SG Changi wins bid to build Changi Motorsports Hub

Asian Defense News: SINGAPORE : The Singapore Sports Council has declared SG Changi the winner of the race to build Singapore’s first permanent racing track.

SG Changi was one of three consortiums that submitted bids for the Changi Motorsports Hub. The other two bidders were Singapore Agro Agriculture and Sports Services.

SG Changi’s plan features a S$280 million facility, which can seat 20,000 spectators.

The centrepiece is a four—kilometre track, which is longer than the current 3.7—kilometre one, and is good enough to meet FIA requirements.

SG Changi wins bid to build Changi Motorsports Hub

It will be divided in half, so that separate races can take place.

It also has a 1.2—kilometre karting track.

Away from the track are lifestyle attractions like food and beverage outlets, a beach front and a museum.

SG Changi’s the design and look were deemed innovative, flexible and functional.

SG Changi topped it up with an assurance that it has secured sound financing.

The next step is to start work and get it ready on time, by the end of 2011.

Vivian Balakrishnan, Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister, said: "Although it is a significant investment, nevertheless I think it is still of a size which can be executed fairly rapidly, and I am hoping that there would be no undue delays. We will now help facilitate all their approvals for building permits and the rest of it."

The government hopes the Hub will promote and develop motor sports and groom home grown talent.

A racing academy is one way to achieve this goal.

As the work begins to get the Hub up and running, the work also goes on to deliver quality track action.

Eddie Koh, director, SG Changi, said: "There are many international races and we have been in contact with some of these companies that run races. We are looking at GT races from Japan, from Europe, maybe from Asia also."

The Grade 2 track cannot host the Formula One race — which will continue to be a street race in Singapore for now — but there are plans to bring the Moto GP, which is the F1 of motor bikes.

Like the Singapore Formula One night race, the permanent track too will host events under the stars. And there are also plans to build a 120—room hotel, once the authorities give the green light. After all, the facility is being promoted as a tourist attraction. — CNA/il/ms

Marcos, 80, seeks comeback in Philippine elections

Asian Defense News: BATAC, Philippines – Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos, bedecked in jade and diamonds, began a grueling campaign for a congressional seat Friday that she hopes will allow her to bury her ousted strongman husband in a heroes' cemetery and clear his sullied name.

Marcos, 80, and nearly 18,000 other politicians barnstormed the impoverished Southeast Asian nation on the first official day of campaigning for May 10 local elections.

Imelda Marcos's late husband ruled the Philippines for two decades

Presidential and senatorial candidates have been campaigning for more than a month. Police say political violence, which often goes hand-in-hand with festive campaigning, has already claimed close to 80 lives, including 57 people massacred Nov. 23 in an election caravan in the southern Philippines.

Also among the celebrity candidates is boxing star Manny Pacquiao, who is seeking a congressional seat in his southern province. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has been threatened with criminal charges by critics when her turbulent term ends in June, is another candidate for the 287-seat lower chamber.

Emerging from more than a decade of political obscurity, Marcos strode back into the scene with a vengeance.

Her hair coifed back and wearing a bright orange tunic with jade and diamond jewelry, she led journalists at daybreak to the mausoleum of her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, in Ilocos Norte province, his northern stronghold.

She mournfully kissed his glass coffin as cameras snapped. "This is one of our major injustices," she said.

She went to church and then rode on a flatbed campaign truck festooned with balloons and posters as thousands cheered her along the way. She was flanked by her daughter Imee, who is running for governor in Ilocos Norte, a tobacco-growing region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Manila.

Her son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is seeking a Senate seat.

Asked if she will push her long-standing campaign to have her husband buried in the national heroes' cemetery in Manila if she wins, Marcos replied, "Of course."

His burial there has been opposed by officials amid public outrage after Marcos _ accused of corruption, political repression and widespread human rights abuses _ was ousted in a 1986 "people power" revolt and died in exile in Hawaii three years later. Imelda Marcos and their three children were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991.

"My ambition is to serve without end and to love without end," Marcos said in a news conference in a hotel discotheque before her long convoy hit the road under a broiling sun.

Afflicted with diabetes and glaucoma, Imelda parried a question about her age.

