Remembering Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007)

SUPPORTERS OF BENAZIR DURING A RALLY AFTER HER DEATH

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred on December 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto, twice Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996) and then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, had been campaigning ahead of elections due in January 2008. She was shot at after a political rally at Liaquat National Bagh; a suicide bomb was detonated immediately following the shooting.

When audiences around the globe hear Benazir Bhutto's dramatic story of democracy and deposal, they are awed by the tireless strength with which she struggles to bring freedom to the people of her country. As the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto is a living icon of the battle for democracy, and stands with only a handful of female executive leaders who have shaped the global events of the last century.

First elected Prime Minister at the age of 35, Ms. Bhutto became the youngest Chief Executive Officer in the world and the first female Prime Minister in the Muslim world. After just 20 months in office, her government was unconstitutionally dismissed by a rival political party. Undeterred, she was reelected as Prime Minister in 1993. During her terms of office, she was faced with an enormous challenge: how to effectively govern a poor, politically fractious, and ethnically diverse nation.

Served as first female prime minister of a Muslim country, Prime Minister Bhutto was praised for moving swiftly to restore civil liberties and political freedom, suspended under military rule. She launched a nationwide program of health and education reform. She was named one of seven winners of the UN human rights prize. She has also been mentioned as "The world's most popular politician" in the New Guinness Book of Record 1996. The "Times" and the "Australian Magazine" (May 4, 1996) have drawn up a list of "100 most powerful women" and have included Benazir Bhutto as one of them.

Remembering Asian Tsunami (December 26, 2004)

TSUNAMI MAP - 2004 ASIAN TSUNAMI

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years ruptured the sea floor off Indonesia's westernmost island, Sumatra, displacing billions of tons of water and sending towering walls of water roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds into fishing villages, luxury resorts and bustling coastal towns.

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is known by the scientific community as the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, and the following tsunami is known as the Asian Tsunami or the Boxing Day Tsunami.

The earthquake was caused by subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunami along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.

The countries most affected by the tsunami are listed below (in alphabetical order):

• Bangladesh
• India
• Indonesia
• Kenya
• Malaysia
• Madagascar
• Maldives
• Myanmar
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Tanzania
• Thailand

With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.5 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

The plight of the many affected people and countries prompted a widespread humanitarian response. In all, the worldwide community donated more than $7 billion (2004 U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid.

Watch this memorial videos:

Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Just for you:

I Support Hudud Law!

Hudud is the word often used in Islamic literature for the bounds of acceptable behaviour and the punishments for serious crimes. In Islamic law or Sharia, hudud usually refers to the class of punishments that are fixed for certain crimes that are considered to be "claims of God." They include theft, fornication, consumption of alcohol.

Hudud offenses are one of four different kinds in Islamic Penal Law:

• Qisas - meaning retaliation, and following the biblical principle of "an eye for an eye.

• "Diyya - compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic the word means both blood money and ransom.

• hudud - fixed punishments
• Tazir - punishment, usually corporal, administered at the discretion of the judge

Hudud offenses are defined as "claims of God," and therefore the sovereign was held to have a responsibility to punish them. All other offenses were defined as "claims of [His] servants," and responsibility for prosecution rested on the victim. This includes murder, which was treated as a private dispute between the murderer and the victim's heirs. The heirs had the right to compensation and to demand execution of the murderer, but they could also choose to forgive.

Hudud offenses include:

• Drinking alcohol
• Theft
• Highway robbery
  
• Illegal sexual intercourse/zina
  
• False accusation of zina
• Rebellion against the rule
• Apostasy includes blasphemy. (Unlike the five offenses listed above, not all jurists consider apostasy to be a hudud offense).

The punishments vary according to the status of the offender - Muslims generally receive harsher punishments than non-Muslims, free people receive harsher punishments than slaves, and in the case of zina', married people receive harsher punishments than unmarried.

In brief, the punishments include:

• Capital punishments - by sword/crucifixion (for highway robbery with homicide), by stoning (for zina' when the offenders are mature, married Muslims)
• Amputation of hands or feet (for theft and highway robbery without homicide)
• Flogging with a varying number of strokes (for drinking, zina' when the offenders are unmarried or not Muslims, and false accusations of zina')

Only eye-witness testimony and confession were admitted. For eye-witness testimony, the number of witnesses required was doubled from Islamic law's usual standard of two to four. Moreover, only the testimony of free adult Muslim males was acceptable (in non-hudud cases the testimony of women, non-Muslims and slaves could be admitted in certain circumstances).

A confession had to be repeated four times, the confessor had to be in a healthy state of mind, and he or she could retract the confession at any point before punishment. However, while these standards of proof made hudud punishments very difficult to apply in practice, an offender could still be sentenced to corporal punishment at the discretion of the judge, if he or she was found guilty but the standards of proof required for hudud punishments could not be met.

Malaysia with the rising crime in society and immoral behavior of youngsters must look forward to implement Hudud law. I think no one fear of Hudud if he or she doesn’t break the law. Those who fear on Hudud law consider as fear on truth and justice.

Swimmer Khoo Cai Lin Shattered Three National Records

KHOO CAI LIN WITH HER MEDAL

She trained for an average of five hours a day. Her strategy was ate healthily, not too oily or fatty foods. The youngest of three girls, Khoo said swimming was in their blood, but she was the only one who followed through and took it up seriously. When she was 13, she started winning competitions and that has driven me until today.

Her place in national sporting history was sealed when she won the 400m freestyle at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil recently in Asean University Games. Khoo won gold in the 100m 200m, 400m, 800m freestyle and other several events. In total, she broke six meet records and three national records.

National swimmer Khoo Cai Lin could not have asked for a better gift for her 20th birthday. With great ease and elegance, the young athlete swam her way to three gold medals at the 14th Asean University Games (AUG). But, more significantly, she smashed the 400m freestyle national record held by Nurul Huda Abdullah for 20 years. She could not have asked for more for her birthday. How many young people get to experience this? She is going to celebrate her birthday on Christmas Day.

Malaysia succeeded in mission to become overall champions for the first time in the Asean University Games, which ended yesterday. Definitely we need more athletes like Khoo to make us proud and lead Malaysia to shine in the major sports games such as SEA Games, Asia Games and Olympics. Congratulation to all Malaysian athletes! Read here and here.

Whats Wrong With Malaysian?

In Malaysia, some group of people are politicising various type of issues including the pig farming. I don't know whether who hung wild boar head on school gate few days ago and propagandise the issue. Whats wrong with Malaysian nowadays? Why Malaysian easily influence by the propaganda?

We Malaysian must build up our understanding among each other. Try to sit together and discuss about the pig farming issue, we can settle the problem in more civilised way. Sensitive banners and racial incitements are not our Malaysian culture, definitely not going to solve our problem.

Government must take proper action against this issue, bring local residents to sit face to face to settle down this issue. Why keep quit? Don't wait till this issue become more sensitive and uncontrollable. We need a responsible government to solve this problem!

WHY RELATING PIG ISSUE AND DEB?

IS THIS CIVILIZED WAY TO SOLVE A PROBLEM?

SO WHEN YOU GOING TO TALK ABOUT MALAYSIAN UNITY?

SOLVE IT AS MALAYSIAN'S ISSUE NOT MALAY'S ISSUE!

MALAYS TOO BENEFITING FROM THE MONEY (DISTRIBUTION OF PIGS IN MALAYSIA)