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Barack Obama Confirms Death Of American Hostage Held By IS

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – US President Barack Obama on Tuesday confirmed the death of Kayla Jean Mueller, an American aid worker who had been held hostage by ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) militants, saying the United States would “find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible”.

Mueller’s family also said in a statement that they were “heartbroken” to learn of her death and released a copy of a letter she had written in 2014 while in captivity.

The comments by Obama and the family come four days after ISIS said Mueller, a 26-year-old humanitarian worker from Arizona, was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held, although Jordan expressed doubt about the Islamist militant group’s account of her death. Mueller was determined to have died after her ISIS captors privately contacted her family over the weekend, a White House spokeswoman said.

“Over the weekend, the family received a private message from Kayla’s ISIL captors containing additional information,”National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said, using an acronym for Islamic State. “Once this information was authenticated by the intelligence community, they concluded that Kayla was deceased.”

A family representative, who asked not to be identified by name, said the family received a private message from her captors over the weekend containing “additional information, which the intelligence community authenticated and deemed credible”.

Neither Obama nor the family gave details of the circumstances of her death. US officials said that the family received an email and photo from ISIS that confirmed she was dead.

US officials said they had no evidence to support Islamic State claims that she was killed in a Jordanian air strike, adding the details surrounding her death remained unclear.

“It’s unclear from the intelligence picture how she died,”said one US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Mueller was the last-known American hostage held by Islamic State, which controls wide areas of Syria and Iraq. She was taken hostage while leaving a hospital in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013.

The group has beheaded three other Americans, two Britons and two Japanese hostages – most of them aid workers or journalists – in recent months.

“No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

“ISIL is a hateful and abhorrent terrorist group whose actions stand in stark contrast to the spirit of people like Kayla,” Obama added.

Even after ISIS Friday announced her death on Friday, the family had expressed hope that she was still alive.

On Tuesday, her parents and brother issued a statement saying, “Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice and peace.”

The family also released a handwritten letter they said she wrote to them in the spring of 2014 while in captivity. In it, she states that she was “in a safe location, completely unharmed + healthy.”

“I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free,” the letter states. “I am not breaking down + I will not give in no matter how long it takes,” the letter states.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement, “The world is united in condemning ISIL’s continued murder and imprisonment of innocents.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 11, 2015
Bikers Can Only Blame Themselves For Rising COE Prices

Dear editor,

I am a rider but I keep hearing complaints from riders that PAP is a bloodsucker and they are going to vote out PAP because they cannot afford $5,500 COE. I am sick and tired of hearing it.

Cannot afford COE? How about the illegal exhaust and mods made to their bikes? I know one dispatch rider who always complain about bike COE but owns 3 motorcycles and he spent more than $3,000 on modifications to his hayabusa alone. He always complain things are expensive in Singapore but did not take into account of their own income level and moderate his spending habits.

I know another dispatch rider who spent more than $500 for a helmet and more than $1,500 for a titanium exhaust without batting an eyelid. But he almost got into a serious accident when his bike stalled on the PIE because his engine oil dried up. He bitches to me often about bike COE.

I realised when riders complain about bike COE, they did not factor in the dealers who are very much responsible for jacking up COE prices.

When you purchase a vehicle, you sign the sales agreement and put down the deposit. The dealer then tells you that he will factor in a certain amount as the COE. That amount is probably based on the average value in the last couple of month. If it was 900, then 1300, he’ll probably put in 1K.

Right now with the COEs in the 4000 to 5000 region, a dealer will price it at 5K average. Then he’ll place his bid anyway. If you get the COE under 5K, he’ll refund you the difference. If over, you top up the diff. Then you settle your down payment.

Most whiners fail to realised this: the dealers and their salesmen want to make the sale, and will be willing to place insanely high bids just to close the deal. YOU are the sucker. The dealers are the one inflating the COE premium because of their panic bidding response to supply being cut. That was what happened a few months back when LTA cut the supply by 25%. They bid higher, wanting to make sure they got the COE to cover their sales. It’s not going down because the average value has gone up. Unless you get a fluke situation where there are less bids than the actual supply, and some lucky mofo puts a bid of $1.

So who are to be blamed for high COEs? Put simply. Bike dealers.

Why don’t whiners who’re buying bikes start telling the dealers “I’m only willing to pay COE $2,000 max. Any more, screw the deal.” Don’t sign on the sales agreement unless they add that in writing.

At this point, some of you might be thinking “But COE goes to PAP. The dealers don’t get the 5.5K what…..” Yes, and no. You ALWAYS have a down payment you’re willing to pay. Let’s say 5K on a 16Kbike (not incl COE). If the COE is at 1K, then the total price will be 17K (insurance let’s not include yet ok?) You made a downpayment of 5K, and your loan quantum will be 12K. Now if the COE was at 5K, the bike is gonna be 21K in all. Your loan quantum: 16K. The government gets the 5K, but the shop/finance isgonna get the interest out of that because you took a larger loan.

So who says that they don’t earn more from higher COEs?? The government has got to disallow dealers from bidding for COEs. Make the buyers log into the system themselves and place the bid instead.

