The official Bernama news agency said the blast could have been caused by a leaking gas tank.

Wan Abdul Mubin, head of the fire rescue department in the state capital Kuching, told AFP his office received an emergency call at around 0737 GMT.

“We scrambled 39 officers to the scene. We are investigating the cause of the explosion. It is one of the worst tragedies in the state in years. But it is not a bomb,” he said.

    “We recovered the bodies of three men. And we have helped in the evacuation of 24 people injured to the nearby public hospital,” he added.

Wan Abdul said the explosion happened near a store on the ground floor of the shopping mall that was undergoing renovation.

A video clip of the aftermath showed the facade of the store torn apart, with some people screaming for help.

“I was purchasing a pizza in front of the shop when suddenly a strong explosion occurred,” George Sting, 39, told Bernama.

“The workers in the shop immediately ran out,” he said, adding that some were seriously injured.

Wina Simion, 46, who was sitting near the store with her family members said the explosion caused their table to flip.

    Hakeem Alaraibi, a former player for Bahrain’s national side, was stopped on an Interpol red notice after arriving in Thailand from Australia on November 27 for a vacation with his wife.

The 25-year-old was granted refugee status in Australia in 2017 and has spoken out about being arrested and beaten at the start of Arab Spring protests in the Gulf state in 2012.

He was convicted in absentia on charges of vandalising a police station but said he was out of the country playing in a match at the time of the alleged offence.

    Thailand’s immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters Alaraibi had been remanded for 12 days starting December 3 to give authorities time to examine documents submitted by Bahrain.

The Australian ambassador told him Canberra wants to get the footballer back, Surachate said.

“If there is proof that the arrest warrant is invalid… then immigration will repatriate him to Australia,” he added.

The Bahrain embassy in Bangkok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alaraibi told AFP in an interview Tuesday he believes Bahrain is “very angry” with him for interviews he gave in 2016 with mainstream media outlets about his treatment in custody.

“I’m not feeling well because I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, adding that he feared being killed if sent back to Bahrain.

The oil-rich Sunni-led country, home to the US Fifth Fleet, crushed Arab Spring protests by its Shiite majority.

Alaraibi believes he was targeted because he is Shiite and due to his brother’s political activism.

He also opposed the FIFA presidential candidacy of Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s ruling monarchy and president of the Asian Football Confederation.

Alaraibi plays for semi-professional club Pascoe Vale FC in Melbourne and came to Thailand for a holiday before going back to train.

The football club has been tweeting out a GoFundMe drive in a bid to help raise money for legal fees.

Thailand does not recognise refugees and has faced international criticism for sending them back to countries where they could face persecution.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the Interpol red notice should have been lifted because of Alaraibi’s status as a refugee.

“What we’re seeing develop is a Thai-sponsored tug of war between Australia and Bahrain in which Bangkok is conveniently forgetting that Hakeem is a refugee recognised by Canberra,” Adams said.

Thailand has no reason to return him to Bahrain “where he will face torture and imprisonment for daring to speak truth to power,” he added.

Panelo issued the statement after Duterte on Monday said he was using marijuana to keep himself awake but later retracted it and said he was only joking.

So when is the President serious and when is he joking?

In a speech in Malacaang, Duterte cited his hectic schedule during the 33rd Association of Southeast Asian Summit in Singapore and admitted he was using marijuana to stay awake.

But in an interview with reporters, he said he was not serious when he said the statement.

In the speech, the President complained about the punishing schedule of last month’s summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Singapore, where he created a buzz for skipping four meetings and a gala dinner to take power naps.

He said he had to rise early and attend a flurry of sessions during the summit.

Staying awake

“It’s a killing activity and I think my age … me, not that much, because I take marijuana to stay awake. Others may no longer take it,” the 73-year-old leader said in Malacañang.

A few of his audience during the awarding ceremonies for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Organizing Council chuckled at the admission of the President, whose brutal crackdown on drugs has claimed thousands of lives and stirred international furor.

The President has openly admitted his support for medical marijuana.

Marijuana is at the top of the list of dangerous drugs under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Panelo explained that marijuana was not a “stimulant.”

This was not the first time Duterte issued a statement and later on clarified that it was a joke.

For instance, the President earlier said saints were “fools” and “drunkards” but his spokesman later said the chief executive was only kidding.

The protest note by Wisma Putra comes in wake of Singapore’s decision to start broadcasting the ILS at Seletar Airport early next year despite Malaysia’s decision not allow it on grounds that it will infringe the nation’s sovereignty and airspace near Pasir Gudang, Johor some 2km away.

“The broadcast is against the principle of national sovereignty as accorded under the Convention of Civil Aviation 1944.

“The government, through Wisma Putra, will issue a protest note immediately to Singapore in connection to the breach of this principle of sovereignty,” he said when answering a question raised by Hassan Abdul Karim (PH-Pasir Gudang) during Minister’s Question Time in Parliament on Tuesday (Dec 4).

Loke informed MPs that the ILS would affect development in Pasir Gudang as there would be height restrictions imposed on structures and also affect shipping activities at the Pasir Gudang port.

