The youngsters chant “bong atardi mestri” (good evening teacher) and work their way through songs including

“Bunitu siara siorus” (Beautiful ladies and gentlemen) and “Gato do matu” (The jungle cat).

Sara Santa Maria runs the weekly classes at her home to ensure the younger generation learn “Papia Kristang”, one

of several steps aimed at preserving an endangered language spoken by people of mixed Portuguese and Malaysian

ancestry.

“I definitely fear Kristang could disappear,” the 50-year-old teacher told AFP, as the youngsters dressed in

Portuguese-style traditional costumes laughed and danced.

“Many Eurasians have moved out of the settlement and the children only speak Malay and English,” she added,

referring to an area of Malacca that has traditionally been home to speakers of the language.

Kristang developed after the Portuguese took over the strategic port city on the Straits of Malacca, one of the world’s

most important shipping routes, about 500 years ago and colonisers married local women.

It was an era when tiny Portugal had a global empire and Malacca, a centre of the lucrative spice trade, was a key

prize for rival powers. After Portuguese rule, the Dutch colonised it and later the British took it over until Malaysian

independence.

The city on Malaysia’s west coast still has vestiges of colonial rule which have made it popular with tourists, including

red-walled Dutch buildings and a gate house which is all that remains of a once-mighty Portuguese fortress.

Kristang has a largely Portuguese vocabulary but its grammatical structure is similar to Malay — the most commonly

spoken language in Malaysia — and it is also influenced by Chinese and Indian languages.

As well as in Malaysia, it is spoken by tiny communities in Singapore and Australia due to migration.

But it has been in decline for years. The language is not part of the school curriculum and the Eurasian community

has been steadily assimilated into the broader Malay-speaking community.

– ‘Part of my identity’ –

UNESCO, which lists languages in peril, classifies Kristang as “severely endangered” and says only about 2,000

people speak it.

It is just one of many tongues in danger, with the UN agency predicting that half the world’s 6,000 languages will

disappear by the end of this century.

Despite the dire outlook, Kristang’s melodic tones can still be heard frequently in the small Malacca settlement of

Ujong Pasir where the Portuguese Eurasian community has traditionally lived.

Groups of elderly men sit chatting in the language on the waterfront, and are enthusiastic about passing it on to the

next generation.

“I and my wife speak the language with our five children, 11 grandchildren and our two-year-old great grandchild to

keep it alive,” former fisherman Stanley Goonting, 72, told AFP.

But he is all too aware of Kristang’s vulnerability: “There is a danger that Papia Kristang will be spoken less and die

out.”

As well as Santa Maria’s lessons, other moves are being made to save the language — a Kristang textbook has been

produced, as well as a mobile app and a CD of Catholic prayers and hymns.

In neighbouring Singapore, Kevin Martens Wong, a Eurasian-Chinese teacher, is spearheading efforts to revive

Kristang, and has taught the language to hundreds of students since 2016.

His grandparents spoke Kristang but he only learnt it in recent years before deciding to teach others.

“I had never learnt it growing up, so there’s a strong passion and investment in learning the language and passing it

on to others,” he said.

There is also great enthusiasm for the language among Santa Maria’s students, which offers some hope for the

future.

“Kristang is part of my identity and culture, I want to preserve it,” said Gabriella Amber, a 12-year-old who has been

learning the language for five years.

“If we stop talking, I fear it will become extinct.”

Authorities named the gunman in Friday’s attack as DeWayne Craddock, described in news reports as being 40 years of age, and said that in order to focus attention on the victims of the latest spasm of America’s gun violence epidemic, they would not pronounce his name again.

Craddock, killed in a fierce gun battle with police, was a current employee of the public works department of Virginia Beach and had worked there about 15 years, police chief James Cervera told a news conference.

Cervera declined to say if Craddock had been disciplined recently or otherwise had red flags in his personnel record. The Wall Street Journal reported that he had recently been fired.

“We are doing an in-depth investigation pre-incident as well as (of) the incident,” Cervera said.

City Manager Dave Hansen began the news conference by showing slides with photos of the 12 fatalities — seven men and five women — as he read their names out, one by one. All but one victim worked for the city, which is about a four-hour drive southeast of Washington on the Atlantic.

