Second Penang Bridge cannot afford delays to halted Bayan Lepas Expressway construction



Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd (JKSB), operator of the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge a.k.a. Second Penang Bridge, will sustain huge losses if the Bayan Lepas Expressway is not completed on time, The Star reports.

JKSB’s MD Datuk Dr Ismail Mohamed Taib said that about 12,500 vehicles used the second bridge each day, but the massive congestion on August 17 had caused a drop in users with only an average of 500 vehicles crossing the bridge daily.

“This is certainly a big drop. However, we can still accommodate the losses during the project period. We just do not want a delay,” Dr Ismail said to reporters at the “Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge Merdeka Hunt 2015” event yesterday.

What does Steve Wozniak think of the new ‘Steve Jobs’ trailer?



A new extended trailer for the upcoming “Steve Jobs” biopic came out Wednesday, and while there are some pieces he says are completely false, Steve Wozniak can’t wait to see the movie in theaters.

China’s Jack Ma spreads his wings



Jack Ma’s Ali Baba group, an e-commerce giant, is expanding its hi-tech footprint to cover satellite navigation and quantum computing.

The Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in partnership with the State run North Industries Group Corp or Norinco, a military industry heavyweight, has formed a joint venture company, with a tie up with Beidou Navigation Satellite system. The $310 million venture, based in Shanghai aims to provide subscribers with location and navigation information, based on the Beidou system. Over time it is expected to give the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation system a run for its money in the Chinese domestic market and the neighbourhood.

KL-Singapore HSR details to be known in 2 years



KUALA LUMPUR: Details of the contracts for the construction of the KL to Singapore high speed rail will likely be known in two years, said the Land Public Transport Commission’s chief development officer Prodyut Dutt.

“Given that the development takes about five years and we aim to complete it in 2022, working backwards we should see the details of these contracts by the year 2017,” he said.

Don’t Be Surprised If You See People Wearing Plastic Bag Swimsuits To The Pool

If you – like yours truly – have always been reluctant to spend your hard-earned money on scraps of waterproof fabric a.k.a. a swimsuit, we have some good news.



Some Taiwanese teens are apparently trying to spark a new fashion trend… by wearing translucent plastic shopping bags as swimsuits

Migrant boat sank caused at least 14 dead



KUALA LUMPUR: At least 14 migrants drowned on Thursday (Sep 3) after an overcrowded boat carrying up to 100 people sank off the coast of Malaysia.

Rescuers were searching for dozens of Indonesians still missing hours after their small wooden vessel disappeared beneath the waves.

“Local fishermen have rescued 15 people and fished out from the sea 14 bodies – 13 women and one man,” Mohamad Aliyas Hamdan, the local head of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, told AFP.

“We have deployed 12 ships and a plane along with some 200 officers to carry out the search and rescue operation for the remaining victims,” he said.

Around two million people, mostly from Indonesia, work in Malaysia illegally, regularly crossing the narrow strip of water between the two countries in barely seaworthy vessels.

The vessel went down in choppy waters off Malaysia’s western coast near the coastal town of Sabak Bernam in central Selangor state.

Indonesia seeking new bid for Bandung rail link



Indonesia is asking Japan and China for new bids for a major rail link as a $6 billion high-speed train is no longer seen as commercially viable, the minister coordinating transport policy said.

A 200-kilometer (120 mile) per hour locomotive between the capital Jakarta and the third-biggest city Bandung would be 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper than a bullet train, Rizal Ramli said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg News, his first with international media since taking office last month. The need for new proposals will delay the decision by several weeks, he said.

China and Japan have been lobbying Indonesia’s government for the contract for a high-speed train, which would be the biggest infrastructure project started by President Joko Widodo. The president, who took office last year vowing to overhaul railways and ports in the world’s largest archipelago, has made little progress.

At least 14 killed as boat overloaded with migrants capsizes off Malaysia



KUALA LUMPUR – An overloaded wooden boat believed to be carrying dozens of Indonesian illegal immigrants sank off the coast of Malaysia on Thursday, killing at least 14 people, among them 13 women, maritime officials said.

The boat, which maritime officials estimated had about 70 people aboard, had left Sabak Bernam in Malaysia’s western state of Selangor for Sumatra in neighboring Indonesia when the accident happened.

Initial conversations with survivors led officials to believe the passengers were Indonesian, said Muhammad Aliyas Hamdan, an official of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).

