Monday, February 1, 2010
1Federal Territories Day joy for everyone
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Dementieva Will Return For Malaysia Classic Tournament
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 (Bernama) -- After thrilling local tennis fans at the Showdown of Champion 2009 matches on Dec 19 and 20, world number five Elena Dementieva of Russia will return to Malaysia next year.
The 28-year-old Russian star, according to events organiser LD Sports Sdn Bhd, had confirmed her participation for the Malaysia Classics tournament.
The 28-year-old Russian star, according to events organiser LD Sports Sdn Bhd, had confirmed her participation for the Malaysia Classics tournament.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
'Saya tak beli West Ham'
 |
| Tony Fernandes |
LONDON - Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes menafikan bahawa dia telah membuat tawaran untuk membeli kelab West Ham meskipun telah mengadakan perbincangan dengan kelab tersebut.
CB Holdings, syarikat yang memiliki West Ham, sedang mencari pelabur baru dan mereka sangat berharap ahli perniagaan dari Malaysia itu bersetuju membeli 51 peratus saham dalam kelab Liga Perdana England itu.
Tony Fernandes merupakan individu yang membawa semula pasukan Lotus ke kancah perlumbaan Formula Satu (F1) tahun depan dan dilihat sebagai alternatif terhadap penjualan West Ham kepada bekas pemilik Birmingham, David Gold dan David Sullivan.
Begitupun, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif syarikat penerbangan tambang murah AirAsia itu menafikan laporan tersebut kepada akhbar London Evening Standard kelmarin.
"Tidak, bukan dalam masa terdekat ini. Saya sedang sibuk menguruskan tentang pasukan F1 saya, jadi ia (pembelian West Ham) bukan sesuatu yang akan saya lakukan," katanya.
Bank dari Iceland, Straumur memiliki saham sebanyak 70 peratus dalam syarikat CB Holdings dan telah menolak tawaran sekitar £50 juta (RM274.2 juta) daripada Gold dan Sullivan ke atas kelab yang dianggarkan bernilai £120 juta (RM658 juta) itu.
Tony Fernandes yang meminati kelab West Ham mengakui bahawa masa depan kelab yang menduduki tangga kedua terbawah Liga Perdana England itu tidak begitu cerah.
"Saya sangat risau tentang masa depan West Ham. Mereka dalam keadaan genting sekarang ini dan cara pengurusan kewangan juga teruk," kata Tony.
"Peminat kelab ini, termasuk saya mahukan yang terbaik, tetapi kedudukannya tidak begitu bagus untuk menarik pelabur baru." - Agensi
Festivities Effective Tool To Foster Unity And Tolerance
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- Festivities have become an effective tool in fostering greater unity, understanding and mutual respect among Malaysians under the spirit of 1Malaysia.
MIC president Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu said Christmas and other festivities had been more effective in fostering a "greater unity" spirit among Malaysians and it was only through such festivities that Malaysians had the opportunity to truly value and understand each other's cultural differences.
"Its (festivities) uniqueness is that people will set aside whatever differences, and come together as 1Malaysia," he said in his Christmas greetings.
He said Malaysia had been successful in managing its race relations since independence "simply because we realise that we need each other to survive".
MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said that over the years, mutual respect and understanding had become the socia l fabric that held together this nation whose people are of diverse origins.
"For that social fabric to remain strong, we need to continue moving away from mere tolerance and foster mutual respect, understanding and even acceptance.
"But, particularly at this time of goodwill, we must remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves or for whom success in life is not so easy and for whom ambitions and New Year resolutions are only a fantasy," he said in his Christmas greetings posted in his blog.
Ong said that while the government was committed to a people-first mission it could not solve everyone's problems and communities, families and individuals must do more for themselves.
Christmas, he said, was an opportunity to spend some quality time with the family and to resolve to do better next year.
People's Progressive Party (PPP) president Datuk M. Kayveas, in his greetings, said Malaysians were able to celebrate Christmas with joy and in peace because all strata of the society were united in the 1Malaysia spirit.
