Tot said she is very pleased of having been selected as Fashion Ambassador after walking the catwalk at Lao Fashion Week for the last two years.

The committee selected her because of her devotion to all things related to design and modeling and the fact that she is a fashion icon in Laos.

She is also considered as a good role model for young people and the new generation of fashion industry models. Self-confident and poised on the catwalk, she can set a good example of what they need to do to promote Lao culture and fashion.

This is the third year for Lao Fashion Week. It is envisioned to be bigger as it will feature more fashion houses and designers from both Lao and foreign countries.

Being an ambassador for this event, Tot will serve as an MC, host and ambassador for the various activities. She will also join the runway for the fashion houses of various designers from Laos and Asean in addition to promoting and supporting the Lao Young Designer Project Contest.

The topic of the Lao Young Designer Project Contest this year is Pi Mai Lao or Lao New Year, seeking to encourage young Lao designers to enter their new year’s festive designs in the competition.

Budding entrants will also be in the running to join a fashion design course in Paris, France, if their design is picked as winner.

Tot said the fabric designs and collections of the Lao designers should reflect Lao culture and styles of wearing clothes but they can also be a fusion of Lao and foreign styles to attract more international interest.

Protesters hurled bricks at police as scuffles broke out,while other demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins in thestreets of Mong Kok, a gritty neighbourhood just across theharbour from the heart of the Asian financial centre.

Police fired two shots into the air, a police spokeswomansaid, amid chaotic scenes. Rubbish bins, chunks of brick andbroken bottles lay scattered along the world-famous Nathan Road shopping strip on Tuesday morning.

About 40 police vans were parked nearby.

The clashes broke out after police moved in to clear”hawkers”, or illegal vendors who sell local delicacies,trinkets and household goods from makeshift streetside stalls.

The hawkers, long a common sight on Hong Kong’s bustling streets, quickly attracted a strong social media following underthe hashtag #FishballRevolution.

“To ensure public safety and public order, police took resolute actions, including using baton and pepper spray, to stop the unlawful violent acts,” police said in a statement.

The protesters had dispersed by 0000 GMT. More than 100 confronted police in a tense stand-off hours before on the Chinese New Year holiday, when most of the city is shut down, with rubbish bins and flower pots in flames nearby.

Police told Reuters they were awaiting orders about securityplans for Tuesday night.

Paul Lee, a 65-year-old security guard, said: “This is not the first time there has been violence in Mong Kok.”

“I am deeply disappointed in the government,” he said.

The underground train station for Mong Kok, a bustling shopping district packed with street markets, shops and high-rise residential buildings, was closed temporarily.

A police statement said three men aged 27 to 35 were arrested for assaulting a police officer and obstructing police,while three police officers received hospital treatment .Broadcaster RTHK said later that 24 people had been arrested.

The narrow streets in and around Mong Kok were the scene of some of the most violent clashes during protests in late 2014 to demand greater democracy in the former British colony that returned to Beijing rule in 1997.

Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group that is fielding acandidate in a Legislative Council by-election in a few weeks,was involved in the protest, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

Street tensions appeared to have eased off, but radical protesters and “localists” demanding greater Hong Kong autonomyhave vowed to keep fighting even as China shows signs oftightening its grip.

The clashes in December 2014 came when authorities cleared the last of pro-democracy demonstrators from the streets aftermore than two months of occasionally violent protests that had posed one of the Beijing’s greatest political challenges indecades.//Reuters

In the last decade, the country’s tertiary education has seen many changes.

Universities have been given autonomy gradually over the years by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The Government’s Decision 153 on University Regulations issued in 2003 said that universities have autonomy rights and responsibilities for planning, development, training programmes, science, technology, finance, international co-operation and personnel.

Moreover, the Law on Education and the government’s other resolutions also encouraged universities to carry out autonomy.

Tertiary education autonomy began in 2006 with financial independence among six public universities.

For the 2014-2015 period, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved other pilot programmes on giving autonomy in making decisions on training, scientific research, international co-operation and higher tuition fees.

Achievements

After four years of operating under the state’s allocation for university facilities, staff salaries and other items, the HCM City International University, one of the members of the Vietnam National University in HCM City, which teaches all curricula in English, asked permission to have financial autonomy in 2008.

Dr Ho Thanh Phong, the university’s rector, said that with financial autonomy, the university was given permission to collect higher tuition fees than other public universities without autonomy.

The fee was nearly US$1,600 per academic year, Phong said, adding that was used to develop the university’s facilities, including 39 modern labs for practical training, meeting the demand of enterprises.

“With the high fee, the university had sufficient funds to pay staff salaries three times higher. This helped to attract high-quality lecturers. Its number of staff increased from 44 in 2004 when it was set up to 362 in 2015,” he said.

When faculty have sufficient income, they have more time to spend on scientific research, which helps the university achieve prestige and attract funds.

They also will spend more time on their own duties in their respective faculties, he added.

Under the allowance of Vietnam National University – HCM City, the International University also has had the right of autonomy in outlining training programmes, Phong said.

“Autonomy brings large achievements for the university,” he said.

As of now, the university’s training scale has grown from two to 14 faculties with a bachelor’s degree, nine training programmes for master’s degrees and one for a doctorate, in its first year after establishment.

The number of enrolled students has increased yearly in spite of the high fee. More than 6,000 students including 30 foreign students are enrolled.

Nguyen Huu Huy Nhut, deputy rector of HCM City University of Economics (UEH), said: “Autonomy is an inevitable trend of the country’s tertiary education. That is a deciding factor for the development of a training facility.

“The university’s staff believe that autonomy acts as leverage for reaching its target on becoming a major university in the country and in world. One year after implementation, new mechanisms of operation created a basic and solid foundation for the UEH to quickly integrate into the region and world.”

