External News

BELURAN, Aug 22 — The Rural and Regional Development Ministry today announced that it will be developing a RM170 million hybrid solar power system project in Sugut and Paitan near here.

Its minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun said the project will benefit about 2,500 households involving 13,000 residents and is expected to start next year.

“Now, the project is in the midst of appointing consultants and will be implemented next year.

“It is expected to be completed by 2022,” she told reporters after handing over of the Paitan Community Centre from the Afat Rahman Foundation to the ministry here today.

In addition, Rina also encouraged  the Paitan community to play a bigger role in promoting the small district as one of the attractions for Visit Malaysia Year 2020, as well as to boost the local economy. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 —The public is advised against attending the ‘Say No To Zakir Naik, Equal Rights to Indians and Other Races’ rally this Saturday in Brickfields.

Brickfields district acting police chief Supt Arifai Tarawe said a notice on the proposed rally submitted by the organiser to the police was incomplete and did not meet legal requirements.

“The police have received the notice from the organiser, in pursuant to Section 9 (1) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 on the intention to hold the rally on August 24 (this Saturday) at 2pm at  the Water Fountain Little India, Brickfields.

“However, the notice that was submitted was found to be  incomplete and did not meet legal requirements,” he told Bernama here today.

As such, he advised the public against going to the venue to safeguard the comfort and well-being of  the local community. — Bernama

MADRID: Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested a man suspected of secretly recording videos of the underwear of over 500 women, some of them minors, on public transit and supermarkets.

The man allegedly used a mobile phone concealed inside a backpack which he placed on the ground to take pictures up women’s skirts in Madrid without their consent, a practice known as “upskirting”, police said in a statement.

He then uploaded at least 283 of these videos to a pornographic site where they were viewed over a million times.

Police arrested the 53-year-old Colombian national while he was in the act of recording up the dress of a woman on the Madrid metro using a “strategically placed mobile phone” in his backpack, the statement said.

He “acted in a compulsive way, daily, recording all the women that he could,” it added.

During one five-day period he recorded 29 different women, police said.

The man operated in the metro and commuter trains and “in some cases followed some of the women from the metro to supermarkets to continue recording them,” Rafael Fernandez of the cybercrime unit of Spain’s national police told reporters.

Officers seized a laptop and three hard drives from his home which had videos with images of hundreds of women whom he secretly recorded.

A total of 555 women, some of them underage, appear on the 283 videos which he posted online, Fernandez said.

Police have so far managed to identify 29 of the women, who have filed criminal complaints against the man, he added.

The man has been charged with violating privacy, corruption, as well as child abuse and child prostitution since some of his victims, were underage, Fernandez said. He has been remanded in custody pending his trial.

Britain specifically outlawed “upskirting” earlier this year following an 18-month campaign by a victim who was secretly photographed at a music festival.

In South Korea, women have held regular mass protests against such secretly filmed pornography known as “molka” as anger over the issue grows in the country.

BRITAIN: A no-deal Brexit is becoming the most likely scenario for Britain’s departure from the European Union, a French presidential aide said Wednesday, a day before Boris Johnson visits Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected Johnson’s demand that the so-called “backstop” mechanism to avoid border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland be scrapped.

And he also contradicted Johnson’s claim that if Britain leaves the EU without a deal it would not have to pay a £39 billion ($47 billion, €43 billion) divorce bill that has already been negotiated.

“The (German) chancellor has said it and we are saying it, the scenario that is becoming the most likely is one of ‘no deal’,” the official said ahead of the first meeting between Macron and Johnson since the British premier took office a month ago.

“It’s one of ‘no deal’ because a deal implies a few things, including the famous backstop.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who coordinates closely with French leader Macron on European matters, was hosting Johnson on Wednesday in Berlin ahead of his trip to Paris on Thursday.

The French official said that a letter sent by Johnson to EU Council President Donald Tusk on Monday asking for what he called the “anti-democratic” backstop to be withdrawn posed a problem for the whole EU.

The backstop is a mechanism to avoid border checks between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, part of the UK, with checkpoints there removed as part of a 1998 peace deal on the divided island.

“If you don’t have a backstop, you don’t have any assurance that there won’t be a border in Ireland one day,” he added. “It’s an essential element for a deal.”

The official rubbished claims from Johnson made during his campaign to become prime minister and in his first speech as a leader that Britain would not have to pay any money to the EU if it left without a deal.

“The idea of saying ‘there’s not a deal, so I won’t pay’ does not work,” the official said. “We cannot imagine that a country like the UK would back out of an international commitment.”

The official added, “There’s no magic wand that makes this bill disappear.”

He also said that France did not expect Johnson to seek an extension to the current deadline for Brexit, which falls on October 31, but the EU would be ready to grant one in case there were new elections called.

And he dismissed any notion that there were differences between Macron and Merkel on the issue of Brexit, which he said would cause economic harm to the EU and Britain, but mostly for Britain.

“There is not the width of cigarette paper between Paris and Berlin on these issues,” he said.

SHAH ALAM, Aug 21 — Police arrested two men suspected of drug trafficking at karaoke centres and seized various types of drugs worth RM701,226 in two separate raids in Setia Alam and Petaling Jaya on Sunday and Monday.

Selangor deputy police chief Datuk Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab said in the first raid at about 4 am in a condominium unit in Setia Alam on Sunday, a 42-year-old local man was arrested and drugs worth RM463,420 that were in his possession were also seized.

He said the arrest of the suspect, a Grab driver was made following a raid at a karaoke centre in Batu Tiga Lama, Klang at about 12.30 am. Interrogation of a male customer and two female employees who were detained led to the arrest of the suspect.

“During the raid on the suspect’s home, police found three plastic packages containing 550 pink ecstasy pills and three plastic packages containing 650 green ecstasy pills in a bag he was holding,” he said in a press conference, here today.

Further examination of the suspect’s home found 800 erimin 5 pills stored in a rucksack in addition to 9,000 pink ecstasy pills, 4,014 green ecstasy pills and a plastic bag containing 500 grammes of suspected ketamine stored in a paper bag.

He said apart from the various drugs, a Perodua Bezza car, RM1,012 cash and two mobile phones belonging to the suspect were also seized and the man, who had no previous criminal record, was remanded until Saturday to facilitate investigations.

Ab Rashid said in a second raid around 6.30 pm on Monday at an apartment unit in Petaling Jaya, police arrested a 39-year-old local man for suspected drug trafficking at a karaoke centre over the past few months.

He said further examination of the unemployed suspect’s rented house and his Toyota Camry car found various types of drugs worth RM237,806, suspected for sale.

“Police seized 85 plastic packets containing lumps of dried leaves suspected to be ganja, 1,376 ecstasy pills, six plastic containers containing crystal lumps suspected to be syabu, 33 plastic packages believed to contain ecstasy powder and 470 Erimin 5 pills.

“In the suspect’s car was found a paper bag containing 40 small packets of ganja weighing 235gm and  a plastic packet containing syabu weighing 100gm,” he said, adding that the suspect had no previous criminal record.

Police also seized RM2,000 in cash and a gold chain worth RM6,300 belonging to the suspect and the man had been remanded until next Monday to facilitate investigations, Ab Rashid said. — Bernama