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Lee: Singapore better
off with one-party
dominance
SINGAPORE: Singapore is better off
with one dominant political party,
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says.
He made the comments on Sunday
at a conference of his People’s Action
Party (PAP), which has ruled the city-
state since 1959.
“As long as PAP provides clean
and good government, and the lives
of Singaporeans improve, the country
is much better off with one dominant
party,” Lee said, according to a text of
his remarks received yesterday.
He said change must take place
not between parties but within the
PAP, “changing itself to stay in step
with the times, and ahead of events”.
The PAP has all but two elected
seats in the 84-member parliament.
Singapore’s leaders have frequently
maintained that Western-style liberal
democracy is not the right model for
their country.
The prime minister’s father, found-
ing prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, said
earlier this year that the opposition
would ruin the city-state’s achieve-
ments in five years if they ever gained
power.
He has also been quoted as saying
that stability for investors in Singapore
is more important than the democracy
promoted by Western media. – AFP
Arroyo’s allies gain
control in Senate
MANILA: Political allies of Philip-
pine President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo gained control of the up-
per house of Congress yesterday,
forcing the senate president to
quit ahead of a confidence vote.
Senator Manuel Villar, who said
early this year that he intends to
run for president in the 2010 elec-
tions, announced his resignation as
head of the 23-member Senate as
the day’s session opened.
“I was informed I no longer have
the support of the majority of my
colleagues, I therefore tender my
resignation,” said Villar.
Earl Parreno of the Institute for
Political and Electoral Reforms said
Villar’s ouster could effectively put
the brakes on Senate inquiries into
corruption deals that have dogged
the government.
Arroyo ally Juan Ponce Enrile
took over as senate president. The
84-year-old was defence secretary
in the regime of Ferdinand Marcos
and his switching sides to the
opposition helped oust the strong-
man in the 1986. – Reuters
Support for Japan PM
below 30%
TOKYO: Public support for Japanese
Prime Minister Taro Aso’s cabinet has
plunged below 30% after his economic
rescue plan failed to impress voters, a
poll showed yesterday.
A weekend survey found voter
support for Aso’s cabinet had fallen
to 29.6%, down from 42.8% in early
October and 50.4% soon after he took
office in late September, according to
television network ANN.
Disapproval soared to 46.8%, from
37.3% in October, according to the
weekend poll of 1,000 adults.
The outspoken conservative has
also come under criticism for his
frequent visits to expensive hotel
bars while many voters are struggling
through Japan’s first recession in
seven years.
He took office with a mission to
lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party
to victory in elections which must take
place by September 2009. – AFP
| TUESDAY NOVEMBER 18 2008
Colombia fires more
soldiers over civilian
deaths
BOGOTA: Colombia fired 10 army
officers and three soldiers on
Sunday in a widening scandal over
the killing of innocent civilians that
threatens to further complicate a
US trade deal bogged down over
human rights.
The soldiers and officers are
accused of shooting seven young
men in the northern province of
Cordoba and passing the bodies
off as leftist guerillas killed in
combat.
“We have taken action. The
cases are now in front of the at-
torney-general’s office,” Defence
Minister Juan Manuel Santos said
in a public address.
The government fired 27 army
officers last month after a probe
implicated them in the deaths of
another group of young men who
disappeared from their homes and
were later shot, piled into mass
graves and counted as combat
deaths.
The widespread and systematic
slaying of innocent civilians by Co-
lombian security forces must be
investigated by the government or
else the international courts could
intervene, the United Nations’
top rights official said this month.
– Reuters
Magnetic field
therapy said to help
cure body’s ills
MUNICH: Magnetic fields, which are
common in our everyday lives but
cannot be felt, are also employed in
health maintenance and medicine.
“Studies have shown that mag-
netic field therapy facilitates healing
of broken bones by stimulating
circulation and bone growth,” says
Hans-Ulrich Jabs, an internist in the
German town of Nottuln and head of
the medicine and wellness section
of the Duesseldorf-based German
Wellness Association.
The physics of the therapy is
as follows: When electricity flows
through a conductor, a magnetic field,
with concentric lines of force, forms
around it. Such a magnetic field – pro-
duced by a solenoid, magnetic-field
device, or other magnetic object – is
used to rectify, as it were, the reduced
and impaired electrical tension in the
cells of an unwell body.
Depending on their strength,
magnetic fields can penetrate bodily
structures and stimulate cells, accord-
ing to Jabs. The Munich-based Ger-
man Society of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation (DGPMR) is sceptical of
such claims, however, saying there is
still no sufficient proof of the efficacy
of magnetic field therapy. – dpa
Pirates take control
of Saudi oil tanker
DUBAI: Pirates have taken control
of a Saudi-owned oil supertanker
off east Africa, the US Navy said
yesterday.
The Sirius Star is the first oil
tanker to have been seized by
pirates in the area. The huge vessel
can hold up to two million barrels
of crude oil.
“We don’t have any reports of
any damage to the ship,” said Lt
Nathan Christensen, a spokesman
for the US Fifth Fleet.
“We are evaluating the situa-
tion,” he said when asked whether
the navy was taking action to
rescue the tanker.
He was unable to say how much
crude was on the ship.
The vessel has 25 crew from
Croatia, Britain, the Philippines,
Poland and Saudi Arabia, the US
Navy said in a statement.
The tanker was attacked 450
nautical miles southeast of Mom-
basa, Kenya, it said. – Reuters