Usually, nasi beriani sold in restaurants is cooked in large pots, but a chef, T. Gunaseelan, 26, from Sungai Nibong near here, cooked the fluffy and fragrant beriani in bamboo tubes.

“People are so excited to see the beriani inside bamboo tubes because it’s something different. The bamboo will give a natural taste to the beriani. I started with catering business first, then I decided to open a small stall,” he told Bernama here.

“My stall is open daily except on Wednesdays, from 11am to 3pm, but during this month of Ramadan, the operating hours will be extended until 7pm,” he said.

Gunaseelan said the bamboo beriani received overwhelming response from customers.

“At first I only used 50 bamboo tubes, then I have to add 50 more tubes because of the overwhelming response. For the month of Ramadan I have to add another 50 tubes,” he said.

There is chicken beriani for RM11 per set and mutton beriani for RM13 per set, he added. – Bernama

    The comments by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sparked a firestorm at home and in India.

Sharif approached what is seen as a red line in the country by touching on criticism of Pakistan’s armed forces, especially their alleged use of proxies in India.

RSF said distribution of the country’s leading English-language newspaper had been restricted in much of the country.

“The interview, which reportedly displeased the Pakistani military, appeared in the 12 May issue and the blocking began on 15 May. According to RSF’s information, distribution is being disrupted in most of Baluchistan province, in many cities in Sindh province and in all military cantonments,” said a statement issued Friday.

The Press Council of Pakistan had notified Dawn’s editor that the newspaper breached the ethical code by publishing content that “may bring into contempt Pakistan or its people or tends to undermine its sovereignty or integrity as an independent country”, the watchdog said.

“The unwarranted blocking of the distribution of one of the main independent newspapers has yet again shown that the military are determined to maintain their grip on access to news and information in Pakistan,” RSF said.

“It is clear that the military high command does not want to allow a democratic debate in the months preceding a general election. We call on the authorities to stop interfering in the dissemination of independent media and to restore distribution of Dawn throughout Pakistan.”

The 2008 Mumbai attacks killed 166 people. Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba stands accused of masterminding them.

India has long said there is evidence that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved but Islamabad denies the charge.

Since being ousted by the Supreme Court last July, Sharif and his supporters have repeatedly suggested they are the victims of a conspiracy driven by the military and the courts.

According to RSF, last month the military was said to have given unofficial instructions to cable TV operators to stop carrying the Geo TV network’s channels, including Geo News, in most of the country. One reason was the airtime that it had dedicated to Sharif.//AFP

The Chinese archaeologist credited with discovering the emblematic ancient Terracotta Warriors, Zhao Kangmin, has died aged 82, state media said.

Zhao was the first archaeologist to identify fragments of terracotta found by local farmers digging a well in 1974 as relics dating back to the Qin dynasty and the first to excavate the site.

The 8,000-man clay army, crafted around 250 BC for the tomb of China’s first emperor Qin Shihuang, is a UNESCO world heritage site, a major tourist draw and a symbol of ancient Chinese artistic and military sophistication.

Zhao’s death on May 16 was reported by the state-run People’s Daily late Friday.

When the farmers first stumbled upon the tomb in Xian, capital of the northern province of Shaanxi, they alerted Zhao — then a curator at a local museum — to their discovery.

“I went to the site with another officer… Because we were so excited, we rode on our bicycles so fast it felt as if we were flying,” the archaeologist wrote in an article published in 2014 on the website of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses.

“The commune supervisor told us that heads and partial torsos of six to seven terracotta figures had been found by men digging a well. Someone had taken one of the heads home and stuck it in a granary to chase away rats,” Zhao wrote.

Zhao ordered the farmers to collect the broken terracotta pieces and pile them on to three trucks, which he took to his small museum. He began to reconstruct the statues from these fragments, some as small as a fingernail, according the article.

“It was the tail end of the Cultural Revolution. But some factions were still against restoring old things. So we decided to keep it a secret,” he wrote.

But an article on Zhao’s work by a reporter from state-run Xinhua news agency soon roused the interest of authorities in Beijing and a larger team of archaeologists was sent to excavate the site alongside him.

China’s State Council later recognised Zhao as the discoverer of the painstakingly carved battalion of terracotta soldiers, archers, and charioteers, each with unique facial features, costumes, weapons and even hairstyles.

The group of farmers petitioned the Chinese government for recognition of their discovery and compensation in 2004, according to media reports, but it is not clear whether their claims were upheld.

The lurid earlier affair centred on allegations that Malaysian officials took huge kickbacks in the 2002 purchase of Scorpene submarines from France when Najib was defence minister.

The sensational saga transfixed Malaysia for years until the authoritarian former regime used its leverage to eventually bury it, though whispers persist that Najib, 64, and his wife Rosmah Mansor were deeply involved.