"It's true I'm 80 years old, but I can run and be a grandmother who can love and embrace the people more than a mother can," Marcos said, drawing applause from friends.

She is forever remembered for the stunning jewels and 1,220 pairs of shoes she left behind in the presidential palace.

She brought several new pairs for her campaign, aides said, and was wearing elegant leather sandals Friday.

Despite her reputation for extravagance, including shopping trips to the world's poshest boutiques and lavish beautification projects in a nation wracked by poverty, she retained supporters and even won a congressional seat in 1995. She ran unsuccessfully for president in 1992 and again in 1998.

Many Filipinos were incensed by her unashamed opulence, but others, especially the generation born after 1986 with no memory of martial law under the 20-year Marcos regime, view her as a celebrity.

Despite some 900 civil and criminal cases she has faced in Philippine courts since 1991 _ cases ranging from embezzlement and corruption to tax evasion _ she has emerged relatively unscathed and never served prison time. All but a handful of the cases have been dismissed for lack of evidence and a few convictions were overturned on appeal.

Marcos is running under her husband's political party, the New Society Movement, which has weakened considerably since his death. In Ilocos Norte, a laid-back province of 390,000 where the late strongman built a network of fine roads, an international airport and seaports, the Marcoses are adored.

"This is Marcos country, no ifs or buts," said village guard Elmer Macuco, who waited to see Imelda in one of the 21 towns she planned to tour Friday.

"She helps us and entertains us and has put us in history," Macuco said.

Clearing the family name remains an obsession, Marcos said.

Until that happens, she said, "I cannot rest."

Japan PM admits mistakes, asks voters for patience

Asian Defense News: TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, his ratings sliding ahead of a key election, admitted on Friday his novice government had made mistakes but asked voters to be patient while he pursued his agenda of change.

Hatoyama gave few concrete clues, though, as to how his 6-month-old administration would resolve thorny policy problems, like keeping costly campaign pledges without inflating Japan's massive public debt and settling a row with security ally Washington over a military base without upsetting residents.

Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan needs to win an outright majority in an upper house poll likely in July to avoid policy deadlock, but voter concerns about lack of leadership, messy decision-making and funding scandals are dimming that prospect.

"It's been half a year since we took power. I think we still have problems as we are inexperienced," Hatoyama, 63, told a news conference to mark enactment of a record $1 trillion budget for the year from April.

"But we must not turn back the hand of the clock. I would like to set the hands forward for a great future, so I would like to ask the Japanese people to guide us with patience."

The Democratic Party swept to power in a general election last year, ending more than 50 years of rule by its conservative rival and promising to put more money in the hands of consumers to boost domestic growth, cut waste, and rein in bureaucrats.

But the DPJ's pledges, along with pressure from a tiny coalition partner to spend more to ensure a fragile recovery stays on course, are raising concerns in financial markets about inflating a public debt now nearing 200 percent of GDP.

Hatoyama acknowledged the need for fiscal discipline and said he was open to a legally binding framework to restore Japan's tattered finances. The government is to unveil a mid-term plan for fiscal reform in June, along with a growth strategy.

"The complete loss of fiscal prudence would prompt a sell-off of Japanese government bonds," Hatoyama said. "I basically agree with Finance Minister Kan that the government should compile a legally binding framework for fiscal prudence."

SIDESTEPPING QUESTIONS

Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's have all warned Japan it faces a ratings downgrade, which could raise the borrowing costs for the most indebted of the industrialised nations and rattle investors who are already nervous about Greece's debt and the sovereign risk facing other European nations.

But the premier dodged the question of whether the Democrats would revise more campaign promises. Party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa last year pushed the government to jettison a pledge to abolish a decades-old gasoline surcharge because of falling tax revenues.

"We will try as much as possible to realise the manifesto and with that in mind, we will work on the fiscal problem as well," Hatoyama said.

He also did not give any hint of how he would settle the feud over relocating the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase on Japan's Okinawa island. Analysts say Hatoyama may have to quit if he can't do so by his self-imposed deadline of the end of May.

During last year's election campaign, Hatoyama raised hopes the base could be moved off Okinawa, host to the bulk of America's 47,000 military personnel in Japan.

