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KLIA2 takes off

SEPANG: Passengers using the KLIA2, when it is completed next year, will walk across a 300m pedestrian bridge to get to the satellite building to catch their low-cost flights.

The skybridge, the first of its kind in Asia, is among the unique features of the country’s new main low-cost airport that is being built at a cost of RM2.8bil.

Expected to be completed in about 13 months, KLIA2 will also have one of the country’s largest shopping centres. With 70,000 sq m of shopping space, it may well be the biggest shopping area for an airport in the region.

KLIA2 is just 1.5km away from the main KLIA compared to the more than 11km distance between the main terminal and the present LCCT.

http://www.thestar.com.my

Over 30 countries ban mooncakes from China

BEIJING: Over 30 countries have banned the import of mooncakes from China.

This year’a Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Sept 12 but many Chinese have found themselves unable to mail the traditional cakes to their relatives or friends living in those countries due to the ban, reports Xinhua news agency.

Thirty-four countries have refused the entry of the mooncakes sent by post and another 30-plus have established rigid checks for mooncakes to pass through.

The information was made available by the entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureaus in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, hometowns of the majority of Chinese people living overseas.

Those countries have strict inspection standards for imported food, especially for stuffed baked goods like mooncakes, said Wu Shuo, an official with the Inspection and Quarantine Bureau in Zhongshan City of Guangdong, on Friday.

Zhongshan is a major production base for Guangdong-style mooncakes.

The list of countries that refuse mooncakes sent by post includes Asian, European, American and African nations, ranging from Germany and France to the Philippines and Sudan, where tens of thousands of Chinese live.

“The ban on posted mooncakes is the result of different food inspection standards. For example, Europe has a stricter standard on aflatoxins than China,” said Wu Shuo.

Peng Peng, a researcher with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, however, believes the inspection systems of foreign countries are not fully equipped to examine mooncakes.

Many countries have established strict food inspection systems, but they probably cannot properly examine mooncakes, which are unique to China, Peng said.

Wu Shuo said quarantine authorities in Zhongshan have scrutinised the raw materials and additives in mooncakes in order to ensure that the mooncakes could be safely exported.

Mooncakes are traditional gifts for beloved ones and are necessities for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The round mooncakes resemble the full moon, a symbol of family reunion in traditional Chinese culture as well as the major theme of the Mid-Autumn Festival. BERNAMA

http://www.thestar.com.my

PM: Reconsider 6pc charge on prepaid phone lines

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak hopes telcos can reconsider the decision to impose a 6% charge on prepaid mobile users.

He said he received a lot of reactions from the public and the decision was an unpopular one.

“I hope the telcos can reconsider this move because we are trying to reduce the burden of the public who are already suffering from the increase in living costs,” said Najib.

He said the decision to impose the tax was not made by the Finance Ministry.

http://www.thestar.com.my

EID UL-FITR & NATIONAL DAY HOLIDAYS

Please be informed that the MM2H Centre will be closed on the

30th August (Tuesday) – 1 September 2011 (Thursday)
in conjunction with the Eid Ul-Fitr and National Day celebrations.

Due to this, on 29 August 2011 (Monday), our operating hours will only be from
8.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.

Any inconveniences are highly regrettable and the MM2H Centre would like to take this opportunity to wish our Muslim participants a Happy Eid Mubarak!!

Look West to Malaysia, says outgoing envoy

With the challenges of globalisation, I am telling our people to look West to Malaysia, in widening their horizon and to become more open to the outside world. — Masahiko Horie

KUALA LUMPUR: Outgoing Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Masahiko Horie’s love for Malaysia has transformed the 64-year-old diplomat into a promoter of all things Malaysian among his countrymen.

Horie said, on returning home as adviser to the Japanese foreign minister, he would continue his links with Malaysia by heaping praise about the country, especially the internationalised and open Malaysian public.

“I feel it is time for the Japanese people to change from being a homogenous people to an internationalised people like the multi-racial and English proficient Malaysians.
“With the challenges of globalisation, I am telling our people to look West to Malaysia, in widening their horizon and to become more open to the outside world.”

Bidding farewell to reporters at his official residence here yesterday, Horie said it was his aspiration to help stimulate university students in Japan to be internationally oriented.

“During my three years and seven months tenure here, I never missed a chance to promote this aspect among our students whenever I returned to Japan. Incidentally, Malaysia is now a most preferred holiday destination among Japan’s high school finishing students.
“Malaysia has also climbed to the top of the list of countries, that includes Hawaii, popular among Japanese corporate figures seeking to set up a retirement home since 2006.”

Horie said his love for Malaysia’s unique diversity of race, religion and culture was sparked in 1983 while visiting Asean countries including Malaysia as a desk officer with Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA).

