A total of 298 trees have been planted in the shape of a green ribbon, one for each of the victims who died on board the Malaysia Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima joined government and international officials at a solemn ceremony to dedicate the memorial in the park of Vijfhuizen, close to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport where the flight took off from on July 17, 2014.

The names of all the 298 passengers and crew killed in the disaster were read out by their emotional families, and the Dutch royals and others laid flowers.

While most of the victims were Dutch, there were 17 nationalities on board including Australians, Britons, Malaysians and Indonesians.

“It’s three years to the day that MH17 was shot down in mid-air,” said Evert van Zijtveld, the head of association of the victims’ families.

“But for us it was yesterday. That day… left a void in our lives. There is a life before and after July 17, 2014.

“These victims can never be forgotten,” he said. “This monument is for now and for future generations.”

“A tree symbolises ‘hope’ and ‘future’ in many cultures,” the victims’ families association said in a statement.

“We not only want to honour the MH17 victims, but also want to create a place where everyone can keep their memories of the 298 passengers alive.”

Funded by donations, the project was designed by artist Ronald A. Westerhuis and landscape architect Robbert de Koning after it was chosen out of three proposals by relatives in late 2015.

Never forget

As the third anniversary of the tragedy dawns, no suspects have been arrested although it was announced this month that any trials will be held in The Netherlands.

About 100 people are wanted in connection with the disaster, after Dutch-led investigators concluded the plane was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile transported from Russia into areas held by pro-Moscow rebels.

In Kiev, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday insisted Moscow must be held to account over the tragedy.

“It was a barefaced crime that could have been avoided if not for the Russian aggression, Russian system and Russian missile that came from Russian territory,” Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

Russia and the separatist authorities it supports, however, continue to deny any involvement and have sought repeatedly to deflect the blame onto Ukraine.

Sunflowers

The trees in the memorial will be surrounded by sunflowers, which bloom in July, and will “radiate a golden glow”, the foundation said.

The flowers also represent “the sunflower fields in eastern Ukraine where some parts of the plane wreckage were found”.

Each of the trees bears the name of one of the victims. And at the heart of the forest of 11 different tree varieties is a steel memorial shaped like an eye, turned upwards looking at the skies.

One apple tree has been dedicated to 16-year-old Gary, from Rotterdam, whose body has still not yet been identified.

“It’s nice to think that he has a tree, since we have not received his body. We don’t want Gary to be forgotten. We don’t want any of the 298 victims to be forgotten,” his father Jan Slok, told the daily AD newspaper.

The 16-metre-long steel eyebrow above the eye represents “the burden of the loss,” the Trouw daily said, adding with time it will rust, a symbol of the slow passage of pain. The victims’ names are also engraved in the pupil of the eye.

“If you look inside, you can see both yourself and the name of your loved one,” Westerhuis told Trouw.

The world’s oldest insurance market and Cyence consultancy said the threat posed by hacking attacks has surged and the global economy will be increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks over the next decade.

The report warned that the danger is also pushing up the cost of insurance for companies.

There was a growing threat that a cloud service provider could be hacked, which could cause losses of $53 billion (46.2 billion euros), it said.

That figure is the average estimate but the report said that given the uncertainty in calculating cyber losses, they could be as high as $121.4 billion or as low as $15.6 billion, depending on which organisations were involved and how long the cloud service disruption lasted.

The report likened the cost of a major cyber-attack to Hurricane Sandy, the second most costly storm in history, which caused damage of between $50 billion and $70 billion to the northeastern United States five years ago.

After a “cloud” attack, the second most likely threat stemmed from attacks on computer operating systems of the type run by a large number of businesses around the world, known as a “mass software vulnerability scenario”, which could cause losses of up to $28.7 billion.

Lloyd’s warned that most losses from cyber-attacks were not insured, leaving governments and businesses highly vulnerable if they were to occur.

The uninsured shortfall could be as high as $45 billion for the cloud services scenario, and $26 billion in the event of a “mass software vulnerability scenario”.

Inga Beale, Lloyd’s chief executive, said: “Just like some of the worst natural catastrophes, cyber events can cause a severe impact on businesses and economies, trigger multiple claims and dramatically increase insurers’ claims costs.”

In June, a global wave of cyber-attacks that began in Russia and Ukraine and spread to western Europe and across the Atlantic wrought havoc on government and corporate computer systems.

Several multinational companies were targeted, including US pharmaceutical giant Merck, Russian state oil giant Rosneft, British advertising giant WPP and French industrial group Saint-Gobain.

The festival is held every July as a summer tradition on the Japanese holiday “Marine Day”.

The suspect, who did not fire shots at the school in the town of Esslingen near Stuttgart, had entered the building briefly, left of his own accord and fled on a motorcycle, police said on Twitter.

They described the suspect as “male, aged 17-19, 170-180cm (67-71 inches) tall, bearded, darker skin, (wearing) a blue t-shirt and light shorts”.

Witnesses told police they had seen a firearm tucked in the teenager’s waistband.

Police had earlier detained another suspect but released him after determining they had the wrong man.

They searched the secondary school but found nothing suspicious and asked students to assemble outside the building until they could be picked up by their parents, a police spokesman told DPA news agency.

The central and eastern parts of Jilin province were hit by driving rain Thursday and Friday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

More than 110,000 were forced to flee the city of Jilin due to the heavy rain, it said, adding that the government had sent over 32,000 rescue workers to the area.

China has been hit by a series of fatal floods this summer, leaving dozens dead and displacing huge numbers of people.

Last week authorities said that at least 63 were killed by landslides and floods in central China, which forced 1.6 million to flee.

