Driver dies after suspected Dutch royal attack

• Story Highlights
• Incident happened during the Netherlands annual Queen's Day celebration
  
• Car hit crowd near open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix of Netherlands
  
• Police: No other clues that could lead to the involvement of other people
  
• Police: There was no one other than the driver in the car at the time

Police searched the man's house but found no weapons, explosives, "or any other clues that could lead to the involvement of other people," police said.

Five people, as well as the driver, were killed and 12 were wounded in the incident, which happened during the country's annual Queen's Day celebration, police said.

Crowds had lined the streets to see Queen Beatrix and her family ride by in an open-top bus during the Netherlands' annual holiday.

As the bus moved along, a black hatchback zoomed past it. The crowds were behind barriers off the road, but security officials and journalists, including many cameramen, were in the road as the car went by.

The car crashed into the low metal railing around a column on the side of the road. The vehicle appeared heavily damaged even before the crash, but the reason for that was unclear.

There was no one other than the driver in the car at the time, police spokeswoman Esther Naber said.

Members of the royal family saw the crash and gasped, then quickly sat down as the bus continued driving.

The attack caused outrage in the Netherlands, newspapers Friday widely expressing disbelief and suggesting the monarchy would have to change.

"Queens Day will never be the same," the Trouw newspaper said. "The Netherlands always has been proud of their no nonsense royal family. With this comes a Queen who not only cycles a bike, but also mixes with people without obvious security measurements. Is that still possible now the royal family has been the target of an attack?"

The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper agreed.

""What is going to happen on the 30th of April next year? And will we continue to see the members of the royal family cycling through the canals of Amsterdam or hunting for bargains in the Bijenkorf in The Hague?"

Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba. The tradition started in 1885 and celebrates the birthday of the queen.

Although Queen Beatrix's birthday is January 31, she officially celebrates her birthday April 30, according to the Dutch government.

Queen's Day is known for its free market all over the country, where anybody is allowed to sell things in the streets. Other activities include children's games and musical performances.

The day is marked with the color orange all over the country as a reference to the colors of the royal family, who come from the House of Orange-Nassau.

Confirmed number of flu cases jumps to 331

• Story Highlights
• WHO: Largest outbreak of the virus is in Mexico, with 156 confirmed cases
  
• Officials in Mexico suspect more than 150 deaths caused by H1N1 virus
  
• Virus has spread to 11 countries, with hardest hit areas in western hemisphere
  
• WHO: No sustained human to human transmission outside the Americas

沈老逝世

二零零九年二月六日 凌晨十二时二十七分

（马六甲5日讯）受人敬仰的我国华教斗士拿督沈慕羽局绅，于今晚9时15分在家中安详逝世，享年96岁。

沈老是于日前入住马六甲爱极乐班台医院休养。沈慕羽入院期间，槟城首席部长林冠英及华总总会长丹斯里林玉唐等人，亦前往医院探望老人家。

由于身体健康状况不见理想，院方即在老人家的本身意愿下，让他于今日傍晚返回本身位于甲市区怡力路的住家，其到家后不久即过世。

根据家属透露，沈老乃安详逝世，其子孙亦陪伴在旁。

由于沈老乃华社闻人，再加上拥有许多子孙及亲戚，因此丧府将于明日共商讨论后，才决定确实的出殡日期。

沈慕羽是于去年12月26日因肺部积水而入住医院疗养，直至新年前夕才获准出院回家过年，接着又于农历初九凌晨再度入院。

尽管沈老于新年前夕出院，可是却碍于身体衰弱，而没有如往年般出席沈志明家族会的新春大团拜，沈志明家族大家长拿督沈慕羽由于出院后仍卧在病榻休养，除夕夜并没有和家人一起围着吃团年饭，也没有出席大年初一在东街纳祖屋志明堂举办的家族新春大团拜。

不过，沈老初一在精神较好时，穿上红色唐装，坐在怡力住家正厅，按照数十年来的传统，让上门的沈氏家族成员向他跪拜与祝贺新年。

沈老的儿子沈墨义表示，他本身从小到大，这是父亲首次没有和家人一起吃团年饭。

依照惯例，沈老的子孙除夕夜都齐聚在他怡力的住家，和沈老一同吃团圆饭，然后听他老人家训话。

96岁高龄的沈老于去年12月26日因为身体不适入院，一度入住加护病房，过后情况好转转入普通病房，于1月21日出院回家休养，与家人一同过农历新年。

Hundreds sign petition

IPOH: Hundreds of people turned up at the Jelapang market here to sign a petition demanding their assemblyman Hee Yit Foong resign as their elected representative.

