THIRTY PERCENT OF WORLD'S FOOD WASTED
An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted annually as 800 million people go hungry.
ROME, Italy- Enough food to feed two billion people is wasted every year, leading
UN agencies to create a new interactive platform to try to reduce the
losses, which could easily feed the world's 800 million who go hungry.
An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food, or roughly 30 percent of global
production, is lost or wasted annually, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
It remains unclear how effective the new platform will be in solving the
problem, but analysts say it is a step in the right direction.
The Global Community of Practice of Food Loss Reduction web portal,
launched last week, allows users to get information about ways of
reducing waste.
"We need to close the gap between people being aware of this problem and
what they do when they are standing in the grocery store or in the
kitchen," said Dana Gunders, a scientist with the Natural Resources
Defense Council, a US environmental advocacy group.
Awareness is the first step the more specific the information [available on the
portal] the more helpful it is in terms of reductions.
More than 40 percent of root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20 percent of oil
seeds, and 35 percent of fish never reach the mouths of hungry people,
the FAO reported.
In developed countries, food waste usually occurs in homes or restaurants,
when consumers discard products they believe have gone rotten, or in
grocery stores if products don't look picture perfect due to slight
blemishes.
Most of the developing world's spoilage happens during storage or transport,
as infrastructure for refrigeration and preservation
is often
inadequate.
ANTI-MUSLIM BULLYING ON RISE AFTER CANADA ATTACKS
OTTAWA – Reports of anti-Muslim harassment in Canada have
risen, Muslim organizations say, after attacks last week in which two soldiers
were killed by people authorities say were inspired by the militant group
Islamic State.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it has seen a
tenfold increase in reports of harassment, including racial slurs on public
buses, notes left on car windshields and bullying at schools. 
Worries about homegrown extremism have risen in Canada after a gunman shot a soldier and charged into the Parliament building in Ottawa on Oct. 22.
Worries about homegrown extremism have risen in Canada after a gunman shot a soldier and charged into the Parliament building in Ottawa on Oct. 22.
Two days earlier, a man rammed two soldiers with his car near Montreal,
killing one.
Several Canadian Muslim groups quickly condemned the
attacks, which came as Canada sent warplanes to take part in air strikes
against Islamic State fighters in Iraq. A handful of high-ranking politicians in Canada have also urged residents not to lash out against Muslims.
Adil Charkaoui, coordinator of the Quebec Collective Against
Islamophobia, said his group has received 30 complaints of harassment since
last week.
- It marked the largest number of complaints the group has collected since a failed attempt earlier this year by the province’s former government to enact a charter that would ban religious headgear such as Jewish kippas and Muslim hijabs in Quebec’s public workforce, he said.
In Cold Lake, Alberta, home to an air base that has deployed
warplanes against Islamic State in Iraq, residents last week banded together to
clean and repair a mosque that had been vandalized. After scrubbing away the
spray-painted words “Go Home,” the volunteers taped up a sign saying: “You are
home.”
This week, an actor was punched in the face by a resident of
Hamilton, Ontario,
Source:Agencies
FIRST LAWSUIT FILED IN MALAYSIA OVER MH370
KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian family on Friday sued the
government and beleaguered national carrier for negligence in the mysterious
disappearance of flight MH370, in what is believed to be the first lawsuit
filed over the disaster.
The suit was filed by lawyers on behalf of the two underage
sons of Jee Jing Hang, who was on board the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight.
Gary Chong, a lawyer for Jee's relatives, said the suit was
filed in a Malaysian court on Friday.
The family is suing Malaysia Airlines for breach of
contract, saying the deeply troubled carrier failed in its contractual
responsibility to deliver Jee to his destination.
The family is also suing Malaysia's government, civil
aviation authorities, immigration department and air force for negligence.
"Our clients are after the truth. We have confidence in
our judiciary system that this suit will be heard and dealt with fairly,"
a statement by the family's legal team said.
Source: AFP
1 MILLION RINGGIT IN ILLEGAL LOGS SEIZED IN MALAYSIAN SARAWAK
LAWAS, S’wak, East Malaysia - Authorities have seized illegal logs worth more than one million ringgit in Lawas in the latest raid under a statewide anti-logging and anti-graft operation.
In the 10.30am raid yesterday at Sungai Lumut, General Operations Force intelligence personnel and three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers seized 1,065 illegally felled logs of various species and sizes, state GOF deputy commander ACP Zahari Ahmad said.
- The logs were found stacked up in eight piles.
- "No arrests were made as the loggers were believed to have run away," he said.
- "We believe that their modus operandi is to fell the logs in the forest and stack them up by the roadside, after which they will be transported out by lorry at night," he added.
- ACP Zahari said the Forest Department estimated the seized logs to be worth RM1.3mil (S$500,000).
- The seizure, which followed a public tip off, was made under the Sarawak Forest Ordinance and further investigations would be done by Lawas forestry officers, he said.
Last week, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Agency(MACC) disclosed that 10 people, including a
district CID chief, had been arrested in connection with illegal logging in the
state.The suspects, aged between 28 and 72, also included general managers, owners, camp managers and shareholders of 10 logging companies.
They were arrested in Limbang, Sibu, Kuching, Miri and Kapit.
Source: Borneo Post
100 BURIED ALIVE IN SRI LANKA TEA REGION MUDSLIDE
KOSLANDA, Sri Lanka - Around 100
people were buried alive in a tea-growing region of Sri Lanka Wednesday
as mudslides triggered by monsoon rains washed away their homes on a
plantation, disaster officials said.One witness spoke of hearing a noise like thunder as part of a mountainside collapsed onto the estate, burying some of the workers' homes in 30 feet (nine metres) of mud and debris.
