The “golden shower” can be spotted in several areas on the island as the withered petals of the trees fell like snow to form a yellow carpet on the ground.

These flowers usually bloom in March until early April and they only stay on the trees for a day. Teacher B. Premala, 61, said she was mesmerised by the sight of the flowers.

“Whenever they are in season, I am in awe of their beauty. It is really nice to see the bright yellow flowers standing out among the leaves on the trees, and when they drop, they leave a nice yellow bed on the ground,” she said.

Several passers-by could be seen taking snapshots of the picturesque scene with their mobile phones and cameras.

Nevertheless, Penang Island City Council road sweepers will be kept busy as they have to clear the petals to keep the roads clean.

The angsana flowers are also known as “Qing Ming flowers” as they usually bloom in March and last through the Qing Ming (Chinese All Souls Day) until early April.

While no cause of death was given, a statement on the actor’s social media accounts said he had gone through a “recent time of adversity” and alluded to suicide and depression as “serious issues.”

“Over the years he’s struggled and won, struggled and won, struggled and fought some more, but unfortunately this time was too much,” it added.

“Depression and Suicide are very serious issues. You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside. Be kind to one another. And always know, it’s never too late to reach out to someone for help.”

Troyer, who lived in Los Angeles, was taken to hospital early this month for unspecified treatment. The actor spoke about his alcohol addiction during another hospital stay a year ago.

One of the world’s shortest men at just two feet eight inches (81 centimeters) due to achondroplasia dwarfism, according to reports, Troyer was born in 1969 in Sturgis, Michigan.

He first entered show business as a stunt person in “Baby’s Day Out” (1994).

“In 1993, I was working for Sprint in customer service, and a friend of mine who was the president of LPA — Little People of America — got a phone call from the producers of ‘Baby’s Day Out,’ and they were wondering if there was anyone close to a stand-in size,” he recalled in a 2012 interview with Hollywood Chicago.

“I guess they searched worldwide and couldn’t find anyone. I sent in my picture, and they flew me out to Hollywood to meet with them. Two days later, they offered me the job, and I quit my job at Sprint.”

– ‘Extremely caring’ –

Tributes poured in for the small man with an outsized personality.

“Verne was the consummate professional and a beacon of positivity for those of us who had the honor of working with him,” Mike Myers, his “Austin Powers” co-star said in a statement. “It is a sad day, but I hope he is in a better place. He will be greatly missed.”

Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin said she was “so sad” over the news of Troyer’s death.

“A lovely smile with a caring and big heart, he helped raise money on behalf of @starkeycares for free hearing aids for deaf and hard of hearing people. RIP,” added Matlin, who is deaf.

Ludacris posted on Instagram a photograph of himself with Troyer strapped to him in a baby carrier, taken from the rapper’s “Number One Spot” music video. The pair are wearing the same gray costume.

“R.I.P. Verne Troyer aka Mini Me. You made it to that #1 Spot Glad we got to make history,” Ludacris wrote.

In addition to his breakout role as the “Mini-Me” — a diminutive, hairless clone of villain Dr Evil — in the first Austin Powers movie “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” Troyer was also known for playing Griphook in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

“Verne was an extremely caring individual. He wanted to make everyone smile, be happy and laugh. Anybody in need, he would help to any extent possible,” added the post on Troyer’s social media accounts.

“He inspired people around the world with his drive, determination and attitude.”//AFP

Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, 35, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Saturday, according to Malaysian authorities.

He was walking from his highrise apartment to dawn prayers at a local mosque in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Gombak when he was shot by two gunmen riding a motorcycle, officials added.

At the crime scene, police markers indicated 14 bullets had been sprayed at the victim, some of them hitting a wall. An iron grill hit by a bullet was dented.

Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, was quoted by the state-run Bernama news agency as saying Batsh was “an electrical engineer and an expert at making rockets”.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim said the investigation was ongoing.

“We are investigating all angles. I have to investigate very carefully and deeply. This is an international issue,” Mazlan said Sunday.

He said the autopsy was being carried out at a hospital after which the body would be released to the family.

In a statement from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the victim’s family said: “We accuse the Mossad of being behind the assassination.”

The Islamist Palestinian movement said Batsh, a research scientist specialising in energy issues, was one of its members.

Mohammad Shedad, 17, a student and a relative of the victim, also blamed Mossad for the killing.

“It is definitely the work of Mossad. Fadi is a very clever person, anyone who is clever is a threat to Israel,” he told AFP outside the victim’s Malaysian home.

“Fadi is a Hamas member and knows how to make rockets. So (Israel) think he is dangerous.”

Batsh leaves behind a wife and three young children. He had lived in Malaysia for the past 10 years. Ahmad Abu Bakar, 33, a foreign student studying in Malaysia, said he had known the victim for two years.

“He is friendly and he preaches good things. He never preached any hatred. I am shocked by the killing,” he said.