Neither the scorching heat or the lack of parking spaces kept them away from ensuring they got the message through to Hee that she was no longer wanted.

Within 90 minutes, 720 signatures were collected from the time the signature campaign started at 9.30am yesterday.

Perak DAP organising secretary Thomas Su Keong Siong said the petition would be handed over to the DAP-turned-Independent assemblyman.

“If she does not want to accept the petition then we will hand it over to her parents at their home in Kanthan, Chemor,” he said.

DAP supports Anwar as Pakatan leader: Guan Eng

KUALA LUMPUR: The DAP will continue to support Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the opposition leader, its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said.

He said Anwar, the PKR de facto leader, would remain as Pakatan Rakyat leader and as the oppostion leader as agreed to by Pakatan party leaders.

“He will remain, as no single leader has ever questioned this during internal meetings, whether at the highest level or otherwise,” he said in a statement here Monday.

He said Pakatan had endorsed a position that no individual party policy could be regarded a policy for the entire alliance unless it was approved by all three parties.

He also appealed to DAP chairman Karpal Singh to use internal party channels if he wished to change policies within Pakatan, instead of using the media. On Sunday, Karpal had told a news conference that Anwar was not fit to lead Pakatan and that he had been “nothing but trouble” for the opposition alliance.

His remarks came in the wake of Pakatan losing the Perak state government to the Barisan Nasional on Friday, which Karpal blamed on Anwar for trying to seek defectors from Barisan to shore up Pakatan. -- Bernama

Raja Petra trial: ‘Najib not involved’

PETALING JAYA: A chief investigator repeatedly denied that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was involved in the killing of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu when the counsel for Malaysia Today Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin tried to link the Deputy Prime Minister to the murder.

The former ISA detainee attempted this at his sedition trial Tuesday through his counsel Gobind Singh Deo during the cross-examination of the chief investigator, Supt Gan Tack Guan.

Supt Gan, 50, who is Interpol’s National Centre Bureau assistant director based at Bukit Aman, said a statement was not taken from Najib as he was not involved in Altantuya’s murder.

When pressed further, he said Najib was an important witness.

“It is my opinion that every witness is important. We have seen his connections. Najib is not involved in this case,” said Supt Gan, who is also a complainant in the sedition trial.

When asked if it was not important to record a statement from Najib when he was considered an important witness, Supt Gan claimed Najib had been slandered.

When asked how he knew Najib was not involved in the murder although the Deputy Prime Minister was among four people implicated in Altantuya’s murder, Supt Gan said he had the chance to study the investigation papers.

“I am the supervisor for the investigations of the Altantuya case. I had a team of investigators to assist (investigating officer) Asst Supt Tonny Lunggan for the case. Investigations revealed that Najib is not involved,” he testified at a Sessions Court here.

Raja Petra had on May 6 last year claimed trial to publishing a seditious article on the news portal on April 25.

The 59-year-old is accused of publishing the article Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell on the website www.malaysia-today.net. The article is alleged to have contained nine paragraphs of seditious words.

The blogger is said to have committed the offence at his house on Jalan BRP 5/5 in Bukit Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh, that day.

When Gobind Singh suggested that there was a reason for Gan not to question Najib as the police knew that Najib was involved in Altantuya’s murder and the police had no guts to reveal this in their investigations, Gan disagreed.

He denied that he was not in the position to substantiate his police report against Raja Petra.

“Actually I lodged a police report (against Raja Petra) as certain contents of the article were simply fabricated,” he said.

To a question, he said he did not underline the paragraphs of the alleged seditious article.

He disagreed to a suggestion that it was not his decision to lodge a police report against Raja Petra and that it was a politically motivated decision to do so.

Supt Gan also admitted that three accused persons in the Altantuya murder trial had denied killing her.

