Malaysian railway company launches Chinese made trains
Malaysia's main rail operator, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad(KTMB) on Thursday launched four new six-car trains - the first of 38 new train sets it bought from Chinese electric train maker Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. as it is gradually replacing its old fleet. Prime minister Najib Razak said the new service, to run on interstate railways across the peninsular, would ease commuter distress with a shorter travel time. It came as part of a government development blueprint to improve urban public transport. The four trains are among 38 six-car-set (SCS) trains that the state-run KTMB bought from Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive for 1.89 billion ringgit (626.65 million U.S. Dollars). The remaining 34 electric trains would be rolled out in stages by July, Najib said. The SCS train has a hauling capacity of 1,100 passengers, almost triple the ones currently in operation. It is equipped with three closed-circuit television in each coach, more ergonomic seating and standing space, three lines of hand rail for standing passengers and special seatings for pregnant women, senior citizens and the disabled. The train has a maximum speed of 120 km per hour the fastest ever operated in Malaysia. The new fleet, the rail company said, would gradually replace 25 Bombardier three-car trains which have been in operation since 1995. The rail company expects to expand its fleet of electric trains for the new interstate double-track rail network across the northern Perlis-Perak states and in southern Johor state that would be completed by 2018. Zhuzhou electric locomotive is a subsidiary of China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation Limited, the world's largest electric train maker.
Thai women protest against work discrimination during pregnancy
Dressed in loose pregnancy robes, shouting "I want my job back" with a loudspeaker, around 1,000 Thai women staged a grand march Thursday, calling for more concern for female workers who lose jobs because of pregnancy. Marking the International Women's Day, more than 50 associations representing women workers' rights gathered in front of a United Nations mansion in downtown Bangkok at around 10 a.m. local time. The crowd then marched onto the Government House, home to the country's first female prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who currently is visiting Japan. Nilaimol Montreekanon, vice president of Women Worker Unity Group, said almost 100,000 people who worked in the industrial estates in central Ayutthaya province and Bangkok lost their jobs after last year's devastating flood. Women accounted for 35 percent to 50 percent of the laid-offs, many of them were pregnant. Her group urged the government to assist those women in finding jobs as soon as possible and make it a policy for all workplaces to provide a nursery where working mothers can take care of their children. As a working woman and somehow a feminist, Nilaimol is a real believer in the power of women. Indeed, in a country where female population considerably outnumbers male, women have long assumed pivotal roles in every aspect of social life and their say is mounting.
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State of emergency remains in effect in Southern Thailand
Thailand considers extending the state of emergency in the restive southern tip following two deadly bombings earlier this week, a senior official said Thursday. Extension of the state of emergency by three months is necessary in light of the deadly incidents, said Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa, who is in charge of national security. He called the bomb attacks as extreme violence. Four soldiers were killed and another was seriously injured after a roadside bomb went off and tore their jeep into two pieces in southern Thailand's Narathiwat province late Wednesday night. In a separate case, the soldiers were on patrol when the roadside bomb exploded, killing a soldier on Tuesday in Yala province, bordering on Narathiwat. Thailand declared the state of emergency in its southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani in mid-2005. The decree has been extended regularly ever since. The emergency decree, which is renewed by the cabinet every three months, permits the detention of suspects up to 30 days without any charge and also grants soldiers and officials immunity from prosecution. Yutthasak said earlier this week that the state of emergency would be gradually lifted in these provinces after the last three-month extension comes to an end on March 18. More than 5,000 people have been killed and 84,000 injured in the three provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted in 2004.
Japanese seafood contaminated with radioactive materialsAn increasing number of Japanese fishery products exported to South Korea are found to be contaminated with radioactive materials, local media reported Thursday. The country's quarantine agency has detected cesium and other radioactive materials in 32 Japanese fishery products in the first two months of the year, a surge from 21 cases last year since the nuclear meltdown at nuclear power plants in northeastern Japan, Yonhap News Agency said. Radiation levels in such products are too low to cause public health concerns, and there is no plan to ban fishery imports from Japan, the Animal, Plant and Fisheries Quarantine and Inspection Agency said. Following the nuclear crisis in its neighboring country, South Korean authorities have run radiation checks on seawater and marine products on a regular basis. Recent government data showed South Korea imported 40,466 tons of fishery products from Japan last year, down 47 percent from a year earlier, reflecting public anxiety over radioactive contamination.
South Korean navy resists construction of naval base
South Korea's navy on Thursday voiced opposition to the politicization of the construction of a naval base in the southern resort island of Jeju. The government is pushing ahead with its controversial plan to build what it calls a "multi-purpose port complex," which includes a naval base that can accommodate up to 20 warships and submarines. Despite months of fierce resistance from environmental and peace activists and opposition lawmakers, a local company commissioned by the Navy blasted rock beds in Gangjeong village as it resumed the stalled construction works. Some 200 activists and villagers strongly protested the move amid a heavy police presence, with 19 of them taken into police custody. Key opposition lawmakers, including chairwoman of the main opposition Democratic United Party Han Myeong-sook, flew to Jeju to protest the multi-billion dollar project critics say will damage the environment and raise military tension in the region. The government and the conservative ruling Saenuri Party said the new naval base will help protect the country's shipping lanes and respond more quickly to territorial disputes. "Construction of the Jeju naval base is a quintessential project for protection of South Korea's security and national interests," Vice Adm. Hwang Ki-chul told reporters in a briefing. "It is very regrettable that those opposed to the project are continuously politicizing technical and environmental issues that have already been addressed," he added. Some of the most vocal critics of the naval base are key officials from the administration of late former President Roh Moo- hyun, who initiated the construction project in 2007. They have pledged to scrap the project.