But Najib was trounced in a stunning May 9 election and Malaysia’s new government has vowed to investigate not only current allegations that Najib stole billions from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, but also lift the lid on other unresolved scandals under the graft-plagued former government.

“We are very encouraged by the quick moves so far on (1MDB) and that the government is taking previous corruption seriously,” said Cynthia Gabriel, who heads the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), a Malaysian NGO.

“In this regard, scandals like Scorpene cannot be ignored. Pressure is building and its going to get more interesting.”

Najib’s immediate concern is allegations that he, his family, and cronies pillaged billions from 1MDB. He is barred from leaving Malaysia and police have seized large amounts of cash, jewels and luxury items from his home and other sites.

Alleged cover-up

But 1MDB pales in many ways to the Scorpene affair, which has sex, submarines, assassins on the run, and an unfortunate Mongolian model and translator.

It centres on allegations that French submarine maker DCNS paid “commissions” of more than 114 million euros ($134 million) to a shell company linked to Abdul Razak Baginda, a close Najib associate who brokered the $1.1 billion submarine deal.

Najib’s opponents said the payments were kickbacks.

Abdul Razak’s Mongolian mistress Altantuya Shaariibuu, who was said to have demanded a payoff for working as a translator in negotiations, was shot dead, her body blown up with military-grade plastic explosives near Kuala Lumpur in 2006.

Allegations that Najib and Rosmah were involved in the killing — carried out by two government bodyguards — were steadfastly denied by Najib. He also was forced to publicly deny having had an affair with Altantuya.

The case sank off the radar after a Malaysian court in 2008 cleared Abdul Razak of abetting the murder, sparking allegations of a huge cover-up to protect Najib, promoted to deputy prime minister by then.

But a key figure now looms as a potential game-changer.

Sirul Azhar Umar was convicted along with another police bodyguard in the killing, but he has said they were patsies for “important people” who ordered the murder, and has previously threatened to tell all.

Before he could be jailed, Sirul somehow managed to flee in 2015 to Australia, where he is believed to be in custody.

Calls for new trial

Leading Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim, released from jail last week in the wake of the election and who is expected to eventually become prime minister, told AFP on Thursday that Sirul and his accomplice Azilah Hadri should be granted fresh trials.

“At that time, the judiciary was compromised,” Anwar, 70, said in an interview.

“I don’t know to what extent Najib was involved or not, but he’s certainly implicated in some way,” he added.

He noted that all traces of Altantuya entering Malaysia before her murder were eliminated, saying that “had to be a higher-up decision”.

Also looming is a slow-moving effort in French courts that could reveal more.

French judicial sources last year told AFP that investigators there had indicted two former top French executives linked to the Scorpene deal, as well as Abdul Razak.

Following Malaysia’s election, C4 publicly called for an immediate investigation of Najib and others over the submarines and Altantuya’s murder, calling the affair “one of the (previous) government’s greatest robberies”.

Gabriel admits that the sheer backlog of scandals under the former government, including dodgy land deals, looting of timber resources, and numerous suspicious deaths of government critics while in police custody, could delay justice for Altantuya.

Powerful vested interests also remain, including former establishment figures now aligned with the new government.

“It might be tricky. But if they truly are now behind the rule of law, no stone should be unturned,” she said.

Dredging up the truth in the Scorpene case can be risky.

In 2008, a private investigator deeply involved in the affair, P. Balasubramaniam, implicated several government officials, including Najib, in the murder. He quickly recanted, later saying he had been threatened, and fled to India.

He returned in 2013 vowing to tell all in the scandal, just as Najib was facing crucial elections, but died two weeks later.

Authorities blamed a sudden heart attack.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said an investigation was under way into Friday’s crash of the nearly 40-year-old Boeing 737, leased to the national carrier Cubana de Aviacion by a Mexican company.

Three women pulled alive from the mangled wreckage are the only known survivors.

The Boeing crashed shortly after taking off from Jose Marti airport, coming down in a field near the airport and sending a thick column of acrid smoke into the air.

The mourning period is to last from 6:00 am (1000 GMT) Saturday to midnight on Sunday, the Communist Party leader and former president Raul Castro said. Flags are to be flown at half-mast throughout the country.

The plane was on an internal flight from Havana to the eastern city of Holguin. Most of the passengers were Cuban, with five foreigners, including two Argentines, among them.

The plane — carrying 104 passengers — was almost completely destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire. Firefighters raced to the scene put out the blaze along with a fleet of ambulances to assist any survivors.

What appeared to be one of the wings of the plane was wedged among scorched tree trunks, but the main fuselage was almost entirely destroyed.

Built in 1979, the plane was leased from a small Mexican company, Global Air, also known as Aerolineas Damoj.

Mexico said it was sending two civil aviation specialists to help in the investigation. The six crew members were Mexican nationals.