He agreed that police investigations had revealed that two policemen implicated in her murder trial at Shah Alam High Court had murdered Altantuya.

He agreed that one area of police investigations was that the two policemen had been paid to murder her.

He disagreed that there were several paragraphs in the seditious article which were fair comment and factual.

When asked that Altantuya could be the seventh victim in light of Razak’s affidavit which was affirmed on Jan 4, 2007, he agreed.

He said he had read Razak’s affidavit but did not investigate its contents.

The hearing before Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob will continue on Thursday.

Frustration for survivors as bushfires smoulder

Wildfires continue to smoulder across large sections of bushland in southeast Australia, as rescue officials in the state of Victoria attempt to offer solace to hundreds burned out of their homes. Frustration brews as many residents are prevented from returning to their homes, or what was left of them, because of safety fears.

Ash rains down on Tokyo as volcano erupts

TOKYO - A volcano near Tokyo erupted Monday, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left others puzzled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow.

Mount Asama erupted in the early hours of Monday, belching out a plume that rose about a mile high, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

There were no reports of injuries or damage from the eruption of the volcano, 90 miles northwest of Tokyo. It last erupted in August, 2008, causing no major damage.

Chunks of rock from the explosion were found about 3,300 feet away from the volcano. Ash was detected over a wide area, including central Tokyo and as far as eastern Chiba.

'Mysterious white powder'
In Tokyo's western district of Fussa, the local government office was flooded with calls from residents asking about "the mysterious white powder" falling from the sky and fire departments fielded calls from people afraid the ash was from a nearby blaze.

In the town of Karuizawa, southeast of the volcano, the ash was thick enough to obscure road markings in some areas, town official Noboru Yanagishi said.

"Some people said they heard a strange noise in the morning when the eruption occurred," he said.

The eruption was not big enough to disrupt daily life near the volcano, though many people awoke to find their cars covered in a fine layer of powder. National broadcaster NHK showed people in Tokyo lining up to get their cars washed or wiping the ash from their windows, with some drivers saying they first thought it was snow.

In Tachikawa, a district in northwestern Tokyo, some farming areas were coated with ash.

"Because it's February and not harvesting season, there was no real damage to any crops," said Shoichi Matsumoto, a local official.

For many, business as usual
In Tsumagoi, a small town on the volcano with ski resorts and hot spring baths, residents went about their business as usual. Travelers planning vacations to the area had called to inquire, but no one canceled, said Masaru Yoshida, a spokesman for the local tourist association.

"The wind has blown the ash to the other side of the mountain," he said. "It's a clear day so you can see some smoke, but not as much as we've had in the past."

The $115b that got away

FREE insulation for 2.7 million homes will be included in the Government's second economic stimulus package to be announced this week. The package will be be presented as a mini-budget after Kevin Rudd revealed yesterday that forecast tax revenues would plunge by $115 billion over four years.

An update of the state of the rapidly deteriorating economy was needed now and could not wait for the budget in May. The Prime Minister also said the Government would issue Commonwealth bonds to service a series of budget deficits for this and the next few years, making it the first new net borrowings by a government since 1996.

The free insulation will fund work on 2.5 million owner-occupied homes and 500,000 rental properties. It will be available to anyone who needs it and will be badged as an instant job creator and economic stimulus - with the long-term benefits of reducing energy bills by $200 a year and cutting greenhouse gases by 49.4 million tonnes by 2020.

The $115 billion budget shortfall means that since November, when tax revenues were forecast to fall by $40 billion, another $75 billion is expected to be lost.

"Six of Australia's top 10 trading partners are now in recession and that list grows," Mr Rudd said.

He said China's slowdown was a significant factor in the revenue shortfall which comprised $90 billion in company and capital gains taxes, $13 billion in income tax due to forecast lost jobs, $2 billion in miscellaneous taxes and $10 billion in GST.

The states, which receive all GST revenue, will be consoled by billions of dollars in quick-start infrastructure projects to be included in this week's stimulus package. Mr Rudd unveiled more detail on the parlous state of the economy before today's meeting of the Reserve Bank, clearing the way for a stimulatory rate cut of at least 1 percentage point.

