[AMARGLOBAL] AMAR WEEKLY WRAP UP ( 22/3/2016 - 28/3/2016)

DALAM NEGARA

KUOTA JEMAAH HAJI MALAYSIA TAHUN INI KEKAL PADA 22,320 ORANG

KUANTAN: Kuota jemaah haji Malaysia tahun ini kekal pada 22,320 orang.

Pengarah Urusan Kumpulan dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), Tan Sri Ismee Ismail memaklumkan ia telah diputuskan kerajaan Arab Saudi pada mesyuarat Menteri Haji dua bulan lalu.

Kuota terbabit bermula sejak 2013 susulan keputusan kerajaan Arab Saudi mengurangkan 20 peratus daripada jumlah 29,700 jemaah sebelum ini.

"Saya yakin mereka (Arab Saudi) membuat keputusan ini berdasarkan perkiraan mereka mengenai pembinaan di Masjidil Haram di Makkah yang masih berjalan selain mengambil kira keselamatan dan keselesaan jemaah haji," kata Ismee.

Mengulas mengenai pembayaran pampasan kepada keluarga jemaah Malaysia yang terkorban dalam insiden kren tumbang di Masjidil Haram, Ismee berkata perkara itu masih belum dimuktamadkan kerajaan Arab Saudi.

Insiden pada 11 September tahun lalu itu menyaksikan tujuh jemaah haji Malaysia meninggal dunia.

4 STESEN BAHARU LRT DI PUCHONG MULA BEROPERASI 31 MARCH INI

PETALING: Empat stesen baharu transit aliran ringan (LRT) di bandar Puchong akan mula beroperasi pada 31 Mac ini.

Ini menjadikan Prasarana Malaysia Berhad (Prasarana) setakat ini telah membuka lapan daripada 11 stesen di bawah Projek Penyambungan Jajaran LRT (LEP) Ampang yang dibina serentak dengan sambungan laluan Kelana Jaya.

Empat stesen berkenaan adalah IOI Puchong Jaya, Pusat Bandar Puchong, Taman Perindustrian Puchong dan Bandar Puteri.

Selain tempat letak kereta 'park and ride', ketiga-tiga stesen ini mempunyai kemudahan tempat letak khas yang disediakan bagi 20 basikal.

Menurut Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Prasarana, Datuk Azmi Abdul Aziz tiga lagi stesen iaitu Puchong Perdana, Puchong Prima dan Putra Heights serta 12 stesen baru di bawah laluan Kelana Jaya kini dalam fasa terakhir pembinaan.

“Kesemuanya sudah siap dibina tetapi memerlukan sedikit penambahbaikan yang perlu dilakukan dalam memastikan ia siap bersama stesen sambungan Kelana Jaya pada akhir Jun tahun ini,” katanya yang ditemui selepas operasi khas Prasarana yang turut dihadiri Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (SPAD) Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar di Stesen IOI Puchong Jaya pada Isnin.

Lanjutan laluan Kelana Jaya yang baharu akan beroperasi dari stesen LRT Kelana Jaya melalui Lembah Subang, Ara Damansara, Subang Jaya dan USJ menghala ke Putra Heights.

CUACA PANAS MEREBAK KE TERENGGANU 

KUALA TERENGGANU: Pihak sekolah di negeri ini dilarang daripada mengadakan aktiviti di tempat terbuka antara 12.30 tengah hari dan 2.30 petang berikutan cuaca panas sekarang.

Pengarah Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri, Shafruddin Ali Hussin berkata cuaca di negeri ini dijangka berada sekitar 35 darjah Celsius sepanjang minggu ini.

Beliau berkata bagi aktiviti kokurikulum pada setiap petang Selasa, pihak sekolah telah dimaklumkan agar melakukannya di dalam bangunan.

Beliau memuji langkah sesetengah Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru (PIBG) yang turut menyediakan air minuman kepada murid ketika cuaca panas ketika ini.

"Bagi sekolah yang tidak menyediakan air minuman percuma, mereka boleh antara lain menyediakan mesin air minuman," katanya kepada Bernama.