A press conference is scheduled for 1900 GMT.

The 58-year-old Diaz-Canel, who succeeded Castro as the communist island’s leader only last month, appeared aghast as he surveyed the recovery efforts, wearing a short-sleeved green shirt and surrounded by officials.

Castro sent condolences to families of the victims of the “catastrophic accident,” a statement read, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and a string of Latin American leaders also expressed sympathy.

‘The explosion shook everything’

The plane took off from Havana at 12:08 pm (1608 GMT) Friday heading for Holguin, 670 kilometers (415 miles) to the east.

From the supermarket where he works near the airport, Jose Luis, 49, said he could see the plane taking off before it banked and plunged to the ground.

“I saw it taking off. All of a sudden, it made a turn, and went down. We were all amazed,” he said.

Yasniel Diaz, a 21-year-old musician, said the pilot appeared to attempt an emergency landing, but crashed instead.

“The explosion shook everything,” he said.

“I started running, I was so afraid.”

Images from Cuban television showed rescue workers at the scene removing what appeared to be a survivor on a stretcher as rain began to fall.

Anguished relatives

Global Air said the plane was flying with a crew of six Mexicans — the pilot, co-pilot, three flight attendants and a maintenance technician.

In Mexico City, anguished relatives and colleagues of the crew gathered outside the company’s offices demanding information — some of them hugging and crying.

“I was friends with the captain, with the co-pilot, with the head flight attendant,” said a former Global Air employee, 44-year-old Ana Marlene Covarrubias.

“When I heard the news on the phone, I thought it was one of those jokes people play,” she told AFP.

The Mexican communications and transportation ministry said the plane was built in 1979. Global Air had the necessary permits to lease it, and had passed inspections in November last year, it said.

The company, formed in 1990, had a fleet of three planes, all Boeing 737s.

Prior to Friday’s crash, Cuba’s most recent air accident occurred in April 2017, when eight military personnel died when a Russian-made AN-26 transport aircraft went down in western Cuba.

The country’s last major airline disaster was in November 2010 when a Cuban Aerocaribbean jet crashed on a flight from Santiago de Cuba to Havana, killing all 68 people on board, including 28 foreigners.

Several bombers of various types — including the long-range, nuclear strike capable H-6K — carried out landing and take off drills at an unidentified island airfield after carrying out simulated strike training on targets at sea, the Chinese airforce said in a statement Friday.

Wang Mingliang, a defense expert cited in the statement, said the takeoff and landing exercises on islands in the South China Sea will help the air force “strengthen its combat capability to deal with martime security threats”.

The move comes weeks after US network CNBC reported that China had installed anti-ship and air-to-air defences on outposts in the Spratly Islands that are also claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines, citing sources close to US intelligence.

Washington warned that Beijing would face unspecified “consequences” over its militarisation of the South China Sea, and said it had raised the issue with China.

“I believe this is the first time a bomber has landed in the #SouthChinaSea,” Bonnieh Glaser, a China expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, tweeted.

In an analysis published on its website, CSIS said the location of the runway was believed to be Woody Island, China’s largest base in the Paracel Islands, which is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

The South China Sea issue has been brewing for years, with China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam making competing claims in waters with vital global shipping routes and what are believed to be significant oil and natural gas deposits.

China has engaged in years of land-reclamation efforts on reefs it controls in the region and built both civilian and military facilities in the contested area.

Chinese military facilities include air bases, radar and communications systems, naval facilities and defensive weaponry including landing strips able to accommodate military planes.

Najib, 64, unexpectedly lost a May 9 election to a political coalition that had focused on allegations that he oversaw the looting of billions of dollars from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB in a vast conspiracy of fraud and money-laundering stretching around the world.

Najib was already barred from leaving Malaysia in the wake of the election, and police seized large amounts of cash, jewels and luxury items from his home and other sites last week.

State-run Bernama news agency said Najib had been ordered to appear before the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) next Tuesday.

“So far, he is asked to turn up next Tuesday to enable us to record his statement relating to SRC International,” Bernama quoted an MACC source as saying in the report issued late Friday.

SRC International was a subsidiary of 1MDB before being placed directly under the finance ministry in 2012. Najib was both prime minister and finance minister at the time.

Hundreds of millions of dollars linked to SRC are alleged to have gone missing, in just one component of the wide-ranging 1MDB affair.

As reports proliferated in recent years that billions were looted from 1MDB by Najib, his family and cronies, his government shut down domestic inquiries into the scandal, arrested critics calling for a full investigations and muzzled news organisations reporting on the affair.

But 92-year-old former premier Mahathir Mohamad, expressing disgust over the scandal, came out of retirement to lead a diverse alliance of parties to a stunning electoral victory on May 9.

Mahathir has vowed to fully investigate the 1MDB scandal.