil prices here.
“We urge Malaysians to join the government in making preparations to face possible economic challenges resulting from the war by spending wisely and prudently,” Faiz said in a statement.
He added that Amanah had ordered all of its divisions and members to celebrate the upcoming Aidilfitri in a moderate manner, in line with the government’s move to scrap its open houses for Hari Raya.
GLCs and investment companies have also been ordered not to hold Aidilfitri open houses, while Putrajaya will also cut down on the number of trips abroad.
While Putrajaya will maintain the price of RON95 petrol at RM1.99 per litre under the BUDI95 subsidy scheme, it has raised the non-subsidised price by 60 sen.
The price of RON97 petrol has also been raised by 60 sen while the price of diesel in West Malaysia has gone up by 80 sen following the global rise in oil prices.
The conflict in West Asia has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway for about 20% of the world’s oil supply, leading to a surge in oil prices. - FMT
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei called for the Strait of Hormuz to remain blocked and for Gulf countries to close their US military bases.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly injured in an air strike, has yet to appear publicly since his nomination last Sunday as supreme leader, and his defiant message was read by a newscaster on state television.
Khamenei, whose father Ali Khamenei was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli attacks at the start of the Middle East war, called for the Strait of Hormuz to remain blocked and for Gulf countries to close their US military bases.
“The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used,” Khamenei said of the waterway through which a quarter of world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually transit.
He added that “a limited amount of” Iran’s revenge for US and Israeli strikes had “taken concrete form, but until it is fully achieved, this case will remain among our priorities”.
However, Trump dismissed growing concerns, writing on social media that “of far greater interest and importance to me, as president, is stoping an evil Empire, Iran, from having Nuclear Weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the World”.
Vessels attacked
Images from Bahrain on Thursday showed thick smoke rising after a strike on fuel tanks in Muharraq, with residents told to stay inside and close their windows.
Drones caused damage again at Kuwait’s international airport and in downtown Dubai, while Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted drones headed towards its Shaybah oil field and its embassy district.
Shipping in and around the crucial Strait of Hormuz remains at a near-standstill, with another three vessels attacked in the Gulf off the coast of the UAE and Iraq.
The Paris-based International Energy Authority (IEA), a world authority on energy markets, warned today the 13-day conflict “is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”, which would surpass those of the 1970s.
With Gulf states slashing production and oil tankers stuck in the Gulf, benchmark oil prices have risen 40%-50% since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28, threatening to crimp growth and stoke inflation.
‘Mistake’
A top Iranian military figure warned yesterday that the country could wage a prolonged war that would “destroy” the world economy.
Trump, who is under mounting domestic pressure, ruled out the air campaign ending “immediately” while indicating that US forces were running out of targets to hit.
“If the White House imagines the conflict will stop when Donald Trump decides it… they’re making a mistake and ignoring the lessons of history,” Pierre Razoux, director of studies at the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies, told AFP.
“The Iranian regime, which no longer has anything to lose, will wage a war of attrition against the US and Israel to punish them for their aggression,” Razoux said.
One Tehran resident hoping for the fall of the Islamic republic told AFP she was worried about the US and Israel calling off their air campaign despite her fears about the daily bombardment.
“I don’t know what will happen to us mentally and emotionally if it doesn’t work out this time,” she told AFP on condition of anonymity.
‘End of the line’
The conflict has spread across the region, with hundreds killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including at least eight more who died on Beirut’s blood-stained seafront where displaced families were camping in tents.
After the Iran-backed Hezbollah group announced a new operation against Israel on Wednesday, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he was ordering troops to “prepare for expanding” attacks on Lebanon.
The violence has killed more than 687 people in Lebanon, according to authorities, while more than 800,000 people have registered as displaced.
In Iran, over three million people have been displaced by the war, according to new figures issued today by the UN’s refugee agency.
Israel’s military said it had began a new “wide-scale” wave of strikes in Iran today, including one southeast of Tehran that it said had targeted a site used for developing nuclear weapons.
Satellite imagery from yesterday shows what appeared to be three strikes from bunker-busting munitions at the Parchin military facility.
US forces said they had struck 28 Iranian mine-laying vessels amid fears that Tehran could render the Strait of Hormuz unnavigable.
The Strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passes, lies off Iran and is just 54km wide at its narrowest point.
Tehran has vowed that not one litre of oil will be exported from the Gulf while US-Israeli attacks continue, although industry figures suggest its own sanction-hit exports are continuing to get through.
Oil prices spike again
Oil prices have soared past US$100 a barrel despite an announcement that leading consumer countries would authorise a record release of their strategic crude reserves in action coordinated by the IEA.
The move was not enough to allay fears of a global crisis.
“In trading desk language, the IEA release is the equivalent of pointing a garden hose at a refinery blaze,” commented Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
Iran’s health ministry said on March 8 that more than 1,200 people have been killed in the war, a figure AFP has not been able to independently verify.
In Israel, authorities said 14 people have been killed, while attacks in the Gulf have killed 24 people, including 11 civilians and seven US military personnel, according to local authorities and the US Central Command.
The war has cost the US more than US$11.3 billion, lawmakers were told in a Pentagon briefing, according to the New York Times. - FMT
The Seputeh MP says a royal commission of inquiry provides greater transparency, accountability and credibility.
In a statement, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok said an RCI would be better than the multi-agency probe ordered by the government as it would provide greater transparency, accountability and credibility.
“When the investigation concerns allegations touching on MACC itself, a process in which executive agencies – all ultimately accountable to the Cabinet – are tasked with examining one another inevitably raises the spectre of conflict of interest.
“Even if such agencies conduct their work diligently, the structure of the inquiry alone risks undermining public confidence in its outcome.
“An RCI, by design, is intended to provide a forum that is independent, transparent and publicly accountable, particularly when allegations involve senior public officials or key institutions of state,” she said.
The six-term MP said an RCI was not punitive, yet it remained the most credible mechanism to investigate controversies of this scale.
“An independent RCI would not weaken the government but instead strengthen public confidence that the administration remains committed to the very principles of openness, accountability and integrity that it once so strongly championed.
“A government that built its moral authority on promises of reform and transparency must be especially careful not to appear as though it is retreating from those principles once entrusted with power,” said Kok.
Yesterday, government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said the Cabinet had instructed the police, Securities Commission, MACC and Inland Revenue Board to investigate claims that MACC officials were involved in manoeuvres to force company takeovers.
This followed a Bloomberg report alleging that certain MACC officers provided intimidation “services” such as raids and investigations to pressure executives in targeted companies into selling shares, thus forcing company takeovers.
Fahmi also said the chief secretary to the government would take “further action” on Azam after a special government committee completed its probe into shareholding allegations involving the MACC chief.
DAP leaders, including ministers Loke Siew Fook and Gobind Singh Deo, have repeatedly urged the government to form an RCI to probe the allegations against MACC and Azam.
Kok questioned Putrajaya’s reluctance to form an RCI, saying it was puzzling when such calls had come from across the political divide and even from civil society groups and governance advocates.
She said the main issue was not Azam’s fate or MACC’s reputation but public confidence in public institutions.
“In circumstances where allegations are serious and involve the nation’s premier anti-corruption body, only a process that is manifestly independent and openly conducted can dispel doubts,” said the political veteran.
She said if the government, MACC and Azam had nothing to hide, then there should be no issues with allowing an independent RCI to investigate the allegations. - FMT
