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news without borders
briefs
Scare as Kennedy collapses
at President’s lunch
WASHINGTON: US Senator Edward Kennedy,
who is suffering from brain cancer, had a sei-
zure on Tuesday during an inaugural lunch for
President Barack Obama at the US Capitol and
will spend the night in hospital. The veteran
senator, 76, the last surviving brother of late
president John F. Kennedy, was taken out of
the lunch on a stretcher and was seen being
loaded into an ambulance.
Doctors later issued a statement, saying
that after they gave Kennedy a battery of tests,
it appeared the incident had been caused by
fatigue. – AFP
Singapore opposition leader
appeals to US on rights
SINGAPORE: The leader of a Singapore op-
position party, jailed numerous times for
defying local protest laws and for other of-
fences, has posted a video message asking
for President Barack Obama’s support.
Chee Soon Juan, secretary-general of
the Singapore Democratic Party, posted
his “message to President Obama” on the
video sharing website YouTube, where he
called Obama’s Tuesday inauguration “an
occasion of great moment.”
Chee expressed hope that the United
States “will pay more attention to the
human rights abuses of the Singapore
government and take positive steps to help
Singapore join the community of democra-
cies.” – AFP
China state media nervous
on Obama, praises Bush
BEIJING: China’s state-run media expressed
nervousness yesterday over the future of rela-
tions with the United States under President
Barack Obama, as it paid tribute to George W.
Bush. The most precious legacy of Bush’s eight
years in power were the stabilising of Sino-US
relations, according to an editorial in the Eng-
lish-language China Daily – a vehicle for the
government to air views to a foreign audience.
“Given the popular American eagerness for
a break from the Bush years, many wonder, or
worry to be precise, whether the new presi-
dent would ignore the hard-earned progress
in bilateral ties,” the editorial said.
“After decades of dramatic ups and downs,
the once volatile relations are just beginning to
show signs of stabilising.” – AFP
Inauguration ‘a great
moment’: Rudd
SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd yesterday described Barack Obama’s
inauguration as a great mo-
ment for the United States
and the world, saying the new
president’s message of hope
resonated around the globe.
“This is a great moment, not
just for the people of America,
but for all people around the
world that believe in democ-
racy, who believe in freedom
and who believe in progress,”
Rudd told reporters in Sydney. “President
Obama’s message of hope is a message that
resonates not just across the continent of
the United States, but across Australia and
across the globe.” – AFP
Obama city in Japan
celebrates with bells, dancing
TOKYO: Temple bells rang out and women danced
gleefully in the Japanese port city of Obama as its
accidental namesake claimed his place in history
as America’s first black president.
As a tribute to Hawaii, Barack Obama’s
state of birth, the city’s hula dancers, who call
themselves the Obama girls, braved chilly tem-
peratures to perform. Residents of the small
central city of 32,000 people – Obama means
“small shore” in Japanese – hope the new US
president will one day pay them a visit.
“I am very happy as the mayor of the city
which shares the name Obama and as a citizen
of Obama,” Mayor Koji Matsuzaki said.
It was Obama himself who first drew attention
to the connection. He told Japan’s TBS network
in 2006 that, when he flew into Japan, a passport
control officer said he was from Obama. – AFP
Obama and
President’s request suspends Guantanamo trial
Michelle
dance during
the Southern
Ball in GUANTANAMO BAY (Cuba): A military
Washington, judge yesterday ordered the suspension of
DC yesterday. the trial of a Canadian held at Guantanamo
Bay, in what could be the first step toward
closing the controversial prison.
The judge agreed to a request by Presi-
dent Barack Obama to suspend, for 120
days, the trial of Omar Khadr for allegedly
killing a US soldier in Afghanistan.
Khadr was arrested at the age of 15 and
transferred to the US war-on-terror prison
camp on Cuba’s parched southeast coast.
Late Tuesday, Obama made a swift
break with the previous administration
and ordered prosecutors to seek a sus-
pension of military trials at the Guan-
South African air crew bailed after drug find
LONDON: The crew of a South African
Airways (SAA) plane, who were arrested
after drugs were found in baggage at Lon-
Is Obama don’s Heathrow airport, were freed on bail
ready for yesterday, British customs said.
