Malaysia’s Deputy Finance Minister Othman Aziz said the current trade volume was 120,000 TEUs per year.

“Rail operators should take advantage of the double-tracking system in the country, as it is only 20% utilised,” he said.He said this at a briefing after launching the 200th intermodal chartered train services by Trili Maju Sdn Bhd.

Othman said since the double-tracking system was under-utilised, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) should review its business plans.

“This will include exploring potential joint-ventures to maximise usage. KTMB should submit to us its business plans,” he added.

On opening the Bukit Kayu Hitam border checkpoint for 24 hours, Othman said the issue was not just about facilitating the movement of cargo.

“Although I personally support the 24 hours operation, there are issues related to security that needs to be addressed before any decision is made.

“The backlog of cargo at the border could be due to the ongoing construction of the new immigration, customs, and quarantine (ICQ) complex,” he added.

Meanwhile, KTMB chairman Nawawi Ahmad said the company had submitted applications to expand its cargo storage area in Padang Besar.

“It is now occupying a 3.2 ha site, which we plan to extend to 7.2 ha.

“KTMB has placed orders for 30 locomotives. There is a need for 2,000 more wagons,” he added.

Trump’s warning came as a US naval strike group headed toward the Korean peninsula, a show of force that prompted the nuclear-armed North to declare it was “ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US.”

“This goes to prove that the US reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase,” a spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said, according to state news agency KCNA.

The strike group — which includes the Nimitz-class aircraft supercarrier USS Carl Vinson — turned toward the Korean peninsula this weekend in response to what a top White House official called a “pattern of provocative behavior.”

A barrage of recent North Korean missile tests have stoked US fears that Pyongyang may soon have an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.

Speculation also has mounted that North Korea might conduct a nuclear test to mark the 105th birthday anniversary of founder Kim Il-Sung on Saturday.

US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sunday that Trump has asked for “a full range of options to remove that threat.”

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the presence of a carrier strike group “gives the president options in the region.”

“I think when you see a carrier group steaming into an area like that, the forward presence of that is clearly… a huge deterrent,” he said.

‘Looking for trouble’

In a pair of tweets on Tuesday, Trump doubled down on a vow to act unilaterally against Pyongyang if China fails to rein in its unpredictable ally.

“North Korea is looking for trouble,” Trump said. “If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! USA.”

“I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the US will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!” Trump wrote in an earlier tweet.

The saber-rattling has hit a higher level since a US air strike in Syria last week to punish the regime of President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected sarin attack on civilians.

The retaliatory strike, carried out while Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago estate with Chinese President Xi Jinping, also was clearly intended as a message to Pyongyang.

“We will take the toughest counter-action against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms,” the North Korea foreign ministry spokesman said.

“We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions.”

Sixth test?

Meanwhile, preparations were underway in Pyongyang for the celebrations marking the birthday of the regime’s late founder.

Thousands of troops and top military officials gathered in Pyongyang on Monday to pledge loyalty to leader Kim Jong-Un ahead of his grandfather’s birth anniversary, state media said.

State TV showed thousands of goose-stepping soldiers marching in unison, carrying giant portraits of  founder Kim Il-Sung and his son, Kim Jong-Il, in front of the Kumsusan mausoleum where their embalmed bodies are on display.

“If they (the US and the South) try to ignite the spark of war, we will wipe out all of the invaders without a trace with… our strong pre-emptive nuclear strike,” Hwang Pyong-So, director of the political bureau at the North’s army, said in a speech. Kim was not seen at the event televised on Tuesday.

The South’s prime minister and acting president warned of a “grave provocation” by the North to coincide with other anniversaries, including the army’s founding day on April 25.

“There is a possibility that the North launches more grave provocations such as another nuclear test to mark a number of anniversaries,” Hwang Kyo-Ahn said in a cabinet meeting.

Pyongyang has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and analysis of satellite imagery suggests it could be preparing for a sixth.

Intelligence officials have warned it could be less than two years away from achieving the ability to strike the continental United States.

South Korea’s top nuclear envoy said Monday after talks with his Chinese counterpart that the two nations had agreed to “strong” new measures to punish Pyongyang if it carried out another nuclear test.

The talks came shortly after Trump’s summit with Xi.

“(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.//AFP

Novel Baswedan, a member of the official Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), was being treated in hospital after the attack which happened in Jakarta as he walked home from a mosque in the early hours following morning prayers in the Muslim nation.

“It is a brutal act, I strongly condemn it,” said President Joko Widodo, urging the police to track down the assailants.

The KPK condemned the “barbaric” attack and said they would not back down in their fight against corruption. “We believe that the fight against corruption eradication must not stop due to any sort of threats, intimidations or attacks,” the body said in a statement.