However, they should beware of external elements out to break the strong ties between the various races and religions under the guise of Human rights and democracy, he said.
-- BERNAMA
MURNInet - 'Gauge' On Sustainable Town
By Rohana Mustaffa
This is the second feature from a series of three on urban development.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- When Shah Alam was adjudged the most sustainable town inconjunction with the recent World Town Planning Day celebration, the spotlight fell on the criteria that made the city to be accorded the recognition.
Shah Alam, the state capital of Selangor, was among the 46 towns assessed and found to be the town that exhibit the highest level of sustainability based on 56 indicators in 11 sectors -- demography, housing, economy, utility and infrastructure, public facility, environment, sociology and social impact, landuse, tourism and heritage, transportation and accessibility, management and finance.
The indicators were developed by the Town and Country Planning Department and named the Malaysian Urban Indicators Network (MURNInet). The objective of MURNInet is to determine the level of sustainability for each town in the country.
Its main aim is to identify the strength and weaknesses of each town according to these indicators.
The MURNInet application system was created based on a computer network designed to analyse the present urban conditions, effects of development, survey temporal changes and formulate sustainable urban scenarios for the future based on fixed standards.
OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVEMENT
MURNInet is to suggest the opportunity for improvement in order to upgrade the level of sustainability.
Specifically, MURNInet aims to gauge the progress made by a town towards meeting sustainable development, drawing attention to the development predicament faced by a town and clarify the environmental features complementing the direction towards sustainable development.
MURNInet, while identifying specific issues that needed to be resolved in a town, also recognises the relevant agencies that can provide collaboration and assistance towards achieving the objectives of a sustainable town apart from drawing the attention on the need to reinforce the capacity building on data and statistic collection.
The sustainability of Shah Alam and other towns under the MURNInet is gauged in terms of the demography such as population density, average annual population growth, median age and average household size.
SUSTAINABLE TOWN INDICATORS
For the housing sector, the indicator is the housing price to income ratio, housing rental ratio against income, individual floor space ratio and percentage of non-selling housing stock.
MURNInet measures the economic sector of a town via indicators such as the unemployment rate, job growth rate and others.
Meanwhile, the total daily garbage collection and doctors to the population ratio are indicators for the utility and infrastruture sector while the indicator for environment sector involves the number of asthma cases per 10,000 population and air quality index.
The social impact in Shah Alam for example is measured through indicators like the crime index per 10,000 population and divorce rate per 1,000 population.
And of course the transportation sector involves indicators like the quality level of public bus services and percentage of public bus users.
WHO BENEFITS FROM MURNInet?
MURNInet gives significance to the federal and state governments in evaluating the appropriate financial assistance for a town that exhibits unsustainability and to improve services to the public.
The indicators of MURNInet can be made as basic evaluation to upgrade an urban area's status and urban indicators can be made as measurement for the government to channel investments.
For the local authorities, MURNInet indicators can be used to identify problems, urban quality issues and addressing those issues, to improve service levels to the public and to provide feedback to national integrity plan target.
With the presence of MURNInet to measure the service level, facilities level in an urban area or local authority, it shows the government is sensitive with the problems and improve the service and provides allocation to resolve the problems faced by the residents.
IMPLEMENTATION
The implemnetation of MURNInet is crucial for a town to have the basic data for sustainability indicators.
The other significance of MURNInet is identifying and measuring the level of a town's issues and quality, can act on issues that represented the unsustainable indicators and the basic data can systematically stored and easily retrieved.
MURNInet allows the City State Report to submit the findings as well as proposals for quality and sustainable town development.
The criterion for MURNInet urban indicators is actually applicable for all urban hierarchy and size, measureable through data collected at local or district level and the data is readily gathered and cost effective to collect them.
The indicators given by MURNInet are also easily measurable and the data is able to show the magnitude of the problem. The benchmarking is based on international standard, national standard, technical departments guidelines and pilot study and continuing programme.