“I was truly overjoyed when 24 years later, I was appointed the ambassador to Malaysia.
“I was especially happy to see the fruits of my work with ODA in developing the energy and agricultural sectors in Sabah and Sarawak.

“I was, therefore, extremely touched by the overwhelming support of the Malaysian public, private sector and government in coming to the aid of victims of Japan’s recent triple disaster.”

Horie said despite the devastating effects of the triple disaster, Japan hoped to go beyond mere reconstruction to create an even better Japan for the future in light of the solidarity extended by the international community.

He called on Malaysians who had plans to visit Japan not to cancel their plans due to the radioactive scare caused by the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant.

“Except for the 30km radius of Fukushima prefecture, the rest of Japan is free of radioactivity with food at restaurants and shops carefully screened.”

On Japan’s support for Malaysia’s march towards developed nation status by 2020, Horie said Japanese companies would continue investing especially in the green technology, energy and education sectors.

“Japan is currently involved in efforts to make Putrajaya and Cyberjaya more environment- friendly with discussions now underway.

“The Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), which is a culmination of Malaysia’s Look East Policy, will open its doors this September with an initial intake of 225 students pursuing courses in machinery and electrical and electronics.

“With 250 teaching staff, including 18 professors from Japan, MJIIT will become a regional centre of excellence for Japanese-style engineering education.”

Timely feature on Penang as a choice MNC destination

GEORGE TOWN: Penang is featured in the Time Magazine as among the preferred destinations for multinational companies in the manufacturing industry.

In the article titled ‘The China Effect’ by Neel Chowdhury in the Asia edition of the magazine dated April 25, the writer said that Penang is preferred for several factors such as logistics and geography.

He said Malaysia’s intellectual protection measures and judiciary system were also an added advantage.

Chowdhury wrote that many manufacturers were moving from China to neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh due to rising wages in the Middle Kingdom.

This effect, he said, is “lifting once declining industrial hubs like Penang out of their long economic slump.”

The writer had interviewed Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, InvestPenang executive committee chairman Datuk Lee Kah Choon and senior management of several multinational companies here for the article.

Lim said the article featured the state’s attractiveness, its expertise and commitment in luring multinationals here.

“It is not easy to be featured in the prestigious magazine.

“One will need to pay thousands of dollars to advertise in the magazine,” he told a press conference in Komtar yesterday.

The link to the article is http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2065153,00.html.

On the Greater Penang Transformation Programme (GPTP), Lim said the state was still awaiting reply from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala on the date for the programme’s six-week laboratory discussion.

“Apart from the Federal Government and the state government, other related agencies will also be involved in the discussion which will be led by Idris and I,” he said, adding that he met Idris in February.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced that the Federal Government was set to develop Penang into the third metropolis in the country, after the Klang Valley and Johor Baru.

He said a committee comprising representatives from the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, will study and implement the plan.

Under the GPTP, Penang will see the development of major projects that includes the current Penang Bridge and second linkage, the international airport and port, and the Juru-Sungai Dua bypass.

www.thestar.com.my

Python the star attraction at Snake Temple

A SEVEN-metre python in a snake farm within the Penang Snake Temple grounds has caused quite a stir of excitement when it laid a clutch of eggs.

The reticulated python, aptly named Big Momma, started its labour sometime around 6am or 7am yesterday, according to snake farm co-owner P.H. Chew.

By the time his wife and daughter opened the farm at 9.15am, Big Momma had already laid more than 10 eggs.

She continued to produce egg after egg, before the very eyes of stunned visitors to the farm and iconic temple, and by the time Big Momma was done at about 4pm, 21 eggs were collected.

Hidden beneath her heavy coil were probably more eggs uncollected at press time, but the farm owner was not prepared to push his luck by disturbing Big Momma just yet.

The eggs, soft to the touch, were about 10cm in length and 22cm in circumference.

Chew, who called The Star to highlight the good news, said reticulated pythons normally laid 40 to 50 eggs in a single clutch and did so once a year.

“It will take eight to 10 weeks for them to hatch. The survival rate is 70%,” he added.

He said Big Momma came from the wild and it was just three weeks ago when she was brought to the farm, all distended and heavy with eggs.

She was fed five to six chickens a day.

Chew, 52, believed that Big Momma was 20 to 30 years old judging from her size.

He has six reticulated pythons at the farm and Big Momma was the very first to have laid eggs there.

In total, the farm which opened in 2005, has more than 50 snakes from some 40 species.

British tourist Mary Langan was one of the visitors lucky to be there at the right time to witness a python egg-laying process.

“This is really interesting,” said Langan who asked Chew a barrage of questions about pythons and eggs.

