A US government body tasked with reducing the number of inmates at Guantanamo said that Indonesian militant Riduan Isamuddin, better known by his nom de guerre Hambali, still represented a “significant threat to the security of the United States”.
The decision is likely to be welcomed by governments in Southeast Asia as signs indicate that the influence of the Islamic State (IS) group has sparked a resurgency in militancy.
Hambali, who was captured in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo three years later, was believed to be Al-Qaeda’s top representative in Southeast Asia and operational chief of regional militant group Jemaah Ismaliyah (JI).
He was accused of helping mastermind the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali that left 202 people dead, and plotting other attacks in Indonesia, as well as on US airliners.
Hambali appeared before the Periodic Review Board at Guantanamo in August seeking his release after 10 years in detention without charge.
However the board said in a statement rejecting his request that Hambali had a “lengthy history as a jihadist” and had played a “significant role in major terrorist attacks and plotting”.
After US President Barack Obama unveiled a roadmap to close Guantanamo in February, the Indonesian government expressed opposition to the potential return of Hambali to the country.
The number of prisoners at Guantanamo, set up on Cuba after the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, is down to 60 as Obama seeks to fulfil a pledge to shutter the facility before leaving office.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, had succeeded in weakening dangerous networks, including JI, with a tough crackdown following the Bali bombings.
However IS has inspired a string of attacks and plots in the past year in Indonesia and other parts of the region, including a deadly gun and suicide bombing assault in Jakarta in January claimed by the jihadists.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, president of the15-member council for October, said he hoped the council would unanimously recommend Guterres, who was also the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015.
Guterres, 67, would replace Ban Ki-moon, 72, of South Korea, who will step down at the end of 2016 after serving two terms. Guterres was prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.
“Today after our sixth straw poll we have a clear favorite and his name is Antonio Guterres,” Churkin told reporters with his 14 council colleagues standing behind him on Wednesday.
“We wish Mr. Guterres well in discharging his duties as the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the next five years,” Churkin said.
The council has been holding informal secret ballots since July in a bid to reach consensus on a candidate. Members had the choices encourage, discourage or no opinion. Guterres has come out on top of all the polls and on Wednesday received 13encourage votes and two no opinion votes.
“In the end, there was just a candidate whose experience, vision, and versatility across a range of areas proved compelling,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters.
“If we have these transnational threats and we don’t have somebody at the helm of the United Nations that can mobilize coalitions, that can make the tools of this institution … work better for people, that’s going to be more pain and more suffering and more dysfunction than we can afford,” she said.
Diplomats said one of the no opinion votes was cast by one of the five veto wielding powers, which are Russia, China, theUnited States, France and Britain.
The Security Council will adopt a resolution, traditionally behind closed doors, recommending that the General Assembly appoint Guterres for a five-year term from Jan. 1, 2017. The resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes to pass.
“We hope it can be done by acclamation,” Churkin said.
Thirteen people were nominated in the race to become the next U.N. chief, but three had already withdrawn beforeWednesday’s secret ballot. In a bid for more transparency in the opaque selection process, the candidates were for the first timeable to make election campaign-style pitches to the General Assembly.
When Guterres spoke to the General Assembly in April, he said he was a candidate to become secretary-general because “the best place to address the root cause of human suffering is at the center of the U.N. system.” He spoke in English, French and Spanish during the two-hour long town hall meeting.
Guterres, a devout Catholic, spoke about his decade as theU.N. refugee chief as “an extraordinary privilege but a terrible frustration because there was no humanitarian solution for their plight.” He said the solution was always political.
He described a U.N. chief as “acting with humility, without arrogance, without giving lessons to anybody, but working as a convener, as a facilitator, as a catalyst and behaving like an honest broker, a bridge builder and a messenger for peace.”
Seven of the candidates for secretary-general were women amid a push by civil society groups and a third of the 193 U.N.member states for the first female U.N. chief in the 71-yearhistory of the world body, which has had eight male leaders.
The Woman SG lobby group described the win by Guterres as “a disaster for equal rights and gender equality” and said it wasan outrage that it appeared the female candidates were “never seriously considered.”
In April, Guterres pledged to present a roadmap for gender parity at all levels of the United Nations if elected.
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft paid tribute to all the candidates and in particular the women.
“Although it’s high time for a woman … the most important thing for the UK was the qualities of leadership of this position,” he told reporters.
He said Guterres was the person to “provide a convening power and a moral authority at a time when the world is divided on issues, above all like Syria.”
The U.N. Director at Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau, said: “Ultimately, the next U.N. secretary-general will be judged on his ability to stand up to the very powers that just selected him, whether on Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, the refugee crisis, climate change or any other problem that comes his way.”
– Reuters

Avery Chin and Sylvia Lim’s Sept 28 feat during a show at the Happy Valley theme park in Wuhan, China, saw them complete 18 changes of costume in one minute.
They bettered the previous record by two outfits and are now holders of the “most costume change illusions in one minute by an individual” record.
According to Guinness World Records, adjudicator Charles Wharton attended the event to ensure that all the rules were followed.
Chin and Lim, who are in their 30s and have been married for five years, said it had been their life goal to achieve the record.
“We have practised for so long – six years – to master the act,” Lim told The Star over a phone interview from China yesterday.

“We are so proud that as anak-anak Malaysia, we could achieve it.”

Mystical feat: Lim and Chin with their Guinness World Record’s recognition at the Happy Valley theme park in Wuhan, China.
Mystical feat: Lim and Chin with their Guinness World Record’s recognition at the Happy Valley theme park in Wuhan, China.
The professional magicians had several opportunities to make the record previously but missed out as they were busy travelling for their work.

They finally got the opportunity to do so when the Guangzhou Hakuna Matata Culture Communication Company invited them to perform at a magic festival in Wuhan.

Setting the record was no easy feat, especially in a windy condition that could impact their act, said Chin.

They, however, managed to pull it off, much to the delight of the crowd.

Chin said they never told their friends and family members of their goal, hoping to surprise them only when they had accomplished it.

“I called my mum straight away and she was thrilled,” he said. “A lot of people were surprised when they saw the news about us,” he added.

The video of their record-breaking performance was posted on the Guinness World Records Facebook page, with more than 100,000 shares and nine million views so far. It can be viewed at youtu.be/zrJYhxtGkRg.
– The Star
Asia News Network