SECOND BLAST IN RUSSIA’S VOLGOGRAD CITY KILLS 10

A bomb blast ripped a trolleybus apart in Volgograd today, killing at least 10 people in the second deadly attack in the southern city in two days and raising fears of further violence as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympics. 

The morning rush-hour bombing, which left mangled bodies in the street, underscored Russia's vulnerability to militant attacks less than six weeks before the Sochi 2014 Games, a prestige project for President Vladimir Putin. 

It came less than 24 hours after a suicide bomb blast killed at least 17 people in the main railway station in the same city, a major transport hub in southern Russia. 

A Reuters journalist saw the blue-and-white trolleybus reduced to a twisted, gutted carcass, its roof blown off and bodies and debris strewn across the street. 

Federal investigators called the blast a "terrorist act". 

"For the second day, we are dying - it's a nightmare," a woman near the scene said, her voice trembling as she choked back tears. 

"What are we supposed to do, just walk now?" 

The consecutive attacks will raise fears of a concerted campaign of violence before the Olympics, which start on February 7 in Sochi, about 690km southwest of Volgograd. 

In a video posted on the web in July, the leader of insurgents who want to carve an Islamic state out of the North Caucasus, a string of Muslim provinces south of Volgograd, urged militants to use "maximum force" to prevent the games from being held.

Source: Reuters...More...

300 MATERNITY TOURISTS CHEAT THEIR WAY INTO UK?

The problem of “maternity tourism” has become so acute that staff at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, in London UK, refers to the flow of West African women flying in to give birth as the “Lagos Shuttle”.
Hundreds of pregnant foreigners are flying to Britain just days before they give birth to receive free care on the National Health Service (NHS).
A Government report found that immigration officials at one airport stopped more than 300 such mothers over two years. 
Most of the women had to be admitted and allowed to give birth on the NHS, the report found, because their pregnancies were too advanced for them to fly home.
Airlines typically do not carry women more than seven months pregnant. However, the women boarded flights in their home countries with forged doctors’ notes concealing the length of their pregnancies.
The Government says health tourism costs the NHS as much as £80 million a year; enough to pay for about 2,000 nurses.
However, estimates seen by The Sunday Telegraph suggest the true figure may be far higher. Guy’s and St Thomas’ alone may be losing more than pounds £5 million a year.

Source: Orange....More...

DEADLY BLAST HITS RUSSIAN TRAIN KILLING 15

A female suicide bomber has set off a blast in a train station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd killing at least 15 people and injuring at least 34, news reports and officials said. 

Regional Interior Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Smolyaninova told the ITAR-TASS news agency on Sunday that the blast occurred inside the city's main train station at around 12:45pm (08;45 GMT). 

Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for the nation's top investigative agency, the Investigative Committee, said the suicide bomber detonated her explosives in front of a metal detector. 

"When the suicide bomber saw a policeman near a metal detector, she became nervous and set off her explosive device," Markin said in a statement. 

He added that the bomb contained about 10 kilograms of TNT explosives, and was rigged with shrapnel.

Source: Al Jazeera...More...,Agency

THE COST OF LIVING IS HIKING IN MALAYSIA - SURVEY REPORT

Now a days, Malaysians are looking at the prospect of expenditure exceeding their monthly salaries.

In the past few years and While Putrajaya talks up proposals to help the people mitigate rising prices with cost of living labs and possibly even more targeted subsidies.

A greater concern in 2014 was electricity rates and transport costs go up and subsidies go down. 

The cost of living survey conducted in December covered Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Kuala Terengganu, Klang, Kuching and Alor Star.

• The survey compared prices of necessities, such as chicken, vegetables (mustard greens and red chillies), fish, house rental and the minimum wage in a month.

• “Prices of goods are determined by the market and it depends on consumers to control their expenditure,” said Datuk Paul Selvaraj, secretary-general at the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca).

• “It is the responsibility of the Government to minimise the impact on consumers, but in some situations the responsibility falls on the individual.”

• Critics have complained that the slow rate of increase in household income would not be able to cope with the recent slew of price hikes of items, such as electricity tariff, toll, school bus fares and assessment rates.

• An individual would require an income of RM4,000 to survive on Penang island, given its high rental and expensive daily goods.

• Trailing closely behind Penang are industrial cities Bintulu in Sarawak and Paka in Terengganu.

• However, prices of goods in Penang are much lower on the mainland in places such as Seberang Prai.

• The lower cost of living has made nearby mainland towns a sprawling suburban neighbourhood with heavy traffic flow daily on the connecting Penang Bridge.
  The poll conducted in December found that a kilogramme of chicken cost RM9 in George Town, while it was only RM7 in Kuala Lumpur and RM6.50 in Klang, Selangor.

• In Kuala Terengganu, prices of daily goods are comparatively higher despite its lower cost of living.

• A kilogramme of chicken cost RM7.50 while fish, such as mackerel at the Chabang Tiga market cost between RM10 to RM15 depending on the quality.

• The cost of seafood there is also not cheap although it is located near fishing villages.

• However, low rental rates and toll-free roads have kept the cost of living relatively low in Kuala Terengganu.

• With an income of RM2,500 a month, a family can own a car and rent a home.

• In the same state of Terengganu, some 120km away, the cost of living in towns like Paka and Kerteh are much higher since they are home to employees from the oil and gas industry.

• Locals have to bear the brunt of high expenses since industrial employees receive higher salaries.
  The same is happening in the Sarawak towns of Bintulu and Miri, where oil and gas firms have set up base.

As a result, locals are also witnessing a stark increase in the prices of goods and rental rates.

Rental rates in Penang are soaring high with a single-storey three-bedroom home in Tanjung Tokong costing RM1,000 a month.

Rental rates are, however, cheaper in Batu Kawan or Nibong Tebal with rents hovering around RM500 per month.

Source: The Malaysian Insider

U.K. POLICE BEING CALLED ON TO DEAL WITH GHOST

LONDON, U.K. -  Police in UK are being called on to deal with unearthly beings.

Figures released by 17 forces in England and Wales reveal hundreds of people, perhaps inspired by the film Ghostbusters, have dialled 999 to report supernatural activity.

What’s more officers have often headed out in response. Logs show 277 requests for urgent assistance with “paranormal” or “extraterrestrial” incidents in the past three years.

• Most of the reports related to ghosts, with some callers saying they had been possessed.
• One man believed there was a ghost in his house and had discovered blood on the bathroom door. It was later found to be a prank by his friends. Another, in Saltash, Cornwall, told police call handlers he had been visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Some claimed to be protecting their loved ones. British Transport Police were alerted in 2012 to a passenger who said there were witches and warlocks travelling on a train from Edinburgh to London and that a warlock had attacked their partner.

For others, the people closest to them were a supernatural cause for concern. A caller in Tring, Hertfordshire, told officers that their ex-partner was “some kind of vampire”.

Source: Agencies...More...

UNDERAGE GIRLS FORCED TO MARRY IN KENYA

In some rural Kenyan communities, tradition dictates that December is the month when boys and girls are circumcised. 

The communities, which still practice female genital mutilation, make girls marry off immediately after the circumcision is completed. 

Both practices are carried out secretly as they are illegal in Kenya.

A report based on research in eight rural areas, found 43% of girls interviewed and 11.6% of boys were married before 18. Both rates are higher than Kenya’s national rate, which stands at 34% for females and 1.4% for males. 
Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi reports from a rescue centre for such girls in the western town of Kilgoris.

Source: - Al Jazeera