SMOKING TO BE EXTENDED AT ALL EATERIES IN MALAYSIA?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Smoking will soon be banned at all eateries
nationwide, even at open-air premises and those without air-conditioning.
This will include mamak stalls, kopi tiam and food courts,
according to a post on the Health Ministry website.
The ministry will also be gazetting all public and national
parks, including theme parks, as non-smoking zones.
This will be another blow to smokers who are already
prevented from puffing in air-conditioned restaurants, shopping centres and
sheltered walkways, as well as in and around rest-stops along the highways.
Coffeshop associations are protesting against the ban,
calling for it to be implemented gradually over a two-year period and that
affected premises be allowed to have a smoking area in the back or elsewhere.
Restaurant owners also protested, saying they would lose
business as soon as the ban is implemented.
They urged the authorities to allow owners to choose whether
or not theirs would be smoking or non-smoking eateries.
The Health Ministry said on its website that the ban would
be in line with provisions set under the World Health Organisation’s Framework
Convention for Tobacco Control, to which Malaysia is a signatory.
An estimated 100,000 Malaysians die every year from
smoke-related illnesses, according to ministry statistics released earlier.
Source: The Star...More...
THOUSANDS MOURNED AT DRUG SMUGGLER’S FUNERAL IN AUSTRALIA
More than 1,000 people mourned executed Australian drug
smuggler Andrew Chan at his funeral in Sydney Friday with his brother saying he
should have been given a second chance during an emotional tribute.
Chan, who converted to Christianity and became a pastor
during his decade in jail, faced an Indonesian firing squad late last month
with fellow Australian Myuran Sukumaran and six other prisoners, despite pleas
for mercy from Canberra saying that they had been rehabilitated.
Both men were sentenced to death in 2006 over their role as
ringleaders of a plot to bring heroin into Australia from the Indonesian island
of Bali, and their execution has strained bilateral ties.
- Chan’s older brother Michael told the “celebration service” at an enormous Pentecostal Hillsong Church he had “undeniably touched many people’s lives over the last 10 years”.
- “People make mistakes in life and deserve a second chance,” he said, his voice wavering as he fought back tears.
- “He showed us all that even when we have such a heavy burden hanging over our head, we can still change into a better human being.
- “Andrew, you used to say you look up to me, and now little brother, I look up to you.”
- The service was also attended by supporters, Chan’s parents Ken and Helen, other relatives and Sukumaran’s family, who are due to mark his death at a separate funeral in Sydney on Saturday.
- Salvation Army minister David Soper, Chan’s spiritual adviser, said he was with the 31-year-old in the moments before his death and the young man was prepared for his execution.
- “Andrew knew the truth. He was prepared to meet his maker. I saw great courage and strength. I will never, never forget.”
Febyanti Herewila, an Indonesian pastor who married Chan in the days before he was killed, was due to read an excerpt from the final letter he wrote to her.
The executions cast a shadow over Australia’s relationship
with its Southeast Asian neighbour, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott recalling
his ambassador to Indonesia in protest.
Source: – AFP
PAKISTAN HELICOPTER CARRYING FOREIGN DIPLOMATS CRASHES, KILLING SIX
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani military helicopter
carrying foreign diplomats in the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan has
crashed, killing six people, the military says.
The dead included two pilots, Norwegian Ambassador Leif
Larsen, Philippines Ambassador Domingo Lucenario Jr and the wives of the
Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors to Pakistan.The Pakistani Foreign Office released a statement confirming the deaths.
Dutch Ambassador Marcel de Vink and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Ananicz were injured in the crash.
The MI-17 helicopter was carrying 17 people, including 11
foreigners, the military's spokesperson Major-General Asim Bajwa said in an
earlier statement.The 13 survivors had "varying degrees of injuries". The injured are being treated at the Combined Military Hospital at Jutial, about 30km away from the area in which the crash occurred.
- The aircraft crashed in the Naltar Valley area of Gilgit-Baltistan, about 300km north of the capital Islamabad.
- The crash was due to a "technical fault" while the helicopter was landing, Bajwa said.
- Gilgit-Baltistan is located in Pakistan's extreme north, and is at the junction of three major mountain ranges: the Himalayas, the Karakorum and the Hindu Kush.
- It is home to more than 100 peaks higher than 7,000 metres. It is also part of the disputed region of Kashmir.
- Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was due to visit Gilgit-Baltistan on Friday, which the diplomats were visiting as part of a four-day tour.
Sharif was en route to Gilgit when the crash occurred, and
has now cancelled his visit, state media reported.He expressed "deep grief and sorrow" over the crash, according to Radio Pakistan.
The helicopter that crashed was part of a group of three, all of which were carrying foreign diplomats on their tour of the area.
Source: Al Jazeera
MALAYSIAN OPPOSITION PKR RETAINS PERMATANG PAUH PARLIMENTARY SEAT
BUKIT MERTAJAM, Malaysia - Opposition PKR has retained the
Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat, according to the Election Commission.
Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail took the seat with
30,316 votes, while nearest rival and BN candidate Suhaimi Sabudin had 21,475,
in a reduced majority of 8,841 votes compared to the 11,721 obtained during the
13th general election.Two other candidates - Parti Rakyat Malaysia's Azman Shah Othman, 50, and independent candidate Salleh Isahak, 53 - lost their deposits in the four-cornered fight, having gained just 101 votes and 367 votes respectively. There were 843 spoilt votes.
Voter turnout was recorded at 73.71% or 52,983 voters, lower
than the last general election with an 88.2% turnout or 62,660 voters.
The Permatang Pauh seat was declared vacant when its
incumbent Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was disqualified as a Member of Parliament
when the Pardons Board rejected an application for a royal pardon sought by his
family over his conviction for sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari
Azlan.Wan Azizah, 63, is no stranger to the seat, having won it in 1999, 2004 and 2008.
In 2008, however, she resigned several months after winning to enable Anwar to contest the seat and make a return to Parliament.
Source: The Star
A NEBRASKA WOMAN IS SUING ALL GAY PEOPLE ON GOD’S BEHALF?
The town of Auburn, Nebraska,USA; population 3,385, is poised to
become a footnote to US legal history after one of its residents filed a
lawsuit against all the world’s gay people and asked a federal judge to rule
that homosexuality is a sin. 
In a seven-page, handwritten filing, Sylvia Driskell claimed
to be an ambassador of God and said she was disappointed that Nebraska had
become “compliant in the lewd behaviour of some people”.
“Homosexuality is a sin and... homosexuals know it is a sin
to live a life of homosexuality. Why else would they have been hiding in the
closet,” she wrote, 
according to the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.
according to the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.
Ms Driskell, who quotes the bible in her suit, could not be
contacted on Wednesday. An official at the US District Court told The
Independent that the case had been assigned to Judge John Gerrard. It would be
up to him to decide how or whether to proceed with the case.
Ms Driskell finished her suit by stating: “It is because of the lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fails not.”
- “The woman does not have an attorney and she has not asked
for an attorney,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Ms Driskell finished her suit by stating: “It is because of the lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassion fails not.”
Source: independent.co.uk
BANGLADESH USES SCARED ARABIC TO STOP PEEING IN PUBLIC
DHAKA - For years authorities in Bangladesh have battled to
stop men urinating in public, with signs in the local Bengali language failing
to halt the seemingly endless number of offenders.
But the Bangladesh religious affairs ministry’s recent
decision to erect new signs in Arabic has had a marked effect, despite most
Bangladeshis being unable to read the language.For most in the mainly-Muslim country, Arabic is sacred because it is the language their holy book, the Koran, was revealed in.
“This campaign has received a great positive response so
far,” Anwar Hossain, a ministry spokesman, told AFP. “Bangladeshi people
respect Arabic and we’ve just utilised that.”A two-minute video against public urination that promotes the new Arabic signs has gone viral in Bangladesh since it was uploaded onto social media earlier this week.
A group of people are shown approaching a public wall, but then jump back for fear of committing a sin when they see the Arabic sign against peeing in public.
- The campaign however has sparked a strong rebuke from influential cleric Fariduddin Masud, who said it tarnished the prestige of the Arabic language.
- “Nobody has the right to use the language of the Koran for such a campaign,” the cleric said, according to online newsportal Natunbarta.com.
Source: – AFP
A MALAYSIAN TOPLESS MODEL TO UNDERGOES MENTAL EVALUATION
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A woman who had stripped herself after failing to pay for eating chicken rice, was today released from the Magistrate’s Court in Kuala Lumpur after her brother posted bail of RM7,000. 