The theme of the mini-budget will be jobs and nation building. Other measures will include wage subsidies to keep people in work.

It will not include tax cuts, despite constant speculation and Opposition demands. The infrastructure projects will be those that could begin quickly and are defined as "shovel ready".

Large projects that have a long lag time and no instant economic benefit, such as the west metro the NSW Government wants built, are subject to the separate Infrastructure Australia process that will not be completed until March.

The revised budget figures will show the $5.4 billion surplus forecast in November will be a deficit, as will the surpluses forecast for the next three years. The 2 per cent growth forecast for this year will be reduced to just above zero.

A recession involves two successive quarters of negative growth but Mr Rudd said yesterday the Government would "move heaven and earth to try and keep growth positive".

Defending the deficit, Mr Rudd said the alternative was cutting "spending on education, health or even defence".

He maintained that plans to reform the payments for the nation's 3.5 million pensioners in the budget would go ahead. The Treasurer, Wayne Swan, said savings would be found to accommodate the cost.

The Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, said the first stimulus package was a dud but Mr Rudd said unemployment for the December quarter would have been a lot worse without it. The Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, said restoring economic growth was the best way to return the budget to surplus.

For full details on interest rates, see smh.com.au at 2.30pm.

Israel tightens grip on Gaza City; Hamas stays defiant

GAZA CITY, Gaza (CNN) -- The rumble of artillery fire and the roar of ensuing explosions continued to roll through Gaza early Tuesday despite pronouncements by an Israeli official earlier that the military operation may be in its final days.

Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza City from the al-Karramah neighborhood in the northwest and the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in the northeast, approaching the headquarters of Hamas' preventative security building.

But after the respite, the explosive sounds that punctuated the nighttime hours underscored a resumption in offensive operations.

"We are tightening the encirclement of the city," Brig. Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Israeli offensive, told a small group of reporters brought in to Gaza to observe the deployment.

"We are not static. We are careful to be constantly on the move," Eisenberg said.

CPO fall again..

KUALA LUMPUR: Crude palm oil futures for third month delivery fell RM128 to RM1,860 at midday on Tuesday, tracking the losses on soyabeans and vegetable oils traded in China on concerns about weaker demand.

The 6.4% decline in CPO price pushed plantation stocks lower, including KL Kepong and IOI Corp.

At 12.30pm, the KL Composite Index had fallen 8.04 points to 915.53. There were 279 million units traded at RM310.8mil. There were 99 gainers, 272 losers and 158 stocks unchanged.

All major Asian markets except Singapore, posted declines.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the worst performer, down 404 points or 4.58% to 8,432.21, Shanghai’s A Share Index lost 1.19% to 1,971.25 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index eased 0.07% to 13,980.91. Singapore’s Straits Times Index bucked the trend, adding 1.42% to 1,801.45.

Crude oil also fell, shedding 37 cents to US$37.22.

Earlier, Citigroup Research cut Malaysia’s economic growth to 0.5% for this year. On equities, the foreign research house said it expected the bear market likely to bottom earliest in the first quarter.

Among plantations, Chin Tek fell 40 sen to RM5.60 while KL Kepong lost 20 sen to RM9.80 and IOI Corp shed 12 sen to RM3.88. PPB fell 20 sen to RM9.80, Asiatic 12 sen to 12 sen to RM4.04.

Tanjong lost 30 sen to RM13.90, Petronas Dagangan 25 sen to RM7.45 and Parkson 14 sen to RM3.36.

Penny stocks were among the major gainers but in thin trade. Abric jumped 29.5 sen to 40.5 sen, De Gem 11 sen to 96 sen, PCCS 8.5 sen to 38 sen and Amtel 6.5 sen to 48.5 sen.

Tong Herr added eight sen to RM2.20, HL Bank five sen ti RM5.45 and JTI four sen higher to RM4.52.

Yap Sin Tian hitted !

KAJANG: Police have identified the man who punched New Era College senate chairman Dr Yap Sin Tian during the convocation on Sunday.

Kajang OCPD Asst Comm Shakaruddin Che Mood said they were also studying the closed-circuit TV clip to determine the gravity of the assault.

Dr Yap was punched while giving a speech. The attacker was wearing a shirt used by members of a fund-raising event at the college and is said to be a former student.

