MALAYSIA VOTED WORLD’S FOURTH BEST PLACE FOR RETIREES
In spite of what some people think or say, Malaysia is the top retirement country in Asia. It earned high scores for
ease of fitting in, entertainment and amenities, as well as low cost of
living.
The Index was compiled by International Living magazine which has been
scouring the globe for the best retirement destinations around the globe
for over 30 years.
Said Jennifer Stevens, executive editor of International Living.com: "The world's top retirement havens for 2015 may dot the landscape from Asia to Latin America to Europe, but they share certain assets."
Said Jennifer Stevens, executive editor of International Living.com: "The world's top retirement havens for 2015 may dot the landscape from Asia to Latin America to Europe, but they share certain assets."
"They're safe, offer good value and are places you can settle with
relative ease," she added in the statement announcing the results.
A meal with a bottle of wine can cost as little as $5 and a
visit to the doctor just $15.
Its full report on Malaysia said, inter alia: Influences from across Asia and beyond have melded together here to create an extraordinary cross-cultural melting pot of customs, dress, architecture, and cuisine.
The country diverse ethnic mix makes being a stranger here easy. Whether you live in bohemian Penang or Kuala Lumpur, the country hip capital, you'll meet friendly locals who are happy to stop and chat and welcome you into their home.
Its full report on Malaysia said, inter alia: Influences from across Asia and beyond have melded together here to create an extraordinary cross-cultural melting pot of customs, dress, architecture, and cuisine.
The country diverse ethnic mix makes being a stranger here easy. Whether you live in bohemian Penang or Kuala Lumpur, the country hip capital, you'll meet friendly locals who are happy to stop and chat and welcome you into their home.
Malaysia has both public and private health care with medical expertise on a par with western countries.Most hospitals and health care facilities are staffed by English speaking professionals with international qualifications. Internet coverage here is on a par with services in France and Italy.
And with some of the worlds most stunning white-sand beaches, there's a lot of like about Malaysia.
Source: Bernama
BUSHFIRE BURNS OUT OF CONTROL IN SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY, Australia - Houses were lost as an intense bushfire raged out of control in South Australia on Saturday, as authorities warned the state faced its worst wildfire danger since deadly 1983 blazes.
Officials said the scenic Adelaide Hills, northeast of Adelaide city, faced “an incredibly dangerous fire” which, with high winds and temperatures forecast, was impossible to fight head-on.
Dotted with pretty villages, the area is known for its farming produce and wineries and has a population of some 40,000.
The blaze at Sampson Flat is burning freely in all directions and in an erratic manner, after spreading rapidly from a 154 hectare fire on Friday afternoon to one covering 4,741 hectares with a perimeter of 38 kilometres.
The fire is in rugged country and subject to unpredictable behaviour due to wind gusts, forcing firefighters to abandon hopes of stopping the blaze until the weather abates.
- So far five homes have been destroyed but authorities said this number could rise as winds reach speeds of up to 110 kilometres per hour.
Source: The Real Singapore
ANOTHER RAPE CASE IN INDIA : 2 BROTHERS ARRESTED OVER RAPE OF JAPANESE TOURIST
Indian police have arrested two brothers accused of
repeatedly raping a 22-year-old Japanese tourist over three weeks near Bodh
Gaya, Buddhism's holiest site, an official said today.The tourist had been held hostage at gunpoint in a secluded underground room close to a pilgrimage site, according to a preliminary investigation.
"When her health condition deteriorated due to repeated rape and poor living conditions, she was brought to Gaya (district headquarters) for medical treatment on December 20," a police officer who is part of the investigation told AFP on condition of anonymity.
But she managed to escape and reached Varanasi where she met
some Japanese tourists who helped her contact the Japanese consulate in the
nearby city of Kolkata, the officer added.Sajid Khan, 32, and his 25-year-old brother Jawed Khan, both tourist guides, were arrested in the case yesterday, police deputy superintendent Alok Kumar Singh said.
- The Bodh Gaya complex, 110 kilometres south of Bihar state capital Patna, is home to one of the earliest Buddhist temples still standing in India and attracts visitors from all over the world.
- The Japanese woman, a university student, had come to Gaya from Kolkata where she had checked into a hotel in November.