Hatoyama repeated that goal on Friday. "My responsibility is to do my level best so that we can relocate outside of the prefecture, instead of thinking up excuses," he said.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama listens to a reporter's question during a news conference in Tokyo March 26, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Yuriko Nakao

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, his ratings sliding ahead of a key election, admitted on Friday his novice government had made mistakes but asked voters to be patient while he pursued his agenda of change.

But Washington wants Tokyo to stick to a 2006 agreement to move Futenma's functions to a less crowded part of Okinawa, although officials have said they would look at other proposals.

Hatoyama also acknowledged voter dissatisfaction with funding scandals and the dissonance that has plagued his coalition cabinet regarding important policies, most recently over plans to privatise Japan Post, the world's biggest financial conglomerate.

"The problem of politics and money and lack of leadership on my part have invited questions among the people. They have been disappointed because of their big expectations, I realise that," he said. "I know the importance of personnel, but at the moment, I need to have the cabinet work together."

Sentence upheld in China liquor bribery case

Asian Defense News: BEIJING – A Chinese court upheld Friday the suspended death sentence issued to the former general manager of the iconic Moutai brand liquor, state media reported.

Qiao Hong, 56, had been convicted in January of accepting 13 million yuan ($1.9 million) in bribes and possessing 8.2 million yuan ($1.2 million) worth of property for which he couldn't account, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The provincial court in Guizhou province upheld the earlier verdict issued by the city of Zunyi after Qiao appealed. Such sentences are usually commuted to life in prison after two years with good behavior.

Moutai liquor is often served at state banquets and presented to foreign dignitaries, making it the most famous among the class of Chinese sorghum spirits known as "baijiu."

Limited availability means it can often only be obtained at a premium, providing ample opportunities for graft among those who control supply.

Landslide lake threatens massive floods N.Pakistan

Asian Defense News:

GILGIT, Pakistan - Authorities in northern Pakistan are struggling to prevent the bursting of a natural dam formed by a landslide that could affect more than 50,000 people and sever an important trade link with China.

The landslide, in early January, killed 14 people and blocked the Hunza River, creating a huge lake that inundated several villages and left about 25,000 people stranded.

Residents says the government has not done enough to get supplies and contain the threat of a breach.

"We know it's a natural disaster, but we are not satisfied with the government's belated efforts," said Mirza Hussain, a lawmaker in the district assembly.

Officials are scrambling to ease pressure on the dam by creating a spillway, and say they do not see any immediate threat of a breach. But residents say the situation is extremely precarious.

"The water level is rising every day, adding to the pressure which could lead to a breach in the lake," Hussain said.

People like Amin Khan, a resident of Aina Abad, a village where people now almost cut off above the new lake, fault the government for the slow trickle of relief supplies -- many of which now have to be airlifted.

"I have lost my house and land due to this lake, but we are not getting sufficient relief. Its really pathetic," said the 32-year-old Khan, who runs a computer shop 28 km away from his residence in a commercial neighbourhood.

"WATER RISING"

Every passing day adds more than a foot to the 226-ft .

The lake has also blocked a 1.3 km stretch of the Karakoram Highway , a road linking Pakistan and China through the Himalayas and a trade route for a significant portion of Pakistan's consumer goods.

Hussain, who is also a member of a regional commerce body, said because of the KKH blockage, nearly 300 trucks loaded with Chinese goods were stuck at a dry port upstream, with still more goods in 60 warehouses.

A senior official at the NDMA, that was formed after a October 2005 earthquake that killed 73,000 people in the country's northwest, said all precautionary measures had been taken to prevent any human loss.

"Possibilities of an outburst exist, but the chances are very remote and we are prepared for the worst," said Col. Amir Siddique.

Work is under way to remove debris and create a spillway, due for completion by mid-April, that would provide a channel into the riverbed for a controlled outflow of lake water.

But an official involved in the rehabilitation efforts, who declined to be identified, said there would still be a danger of flash floods, as the chance of a breach exists until the pressure on the blockage is reduced.

"In the worst case scenario, if the lake bursts the water will damage or destroy all bridges in the area and will damage the KKH," the official said.

He said the wave, which could be as high as 50 metres at its start, would affect nearly 11,000 people in districts of Gilgit-Biltastan and another 40,000 to 50,000 people downstream.

