Thongloun made the request when he received a courtesy visit from members of the International Commission On Large Dams (ICOLD) and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

The group was led by a senior expert with ICOLD, Prof. Dr Anton J. Schleiss, who is partnering with other professionals, including Lao officials, to investigate the cause of the dam collapse, according to a statement on the government’s website on August 22.

Prof. Dr Schleiss sincerely thanked the prime minister for giving up his valuable time to welcome him and his delegation.

He also expressed his sadness over the tragic consequences of the dam burst in Sanamxay district.

Prof. Dr Schleiss informed the prime minister that international experts were cooperating in the investigation into the accident, saying “The investigation is on track through cooperation from various sectors.”

“We will discuss the matter with two other experts who have not joined us on this occasion after we have collected all the information, carried out a survey and evaluated the design of the dam,” he added.

Although the exact circumstances of the dam’s collapse are still unclear, Prof. Dr Schleiss said his team would resume their investigation in October to try to discover the true reason for the accident.

He said that an accident of this nature could occur in any country and at any time and had happened in well-developed countries that employed the most advanced forms of technology.

“But when it happens we need to investigate the real cause so that we can learn lessons and put measures in place to ensure such an event does not happen again,” he said.

Prime Minister Thongloun thanked Prof. Dr Schleiss and his delegation for taking time to investigate the accident.

However, some of us are unable to see ghosts because “we refuse to believe in ghosts’ existence, having never seen them – in pure energy form. This is because how we see ghosts is limited to our five senses.”

Towonsing, 49, is founder of Malaysian Ghost Research (malaysian-ghost-research.org) and associate international member of the UK Geographical Association.

He said: “The human body comprises double organs situated on the right and on the left, proving that man, like other bodies manifesting magnetic properties, is a magnet having two poles which absorb, store up and radiate a subtle form of energy to and from surrounding space.

“As man is a magnet, man too is capable of being influenced by other energy sources, including the strong electromagnetic energy field that represents ghostly presence, similar to the earth’s magnetosphere reacting to the electromagnetic radiation of the solar wind. Hence, our bodies are extremely sensitive to any kind of disturbances related to ghostly presence existing in a unique geomagnetic field form.”

Some cultures believe that the spiritually weak or people with the “third eye” can see ghosts. There are also urban legends that people can perform certain acts to see ghosts!

Towonsing also shares his thoughts with Star2 on things related to ghostly happenings or paranormal activities:

Star2: Is it true that the burning of kemenyan (Malay for incense) can cleanse a home and chase spirits away?

Towonsing: The burning of incense, like in seance practices, produces smoke and smell. Incense is used to contact a spiritual being.

Augustine Towonsing checking a ghostly fingerprint on a torchlight during a ghost research outing. Photo: Japarin Towonsing

Can someone who is being chased or followed by spirits ward them off?

Believing that spirits follow and haunt one will never happen. Spirits or ghosts who follow us are those of loved ones. In all my 14 years of being a solo ghost researcher, I have never been followed home nor haunted by ghosts after each ghost research.

(Whilst Towonsing is sceptical about ghosts chasing the living, a man once told Star2 that he and a friend had to run for their lives from attacks by a ghost and that he had to take measures to stop the vengeful ghost who followed him home!)

Can ghosts harm the living?

Ghosts and spirits can hurt the living, from the spiritual perspective. Our minds and emotions are vulnerable to ghostly and spiritual attacks because these characteristics are in the form of vibrations translated as energy.

Our minds and emotions are too vulnerable to fear, which is a state of mind that can be easily manipulated by ghosts and spirits.

There is no documented or reported scientific evidence that proves that spirits of the dead can hurt the living. Hollywood movie-makers suggest that ghosts, in the form of demons, can harm the living – this is one example of a misleading perception about spirit existence.

Is there really black magic?

Black magic may sound ridiculous to those who have never been victims of it, but it is truly hell for those who have experienced it. It is beyond scientific explanation but, from the spiritual perspective, black magic indeed exists.