ACP Shakaruddin declined to say if the attack was linked to a squabble between Dr Yap and the college’s former principal Dr Kua Kia Soong.

Dr Yap, who is Dong Zong (United Chinese School Commit-tees Association of Malaysia) president, is said to have supported the decision not to extend Dr Kua’s contract when it expired last month.

Dr Kua has condemned the attack.

“Of course I am not involved. I am no longer working in the college,” he said.

He added that the man who had punched Dr Yap had done damage to the cause he and others were fighting for, which was for a more democratic college.

Deputy Higher Education Minister Dr Hou Kok Chung expressed shock and regret over the incident.

“I hope all parties involved will be able to give their cooperation to the police so that the case can be solved as soon as possible,” he said at Parliament yesterday.

He said the assault had marred the image of private institutions of higher learning.

Petrol and diesel down 10 sen

PETALING JAYA: Petrol and diesel prices have been slashed by another 10 sen effective today. The price of RON97 petrol is now RM1.80, while RON92 is selling at RM1.70 a litre. The pump price of diesel is now RM1.70 a litre.

In a statement, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the reduction was in line with the drop in global crude oil prices.

The retail prices of petrol and diesel have been gradually lowered from their highs of RM2.70 and RM2.58 respectively in June.

Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association president Datuk Ashfar Ali said the drop would hardly impact his operational costs.

“The damage is already done. The price of daily necessities and foodstuff have gone up and nobody will reduce their prices.

“Spare parts are still expensive – their prices have not gone down either. And the bulk of the diesel used for our operations is under the fleet card system, where it costs RM1.43 a litre.”

Ashfar suggested that the subsidised diesel enjoyed by bus operators could be reduced by a further 13 sen to RM1.30.

“With the lower global crude oil price, I feel the Government can afford it.”

Pan Malaysian Lorry Owners Association president Er Sui See said with cheaper diesel, lorry operators could consider maintaining transport prices.

“At RM1.70, I think we can sustain the price. Diesel accounts for 35% of our operational costs, and only about half of the operators benefit from the fleet card system.”

Dynamite found at Paris department store

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Police evacuated a major department store in central Paris Tuesday after finding five sticks of dynamite inside, French police told CNN

CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported the dynamite was not rigged to explode, but police did not immediately confirm the report.

French news agency AFP said it received a letter in the mail Tuesday morning, claiming to be from an Afghan revolutionary group and saying that a bomb was at the renowned Printemps department store. The news agency alerted the police, who evacuated the store, AFP told CNN.

The letter specified three locations where explosives had been placed, and urged the news agency to contact the police "quickly or you will have blood on your hands," according to a copy of the letter obtained by CNN which AFP confirmed was accurate. "I assure you that this is not a prank," the letter said.

The bomb squad found the dynamite around 11 a.m. (5 a.m. ET) and were still investigating nearly two hours later, police said. It is not clear if the explosives were found where the letter said they would be. The store remained evacuated

AFP said the letter was signed by a group called "Front Revolutionaires Afghan," or Afghan Revolutionary Front. BFM-TV reported the group is calling for the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by the end of February 2009

"Make sure the message is relayed to your president of the republic that he withdraw his troops from our country (Afghanistan) before the end of February 2009 or we will strike again your capitalist department stores but without warning," the letter said.

It is the second time in a week that AFP has received a warning about the store. The agency said it received a phone call from a similar Afghan group a few days ago regarding the store, but at the time, police chose not to evacuate.

Printemps, one of France's most renowned stores, is popular with tourists and locals alike and located on the Boulevard Haussman.

Jim Bittermann, CNN's senior European correspondent based in Paris, said: "These kind of stores at this time of year are absolutely packed with shoppers."

He added that France has a considerable number of troops in Afghanistan. In August, 10 French soldiers were killed in fighting near the Afghan capital Kabul.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier this year that his government was willing to commit more troops to the war in Afghanistan.

"We cannot afford to see the Taliban and al Qaeda returning to Kabul," Sarkozy said during a state visit to the UK in March. "Whatever the cost, however difficult the victory, we cannot afford it. We must win."

