Cops grilled in Kalimantan illegal logging

Jakarta, Indonesia - More than a dozen senior police officers have been grilled for their alleged roles in illegal logging in West Kalimantan province on the Indonesian portion of Borneo island, local media reports said Wednesday.

National police chief General Sutanto had vowed to take legal action against any police officer involved in illegal logging or log smuggling in the country.

"We want to deal with illegal logging activities conclusively. Whoever is suspected to be involved will be investigated," the state-run Antara news agency quoted Sutanto as saying.

At least 14 police officers in West Kalimantan province were being held at the national police headquarters in Jakarta for questioning, he said.

"The investigations are being conducted by the National Police general supervisory inspector," Sutanto said, adding that they were questioned on suspicion of having colluded with log smugglers in West Kalimantan.

Sutanto, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said he supported the forestry ministry's plan to cooperate with neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia, in an attempt to stop log smuggling from the country.

West Kalimantan police last month named 26 people as suspects in illegal logging cases, including 14 boat crew members, six officers of the Ketapang transportation service, eight illegal log owners - with two of them still at large - and one mediator between illegal logging financiers and loggers.

© Borneo Bulletin (Brunei)

$26.8 million to lead global fight against deadly wheat plague

Black stem rust fungus, Puccinia graminis.

Gates Foundation awards Cornell $26.8 million
to lead global fight against deadly wheat plague

By Linda McCandless

Cornell has been awarded a $26.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch a broad-based global partnership to combat stem rust, a deadly wheat disease that poses a serious threat to global food security.

Wheat, which is one of the world's primary food staples, accounts for about 30 percent of the world's production of grain crops. Scientists estimate that 90 percent of all wheat varieties planted around the globe are susceptible to the virulent new wheat stem rust type, known as Ug99. More than 50 million small-scale farmers in India rely on wheat for their food and income; other vulnerable regions include Pakistan, East Africa, China, the Middle East and North Africa.

The Gates Foundation-funded partnership, the new Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, will bring together 15 institutions to combat the emergence of deadly new variants of stem rust that can spread quickly, reducing healthy wheat to broken, shriveled stems. The partners will focus on developing improved rust-resistant wheat varieties to protect resource-poor farmers as well as consumers from catastrophic crop losses.

Ronnie Coffman, a Cornell professor of plant breeding who is director of international programs at Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, announced the grant at a meeting at wheat research facilities in northwest Mexico used by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Coffman will direct the consortium of global partners while Rick Ward, previously a wheat breeder with CIMMYT and Michigan State University, has been hired by Cornell as the project coordinator.

"The rust pathogens recognize no political boundaries, and their spores need no passport to travel thousands of miles in the jet streams. Containing these deadly enemies of the wheat crop requires alert and active scientists, strong international research networks and effective seed supply programs," said Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, who developed the "green revolution" wheats beginning in the 1940s and is credited with bringing radical change to world agriculture and saving hundreds of millions of lives.

King of the road

This lorry is being used for transporting logs to the log pond.

Log Pond

Logs are temporarily stocked here before being transported by river.

Malaysia PMs future uncertain after poll

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's ruling coalition rallied behind the prime minister Sunday, while his spokeswoman said he would not resign despite unprecedented electoral losses that gave the opposition control of one-third of the Parliament.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi shepherded the National Front to its worst performance ever in general elections Saturday.

Former longtime leader Mahathir Mohamad called for Abdullah's resignation, saying he had "apparently made the wrong choice" when he hand-picked Abdullah to succeed him in 2003.

"My view is that he has destroyed" the National Front coalition, Mahathir told reporters Sunday. "It's shocking. ... We have now a very weak government, and a weak government in a multiracial country will find great difficulty in running the country."

But dozens of National Front officials gathered at Abdullah's official residence in the administrative capital, Putrajaya, to "express their support for the boss," said Abdullah's spokeswoman, Wan Esuriyanti Wan Ahmad.

Wan Esuriyanti said Abdullah would be sworn in Monday as prime minister at the national palace. "I can confirm that he is not going to resign," Wan Esuriyanti said.

The National Front won only 140 of 222 seats, losing its two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969 and slumping from its 2004 landslide victory when it won 91 percent of the seats. It also lost control of five states.

The result reflected a huge protest vote sparked by disillusionment among minority ethnic Chinese and Indians who have long complained about discrimination. Ordinary Malaysians, including Malays, were upset over rising prices and crime.

Coalition leaders huddled in meetings Sunday to contemplate their next step, but they sought to show a united stance. Deputy Information Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said "there is no doubt or question at all in the top ranks" that Abdullah should continue to lead the coalition and country.

"The prime minister has a full mandate. He will appoint a new Cabinet," Ahmad Zahid told The Associated Press. "There is no one person to blame for what happened. We all are taking the collective responsibility."

Analysts, however, said Abdullah appeared to have made a political blunder by seeking a fresh mandate amid surging public anger against his administration.

The 68-year-old ignored Malaysia's widening poverty gap and increasing cost of living, analysts said. And corruption appeared to get worse even though he had promised to eradicate it, while charges of nepotism fizzed around his government.

"He misread the signs," said Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a human rights lawyer and political commentator. "He became the face of the mismanagement of the country. People were beginning to really, really dislike him despite his affable demeanor."

A three-group opposition alliance of the People's Justice Party, the Democratic Action Party and the Islamic Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party won 82 seats. The opposition had 19 seats in the outgoing Parliament.

Simultaneous ballots for 12 state legislatures culminated in the National Front losing control of the assembly in northern Penang, the only state where ethnic Chinese are a majority. It also lost control of Selangor, Kedah and Perak states for the first time, and failed to wrest Kelantan state back from the opposition.

"This is a defining moment, unprecedented in our nation's history," said opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. "The people have voted decisively for a new era where the government must be truly inclusive and recognize that all Malaysians, regardless of race and color, culture and religion, are a nation of one."

Coal

Ready to be transported

Power Plant

Using Coal