The 10 women and five men, including
change? three pilots, were held after arriving on a
pg 14 flight from Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Officers seized 50kg of cannabis, worth
about £150,000 (RM786,000), and 4kg of
cocaine with an estimated street value of
£160,000 (RM838,400), in three pieces of
luggage that had arrived on the flight.
theSun | THURSDAY JANUARY 22 2009
Obama gets
work after
WASHINGTON: Barack Obama yesterday started
the job of hauling his crisis-weary nation out of
its “winter of hardship” by settling into the Oval
Office, a day after his historic inauguration as the
United States’ first black president.
After a late night waltzing with wife Michelle at
glitzy inaugural balls, the rookie president was set
to take aim at his top military and economic chal-
lenges, in the hope of getting his administration
off to a fast start.
Key White House staff members were also set
to pour into the presidential mansion, with the
weight of financial and foreign policy threats sud-
denly resting on their shoulders.
Obama was due to spend the first part of his
day seeking divine blessing for his presidency at a
traditional prayer service at Washington’s National
Cathedral.
Then he was expected to call in his top eco-
nomic lieutenants to start the task of repairing
the ruptured US economy and shepherd a huge
US$825 billion (RM2.9 trillion) stimulus through
the US Congress.
In a sign of the tough task ahead, the Dow
Jones Industrials Average plummeted 4% on
Obama’s first day in office yesterday as investors
were spooked by deep problems in the banking
industry.
Obama was also expected to meet his top mili-
tary leaders to fulfil a campaign promise – telling
the generals to formulate a plan to get US troops
out of Iraq, and reorienting military efforts towards
the war in Afghanistan.
Yesterday, Obama claimed his place in history
as the first African-American president of a na-
tion stained by the legacies of slavery and racial
segregation, and told Americans they have to pull
together to pick their way out of raging storms.
“We have chosen hope over fear, unity of pur-
pose over conflict and discord,” Obama, 47, said
in a sombre inaugural address to a stunning two
million-strong crowd which took sharp issue with
the two-term Republican presidency of George
W. Bush.
“Today I say to you that the challenges we face
are real, they are serious and they are many.
“They will not be met easily, or in a short span
of time. But know this, America – they will be
met.”
The former Illinois senator took office amidst
the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, with
tens of thousands of US troops locked in Iraq and
EPAPIX
Afghanistan and a nuclear showdown with Iran
set to hit boiling point.
tanamo “war on terror” prison camp. Obama has vowed to close the prison
“In the interests of justice, and at the on a US naval base in Cuba, which has
direction of the president of the United become a symbol of US excesses around
States and the secretary of defence, the the world.
government respectfully requests the Obama issued the order requesting
military commission grant a continuance a suspension of the trials with pre-trial
of the proceedings,” prosecution docu- procedures already well underway.
ments said. The suspensions would “permit the
Judge Patrick Parrish, who is oversee- newly inaugurated president and his ad-
ing the case of Khadr, agreed. ministration time to review the military
“The defence did not oppose the motion commissions process, generally, and the
and the judge has granted the motion,” cases currently pending before military
spokesman Jo Dellavedova told reporters. commissions, specifically,” the docu-
Another military judge was to consider ment from prosecutor Clayton Trivett
the cases of five alleged plotters of the said, adding the halt should take effect
September 11, 2001 attacks. until May 20. – AFP
After questioning, the crew members Service) Crime Intelligence Unit,” SAA said
were all released without charge on uncon- in a statement.
ditional bail pending further inquiries, British Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
customs officials said. (HMRC) spokesman Bob Gaiger underlined
They are due to report back to investiga- how seriously British customs take such
tors at Heathrow police station on March cases.
23. “HMRC, together with UK Borders
SAA, owned by the South African govern- Agency, play a vital role in the fight to pre-
ment, said it was cooperating fully with the vent illegal drugs from entering the United
British authorities. Kingdom and in protecting our communi-
“The airline has also launched an investi- ties from the violence and corruption that
gation into this matter involving SAA Aviation always accompany this hideous trade,” he
Security and the SAPS (South African Police said. – Agencies