Robert Anthony, 56, a security guard at a Chinese primary school near the scene, said he heard the shots ring out but assumed they were “firecrackers”. //AFP

“Asean’s culture of saving face and not touching sensitive issues is no surprise,” said Arthit Thongin, an expert in international security from Rangsit University at a seminar yesterday. “Asean works when it comes to mutual (economic) benefits such as free trade agreements. But when it comes problematic issues, the 10 countries scatter.”

This is also because of the weak democratic atmosphere within Asean, meaning power to manage humanitarian issues falls into the hands of leaders and other authorities.

“They tend to frame this as a topic for the nation-state rather than one of humanitarian interest,” Arthit said.

“Leaders in this kind of regime also tend to cling to the traditional approach of maintaining the status quo rather than addressing democratic values such as human rights,” he said.

International pressure, meanwhile, could not be significantly pushed due to fears that this would weaken Myanmar’s long-awaited elected government and trigger a return of military rule.

Lalita Hanwong, an academic from Kasetsart University’s social science faculty, said that there was currently no mechanism within Asean that could truly address the Rohingya issue. “Asean has problem with legitimacy. Even the term ‘Rohingya’ is not used extensively in the Asean arena,” Lalita said.

The Myanmar government, in which the Tatmadaw, or military, remains influential, uses the term “Bengali” in referring to the Muslim minority, implying that they are from Bengal and not native to the country.

The Tatmadaw commander in chief, Min Aung Hlaing, last year succeeded in convincing the Thai junta government to use the same term in reference to the Rohingya.

The current Rohingya crisis began in August last year with a rebel attack on Myanmar security outposts. Harsh reaction under the Tatmadaw’s clearance operation killed thousands of Rohingya and forced some 700,000 people to flee to Bangladesh. Some of them extended their dangerous journey to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Meanwhile on Friday Washington time, the US State Department released its annual report on human rights practices, which detailed ethnic cleansing, arbitrary and extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and legal restrictions against the Rohingya.

Apart from accounts of massive physical abuses against minorities, the report noted that the Rohingya in Rakhine State faced severe discrimination based on ethnicity as well as exclusion from the political process.

In Asean, the predominantly Muslim countries of Malaysia and Indonesia speak up for the Rohingya, but their domestic agendas are not pursued through Asean mechanisms.

The previous Asean summit, in Manila last year, addressed the AHA centre’s function, but did not discuss the Rohingya conflict at all.

Beijing’s sole aircraft carrier and two destroyer ships carried out “offensive and defensive drills to test their combat muscle” on Friday, China’s navy said on its official microblog site on Weibo.

The exercises took place in an area east of the Bashi Channel, which runs between Taiwan and the Philippines, it said.

China sees democratically-governed Taiwan as a renegade part of its territory to be brought back into the fold and has not ruled out reunification by force.

In Beijing’s latest military drills, photos showed J-15 fighters waiting to take off from the Liaoning aircraft carrier.

The Jinan and Changchun destroyer ships also participated in the training.

Taiwan has accused China of “saber rattling” after Chinese bombers and spy planes flew around Taiwan Thursday, and the Chinese navy conducted live-fire drills off the Taiwan Strait a day earlier.

“China has deliberately manipulated (the exercise) to pressure and harass Taiwan in an attempt to spark tensions between the two sides and in the region,” Chiu Chui-cheng of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council told a regular briefing Thursday.

“(We) will never bow down to any military threat and incentive.”

Beijing has stepped up military patrols around Taiwan and used diplomatic pressure to isolate it internationally since pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen took office.

Chinese President Xi Jinping observed the navy’s largest-ever military display this month in the South China Sea, which involved 76 fighter jets and a flotilla of 48 warships and submarines.

Beijing has also been angered by Washington’s arms sales to Taipei, and China protested last month after President Donald Trump signed a bill allowing top-level US officials to travel to Taiwan.

Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979 but maintains trade relations with the island.

But the memos were just the latest twist in a week of awful headlines for Trump: from the release of a bestselling book in which Comey labels him “morally unfit,” to a courtroom circus featuring his embattled personal lawyer and a porn star who alleges a tryst with Trump.

Trump’s legal and personal woes — and wall-to-wall Comey book interviews — overshadowed his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at which the president confirmed CIA chief Mike Pompeo had met Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for an upcoming summit with Trump himself.

As the week drew to a close, the flurry of developments on the North Korean front were once again eclipsed by the Comey memos — which depict Trump pressuring the FBI chief over the probe into his campaign’s links to Russia before firing him, and could bolster potential obstruction of justice allegations.

“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?” Trump tweeted Friday in response to the documents.

And to top it off, on Friday the Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in New York alleging the Trump campaign, the Russian government and WikiLeaks conspired to skew the 2016 presidential election toward the Republican.

“We must prevent future attacks on our democracy, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez.

“If the occupant of the Oval Office won’t protect our democracy, Democrats will. ”

– Personal lawyer raided –

Trump’s legal problems reach back to the beginning of his presidency, but have multiplied.