Presidential spokesman Johan Budi, who visited Baswedan in hospital, gave details of the attack, telling AFP the investigator had injuries on his forehead and blurred vision in his left eye.

Anti-graft investigators in Indonesia, one of the world’s most corrupt countries, have been targeted in the past and have reported having cars driven at them and receiving threats.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest assault but anti-graft NGO Indonesian Corruption Watch said they suspected it was linked to Baswedan’s role in probing a corruption scandal that allegedly saw about $170 million pilfered from government coffers. The investigation is being led by the KPK.

Senior politicians, including the justice minister and ex-interior minister, have been implicated in the scandal, with investigators alleging they were among many who received kickbacks from funds earmarked for a government project to issue new ID cards.

Parliament speaker Setya Novanto, who has been implicated in the case, was late Monday hit with a six-month ban on travelling outside Indonesia, said immigration authorities. Such a step is usually taken in Indonesia when people are under investigation.

Indonesia was ranked 90th out of 176 countries and territories in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index last year. A number one ranking represents the least corrupt.//AFP

Tens of thousands of people from Rakhine’s Muslim and Buddhist communities ended up in internal displacement camps after sectarian violence ripped the impoverished region apart five years ago.

The move to shutter the first of those camps comes after a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan last month called on the government to close them as part of a series of measures designed to heal simmering ethnic tensions.

National Security Advisor Thaung Tun said the government had begun with three camps named in the commission’s report, including one sheltering ethnic Rakhines and one that houses Kaman Muslims.

The largest of the three includes more than 200 houses full of Rohingya Muslims, a heavily persecuted minority.

“We have initiated the process to close down three IDP (internally displaced persons) camps,” Thaung Tun told a briefing, without giving details of where people would be moved to.

“In Kyauk Phyu, there are IDP camps for Rakhines… Sittwe for the Rohingya group and Ramree… mostly for Kamans.”

Myanmar has long faced international condemnation for its treatment of Rakhine’s more than one million Rohingya, who many from the Buddhist majority reject as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The vast majority are not granted citizenship and face severe restrictions on their access to education, healthcare, food and movements despite many living there for generations.

The issue has reached boiling point in recent months after the army launched a bloody crackdown in the north of Rakhine thought to have claimed hundreds of lives after attacks on several police border posts in October.

United Nations investigators say Myanmar’s security forces may have carried out crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya during that crackdown.

De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week rejected the accusations, telling the BBC that the term ethnic cleansing was “too strong an expression”.

Thaung Tun also defended the government on Monday, saying authorities were doing their best to push forward the citizenship verification process.

“We want to dissolve the issue of statelessness. We need the cooperation of all stateholders in order for us to go forward,” he said.

“It has nothing to do with discrimination… It has nothing to do with ethnic cleansing.”//AFP

According to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump is considering “extreme vetting” which will also include visitors from the US’ allies including the UK, Germany and France.

“We will do it when we think there’s a reason to do it,” US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a US Senate committee hearing last week.

“The vast majority of people will not be questioned in that way.” However, he did not elaborate on the plans.

Kelly suggested in February that asking for passwords may become an option.

“We want to say for instance, ‘What sites do you visit? And give us your passwords,’ so that we can see what they do on the internet. If they don’t want to give us that information then they don’t come,” he told the congressional Homeland Security Committee.

It is believed that Border officials will have the power refuse entry to any tourist who fails to comply with the new rules. Changing passwords and two-factor recognition are all options but this just heighten suspicion.

There are plenty of examples of visitors being required to hand over phones so that they can be checked for political views that are not in line with US thinking.

The US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) told the Guardian last year: “All international travellers arriving to the US are subject to CBP inspection. This inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital devices.

“Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation’s laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the US.”

“Assad’s principal backer is Russia. By proxy Russia is responsible for every civilian death last week,” Fallon wrote in an opinion column published in The Sunday Times.

“If Russia wants to be absolved of responsibility for future attacks, Vladimir Putin needs to enforce commitments, to dismantle Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal for good, and to get fully engaged with the UN peacekeeping progress,” he added.

Fallon reiterated Britain’s position that Assad should quit.

“Someone who uses barrel bombs and chemicals to kill his own people simply cannot be the future leader of Syria,” he wrote.

Assad’s future role is a key sticking point — the rebels and their international backers demand that he must step down.

But Assad refuses to budge. His key ally in Moscow has backed him to the hilt against the rebels.

“Today we call on all parties to get back to the table and get a deal done,” the British defence minister said.

“That deal must lead to a representative government in which Assad will play no part”.

