Canberra has sent asylum-seekers who try to enter the country by boat to camps on PNG’s Manus Island or Nauru in the Pacific for processing, with those found to be refugees barred from resettling in Australia.

The harsh policy is meant to deter people embarking on treacherous sea journeys, but the United Nations and other rights groups have criticised the camps’ conditions and long detention periods.

Australia’s home affairs department confirmed the death but did not provide further details.

The Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul told AFP the man, a 32-year-old called Salim, was believed to have jumped from a moving bus near a refugee transition centre and was struck by its wheels, dying at the scene.

Most asylum-seekers on Manus believed the man’s death was a suicide, according to a statement from the coalition.

He was the seventh asylum-seeker to die on Manus since Canberra’s offshore detention regime began in July 2013, in addition to three others who died on Nauru over the same period, Rintoul said.

“The Rohingyan refugee had suffered for a long time with a medical problem” and had previously been sent to Australia for treatment, he added in a statement.

Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian refugee on Manus, tweeted Tuesday that Salim had epilepsy and was “suffering for a long time”.

Previous deaths on Manus include an Iranian refugee found hanging from a tree near a school in August last year, and a Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seeker who reportedly committed suicide at a hospital two months later.

The Australian camp on Manus was shut late last year after a PNG court ruled it was unconstitutional, with the 600 detainees sent to three transition centres.

Canberra has sought to offload those recognised as refugees to third countries such as the US, and more than a hundred have been resettled there, according to reports.

But hundreds of others remain on Manus, saying they feared for their safety amid hostility from the local population, and that their basic needs such as healthcare were not being met.

The UN refugee agency said Salim’s death showed the need for “proper care and immediate solutions”.

“With the passage of too many years and the withdrawal or reduction of essential services, the already critical situation for refugees most in need continues to deteriorate,” UNHCR’s regional representative Nai Jit Lam said.//AFP

This came in 2015 after his former boss Abu Kassim Mohamed at the MACC decided to indict former prime minister Najib Razak over the RM2.6bilion that was found in his personal bank account.

Shukri said that the commission had wellfounded basis to initiate an investigation into SRC International, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which had been accused of transferring millions of ringgit into Najib’s private account.

According to Shukri, Abu Kassim asked him whether he was ready for the consequences of indicting a sitting prime minister, which could have led to their dismissal.

However, on the day in July 2015 when Abu Kassim was going to do indict Najib, former AttorneyGeneral Gani Patail was removed from his position.

The announcement came along with the reshuffling of the Cabinet that also saw the sacking of the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Rural and Regional Development Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal, who had also raised questions about 1MDB.

With all these sackings foremost in his mind, Shukri left for Washington on July 31, 2015, to bring up the 1MDB issue with US authorities.

Wary, he released misleading information that he was headed to Saudi Arabia, and he heard that people were waiting to arrest him in Jeddah.

Shukri said that before he left for Washington, he faced tremendous pressure.

“The witnesses I interviewed had been taken away.

“I was threatened to be fired, was told to retire early and was even threatened to be sent to the training division,” he said.

The trip to Washington had its own drama. “I noticed someone was following me (in Washington). My team in the United States took pictures of the man who was following me.

“I sent the pictures to MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Azam Baki, and asked him to send it to the then InspectorGeneral Police,” he said, adding that he made it clear that he knew that men were following him.

Shukri said he felt unsafe in Washington and decided to go to New York, where he met up with a friend who worked in the New York Police Department (NYPD).

“I got protection from the NYPD and they provided me with three bodyguards,” he said.

Shukri said he then returned to Washington.

It was in recounting this episode during his Tuesday press conference that Shukri broke down in tears, saying he felt guilty when he was told that his men who were working for him had been incarcerated.

“I felt helpless and was frustrated for failing to protect my men.

“I cried in front of the mat salleh (Caucasians). My men and I had been accused of conspiring to topple the (Barisan Nasional) government,” he said.

Shukri finally retired in August 2016 at the age of 56. During his farewell speech, he hit out at an “individual” who had alleged that he was involved in a conspiracy to topple Najib and his administration.

Abu Kassim, who was appointed MACC chief in 2010, was also replaced by Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad in 2016.

Shukri served at the antigraft body for 32 years before he retired. He first joined the then AntiCorruption Agency in 1984 as investigations officer after graduating from Universiti Kebangsaan Malayญsia.

He rose up the ranks and served as ACA director in Perlis, Kelantan and Sabah.

Upon his return to the headquarters in July 2006, he was promoted to the post of assistant investigations director and two months later, was promoted yet again to be the director of investigations.

In 2010, he took on the position of MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations), which he held till his retirement.

Pakatan Harapan appointed Shukri to head the MACC when it took over Putrajaya after GE14.

He clocked in for work at 10.29am on Monday (May 21), having received his appointment letter just about an hour before reporting for duty.