Police responding to emergency calls from the municipal center, a campus of 30 red brick colonial-style buildings, engaged the shooter in a matter of minutes, Cervera said.

Craddock was armed with a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol equipped with a sound suppressor and high-capacity magazines and shot people on all three floors of the building, Cervera said.

People locked themselves inside offices and cowered on the floor in workplace cubicles as the gun battle raged. Bullet casings littered the floor, news reports said.

“This was a long-term, large gun battle,” the police chief said. One officer was shot but survived thanks to his bullet-proof vest.

After the massacre more guns were found at the scene and at Craddock’s home, Cervera said.

Police unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate the suspect after he was shot, Cervera said.

The building where the shooting took place in Virginia Beach — a city of 450,000 people — housed the city’s public works and utilities offices and can have 400 people inside at any time.

“This is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach,” Mayor Bobby Dyer told reporters Friday night after the shooting. “The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbors and colleagues.”

Megan Banton, a public utilities employee, told local television station WVEC that during the chaos she and about 20 co-workers hid in an office, where they used a desk to wedge the door shut.

“We just wanted to try to keep everybody safe as much as we could and just trying to stay on the phone with 911, just because we wanted to make sure (police) were coming. They couldn’t come fast enough,” she said, adding that the wait felt like “hours.”

“We heard gunshots. We kept hearing gunshots and we kept hearing the cops saying, ‘Get down.'”

A neighbor who lives in an apartment below Craddock’s said he kept to himself and was up at odd hours.

“You heard him walking around. He would drop stuff at like 2 a.m., and me and my roommate would try to figure out what he was doing,” Cassetty Howerin told CNN affiliate WAVY.

“I never saw him take trash out, never saw him bring groceries in, never saw people coming in or out,” Howerin said. “He was very to himself.”

– 150th mass shooting –

President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring the situation, the White House said Friday night.

As of Saturday midmorning, the Twitter-friendly Trump had made no public comment on the shooting.

According to the Washington-based Gun Violence Archive monitoring group, Friday’s shooting was the 150th mass shooting in the United States this year, defined as a single event in which four or more people are shot or killed.

That rate, as Democratic senator Chris Murphy pointed out on Twitter, amounts to virtually one mass shooting a day.

Despite the scale of gun violence across the nation, gun ownership laws are lax, and efforts to address the issue legislatively have long been deadlocked at the federal level.

Among Democrats, the response to the shooting was especially pointed, with many of the party’s White House hopefuls weighing in on the gun violence crisis.

“Another horrific shooting shocks the nation, this time in Virginia Beach,” Pete Buttigieg tweeted. “Already, this much is clear: it is unacceptable for America to remain the only developed country where this is routine. We must act.”

Senator Bernie Sanders decried the influence of the National Rifle Association, a powerful lobby group that routinely calls for more guns in US society so that ordinary citizens are armed and ready to confront a “bad guy.”

“Congress must listen to the American people and pass gun safety legislation. This sickening gun violence must stop,” he said in a tweet.

Vegas concert: 58 killed

A 64-year-old retired accountant shoots down from his hotel room at a crowd attending an outdoor country music concert on October 1, 2017, killing 58 people and wounding around 550 before committing suicide. It is the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Florida club: 49 killed

A heavily-armed gunman opens fire inside a gay nightclub in the city of Orlando on June 12, 2016, killing 49 people. The attacker is killed in a shootout with police. He pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group, which later claims responsibility.

Sandy Hook: 26 killed

A 20-year-old man kills his mother in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 before blasting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shooting dead 20 six- and seven-year old children and six adults. He commits suicide.

Texas church: 25 killed

A 26-year-old man who was court-martialed while in the Air Force shoots dead 25 worshippers during Sunday services and wounds at least 20 others at a Baptist church in the small rural community of Sutherland Springs outside San Antonio, Texas, on November 5, 2017. The shooter flees and is later found dead in his car with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Florida high school: 17 dead

A 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was expelled for disciplinary reasons returns to the school in Parkland, Florida, and opens fire on February 14, 2018, killing 14 students and three adult staff members.