Paula Newton, CNN's international security correspondent, said that the group involved was previously unheard of. "This may be termed a hoax attack but it will cause real anxiety on the ground."

Bye-bye Causeway checkpoint, hello CIQ

JOHOR BARU: After 41 years of being in operation, the Malaysia-Singapore Causeway checkpoint finally closed its doors at 12.01am on Tuesday.

Johor Immigrations Department director Mohd Nasri Ishak said that the checkpoint, which started operations in 1967, would cease all activities and its operations moved to the new Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex.

He said there was minor congestion at the new complex as road users were still adapting to the new route.

“Traffic was at a slight crawl as there were some technical difficulties.

“All immigration personnel have been moved to the new complex, and we expect the new complex will reduce traffic congestion,” he said.

India identifies Mumbai attackers

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian authorities in Mumbai have released the identities of the 10 gunmen responsible for the three-day siege in India's financial capital that killed more than 160 people, according to CNN's partner network CNN-IBN.

According to CNN-IBN, the Mumbai Crime Branch detailed the attackers' names, where they lived in Pakistan, and the locations of where authorities believe they carried out their assault.

They also released images of the men who investigators say were all in their 20s.

Here is the list of the alleged gunmen and the locations in Mumbai that Indian investigators say they attacked, according to CNN-IBN:

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)/Victoria Terminus train station

1. Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab alias "Abu Mujahid" of Okara village, Punjab Province, Pakistan. Kasab, 21, has been previously identified by Mumbai's police chief. He is the only surviving attacker and is in government custody.

2. Ismail Khan alias "Abu Ismail" from Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan

Taj Hotel

3. Hafeez Arshad alias "Abdul Rehman Bada" from Multan, Pakistan

4. Javed alias "Abu Ali," also from Okara

5. Shoaib alias "Soaib" from Narowal Sialkot, Pakistan

6. Nazeer alias "Abu Umera" from Faizalabad, Pakistan

Chabad House/Nariman House

7. Nasir alias "Abu Umar" also from Faizalabad

8. Babbar Imran alias "Abu Aqasha" also from Multan

Hotel Oberoi-Trident

9. Abdul Rehman alias "Abdul Rehman Chota" of Arafwala, Multan Road, Pakistan

10. Fahadullah alias "Abu Fahad" of Bipalpur Taluka, Okara, Pakistan.

May god burn their soul in hell....

Pak Lah: PPP free to leave Barisan

KUALA LUMPUR: The PPP is free to leave Barisan Nasional if it continues to insist that it will do so if the Internal Security Act (ISA) is not amended, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

The Government, he said, had no plan to amend the ISA. Recently, PPP president Datuk M. Kayveas said the party would pull out of the Barisan if the ISA was not amended before the next elections.

Kayveas said he had to follow what the Youth and Wanita divisions had proposed to the party and they wanted the ISA abolished. Kayveas also said Barisan had to make changes before the next general election, and it would be suicidal if it did not.

Asked if this meant that the PPP was free to leave Barisan, Abdullah said: “If that is their choice, what can we do?”

Irish dioxin scare spreads to beef

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Republic of Ireland has put 45 cattle farms under restrictions amid concerns that dangerous chemicals could have contaminated beef in addition to pork. The farms "received potentially contaminated feed," the country's Department of Agriculture said in a statement Tuesday.

Officials carried out tests on 11 herds and found three had unacceptably high levels of PCBs, a type of chemical that can cause cancer.

The department insists there is "no public health concern," though it admitted the samples were "technically non-compliant." The other eight herds tested clear, the government said.

Dublin has recalled pork products from all pigs slaughtered in Ireland following the discovery of dioxins this weekend. The government is not naming the beef farms

Clashes hit Athens as shot boy buried

ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Clashes broke out in the Greek capital Tuesday as the funeral was held of a 15-year-old whose fatal shooting by police sparked days of rioting across the country.

Riot police were deployed across the city. They fired tear gas and were being pelted with debris. Police told CNN they feared a repeat Tuesday of the previous night's violence, which they said was out of control and the worst since the riots began.

Greek broadcasters reported further unrest after the funeral of Alexandros Grigoropoulos -- whose shooting on Saturday night triggered the violence -- in Paleo Faliro, a southern Athens suburb.

