Indonesian provinces plan to ignore anti-porn law

Asian Defense News: JAKARTA, Indonesia – Authorities in two Indonesian provinces said Friday that they will not comply with a controversial anti-pornography law they say would stifle traditional Balinese and Papuan culture.

The Constitutional Court upheld the law a day earlier, rejecting appeals arguing that it defined pornography too broadly and could be used to impose conservative Muslim values on other groups and to justify attacks on art.

The law sparked protests when it was passed in 2008

Legislators in Papua province _ a largely tribal region where women customarily go topless _ said the law passed in 2008 has never been implemented there because it can't be effectively enforced. The governor of Bali, a Hindu island that draws many tourists, said he has consistently opposed the law because it goes against Balinese society.

Komarudin Watubun, deputy house speaker for the Papua provincial council, said it would be impractical to impose the law in Papua.

"The people here in Papua have never bothered with the law. It's like other laws in Indonesia where many people just realize that it cannot be enforced so why should we bother with it," he said.

The legislation passed with strong support from conservative Islamist parties, though more than 100 legislators walked out to protest its approval. It outlaws overtly sexual images, gestures and even conversations. Violators can be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison and fined up to $795,000.

Meanwhile, Bali's governor Made Mangku Pastika said he has long objected to the anti-pornography law since it goes against Balinese society.

"We reject porn crimes, but this law also does not suit the sociological and psychological aspect of Balinese society," he said, speaking to a group in the provincial capital of Denpasar.

Ninety percent of Indonesia's 235 million citizens are Muslim, most practicing a moderate form of the faith. But many of its islands have large Christian and Hindu populations.

In January, four exotic dancers, along with two club managers, were arrested in the Java city of Bandung, where the mayor had announced a crackdown on behavior considered un-Islamic. The six were believed to be the first to be prosecuted under the law.

Law professor Adrianus Meliala, from the University of Indonesia, said the law's provisions are unlikely to be applied evenly across the country.

"Law enforcers are reluctant to perform legal actions which are not popular and will cause a controversy, so they will avoid charging people," he said.

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Associated Press Writers Irwan Firdaus and Niniek Karmini contributed to this report.

Indian state chief quizzed over 2002 anti-Muslim riots

Asian Defense News: AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) - – A Hindu nationalist leader accused of failing to halt deadly anti-Muslim riots in India in 2002 said on Sunday that he had fully cooperated with a panel investigating the violence.

Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat state, completed nine hours of questioning into his alleged role in the riots during which about 2,000 Muslims died.

Indian state chief quizzed over 2002 anti-Muslim riots

"I have fulfilled my words given to the people of the country. Nobody is above the Indian constitution and law," Modi told reporters afterwards. "We spoke in detail. I have been told by the investigators that my work is over."

It was the first time that Modi -- often accused of turning a blind eye to India's worst outbreak of religious unrest in decades -- had been quizzed about his handling of the violence.

He declined to give details of his testimony but said he supported the panel, noting it was made up of independent Supreme Court-appointed investigators and contained no one from his own state of Gujarat.

Modi, who has always denied any role in the riots, is a prominent member of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is seen as a likely future prime ministerial candidate.

Since he became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001, he has been credited with transforming the western state into one of India's most economically successful regions.

Last year the Supreme Court ordered investigators to probe a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of ex-Congress party member of parliament Ehsan Jafri, who was killed on February 28, 2002.

Reports said Jafri was hacked to death and burnt by Hindu extremists who stormed a residential complex housing Muslim families in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city.

Sixty-eight other Muslims were also killed in the massacre, one of many killings across Gujarat triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002 that was blamed on Muslims.

An inquiry in 2005 concluded that the train fire was accidental.

R. K. Raghavan, head of the Gujarat riots panel, described Modi's appearance on Saturday as "a significant step forward".

The panel is due to submit its report to the Supreme Court by the end of April.

Victims' groups called for Modi to face a court trial over the allegations.

"We hope this will lead to the formal framing of charges against him," activist Teesta Setalvad told the NDTV news channel.

Previous investigations into the riots by the Gujarat government absolved the state's police and officials of collusion or allowing the rioters a free rein.

But last year, one state minister, Maya Kodnani, was arrested for leading a mob that killed more than 100 people during the riots, making her the most senior state official to be accused of involvement. She is currently on bail.

152 trapped in flooded coal mine in northern China

Asian Defense News: BEIJING – At least 152 people were trapped underground Sunday after water gushed into a coal mine in northern China, a government official said.

The Wangjialing coal mine in Shanxi province was flooded by underground water as 261 miners were working in the pit, a duty officer at the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety said.

At least 152 people are trapped after a coal mine flooded in northern China, according to officials.

The mine is located between Xiangning county and the city of Hejin

The man, who refused to give his name, said 109 of the miners escaped but the others remained trapped and rescue work was under way. He said the cause of the flood was still under investigation.

Although China's mine safety record has improved in recent years, it is still the deadliest in the world, with blasts and other accidents common.

The mine is located between Xiangning county and the city of Hejin and covers an area of 70 square miles (180 square kilometers), the official Xinhua News Agency said. Calls to the mine rang unanswered.

State broadcaster CCTV said the heads of the country's coal mine and work safety administrations were leading a team of workers on their way to the site to assist with rescue efforts.

According to China's Work Safety Administration, 2,631 people died in coal mine accidents in 2009. Many accidents were blamed on lax safety methods and poor training as mining companies scramble to feed the country's voracious demand for coal.

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.