The magistrate in the long-running arsenic protest case has acquitted the 27 accused after the prosecution failed to produce material witnesses in court.
It’s all over! – Photo courtesy of Tian Chua
The prosecutors had failed to produce the seven remaining witnesses including CID director Bakri Zinin in court, according to Tian Chua, one of those acquitted.
In an incomprehensible move, the public green space in front of the Dewan Sri Pinang has been fenced up.
I had blogged about this before here but today, I found the following message from a concerned Penang resident in my mailbox:
This little green lung has a history. It was designed in the early 1990s and planting was carried out just before the visit of the then Agong. It was meant to be a very green, friendly space for use by visitors, the inner city residents and office workers. It had lots of grass in little undulating mounds and criss-crossing pathways, which had already been etched into the earth from use by folks walking from the Esplanade to the Courthouse and to Green Hall.
Hotel operators concerned over beach erosion
Himanshu Bhatt and Opalyn Mok
Massive erosion of earth by powerful sea tides has caused this stretch of the beach in Tanjung Bungah to become lower by about a metre and several trees there to be uprooted over the last month. Notice the embankment-like verticle exposure created after the earth there was pulled away into the sea.
GEORGE TOWN (Feb 2, 2010): A series of bizarre tides has eroded a stretch of the Tanjung Bungah beach here, causing its level to be lowered by as much as two metres.
The erosion, which has created gaping embankment-like exposures where large amounts of sand have disappeared, has caused concern among hotel operators and visitors in the area.
Live updates on: 1) the Federal Court verdict on who is the rightful chief minister of Perak and 2) the application in the High Court to recuse the Anwar trial judge.
Few are aware that the Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce (DPMMPP) has had three current office bearers successively appointed to an allotted seat in the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) since 2008.
Ironically, a DPMMPP leader was involved in the racially charged 5 Feb protest over allegedly discriminatory Council enforcement action against Malay hawkers and food-stalls operators on Penang Island.
The Penang government had allotted one seat to the DPMMPP and another to the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the MPPP. For 2008, the DPMMPP rep in the Council was Rizal Faris Mohideen, currently the head of DPMMPP. (Rizal was one of the speakers at the protest on Friday.) His successor as MPPP councillor in March 2009 was Yasir Hafiz Munawar Ali, currently the DPMMPP honorary assistant secretary. The present rep in the Council is Ali Akhbar Mohd Noor, a businessman and DPMMPP exco member.
The Sarawak state government has found fault with two landmark High Court judgments that upheld native rights towards their customary land – and says it will appeal.
Borneo Post report on 4 Feb 2010
In both cases – Agi Ak Bungkong & Others v Ladang Sawit Bintulu Sdn Bhd and Mohd Rambli Kawi v Superintendent of Lands & Surveys Kuching Division and Another – Justice Datuk David Wong had ruled on 21 January that the respective communities had proven that they have native customary rights over the disputed land. He awarded them damages and costs.
The Sarawak state government’s decision to appeal was not unexpected. But what raised eye-brows was the language the government used in a press statement announcing its decision.
And so the Anwar trial continues – while over in Penang, demonstrators protest at what they perceive to be selective enforcement action against illegal Malay hawkers and food-stall operators, an allegation the local government denies.