Augustine Towonsing during a solo ghost research in a farm. Photo: Japarin Towonsing

Is it true that talismans are helpful to keep ghosts away?

A talisman is not necessary if one has the ability to manage one’s own mind. The skill of positive mind management is not only important in our daily lives, but also holds the key to exploring the unknown. Furthermore, our mind creates our own reality – present and future, based on positive or negative thoughts, yet the outcome of it truly depends on the Law of Attraction within one’s mind.

There was a story of a tenant who performed a ritual to cleanse the rented house, soon after moving in. This triggered off the occurrence of the back door of the house shaking violently, so the tenant called in the cops. Later, she called in a bomoh who advised her to hammer nails on both sides of the door frame. What purpose do the nails serve?

Nailing both sides of the door frame is to ensure a stronger door frame. Perhaps, in the spirit world, it is to ensure that “the intruders” (ghosts or evil spirits) can’t enter the real world.

Why is it that only people become ghosts after they die? If everyone became a ghost when he/she dies, wouldn’t the world be overcrowded with ghosts/spirits?

The ghost/spirit/soul exists in the form of an electromagnetic field – pure energy that holds one’s personality as a unique electromagnetic field. The spirit world is big enough to contain the ghost population and it will never be overcrowded because ghosts/spirits exist in the form of energy.

Furthermore, ghosts do not stay on forever in the physical world as a ghost or earthbound spirit. In other words, a ghost only temporarily stays on within our domain until they have found new resolutions for unfinished business such as unsolved emotional burden during their life on earth, or being grounded by others who do not permit their beloved to move on to the higher plane of spirit existence.

Do heaven and hell exist?

Heaven and hell co-exist through the belief about the universal principle: the concept that everything exists in dualism. However, the belief in heaven and hell may vary, based on people’s beliefs and cultures.

Can holy items scare ghosts away?

We can’t deny that certain holy items may really be imbued with holy power, but this does not mean that these items can scare ghosts away. Everything reverts to one’s understanding on what ghosts are, how much one understands ghost terminology. However, the secret that can remove a pesky spirit is unconditional love.

Holy items do not scare ghosts as portrayed in Hollywood movies. In fact, the scientific perspective sees things as happening for a reason, in line with the universal principle of cause and effect.

The truth is, ghosts are not something to be feared, but to be acknowledged with respect and kindness.

A senior State Department official said the decision, made “at the direction of the president,” came after a review of aid programs to the Palestinian territories.

The $200 million in funding for programs in the West Bank and Gaza will “now address high-priority projects elsewhere,” said the official.

The move “takes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza’s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation,” he said.

The United States in January had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

Relations between the US administration and the Palestinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump announced the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Palestinians have suspended contacts with the administration and consider that it can no longer play a mediation role in the Middle East peace process.

The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has seen a surge of violence since Palestinian protests began in March.

At least 171 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during demonstrations near the border with Israel.

The decision comes amid a vacuum in Middle East peace efforts as the administration presses on with work on a peace plan that has been under discussion for months.

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy accused the White House of engaging in a “series of provocative and harmful acts” instead of coming up with a coherent policy to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner and lawyer Jason Greenblatt to draft the peace proposals, saying earlier this week that there would be something “very good” for the Palestinians.

The Palestinians see the eastern part of the disputed city as the capital of their future state.

“We are celebrating 40 years of a democratic Spain, of a stable and mature constitutional order… and this is not compatible with a public tomb where we continue to glorify Franco,” Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo told a news conference following a cabinet meeting that approved the decree.

The exhumation, which is fiercely opposed by the late dictator’s descendants, could take place at the end of the year, she said, declaring: “We can’t lose a single minute.”

The decree will still have to be approved in parliament.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who came to power in June after he ousted his conservative predecessor in a confidence vote, has made removing Franco’s remains from the monument in the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid one of his priorities.