PILOT PROJECT
MURNInet utilises three measurements on sustainability where the town that gets the score of 80 per cent and above is categorised as sustainable, the score between 50 and 80 per cent is considered under the moderate category while the town with the score lower than 50 per cent is categorised as having unsustainable development.
The pilot project for MURNInet was implemented in six towns -- Kuching, Georgetown, Batu Pahat, Pasir Mas, Kuantan and Johor Baharu. The monitoring was expanded to eight more towns in 2004.
As of June this year, the programme was implemented in 75 local authorities and the monitoring was done every six months with the naming of the most sustainable town done once a year.
MURNInet differs from other 'markers' in Malaysia as it comprises 11 components of town planning that covers up to 56 indicators, uses a computerised system to produce results, automatically, fast and accurate and the sustainability of a town is measured based on the stipulated high standards.
The website for MURNInet is at http://www.townplan.gov.my/murninet. Overall, its function is to complement the implementation of the sustainable town indicators and its findings asisted in town development planning apart from providing the reference centre and information retrieval related to sustainable town study projects.
MURNInet also provide various modules on the integrated basis to help the various parties including the local authorities to compile data on making the decision at the town planning level.
-- BERNAMA
Social Infrastructure Can Boost Economy
KOTA KINABALU, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- The development of infrastructure to meet the social needs of the people can boost the economic growth of Sabah, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said.
"Sabah has many moderm infrastructure which can be used to hold events to encourage a healthy lifestyle, culture and tourism activities. It will also foster goodwill among the people," he said when closing the Education Ministry sports and cultural festival here on Wednesday.
Musa said the state government appreciates the federal government's efforts to expand access to quality education in Sabah. His text of speech was delivered by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin.
He said efforts to create quality human capital could not be achieved without the hardwork, dedication and sacrifices by Education Ministry staff, particularly those serving rural and remote areas.
"The state government has given a big allocation to develop the Sandakan Education Hub for the building of institutions of higher learning, training and skills centres for the public and private sectors," he added.
-- BERNAMA
"Sahabat 1Malaysia" Can Enjoy Shopping Cash Rewards
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- MyKad holders who register as "Sahabat 1Malaysia" (1Malaysia Pal) can enjoy cash rewards when shopping at 500 companies which support the campaign nationwide, according to MRewards International Sdn Bhd which will run the programme. |
'Health Tourism' Increasingly Popular in Asia
Medical tourism brought in $1 billion in 2007 and that is expected to triple by 2012, when the Health Ministry expects more than two million medical tourists.
Photo: AP
James McLaurin of the United States recovers from surgery at Bumrungrad International hospital Friday, Oct. 20, 2006, in Bangkok, Thailand
Asia is being seen as a growth center in the globalization of health services thanks to rising demand from developed countries as well as the region's expanding middle class. But there are concerns that so-called medical tourism will shift resources away from public to private health care systems.
Over much of the past 10 years Thailand has led the growing medical tourism market, as foreigners sought lower cost health services and ready access to treatment.
The services available range from complicated cardiac surgery, to cosmetic surgery to dentistry and even alternative care, such as Chinese medicine, yoga and traditional Ayurvedic treatments.
Rising international travel and the availability of information on the Internet have boosted the number of travelers seeking treatment.
In Thailand, as many as 1.4 million visitors arrived seeking medical care in 2007, the most recent year numbers are available - up from half a million in 2001. Medical tourism brought in $1 billion in 2007 and that is expected to triple by 2012, when the Health Ministry expects more than two million medical tourists.
The largest numbers come from the European Union, followed by the Middle East and the United States.
Kenneth Mays, international marketing director for Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, says the high standard of care has been a drawing card.
"Thailand offers a very ideal combination of medical quality and service quality. There are both private and public hospitals and it's very consumer driven because most people pay for their own medical care. Americans will come here because its 60 to 80 percent less expensive for equivalent treatment," said Mays.
But Thailand faces growing competition as more countries invest in medical services. Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines are all promoting medical tourism.