Another temple visitor, Koh Lean Hua, enthused: “This is such a rare moment and a once-in-a-lifetime chance of seeing a python laying eggs. I feel so lucky and happy!”

Interestingly, the Snake Temple has a close association with eggs, chicken eggs that is, which are a main feature during the birthday of the temple’s resident deity, Chor Soo Kong, that falls on the sixth day of Chinese New Year.

On this occasion, the temple is inundated with thousands of chicken egg offerings by devotees.

The offering of eggs, supposedly for the venomous vipers which have made the temple their home, is a tradition peculiar to the temple.

The vipers are, however, fed a diet of white mice rather than eggs, so the chicken eggs have ended up being donated to orphanages or turned into cakes.

But Big Momma’s precious eggs will most certainly be accorded special care, by decree.

Chew said the reticulated python was a protected animal and the number of eggs laid and successfully hatched must be reported to the National Parks and Wildlife Department.

He said he might keep one or two of the python eggs for display at the farm.

Big Momma’s ‘real’ eggs are welcome news at a time when eggs have recently received bad press for being fake.

The Consumers Association of Penang had highlighted a housewife’s complaint about fake chicken eggs bought from a market in Pulau Tikus, but laboratory tests done by the authorities on several hundreds of seized eggs later proved them to be the real thing.

www.thestar.com.my

Have a heart — get a coin box and give a lifeline to sick kids

BUY a heart-shaped coin box for only RM10 and help save children from dying of heart related disease.

That is the message from Paradise Sandy Beach Resort in Penang which is teaming up with Adventist Hospital in ‘A Million Coins for Hearts’ fund-raising project as a continuation to the Save-A-Heart-Campaign.

The Save-A-Heart-Campaign, which started in October last year and ended in January, has successfully raised more than RM100,000 for its Heart Patients’ Fund.

Showing support: (from left) Alyssa Evans, 11, Jessica Hitras, 10, Samuel Evans, 13, Jade Hitras, 10, Joshua Rezalo, six, checking out the coin boxes during the launch of the fund-raising project at Paradise Sandy Beach Resort

Resort public relations manager Virginia Ann said the resort had also taken the initiative to adopt a big heart-shaped coin box which had been doing a tour of duty since then.

“The heart-shaped coin box will be placed at the hotel lobby and our staff have pledged to donate generously to the campaign.

“We also like to appeal to all our in-house guests and the general public visiting the hotel to kindly donate for a good cause,” she said at the launching of the project.

Witnessing the launch was Adventist Hospital chief operating officer Dr Wesley Toh, who said the Save-A-Heart-Campaign was a special fund-raising project organised under the purview of the hospital to provide free or subsidised corrective heart surgeries for children and adults from poor backgrounds.

“With the rising high cost of surgery which can cost a minimum of RM25,000, the sustainability of the fund is vital as more lives can be saved,” he said, adding that the hospital performed 500 open heart surgeries in 2010 and more than 4,000 since 1987.

Toh also thanked the resort for taking a consignment of 50 a heart-shaped coin boxes to be sold.

State Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh, who graced the launching, commended the resort for its effort in giving back to society.

www.thestar.com.my

Sikhs to show off flamboyant fighting skills

FORT Cornwallis in Penang will come alive with Punjabi and Sikh culture this Saturday.

A Vasakhi Fest 2011, organised by the Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia (National Sikh Youth Organisation) Penang branch, will be held at the fort from 6pm to 10pm to celebrate the Sikh New Year which fell on April 14.

Among the highlights of the event are gatka (Punjabi martial art) demonstrations which will be performed by 20 exponents.

Branch president Karpal Singh said the exponents would perform two rounds of fighting techniques using traditional weapons, with each round lasting 20 minutes.

Historical: Karpal Singh (left) and organising committee vice-chairman Harbinder Singh showing some of the old photos of the early Sikh community in Malaysia which will be on display during the Vasakhi Fest 2011

He said the celebration would also feature vibrant cultural performances such as lively bhangra folk music and dance and giddha, a popular Punjabi folk dance performed by women.

“Visitors will also get to enjoy multi-cultural performances, chapatti cooking demonstration and free Henna art tattoos,” Karpal Singh said, adding that there would be exhibits of handicraft and the history of the early Sikhs in Malaysia.

“We are thankful to the state government for backing the event and making it a state-level celebration since 2003,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Penang Tourism Development and Culture Committee chairman Danny Law Heng Kiang said he hoped that the event, now into its ninth year, would help to increase awareness of the Sikh culture and way of life among Malaysians and foreign tourists.

As a show of support to the state’s Cleaner Greener Penang initiative, biodegradable packages made from agricultural waste will be used during the event.

For further information, call Karpal (016-4145848) or organising committee vice-chairman Harbinder Singh (017-5840821).

www.thestar.com.my