Umno made profits by selling Malay kampungs

BAYAN BARU: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng told a Malay crowd in Bayan Baru yesterday that it is Umno Penang leaders who bought and sold their land.

Lim said Umno had slandered the DAP and Penang government, by saying the party had purchased land in Balik Pulau, whatever the cost, to "chase out the Malays".

THE UNHAPPINESS IN SABAH AND SARAWAK

There are not really that many issues to resolve — immigration, crime, oil royalty, autonomy, federalisation, and the 18-/20-Point Agreements. On the side, of course, are the Bible and Allah issues, which is not a Sabah/Sarawak problem but being exploited by the opposition as if they are.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The last Umno General Assembly can be said to have sent out mixed signals. Instead of replying to the many questions that people may have about what to expect in the run-up to the next general election expected in 2-3 years from now, it raised more questions than it answered. If people had followed the Umno general assembly with the hope of becoming enlightened, then they were disappointed because, instead, the reverse happened: they became more confused.

AirAsia planes in fresh incidents in Thailand and Philippines

A photo of AirAsia flight Z2272 which had overshot the runway at
Kalibo airport in Boracay island this evening. The photo is from
the Twitter account of Filipino journalist Jet Damazo-Santos.
 – Twitter pic, December 30, 2014. -

An AirAsia flight bound for northeast Thailand turned back to the capital Bangkok shortly after takeoff today when pilots detected an "irregularity" in the storage compartment, airline officials said.

Just hours later, another AirAsia jet – this time in the Philippines – skidded off the runway on arrival at a popular resort island, causing no injuries but shutting the small airport, the airline and police confirmed.

Bodies retrieved in QZ8501 search, full-on search tomorrow

 An Indonesian warship has recovered more than 40 bodies from the Java Sea today in the search for AirAsia flight QZ8501, a navy spokesman told AFP.

"Based on the navy radio, it has been reported that the warship Bung Tomo has retrieved 40 bodies and the number is growing. They are very busy now," Manahan Simorangkir said.

The number of bodies retrieved was corrected later this evening by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Bambang Soelistyo, who said that only three bodies had been recovered so far.

Sabah groups list 6-point action plan to tackle illegal immigrant problem

With no action forthcoming on foreigners with illegal citizenship in Sabah even after the release of an inquiry commission report, a group of political parties and non-governmental organisations in the state have put up a list of demands for the authorities to fulfil next year.

Among the demands is for a thorough clean up by the Election Commission of the state's electoral roll to weed out unqualified "voters", the group, made up of 21 non-governmental organisations and three political parties, said.

The parties are the Sabah State Reform Party (STAR), Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS).