Prajin, who is also justice minister, said Tapiola raised the issue, asking what would happen next.

“I informed him that the government does not yet know the details and that he will be briefed as soon as I have more information,” Prajin said.

There will be another meeting between Prachin and Tapiola at the Justice Ministry soon.

The NLA yesterday voted overwhelmingly in a closed-door meeting to turn down all of the proposed candidates. A new round of selection kicked off immediately and will have to be completed within 90 days, according to the law. Under the law, candidates who get a majority of NLA votes would become new EC members. But all seven candidates received less than the required minimum of 125 of 248 votes.

An NLA source said the rejection followed some legislators’ concern that the controversial initial selection process might have damaged public confidence in the new EC and more problems might ensue. The seven candidates would have filled vacancies in the Election Commission, the key agency responsible for holding elections. The move was viewed by some as another attempt by the junta to prolong its hold over power and delay the promised election.

NLA President Pornpetch Wichitchonlachai said on Thursday that the current EC members, acting as caretakers after being dismissed by the new EC organic law, were still working in strong spirits.

There were no students or staff injured as the school day had ended earlier at 11.20am. However, SK Batu 4 afternoon session pupils fled upon seeing thick smoke and fire billowing from SK Sentosa.

Two wooden blocks housing the primary school’s office, staff room, hall and religious room were destroyed in the fire that started at around 12.15pm.

“Most of the pupils and staff of SK Sentosa had already returned home. Only a few were still around,” said a school official.

The fire is believed to have started at the school’s office area.

Staff who were still around noticed thick smoke and immediately evacuated the office, while telling other pupils still in the school compound to leave.

The building was razed within 30 minutes.

SK Sentosa principal Sofiah Mohd Ali said the school was temporarily using a block next to SK Batu 4 as they are supposed to shift to a new site in nearby SMK Kabota on March 5.

“Thankfully, that no one was hurt in the fire,” she said, adding that most of the school’s administrative files, computers and other equipment were destroyed.

“It’s very sad,” she said, adding that the school had an enrolment of 139 students as well as 26 teachers and support staff.

Tawau Fire and Rescue Services Department station chief Sharudi Delamin said four fire trucks with 19 firemen rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 12.28pm.

They were able to put out the fire by 1.05pm and stop it from spreading to an adjacent block built out of wood,” he said, adding that they were investigating the cause of the fire.

The video features controversial rapper Wee Meng Chee, known by his stage name Namewee, sitting on a chair in front of a domed building and mimicking barks of canines from around the world.

Several black-clad dancers wearing masks of dogs — an animal considered unclean in Islam — gyrate around him, with two of them mimicking a “doggy-style” sex move.

The video, to mark the start of the Year of the Dog currently being celebrated across Asia, generated accusations that it was filmed in front of a mosque in the administrative capital Putrajaya.

Police said at the weekend a probe had been launched into the artist — who is from the country’s ethnic Chinese minority — for hurting religious feelings and “transmitting offensive communications”.

On Thursday Namewee posted a picture of himself on Facebook arriving at national police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to give a statement, and several hours later a message on his official page on the site announced he had been arrested.

Police confirmed in a statement they had arrested the 34-year-old over the video, saying it contained material deemed “insulting towards religion that could have negative implications for national and racial harmony”.

They said four police reports had been lodged about the video, which has been viewed more than 950,000 times on YouTube.

Namewee faces up to a year in jail if found guilty.

In another YouTube video posted several days ago, the rapper denied having insulted Islam and said that the domed building visible in the background was the prime minister’s office, not a mosque.

Lunar New Year is a major celebration in Malaysia, where a quarter of the population are from the Chinese diaspora.

Namewee has repeatedly been at the centre of controversy. In 2016, he was detained for several days for allegedly insulting Islam over a video partly filmed inside a mosque.

Malaysia generally practises a moderate form of Islam but religious tensions have escalated in recent years, with concerns growing over a rise in conservative Islamic attitudes.//AFP

The atrocities against the Rohingyas in Myanmar and the subsequent crisis are the consequences of a society encouraged to hate and lack of global leadership on human rights, Amnesty International has said in a report titled “The State of the World’s Human Rights”.

“We saw the ultimate consequence of a society encouraged to hate, scapegoat and fear minorities laid bare in the horrific military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Myanmar,” said AI Secretary General Salil Shetty.

The report, which covers 159 countries, also mentioned the issues of rights violations in Bangladesh, including enforced disappearances, crackdown on public debate and criticism, and failure in holding accountable armed groups that carried out the killings of secular bloggers.

The report, which was launched by the Amnesty International yesterday, said the world is reaping the terrifying consequences of hate-filled rhetoric of world leaders which threatens to normalise massive discrimination against marginalised groups globally.

Salil said the world last year was immersed in crises, with prominent leaders offering a “nightmarish vision of a society blinded by hatred and fear”. This emboldened those who promote bigotry, he added.

“The feeble response to crimes against humanity and war crimes from Myanmar to Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen underscored the lack of leadership on human rights. Governments are shamelessly turning the clock back on decades of hard-won protections.”

ROHINGYA CRISIS

Security operations by Myanmar forces that began late August last year caused nearly 700,000 Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh. Earlier waves of violence had previously driven over 300,000 other Rohingyas to Bangladesh from Myanmar where they have been facing persecution for decades.

A month after late August, at least 6,700 Rohingyas, including children, were killed, Doctors Without Borders said in a report in December.

Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of rape and mass killings and burning of Rohingya houses. Though Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a repatriation deal in late November, the influx from Myanmar still continues.

“If the Rohingya refugees were forced to return to Myanmar [by Bangladesh], they would be at the mercy of the same military that drove them out and would continue to face the entrenched system of discrimination and segregation amounting to apartheid,” the report had said.

Severe restrictions imposed by Myanmar on aid groups working in Rakhine State worsened the suffering, it added.

“Those who remained in Myanmar continued to live under a regime amounting to apartheid in which their rights, including to equality before the law and freedom of movement, as well as access to health, education and work, were severely restricted,” the report added.

The Myanmar security forces were primarily responsible for the violence, but the civilian administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi failed to speak out or intervene.

The international community, including the UN Security Council, too failed to take effective action or send a clear message that there would be accountability for the military’s crimes against humanity, AI report observed.

HUMAN RIGHTS IN BANGLADESH

Amnesty International’s report said enforced disappearances were committed in Bangladesh, and that the victims often belonged to opposition political parties.

It further said the proposed Digital Security Act would place greater restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and impose heavier penalties.

In Bangladesh, the government intensified its crackdown on public debate and criticism, and media workers were harassed and prosecuted under draconian laws.

“The government failed to hold accountable armed groups that carried out a high-profile spate of killings of secular bloggers. Activists regularly received death threats, forcing some to leave the country,” it said.

REGRESSIVE POLICIES INSPIRE MOVEMENTS

The report also highlighted how leaders in various other countries also took hateful moves against the marginal communities and ignored human rights.

“The transparently hateful move by the US government in January to ban entry of people from several Muslim-majority countries set the scene for a year in which leaders took the politics of hate to its most dangerous conclusion,” said Salil Shetty.

“The specters of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times. Instead, leaders such as al-Sisi, Duterte, Maduro, Putin, Trump and Xi are callously undermining the rights of millions,” he said.

However, the report says regressive policies have inspired many people to join long-standing struggles, and detailed many important victories that human rights activists helped secure. These include lifting the total abortion ban in Chile, achieving a step towards marriage equality in Taiwan and securing a landmark victory against forced evictions in Abuja, Nigeria.

It mentioned the vast Women’s March centered on the USA and with offshoots around the world which showcased the growing influence of new social movements, as did the #MeToo phenomenon and Latin America’s “Ni Una Menos” – which denounced violence against women and girls.

“The indomitable spirit of the women leading powerful human rights movements reminds us that the desire for equality, dignity and justice will never be extinguished. There is a palpable sense that protest movements are on the rise globally. If governments stand against such movements, they will erode their legitimacy,” said Salil.

On a positive note, Salil said, “We are witnessing history in the making as people rise up and demand justice in greater numbers. If leaders fail to discern what is driving their people to protest, then this ultimately will be their own undoing. People have made it abundantly clear that they want human rights: the onus now is on governments to show that they are listening,” said Salil Shetty.

“I believe that Cobra Gold should look for ways to increase the complexity and scope of the exercise every year because we work closely with Thai allies in military space,” ADM Harry Harris, Commander to the US Pacific Command, told reporters at the Defence Ministry on Thursday.

“This year, we’ve increased the US level of participation in Cobra Gold by over 2,000 from last year, [affecting] the scale and type of individual exercises,” he continued. “What we’re doing in Cobra Gold [exercises] helps multiple countries to improve their readiness to fight.”

Due to close on Friday with Harris in attendance, this year’s Cobra kicked off last Tuesday in Chonburi with the principle participation of seven countries including Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. China and India have partial participation through the rescue and relief drills. Myanmar’s Tatmadaw military force was invited as an observer, prompting international criticism due to its role in the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority group in Rakhine State.

The 2018 exercise is also marked by the highest number of US troops participating in years, at 6,800 – nearly double last year’s 3,600.

Cobra Gold was scaled down after the 2014 military coup, but that has changed since Donald Trump took office last year. Harris made a high-profile attendance last year to demonstrate the Trump administration’s engagement with the Thai military government.

On Thursday, Harris met with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan and Supreme Commander General Thanchaiyan Srisuwan to “strengthen military-to-military ties to increase understanding and lessen chances of miscalculation”.

According to his testimony to the US Congress last April, Harris is convinced that the US should “engage more, not less, on Thai military leadership” and that “Thailand is committed to a return to democracy with national elections in 2018”.

“[This is] the best way for the US to promote security and healthy civil-military relations in Thailand,” he said before the House Armed Services Committee.

In the meeting on Thursday, Harris emphasised cooperation between the two nations on intelligence, anti-terrorism and support at the United Nations.

Referring to the promised-but-frequently-delayed election, Deputy Government Spokesperson Lt-General Werachon Sukondhapatipak said: “The US Commander also expressed an understanding of Thailand’s willingness to support the process to strong and sustainable democracy following the roadmap.”

Nominated as the next US ambassador to Australia by President Trump, Harris is known for his outspoken remarks on the US policy in Asia Pacific, and particularly on China’s roles.

Shortly before his visit to Thailand, Harris pointed voiced concern that China may “undermine the international rules-based order”, possibly referring to the contentious South China Sea issue.

While the US makes no national territorial claims regarding the sea, allowing China to have power over it would mean obstacles to freedom of navigation and overflights due to Beijing’s militarisation in the disputed areas.

The presence of the US in the Indo-Pacific matters in the final resolution of the South China Sea dispute. The US Army holds more than 1,500 military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region each year. Significant joint, combined and other smaller military exercises take place annually with treaty allies in Asia Pacific Japan, Korea, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines.

What most people thought were the last remaining wild horses on Earth — known as Przewalski’s horses — were actually domesticated horses that escaped their owners, said the report in the journal Science.

“This was a big surprise,” said co-author Sandra Olsen, curator-in-charge of the archeology division of the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas.

“This means there are no living wild horses on Earth — that’s the sad part,” said Olsen.

The study is based on archaeological work at two sites in northern Kazakhstan, called Botai and Krasnyi Yar, where scientists have found the earliest proof of horse domestication, going back more than 5,000 years.

To further dig into these roots, international researchers sequenced the genomes of 20 horses from the Botai — based on teeth and bones unearthed from the sites — and 22 horses from across Eurasia.

Then, they compared these ancient horse genomes with already published genomes of 18 ancient and 28 modern horses.

They discovered that Przewalski’s horses descended from the earliest-known domesticated horses, kept by the Botai people of northern Kazakhstan some 5,500 years ago.

That means what people thought were wild horses were actually feral, meaning they had escaped from domestication but were not originally wild.

A new quest

According to Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California Santa Cruz, the findings are “super interesting.”

“Certainly, it is surprising to see that Przewalski’s horses are descended from early domestic horses, as this is not what people tended to believe,” Shapiro, who was not involved in the study, told AFP.

“Swapping the word ‘wild’ for ‘feral’ is a semantic change that may better reflect their evolutionary history but should not change their status. We should continue to protect Przewalski’s horses as a population of wild horses.”

Przewalski’s horses are considered an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The round-bellied, short legged, reddish brown to beige horses roamed Central Asia, Europe and China in prehistoric times.

They were listed as extinct in the wild in the 1960s, but a number of breeding programs and reintroductions have helped bolster their numbers.

The findings have also sparked a new quest — to uncover the true origins of today’s domestic horses.

