GEORGE TOWN: A nine-year-old girl was killed in a fire, which broke out at a squatter house in Sungai Nibong Kecil here on Wednesday.
It is believed that family members could not rush the girl, who is believed to be mentally disabled, out of the house during the 5.45am fire.
KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 2,919 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) were reported in the country so far this year but there have been no death due to the disease.
In fact, the Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman said Sunday in a statement that there appeared to have been a drop in reported cases compared with 8,769 cases reported all of last year.
He said most cases were recorded in five states - Sarawak with 914 cases, Selangor (513 cases), Johor (300), Perlis (300) and Pulau Pinang (263).
"The National Public Health Laboratory surveillance found that Coxsackie A16 and Enterovirus 71 (EV 71) were the most common strains causing HFMD. The virus is spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva or faeces of an infected person. The incubation period is between three to five days," he said.
HFMD, usually attacks infants and children under the age of 10, causing them to run a fever, develop ulcers in the mouth, especially on the tongue and gums, as well as blisters or rashes on the hands and feet, he said.
Dr Hasan also urged parents and caregivers to send children to hospital or clinic immediately if they detected such symptoms.
He also asked them to practise good hygiene and observe cleanliness at all times to prevent the spread of the disease. Bernama
IPOH: A horse-racing jockey died after he lost control of his Proton Iswara which crashed into a drain.
Lim Cheng Woei, 27, from Sungai Puyu, Butterworth, died on the spot after the 8.40am incident yesterday, which occurred at Jalan Medan Ipoh.
A police spokesman said Lim was pinned in his car and had suffered serious head injuries.
Tragic loss: A tow truck operator retrieving the car from the drain in the accident which took the life of Lim (below, left) at Jalan Medan Ipoh yesterday. “Initial investigations showed that the victim was on his way to Medan Ipoh from Jalan Medan Ipoh 1 but lost control while negotiationg a bend,” he said.
A tow truck had to be summoned to retrieve Lim's car from the drain.
His remains were sent to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun mortuary where a post-mortem was done. Lim's body was later claimed by his family.
It is learnt that Lim was attached to Ipoh trainer Kevin Coetzee.
Lim was a rider for Golden Knight Stable, a leading stable in Malaysia.
He was currently ranked 20th in the jockeys championship with nine wins.
PEKAN: A pregnant woman died from severe head injuries when the car she was travelling in slammed into an electrical pole along the Kuantan-Segamat highway near here.
Her husband, Insp Mohd Nor Idham, 27, who is based at the Kelantan police headquarters in Kota Baru, escaped with light injuries in the 4pm crash on Friday.
Noor Edlina Ahmad Bakhari (pic), 36, who was seven months’ pregnant, died at the scene at Km65 of the highway.
Pekan district police chief Supt Yahaya Othman said the couple was heading to-wards Kluang when the driver allegedly lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the pole.
Nor Idham received outpatient treatment at the Pekan Hospital while Noor Edlina’s body was sent there for a post-mortem.
GEORGE TOWN: A family of seven have their pet dog to thank for saving their lives when its barking alerted them to a fire which razed two shophouses in Jalan Jelutong here.
Car dealer Ng Fook Min said he woke up to check on his pet Mini Pinscher, Coco, when it started barking constantly at about 2am yesterday.
“I suspected something was wrong as Coco is usually a quiet dog and does not bark at night. I looked out of my bedroom window and saw smoke billowing from my neighbour's furniture shop.
“I quickly alerted my family members and got them out of the house. My nephew and I then tried to put out the blaze with fire extinguishers to no avail. The blaze quickly spread to my house within minutes,” he said at the scene.
Hero: Ng’s daughter looking after Coco after it was brought to safety in George Town yesterday. “Fortunately, a few passers-by together with members of the voluntary patrol unit and voluntary fire fighting squad helped him to move some vans and lorries to safety.
“I dread to think what would have happened if the vehicles had not been moved.
“Losses could have run into millions. We have Coco to thank for waking us up.”
JSF Furniture Shop owner Teoh Chee, 56, said 90 mattresses stored in two containers and about 50 sofa sets and bed frames were destroyed in the fire.
Bumper-to-bumper: Cars inching their way forward along Jalan Tebrau after a burst water pipe flooded part of the road yesterday. JOHOR BARU: Motorists fumed when they were caught in a major traffic jam for hours on the busy Jalan Tebrau here following a burst water pipe.