“As an established and European democracy, Spain cannot allow for symbols that divide Spaniards,” Sanchez told public broadcaster TVE shortly after he came to power, saying such a mausoleum would be “unthinkable” in other European nations that had fascist dictatorships like Italy and Germany.

Sanchez’s Socialists say the goal is to convert the site into a place of “reconciliation” and memory for all Spaniards.

– Visitor numbers up –

General Franco, who ruled Spain with an iron fist from the end of the 1936-39 civil war until his death in 1975, is buried in an imposing basilica carved into a mountain-face just 50 kilometres (30 miles) outside of Madrid with a 150-metre (500-feet) cross towering over it.

Built by Franco’s regime between 1940 and 1959 — in part by the forced labour of some 20,000 political prisoners — the monument holds the remains of around 37,000 dead from both sides of the civil war, which was triggered by Franco’s rebellion against an elected Republican government.

It was long used as a place to pay tribute to Franco on the anniversary of his death, but that was stopped by a 2007 law.

Franco, whose Nationalist forces defeated the Republicans in the war, dedicated the site to “all the fallen” of the conflict in an attempt at reconciliation but critics say it is unacceptable to give such ostentatious recognition to a brutal dictator.

And they say the families of the Republicans were never told about their transfer to the valley.

Critics compare the situation with neighbouring Portugal, where late dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is buried in a municipal cemetery, or Italy, where former fascist leader Benito Mussolini lies in a family crypt.

Visitor numbers to the site have soared since the government announced its plans. Spain’s national heritage agency that runs the monument said over 38,000 people visited in July compared to over 23,000 in June.

– ‘Our worst past’ –

Sanchez’s minority government argued that Franco’s exhumation was backed by a non-binding motion that was approved last year in parliament but ignored by the former conservative government.

The decree is now expected to pass in parliament as it is supported by far-left party Podemos as well as Catalan separatist parties and a Basque nationalist party.

But it is fiercely opposed by Franco’s descendants who are refusing to take his remains to the family sepulchral vault, and the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) which has warned it will challenge the decree in court.

“It is more important (to Sanchez) to revive the ghosts of the past than to try to seduce people with the future. He is more interested in opening the wounds of our worst past than in concentrating on our better present,” new PP leader Pablo Casado told reporters Thursday.

The deputy prime minister said that if Franco’s family refuses to transfer the late dictator’s remains to the family vault, the government will pick a spot to bury him.

Aside from removing Franco’s remains, the government announced last month that it wanted to establish a truth commission on wrongdoings during the civil war and dictatorship, and annul politically motivated Franco-era court decisions.

Vietnam welcomed San Francisco’s landmark verdict against Monsanto and called upon the company to pay compensation for Agent Orange victims in Vietnam, deputy foreign ministry spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Tra told a press briefing in Hanoi on Thursday.

“The verdict serves as a legal precedent which refutes previous claims that the herbicides made by Monsanto and other chemical corporations in the US and provided for the US army in the war are harmless,” Tra said in response to the media’s queries on the Vietnamese Government’s reaction to the decision by a US court asking that Monsanto pay US$289 million to an American citizen who claimed that the company’s weed killer contained undisclosed carcinogens.

“Vietnam has suffered tremendous consequences from the war, especially with regard to the lasting and devastating effects of toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange,” Tra said, referring to a heavily controversial herbicide and defoliant manufactured by the Missouri-based agrobusiness multinational and used extensively by the US Army during the war in Vietnam in the 1960-70s, which have shown links to widespread illnesses and birth defects among those exposed to it.

Up to 80 million litres of herbicides were sprayed over an area comparable to one-fourth of southern Vietnam, destroying the natural environment and leaving three million Vietnamese grappling with health issues.

Passengers on the beleaguered budget carrier, which faces increased costs due to industrial action in recent months, can currently carry a small bag and a small suitcase for free.

This will only continue to be the case for passengers who have purchased priority boarding costing six euros ($7), according to a statement from the airline issued on Thursday.

Passengers can alternatively put their small suitcase in the hold but will have to pay eight euros to do so when booking their tickets.