“Current models suggest that all modern domesticated horses living now descend from those first tamed in Botai, in the north of present-day Kazakhstan,” said a statement from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) scientist Ludovic Orlando.

“Yet this genomic analysis yielded unexpected results.”

Since the Botai horses did not give rise to today’s domesticated horses, “the origin of modern domestic horses must be sought elsewhere.”

He apologized again for his past “mistakes”, but said his decision to step down from the top role was driven by concern that the scandal would hurt both organisations.

“I want to make clear I am not resigning from UNICEF because of the mistakes I made at Save the Children. They were dealt with through a proper process many years ago,” he said in a statement.

“I apologized unreservedly at the time and face to face. I apologize again.

“There is no doubt in my mind that some of the coverage around me is not just to (rightly) hold me to account, but also to attempt to do serious damage to our cause and the case for aid.

“I am resigning because of the danger of damaging both UNICEF and Save the Children and our wider cause. Two organisations I truly love and cherish. I can’t let this happen.”

Forsyth joined UNICEF in 2016 after leaving his post as chief executive officer of Save the Children, where he faced complaints from three workers who said he had sent inappropriate texts and commented on what young female staff were wearing.

UNICEF on Wednesday said it was unaware that Forsyth faced those complaints when he was recruited.

“Executive Director Henrietta Fore today accepted Justin Forsyth’s resignation from his position as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF,” said a UNICEF statement.

“We are grateful to Mr. Forsyth for his work over the past two years to advocate for the most vulnerable children and help advance UNICEF’s mission to save children’s lives,” it added.

“This mission is now more important than ever.”

In the wake of the MeToo movement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this month announced a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and vowed new stepped-up measures to address misconduct by staff at the world body.

A new helpline for UN staff will be set up and UN-wide rules put in place to ensure that claims are addressed in the same manner throughout the organization.

The complaints at Save The Children follow revelations that Oxfam was investigating 26 cases of sexual misconduct since a crisis erupted over its handling of a scandal involving prostitution in Haiti.

Three of Oxfam’s senior leaders have apologized for the charity’s handling of an internal investigation into the use of prostitutes by staff in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake.

North Korea’s mission to the United Nations released a statement complaining of “reckless remarks” by Guterres during the Munich Security Conference last week.

At the conference, Guterres praised the Security Council for succeeding in putting “through sanctions a very meaningful pressure over North Korea,” adding: “The pressure in my opinion is absolutely essential to be maintained.”

“This is nothing but an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as secretary-general of the United Nations and only make us to think whether he is a kind of henchman who is representing the United States,” said the North Korean mission in a statement.

North Korea argued that the United States was at fault for the crisis on the Korean peninsula and that Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests were a legitimate form of self-defense.

Guterres’ remarks were “ill-minded”, said the mission, before requesting that the UN chief “refrain from his behavior acts like somnambulist any further.”

Led by the United States, the Security Council last year imposed three new sets of sanctions on North Korea aimed at piling pressure on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile tests.

The economic measures are aimed at cutting off revenue to Pyongyang’s military programs.

During a visit to South Korea this month, Guterres met briefly with North Korea’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong Nam and urged dialogue to address the crisis.

The UN chief has been a strong supporter of the thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Seoul during the Olympics, which he maintains could provide the basis for a broader dialogue.

In December, Guterres dispatched UN political chief Jeffrey Feltman to Pyongyang for talks, but the envoy came back with no commitment from North Korea to hold negotiations on the nuclear standoff.

For brides, the wedding gown is a major feature; any bride would want to look beautiful on her big day and with the perfect wedding gown to boot.

Image: Facebook/Mhayo B. Arguelles

For Mhayo B. Arguelles of Parañaque City, Manila, however, choosing a designer friend proved to be a mistake.

Arguelles took to Facebook last Feb. 20 to share her disastrous experience on the making of her wedding gown. Arguelles said she had a wedding gown made by her unnamed designer friend that was worth P30,000. Unfortunately, the finished product did not meet the quality she expected for the amount agreed.

In one of Arguelles’ pictures, she showed the base gown of her friend’s creation. She pointed out that it was so different from the sketch the designer made that she was so disheartened.

Her wedding was last Feb. 14 during Valentine’s Day. Their first fitting was back in November, while the second was in January. Despite seeing the initial form of the gown, Arguelles said that she accepted it because she trusted the designer, and she believed that perhaps they might add some more details.