Struggling with hyperthyroidism and spinal problems as a result of decades of tough movie-making, the Beijing-born kung fu superstar’s health has been in decline since he revealed in 2010 that he was suffering from the debilitaing condition.

The Hollywood icon, who starred in Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die, admitted he has not been in the best of health in recent years.

“I’ve suffered from illnesses, for example hyperthyroidism. I am fat but I can’t lose weight because I am taking medication for my illness. The medication is to control my heart beat. That’s why I can’t do lots of exercise,” said Li, who revealed his resting heart rate was around 130 to 140 beats per minute (a normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 bpm).

Li’s manager, Steven Chasman told the Washington Post that the photo of Li in Tibet “was just a bad photo of someone who is 55 years old”.

“He has hyperthyroidism that he’s been dealing with for almost 10 years. It’s nothing life-threatening and he’s dealing with it,” Chasman told the Washington Post.

Li said he had tackled his condition “head-on” and “aggressively” when he was first diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and although treatment was successful at first, he suffered a relapse.

Li is the youngest in his family and experienced hardship at an early age when he lost his father at the age of two. Growing up in a middle-class family in Beijing, his mother had to take care of five children. Li took up kung fu at the age of eight when martial arts was growing in popularity.

Li excelled in wushu and became national all-round martial arts champion for five consecutive years between 1975 and 1979. Fame came at an early age for him as news of his dazzling skills caught the eye of then Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, while performing in the opening ceremony of an international table tennis competition in 1972.

By the time he was 17, the wushu practitioner had already travelled to North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia to perform. However, he suffered his first major injury at 18 when he tore his knee and required seven and a half hours of surgery.

He retired from competition in 1979 to focus on a movie career and got his first big break when he starred in Shaolin Temple in 1982 but injuries were already beginning to mount after the young actor broke his leg among other injuries.

He recovered and years later re-enacted the role of Wong Fei-hung in 1991. His movies broke local box office records along the way.

It was in 1991 that Li shot to fame with the Chinese breakout kung fu movie Once Upon a Time in China, earning him the nickname ‘The King of Kung Fu”. Six years later, Hollywood came knocking and in 1997 he made his American film debut playing the villain in Lethal Weapon 4. Other hits quickly followed such as Romeo Must Die, Kiss of the Dragon and more recently The Expendables franchise.

But fame came at a cost as the injuries and illness mounted. Before earning his star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he had suffered a series of injuries included a cracked fifth vertebrae and sickness while in his twenties. He suffered broken ribs, a serious left ankle fracture and internal injuries after falling from a 12-feet high tower during the filming of Fearless in 1986, one of his worst accidents on set.

He revealed he had been warned by doctors in 2013 that he “would end up in a wheelchair” if he continued to make physically-demanding action films.

“I’m in pain but I’m not in a wheelchair yet,” he said at that time.

Married to his second wife, former Miss Asia, Nina Li Chi – now a retired actress, he has four daughters (two from his previous marriage to actress Huang Qiuyan).

Li and his family chose Singapore as their home – where he received Singaporean citizenship in 2009 – over the US, Australia and Switzerland.

He is spending more time behind the camera these days and has become involved in charity work, setting up One Foundation, the first private fundraising charity organisation in China, in 2007.

His last completed project was the 20-minute short kung fu film Gong Shou Dao released late last year.

Li made the Forbes list as one of the most highly paid actors in Asia but said a few years ago: “Money is not the most important thing. Your health is your life.”

They include Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR), who became the country’s first female Deputy Prime Minister, and former Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP as Finance Minister.

Azmin Ali (PKR) who was sworn in as Minister of Economic Affairs, will hold on to his Selangor Mentri Besar post until a replacement is found.

Others are Mohamed Sabu (Parti Amanah Negara) as Defence Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia) as Home Affairs Minister, and Anthony Loke (DAP) as Transport Minister.

Dr Maszlee Malik (Pribumi) was sworn in as Education Minister, a portfolio that became controversial because Dr Mahathir had first named himself to that post before stepping back after realising it contradicted Pakatan’s election manifesto, which stated that the Prime Minister should not hold any other ministerial post.

M. Kulasegaran (DAP) was sworn in as Human Resources Minister, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Amanah) as Health Minister, Gobind Singh Deo as Communications and Multimedia Minister and Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin (PKR) as Housing and Local Government Minister.

Lastly, Salahuddin Ayub (Amanah) was appointed Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister and Rina Harun (Pribumi) was made Rural Development Minister.

    Nobukazu Kuriki had fallen ill and was descending when his team lost contact with him. The 35-year-old is the third climber this month to perish on the world’s highest peak.

“Kuriki stopped responding to radio communication and we couldn’t see his headlamp when we looked up from the bottom in the dark,” his team posted on Facebook.

