Salleh: No need for Musa to quit

Sabah Umno is firmly behind Chief Minister Musa Aman
who is facing 'whispers' within Barisan Nasional to
step down over money-laundering allegations.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno has brushed off calls for Chief Minister Musa Aman to step down from his post while investigations continue into undeclared money worth hundreds of millions of ringgit in bank accounts said to be linked to him.

Musa’s deputy chief in Sabah Umno, Salleh Said Keruak, when contacted, said: “Musa is doing a good job for Sabah and there are leaders who are power-crazy and jealous of his achievement.”

Salleh, who is also the Sabah State Legislative Assembly Speaker, and a former chief minister himself, was speaking after outspoken local politician, Daniel John Jambun, of the State Reform Party (STAR), called on Musa to step down as he is embroiled in what appears to be an international banking scandal that has caught the attention of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Sabah MPs to quit BN this week?

Will Upko's Wilfred Bumburing and Umno's Lajim Ukin
announce their exit from their respective
parties on July 15?

By Joseph Bingkasan of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: National coalition MPs Wilfred Bumburing and Lajim Ukin are expected to announce their pullout from their respective parties during gatherings in Tuaran and Beaufort, respectively on June 15.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim will be attending both functions where the two are expected to become “independent” MPs.

Bumburing who is Tuaran MP will make his much awaited announcement in Tuaran in the morning while in the afternoon Beaufort MP Lajim is to formalise his departure from the BN at his hometown in Beaufort.

Although both leaders would be declaring that they are leaving the government coalition parties in the presence of Anwar, they are not expected to join either PKR or other opposition Pakatan Rakyat component members.

STAR to resurrect controversial provision

The practice of 'nominating' representatives to the
Sabah State Legislative Assembly was discontinued
when Umno-led Barisan Nasional took over in 1994.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Chapter of the State Reform Party (STAR) will appoint six nominated members to the State Legislative Assembly if the party led by Jeffrey Kitingan secures enough seats to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in the coming general election.

This nominated members will be in addition to the 60 elected state lawmakers. Nomination of unelected members to the assembly is provided for in the state constitution but was dispensed with when Umno-BN came into power.

“We (a Star government) need professional and credible non-governmental organisation personalities in the assembly, “ STAR deputy chairman Daniel John Jambun told FMT in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.

Oscar-winning film star Ernest Borgnine dies in LA at age 95

By Wendy Carpenter of The Upshot

Lifetime achievement honoree Ernest Borgnine waves after receiving his award at the 17th annual Screen Actors Guild …Ernest Borgnine, who created a variety of memorable characters in both movies and television and won the best-actor Oscar for his role as a lovesick butcher in "Marty" in 1955, died Sunday. He was 95.

Borgnine's longtime spokesman, Harry Flynn, told The Associated Press that Borgnine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with his family by his side.

A prolific and talented character actor, Borgnine was known for gruff, villainous roles such as the heavy who beats up Frank Sinatra in "From Here to Eternity" and one of the bad guys who harasses Spencer Tracy in "Bad Day at Black Rock."

Embattled Syrian regime in defiance show of military force

By ALBERT AJI and ZEINA KARAM of Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — In a show of force, Syria began large-scale military exercises Sunday to simulate defending the country against outside "aggression." Damascus' staunch ally Iran warned of a "catastrophe" in the region if no political solution to the 16-month-old Syrian conflict is found.

Tehran is Syria's closest ally, and has stood by President Bashar Assad's regime throughout the revolt against his rule despite a growing chorus of international condemnation. The relentless bloodshed has accelerated diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the crisis, and spurred some in the Syrian opposition to urge the West to intervene militarily to stop a conflict that activists say has left more than 14,000 people dead.

Guns, threats won’t scare us, say natives

If the government continues to remain aloof from clashes
between natives and oil palm companies, then it should
be prepared for a bloodbath.

KUCHING: Despite two attempts on his life by workers allegedly from Palm Raya Pelita, Semawi Anak Renang will not be intimidated in defending his native customary rights (NCR) land and that of 25 other families.

Instead the threats against him and the other landowners of Rumah Randi, Selangau, have made them more determined than ever to defend their 3,000 hectares of land.

The landowners claimed that the Palm Raya Pelita oil palm plantation is owned by Tiong King Sing, the MP for Bintulu. Tiong is also the deputy president of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and one Peter Hii.

Public land: Musa gets ultimatum

City dwellers are concerned about the grand
sell-off of public property by the state
government under Chief Minister Musa Aman.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) will use all means to ensure prime public land in the city is not sold off by the Barisan Nasional state government under Chief Minister Musa Aman.

Two opposition state assembly representatives, Liew Teck Chan (Likas) and Melanie Chia (Luyang), will raise issue of the status of the Kota Kinabalu High Court and City Library land at the coming State Legislative Assembly sitting later this month.

They said they would demand a debate on the issue as long as there is no guarantee by the chief minister that these two pieces of land would be reserved for public use. They announced their intention during a news conference held at its Luyang office here.

Wong files RM150m suit against Sabah govt

Sri Tanjung assemblyman Jimmy Wong alleged that statements
made against him were calculated to make negative
inferences of him and that he is a liar.

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah state assemblyman has filed a RM150 million suit against the state government and several of its agencies for defamation.

Sri Tanjung assemblyman, Jimmy Wong, named Land and Survey Department director Osman Jamal, the Native Certificate Holders Transfer Committee (NTHTC), State Native Affairs Council, Local Government and Housing Minister and the Sabah state government as the defendants, in that order, in the suit filed yesterday.

Wong, 62, who is also DAP Sabah chief is seeking RM100 million in damages from the first and second defendant and another RM50 million or damages to be assessed by the court as well as punitive damages against all the defendants for unconstitutional actions.

A sympathetic expose by a West Malaysian on Sabah's poverty-stricken folks

I read Dr Hams letter and cannot help but agree with many of his observations. I worked in Sabah for over seven years as a house officer and medical officer. After my housemanship, I was sent to Ranau to serve in the district hospital. What Dr Hams described in Kota Marudu is not something isolated to that district alone in Sabah . It is an often repeated story in the whole of Sabah .

My first introduction to the poverty in Sabah came during my first months there, when a sweet 70- year-old lady from Kota Marudu was sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with deep jaundice. She lived alone in a small village off Kota Marudu and noticed the jaundice about a month before.

We Can Hit 35 US Bases in 'Minutes'

By LEE FERRAN of ABC News

TEHRAN : An Iranian military commander said that his country has detailed contingency plans to strike nearly three dozen U.S. military bases in the region should Iran be attacked, local media reported Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, told reporters the U.S. has 35 bases around Iran and all are "within the reach of our missiles" and could be hit "in the early minutes after an attack," according to an English-language report from Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency. The bases were no threat but instead an "opportunity" for the Iranian military, Hajizadeh said last month, according to Fars.