The wedding gown was delivered to her in Feb. 13, just a day before the wedding, and that was when Arguelles realized the gown was nowhere near her dream wedding gown. “I felt depressed after seeing my gown, I said, “What? This is my wedding gown?” I thought twice and wondered how it could have turned this way. It’s ugly!

 Image: Facebook/Mhayo B. Arguelles

Arguelles showed more pictures of the gown, pointing out that it was delivered in an eco bag instead of a box like how it should be. She also showed that the lace was too high and that her underwear could already be seen when she tried the gown on. Some of the stitchings were also faulty.

Image: Facebook/@Mhayo B. Arguelles

Image: Facebook/Mhayo B. Arguelles

Image: Facebook/@Mhayo B. Arguelles

“The lace on the arm-part of the gown is loose. It didn’t fit my arm the right way.” It was a good thing, then, that Arguelles’ maid of honor found a way to borrow a gown from someone else and lent it to Arguelles. This minimized the stress that she had already been feeling.

Arguelles told INQUIRER.net this morning that she only used the veil and the train of her designer friend’s gown because she had no other choice, it was already her wedding day.

I was only able to use the train, because I had no other choice. I just did what I had to do to look as best I can with the gown I borrowed. The veil was also by my designer friend. There was no other veil I could use.)

Image: Facebook/Mhayo B. Arguelles

It was noted too that her designer friend created her groomsmen’s outfits, charging her P1,500 each for the ten of them. However, Arguelles wrote that these were also a failure.

“Feb. 12 around 11:00pm niya hinatid mga damit ng groomsmen ko. Dun pa lang mali na yun dahil daw dapat 1week before the wedding dapat mayfinal fitting. Nagtataka ako sayo bakit last two minute mo hinatid mga susuotin namin which is ang haba naman ng time na binigay ko sayo.”

(The groomsmen’s outfits were delivered Feb. 12 at around 11 p.m. That’s wrong as well, because normally, there should be at least one week of final fitting before the wedding proper. I am wondering why you waited for the last minute before you delivered our clothes, while I gave you a long period to prepare.)

Arguelles also told INQUIRER.net that her groomsmen had to get their outfits repaired in a rush because they didn’t fit well; some were too baggy while the others had unflattering cuts.

“But I was still considerate of my friend. I still gave him work when I asked him to do the makeup of my bridesmaids. They were also not pleased with their makeup. Their P500-each was not worth it.”

(Even when worn by a mannequin or in whatever angle you look at it, it really has no appeal.)

Image: Facebook/Mhayo B. Arguelles

Arguelles’ designer friend, however, has since filed a case in the baranggay because Arguelles refused to pay the P8,000 balance left of the P30,000. She told INQUIRER.net that she refused to pay the balance because of the designer’s unprofessionalism and due to the low quality of work; she wasn’t satisfied as a customer.

More than the issue of money, however, Arguelles expressed that her trust was betrayed because the designer was her friend.

Arguelles confirmed that she has filed a case herself, and she and the designer will face each other in Feb. 27.

In a video that has since been shared widely online, the woman is seen holding the white underwear overhead while seated in the plane. She moves it around just below the air vents, and even flips it a few times.

She continues to dry her underwear for at least 20 minutes, and was seemingly not embarrassed by her actions, according to British news website Daily Mail.

The woman, whose identity is not known, was on board Russia’s Ural Airlines from the Turkish resort city of Antalya to the Russian capital earlier this month.

Passengers on the flight were taken aback by the woman’s strange behaviour, though none of them did anything further.

Daily Mail quoted a witness as saying: “Everybody was looking with interest and confusion, but everybody remained silent.”

Online, some people have suggested that the underwear may have belonged to the woman’s child, though it is unclear if she was travelling with any children.

One social media user said: “Maybe the take-off was sort of extreme, so now she has to dry those.”

Others, however, frowned at her actions.

Earlier this month, a Transavia Airlines flight from Dubai to Amsterdam was forced to make an emergency landing in Vienna after a passenger refused to stop farting.

A fight broke out between the man and other passengers mid-air, and the incident quickly went viral after a video posted online showed Austrian police boarding the plane.

Four people, comprising two Dutchmen and two Dutch-Moroccan sisters, were escorted off the flight.