Malaysian General Election 12th - Malaysia PM won't resign

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysians awoke on Sunday to the biggest sea-change in politics in almost 40 years, with opposition Islamists and reformists winning control of five states and giving the government a humiliating wake-up call.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's multi-racial National Front coalition won just a simple majority in parliament, and his future as leader is in doubt after he watched a record majority collapse to the weakest level ever.

His predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, urged him to quit. "He should accept responsibility," said Mahathir who now says he made a mistake in picking Abdullah as his successor and that the current deputy premier, Najib Razak, should have taken over.

The streets were unusually quiet on Sunday, with many older Malaysians fearful of trouble. The last time the coalition suffered a heavy setback, in 1969, race riots erupted. Barisan has effectively ruled since independence from Britain in 1957.

I am shocked. It feels Malaysia is a whole new country. It feels like it has been reborn," Daniel Sia, a 27-year-old civil engineer, said as he did some Sunday shopping in the capital.

Lai Yee Fei, 28, who works at a coffee bar beneath Kuala Lumpur's soaring twin towers, said she was glad that Malaysia now had a strong opposition to press the government.

It's good to give some pressure for Barisan Nasional," she said. "If the opposition parties can stand up for us, on behalf of us, I think it's good.

Abdullah, who only four years ago led the coalition to a record election victory on a wave of hope for change, faced a bleak political future on Sunday, his aides stunned but not willing to concede that he must step down.

"Frankly, this is not really the time because a lot of component parties (of Barisan) have been decimated," one close aide said, declining to be identified. "We have lost a few people and I think it's time to consolidate."

Abdullah's humbling performance nationally -- the coalition ended up with 62 percent of federal seats, down from 90 percent previously -- was compounded by the fact that his own home state, the industrial heartland of Penang, fell to the opposition.

ISLAMISTS ON THE RISE

The leftist Chinese-backed Democratic Action Party (DAP) won Penang, the hub for Malaysia's electronics industry, which accounts for about half of exports.

The opposition Islamist party PAS scored shock victories in the northern heartland states of Kedah and Perak and easily retained power in its stronghold in northeastern Kelantan state.

DAP and PAS also joined the People's Justice Party, or Parti Keadilan, to take control of the industrial state of Selangor and almost all the seats in capital Kuala Lumpur.

Political experts and economists wondered aloud whether the Barisan government could now pursue its agenda, including plans for $325 billion in development zones across the country.

Without a two-thirds parliamentary majority, Barisan can no longer change the constitution or make some key appointments and could struggle to alter electoral boundaries, powers that the opposition have long maintained were abused by Barisan.

"This is probably not good news for the equity market or the ringgit," said Tim Condon, Singapore-based head of Asia research for investment bank ING.

The pro-government media, Abdullah's cheer-leader during the campaign, changed tack on Sunday, urging Barisan to ensure better job and education opportunities in this multi-racial nation.

Malaysia is largely a mix of ethnic Malays, which make up about 55 percent of the population, and ethnic Chinese and Indians, who account for about a third.

A protest vote from Chinese and Indians, upset over what they saw as racial inequality in terms of business, job and education opportunities, had been expected. The Indians were merciless, voting out the leader of the coalition's Indian component party and handing a seat to an Indian activist currently in detention.

But Malays, who are all Muslims and traditionally support Barisan in good times and bad, completed a perfect storm for the government, handing the opposition Islamists a record vote in what was perceived as a protest against rising prices.

"Tomorrow we will start building a brighter future," said opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, de facto leader of Parti Keadilan, which emerged as the biggest opposition party in federal parliament with 31 seats. "This is a new dawn for Malaysia."

Anwar, a Malay and former deputy premier, is widely seen as the only politician who could unify the ideologically divided opposition into a coherent and credible political force, though many political experts see this an almost possible task.

Anwar was banned from standing in the elections because of a criminal record -- he spent six years in jail until 2004 on what he called trumped-up charges -- but is expected to take over his old seat from his wife, who has held it since his 1998 jailing.

Results from the elections commission as of 0320 GMT showed the National Front with 137 seats in the 222-seat parliament versus 82 for the opposition, with 3 seats still being tallied.

Source: Reuters

NASA extends shuttle mission for repair

The starboard S3/S4 truss segment is attached to the International Space Stations' arm over the Earth in this NASA TV June 11, 2007 video grab. A team of spacewalkers will install the (S3/S4) truss segments during todays planned six-hour spacewalk.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - NASA said it will fix a worrying rip in space shuttle Atlantis' heat shield system and spacewalking astronauts hooked a giant metal truss to the International Space Station on Monday.