Lotus F1 Racing Team Adds Colour, Excitement To Malaysian Motorsports
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- The emergence of the Formula One (F1) team from Malaysia, the inconsistent performance of the country's elite athletes for the London Olympics and the success of the Malaysian contingent at the recent SEA Games in Laos made headlines in the country's sports scene in 2009.
Although the year began with the spread of Influenza A(H1N1), resulting in many sports tournaments, locally and abroad, to be cancelled or postponed, the pandemic was contained in Malaysia and this enabled the sports activities for the year to be carried out as planned.
The announcement on the formation of the Malaysia F1 team, the Lotus Racing Team, sponsored by three corporate figures -- Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and S.M. Nasarudin S.M. Nasimuddin - through the establishment of 1Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd (1MRT), made front-page headlines in all newspapers in Malaysia in September.
The Lotus Racing Team's entry as the 13th team on the F1 grid, as confirmed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), will make its first appearance at the Bahrain Circuit in March.
Malaysia's involvement, previously, was through the national petroleum company, Petronas, as a partner in the Sauber Petronas and BMW Sauber teams.
The first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Sports Development held in September and chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, announced an allocation of RM16 million for 2009-2012 for the "Road to London 2012" programme.
Nineteen national athletes are being trained under the programme with the aim of bringing Malaysia's first Olympic gold from the London Games.
Early this year, Malaysia pinned its gold medal hopes on cycling and badminton at the London Olympics, but the hopes were dashed at the end of this season with their dismal performance and the excuse given was that the athletes were tired from taking part in one competition after another.
In cycling, especially the track event, the hope was on Terengganu's Azizulhasni Awang, who won two silver medals in the 200m sprint at the World Track Championship in Poland in March and then two gold medals in the same event at the Asia Cycling Championship in Kalimantan, Indonesia, in August.
His best achievement was winning the Grand Prix Medellin in Colombia in October, defeating world champion Gregory Bauge from France.
Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek was full of praise for the young cyclist, regarding him as Malaysia's "golden boy".
However, Azizulhasni, 21, did not perform as expected at the UCI Track World Cup in Manchester, England and in Melbourne, both held in November, as he was tired and had to also give time to his studies at Deakin University, Melbourne.
The cyclist, nicknamed Pocketrocketman by the foreign media, won a bronze in the Keirin event in Manchester and silver in the same event in Melbourne.
Badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei continues to be world number one men's singles shuttler, winning the super series championships this year - the Indonesia, Switzerland, Malaysia and Hong Kong Open and the World Super Series in Johor Baharu in early December.
He also won the Grand Prix in Malaysia and Macau. But he did not compete in the 25th SEA Games in Laos, giving fatigue as the reason.
National doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong were back in the top ranking of the World Badminton Federation in early November.
Malaysia is also hoping for gold at the London Olympics in the diving event through Leong Mun Yee and Pandelela Rinong, who won a bronze medal in the World Championship in Rome in June.
For the SEA Games in Vientiane, Laos from Dec 9 to 18, Malaysia sent 348 athletes and 120 officials and they surpassed the 35-medal target by bringing home 40 gold, 40 silver and 59 bronze medals.
Although most of the gold, totaling 15, came from the aquatic events, the one gold medal that Malaysia had been waiting for 20 years was won by the national men's Under-23 football team.
The team, coach by K.Rajagobal, defeated Vietnam 1-0, a victory which could indicate the return of the glory days of Malaysian football.
Malaysia took part in 21 of the 25 sports events at the SEA Games. They were aquatics (swimming, diving), archery, track and field, badminton, snooker & billiard, boxing, cycling, football, golf, judo, karate, silat, petanque, sepak takraw, shooting, ping-pong, tennis, volleyball, weight-lifting, wushu and taekwondo.
It did not take part in four events - soft tennis, wrestling, muay thai and shuttle jiggling.
Malaysia will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the University of Bath in Britain in February next year to enable Malaysian athletes for the 2012 Olympic Games in London to train there.
-- BERNAMA
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