The airline said it wanted to avoid boarding delays.

For the past few months, the airline has been placing some small suitcases for free in the hold. Ryanair had told passengers this was necessary because there was not enough space on board.

But the company on Thursday said this policy “led to the tagging of up to 120 free gate bags which caused delays to 25-minute turnarounds”, adding that starting in November “there will be no free gate bags”.

In a bid to improve its image, Ryanair in 2013 changed a strict luggage policy to allow passengers to carry a small bag and small suitcase onto the plane for free.

This helped increase traffic and Ryanair has since become Europe’s biggest airline in terms of passenger numbers.

Bista, who has long been raising the issue of child soldiers who were disqualified in the combatant verification process by United Nations Mission in Nepal, was stopped by the immigration officials at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Friday saying he did not have permission from the government to participate in the event.

However, there is no legal provision for getting approval from the government to travel abroad.

During the verification process that ended in December 2007, it was found that 2,972 Maoist guerrillas were child soldiers, while 1,036 were recruited after the peace accord was signed in 2006.

Landing International Development said in a filing to the Hong Kong exchange Thursday that chairman Yang Zhihui could not be found, hours after its share price lost about 35 percent and was then suspended.

When trading restarted early Friday it dived another 16.22 percent to end at HK$3.15.

Mainland news site Caixin reported Friday that Yang was being investigated by Chinese authorities probing his ties with the head of state-controlled Huarong Asset Management and had been detained in Cambodia.

China’s anti-corruption agency announced in April that Huarong chairman, Lai Xiaomin, was under investigation for suspected graft.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched an anti-graft campaign in 2012, after took the reins of the Communist Party, and has snared errant party officials as well as corporate executives.

Some of the country’s top businesspeople have come under heightened scrutiny from authorities who have moved aggressively to prevent heavily indebted large private companies from collapsing and triggering a financial crisis.

Financier Xiao Jianhua vanished from his Hong Kong apartment last year and reports suggest he was abducted by mainland security agents. He was believed to be under investigation in connection with China’s 2015 stocks crash.

Real estate kingpin Guo Wengui fled to the United States in 2014, where he is now seeking asylum.

The billionaire Xu Ming, who was close to former top-ranking leader Bo Xilai, a political rival of Xi, died in prison at the end of 2015.

Landing said in Thursday’s statement it had “noted the fluctuation in the price and trading volume of shares of the company on 23 August 2018 and confirmed that the company has been unable to contact or reach Mr. Yang Zhihui … since 23 August 2018”.

“To the best knowledge of the board, the business operations and financial positions of the group are normal,” Landing said in its statement to the exchange, adding that the “temporary absence” of Yang would not affect its operations.

Yang is the company’s largest shareholder with a 50.5 percent stake. Landing said it was making attempts to contact him.

Earlier this month Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pulled the rug out from Landing’s new $1.5 billion casino project in Manila, saying the terms of the lease agreement were flawed.

Duterte ordered a review of the lease just as the project was supposed to break ground.

Landing opened integrated casino resort Jeju Shinhwa World in Korea in March this year.

The move is seen as a key step in trying to get baby-faced businessman Low Taek Jho, who allegedly played a central role in plundering state fund 1MDB, extradited to Malaysia to face justice.

Reports say he is currently in China.

The corruption allegations were a major factor in the defeat of Najib Razak, who set up and oversaw 1MDB, and was booted from power in May elections.

Amar Singh, head of the police commercial crimes unit, told AFP that the businessman, known commonly as Jho Low, was hit with eight charges in absentia at a court in the administrative capital Putrajaya.

The charges were under anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing legislation. His father was also charged with one count of transferring money to his son.

Warrants were also issued for their arrest. Reports said the moves will pave the way for authorities to seek the men’s extradition, as the pair must be present in court for a trial to proceed.

A spokesman for Low said he maintained his innocence.