“(The) team near Camp 2 climbed up his route to search for him and discovered Kuriki who passed away due to low body temperature.”

Late Sunday Kuriki had reached 7,400 metres, pushing beyond three of the four camps that mark the route to the 8,848 metre (29,029 foot) summit.

“Now I feel the pain and difficulty of this mountain. I appreciate it and I am climbing,” he wrote on Facebook.

The conquest of Everest always eluded the experienced mountaineer, who had achieved solo ascents of two other 8,000-metre peaks without the use of bottled oxygen.

On his fourth attempt to reach the top in 2012, Kuriki suffered severe frostbite and lost nine fingers.

He returned three years later in September 2015, months after an earthquake hit Nepal and triggered an avalanche that killed 18 people at Everest’s base camp.

Bad weather forced him to call off that expedition. He tried again in 2016 and 2017 but inclement conditions again frustrated his quest.

Man Bahadur Gurung of Bochi-Bochi Treks, who organised Kuriki’s expedition, said they were trying to arrange for his body to be flown back to Kathmandu.

More than 400 people have reached Everest’s summit during this spring climbing season, when a period of calm weather typically opens the route to the top of the world.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks and foreign climbers who flock to its mountains are a major source of revenue.

Apart from the three deaths on Everest, at least three other climbers have died on separate mountains in Nepal this month.

The body of a Malaysian climber was found over the weekend, five days after he went missing on the 6,812-metre (22,349 ft) Ama Dablam — a lower but technically difficult climb.//AFP

Garuda Indonesia vice president of corporate communications Benny S. Butarbutar said on Saturday that the aircraft crew and aviation security officers immediately combed the plane after the man, identified only as HI, repeatedly claimed that he had a bomb in his carry-on bag.

The incident delayed departure by more than five hours and flight GA 611 finally left Makassar at 1 p.m.

HI later underwent questioning at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport’s police station and was not allowed to re-board the plane.

Garuda Indonesia had to pay compensation all 211 passengers for the flight delay.

“We hope that passengers will be more cautious about what they say, especially in mentioning bombs, after this incident,” Benny said as quoted bywartakota.tribunnews.com.

Meanwhile Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has stated that the law must be strictly imposed on airplane passengers that make bomb-related jokes or remarks.

“It is necessary to create a deterrent effect,” Budi said to Tempo.co in Cirebon on Monday.

Recently, there have been several cases of Lion Air passengers joking about bombs.

On May 12, a passenger with the initials ZN uttered the word “bomb” to one of the flight attendants during boarding.

On May 16, a passenger on Lion Air flight JT 291 asked a flight attendant whether he was allowed to carry bombs onto the airplane.

Kompas.com reported that the passenger said he was a terrorist and there was a bomb in his bag.

The flight was delayed for over two hours as all passengers, cargo and luggage had to be rechecked. The passenger was removed from the plane and was detained by airport security officials for investigation.

On Friday, a passenger identified only as EF said on flight JT 261 that he had carried a bomb into the airplane.

“EF said that he had brought a bomb in his cabin bag during the security check prior to entering the boarding room,” Danang Mandala Prihantoro, corporate communications strategist at Lion Air Group, said in a press statement on Friday.

EF was also removed from the plane and investigated by airport security officials.

As stipulated in Law No. 1/2009 on the Transportation Ministry’s national flight safety program, anyone who expresses false information that can endanger flight safety faces up to one year in prison.

“My baby looks beautiful and she looks very happy. I wish I were there and I wish them all my love and all happiness,” Thomas Markle said, according to the US celebrity news website.

Markle is recovering from heart surgery, and in the absence of her father, Meghan was brought to the altar by Prince Charles, now her father-in-law.

Even before the announcement of the surgery, Thomas Markle’s presence was in doubt after controversy erupted over the publication of seemingly staged photos showing him preparing for the wedding.

Thomas Markle complained about being hounded by paparazzi before apparently agreeing to stage his own photos, an apparent bid to control his own image that backfired badly.//AFP

The first students to attend the so-called forest school, located in the 100-hectare forest managed by Wanariset, will be eight orangutan orphans that had been saved from captivity.

“Here, we train orangutans that have been dependent on humans to get back their natural ability to survive in their natural habitat,” said primatologist Signe Preuschoft, who leads the team of trainers at Forest School.

For more than a year, Four Paw, Jejak Pulang and Wanariset, along with the East Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), have been working to establish the new rehabilitation facility for orangutans. And last Tuesday, they opened its first “academic year” for eight East Kalimantan orangutans aged between 11 months and 9 years.

Read also: Medan street art becomes iconic tribute to Tapanuli orangutans

Eleven-month-old male baby orangutan Gerhana is part of the first batch to attend the forest school. Gerhana was underweight and weak when he was brought to the facility after being saved by a BKSDA team.