India has faced intense scrutiny over its efforts to curb
violence against women following the fatal gang rape of a medical student in
New Delhi in 2012 which sparked global outcry. Since then, several attacks on foreign women have also been
reported, leading to a dip in tourist numbers to the country.Last January, a 51-year-old Danish tourist was robbed and gang raped at knife-point in Delhi.
In 2013, a Swiss cyclist holidaying in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh was robbed
and gang raped by five men, all of whom were
later sentenced to life terms.
Source: AFP, The photos attached is purely illustrated
DAMAGE TO PROPERTY AND INFRASTRUCTURE BY FLOODS IN WEST MALAYSIA CLOSE TO RM1 BILLION
At the forefront are the thousands of villagers in West Malaysia who
lost their homes and those who lost their lives in the disaster cause by the
recent floods.But as the nation moves to recover, it is finding that there are more who have also lost.
Realisation is starting to sink in on just how devastating
the floods have been on the country, infrastructure and people.
Among them are some 69,000 rubber smallholders and up to
50,000 oil palm planters whose plantations are submerged.
They are suffering a loss in income while a lengthy
submersion in water can damage the oil palm trees, adding to the cost.
In the worst-hit east coast state of Kelantan alone, there
are about 150,000 farmers and livestock breeders with destroyed padi fields and
vegetable plots, drowned livestock and swamped fish ponds.
The total damage to property and infrastructure in all the
affected states is still being tallied but already the cost is close to RM1bil. Some officials announced estimates yesterday totalling
RM878mil.This comprises RM350mil to repair damaged schools in five states, RM200mil in property damage, RM100mil to repair roads in Kelantan, RM132mil to repair roads in Terengganu and RM96mil to repair 93 collapsed hillslopes along the damaged roads in four states.
The National Association of Small Holders (Nash) said that
about 119,000 smallholders were affected and that a survey to determine the
losses they suffered were ongoing.with the farmers affected, the prices of vegetables are rising nationwide because the commodity has become scarce and inaccessible roads make it difficult to get the produce to market.
Unless roads are made accessible quickly and the weather improves, the supply of foodstuff in the badly affected states would only be fully restored within two weeks, said Domestic Trade,
Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk
Seri Hasan Malek.
Source: The Star
26/11-LIKE TERROR ATTACK IN INDIA, AVERTED
NEW DELHI, India - Coast Guard patrol vessels intercepted "a suspicious" Pakistani fishing boat in the Arabian Sea in the early hours of January 1, thwarting what the Indian security establishment contends could have been another attempt to unleash mayhem like the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai.
The four persons on the largish boat set it ablaze after an hour-long "hot pursuit", which ended with "warning shots" being fired to stop the fishing vessel around 197 nautical miles (365 km) from Porbander, at about 3.50 am on Thursday.
The four-member crew, who "disregarded all warnings" to stop for search, hid themselves in a compartment below the deck and set the boat on fire. It led to explosions.
The nature of the fire clearly indicated the boat was possibly carrying explosives.
The boat or its crew could not be saved due to the darkness, bad weather and strong winds. It sank in the same spot," said a defence ministry official.
The entire operation began after intelligence inputs on December 31 that a fishing boat from Keti Bunder near Karachi was planning "some illicit transaction" in the Arabian Sea.
This led the technical intelligence agency NTRO to alert the Coast Guard.
Source: India Times
The boat or its crew could not be saved due to the darkness, bad weather and strong winds. It sank in the same spot," said a defence ministry official.
The entire operation began after intelligence inputs on December 31 that a fishing boat from Keti Bunder near Karachi was planning "some illicit transaction" in the Arabian Sea.
This led the technical intelligence agency NTRO to alert the Coast Guard.
Source: India Times
NUMBER OF INDIAN DELHI RAPES REPORTED INCREASE BY ONE THIRD IN 2014
NEW DELHI, India - The number of rapes reported in New Delhi
increased by nearly a third in the last year, police said on Friday, highlighting
the alarming levels of sexual violence against women in the Indian capital.
At an annual briefing with reporters, Delhi Police
Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi said that a total of 2,069 rape cases were
reported in New Delhi in the 12 months leading up to December 15, against 1,571
reported the previous year, an increase of 31.6 per cent.
The city sealed its reputation as India’s “rape capital” two
years ago when a medical student died after being gang-raped on a moving bus,
prompting mass protests and triggering a series of policing and legal reforms.