California office party: 14 dead

A radicalised Muslim couple storm a Christmas office party at a social services centre in San Bernardino in December 2015 and gun down 14 people, wounding 22 others. They are shot dead by police.

California bar: 12 dead

On November 7, 2018 a 28-year-old US Marine Corps combat veteran opens fire in a crowded country music bar in California, killing 12 people. The assailant, identified as Ian David Long, a troubled former machine gunner who served a tour in Afghanistan, dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Colorado cinema: 12 dead

A young man wearing body armour opens fire in a movie theatre showing a late-night premiere of a Batman film in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012. Twelve people are killed and 70 wounded. He is sentenced to life in prison.

Synagogue in Pittsburgh: 11 dead

On October 27, 2018, a 46-year-old gunman bursts into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg during Shabbat services, killing eleven people. He reportedly yells “All Jews must die!” during the attack. Robert Bowers, who was arrested at the shooting scene, is indicted on 29 counts, some of which carry the death penalty.

High school in Santa Fe: 10 dead

A 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a revolver opens fire just as classes are starting at his school in Santa Fe, Texas, on May 18, 2018, killing ten people including eight students. The student, who authorities say used weapons legally owned by his father, is taken into custody on murder charges.

The parade, some 70,000 strong according to organisers, made its way through the South Korean capital with participants dancing on open truck beds and waving rainbow flags.

“People who used to be invisible are here to show that they exist,” said Jeong Min-hee, a 26-year-old participant.

“It’s so much fun, I’m very excited and it feels so good to be in solidarity with others.”

South Korea is Asia’s fourth biggest economy and a capitalist democracy, but lived through decades of military rule when evangelical Christianity was widespread and framed the communist North as evil.

Christian churches still have enduring political influence in the South, and they are now targeting sexual minorities, activists say.

“The conservative Christians consider both — communists and sexual minorities — as deserving to be demonised in South Korean society,” said Lim Bo-rah, a senior pastor at an LGBT-friendly church in Seoul.

But changes in society are afoot. Members of the ruling, left-leaning Democratic Party (DPK) participated in the event for the first time this year and CASS, one of the South’s largest beer brands, on Friday became the country’s first major company to openly support gay rights.

The South Korean President Moon Jae-in — a former human rights lawyer — has spoken only vaguely on gay rights. His political rivals and LGBT activists say he is trying not to alienate supporters.

As the front-runner in the presidential race in 2017, Moon said in a television debate that he “opposed” homosexuality in the military.

-‘We were invisible’-

“We decided to participate because we wanted to show that LGBT people and their allies exist even within the ruling party,” said Kim Min-seok, one of some 30 DPK members who showed up at the parade, waving the party flag.

“I often felt we were invisible within the DPK — many members wouldn’t even think about the possibility of our existence”, Kim said.

The participation of the ruling party’s members was announced prior to the event and sparked intense controversy, triggering the spokesperson for the main opposition, conservative party Min Kyung-wook to say the Democrats should “come out” as a “queer” party.

Homosexuality is not illegal in South Korea but there is currently no legislation outlawing discrimination.

It is also the world’s only advanced economy to make consensual gay sex between soldiers a crime under military rules.

It is a marked contrast to Taiwan — which also has Confucian cultural components, a history of dictatorship, and has enjoyed an economic boom in recent decades.

But earlier this month Asia’s first gay marriages took place on the island after it legalised the change.

Activists say the difference is religion: South Korea has proven fertile ground for religious groups that offered comfort and salvation that appealed during times of deep uncertainty following the Korean War.

Now more than 20 percent of South Korea’s population are Protestant Christians, surveys show, compared to about five percent of Taiwanese.

Thousands of Christian protesters turned out to protest the event on Saturday, holding up signs that read “Repent and come back to Jesus. He loves you.”

A cross-section of society were present, including buddhists, Korean-American adoptees, asexuals and parents of sexual minorities.

In previous parades, “young LGBT people would come to us and cry in our arms whenever we gave them free hugs,” said Lee Sun-young, who works for Parents and Families of LGBTAIQ people of Korea.

“We always remember them. I hope they know that the world is changing, although slowly.”

Just a few days after returning from his visit to Japan, where he met new Emperor Naruhito, Donald Trump heads to Britain, where Queen Elizabeth II will receive him during a state visit that could be rocky.