The pipe burst after a tractor used for road-widening work in the area accidentally hit it, said Syarikat Air Johor (SAJ) Holdings Sdn Bhd head of corporate communications Jamaluddin Jamil.
Jamaluddin said the company shut down the main outlet to ensure no wastage of water.
He added that it was not a main water pipe and SAJ did not believe the surrounding residents would experience water cuts.
Those with water supply problems can call SAJ’s hotline at 1-800-88-7474 or e-mail SAJ at customer.care@saj.com.my.
KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor, Sabah and Penang have been identified as risk-prone areas for landslides.
Housing and Local Government Datuk Chor Chee Heung said this was concluded after receiving 111 reports from 111 local councils out of 145 councils who were ordered to conduct surveys and submit reports of landslide risks to buildings on or near hillslopes under their jurisdiction.
"We have identified 2,000 houses that are in high risk areas," he said after launching the Ops Raya 2011 at the Sungai Besi Toll here Monday.
He, however, refused to reveal the exact number of houses or buildings located at or near areas prone to landslide in the three states mentioned.
Chor said a report on this was submitted to the Cabinet last week.
He added the remaining councils that did not submit their reports as there were no landslide threats in those areas.
"The landslide risks were listed in three categories; serious, not so serious and light," he said.
It was reported on May 31 that Chor announced a Cabinet directive that the surveys must be completed within a month, following a tragedy in Hulu Langat where an orphanage was hit by a landslide, killing 16 people.
Saturday August 20, 2011Baby unscathed in four-vehicle crashOther News & Views by WINNIE YEOH, LEE YEN MUN and A. RAMANA BARELY month-old baby emerged unscathed from a car crash involving four vehicles, which left 11 injured, Sinar Harian reported. The paper said 26-day-old Syaqina Balkis Shihabuddin was saved in the arms of her mother, who did not let loose her grip on her baby. This was despite the car they were travelling in spinning several times and turning turtle after being hit from the back. Syaqina's father Shihabuddin Abd Ghani, 23, said he was seated at the rear passenger seat with wife Salmiah Mohamad, 23, and brother-in-law Khairul Arshad Muhammad, 13, during the 10.30pm incident on Thursday near SK Padang Luas in Jertih, Kuala Terengganu. His father-in-law Muhammad Awang, 52, was driving the car. “My wife managed to hang on to our baby. After the car overturned, the four of us in the backseat made our way out through the shattered windscreen,” Shihabuddin said. Eleven victims from the crash received outpatient treatment at the Besut Hospital. |
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UNSCRUPULOUS businessmen only need to pay HK$200 (RM76) to attend a one-day class to master the skills of producing fake bird's nests, China Press reported.
It quoted a posting by a bird's nest trader named Alex in an Internet forum in Hangzhou, who claimed that classes to produce fake bird's nests are common in Indonesia and neighbouring countries.
Alex had claimed that the skills could be acquired in just a day.
It was reported that fake bird's nests are made from a type of mucilage that is easily available in the China market at HK$50 (RM19) a bottle. Each bottle can produce up to 100 bird's nests.
Alex said the production process was simple one needs to first soak a real bird's nest for about two hours and then use an Indonesian-produced powder called “Super 77” to mix the real bird's nest with mucilage and then mould them.
Alex said the genuine bird's nest was priced at RM7,900 per kilo while fake ones cost RM4,600 per kilo.
PETALING JAYA: Power thieves are employing elaborate measures and using high-tech equipment to siphon off electricity worth hundreds of millions of ringgit from Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).
In one case, a commercial property owner went to great lengths by building a secret access tunnel to the meter room so his workers could quickly remove electricity siphoning gadgets whenever a raid was conducted.
TNB president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said these thieves were mostly in commercial and industrial premises.
“The manner in which meters are tampered with is becoming more and more sophisticated with various electronic gadgets used to register low readings,” said Che Khalib, adding that this resulted in TNB incurring an estimated RM500mil losses annually.
All we have to do is just go the meter and measure the accuracy of its reading with our equipment.- DATUK IR AZMAN MOHD He added there were even cases when remote control devices were used to switch off electricity siphoning devices whenever meters were being monitored by TNB.
Che Khalib, who visited The Star with TNB chief operating officer and executive director Datuk Ir. Azman Mohd, said the secret tunnel was found at a hotel in a northern state.
“When our officers went to the premises for inspection, someone went into the meter room through the passage to remove the gadgets used to tamper with the meters,” revealed Che Khalib.
He said the construction of a secret tunnel to siphon off electricity gave an indication about the extent to wich the thieves would go.