“It is abundantly clear that it would be impossible for Mr. Low to get a fair trial in Malaysia, where the government has proven time and time again that they have no interest in the rule of law,” the spokesman said, in a statement via the financier’s lawyers.

Najib and his cronies were accused of plundering huge sums from 1MDB, and new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has reopened investigations into the controversy.

The US Justice Department, which is seeking to recover assets allegedly bought with looted money, alleges that $4.5 billion was stolen.

Low, who held no official role at 1MDB but was believed to exert great influence over the fund, was allegedly responsible for many big-ticket purchases.

These include a $250 million luxury yacht that was returned to Malaysia earlier this month after being seized in Indonesia. Since his election defeat, Najib has been arrested and charged over the scandal.

Former home affairs minister Peter Dutton, an ex-police officer and right-winger, was the driving force behind the move to oust Turnbull after a Liberal Party backlash against his more moderate policies.

But after a torrid week of political manoeuvring in Canberra it was Morrison, a Turnbull ally who served as treasurer, who won a party vote 45-40.

Morrison — an evangelical Christian known as “ScoMo” — replaced a man who became the latest in a long line of leaders knifed in the back by ambitious colleagues.

The fresh outbreak of political instability was met with renewed disgust towards the political class — already among the least trusted people in the country despite an unprecedented era of prosperity

Morrison admitted the extraordinary scenes in the nation’s capital had taken a heavy toll on parliament and the Liberal Party.

“Our job… is to ensure that we not only bring our party back together, which has been bruised and battered this week, but that will ensure we bring the Parliament back together, that we can continue to work to ensure that our country stays close together.”

He said his top priority was to help farmers in New South Wales struggling through one of the worst droughts in half a century.

“This is our most urgent and pressing need right now,” Morrison said.

Dutton, who Turnbull accused of bullying and intimidation in the move to knife him, pledged to provide “absolute loyalty” to Morrison.

Turnbull, who pledged to quit parliament after his near three-year reign came to an end, survived one attempt to oust him on Tuesday, but ministers then began defecting, throwing the government into crisis.

His departure from politics will spark a by-election for his Sydney seat, threatening the government’s wafer-thin one-seat parliamentary majority.

He used his final press conference to lash out at the “wreckers” in his party.

“There was a determined insurgency from a number of people both in the party room and backed by voices, powerful voices, in the media,” he told reporters, in reference to media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s conservative News Corporation.

“It was described as madness by many, and… in so far as there has been chaos this week, it has been created by the wreckers.”

– Thwarted ambitions –

Dutton, who favours slashing migrant numbers and even pulling Australia out of the Paris climate agreement, was the sole candidate to be prime minister until Thursday when Morrison entered the fray to try to halt his power grab.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott, an arch conservative widely seen as the instigator of the move to get rid of Turnbull, said it was now important to “save the government” with national elections due by the middle of next year.

Morrison, a former immigration minister, who took credit for “stop the boats” — a harsh policy to halt asylum-seekers from entering Australia — is further to the right than Turnbull but not as hardline as some in the party.

Politics expert Rob Manwaring of Flinders University said Morrison was likely to continue Turnbull’s economic agenda, of which he was one of the main architects as treasurer.

But he could shift the government’s environment policy to the right as a consistent voter against the introduction of a carbon price.

“In one sense I think there would be continuity (in the economic portfolio), in another sense, (he’ll be) trying to downgrade or shift any radical action on climate policy,” he told AFP.

The unrest is the latest chapter in a turbulent decade for Australian politics, which has frequently descended into squabbling that has alienated voters.

No leader has managed to serve out a full term since former Prime Minister John Howard lost the 2007 election, in a remarkable revolving door at Canberra’s parliament house.

One minister was so disillusioned with the push to oust Turnbull that he took to Twitter to apologise to the Australian people.

“Australia. We owe you an apology. I’m sorry. You deserve better than many of the things our Federal Parliament has served up to you for the past 10 years,” wrote Nationals MP Darren Chester, whose party is in coalition with the Liberals.