The U.S. space agency's decision to be safe rather than sorry meant Atlantis will stay in a space two days more than planned and a fourth spacewalk will be added to the flight.

NASA does not think the inches-long tear in a thermal blanket near the tail poses a great danger to the shuttle, but deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said mission managers were being cautious.

"It was 100 percent consensus that the unknowns in the engineering analysis and the potential damage ... was not acceptable and we wanted to go and fix it," he said in a briefing at Johnson Space Center.

NASA engineers have been eyeing the torn blanket since it was spotted shortly after Atlantis took off on Friday.

If not fixed, the tear could cause heat damage to the shuttle when it returns to Earth on its new landing day, June 21, Shannon said.

NASA has treated heat shield issues with great caution since Columbia disintegrated during its return home in 2003 after its wing heat shield was damaged during its launch by loose insulating foam from the fuel tank.

The seven astronauts on board were killed.

FIRST SPACEWALK

On Monday, Atlantis astronauts James Reilly and John "Danny" Olivas floated out of the space station's airlock at 4:08 p.m. EDT (2008 GMT) to begin the first of four spacewalks during the 13-day mission.

The shuttle reached the space station, a project involving 16 nations that is slightly more than halfway built, on Sunday after a two-day chase in Earth's orbit.

They spent much of the day installing on the station a 45-foot-(14-metre) long, 35,678-pound (16,183-kg) metal structure flown up by Atlantis. The $367 million unit includes a pair of wing-like, electricity-generating solar panels scheduled to be unfurled on Tuesday.

A second spacewalk is scheduled for Wednesday, when astronauts Pat Forrester and Steve Swanson will go out to retract an old solar panel.

Whether the blanket repair will occur on the third spacewalk on Friday or the additional fourth spacewalk had not been decided, said mission operations representative Joe Montalbano.

If the repair is performed during the third, the fourth will include a variety of tasks put off on previous missions, said lead spacewalk officer Kieth Johnson.

NASA plans another 12 trips to the station to haul major components and laboratories before retiring the shuttles in 2010. The U.S. space agency also would like to make two additional missions to stash spare parts at the station and make a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Eventually the station's backbone will span 365 feet (111 metres) and support four massive U.S.-built solar wings that stretch out 240 feet (73 metres) from end to end.

The last set of panels, needed to power laboratories built by Europe and Japan, are scheduled to be flown to the station in late 2008 or early 2009.

Rusia beri amaran hala peluru berpandu ke Eropah

MOSCOW 4 Jun – Presiden Vladimir Putin memberi amaran Moscow akan kembali kepada pendiriannya semasa Perang Dingin dengan menghalakan peluru berpandunya ke Eropah jika Washington meneruskan rancangan untuk membina perisai pertahanan peluru berpandu dekat sempadan Rusia.

Putin mengakui respons Rusia boleh mencetuskan semula perlumbaan senjata di Eropah tetapi Moscow tidak bertanggungjawab terhadap apa yang berlaku kerana Washington yang memulakan persaingan itu.

Presiden Rusia itu membuat kenyataan tersebut dalam satu wawancara yang disiarkan malam tadi.

Kenyataan tegas itu membayangkan Sidang Kemuncak Kumpulan Negara Lapan (G8) yang dingin di Jerman pada Rabu ini apabila Putin akan bersemuka dengan para pemimpin dunia lain termasuk Presiden Amerika Syarikat (AS), George W. Bush.

Rusia tidak menghalakan peluru berpandunya secara khusus ke Eropah sejak tamat Perang Dingin.

Bagaimanapun apabila ditanya sama ada Moscow akan kembali kepada keadaan itu jika rancangan perisai peluru berpandu AS diteruskan, Putin menjawab: “Sudah tentulah kami akan kembali kepada pendirian pada masa lalu.”

“Adalah jelas jika sebahagian keupayaan nuklear AS ditempatkan di Eropah dan pada pandangan pakar tentera kami, ia akan mengancam kami, maka kami akan terpaksa mengambil langkah sewajarnya,” katanya.

Langkah itu sudah tentulah menghalakan peluru berpandu ke sasaran baru di Eropah, ujar beliau.

Respons tegas Putin terhadap sistem pertahanan peluru berpandu AS itu membayangkan konflik dengan Barat semasa Perang Dingin.

Putin melemparkan kritikan pedas terhadap White House minggu lalu dengan menggambarkan dasar AS sebagai “imperialis.”

NATO dalam reaksinya hari ini menyifatkan pandangan Putin itu sebagai “tidak membantu dan tidak dialu-alukan.”