Indonesia closes private radio station

Asian Defense News: JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian officials have shut down a private radio station that aired reports about the Falun Gong group, saying Thursday that it did not have the proper operating license.

But the director of Radio Erabaru (New Era Radio), which broadcasts news and entertainment in Mandarin and Indonesian languages from Batam island, accused government officials of bowing to pressure from the Chinese government.

Raymond Tan said he believed the Wednesday raid and seizure of radio transmission equipment by police and officials with the Radio Frequency Monitoring Office was the result of complaints made by the Chinese Embassy.

Calls to the embassy seeking comment were not answered Thursday.

China banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement more than a decade ago, calling it an "evil cult." Some of the movement's leaders and thousands of followers were arrested.

Raymond said the Chinese Embassy had sent a letter in 2007 to Indonesian authorities complaining about the radio station's broadcasts. That pressure has continued, he maintained, saying "it was clear" that Chinese intervention played a role in the station's closure.

Waving banners, about 20 members of the station's supporters held a rally outside the government monitoring office, protesting the closure of the station. "Stop China's intervention into Indonesian press freedom," and "This is Indonesian territory, not China! Why should we listen to them?" read banners unfurled at the peaceful protest.

Gatot Dewa Broto, a spokesman for the Ministry of Communication and Information, confirmed the station was shut down but denied any Chinese role. Instead, he said the radio station did not have the correct permit to broadcast.

"Such a measure of restoring law and order is a normal thing," he said.

But Raymond said the decision was unacceptable since the radio station is awaiting a court ruling on a lawsuit filed over the ministry's refusal to grant the license since 2007.

"We have told them that we are still waiting for the Supreme Court's ruling, but they didn't care," Raymond said.

The radio station's lawyer, Soleh Ali, accused the Indonesian government of refusing to guarantee the rights of its own citizens.

"In our view, the government is no longer independent," he said.

Philippine court orders arrest of 189 in massacre

Asian Defense News: MANILA, Philippines – A Manila court issued formal arrest warrants Thursday for 189 people suspected in the election-related massacre of 57 people last year, the country's largest murder case since World War II war crime trials.

Most of the suspects are former government-armed militiamen and police loyal to a powerful clan blamed for the slayings.

Manila court orders arrest of 196 massacre suspects

MANILA

Thu Mar 25, 2010 7:13am EDT

Andal Ampatuan Jr. (C), a local mayor of Maguindanao province, is escorted by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents through a waiting vehicle outside the NBI headquarters in Manila February 3, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco

The court also issued commitment orders which directed police to continue detaining seven others, including clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and several of his sons, who were arrested without formal warrants on suspicion of plotting the Nov. 23 massacre in southern Maguindanao province, state prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera said.

Among those covered by the arrest warrants are 47 police officers who were placed in custody after being suspended by the national police for alleged involvement in the killings, said Francisco Don Montenegro, chief of the national police investigation and detection group.

The 142 others still at large include 99 former militiamen loyal to the clan, 16 police officers and four soldiers, Montenegro said.

Days after the massacre, police arrested Andal Ampatuan Jr. and filed multiple murder charges against him. He was the only person formally charged until prosecutors filed an indictment against his father and 195 others in February. However, arrest warrants were not issued at that time because prosecutors needed time to complete the gathering of evidence and witnesses against them.

The indictment said the clan patriarch and the others were part of a conspiracy to ambush and kill members of the rival Mangudadatu family and their supporters, who were gunned down on a hilltop in Maguindanao. The attack apparently was aimed at preventing Esmael Mangudadatu from challenging the Ampatuans' control of the province in a gubernatorial election in May.

Among those killed were 30 journalists and their staff who were covering the filing of Mangudadatu's candidacy papers.

The massacre was unprecedented even in a country known for election violence and political killings that have claimed hundreds of lives in the last 10 years. Only the war crime trials of World War II Japanese commanders in the Philippines involved a higher numbers of victims, said former Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.

The 69-year-old clan patriarch, a political ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has denied any involvement and said the charges were fabricated.

The Ampatuans are also facing separate charges of rebellion for allegedly mobilizing armed resistance against the government after the massacre.