The US president — who has never hidden his affinity for military honor guards and red-carpet diplomacy — will arrive in London at a moment when the country’s politics are in disarray.

Prime Minister Theresa May will soon step down, her party is looking for a successor and Britons are wondering how their “Brexit” from the European Union is going to happen — and what it will mean for them.

His last visit to Britain nearly a year ago, which brought tens of thousands of protesters into the streets, was particularly tumultuous after Trump’s criticism of May to The Sun tabloid caused an uproar.

Trump’s three-day stay this time around begins on Monday with a ceremony at Buckingham Palace followed by lunch with the queen.

That evening, he will be the guest of honor at a state dinner, a privilege also afforded to George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

So what kind of attitude will the billionaire Republican adopt on the trip? Will he weigh in further on who should next occupy 10 Downing Street? Will he offer Britons advice on how to leave the EU?

As have all his predecessors, he will certainly emphasize the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain. But the rest — as with most things related to POTUS 45 — is hard to predict.

“I think President Trump is perhaps looking most forward to his interactions with the royal family,” said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In the summer of 2018, Trump had tea with Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, but was not afforded the pomp and circumstance of a state visit.

Before he sets foot on British soil, there are multiple calls for protests — and controversy is already brewing.

The leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, declined an invitation to the state dinner in Trump’s honor.

He said it wasn’t the time to roll out the red carpet for a president who “rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric.”

– The ‘excellent’ Boris Johnson –

On Tuesday, Trump’s trip will take a decidedly political turn when he sits down with May, just days before she steps down on June 7.

While she was the first foreign leader welcomed to the White House after Trump’s election victory in November 2016, their relationship has not always been rosy.

Tensions have soared on occasion and the disputes between the two sides are real.

“When you look at the US-UK relationship, there’s a lot of bilateral disagreement,” Conley said, naming Iran as a major point of contention, seeing as Britain backs the nuclear deal dumped by Trump.

The Paris climate accord, which Trump also abandoned, is also on the list. The US president’s talks with Prince Charles, who is actively pro-environment, could focus on this issue.

China and its controversial tech giant Huawei could also be on the agenda, as well as a US-British trade deal, though no concrete progress is expected from this trip.

Before heading across the Atlantic, Trump staked a claim to close ties with Boris Johnson, the pro-Brexit favorite in the race to succeed May, and anti-EU populist Nigel Farage.

“Nigel Farage is a friend of mine. Boris is a friend of mine. They’re two very good guys, interesting people. I like them,” Trump said.

“Maybe it is not my business to support people but I have a lot of respect for both of those men.”

He doubled down on Friday, praising Johnson’s bid for the prime minister’s post in an interview with The Sun.

“I think Boris would do a very good job. I think he would be excellent,” he said.

No meetings are scheduled with Johnson or Farage — for now.

The end of Trump’s European trip will focus on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, with a ceremony at Portsmouth also attended by the queen.

Trump and his wife Melania will then make a brief stop in Ireland before heading to France on June 6 for the D-Day commemorations in Normandy.

Speaking in Japan on Thursday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Asia is facing complex challenges and Cambodia is ready to contribute to

promoting globalisation and a rule-based free trade system which provides fair benefits for all.

The prime minister was delivering a speech at the 25th International Conference on the Future of Asia. At the event, which is being held on

Thursday and Friday in Tokyo, Hun Sen shared his perspective on the future of the region.

“The conference’s theme Seeking a New Global Order – Overcoming the Chaos is highly relevant to the current context and the future of the region, which is facing complex challenges due to various threats and the fragility of the architecture of the world.”

“I express firm hope that the conference will contribute to strengthening the goodwill and solidarity among nations in the region in an effective response to the various challenges the region and the world are encountering.”

“Cambodia is ready to further contribute to strengthening cooperation with all relevant partners in the context of the new multi-polar world, aiming to promote globalisation, a spirit of pluralism and a rule-based free trade system which provides equitable and fair benefits to all relevant stakeholders,” the prime minister said.

Hun Sen said peace and security are the essential foundations of development.