A more comprehensive autonomy makes it easier to assess training programmes and open new faculties.

Collecting tuition fees under financial autonomy has helped the university have more funds for upgrading facilities, textbooks and other school materials.

Moreover, it has been able to offer tuition fee exemption and reduction, providing scholarships for learning encouragement, and scientific research.

Like the HCM City International University, the UEH has advantages in attracting human resources with high qualifications and capacity of scientific research.

The university still wants the Government to continue allocating funds for science and technology and training experts after it carries out autonomy, Nhut said.

“The Government should set up a legal framework for universities with autonomy to be able to access official development assistance (ODA) from other countries for training and research projects,” he said.

The university also wants to have permission to set up enrolment quotas that match its training capacity, he said.

At a recent workshop on reviewing training at universities and colleges in the 2014-2015 year, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that allocating budgets for universities with autonomy, especially their scientific research, still would continue.

“I expect that more and more universities should carry out autonomy because it is their right and gives them benefits,” Dam said.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said that the ministry would create more policies to help universities carry out autonomy.

In the 2016-2017 period, the ministry also will give more rights to universities, one of which is to have autonomy in enrolment, Ga said.

Najib is facing the biggest political crisis in his seven-year premiership over a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and over deposits of $681 million in his private bank account.

Najib, chairman of the 1MDB advisory board, has denied any wrongdoing and says he did not take any money for personal gain.

Attorney General Apandi Ali last week closed investigations of Najib and said the $681 million was a donation from a Saudi Arabian benefactor and most of it had been returned.

That has not stopped Malaysians taking to social media to voice their exasperation.

A caricature of Najib with a clown face and the words “in a country full of corruption, we are all seditious”, was widely shared recently.

The police responded within hours, with an online warning to the artist who drew it, Fahmi Reza, telling him they were watching his Twitter account and he should use it “prudently and in line with the law”, he said.

“The ruling elite of this country has always been intolerant to dissent. They’re always afraid of losing their throne,” Fahmi said.

“But the people have changed. The culture of protest and resistance is growing stronger.”

Fahmi was not the first person to be warned over social media comment as the police for the first time make use of Twitter to identify people who are being watched and caution them about repercussions.

“Action will be taken against individuals who spread false information,” is a typical warning to appear on Twitter, often accompanied by the Twitter handle of the person it is being directed at.

Responding to criticism of the attorney general’s decision to drop the investigations of Najib, police told another Twitter user: “Investigations will be carried out on the posts made bythe owner of this Twitter account”.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that the Twitter account issuing the warnings was an official Malaysian cyber unit account but she declined to comment on specific warnings, such as the one issued to Fahmi.

She referred queries to the head of the police cyber unit but he declined to make any immediate comment. The Home, or interior, Ministry which is in charge of the unit, did not respond to a request for comment.

– Reuters

Police have arrested two people in the village of Sleman for selling homemade liquor that was believed to have contained harmful substances. Twenty-two others are being treated at hospitals.

“Police have sent the hard liquors mixed with harmful substances to the laboratory in Semarang to be tested,” Metro TV quoted Sleman police chief Yulianto as saying.

Deaths from moonshine are common in Indonesia, particularly in rural areas where many villagers are unable to afford licensed spirits.

– Reuters

Myanmar’s main city is in the throes of a construction boom, sparked by economic and political reforms under a quasi-civilian government led by former junta generals, which is in the process of ceding power to Suu Kyi‘s pro-democracy party following its landslide election win in November.

But historian Thant Myint-U, whose Yangon Heritage Trust has lobbied to preserve the city’s crumbling colonial-era architecture, has raised alarm over a recent surge in the destruction of old buildings.

“Over the past few months we’ve seen a rise in the number of demolitions, including six or seven buildings downtown, and also a lot of inappropriate new construction,” he said.

The recently razed buildings include a prominent teakwood house, police station and shophouse, the Trust said.

Thant Myint-U said he suspects the uptick in demolitions is linked to the country’s tense power transition.

“People don’t really know what’s on the other side of this change of government…so I think people want to rush through whatever they can,” he said.

He expects the new parliament to tighten building codes and regulations.

Yangon maintains a list of 189 recognised heritage sites, but lacks legislation to protect the buildings, many of which have rotted into disrepair or been bulldozed for new development.

Residents displaced

The city lies at the centre of huge changes that have swept through long-isolated Myanmar under the quasi-civilian government that replaced outright junta rule in 2011, attracting surging investment in response to the reforms.

Cranes spike the skyline, while once sleepy streets are tightly packed with newly imported cars.

The changes have also unleashed a scramble for land, sparking conflicts between often impoverished locals and the state in a nation where ownership rights are notoriously murky, and the military and elite stand accused of widespread land grabbing.

Settling these competing land claims is likely to be a major challenge for the new government led bySuu Kyi‘s party.

The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission last week raised concerns over a recent spate of evictions as government workers flattened hundreds of shanty homes in Yangon and Mandalay.

It said officials had failed to provide promised food, temporary shelter and healthcare for those made homeless in the expulsions.

“In reality there was no help for them, so they looked after themselves as best they could on the side of the road,” the statement said on Wednesday, urging officials to take care of the basic needs of those affected.

In one of the controversial evictions, authorities used mechanical diggers to destroy nearly 500 shanty dwellings on land next to an army-owned factory on the northern outskirts of Yangon, leaving residents destitute in what many said was a shock move after just a day’s notice.

Tin May Win, 42, said her family spent two decades cultivating the plot, which was an over-run mess of wild plants when they first arrived.

“No owner ever appeared during the 18 years that I lived there,” she said.

– AFP