However, said Che Khalib, meter tampering in private residences were not as sophisticated and in some cases were made-up of crudely concealed by-pass wires.
He said there were also instances whereby homeowners fixed power saving devices which they believed would reduce the amount of electricity being used.
Che Khalib said there was a probability the installers of the devices tampered with the electricity meters.
“But people think its the power saving device that is reducing electricity usage,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Azman said TNB also had sophisticated equipment to detect meters that were tampered with to register lower reading than actual consumption.
“No matter how it is done, all we have to do is to just go to the meter and measure the accuracy of its reading with our equipment,” he explained.
The difficulty faced by TNB, said Azman, was the fact that those stealing electricity were able to do it in a manner that could not be detected by the naked eye.
“Our meter readers would not be able to detect any irregularities when sophisticated methods, such as remote control devices, are used,'' said Azman.
According to Che Khalib, electricity theft had many repercussions besides loss of revenue for TNB.
“It also decreases the electricity supply to the area in which the theft is taking place because the actual consumption is not registered,” he said.
As a result, TNB may be under supplying electricity there and this causes various other problems such as the lighting being dim due to low voltage.
He added tampering with electricity meters was also unsafe and could cause fires.
Che Khalib said the amount of electricity that was being stolen was huge with one factory being back billed RM10mil.
Che Khalib called on consumers not to entertain anyone offering to tamper with their electricity meters as TNB would detect it eventually.
“Previously, we did not have enough personnel to carry out regular inspection but now we have a dedicated recovery team,” said Che Khalib, who also did not discount the possibility of TNB staff offering such illegal services.
However, he said TNB was also serious in countering graft within its company as it was working closely with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
KANGAR: Two brothers were arrested with an assortment of firearms, explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition in Taman Perlis.
The brothers, aged 35 and 45, were nabbed at about noon on Thursday at their house by a task force from the Perlis police contingent headquarters after a tip-off.
State police chief Senior Asst Comm Zull Aznam Haron said two .38 Special 2 revolvers, a Berreta automatic, a Glock automatic pistol and a shotgun were seized.
Weapons seizure: SAC Zull Aznam (third from right) and his officers showing the firearms that were seized. — Bernama “The raiding team also recovered 2,700 rounds of ammunition, explosives, 400 shotgun cartridges, a samurai sword, two Rambo knives and two spears. Two cars were also seized.
“We are now trying to find out why the suspects had so many dangerous weapons with them. They have since been remanded for a week,” he said yesterday.
SAC Zull Aznam said this was the state's largest firearm seizure this year.
SEPANG: The dove – often seen as a symbol of peace – brought death to an Indonesian worker at a house in Kampung Abu Bakar Baginda near here.
A fellow countryman, who shared the house with the victim, slashed the labourer in the neck as he was not happy about the victim’s bird being placed in a cage near his (the suspect) room.
Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said the incident happened on Aug 10 following an argument between the two men over the bird.
The suspected killer and two other tenants fled from the house after the incident, he said.
Murder suspect at large: DCP Tun Hisan showing a photo of Saiful who is wanted for the murder. DCP Tun Hisan said the attacker used a parang to slash the 29-year-old victim who died at the scene.
The identity of the victim has been withheld pending investigations.
DCP Tun Hisan said the police were looking for Saiful Alam Masali, 36, to facilitate investigations.
Those who know about his whereabouts can contact Chief Insp M. Balloo at 012-366 3614 or 03-8077 7422.
KUALA LUMPUR: An association representing businessmen involved in the bird's nest trade will lodge a police report against unscrupulous ones who produce red bird's nest and sell fake bird's nest.
Members of the association were not involved in producing red bird's nest, widely known as blood nest, which were high in nitrate and could cause health problems, said Federation of Bird's Nest Merchants Association chairman Datuk Beh Heng Seong.
“We are making the police report on Monday to prove our innocence and to protect our interest because many allegations have been made against us,” he said here yesterday.
A separate police report would be lodged with regards to a press conference held in Hangzhou, China, where two bogus officers who claimed to represent the Malaysian Government were present.
It was reported that recently, a press conference was held in China to clarify the “misconceptions” of blood nest, which had been found to contain a high level of nitrate.
A third Malaysian at the press conference claimed to be representing the Malaysian Bird's Nest Exporters Association.