“I am confident that all of us are keen to have a world in which all countries and people can live together – with peace, stability and prosperity and mutual respect of sovereignty and territory integrity – and are collectively committed to strengthening cooperation,” he said.

Political analyst Lao Mong Hay said the poles that Hun Sen was referring to when he spoke of a “multi-polar world” comprised at least America and China, and Cambodia has now moved into China’s orbit.

By so doing, he said, Cambodia has abandoned its neutrality as internationally guaranteed under the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and subsequently proclaimed in the Kingdom’s 1993 constitution.

“By unilaterally denouncing its neutrality and siding with China, Cambodia is now sucked into the current cold war between the two superpowers and, as happened during the last cold war, it can only be badly affected should a war actually break out,” Mong Hay said.

The animal came from a farm in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and importation from mainland China has been suspended until further notification, Sophia Chan, Secretary of the city’s Food and Health Department said Friday night.

The government-run slaughterhouse in Sheung Shui will be closed for cleansing and disinfection, she added.

Last month around 6,000 pigs were culled after the virus was detected in a pig imported from a farm in the same province. Supply from across the border was temporarily suspended for a week during the disinfection of slaughterhouse.

Pork is a staple of Chinese cuisine, with space-starved Hong Kong importing the majority of what it consumes from the mainland.

After African swine fever spread across more than half of China’s provinces last year, Hong Kong banned imports from any Chinese farm where the virus had been detected.

Chinese officials have said hundreds of thousands of pigs were culled in a bid to stop its spread — an effort that has also seen restrictions on transporting pigs from affected areas.

With some of the world’s most densely populated streets, Hong Kong remains on high alert to diseases. In 2003, some 300 people died during an outbreak of severe acute respiratory disease (SARS).

The virus is not dangerous to humans but is fatal to pigs and wild boar.

The information was released by deputy head of the Government Information Security Commission Nguyen Dang Dao at an international conference themed “Security World 2019” held in Hanoi on Wednesday.

At the conference, participants focused on Vietnam’s cybersecurity and solutions to strengthen data protection in the public and finance-banking sectors.

Major General Dao said that cyber-attacks, espionage and cybercrime had been on the increase resulting in the theft of state secrets and the destruction of information systems.

“There is an increasing number of cyber-crime and reactionary organisations operating in a sophisticated manner, causing serious consequences and threatening social order, safety, political stability and national security,” said Dao.

This situation was set to become even more complicated and the finance-banking sector would continue to be a target for hackers, he added.

Dao also pointed out five risks the country was facing: malware; attacks on e-commerce and finance-banking systems with the aim of extorting, stealing information of organisations and individuals; attacks on infrastructure and IoT equipment; attacks on state agencies and organisations in order to steal state secrets; and distributing harmful and false information online.

Do Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Cyber Security and High-tech Crime Prevention, said in recent years, cybercriminals had attacked banks around the world, including ATMs, causing serious consequences.

In Vietnam, he said stealing card information and counterfeiting cards (Skimming) was becoming complicated.

“Vietnam has about 70 million domestic cards. If it is slow to switch from bank cards to chip cards, it could become the focus of card fraud. Skimming is increasing in Vietnam,” Tuan said.

For example, Tuan said in 2018 and early 2019 foreigners had arrived in Vietnam on the pretext of travelling. “They rented houses and installed broadband to conduct fraudulent transactions and make fake bank cards to withdraw money or pay bills/services via point-of-sale (POS) machines, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars.”

From the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Public Security had arrested more than 120 foreigners for this crime, he added.

He also said that groups organising online gambling via bank accounts was common, with millions of dollars per day changing hands. At the end of April, police broke up a gambling ring worth more than VND30 trillion (US$1.28 billion), and arrested 29 people.

According to statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam, there were 26 organisations providing e-wallet services for about 10,000 units in Vietnam. By the end of last year, there were 4.2 million e-wallets linked to bank accounts. The whole banking system handled VND73 quadrillion in 2018, up 25 per cent compared to 2017, averaging VND300 trillion each day.

A report from the Ministry of Public Security showed that there were thousands of Vietnamese websites attacked by hackers annually. In the first months of this year, over 2,500 websites with Vietnamese domain names were attacked and hundreds of thousands of computers were infected with malware.