He also once again offered Britain’s support to the United States for its decision on Friday to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the airfield located near Homs in central Syria.

The move was in response to the suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun which killed 87 people according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.

“Given repeated Russian blocking in the UN security council, the US was determined to act,” Fallon said, adding President Trump made “the right call by resorting to careful and narrowly focused military action”.

Russia has criticised the US military intervention as a “gross… violation of international law”.

It also slammed the British foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s decision to cancel a scheduled visit to Russia, claiming Britain has “no real influence” internationally.

Johnson decided to abandon his visit to Moscow on Monday, saying he deplored “Russia’s continued defence of the Assad regime”.

He argued it would be best for US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to deliver a “clear and coordinated message” to the Russians during his own visit to Moscow later in the week.

Priti Patel, Britain’s Secretary of State for international development also announced on Sunday that the country was to increase its support of medical aid in Syria in the wake of the attack.

The new funding totalling 7 million ($8.6 million, 8.2 million euros) would be donated to the World Health Organization (WHO) and two undisclosed non-governmental organisations.

According to the statement, the allocation was to be used to provide clean water for 500,000 people, medicines and medical supplies to over 400 clinics and hospitals, and training for more than 400 Syrian health workers.

Britain donated 10.7 million to WHO in the 2016/17 financial year.

The attacks on the Mar Girgis church in the city of Tanta north of Cairo and Saint Mark’s Church in the coastal city of Alexandria came just weeks ahead of a visit by Pope Francis to show support for Egypt’s large Christian minority.

Egyptian officials denounced the attack as an attempt to sow divisions in the country, while Francis sent his “deep condolences” to Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but Egyptian Christians have repeatedly been targeted by jihadists including the Islamic State group.

The first blast killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 70 when it hit the church in Nile Delta City of Tanta, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Cairo, according to a health ministry toll.

Images broadcast by private television stations showed bloodstains smearing the whitewashed walls of the church next to shredded wooden benches.

“The explosion took place in the front rows, near the altar, during the mass,” General Tarek Atiya, the deputy to Egypt’s interior minister in charge of relations with the media, told AFP.

The worshippers had been celebrating Palm Sunday, one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar, marking the triumphant entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Pope prays for victims

The second blast killed at least 11 people and wounded 35 at the church in Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, according to the health ministry.

Tawadros had been attending a mass at the church but a Coptic Church official said he had left before the blast.

Francis, who is due to visit Cairo on April 28-29, offered prayers for the victims.

“Let us pray for the victims of the attack unfortunately carried out today,” he said in an Angelus prayer. “May the Lord convert the heart of those who sow terror, violence and death and also the heart of those who make weapons and trade in them.”

Copts, who make up about one tenth of Egypt’s population of more than 92 million and who celebrate Easter next weekend, have been targeted by several attacks in recent months.

Jihadists and Islamists accuse Copts of supporting the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, which ushered in a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

In December, a suicide bombing claimed by IS killed 29 worshippers during Sunday mass in Cairo. The bombing of the church within a compound that also holds the seat of the Coptic papacy was the deadliest attack against the minority in recent memory.

A spate of jihadist-linked attacks in Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula, including the murder of a Copt in the city of El Arish whose house was also burned, have led some Coptic families to flee their homes.

About 250 Christians took refuge in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya after IS released a video in February calling for attacks on the religious minority.

Reacting before the second bombing in Alexandria, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid called the attack in Tanta “a failed attempt against our unity”.

“Terrorism hits Egypt again, this time on Palm Sunday,” he tweeted.

String of attacks

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail also condemned the attack, stressing Egypt’s determination to “eliminate terrorism”. The Cairo-based Al-Azhar, an influential Sunni Muslim authority, said it aimed to “destabilise security and… the unity of Egyptians”.

Egypt’s Copts have endured successive attacks since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013. More than 40 churches were attacked nationwide in the two weeks after the deadly dispersal by security forces of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo on August 14, 2013, Human Rights Watch said.

Amnesty International later said more than 200 Christian-owned properties were attacked and 43 churches seriously damaged, adding that at least four people were killed.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as then army chief helped remove Morsi, has defended his security forces and accused jihadists of attacking Copts in order to divide the country.

In October 2011, almost 30 people — mostly Coptic Christians — were killed after the army charged at a protest outside the state television building in Cairo to denounce the torching of a church in southern Egypt.

In May that year, clashes between Muslims and Copts left 15 dead in the working-class Cairo neighbourhood of Imbaba where two churches were attacked.

A few months earlier, the unclaimed bombing of a Coptic church killed more than 20 people in Egypt’s second city of Alexandria on New Year’s Day.//AFP