Only then will COE premiums start to fall. Because as buyers ourselves, we will not place stupid bids. The dealers don’t give a crap about riders. They’re just interested in the sale. And you, the buyers, have to tell them “Fcuk off” When you go out to buy a new bike today, or tomorrow.

Go ahead and tell your dealer “I only want to bid COE max 1K, or else I’m not signing” See what they say. If everyone does it, see how the COE goes.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

February 10, 2015
Malaysia’s Federal Court Upholds 5 Year Prison Sentence Handed Down To Anwar Ibrahim By The Court Of Appeal

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has upheld the Court of Appeal’s five-year prison sentence on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

The apex court earlier on Tuesday upheld the Mar 7, 2014 decision against the Opposition leader.

Anwar, 67, was sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari, 30, at the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.

Anwar had filed 35 grounds in his petition of appeal asking the Federal Court to overturn the Court of Appeal’s ruling.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

February 10, 2015
Mothers Stage Nurse-In In Walmart Store In The US

Given the many health benefits of breast-feeding —and that most shoppers don’t want to hear an hungry infant screaming in aisle nine—you’d think stores would be more supportive of a woman’s effort to feed her baby. But perhaps a manager at a Walmart in Oklahoma likes crying children, or didn’t know that the state has a law protecting a woman’s right to nurse in public. Either way, he’s probably regretting telling new mom Elizabeth Moreno to quit nursing her child and cover up.

“I was kind of shocked, like, do what? I didn’t know what I was doing wrong,” Moreno told Fox 23 on Tuesday.

Moreno left the store last week feeling humiliated by the manager’s request, but she didn’t hang her head for long. On Tuesday, she and about 20 other mothers and their infants descended on the store to hold a breast-feeding demonstration called a nurse-in.

A nurse-in is like an old-school sit-in, but with more breast-feeding. To protest the manager’s behavior, Moreno and the other moms walked around the Walmart in Glenpool, about 15 minutes south of Tulsa, with their babies. As you can see in the video below, some of the women chose to openly nurse their infants while they walked.

“We did get some looks and stuff. People were very curious,” one of the moms, Renee McBay, told the station.

Moreno said that the when the manager approached her last week, he said another customer had complained about her breast-feeding.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m protected by Oklahoma law that it’s OK to breast-feed in public,’ ” she said.

The station contacted a Walmart spokesperson, who said that the company is investigating the situation and that it supports a woman’s right to nurse her child inside its stores.

It’s unclear whether the manager in Glenpool was aware of Walmart’s corporate policy on breast-feeding in public—or if he knew Moreno had the legal right to nurse her baby on the premises. But in order to ensure that folks in the community are aware, she and the other nurse-in participants passed out pamphlets educating Walmart shoppers and employees about their right to feed a hungry infant.

Those pamphlets could come in handy elsewhere around the country too, because moms keep on being taken to task for breast-feeding in public.

Last June, Karlesha Thurman was shamed online for sharing a photo on social media of her nursing her baby during her graduation from California State University, Long Beach. Then in August, an employee at an Anthropologie store in Beverly Hills, California, asked mom Ingrid Wiese Hesson to stop nursing on the premises. Nearly 100 moms held a nurse-in at the store to support Hesson’s legal right to feed her infant, and the backlash against the retailer went viral across Facebook and Twitter.

In the workplace, women have long been illegally steered toward filthy bathrooms and closetsin order to use their breast pumps. This week, news broke that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the petition of Angela Ames, who had sued her former employer, Nationwide Insurance, alleging that the company made it tough for her to use her breast pump in the office and coerced her into resigning from her job.

Maybe more nurse-ins are needed to help people finally understand that feeding a baby is not optional. Or perhaps moms should just threaten shoppers with the alternative and let their hungry infants shriek in public for 10 minutes. Let’s see how folks feel about that.

Source: www.takepart.com

February 10, 2015
Personal And Banking Information of 240 Nanyang Polytechnic Alumni Leaked Online After Hack

The personal and bank information of 240 Nanyang Polytechnic alumni has been stolen and leaked online.

Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported on Monday that one of the alumni affected, Mr Ho, was informed of the security breach last week through a letter from the school.

The letter says that there was “unauthorised access” into the polytechnic’s computer system. According to the letter, names and bank account numbers linked to GIRO payments were copied. It also says that the school has managed to delete the information from the website that carried the leaked information. It is not known which website it was.

Mr Ho is wary although he thinks that nothing can be done using the information stolen.

“If they have the ability to steal these information, they may have the ability to steal even more. The information they released may not be all the information they have,” Mr Ho was quoted as saying.

The hackers retrieved information of those who were enrolled between 1994 and 1999, Wanbao reported. The school advised the affected parties to check with the bank on any aunthorised transaction.

Nanyang Polytechnic has reported the matter to the police. In the letter, the school wrote that it takes the matter “very seriously”.

“We are conducting a thorough internal investigation and are also working with a leading third party forensics firm to conduct an independent investigation into this matter so as to strengthen our processes and systems,” it added.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 10, 2015