Two weeks ago FBI agents raided the New York residences and offices of his longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, seizing files that could bare Trump’s past business dealings and expose more about his relationships with several women in the 2000s, when he was married.

One of them, the porn actress Stormy Daniels, whom Cohen paid $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006, showed up to much publicity at the first hearing over the Cohen raid.

Days later she went on the hit show The View where she said she was threatened not to talk about her Trump affair.

Daniels and Trump are now locked in dueling lawsuits that serve to keep the alleged tryst in the headlines.

Separately, Trump is battling a lawsuit that alleges he is breaking anti-corruption clauses in the US Constitution by profiting from the use of his namesake Washington hotel by foreign dignitaries.

Most ominous of all, Trump is under pressure from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into links between his campaign and Russia, a probe that is also examining possible obstruction by the president.

That investigation has numerous top aides and possibly family members of Trump in its sights. In recent weeks, according to reports, Trump has considered firing both Mueller and the Justice Department’s number two, Rod Rosenstein, whom Trump himself appointed a year ago.

In a tweet late on Friday night, Trump wrote: “James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?”

It is not the first time Trump has misspelled the word “counsel.”

– Comey book –

Trump and the Republicans have sought to undermine Mueller’s probe by discrediting him and his team as biased and corrupt.

But Comey’s new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” has deflected questions back to the president. Comey likens Trump to a Mafia boss who demands absolute loyalty, and lacks any moral foundation.

“This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values,” he writes.

“His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.”

The book, and the memos released by Congress, add support to allegations Trump wanted to suppress the Russia probe and fired Comey because of it.

– Trump expands legal team –

The strain on the White House is clear. On Thursday Trump added three new attorneys, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and two white collar criminal defense specialists.

According to Axios, the Trump team is still seeking to add more firepower to the legal team, and is pitching for Emmet Flood, who represented former president Bill Clinton is his fight against impeachment in 1998-99.

While Trump doesn’t yet face any personal charges, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have warned him he could face impeachment if he fires Mueller.

“We can’t be satisfied,” Itsunori Onodera told reporters in Washington, saying North Korea did not mention “abandonment of short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles”.

He added that Japan will not change its policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang for the “ultimate abandonment of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear arms and missiles”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Saturday that his country would halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches, a move welcomed by US President Donald Trump and South Korea.

Pyongyang’s declaration, long sought by Washington, comes less than a week before Kim meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit, ahead of a much-anticipated encounter with Trump himself.

“This is very good news for North Korea and the World – big progress! Look forward to our Summit,” the US leader tweeted following the announcement reported by the North’s state media.

It emerged this week that Trump’s CIA chief had recently met the reclusive North Korean leader, significantly boosting the odds of the Trump-Kim summit going ahead in late May or early June.

The declaration, long sought by the US, will be seen as a crucial step in the fast diplomatic dance on and around the Korean peninsula.

It comes less than a week before Kim meets South Korean leader Moon Jae-in for a summit in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, and ahead of a much-anticipated encounter with US President Donald Trump.

“As the development of nuclear weapons has been verified, it is not necessary for us to conduct any more nuclear tests or test launches of mid- and long range missiles or ICBMs,” Kim told a ruling party meeting.

“The northern nuclear test site has completed its mission,” he added at the gathering of the central committee of the Workers’ Party, according to the official KCNA news agency.

Pyongyang has made rapid technological progress in its weapons programmes under Kim, which has seen it subjected to increasingly strict sanctions by the UN Security Council, US, EU, South Korea and others.

For years the impoverished North has pursued a “byungjin” policy of “simultaneous development” of both the military and the economy, but Kim said that as it was now a powerful state, “the whole party and the whole nation should now focus on the development of the socialist economy”.

“This is the party’s new strategic policy line,” KCNA cited him as saying.

Last year it carried out its sixth nuclear test, by far its most powerful to date, and launched missiles capable of reaching mainland United States.

Kim and Trump traded threats of war and personal insults as tensions ramped up, and even when there was an extended pause in testing, US officials said that it could not be interpreted as a halt without an explicit statement from Pyongyang.

South Korean envoys have previously cited Kim as promising no more tests, but Saturday’s news is the first such announcement directly by Pyongyang.

The party decided that nuclear and ICBM launches will cease as of Saturday – it has not carried any out since November – and the atomic test site at Punggye-ri “will be abolished”.

The formal declaration comes after Kim stated in his New Year speech that the development of the state nuclear force had been completed.

In the same address he said he had a nuclear button on his desk, prompting Trump to tweet that he had a bigger one of his own.

Events have moved rapidly since then, catalysed by the Winter Olympics in the South, and Seoul is now pushing for a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War, raising hopes that a settlement could finally be reached on the peninsula.

But there is a long way to go and Moon himself acknowledged this week that the “devil is in the details”.