Authorities in the southern region of Guangxi earlier this month said two dozen people had been killed or gone missing due to flooding, which also damaged thousands of houses.

Marixi Prieto, chairwoman of the Inquirer Group of Companies, said the family had decided to quit the newspaper business and was in talks to sell it to tycoon Ramon Ang, president of top Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp.

“The Prieto family’s decision to divest after 25 years is a strategic business decision that it believes will maximise group opportunities for the Inquirer group,” the paper said in a statement.

Ang said Monday he has accepted the Prieto family’s offer to invest in the Inquirer Group but gave no details.

Neither side mentioned the paper’s longstanding dispute with Duterte, who has said Ang helped fund his presidential campaign.

In March Duterte described the Inquirer and major television broadcaster ABS-CBN as “sons of whores” and warned them of karmic repercussions for criticising him for alleged human rights abuses in the drug war.

“I’m not threatening them but someday their karma will catch up with them,” Duterte said, singling out the Prietos as well as the Lopez family that controls the television network.

“They’re shameless, those sons of whore journalists.”

He also threatened to use the government’s television station to shame the two families, and the subject has been a recurring theme in many of the president’s speeches.

Duterte had vowed during the election campaign last year to kill tens of thousands of drug dealers and users to stop the country from sliding to narco-state status.

Since he came to power a year ago police and unknown gunmen have killed thousands of suspects, but Duterte has rejected criticism from human rights groups that his crackdown may amount to a crime against humanity.

Prieto described Ang as a “longstanding friend and business partner” and said the talks, begun in 2014, restarted early this year.

“The family is confident that Mr Ang will uphold the Inquirer Group’s commitment to pursuing the highest standards of journalism.”

Ang said in a statement the paper would “continue to uphold the highest journalistic standards and make a difference in the society it serves”.

The planned Inquirer acquisition follows a pattern of Philippine conglomerates buying into news outlets, sparking concern about media consolidation.//AFP

The Singapore Embassy in Berlin, in a Facebook post on Sunday (July 16), shared snippets of the effort and preparation that went into Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s working trip to Germany earlier this month.

Work began three weeks before PM Lee’s visit, with officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Berlin embassy involved in the planning.

Civil servants accompanying PM Lee, who attended the G-20 summit in Hamburg, also clocked long hours preparing his programme for the following day.

From updating PM Lee on his schedule to playing tour guide, they worked tirelessly to ensure everything ran smoothly.

The post also revealed that PM Lee makes it a point to have an informal meal with younger members of his delegation during overseas visits.

The incident happened the same day the Johor palace announced that Tunku Aminah will marry Dutchman Dennis Muhammad Abdullah, Tampines Rovers Football Club’s former marketing manager, on Aug 14.

State police Chief Comm Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd said that police received a report regarding the alleged insult at around 6pm on Sunday (July 16).

He said that the Negeri Sembilan police contingent nabbed the suspect at Ampangan area on the same day, and the case was being investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

If charged and found guilty, the man could face a maximum fine of RM50,000, a one-year jail sentence or both.

He said that the police would not compromise with people who use social media as a platform to spread hate among others.

“The public have been urged to refrain from abusing social media as the police will not hesitate to take action against offenders,” said Comm Wan Ahmad.

Speaking to Vientiane Times on Sunday, Deputy Head of Vientiane Fire Prevention and Protection Police Department Major Sisouvang Xaysouthep said the fire started at about 5:30 pm and took more than three hours to extinguish.

Fortunately, no one was reported injured in the blaze.

A pickup and a sedan were destroyed.

According to authorities, over 20 fire engines were deployed with more than 100 firefighters from the department and rescue teams fighting the quickly-spreading blaze that engulfed the structure including outlets primarily stocked with clothing.

Police and authorities are continuing their investigations into the incident and are still assessing the approximate extent of the damages.

Opened since August, 2007, the San Jiang market built on 15,000 square metres in Sikhottabong district is the largest in the capital, attracting customers from the city and further afield to purchase items on offer.

It has long proved popular among local and foreign traders of foreign goods, particularly those from China.

The fire at San Jiang is one of several to afflict markets in the capital and country over recent years.

In May, the Dongdok campus market at the National University of Laos (NUoL) was gutted by fire, wiping out 158 shops and 15 stalls with damage estimated at almost 4 billion kip.

In 2014, Thongkhankham market in central Vientiane burned down, with 400 shops affected and 110 billion kip of damage inflicted.

Thongkhamkham market site is located near the heart of Vientiane, a well-known and primarily fresh food market boasting a variety of products including fruit and vegetables and items for religious ceremonies.

During the ongoing rainy season, Major Sisouvang advised members of the public to check that electrical devices were turned off before leaving home.

He called on people to take extra care when incinerating garden waste and not to let children play with fire.

He also repeated warnings for people to be on their guard against accidental fires and not to take any risks with electrical wiring or appliances or leave burning candles unattended.

According to the Fire Prevention and Protection Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, 104 fires were reported around the country in the four months from January to April this year in which four people were killed and seven injured.

The estimated cost of the damage from these fires was more than 33 billion kip.

The department reported that 104 detached houses burned down and 16 others were damaged.

An office, two factories, a market, an apartment block, 60 shops, three school buildings, three monks’ living quarters, and two restaurants were also damaged or destroyed.

In other incidents, two fuel tankers, a truck and two motorbikes caught fire and burned.

Twenty-three fires reported were caused by electrical short circuits, another 11 by arson, 17 through carelessness or forgetfulness, 14 resulted from cooking fires, and 20 more remain under investigation.