Former model, Persana Avril Sollunda, charged in the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court for allegedly committing a lewd act, was released from remand yesterday after bail was posted.
Magistrate Siti Radziah Kamarudin also imposed several conditions for her release.
Persana was required to surrender her passport to the court and to report to the nearest police station once every fortnight. She was also prohibited from leaving Peninsula Malaysia.
Charged in the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates Court on April 28 under section 294 (a) of the Penal Code for allegedly committing a lewd act, Sollunda was remanded for eight days at Kajang Prison until Monday when bail of RM7,000.00 was posted by her brother, Bernama reports.
She was accused of going topless in Petaling Street in the heat of an argument six days earlier. A video of the incident went viral on social media prior to her arrest.
- It is believed that relatives were making arrangements to take her to the Sungai Buloh hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
- Persana is believed to have undergone psychiatric treatment previously and was reported by The Star to have been warded at a psychiatric hospital in Kota Kinabalu.
- A video clip released appeared to indicate that Persana was unwell and disoriented upon her release by the court.
SABAH, MALAYSIAN BORNEO : A MODEL OF TOLERANCE, MODERATION AND CO-EXISTING
Having visited Sabah on many occasions,one can immediately
notice the aura of respect and divine moderation among Sabahans. With a diverse
culture and heritage, religion and racial respect is portrayed in every smiling
Sabahan.
Like many Malaysians,being an avid follower in the social
media,it’s refreshing to see how Sabahans adapt and co-exist so harmoniously
among their Muslim,Christians,Buddhist and Hindu friends and relatives.
Politics has nurtured it’s way in the country by
unscrupulous politicians with their hardline actions of being more holier than
thou, hence the hostility which will eventually destroy the 
goodwill once
enjoyed by all Malaysians.
goodwill once
enjoyed by all Malaysians.
Coming back to Sabah. As an avid follower of the social
media,I stumbled upon a Catholic sacred event that took place in Ranau Sabah
recently.
It was the ordination of a Catholic priest.But what impressed
me most was the family members of the priest.
Father Abel was the priest,and his family members consist of
relatives who had converted to Islam,and the joy seen
on their faces in the photos taken is something that would shock most
Peninsular Malaysians,who by the way are still very ignorant about Sabah.
Father Abel was the priest,and his family members consist of
relatives who had converted to Islam,and the joy seen
on their faces in the photos taken is something that would shock most
Peninsular Malaysians,who by the way are still very ignorant about Sabah.
Photographs of female relatives in their hijab with Father
Abel would have probably triggered a protest in Peninsular Malaysia,with the
excuse that ” being photographed with a Catholic priest may influence them in
changing their faith and religion.
But this is Sabah,and living cordially with mutual respect
is God’s gift to Sabah. The Government of Sabah should be applauded for ensuring that racial and religious “disasters” taking place in Peninsular Malaysia stays out of Sabah.
Sabahans have shown character which must be emulated by the
less informed about racial and religious co-existing.
To know Sabah is to love Sabah,I would say.
To know Sabah is to love Sabah,I would say.
By Jackson Chong Abdullah - SabahKini
ASEAN LANES AT KUALA LUMPURA AIRPORTS HELP CREATE NEW IDENTITY
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - In conjunction with Malaysia’s assumption of the chairmanship of Asean
next year, the Immigration Department has introduced special lanes for
passport holders of member countries at the Kuala Lumpur International
Airport and KLIA2.
The setting up of the Asean lane at the
airports is aimed at driving into the creation of an Asean identity and
community in the region, Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia, J. Eduardo Malaya
said.He said Manila was happy with the establishment of Asean lanes at KL International Airport and KL International Airport 2 (KLIA2).
Therefore, he suggested that all Asean countries set up
Asean lanes in their respective international airports.“We are happy to see Asean lanes at Malaysia's airports. We hope to see more Asean lanes operating in Asean countries in the near future as this is part of efforts to create the Asean identity and community.
“The earlier we have Asean lanes, the better as it will
facilitate business travel and promote intra-Asean trade,” he said in an
interview.Malaysia, as the Asean chair this year, has set up five Asean Lanes –two at the international departure hall and three at the international arrival hall at KLIA.
At KLIA2, the international departure and arrival halls have two such lanes each for travellers from Asean countries.
The Asean Lane will facilitate easy access for visitors from member countries to the immigration check-in and check-out counters.
Source: The Star
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