Myanmar peace process in good progress
The Myanmar government's peace making group has signed a preliminary 20-point peace agreement with the ethnic Kayinni National Progressive Party (KNPP) at state level, official sources said on Thursday. The peace agreement, which was signed in Loikaw, capital of Kayah state, on Wednesday, mainly covers ceasefire and formation of peace-making groups for talks at central level. The KNPP represents the 10th ethnic armed group which has initiated peace agreement with the government in response to the peace offer by President U Thein Sein on Aug. 18, 2011 to end internal armed insurrection and build internal peace in the country. Under the president's peace offer, peace making is being carried out in three phases -- the first phase is to ceasefire, set up liaison offices and travel without holding arms to each other's territory; the second phase is confidence building, holding political dialogue, implement regional development tasks in terms of education, health and communication; and the third phase is to sign agreement for eternal peace in the presence of the parliament represented by nationalities, political parties and different walks of life. Peace making groups of KNPP and the government had held talks twice in Thailand's Maesai and Chiang Mai on Nov. 29, 2011 and Jan. 6, 2012 respectively. KNPP once ceasefired with the government in 1995 but the truce was broken three months after the signing. KNPP was among the five peace groups which rejected to be transformed into the government's border guard forces.
China supports US-DPRK food talks
China said on Thursday that it supports contacts between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and hopes their food aid talks will progress smoothly. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on the U.S.- DPRK talks. China hopes that the DPRK and the U.S. will make joint efforts and implement relevant consensuses made during the third round of their high-level talks, so as to create conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks, he said. "China will continue to maintain close communication with the DPRK and the U.S.," he added. Representatives from the U.S. and the DPRK will continue their meeting on Thursday to discuss the details of a food aid agreement. The food aid is part of an agreement between the two nations that was unveiled last week. According to the agreement, the DPRK has agreed to suspend its nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and uranium enrichment activity at Nyongbyon, and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment.
China's legislation to include respect for human rights in criminal law
China's legislature has underlined the principle of "respecting and safeguarding human rights" by explicitly writing it into a draft amendment to the nation's Criminal Procedure Law. The draft was submitted Thursday to the ongoing 5th session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) for third reading. Explaining the draft to a plenary meeting of the legislative session, Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said although the current Criminal Procedure Law fully embodies the principle of human right protection in designing procedures and in its specific provisions, it is necessary to clearly write the article into the law. "Considering that the system of criminal justice involves citizens' fundamental rights such as personal freedom, explicitly writing 'respect and safeguard human rights' into the Criminal Procedure Law not only helps better reflect the socialist nature of the judicial system of our country, but also helps judicial organs observe and implement this constitutional principle in criminal proceedings," Wang said. China's current Criminal Procedure Law was enacted in 1979 and amended in 1996. The current revision was submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for first reading in August 2011 and for second reading in December 2011. Wang said it is necessary to revise the law to strengthen punishment of crimes and protect the people, to strengthen and make innovations in social administration and maintain social harmony and stability, and to deepen reform of the judicial system.
A man who bought more than 10 kilograms of ivory and six scales of pangolins worth more than 220,000 yuan (US$34,826) during a trip to Angola may face more than five years in prison on charges of wildlife smuggling. The construction company employer surnamed Tan argued he purchased African ivory, listed as a legal commodity in Angola, as gift for his friends rather than for resale, according to the trial at the Intermediate People's court in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. "I thought the most serious punishment for me would be huge fines," Tan admitted during Tuesday's trial. However, prosecutors suggested the court give him a jail term of more than five years despite not intending to trade them in China, a local newspaper, City Express, reported yesterday. According to China's law, ivory smugglers can face up to 10 years in jail or even life imprisonment if they illegally trade in ivory products worth more than 200,000 yuan in the domestic market. Prosecutors sought a lenient sentence for Tan because he didn't buy the ivory in order to seek high profits. The court did not announce a verdict. China signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in 1981 and strictly bans the import and export of wild ivory and its products, said Yuan Guohua, of Hangzhou Customs. Several regions in Africa and Asia, including Angola, haven't signed the CITES. It's legal for Chinese nationals to buy ivory in Angola but you have to go through complicated procedures to get approval from Chinese authorities to bring them back, Yuan said. However, the 50-year-old Tan neither declared the stuff to China Customs nor got an import license. He even fled after officials at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport checked his luggage last July. Tan surrendered to police more than ten days later.
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