“The orangutan was starving when it arrived in Wanariset,” Preuschoft said. “We also found an air rifle pellet in its left shoulder.”

However, Veterinarians at the facility decided to postpone surgery to remove the pellet as Gerhana first needed to regain his strength.

The pellet was evidence of human-animal conflict, which continues to threaten the already shrinking orangutan population, Preuschoft said.

The protected animals, along with another species of Sumatran orangutans, live in only select parts of Kalimantan and Sumatra. Their population is declining due to poaching and forest conversion, which often leads to human-animal conflict.

Another baby orangutan in the group is a 17-months old Gonda which was brought to the facility late last year. Gonda lost its ability to climb trees as it was raised by a family of farmers like a human baby.

Unlike any other orangutans in the wild, Gonda disliked to swing between trees.

But on that Tuesday, Gonda started to learn on how to climb trees in the school, along with another baby orangutan called Tegar.

At the forest school, located in Samboja district, the orangutans are trained to redevelop their tree-climbing skills, hunt for food and make a nest, a set of natural skills normally taught by their parents or buffoonery

in the wild.

The facility is managed by a team of 15 caretakers, a biologist and two veterinarians, all led by Preuschoft.

“We are determined to do our best in protecting and conserving endangered animals, particularly orangutans, which continue to face animal-human conflicts,” said East Kalimantan BKSDA head Sunandar

Trigunajasa.

The Four Paws forest school is the first collaboration involving the government and civil society groups in East Kalimantan, and is the latest initiative to rehabilitate orangutans before releasing the mammals into the wild.

Another conservation group, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF), manages a similar training center in Samboja district, about 15 kilometers from the Four Paws facility.

Jambon Police chief Adj. Comr. Djoko Winarto confirmed the incident on Saturday, saying the boy was angry because his 50-year-old father, Gumbrek, who works as a farmer, did not immediately buy the phone for him.

“The boy asked for a phone, but his parents had yet to buy it for him, so he got angry and burned down his own parents’ house,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

The parents said they would buy the phone but that he had to wait until after Idul Fitri. The boy, however, refused to wait. He then brought firewood to the kitchen and set fire to his own house.

Djoko said the boy had once threatened to kill his parents when he asked for a motorcycle.  He was later involved in a fracas with local residents because of his reckless driving, he added.

The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) put the death toll at 25, with three new cases in the country’s sprawling northwest confirmed by the country’s health minister in a statement seen Saturday.

Alarm bells sounded last week after the outbreak, previously reported in a remote rural area of the country, notched up its first confirmed case in Mbandaka, a city of 1.2 million.

The first wave of immunisations will target healthcare staff in the northwest who have had direct or indirect contact with ill patients, the Congolese government said.

Among them are Hilaire Manzibe, a doctor at Wangata Reference Hospital in the city, who described how he treated a patient on May 1 who arrived from Bikoro, the epicentre of the current outbreak, with symptoms of fever and vomiting.

But the patient’s family refused treatment and instead returned home to administer traditional medicine — a cultural hurdle that was one of the largest obstacles to overcome in the last outbreak which began in 2014.

More than a week later he returned, “the patient showed all the signs of the fever that has hit Bikoro,” Manzibe said.

An isolation ward was prepared, but he succumbed to the fever.

“The patient was in contact with our receptionists, went to the doctor for a consultation and then was in my hands,” explained nurse Julie Lobali, who will also receive a vaccination on Monday.

WHO has dispatched 35 immunisation experts, including 16 mobilised during the last deadly outbreak in West Africa which began in 2013. The rest of the team is made up of newly trained Congolese staff.

Around 600 vaccinations are to be administered.

Donors had promised 300,000 doses of the vaccine, a government spokesman said, of which around 5,400 have already been received.

Not an international concern

On Saturday Health Minister Oly Ilungao said three new cases were confirmed in Mbandaka.

“In total, 43 cases of haemorrhagic fever have been flagged in the region of which 17 are confirmed, 21 are probable and five are suspected cases,” he said.

In Geneva, WHO said 45 cases had been recorded, 14 of which have been confirmed by lab tests.

The WHO on Friday said the latest Ebola outbreak did not warrant being labelled an emergency of “international concern”, adding that Kinshasa’s response along with its own had been “rapid and comprehensive”.

The government announced the outbreak of the deadly virus in northwestern Equateur province on May 8.

Ebola is both lethal and highly contagious, which makes it difficult to contain — especially in urban environments where people are mobile and come into more contact with others.

It is notorious for its high fatality rate and extreme symptoms, which can include internal and external bleeding.

The current outbreak — the ninth to hit the DRC since Ebola was identified in 1976 — involves the same strain of the virus that struck three West African countries in 2013-15 and sparked an international panic. It went on to kill more than 11,300 people in the deadliest ever Ebola epidemic.