Indonesia has cancelled a completely unnecessary $5 billion high-speed rail line



Indonesia finally made a big decision yesterday (Sept 3). For months it’s been mulling competing offers from China and Japan to build a high-speed rail link between the capital of Jakarta and Bandung. Each side has been sweetening the deal while sending envoys to Jakarta to woo politicians. China is Indonesia’s largest trade partner, and Japan its second-biggest investor, so there were diplomatic sensitivities for Jakarta to consider.

Surabaya Police Round Up Prostitution Ring



Jakarta – Surabaya Police arrested a 23-year-old actress and model with the initials ‘AS’, for her involvement in a prostitution ring. AS was arrested, along with four other girls, notably working on a day-shift as Sales Promotion Girls (SPG).

“The five girls are victims of trafficking from their pimps, YY and BS. Both are still at large,” said Head of Crime Division at Surabaya Police, Senior Commissioner, Takdir Mattanete, on Thursday, September 3.

The ring, in its stint, made use of social media, BlackBerry Messenger and Facebook to distribute the pictures of the escorts. Users then had to contact YY to agree on the price, which was around 1-2 million per hour, with the exception of actress like AS that can reach up to Rp 8-10 million per hour.

And the worst performing property market in the world is…



(Sept 1): Dubai property prices fell by 12.2 percent during the past year, the largest drop in the world, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

The decline in the twelve months through June was the biggest in 56 mainstream residential markets and larger than the 12 percent fall in real estate prices in Ukraine, which has been hit by almost two years of protests, a separatist insurgency, and political upheaval, Knight Frank said Tuesday in a report. Prices in Dubai fell 2.8 percent in the second quarter. Hong Kong was the best performing residential market, with prices up by 20.7 percent.

Over the past decade, Dubai’s property market has swung from boom to bust and back again. Price gains in the two years through 2014 recouped much of the losses incurred in a 2008 collapse that pushed the city to the brink of bankruptcy.

Aquaponics: The modern solution to residential farming



AS more high-rises and smaller terraced houses begin to spring up in the Klang Valley, urbanites are finding it more difficult to have a “green space” in their homes.

Yet, for those who yearn for fresh produce, aquaponics may be the answer and they do not have to sacrifice their limited and modern living spaces.

“It takes me mere minutes to harvest some of the plants and fish, and then cook for my family. It really is that simple and gratifying,” says aquaponics enthusiast Mohd Affnan Sharifuddin Ramli, as he picks fresh chives from one of the aged aquaponics containers in his backyard.

Affnan believes aquaponics is the answer to solving the “lack of green” problem of city dwellers. “The system does not take up a lot of space. With a small footprint, you achieve simple farming and provide fresh produce for your family.”

Ringgit fall timely for Singaporeans to buy Malaysian luxury property



SINGAPORE (Sept 2) With the ringgit plumbing record lows against a basket of weighted currencies, especially the Singapore dollar, there is no better time for Singaporeans to invest in Malaysian properties, says founder and CEO of MoneySmart.sg, Vinod Nair.

“The confluence of a strongly regulated Singapore property market where prices are still not tapering to significant lower levels, and a much cheaper ringgit, is in effect payday for Singaporeans and Singapore residents with limited funds now be able to buy luxury properties in key Malaysian cities like Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Penang,” he told Bernama today.

Vinod said the topline property categories to consider would be luxury condominium developments in Kuala Lumpur’s central business district and landed property in posh enclaves such as Bangsar and Damansara Heights.

The vibrating E Bra promises to make your boobs grow in just seven days



Those ‘I must I must increase my bust’ reps not working out for you? There may be a solution on the way that doesn’t involve surgery. Or chicken fillets.

Introducing the vibrating E Bra.

Serbian inventor Milan Milić claims it will grow your breasts in just seven days. The ‘wonder’ bra is now undergoing clinical tests – if it passes those, it *could* be the future of non-invasive breast augmentation.

Milan, who’s a former engineering student, told the MailOnline he came up with the prototype when his girlfriend told him she wanted bigger breasts. He was, naturally, only happy to help.

While he doesn’t want to talk too much about the technology before he launches it (hmm), Milan says that the vibrations from the bra increase blood flow to the breasts, increasing circulation, and making them grow.

South Korean fishing boat capsizes; at least 10 dead



SEOUL – At least 10 people died and about eight were missing after a South Korean fishing boat capsized, a coast guard official and media reports said on Sunday.

The boat was found capsized earlier this morning, after it lost radio contact late on Saturday, a coast guard official in the southern island of Jeju said by telephone.

The bodies of 10 people were recovered in the waters near the island of Chuja, which lies between the mainland south coast and Jeju, the official said.