“The government had decided not to allow Singapore to broadcast its ILS, with this decision conveyed to Singapore on Nov 28 and 29,” he said.

However, despite this, Loke said Singapore would begin broadcasting its ILS on Jan 3.

“The government is committed towards defending our sovereignty and to ensure that the nation’s interest is safeguarded,” Loke said to thumps of approval from lawmakers.

Loke also said that Malaysia had informed Singapore that it would be taking back its delegated airspace in phases, which was accorded to Singapore in 1974 under the Operational Letter of Agreement Between Kuala Lumpur And Singapore Area Control Centres Concerning Singapore Arrivals, Departures And Overflight (LOA 1974).

He said the nation’s airspace would be reclaimed between 2019 and 2023.

To a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, Loke said that Malaysia would not take a confrontational approach over the issue but would engage Singapore in further discussion.

    The awards co-host in Paris provoked a torrent of complaints about sexism with his question about the sexually suggestive dance, which received a blunt “No” from the unamused Norwegian striker.

The incident was a major talking point despite Hegerberg’s achievement in becoming the first winner of the women’s Ballon D’Or, an award which has been handed to male footballers since 1956.

Solveig, a musician and radio host, apologised in person to Hegerberg and said he was “astonished” at the reaction.

    “Guys I’m a little bit amazed, astonished by what I’m reading on the internet,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.

“Of course I didn’t want to offend anyone. This was from a distortion of my English level and my English culture level which is obviously not (high) enough.

“This was a joke, probably a bad one and I want to apologise for the one I may have offended,” Solveig added.

Hegerberg, 23, whose goals propelled Lyon to a record fifth Champions League title and their 12th consecutive domestic crown, played down the controversy and said it hadn’t marred her evening.

“I didn’t feel it was like that at all to be honest and I am sad if people thought about the situation like that,” Hegerberg said after the show.

She added: “He came to see me after and apologised. The Ballon d’Or is the most important thing.”

Before the ceremony, Hegerberg told The Guardian that she found it “really frustrating” that sport remains “such a man’s world”.

“Sometimes it’s really frustrating, I must say. Sometimes you have episodes or situations where you feel like, damn, we’re in such a man’s world,” she said in an interview.

“But at the same time I’ve never looked at myself different from men’s football. I’ve always felt the same — I work hard to try to achieve my dreams, like every other girl out there.”

Though the two sides are working on including freedom of navigation in the COC, it is likely that Asean will end up accepting China’s interpretation of the principles, said Professor Ken Jimbo from Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management.

The code should accept principles in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but the term “freedom of navigation” is interpreted differently by China and the US, he said.

“While China’s interpretation is that you cannot really have freedom of navigation as long as military activities are ongoing, the US interpretation is completely different,” he told The Nation. “According to the US, anybody can enter the area as long as nobody is harmed during passage, even while training, practice, intelligence sharing and gathering activities are ongoing. China considers such activities as hostile and requires explicit provisions on freedom of navigation.”

Several Asean members have been at loggerheads with China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea for many years now. A joint working group is preparing the COC, and both sides have agreed to have the text ready by 2019, during Thailand’s Asean chairmanship.

Unless the COC comes up with a resolution that is legally binding, it will be a repeat of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), which was signed by both sides in 2002, but failed to control the behaviour of any country, he said.

While Asean and China have agreed to ease tensions and boost understanding, countries like the US, Australia and Japan may face problems when they want to hold military activities in the contentious area.

“We don’t want Asean to make concessions, especially on maritime security,” Jimbo said. “The COC debate is ongoing and the agreement Asean will try to get with China will certainly spill over to the East China Sea and beyond, so we want Asean to be resilient on this issue,” he said.

Professor Jimbo, who is an expert on security matters, was in Thailand yesterday to deliver lectures on Indo-Pacific strategy at Thammasat University and King Prajadhipok’s Institute.

Though Japan is part of the US Indo-Pacific Strategy and shares commonality as they try to be part of a rule-based international community, help private investment and promote infrastructure, Japan’s version of the strategy is more broadly defined, he said.

While the US has enhanced its national base trade and investment policy and is pretty much focused on so-called fair trade – backed by the core supporters of President Donald Trump in the US traditional manufacturing sector – Tokyo is focusing on the promotion of institution-building of the Trans Pacific Partnership standard. Even without the US, Japan is a leading regional economic order, he said.

Geographically, the US Indo-Pacific Strategy goes beyond the Asia-Pacific and includes the Indian Ocean, but Japan wants to combine the Pacific and Indian oceans as well as the two continents – Asia and Africa – given that Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the strategy for the first time in Nairobi in 2016.

Asean, on the one hand, might be worried it will dilute the strategy creation process, as only the US, Japan, Australia and India are on board, but on the other hand, it is uncomfortable with anything that sounds anti-China, he said.

“We support Asean’s political resilience and that’s the basic platform of our relationship and it remains the same. We want a strong Asean to be addressing the regional order,” he said. “Asean as a driving force can actually be relevant and engage all the major elephants in the room, namely the US, Japan, China and India.