The events have exacerbated the unpopularity of the ruling party and left Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis scrambling to shore up support.

Karamanlis met with President Karolos Papoulias and cabinet members before briefing political leaders on the country's security situation. Some 10,000 people marched on the country's parliament Tuesday to express anger over the teenager's death and vent frustrations over the state of the economy, unemployment and allegations of corruption.

Crowds of youths scuffled and threw rocks at police outside parliament before tightly banded ranks of riot officers pushed back the protesters.

Security officials have warned they a preparing for what could be worst night of rioting after the funeral.

Bukit Antarabangsa Tragedy: Alarm bells unheeded for years

KUALA LUMPUR: "We told you so." Among engineers, the fragility of the slopes in Hulu Kelang, has been ringing alarm bells for years. In conference after conference, paper after academic paper, they had warned that the instability of the soil on the hillsides of one of the most sought-after residential areas in the Klang Valley was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Repeatedly pointed out, the lessons of the Dec 11, 1993 collapse of one of the three blocks of the Highland Towers condomimium in Bukit Antarabangsa, which claimed 48 lives and left hundreds injured, have not been learnt.

All in, 13 landslides have occurred in and around Bukit Antarabangsa since then.

The Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) blamed the lack of systematic regulatory measures on the safety of hillside development as a root cause of landslides.
IEM vice-president Tan Yean Chim said it had in 2001 forwarded recommendations outlined in a position paper titled "Mitigating the Risk of Landslides on Hill-Site Development" to the government.

"We hope the government can take note of the paper's contents and seriously look at adopting the recommendations, especially on the 'Dangerous Hillside Order' on existing slopes.

"IEM is also ever ready to offer the services of its 22,000 mem-bership to allay the growing pub-lic fear for the safety of lives and properties on hillslopes," Tan said.

In the paper, IEM said among the chief causes of landslides were ineffective legislation and guidelines on slope failure mitigation, poor engineering practice, lack of maintenance, and inadequate enforcement and monitoring by regulatory agencies and authorities.

Expressing the standard response to what has been common knowledge in the profession for some time, geotechnical engineer Datuk Dr Ramli Mohamad said "people got excited for a while and then forgot the whole thing".

"In the past, I, like many others, had offered solutions. No one heeded them.

"As long as there is gravity there will be landslides. It will pull down earth. Water will make it worse as the ground becomes heavier and the soil weakens. We live in the tropics where rainfall is high.

"We must be very careful when we encroach into hillslopes. We cannot blame mother nature."

Ramli said the planning and designing of projects, not only at hilltops but the bottom as well, were critical.

"What we do at the top of hillslopes affects what is at the foot. Sometimes, the issue becomes complex owing to land ownership. Who is responsible for which area of land?

"It costs money to do anything. The government has to take responsiblility by enforcing regulations and legislation."

Ramli had six years ago proposed that subsurface drainage be considered as a means to maintain the stability of slopes, particularly in the Bukit Antarabangsa area. Among his proposals were the building of strong foundations, retaining walls and proper drainage Periodic soil tests should be carried out and "unscrupulous devegetation" prevented.

On Nov 16, the New Sunday Times reported that a study of slopes in Hulu Kelang found over a hundred landslide scars, with most of them unremedied and having the potential of slipping again.
The study, commissioned by the Public Works Department's Slope Engineering Branch, found a high likelihood of "fatal slope failures" in its mapping of the Ampang district.

With so much evidence of slope instability, civil engineer Sheikh Abdul Wahed Rahim of Jurutera Perunding GEA (M) Sdn Bhd did not mince words.

"Everybody is just talking and not doing anything about it. We are not doing the right things with the rules and regulations.

"Slopes are becoming too high-tech and it appears developers don't seem to have any idea about landslide prevention.

"The basics are not adhered to and a proper survey is not done before an area is developed."

He called on all concerned to pay attention to the design, construction and maintenance aspects of hillslope development. Plastic surgeon Dr Benjamin George, 80, who survived the Highland Towers tragedy, believed that landslides would continue to happen as long as the authorities did not have the will to stop them.

Dr George is the Highland Towers owners and residents committee chairman.