The figures were released the same day that an Uber taxi
driver accused of raping a female passenger in Delhi last month made his second
appearance in court.
Shiv Kumar Yadav, 32, was remanded in custody for another
three days over the alleged December 5 attack.
But the police commissioner insisted the new figures did not
necessarily indicate that the city was becoming more dangerous for women but
rather highlighted a growing willingness of victims to come forward.
Bassi said that police received another 36,284 complaints on
other issues at women’s help desks in the city’s police stations, which have
mostly been established in the recent years.
The policemen are supposed to protect the women from the rapists, however last Thursday, the two constables allegedly abducted the girl from her
village, according to a complaint filed by the girl’s mother.
Two policemen are accused of raping a 14-year-old girl were
on the run on Friday, a police official said.
“She said the men took her daughter to the police station in
a car and raped her in a room in the station premises,” Superintendent Lallan
Singh said.
“The two men are absconding and a search is on for them,"
They have been suspended and if found guilty will be punished
according to the law,” Singh said.
The incident happend in the town of Musajhag, Badaun district,
in Uttar Pradesh state.
Source: AFP
TWO SUSPECTS MALAYSIAN ISLAMIC STATE MILITANT HELD
PETALING JAYA - Two more Malaysians suspected of trying to
join the Islamic State (IS) terror group have been detained by police.The two – a man and a woman – were picked up at the KL International Airport on separate days by the Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter-Terrorism Division.
The arrests bring the number of suspected militants detained to 51 since February last year.
The 27-year-old woman was a former student of a private
university here while the 22-year-old man was studying at a local public
university.The woman was arrested on Christmas eve while the other suspect was detained three days later.
- According to sources, the woman befriended a Moroccan IS fighter in Syria on Facebook in mid-November.
- It is learnt that the woman, who hails from Negri Sembilan, had become reclusive after growing close to the Moroccan.
- She planned to board a plane to Turkey before securing passage to Syria, then join IS, added the source.
- The male suspect, who was studying in Perlis, had been interacting with several known Malaysian IS fighters and militants since September, according to the sources.
- These include former 1990s rock musician Akel Zainal, who is now fighting for the terror group in Syria.
- “Before long, all he could talk about was IS and fighting in Syria,” a source said.
- The Terengganu-born student then decided to head to Syria.
- “He planned to take the same route as the female suspect and used his savings to fund the trip,” the source said.
- Another source said it was troubling to note that university students and former students were still falling under the influence of IS despite the spate of arrests previously.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has
said that Bukit Aman will not allow Malaysia to be used as a training ground or
hideout for terrorists and militants.Police are still hunting for five known militants who are believed to have links to IS and the Abu Sayyaf terror group based in the Philippines.
Former university lecturer Dr Mahmud Ahmad (also known as Abu Handzalah) and sundry shop owner Mohd Najib Husen, both 36, are among them.
Source: AsiaOne
HUGE FIRES RAZES PHILIPPINES SHANTIES, KILLING 3
A huge blaze believed to have been ignited by firecrackers razed nearly a thousand shanties and killed three people in a creekside slum in Manila.
Strong winds fanned the flames racing through nearly a kilometer (half a
mile) -long row of shanties in a village in suburban Quezon city in
metropolitan Manila before dawn Thursday, said village officer Noel
Carino. Firefighters struggled to get near the burning shanties because
of narrow alleys.
Source: foxnews
DOZEN KILLED IN SHANGHAI NEW YEAR’S EVE STAMPADE
SHANGHAI, China - A stampede killed at least 35 people during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, possibly caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city’s famed Bund waterfront district. 
The Shanghai government said that large crowds started to stampede in Chen Yi Square on the Bund just before midnight, with authorities working to rescue and aid the wounded.
The trigger for the stampede has still to be confirmed, but state media and a witness said the incident was caused when people tried picking up fake money thrown from a building.
A man who brought one of the 43 injured to a local hospital for treatment said fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of the New Year’s Eve celebrations. People rushed to pick up the money, triggering the stampede, said the man, who gave his family name as Wu.
Dozens of distraught relatives gathered in the hospital
lobby waiting for news, with some expressing frustration over a lack of
information as police held them back.
Source: Reuters
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