"What I gathered
is that about 100 people have been buried alive," Disaster Management
Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told AFP after visiting the site in the
eastern Koslanda region.
"There is no chance they could have survived," said the minister, as other officials said 16 people were confirmed dead.
Hundreds
of soldiers, who initially used their hands to dig for survivors, had
switched to operating excavators by evening but hopes had faded of
finding anyone else still alive.
Source: AF(Yahoo News)...More
MALAYSIA’S TIERED FUEL SUBSIDY IDEA PANNED BY CRITICS
Analysts say the government will do better by removing the
fuel subsidies altogether and returning handouts to the most needy of society,
rather than the multi-tiered fuel pricing proposed. 
In recent years, Malaysia has shielded its citizens from the
full brunt of surging crude oil prices with fuel subsidies of around RM24
billion annually. That has exacerbated the government's budget deficit, one of
the region's biggest as a proportion of gross domestic product.
To shore up its finances, Malaysia cut the subsidies in
September 2013 and then again this month. That raised the price of petrol and
diesel, stirring public debate on inflation and living costs.
- The subject is growing ever more tender as Malaysia heads towards implementing a 6% goods and services tax in April next year.
- Economists say a window has opened up for Southeast Asia to consider dismantling subsidies as global crude prices sink to multi-year lows. But instead of biting the bullet and pledging more market-oriented fuel prices, Malaysia earlier this week proposed tweaking its subsidy system.
Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah
said on Monday that the government is considering implementing a three-tier
fuel subsidy mechanism next year under which some of the population will be
fully subsidised and some not at all, depending on how much people earn a
month.
Critics of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's economic
stewardship say it is a tactic to ensure that the majority of society continues
to be subsidised, especially poor but politically important states, such as
Sabah.
"The whole idea of subsidies is you target the lower
income, and the sad thing is subsidies are also a reward programme," said
James Chin, a professor of political science at the Malaysian campus of
Australia's Monash University.
Under the proposed tiered mechanism, individuals earning
less than RM5,000 a month will be eligible for a full subsidy.
Those earning between RM5,000 and RM10,000 would get a partial subsidy and those earning more than that would get nothing.
Those earning between RM5,000 and RM10,000 would get a partial subsidy and those earning more than that would get nothing.
But the median monthly salary for Malaysia's 9.3 million
workers stood at RM1,500 last year, according to a government report published
in August. That suggests at least half of the population will continue to get
fuel subsidies.
Source: The Malaysian Insider...More...
ANTARES SPACE ROCKET EXPLODES SHORTLY LAUNCH?
An unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the
International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff Tuesday evening,
with debris falling in flames over the launch site in Virginia.
No injuries
were reported following the first catastrophic launch in NASA's commercial
spaceflight effort.
The accident at Orbital Sciences Corp.'s launch complex at
Wallops Island was sure to draw criticism over the space agency's growing
reliance on private U.S. companies in this post-shuttle effort.
NASA is paying billions of dollars to Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX
company to make station deliveries, and it's counting on SpaceX and
Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as
2017. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said there was nothing on the lost
flight that was urgently needed by the six people living on the space
station.
NASA is paying billions of dollars to Orbital Sciences and the SpaceX
company to make station deliveries, and it's counting on SpaceX and
Boeing to start flying U.S. astronauts to the orbiting lab as early as
2017. NASA spokesman Rob Navias said there was nothing on the lost
flight that was urgently needed by the six people living on the space
station.
The company behind Wednesday's dramatic launch explosion of
a space station supply mission promises to find the cause of the failure and is
warning residents to avoid any
potentially hazardous wreckage.
potentially hazardous wreckage.
Source:CNN, CBC,,,More..,
HAWAIAN VILLAGE PAHOA EVACUATES AS KILAUEA LAVA THREATENS
Residents of a Hawaiian village threatened by lava have
begun evacuating as the flow reaches 75yds (68m) from the first house in its
path.Two roads to Pahoa have been closed and a cemetery has already been overtaken by the flow from the Kilauea volcano.
Kilauea on the Big Island has been erupting since 1983, but lava has recently burst forth from a new vent.
The town's residents will be allowed to watch the destruction of their homes, Hawaiian officials say.
The accommodation will "provide for a means of
closure" Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira told the
Associated Press news agency.
"You can only imagine the frustration as well as... despair they're going through."
Residents will also be allowed back to take photos and video for insurance purposes.
Residents will also be allowed back to take photos and video for insurance purposes.
- Many residents of the town of 800 have already left or made plans to do so, Mr Oliveira said.
- The couple living in the house closest to the flow have evacuated but have been returning to gather belongings, he said.
Source: BBC...More...
A MALAYSIAN ESCAPE DEATH PENALTY IN SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE: A 29-year-old Malaysian condemned to hang in 2009
for drug trafficking had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment as he was
intellectually challenged and suffering from depression at the time.
Wilkinson Primus, who looked relaxed in court, was spared
the gallows under amended laws that give judges the discretion to impose life
terms on drug traffickers who suffer from an "abnormality of mind"
that substantially reduce their mental responsibility for their acts.He was riding a motorcycle into Singapore on Nov 3, 2008 when he was arrested at the Woodlands Checkpoint. A bundle in the basket of the motorcycle was later analysed to contain 35.66g of heroin.
Wilkinson was given the then-mandatory death penalty in 2009 after he was convicted of drug trafficking.
Source: The Straits Times
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