Pada Sabtu lalu seorang anggota polis pengsan ketika acara perbarisan sempena Sambutan Hari Polis Ke-209 di sini yang dipercayai badannya mengalami kekurangan air akibat cuaca panas.


GUNTING LIDAH : MUHD ALIF SEMAKIN PULIH TAPI MASIH TRAUMA

KLANG: Pelajar Tahun Dua yang menggunting lidahnya sendiri, Muhamad Alif Shukran Alias dilaporkan semakin pulih.

Dia dilaporkan sudah boleh makan namun sukar untuk bertutur  dengan jelas.

Menurut ayahnya Alias Abdullah, sejak kejadian, anaknya kurang bercakap selain tidak seceria perwatakkannya sebelum ini.

Namun dia kini semakin pulih dan sudah mahu bermain dengan rakan sebaya di kawasan perumahan.

Kata Alias, dia kini menyerahkan sepenuhnya kepada pihak polis untuk menjalankan siasatan.

"Tindakan (terpulang kepada) polis untuk buat siasatan selanjutnya, akan buat tindakan yang terbaik kalau boleh," kata Alias.

Khamis lalu Muhamad Alif mendakwa dia dipaksa gunting lidahnya sendiri oleh lima pelajar selepas diugut akan dipukul.

Mangsa kemudiannya dibawa ke Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Klang untuk mendapatkan rawatan.

Laporan awal turut menyebut mangsa mendakwa beberapa kali dibuli oleh pelajar lain.

Sementara itu Ketua Polis Daerah Klang Selatan, Asisten Komisioner Azman Abdul Razak dihubungi berkata polis akan mengambil keterangan mangsa setelah dilaporkan stabil dan selesa.

Lima lagi pelajar yang dikatakan mengarahkan mangsa menggunting lidah pula akan diambil keterangan Isnin depan.

Kes kini disiasat dibawah seksyen 506 Kanun Keseksaan.

LUAR NEGARA

PAKISTAN BLAST KILLS  25,INJURES 61

LAHORE: At least 25 people were killed and dozens injured in Pakistan's Lahore Sunday after an explosion ripped through the parking lot of a crowded park where Christians had gone to celebrate Easter, officials said.

The blast came as police in Islamabad clashed with thousands of supporters of an Islamist assassin, almost a month after he was hanged for killing a provincial governor for alleged blasphemy.

"At least 25 deaths have been confirmed, but the nature of the blast is not clear," Mohammad Usman, the top administrative official in Lahore, told AFP, adding that at least 61 were injured.

Arshad Zia, the head of the Rescue 1122 service, said 26 people had been killed by the blast.

Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamist insurgency since 2004, with groups such as the Pakistani Taliban routinely carrying out attacks as part of their struggle to overthrow the government.

But Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital that lies on the country's eastern border with India, has been relatively peaceful in recent years.

Nationwide, overall levels of militant violence have fallen since the army began a major offensive against Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds in the country's northwest border areas in 2014.

Last year saw the fewest number of civilian and security forces casualties since 2007, the year the umbrella Pakistani Taliban group was formed.

But militants have still been able to carry out major attacks.

At least 16 people were killed and more than two dozen wounded when a bomb blew up inside a bus in Peshawar, the main city of Pakistan's insurgency-wracked northwest earlier this month.

Sunday's blast in Lahore saw the highest number of casualties since a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing 55 people at the main Pakistan-India border crossing at Wagah in 2014 in an attack claimed by the Jamat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Taliban.

BELGIAN POLICES DETAIN FOUR SUSPECTS AFTER 13 RAIDS 

BRUSSELS: Belgian police detained four people for questioning in connection with terrorism after 13 raids Sunday across Brussels and the towns of Duffel and Mechelen to the north, the federal prosecutor said.

"In connection with the terrorism dossier, 13 raids were carried out this morning... in all nine people were questioned, with five of them later released," the prosecutor said in a statement.

The statement made no direct mention of Tuesday's twin bomb attacks on Brussels airport and a metro train in which 28 people were killed and 340 were hurt.

It said there were four raids in Mechelen, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) due north of Brussels, and one in Duffel, 40 kilometres in the same direction.