Malaysian tourism minister bullish about Singaporean arrivals



SINGAPORE — Singapore is a very important market in terms of tourist arrivals and receipts for Malaysia, said Malaysian Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz yesterday, adding that recent political developments have not affected tourist numbers.

Speaking during a press conference at The St Regis Singapore, Mr Nazri said he was confident that more tourists from Singapore would visit their northern neighbour because of the recent depreciation in the ringgit exchange rate. Tourist arrivals from Singapore last year amounted to 13.9 million, with Singaporeans visiting Malaysia an average of four times a year, bringing a total revenue of RM22 billion (S$7.25 billion).

To keep Singaporeans coming back, Mr Nazri said, Malaysia has to “continually introduce new products”.

“If Singaporeans come four times a year, we can’t have the same attractions at these destinations,” he said. “Sabah and Sarawak are also becoming more attractive to Singaporeans.”

Some initiatives include reopening Mount Kinabalu to tourists in October, staging new festivals such as the Kinabalu Rhythm festival, and opening new theme parks such as 20th Century Fox World in Genting and Movie Animation Park Studios in Ipoh.

Indonesia apologises for haze



KUALA LUMPUR: An Indonesian Member of Parliament has apologised for the haze currently blanketing the region.

Hamdhani Mukhdar Said, who is in charge of environment and international relations, said he would raise the issue with the Indonesian parliament for more efforts to deal with the haze situation.

“I want to apologise to the Malaysian people for the haze.

“The annual haze is not intentional but due to the droughts that affects parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan,” he told reporters during a break in the 36th General Assembly of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly here on Tuesday.

Samsung to cut 10% of head office staff: newspaper



SEOUL — Samsung Electronics is preparing to cut 10 per cent of workers at its headquarters, according to a Korean newspaper, as the world’s biggest smartphone maker loses sales to Apple and Chinese vendors.

Samsung is targeting workers in the human resources, public relations and finance departments, Korea Economic Daily reported today (Sept 8), citing people it didn’t identify.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company also plans to cut some expenses next year, the report added. Samsung declined to comment in an e-mail.

The moves come after new high-end Galaxy smartphones failed to impress consumers, triggering five straight monthly declines and wiping out more than US$40 billion (S$57 billion) in Samsung’s market value since April.

The company’s share of global smartphone shipments fell more than 3 percentage points in the second quarter, and it’s no longer the top seller in China, the world’s biggest mobile-phone market.

Woman tricked friend into having sex by pretending to be a man, court hears

Gayle Newland is accused of bandaging her body, wearing prosthetic penis and making victim wear blindfold during five alleged sexual assaults



A woman has appeared in court accused of tricking another woman into having sex with her by bandaging her body and using a prosthetic penis to pretend she was a man, a court has heard.

The complainant says she thought she was with a man she had befriended on the internet called Kye Fortune, who had asked her to wear a blindfold as he was recovering from a brain tumour and did not want her to see his scars.

But the alleged victim said she later discovered the “man” was a friend, Gayle Newland, 25. Newland, of Willaston, Cheshire, is on trial at Chester crown court, where she denies five counts of sexual assault between February and June 2013.

The court heard that the alleged victim received a Facebook friend request in 2011 from Fortune. They communicated online and Fortune later told her he had been involved in a car accident, after which medics had found he had a brain tumour.

The complainant told police that he said he was having treatment in hospital and was not well enough to see her. But the pair spoke frequently on the phone, with Fortune’s voice described as high-pitched.

She told the interviewing officer: “He was saying how much I had helped him get through his illness. [He said] it was a sign, we should get married, we should have kids, we were going to do all sorts of things.”

During this time, the woman said she met Newland, who became a close friend and said she knew Fortune. Eventually, the complainant and Fortune decided to meet in person at a Chester hotel, the jury heard.

The woman told police that Fortune asked her to wear a blindfold because he was “anxious about the way he looked” and “could not walk properly” due to nerve and muscle damage. She said he was in the bathroom when she entered the hotel room.

White lesbian mum accidentally impregnated with black man’s sperm loses legal battle

Jennifer Cramblett, 36, said she adores her three-year-old daughter Payton but took legal action claiming she was not culturally prepared to raise a mixed-race child.



A white lesbian mum who was accidentally impregnated with the sperm of a black man has lost her legal battle against the sperm bank.

Jennifer Cramblett, 36, said she adores her three-year-old daughter Payton but took legal action claiming she was not culturally prepared to raise a mixed-race child.

She and her partner Amanda Zinkon spent more than a year deciding on which donor they wanted to father their child.

They specifically chose a white donor and paid around £1,500 for his semen.