China's Xinhua news agency said following a tip-off from a reporter who attended the July 26 press conference, it was discovered that the two people, who presented themselves as Malaysia Export Veterinary Inspection Agency director-general Datuk Khairul Hashim and head of the Malaysian Endangered Species Import and Export Administration Datuk Ahmad, were bogus officers after a check showed that the two agencies did not exist.
The Chinese press who attended the media conference were told by the two officers that 99% of the alleged fake blood nest imported from Malaysia were genuine.
They also claimed that the nitrate content in these products were within the permissible levels and could be removed by soaking them in water for several hours.
Beh said the federation would travel with the Veterinary Department to China on Thursday to explain the matter to the Chinese authorities.
“We hope to reach an understanding with the Chinese Government.
“Hopefully a mechanism can be set up to ensure that all bird's nest exported to China are genuine and safe for consumption,” he said.
GEORGE TOWN: Police took fast action against four personnel over the theft of 117 watches worth RM50,000 from a shop in Campbell Street.
A 44-year-old lance corporal has been suspended with immediate effect pending investigation over his alleged involvement in selling some of the watches at a makeshift stall in Lorong Kulit here, said George Town OCPD Asst Comm Gan Kong Meng.
Three other policemen, aged between 24 and 31, tasked to investigate the matter would also face disciplinary action.
ACP Gan said the three from the Datuk Keramat police station had allegedly tried to drag their feet in their investigations into the theft upon learning that the suspect was their colleague.
Stolen items: ACP Gan and his officers showing some of the watches that were seized from the lance corporal in George Town yesterday. Police seized 42 stolen watches worth RM15,000 from the lance corporal in the 9.30am incident yesterday.
The suspect, who was off duty then, is attached to the Sungai Nibong police beat base.
ACP Gan said the case was being investigated under Section 457 of the Penal Code for burglary.
“We will investigate whether he was the one who stole the watches or whether he was selling stolen items,” he said during a “Police Meet the Public” session at Tesco Hypermarket in Sungai Dua yesterday.
Watch shop owner Tan Chee Khew, 49, had earlier received information that the 117 watches that were stolen from his shop on June 27 were being sold at Lorong Kulit.
“I went there to check. I know the watches belonged to me after checking the codes and stickers on them.
“I then called the police, but to my dismay, the three policemen who arrived later apparently asked the suspect to pack and go away.
“It was then that I suspected something was amiss,” he said.
ACP Gan said there would be no cover-up in the case.
He said a 15-year-old and a 24-year-old man had been picked up to facilitate investigations into the theft.
The police are also looking for another man to assist in the probe.
SEPANG: Thieves carted off 2,100 new BlackBerry smartphones worth RM2.3mil from a warehouse at the KL International Airport (KLIA).
However, swift action by the police led to the arrest of five suspects.
The theft was detected on Friday when a logistics staff discovered the warehouse had been broken into and the phones missing, Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said.
“The staff discovered the theft at 9.30am and alerted the police at 10.20am. A special taskforce was set up to investigate the matter.
“Two hours later we arrested a suspect and two others in the nearby airport cargo area.
Smart response: DCP Tun Hisan (left) and C/ Insp Balloo showing the 1,470 recovered Blackberry smartphones at the Sepang district police headquarters yesterday. “The suspects in their 30s have been working at the KLIA cargo logistics section for between five and seven years,” he told a press conference at the Sepang district police headquarters yesterday.
DCP Tun Hisan said the suspects led the taskforce headed by C/Insp M. Balloo to a warehouse run by a licensed second-hand item dealer in Batu 12, Puchong and recovered 1,470 stolen phones.
Two men, including the 52-year-old owner of the premises, were arrested.
“We believe the thieves transported the phones to Puchong in a lorry,” he added.
DCP Tun Hisan said investigations revealed that the phones had arrived from Hungary on Thursday and were stored in the KLIA cargo warehouse while awaiting clearance from the Customs Depart-ment.
The phones were scheduled to be sent to a phone company in Petaling Jaya.
“The police is trying to trace the remaining 630 smartphones. We are investigating whether more people are involved,” he added.
The five suspects have been remanded for four days and investigated under Section 454 of the Penal Code.
DCP Tun Hisan said there was a growing trend of licensed second-hand dealers and scrap metal dealers being in cahoots with thieves.
Last year, it was reported that computer hard disks manufactured for CCTVs with a market value of RM4mil were stolen from a warehouse at KLIA.
The hard disks were later recovered at a warehouse in Perak.
DCP Tun Hisan also handed out certificates of commendation to the 10 police personnel who acted swiftly to arrest the thieves.