The examining magistrate will decide later whether the four people held will be put in preventive detention, it said.

The prosecutor said the authorities would say nothing for the moment about the results of the searches.

The suicide bombings, Belgium's worst ever terror attacks, were claimed by the Islamic State group.

POLISH MUSLIM LEADER SAYS DEATH PENALTY SHOULD BE REINSTATED FOR TERRORISTS

Chief Mufti of Poland Tomasz Miśkiewicz has said that EU countries should reintroduce the death penalty for terrorists, in the wake of Tuesday's fatal attacks in Brussels. 

The death penalty would not be comparable to executions carried out by the Islamic State as the sentences would be meted out to those responsible for the death of innocent people,” Mufti Miśkiewicz said in an interview with the TVN 24 news channel.

This punishment should not only be for the actual perpetrators, but also anyone who is against freedom, who propagates terrorism,” he added.

Over 30 people were killed and about 230 injured as a result of explosions at Brussels Zaventem airport and on the city's metro on Tuesday. Three Poles were among the injured.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Mufti Miśkiewcz is a descendant of Poland's small Tatar community, which has been based in the country – principally in the east – for several centuries.

TERMINAL AT WARSAW MODLIN AIRPORT EVACUATED AFTER ALERT 

Passengers were on Sunday evening evacuated from a terminal at Warsaw's Modlin airport and four planes due to land were redirected after a security alert. The scare appeared to be a false alarm.

Magdalena Bojarska, a spokeswoman for the airport, was quoted by the tvn24.pl news website as saying: "Checks did not uncover any danger to passengers." tvn24.pl reported that police had detained an individual who made a telephone call claiming there was a threat to the airport, which lies 40 km north of Warsaw city centre and which is used by low-cost carriers. 

The airport spokeswoman said on Twitter that four planes had been redirected to the nearby Warsaw international Chopin airport. tvn24.pl said evacuation of the Modlin terminal started shortly after 10 pm CET, adding that flights from Dublin and Shannon airports in Ireland, Bergamo in Italy, and Gdańsk in northern Poland had been redirected to Chopin, the Polish capital's main international airport

POLAND WILL NOT TAKE ANY IMMIGRANTS

Prime Minister Beata Szydło has said that Poland will not be able to take in asylum seekers from the EU for now, following terrorist attacks in Brussels.

Signalling what appeared to be a shift in government policy, Szydło said: “I do not see how Poland could take in immigrants at the moment.” Her comments came a day after a series of blasts in the Belgian capital killed over 30 people and injured more than 250. “The previous government vouched to take in refugees. It agreed to accept several thousand people, who could come to Poland on a voluntary basis.

 A total of 28 EU countries agreed to it: to solve this problem through relocation. "But I say it very clearly: I do not see how Poland could take on any immigrants in the present circumstances,” Szydło told the Superstacja broadcaster. Government spokesman Rafał Bochenek said the current system of checks on refugees coming to Europe from the Middle East was not working efficiently. “We cannot... allow a situation to develop whereby the events that are now happening in Western Europe spread to Poland.

 Many such events have taken place in the past few months and we want to protect Polish citizens from that,” Bochenek added. In an earlier interview, Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said: “We can’t settle [the refugees] here. What are we supposed to do? Keep them in camps? They don’t want to live in Poland. They don’t know Poland. "They know that we can provide about EUR 100 per month per person [in state benefits]. 

In Belgium, it’s EUR 60 a day. That’s another problem. Open borders, lack of jobs. “We have two million young emigrants living in Germany, in the UK. And 1.5 million jobless people here in Poland. I can say to the Syrians, ‘Yes, you are welcome, but what are you going to do here? Live on the streets?’,” Waszczykowski told the Carnegie Europe magazine. Unhappy at deal The Law and Justice (PiS) party, which swept to power in October, had previously said Poland would accept 7,000 refugees - albeit under certain conditions - over the next two years, in line with a pledge by the previous government.

 But PIS had been hinting it was unhappy at the agreement by the former government led by Civic Platform to accept some 7,000 migrants as part of an EU-wide programme to resettle 150,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea who are currently in camps in Italy and Greece